This is not what I would necessarily call amazing news? Most games that are ready to hit for Christmas are usually out by Thanksgiving. That first/second week of December is often the kind of place games go when it's one of those "you have wait a couple patches for everything to really work right" kind of things for AAA games, but I'm sure there are plenty of counterexamples. But then, the biggest example of them all is probably Cyberpunk 2077 last year. I'm not saying this is going to be disastrously bad like that was at launch, but I'd be real surprised if there wasn't at least a massive day-one patch.

My "cautiously optimistic" outlook for this game is becoming a lot more just "cautious" every time there is news.

And its launching without coop and forge mode. Having recently played the Master Chief Collection on PC, it was completely broken on release for me, after the already broken release on console. And the first showing of Infinite being bad enough that they had to delay it already, this is not making me confident this game isnt going to be some form of a mess. And with no word on a PC port of Halo 5 while also bringing Infinite to PC is another odd choice, but i hear most people already find Halo 5 to be the worst in the series. 343 hasn't exactly been knocking it out of the park with Halo with me, and this release date is just making me think they need that Christmas release, bugs be damned.

I hope it turns out well, people seemed to like that Infinite online Beta.

Get me back in a Warthog.

Also, remember how damn good those early Halo 3 preview trailers were? Whoever made those, MS needs you. You're their only hope.

Infinite has always struck me as a game that is really buckling under the weight of the name it's carrying, especially after the tepid reaction to Halo 5. On the one hand, it feels like the devs realize that other shooters have kind of left Halo behind and the combat needs to . . . evolve a little bit (sorry). On the other hand, it feel like they're also a little gun-shy about making too many changes for fear of upsetting the Uber-fans.

I wouldn't be surprised if this led to more than a little indecision and inefficient use of resources during development. This game really has that feeling of a game where the devs did a lot of work on individual parts over time, but also one where they were struggling to fit all those parts together because they didn't settle on what the game was actually supposed to be until way too close to launch.

I wonder if it being on Game Pass will affect the reception any. I could see a lot of folks dumping on it if they needed to pay $70 for a Halo that was less than awesome, but maybe it'll get a kinder reception if people can just try it as part of a subscription.

Rather surprising a game that was suppose to release last year yet delayed at the last minute for polish, still seems to be coming in quite hot.

Not only have 343i been shy in showing off Infinite, which is often a giant red flag, but 8 Dec is the last date they could possibly pick before years end.

Makes you wonder if last years gameplay demo was a directed trailer and received better, What kind of state would the game have released in?

Guys, there was a beta not too long ago. From the bit I got to play, it was pretty solid and a lot of fun. And I wasn't the only person who had fun with it. And it wasn't terribly buggy. Can we stop with the doom and gloom?

Especially since this is a Game Pass thing. If you want to play it at launch and you're afraid it's going to be a garbage fire, just play it on Game Pass and see what you think and go from there.

@justin258: The beta felt pretty good and I'm quite confident that 343 will ship a good multiplayer experience. I do have some concerns about how the campaign will work out since we've basically heard or seen nothing of it for over a year. Overall this is still my most anticipated game of this year.

The game looks good while the limited edition console bundle looks so awesome!

Suddenly having to be some big capstone entry in the series, sequel to a not particularly well received previous part of a trilogy...oh no, it's the Rise of Skywalker of video games!

Loved 5 ao I was looking forward to this. Still am, but I'm more fascinated by the behind the scenes story. And what the hell this would have even looked like if it launched a year ago.

Multiplayer looks fine and all, but I primarily play the campaigns. Part of Halos appeal is the meticulously designed combat encounters, so I'm really curious about the campaign if it's going open world. I don't really need it to be 40 hours long or something. Just give me 10 levels that are highly replayable.

That's my biggest worry, I felt MGS5 is the best example of this, big open world with the best systems in the series, but I can't remember a single actual area outside of the generic 3-4 man road checkpoints that the map is covered in.

@panfoot: Yep, good example. I liked MGS V a great deal, but never went back to it and only remember a few beats from its giant campaign.

Whereas I can replay the entire series in my brain from before, when the games were a reasonably replayable length.

Was curious to see what the GB community thinks of Infinite and it seems to be bang in line with what I was thinking. Enjoyed the original Bungie trilogy but didn't love 4 or 5. The release date of Dec 8th fills me with Cyberpunk-induced dread - the thing there is that they likely won't have much time to patch before devs take some well-deserved time off.

Having seen none of the campaign worries me too - but maybe this is something they'll address in the coming weeks/months.

I was considering getting the limited edition Series X (I have a One X atm) but perhaps the best thing to do is see how it launches and either pickup a month's worth of game pass or sit back and wait.

Have they said anymore around how this game is going to be the Halo game for the next 10 years outside of MP having seasons?

The controller looks totally awesome too!

It is just bizarre how they were so close to launching last year and then postponed it by more than a year. You would think that the game was ready then and they would have needed a couple of months at most to squash bugs and fine-tune the graphics. And they haven't shown any single player gameplay since. Did they scrap the entire story and stich something else up from the parts? Really concerning for those that still care about the Halo story.

I'm sure the multiplayer will be fine. It can't be that hard to make team deathmatch on a nearly unlimited budget, and with the Halo name and Game Pass they'll have plenty of players to fill the servers.