Destiny!

HROT is a great, stylized boomer shooter if you’ve got a kick for eastern Europe/Soviet-era architecture.

343 did a bang-up job at murdering their golden goose in the pursuit of a mythical “broader audience” that they’ve referred to many times. In Halo 4, they doubled-down on the loadout systems, added in COD-style perks and ordinance drops, and drastically changed the art direction and tone of the game (and don’t even get me started on the story). Halo 5 was much of the same, this time opting to chase the advanced movement trend that was all the rage in the mid-2010s, crazy MTX lootboxes, and a somehow even worse artstyle/story.

Even though the raw gameplay as Infinite was mostly a return to form, 343 again scuttled their own ship with their abysmally pathetic imitation of a Fortnite-styled live service/F2P game. 6-9 month seasons. No rank/career progression. Exorbitant shops prices and locked-down customization. Drip-fed additions of content. Staples of the franchise that are STILL not in the game after 18 months.

It’s funny that you mention MCC as 343’s best game, though, since I’d argue that was their worst by far. Sure, MCC is pretty good now, but the game was literally unplayable for YEARS for many people - not “oh I’m lagging a bit” sort of unplayable, I mean game-crashing, no multiplayer loading, unable to log-in type issues that only were resolved beginning in 2019 when they brought the game to PC (and even that had a massive slew of issues).

Anyways, I’m rambling at this point. I enjoy playing Infinite quite a bit and think it’s 343’s most faithful effort, but it’s still plauged with issues. 343’s endless pursuit over the past decade to attain a broader audience for Halo has effectively killed the franchise in popular opinion - and the ironic thing is that 343 never realized that Halo fans already were the broader audience to begin with.

I really like what I’m seeing, ranging from the depth of things to do, to how granular the systems are, to how much I love the art direction Bethesda has taken. That said, it still won’t be a day-1 buy for me when it launches, I simply don’t trust big AAA releases anymore and will wait at least a little while to see if it’s simply unpolished, or flat-out broken.

Playing Dark Souls 1 for the first time has so many amazing moments like that - finally defeating the Bell Gargoyles, or surmounting Sens Fortress and pushing the Iron Golem off… But I don’t think anything will ever compare to the exhilaration I felt in beating Ornstein and Smough for the first time.