iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Small teams creating small and interesting games deserve to survive, even if the corpos above them decide they aren’t needed.

Yeah gotta be honest, I’m so happy to see that the studios Xbox DID decide were “unnecessary to the portfolio” were sold off, and not shut down. It’s what should have happened to Tango.

As much as I ABHORR seeing layoffs, the unfortunate reality is some of these staff shouldn’t have been hired in the first place. Nothing against their talent or skills or anything like that, it’s just entirely because the studios should not have ever ballooned to that size to begin with

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Oh that Rayquaza one is bad news for my wallet

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cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Did the main story mission cancel out the unfinished Hunt, and you just had to start over? Or did you mean that the missions outright blocked you from progressing the other, AND the main mission was blocked off?

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Yeah it was wild to me to see so much praise for this coming from the guys that dog on UE5 games for all “looking the same”. And yet somehow this was fantastic, and was great for artistic intent.

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cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

It ain’t much, but man I really love Destiny 2’s cosmetics. Excited to go back to Destiny 1 since 2 will be in shambles for who knows how long.

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(Except I do know how Insomniac/Obsidian do it 😅 they focus on smaller, more refined, more iterative single player/co-op games without ever dramatically overhauling anything in a single step, while still making meaningful and noticeable improvements over the same amount of time)

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But devs taking too much on (I.e. TES5, FO4, FO76 assist, ESO assist, engine updates, Starfield) is a whole other story. Just makes me all the more baffled/appreciative/confused/impressed with Insomniac’s or Obsidian’s release cadence. No idea how they manage it

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But even as a self proclaimed Bethesda defender (they weren’t sitting on their thumbs between FO4 and SF, they had a TON going on) it’s just such a bummer that TES fans were waiting 14 years between Skyrim and TES4R, let alone TES6 being who knows how many years away.

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Multiplayer games lasting 5 years is fine imo, especially because most of them used to be every year/every other year things and so many complained about it not being different enough. Add in the money sink of MTX, and I’m fine those lasting a while

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Eh, barely. And even then….barely over 5 is still too long. Smaller, more refined, more iterative games should come back. Particularly for single-player experiences.

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100%. If it means Infinite getting some more meaningful updates and more time in the oven to really refine UE5 Halo’s feel, I’m absolutely okay with it. I’m worried UE5 Halo MP will be a major Do Or Die moment, so if they can refine it as much as possible with feedback from a campaign…100% do it.

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100% agree. I miss the days of “yeah we spent some more time improving what we already had, here’s a new gameplay feature and the continuation of the story”. No need to completely rebuild models or completely upgrade toolsets or anything every single game.

Bah, totally unnecessary tbh. Could have? Sure. Should have? Absolutely not, I’d rather have iterative games come out faster than life changing games every 10 years. I’m tired of sequels taking 5+ years to make.

cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Either force the player to put away the rifle AND take it back out, or have the game remember what weapon the player autostashed and automatically withdraw it again upon dismount. But requiring the “simulation engagement” sometimes and not others is just so frustrating to experience

cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

“Grab my rifle after he autostashes it” is honestly such a great example of the kind of inconsistency that can kill a gameplay session tbh. Bad mood + bad move = bad combat encounter = done for the night in some cases. Silly that it would be autostash but not auto retrieve.

cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Oooo this looks good. Is this like a MkVb/ODST/Grenadier bash? It looks really slick

cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

God Halo 5 cutscenes look so good

Lauren Kayes @midheavens.bsky.social · 22/06/2024

Reposted by cole

It’s so cool that cities are like “pweeease only turn your AC on if you’re actively dying and don’t go below 79 🥺🤘🏻💗” while the AI nobody asked for is slurping up the power grid to make 1 image of a girl with 5 tits

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But honestly…ALL of the playlists would benefit from something like this. Playlists can be Team Size Selector, and the checkboxes within each playlist can be Game Mode Selector. It would help declutter the UI and improve wait times SO much.

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Firefight would benefit from the same. Pool all the variants together. Heroic can be a chance, but keep Legendary its own thing (similar to how Halo 5 Firefight handles difficulty). Keep BftA its own thing (since its story related), and Classic its own thing (duh)

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Quick Play would go from 17 checkboxes (which is already a massive cut from the 47 possible modes, the other 30 just…completely gone) down to 8, while still allowing all of the REALLY cool modes that’ve been made over the years to be available. Add back those 30 missing modes, without the clutter.

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Rather than each mode get its own checkbox within the 4v4 Quick Play playlist, having each checkbox be a “genre” of game mode would let people still control what *type* of modes they want, but keep players more tightly grouped like in MCC.

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Really feeling the pain of low player counts in matchmaking for Halo Infinite, especially considering it’s a weekend. It would be a massive boon to the community to have modes pooled together in each playlist. Have each checkbox select a pool of modes, similar to MCC’s Match Composer, EG below

cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

I just wish we had TRUE H3 Recon. The Reach Recon is juuuust different enough. (I potentially like it more…but still would be good to see both. Same for CQB tbh - it’s almost perfect but just needs a wee bit more “bulge” in the forehead, it just slopes back a lil too much compared to H3’s)

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cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Yeah I’ve always felt CE has the best vibes, 2 has the best story, and 3 is the most fun. Completely different reasons for each being “better” than the other, so depending on what you look for one might be your favorite, but there’s very little room for an “objective best”

cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Kinda thinking it might be time to settle down and just play selfish Halo. No more trying to win - it’s already predecided at this point. Just try and die as few times as possible.

cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Okay something’s gotta change lol what even are these matchups in @halo.gg the SBMM is so broken

6/8 PVP matches were a loss yesterday why do I even bother

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cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Forgot how much I absolutely hate SBMM. 6-7 matches straight and they’ve all been a loss because they’ve all had an insane stack of players. Top of the board every time, it just doesn’t want me to win tonight I get.

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cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Metal Gear Rising in Halo Infinite? I think yes. I know the black/grey is technically more accurate, but the blue in Risk Explorer really captures the energy (literally and figuratively) Raiden has.

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cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

I feel the exact same way. There’s a few quirks in execution of the procedural stuff, sure. But 99% of the stuff that overlaps with a TES game is just SO GOOD. I’m absolutely stoked for 6.

cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

It’s like that “Matthew MERCER” meme shouting about how he’s just kinda everywhere Except instead of voice acting cool characters, it’s making society worse in every possible way

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cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

It’ll be really interesting to see how the devs support it. Early access meant that Act 1 is super polished, Act 2 somewhat polished, and Act 3 is pretty rough. But if Baldur’s Gate 3 can turn things around after being in the same exact situation… Maybe they can too?

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cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

I’m thinking MCC shadowdropped during the showcase, and Starfield later this year alongside the DLC.

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cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

This sounds SO cool. Super excited to get on and try it out.

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cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

The Knights of the Nine quest in #OblivionRemastered might be one of my favorite TES quests so far

Clad in his silver and red Armor of the Crusader, Pelinal Whitestrake uses his shield to block the attacks of the golden being known as Umaril the Unfeathered

cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

And it doesn’t even support it WELL because black levels are almost as bad as Starfield lol

cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Wait TMNTxHades is a match made in heaven omg

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cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

This kinda feels like GTA VI is considering a late September release then lol

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cole @cole-238.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

Wait I just realized I got slapped by one of the enemies twice (same guy - I remember cause they were Hero rank), and then proceeded to go deathless 3 hills straight. Wild.