That’s very good news. From whatever I’ve seen thus far, HALO Infinite is definitely shaping up to be the best entry in the series since H3. Then again, I thought the same about H5:G, and hoo boy was I ever wrong about that. So far, though, it looks like the people at 343i have figured out how to deal with some of the most egregiously stupid offences committed by H5:G’s writers and designers against the original canon.

Whiskey, double shot, neat.

Same for me, barkeep. Macallan 12, Talisker, Caol Ila, or even Laphroaig if you’ve got it.

Since you’re out on a (well-deserved) break, I thought I’d report on my experience with the Halo Infinite test flight over the weekend. I was playing on an XBOX Series X with a controller.

First, let me set the stage. I am not really into online multiplayer shooters these days because they require an immense amount of practice just to achieve baseline competency, and I have a real life and job. The last one that I played a ton of was Titanfall 2, and before that Destiny and Unreal Tournament 2004 (which I was untouchable at due to my friends and I playing nothing but it for 3+ hours every day for a solid year). I’d never rank myself any higher than average in modern shooters, even if it’s an extremely volatile average where I’ll often swerve between being the team MVP or an albatross around everyone else’s necks from one game to the next.

That said, I had a really fun time playing Infinite. The controls are COD standard, and they kept the stupid ADS crap from H5, but I had no problem jumping right in and blasting people. Everyone gets an AR and scopeless pistol to start, and even the team slayer modes have an objective-based metagame going on since power weapons and good equipment will be flagged on your HUD and by the announcer. The shooting feels pretty good also, and it seems to me like the ADS stuff only really makes a difference with guns that actually have a scope (the AR retains its traditional spray-and-pray character even when ADS). Everyone has infinite sprint and you can also slide around Titanfall-style by crouching mid-sprint. It’s definitely faster than the other games, but I still felt like, in your words, “a seven-foot tall super soldier wearing the Grim Reaper’s personal party suit.” There are also TONS of new weapons to play with. I didn’t get to mess with them much since I was killing plenty of people with the default guns, but there’s a dedicated training mode where you can experiment with them. It’s very similar to Perfect Dark’s Carrington Institute, if you’ve ever played that.

The modes we got this weekend were 4v4 team slayer, CTF, and…Domination I think it’s called? The one where there’s 3 squares on the map and you score by controlling 2 or more of them? I think Big Team Battle is coming up in next weekend’s test. Slayer and CTF are as fun as ever, although Domination ended up like a game of Battlefield on a smaller scale, with big fights happening around a few points and lone wolves trying to play whack-a-mole with the uncontested ones on the side. I still think UT 2004’s Onslaught mode is the absolute best implementation of that kind of objective-based team game.

All in all, I think it’s shaping up to be a worthy entry in the series, and will hopefully make everyone forget about H5:G. If even me, with my aversion to online shooting, can have fun and do OK, then they’re doing something right.

Why is American Beer the same as making love in a canoe?
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Because they are both fucking close to water.

I like my Whiskey FUCKING RAW without cheap coke or soda added to it. If you can’t take it down, then don’t drink it.

Those are wise words, my friend.

That being said, I would like to try a triple distilled Irish in coffee or a cake mix.

Oh yeah. That’s the GOOD shit. A proper dose of Irish whiskey in coffee is amazing on a cold snowy winter’s night. I remember making Irish coffee one night during an absolute BITCH of a blizzard in the northeast USA several years ago. I initially thought that I needed to put more Irish in my coffee, and did so. Within about 10 minutes, I realised that I needed to put more coffee in my Irish ))).

That being said, I would like to try a triple distilled Irish in coffee or a cake mix. I am also curious if Japanese bar tenders use ice without bubbles for show or because it makes the experience better.

On a different note, Europe is going full cuck mode on the Green Agenda. It’s just that some countries are setting their deadlines earlier while the rest of the world is laughing at us.