343 Industries has revealed some details about its forthcoming Technical Preview, and while the studio isn’t ready to pick an exact date, it has revealed that a “bot-focused technical preview” could happen as early as next weekend.
This news comes by way of the latest Halo Infinite Inside Infinite blog post, which details some of the studio’s plans around its upcoming multiplayer preview which it refers to as “flighting.” 343 Industries doesn’t yet have a date to announce yet, but a preview could be happening next weekend.
“We know the largest question now is, ‘When is the technical preview?’,” the blog post reads. “The release of this blog means we’re getting very close but flighting itself is a fluid process [so] we need to ensure we’ve successfully cleared our final gate before we’re officially a go. That said, we’ve been given the okay to say our first Bot-focused technical preview could happen as soon as next weekend.”
343 Industries says that prior to the flight starting, the studio is planning a livestream where it will dive into the actual built that players will be previewing and walk viewers through every facet of the preview. The studio plans to host “hundreds of thousands” of Halo Insiders during this first technical preview and if all goes well, it will invite even more for the next flight.
As the blog post states, the first technical preview will be centered on Halo Infinite’s bot features and Head of Creative for Halo Infinite Joseph Staten says it’s one of their favorite features
“They are, without a doubt, one of my favorite features of Halo Infinite,” Staten writes in the blog post. “In the early Halo games, they were a feature that we always wanted to land but that consistently got cut due to limited time and resources… so I’m very happy we’ve been able to make them happen this time around.”
As for what that means, Staten says the bots come in four different varieties: Recruit, Marine, ODST, and Spartan, with Spartan being the hardest bot skill level to compete against naturally. Staten said the bots are designed to play like actual players, citing examples of how exactly they mimic that behavior.
“ODST and Spartan Bots will effectively dodge grenades and rockets (Recruits and Marines will not),” Staten writes. “All Bots use equipment, and higher-level Bots will Grappleshot to you to finish you with a melee kill. Bots keep track of power weapon spawns and sprint to claim them, but most importantly: Bots are fair. We don’t change their health and damage values per difficulty level; they just get smarter and more resourceful the higher you go.”
Staten said in the first technical preview, the Bots will start on the easiest difficulty, the Marine difficulty, and scale up to Spartan the better you play.
The Bot Arena experience, as 343 Industries refers to it as in the blog post, will feature Slayer across three maps: Bazaar, Recharge, and Live Fire. The following subset of Weapon Drills will be available during the previews: MA40 AR, BR75, MK50 Sidekick, CQS48 Bulldog, Needler, VK78 Commando, S7 Sniper, Plasma Pistol, Pulse Carbine, Ravager, Heatwave, and the Skewer.
Elsewhere in this edition of Inside Infinite, 343 Industries stresses that these technical previews are all about the technical aspects of the game.
“We are specifically calling this a ‘technical preview’ because we feel it best represents the goals we have, the build itself, and the experience that Insiders will have,” the blog post reads. “Our key driver and goal is truly technical in nature — we are looking to push our systems and services at a larger scale than we’ve been able to thus far as an important step towards ensuring we are as ready as possible when the flood gates fully open at launch this holiday.”
The blog post goes on to stress that this technical preview is based on a build that’s very much a work-in-progress and that players should expect some hiccups of varying degrees over the course of the preview. 343 Industries says what players play in the upcoming technical previews is a “couple months behind where the development team and ‘main’ game build currently is given the process and time it takes to go through all the gates and steps before releasing to the public.”
During the technical previews, 343 Industries will be looking for player feedback in the following areas: core gameplay, maps and modes, the Academy’s weapon drills, and menu and battle pass UI.
For even more information about these upcoming technical previews, check out the full July 2021 edition of Inside Infinite. While waiting to learn more about when these technical previews might officially begin, watch this video to learn everything we know so far about Halo Infinite and then read about how a Halo 2 trailer inspired a brand new feature in the game. Watch the offiical Halo Infinite Mulitplayer reveal trailer after that.
Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
For all the latest Gaming News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
