Mister Chief should die with the REQ system

If you thought we could go into the new year without any Halo Infinite TV series, you’re new here. The weekly reset has brought in a new collection of cosmetics to use with your Christmas gift cards, and as has become the tradition of Halo Infinite, players are annoyed. Last week, Everyone’s ruffled cat lovers. This week, the Mister Chief bundle is making everyone foam at the mouth. While the cat ear discourse was clearly motivated by the same tasteless jokes that women shouldn’t be allowed to play Halo, I have to admit, there’s something a little bit different about the $20 Mister Chief cosmetic pack – a character that stands for loot boxes and predatory microtransactions. This time I’m on your side, gamers. Don’t get too excited.

Mister Chief is an elaborate hand-drawn version of Master Chief that was introduced in the Halo 5 trailer, although the character has appeared in weekly updates as well as during the development of Halo 2 and 3. Voiced by Nick Offerman of Parks & Rec, Mister Chief’s job is to explain Halo 5’s REQ system, the much-maligned loot box economy. The REQ system is a way to earn (and buy) more than just cosmetics but also weapons and vehicles for use in Warzones – the Big Team Battles version of Halo 5. Players will open REQ packs filled with REQ cards, then increase their REQ levels and use REQ energy at REQ stations. The system is an absolute nightmare, and Mister Chief’s interpretation doesn’t help either.

Related: Halo cat ears don’t cringe, but crying about them does

As Mister Chief explained about this complex loot box system – a process that takes 5 minutes – another character will periodically come in and voice clear concerns. This new, nasty character who ostensibly represents the players will question the pay-to-win quality of the REQ system and whether the system can be exploited to unfair advantage. to the player or not. Valid concerns, if you ask me. In response, Mister Chief taunted them and ran them off with a ghost.

Of course, history has not been kind to Mister Chief. You would think someone would realize that this system sucks if the only way to combat dissent was to personify valid criticism as a petty singularity, but it seems not so. Loot boxes have been obsolete since 2015 – largely because they’re illegal in many countries – and the REQ system doesn’t exist in Halo Infinite.

Bring us to this week’s cosmetic pack, which includes seven Mister Chief items: AI model, AI color, enchantment, nameplate, vehicle icon, armor icon, and weapon icon. The last things all have the same icon, but Halo Infinite categorizes everywhere you can place the icon as a different cosmetic. Technically these are four entries and one of them is only green for your AI. This bundle costs $20 and everyone is mad.

There’s a lot of comparison going on between the price of the Mister Chief bundle and the price of cosmetics in the previous games, but I find it a pointless exercise. It’s a different game with a different model in a different time. You cannot compare the prices of items in one game with items in another. I mean, you can, but there’s really no point.

I don’t even think $20 is obscene for a seven-pack, regardless of the variety. Surely people don’t know the pain of being a Pokemon Unite player, when a Santa hat for Pikachu will set you back $40. You can’t even hear Nolan North’s voice.

My real problem with the pack is with the character itself. Mister Chief is a relic of an era when a game was great for taunting and flirting with its own players – nothing more and nothing less. 343 The industry should be ashamed of the REQ system. She should have wanted to bury Mister Chief in an unmarked grave and never speak of him again. Instead, 343 is selling a $20 bundle to players who are already price sensitive for cosmetics in Halo Infinite. I feel like it’s being deliberately hostile to me, and I can’t blame people for being upset by this. Good cat ears, bad Mister Chief. I will see you again next week.

Next: God I Miss Halo 5’s Ground Pound

This is what AI-generated Pokemon looks like

Pokemon artists must have run out of ideas. It is possible to let an AI have a crack.

Continue reading

About the author