343 Industries have addressed the reception to Halo Infinite’s graphics shown during its gameplay premiere, and acknowledging “Craig the Brute.”
Halo Infinite’s gameplay premiere occurred on July 23rd, during the Xbox Games Showcase. While it showed new features, most fans seemed to be focused on the graphics. Along with discussions of the graphics overall (and even mockery from Domino’s Pizza), one particular moment stood out.
A screencap saved at 4:06 quickly spread as a meme. It shows an alien Brute’s face up close (after its helmet had been shot off) revealing an apathetic expression shortly before being struck in the face. Know Your Meme claims that after a Facebook post suggested a name, “Craig the Brute” ended up becoming a meme.
343 Industries Community Director Brian Jarrard took the meme in his stride. “So are we in agreement the poor deadpan Brute is named Craig?” Jarrard tweeted. “I now really want to know more about Craig. What’s he up to? How has his time on the ring been? When he’s not getting smacked in the face what does he do for fun?”
During an interview with Inside Gaming, General Manager of Xbox Games Marketing Aaron Greenberg recommended fans watch the trailer in 4, and keep in mind the game was a work in progress months from release. He also mentioned the coronavirus pandemic, most likely implying it had caused hindrances to production.
Now, a new blog post on Halo Waypoint has addressed the fan’s concerns over the graphics. While stating that there were “far more” positive comments, developers had gathered the issues revolved around the game’s overall art style, and visual fidelity.
The blog post explains that based on feedback from Halo 4, Halo 5, and Halo Wars 2, the developers used the “legacy aesthetics that defined the original trilogy.” This means more vibrant colors, “cleaner” models, and “objects with less ‘noise’, though it doesn’t mean less detail.”
“While we appreciate this may not be everyone’s personal preference,” the post states, “we stand by this decision and are happy to see it resonating with so many fans around the world.”
Regarding visual fidelity, the post addressed how negative feedback focused on characters and objects “appearing flat, simplistic and plastic-like, lighting feeling dull and flat, and object pop-in.” The post also explains how they saw fan-made retouched images, and Digital Foundry‘s assessments.
The post states the development team agrees with much of this feedback; though some feedback was expected due to the demo being an older build.
“In many ways we are in agreement here – we do have work to do to address some of these areas and raise the level of fidelity and overall presentation for the final game. The build used to run the campaign demo was work-in-progress from several weeks ago with a variety of graphical elements and game systems still being finished and polished. While some of the feedback was expected and speaks to areas already in progress, other aspects of the feedback have brought new opportunities and considerations to light that the team is taking very seriously and working to assess. We don’t have firm answers or outcomes to share yet but the team is working as quickly as possible on plans to address some of the feedback around detail, clarity, and overall fidelity. The team is committed and focused on making sure we have a beautiful world for players to explore when we launch.”
The blog post also revealed that that part of the game took place “several hours in,” and that the campaign will support two player split-screen and online 4 player co-op. The blog also confirmed that the game would be coming to PC via Steam, and released a small part of the game’s soundtrack.
One of the blog post questions asked “How’s Craig?” “We’ve all laughed very hard at the nonstop stream of Craig memes the community is cranking out,” the post explains. “Craig is thick-skinned and seems to be taking it in stride though all of this fame and attention seems to be going to his head.”
Halo Infinite launches Holiday 2020 on Windows PC (via Steam), Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Image: Know Your Meme
