Halo MCC/Infinite/general Griefing thread - Six months, two maps, no refunds

[Gravemind]

Just coming here to fact-check/share my suspicions.

There's this famous "female" Twitter user that's outspoken against 343 and is a rabid defender of Bungie's halo. She has also been quoted, followed, or replied by big names in the halo/anti-SBI circles. Her name is Hailey Eira.

While I agree with "her" sentiments on principle, and I like the idea of a based attractive woman that speaks up for gamers and Halo fans, I can't help but notice "she" is using an obviously AI-generated picture:



X/Twitter account:https://x.com/HaileyEira
Official site: https://haileyeira.com/

(By the way, having a personal site about games and anime with zero photos or social media is closer to what a nerdy man would do. Your average young atractive woman would focus on instagram/tik tok instead. )

There's a suspicious lack of selfies. I find it extremely unlikely an attractive young woman wouldn't be uploading photos of herself often. The lack of photos or video evidence of her existence is a massive red flag. And again, while I do think most of her takes are based, I also find it extremely unlikely a woman of her age would be this invested in Halo and be complaining all day about ugly female characters in games, and be this invested about game developers, without showing any typical female interests on top of it. It's not impossible, I guess, just extremely rare.

Edit: She also claims that a videogame company made a character also named "Hailey" based on her for their game "The First Descendant". I have found zero evidence on this claim:

https://the-first-descendant.fandom.com/wiki/Hailey https://archive.ph/q3AHO
The constant mentions of her playing with her friends or hosting parties seem to have the purpose to gaslight people that someone has seen her IRL. But again, no evidence of that ever happening.

Unless someone can confirm she exists, I suspect this account was made up by a well-meaning person, but ultimately just a dude. Her takes seem more in line with how a male in his late 20s or even older would behave.

I'm pretty sure that's a grifter LARPing under a blatantly fake identity. I vaguely recall there being a fuss on Twitter a little while ago about some other art thief grifter who also liked to spam/repost art of Marin Kitagawa until everyone came down on them for constantly reposting other people's art uncredited. Or I think it had to do with them stealing and reuploading some 3D animator's work and claiming credit for them.

I don't think there's anything well-meaning about them. They're there to farm engagement and clout chase through "hot takes".

 

[Mystery Spy]

I don't think there's anything well-meaning about them. They're there to farm engagement and clout chase through "hot takes".

You are most likely right. I guess I wanted to give him the benefit of doubt because many in the anti 343/ SBI community seeem to tust them, @Grummz for example. IRCC I think even some ex-bungie people have replied to that account positively. But all evidence points to them being a grifter indeed.

edit: For example Here's Marty interacting with "her":

https://x.com/MartyTheElder/status/1732543015703748869

https://x.com/MartyTheElder/status/1699451334091772283

 

[indomitable snowman]

The pinned tweet is visible not signed in and is anime porn.
100% tranny.

 

[Gravemind]

The pinned tweet is visible not signed in and is anime porn.
100% tranny.

That's also a lot of AI generated anime porn as well by the looks of it.

Definite grifter troon.

EDIT: Their About Me on their website is also... interesting (Archive – also content warning for anime ass). They claim to have been involved in the Sonic community for quite some time before some nebulous incident that lead to them DFE'ing a good bit of their internet presence (including Let's Plays and a history of previous blogging) due to an equally nebulous claim of "important connections their family has in cybersecurity". This is the first I'm hearing of this person and, if anyone has any more information on them, I'm sure none of us would be opposed to hearing it. Sounds like they have a very intriguing past.

 

[Miller]

Let's celebrate the 20 year anniversary of Halo 2 by... selling you the Mark VI and the Helioskrill armor!

Halo Waypoint article
Fuck 343.

 

[Mac Monster]

Let's celebrate the 20 year anniversary of Halo 2 by... selling you the Mark VI and the Helioskrill armor!
View attachment 6600857
Halo Waypoint article
Fuck 343.

343 niggers seem to think that Spartans in overpriced cosplay armors are somehow a proper substitute for playable Elites.

 

[Miller]

343 niggers seem to think that Spartans in overpriced cosplay armors are somehow a proper substitute for playable Elites.

They have found a few pajeets to make the armors but couldn't be bothered to make actual Elites, not even for this event.

 

[geckogoy]

They have found a few pajeets to make the armors but couldn't be bothered to make actual Elites, not even for this event.

That would require actual rigging and skeletal animation work (because of the weird legs and so-on) instead of using unreal reference stuff

 

[RA-5C Vigilante]

Surprised they mentioned Maria, I thought she was totally forgotten.

 

[King Dead]

A day late, but happy twentieth birthday, Halo 2!

The lackluster Infinite "buy nostalgia cosmetics" shit has already been talked about, but more relevant is the latest Digsite offering. True to their word, they managed to get the E3 2003 demo finished in time for the anniversary, and you can grab it through Steam Workshop. The download includes two versions, one that gives you waypoints to help you play through the demo as intended (even in co-op!), and a freeroam version so you can explore to your heart's content. One of the devs noted in the comments that they're going to work on some bugfixes over the next few days as people find issues. They're also planning to release the cut campaign level alphamoon this Friday.

Unfortunately no corresponding MCC update, but I can't say I'm surprised. Gonna give the E3 demo a whirl and see how hard it is to stick to the script.

 

[Drain Todger]

Yes. YES. This guy gets it!

The original Halo had a very "Ghost in the Shell and Winamp Skins" look. When characters were blown into the air by grenades, they played this schlocky arms-waving animation like mooks flying out of fireballs in eighties movies. The biggest problem that we have, in recreating this look, is how few people these days really understand the source material that inspired it. You would have to watch every Arnie movie and a bunch of vintage 80s and 90s anime to replicate it exactly.

It's not going to happen, though. Today's game developers are all the Scene and theater kids from that time period, who are, by now, sad 40-year-old millennial art directors who drink to forget. You want them to make a Halo game with Metalheart style UIs with a touch of Incubus, the look and sound of Trevor at his kegger with the boys on skateboards and a JVC Kaboom running full-blast on the patio? Sorry, not going to happen. That sort of person isn't in gamedev today. Those who are in gamedev remember them only as their bullies.

 

[indomitable snowman]

Some John Mayer extra riffs from Halo 2 uploaded today by Marty

Spoiler: local copy

 

[Mac Monster]

Though this was pretty cool. It's a recreation of one of the cut Halo 2 levels, which would have followed The Oracle.

 

[JesusChristDenton]

Yes. YES. This guy gets it!

The original Halo had a very "Ghost in the Shell and Winamp Skins" look. When characters were blown into the air by grenades, they played this schlocky arms-waving animation like mooks flying out of fireballs in eighties movies. The biggest problem that we have, in recreating this look, is how few people these days really understand the source material that inspired it. You would have to watch every Arnie movie and a bunch of vintage 80s and 90s anime to replicate it exactly.

It's not going to happen, though. Today's game developers are all the Scene and theater kids from that time period, who are, by now, sad 40-year-old millennial art directors who drink to forget. You want them to make a Halo game with Metalheart style UIs with a touch of Incubus, the look and sound of Trevor at his kegger with the boys on skateboards and a JVC Kaboom running full-blast on the patio? Sorry, not going to happen. That sort of person isn't in gamedev today. Those who are in gamedev remember them only as their bullies.

Isn't LNG the guy who started whining the second he heard Blow Me Away play in a fanmade Halo Custom Edition campaign from the 2000's? Something about it being "stupid and not fitting Halo".

 

[Drain Todger]

Isn't LNG the guy who started whining the second he heard Blow Me Away play in a fanmade Halo Custom Edition campaign from the 2000's? Something about it being "stupid and not fitting Halo".

I thought the same thing back when I played Halo 2. Never really been a Breaking Benjamin fan, myself. It’s kind of nostalgic now, but at the time, I thought Blow Me Away was just incredibly fucking corny. It was just such plain, safe, generic alt-rock. The kind of thing you’d expect to hear playing in Titan A.E. with Cale shooting some Drej or some shit. It was just a boring song. I’m sorry. It just is.

“I am a shaaaadow on the waaaaal.”

Lame as fuck.

 

[indomitable snowman]

Halo 2 kinda odd with the soundtrack. It had Breaking Benjamin, Incubus, Hoobastank, and John Mayer contributing to it. At least the Hoobastank song isn't in the game lol.

 

[King Dead]

So after playing through the Digsite stuff released over the past few months, especially the E3 2003 demo and alphamoon, I gotta hand it to them, they've done an outstanding job bringing these old work-in-progress maps to life. For the hell of it, brief thoughts in rough chronological order:

Spoiler: Halo archaeology

• Swamp: An old MacWorld-era map exploring a swamp theme, it feels a lot like 343 Guilty Spark's exterior sections, just without the Forerunner architecture. No enemies so it's just a bit of wandering around.
• B20: A cut H1 campaign map that came before 343 Guilty Spark, the description says that it would involve the Covenant ramping up their occupation of Halo after a Prophet's death. Similar swamp theme but in daylight, the only thing noteworthy is a Forerunner structure that you can only really explore with the Acrophobia skull. The environment would get rolled into 343 Guilty Spark.
• Space Station: Art exploration for what would become Cairo Station. Just a few space station corridors of various styles.
• Destructo: Testbed for environmental destruction in Halo 2. The columns are chipped away by bullets but strangely don't react to grenades. Fun to mess around blowing stuff up for a bit.
• M1 Map Pack: Three early maps from the Milestone 1 era of Halo 2's development, each testing different scenarios. M1 Assault is a large mountainous map with paths leading up to a Forerunner structure; this version has no enemies so you're just exploring. The structure itself is pretty neat, and I think modders could make good use of it. M1 Exploration has you exploring a moonbase and engaging with Covenant forces, and it's the only map of the three that has a proper win condition set up. It also has low gravity by default, which makes for a very different experience. The description recommends the Bandanna skull, and I think that's a good idea due to the large amount of enemies (Acrophobia can't hurt either). Kind of easy to get lost once you're inside due to the very basic textures, but keep looking around and you should find a way forward. M1 Defensive has you assaulting a Covenant position with some Marines, then defending against enemies that spawn in. Fairly basic, but the environment looks nice.
• alphamoon: The original plan for the mission that would become The Oracle, set on the moon Basis in the wreckage of Installation 04. It starts out with the Arbiter on foot, where you have to destroy multiple Heretic anti-air turrets to allow your forces to join you. You then have a tank section where you drive a Wraith through multiple environments, destroying more turrets and other vehicles along the way. It makes considerable use of destructable terrain, forcing you to blast much of it away to make a path forward. Eventually, you enter the wreckage of the Control Room, where the boss fight with the Heretic Leader would have gone. Instead, in this version, a few Elites swarm you, and after killing them, a slideshow of the original storyboards plays with the in-game dialogue from The Oracle of the equivalent scene. While definitely in a rough state, it's a fascinating look at what could have been, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it worked on some more by modders looking to give a fully uncut Halo 2 experience.
• E3 2003 Demo: What people have been waiting to mess around with for years. If you've watched it before, you know what to expect. It's pretty linear and not hard to follow along with, but if you get lost, you can tap the flashlight button to have a HUD indicator pop up to tell you where you should be. It's easy to see how much Bungie had to fake it, and the cracks show anytime you're not quite on script like you're supposed to be. To list a few examples, some NPCs are only being programmed to move a certain distance, so if you look at them long enough they'll just freeze. Enemies can pop in where you're not supposed to be looking. The Ghost that Chief hijacks towards the end will actually go to a specific location and hang out there, doing nothing until you walk close enough to it to automatically hijack it, no button press required. The Phantom guns don't actually damaging you at all at the end, presumably so that the person doing the demo wouldn't fuck it up royally at the last second. And of course you can sequence break and wander around, but doing so will likely cause the scripted encounters to stop working at all; I did find you can go straight to the ending trigger to complete the level regardless, though. And if you just want to explore the map, the playground version removes all the scripted encounters and adds a few vehicles at the start to drive around in.

So yeah, cool stuff. I'm glad they've gotten the chance to not only go through all these old development assets but also get them into enough of a workable state so that the general public can mess around with them too. Here's hoping they've still got more on the way. MCC update when

 

[Phil's Oddly Shaped Head]

View attachment 6545111

Can any Halo fans confirm/deny this statement? I don't remember Halo 3 being despised, then again, I've only played around 2014-2016.

This is some crazy historical revision - halo 3 was a fucking monster, iirc nobody who had a 360 was playing anything but gears/their old halo 2 disc and the modern warfare beta around that time and then everybody jumped ship to halo 3. It’s hard to imagine now but in my world everyone preferred it to MW1 even after that came out. The hype was real. There was an idea that it was less skilled without BXR tricks and stuff like somebody said, but that was only amongst the hardcore who watched pro gameplay - it was still an impossibly massive game. That whole time period was so sick for gaming. RIP

 

[The Backwards Man]

View attachment 6545111

Can any Halo fans confirm/deny this statement? I don't remember Halo 3 being despised, then again, I've only played around 2014-2016.

Halo 3 was literally a cultural phenomenon when it launched. Literally the best selling and highest praised exclusive FPS game for it's time.

The Halo 4 being simply fantastic is really funny too, because it's funny to think if someone actually said that. Whoever made this is a retard.

 

[ZMOT]

I thought the same thing back when I played Halo 2. Never really been a Breaking Benjamin fan, myself. It’s kind of nostalgic now, but at the time, I thought Blow Me Away was just incredibly fucking corny. It was just such plain, safe, generic alt-rock. The kind of thing you’d expect to hear playing in Titan A.E. with Cale shooting some Drej or some shit. It was just a boring song. I’m sorry. It just is.

“I am a shaaaadow on the waaaaal.”

Lame as fuck.

beats another nu-metal EDM remix, 7 nation army, human by rag'n bone man or worst some hip-hop/mumblerap.

least corny is still fun somewhere.