 Look, I know with a title like this I might as well have a fishing boat stockpiled with bait, but hey, my name is literally Skipper, so give me a pass. This video might as well be one of those generic movie scenes where the protagonist stands as he watches millions of arrows hit his shield. But to handle this wildfire, let me explain myself. Halo Infinite is fun. It's new and has a mix of nostalgia and evolution that makes it a beautiful hurricane I would love to skull in a Saturday evening. And I can't deny that I completely understand why people are praising it, especially when you have buggy uninspired messes to compare it with like the new Battlefield and Call of Duty as of recent. But like the title says, I don't like Halo Infinite. I like shooting and stuff, that's fun, the thumbs up for that, but I don't like everything else that surrounds this fun piece of potential. It irks me that I have to make this video due to my love for Halo, but it's becoming a normal trend for AAA studios to release content half-baked. And they always find justification due to the game being free to play or having all future downloadable content also be free. And while you could judge 343's intentions like a certain group of people going into a cathedral, you should also remember the Jesus Christ of modern video games, Cliff Wozinski, the creator of Lawbreakers, who died for the sins of all publishers and was made an example on how old gaming principles will buy you a one-way ticket 6 feet under. And since then, you had a dev team that made one of the best movement shooters of all time show how adapting to new principles doesn't just save your company, but can also make you insanely rich. While some of you might be hermits stuck in the old ways of Velcro sneakers and PES dispensers, I understand where 343 is coming from. The game being on game pass is going to hurt sales no matter what. And competing with giants in the $60 paywall doesn't give you much benefit when compared to free to play microtransaction models. And I bet 343 is laughing their way to the bank right now with how successful their launch was. But just because I understand where they're coming from doesn't mean I need to enjoy some of the silly decisions they've made. Ooh, yay, Shubu complains again, he must love his life. Let's quickly address that this game is a beta, I think. So this is a preseason before the game's official launch, but it's not going anywhere. Meaning that it won't disappear after four days like the flights. But 343 also stated that this beta has all of the game's day one content. And that content is 10 multiplayer maps, quick play arena, big team battle, and ranked arena. You have three big maps and seven arena maps. And the game modes for arena consist of Slayer, Capture the Flag, Oddball, and Strongholds. And for big team battle, you have Slayer, Total Control, Capture the Flag, and Stockpile. I know some of you are first time players of this franchise, but for Halo standards, this game is so drying content you would have thought it was Australia. Worst swat, King of the Hill, Crazy King, Assault, One Bomb, Infection, Snipers, Juggernaut, VIP, or any of the content you could find in just about every Halo game in the Master Chief Collection. This isn't as ridiculous as Halo 5's launch, which didn't even have big team battle, but this game still lacks pivotal content in comparison to Halo 3, Reach, and 4. Also take in mind that this game was delayed a whole year. Halo 3 at launch came with most of these game modes, and I feared that these future game modes are going to be wrapped in a roadmap like they were with Halo 5. But now instead of including game modes with DLC to keep a player base, it's going to instead be to sell a battle pass. And the playlists for these game modes are fucking horrible. You can't select individual game types, so you're thrown in a mixed playlist forcing you to play the shit that you don't want to. I like Capture the Flag, and I also love my beautiful brain, but sometimes I just want to shut off and shoot people in Slayer. And if you don't like some of these game modes, that's too bad. Fuck you, get in line, we're going to play Strongholds and Stockpile. Because those definitely aren't sweaty game types that I want to play when I'm intoxicated on a Saturday night after work. These playlists are restrictive and make no sense to me. Halo Infinite is definitely not struggling in regards to player base due to a breaking steam record for Microsoft, while also being free to play. But also take in mind that this game is new and most players are still fresh learning the game mechanics and maps. But once everyone is acclimated, the game restriction is going to start taking a toll on players. It's already starting with the friends I play with. They log on and play Capture the Flag, but it might as well be Slayer. Players flat out avoid playing the objective and will instead go for kills because they don't want to play objective game modes and want to simply shoot and kill shit. And while it's annoying and has me sympathizing with Michael Jordan due to how much my back has been hurting, I can't blame them. Capture the Flag is exhausting. Especially with how sweaty Halo players can be, it's also fun to just play Slayer with no obligations. Make the game types individual and have the playlist give more XP or something if you want to have players be incentivized to use it. End the ranked mode. So far it's been a joke for me. Halo Infinite has a problem where it crashes constantly. Look, games struggle and so do people's PCs. I get that. That's why games like CSGO, Valorant, and Overwatch let you be able to reconnect back to a match after you disconnect. Just in case you crashed or didn't mean to leave intentionally. But Halo Infinite doesn't let you reconnect when crashing. Remember in Halo 5 where you had ranks for each individual game mode? Well, not anymore. Now you just have a rank for a whole playlist where you once again are forced to play game modes you might not want to play at all. So you could be playing competitive Slayer to then be playing Capture the Flag. Two different game modes in the same playlist for a rank. Competitive modes in general are a joke now, but goddamn this is mediocre and lazy. But now we have to address the elephant in the room. Halo Infinite's battle pass and microtransaction system is disappointing, embarrassing, and predatory. It's a free-to-play game so cosmetics are guaranteed, but 343 had the audacity to make a half-baked progression system and put it up for purchase. It's a massive blow to the game's integrity, and it makes customization options fucking awful for those who purchased the battle pass and those who didn't. It's incredibly barebones. You can only choose one color for your Spartan, and you no longer have the ability to mix and match like you could in Halo Reach. Male and female genders are now replaced with three body types that are incredibly similar. Removing the option for those players who want a feminine looking Spartan like they did in Halo 5 in Reach. I understand the reasoning for removing the gender, but it doesn't excuse this poorly executed replacement. You also can't even make your own nameplate anymore. You have to use these pre-made ones that rank in rarity and that can be purchased in the store or unlocked with a battle pass. The base helmets and chest plates are bland and there's only three of them that you can unlock for free, and it's still through the battle pass progression system. It's clear that they made this game dry intentionally so players could buy the battle pass to have a real sense of progression due to it adding way more customization options. But putting vanilla items on the battle pass system is fucking stupid. And that's because this game has the worst battle pass I've ever seen, and I played Apex Season 1. 343 acknowledged that their battle pass is a flawed pile of shit, but still had the audacity to put it up for purchase like I said. To get any of the vanilla paid customization, you have to rank up and unlock it in the battle pass, where you can only gain XP through challenges. And if you complete all set challenges, you are now fucked and have to wait for more challenges to refresh. Even if you paid for the fucking battle pass, you are now on a stamina meter like a mobile game. Because you did too much to advance the shit you paid for. Even if you didn't pay for the battle pass, this is still stupid. It actually makes no sense. In Halo the Master Chief Collection, you could do challenges to progress massively in the battle pass, but you could still rank up through match XP if you wanted to continue your grind after all those challenges or if you just did not want to do those challenges at all. I've been playing this game a shit ton and I'm only level 5 of 100. This is a grind. And why would I want to grind these tiers with shit loot when I can't even get XP for playing the base game? There's no incentive to push forward at the moment because of how slow progressing is. So I have to deal with this bad customization because I can't unlock the good ones I'm paying for. So you're getting fucked over even if you did pay for this content as well. That should be in the base game, might I add. And while the battle pass isn't on a timer and doesn't run out, there's no excuse. This progression system is dog shit. In the Master Chief Collection, you got battle pass points when you leveled up that will let you purchase whatever piece of customization you want on that certain page. And the catch was that you had to get everything in that page to progress to the next one. And even the Halo Reach content in that game was better to unlock on a free battle pass compared to this dog shit. Even normal Halo Reach customization gave you credits to purchase body armor and as you ranked up you got more options of armor to buy. This progression system is malice and moves so slowly that you might just want to say fuck it and buy tiers. And given how bad this system is, I'm not going to give 343 the benefit of the doubt. I think this is intentional. They clearly want people to spend money since it's a free to play game. Look at this dog shit item shop. A white skin with a purple visor and a knockoff EVA helmet. Which shit armor is $20. $20 fucking dollars for this horrible ass skin. It's not even a nostalgia character like the noble team. The ICR is $10 and has this shit ass skin. The same price as the fucking battle pass. To have a maroon Spartan is $5. You could also buy XP boost for $2 each which is fucking baffling due to how bad this progression system is. Why is no one calling this shit out? This is supposed to be the comeback from Halo 5 and the Wreck system. You guys knocked it out with the Master Chief Collection but this is fucking horrible. I understand why the eSports skin cost money but why the fuck would you pay $20 or $10 for this garbage? Why isn't it in the vanilla game? You have three vanilla helmets to unlock. This game has launched in a horrible state. Its game modes are restrictive, its progression system is flawed, its paid content is fucking horrible, malicious and overpriced. This game is disappointing, especially because of what it was supposed to stand for. Delayed a whole year of supposed comeback and return to roots. Fuck that, this is a sellout cash grab that stoopes as low as fucking mobile games. I rather just pay $60 and get a good game than get a ghost of a shell where all the components are scattered and hidden behind paywalls. The game is really fun as well. It's so fun to play. But look at Halo 3 in reach. They were good day one and I'm so sick of this train where developers can fuck their consumers and launch a half ass game and hide behind the free to play model for its mediocrity. And seeing Halo do it is just horrible and sad. The good thing though is that Halo Infinite's gameplay isn't bad. Just everything around it is and like Battlefront 2 it can change over time with enough community outcry. Look I know the game is new but stop sucking its dick for a couple minutes and come back to reality. This isn't good and it's not going to be healthy for the game. They have dropped the ball and need to be called out on this. But I do question, what was this game going to look like if it released in 2020? Because right now it's horrible. With that I'm Dr. Skipper. Subscribe if you enjoy Halo or some shit. Help a man out. I'm going to get stoned for this hot take but I'll see you soon. Bye.