Technologies
How Microsoft fixed Halo Infinite after facing the franchise’s biggest test yet
Last summer, fans were so disappointed by a public demo that Microsoft delayed it a year. That delay ends Dec. 8.
Microsoft wants Halo Infinite to be many things, and it will be tricky to balance them all. It’s the Halo team’s first attempt at a free-to-play online shooter. It also has a dramatic new multihour installment in the saga of its primary hero, Master Chief, told in an «open-world» setting where players can wander and explore rather than being sent from mission to mission.
But that all was in jeopardy with the Master Chief’s most hardcore fans a year and a half ago, when Microsoft showed off its first demonstration of Halo Infinite’s gameplay. At the time, the game was to helm the launch of Microsoft’s next big video game consoles, the $500 Xbox Series X and $300 Xbox Series S. Both devices focused on performance as their selling point, promising more intricately designed and better-looking games.
The fan outcry over the demo, which Microsoft had titled Ascension, convinced the company to delay the game another year to avert tarnishing one of the industry’s most storied video game franchises. That year ends on Wednesday, when Halo Infinite’s new story will go on sale for $60 for the Xbox and PC and will be made available for free for subscribers to the Xbox Game Pass. (The multiplayer online component of the game was made available as a beta on Nov. 15.)
Bonnie Ross, a Microsoft corporate vice president and head of Halo maker 343 Industries, said the challenge her team faced was that of overambition. Microsoft wanted to offer Halo Infinite on Xbox and PC at the same time, another first, requiring additional engineering to make it work well with different types of computers and with Valve’s Steam online store, in addition to Microsoft’s own Xbox service.
In an interview shortly before the game’s launch, Ross discussed Halo Infinite’s development, which has been difficult not just because of the COVID-19 pandemic. All its firsts, she said, amounted to a lot of demands on the team. And that’s on top of the struggle any installment in a beloved longtime franchise faces: making a game that’s approachable for newcomers while satisfying for fans.
«It should feel familiar and comfortable if you’re a Halo player, and you should be able to see things other can’t because of the lore, but it should also be a place where a new person can come in and have a story,» she said. «This is our time to make sure we are paying homage to what is Halo.»
It’s been two decades since Master Chief, the primary hero of the Halo universe, blasted onto our screens. And to say it blasted is an understatement. As the launch title for Microsoft’s then-new Xbox video game console, Halo was front and center, quickly becoming a cultural phenomenon.
More than 81 million copies of Halo games have been sold so far. But it’s so much larger than that. Halo has spawned toys, cartoons, live-action adaptations, an esports league, more than 30 novels and about a dozen games. There’s a Halo version of Hasbro’s board game Risk and even an official gold-plated necklace shaped like one of the game’s most popular alien weapons, the energy sword.
Ross has been at Microsoft for more than three decades, earlier working on titles like the Zoo Tycoon simulation game and the action adventure Crackdown. She took over Halo in 2007, when the original developer, Bungie, split off from Microsoft in order to make the online shooting game Destiny.
Halo Infinite’s development was different from previous installments in part because it was being built on new coding technology, called the SlipSpace game engine, which was designed to help Halo’s developers create the expansive space-age world where Master Chief fights foes to save humanity.
Ross said SlipSpace wasn’t ready enough before the game began being built. «It’s kind of like we’re trying to fly the plane while we’re building the plane,» she said. The result was that it took longer to bring all the different images, designs and sounds together. «That just caused a lot of pain for people.»
By the time of Microsoft’s first big gameplay reveal in the summer of 2020, mere months before the game’s planned full launch, the team was working to cut visual quality in an effort to get the game finished in time. Some people within the Halo team worried the cuts were too deep, Ross said. When fans reacted poorly to what they saw, Microsoft pushed the game to the fall of this year.
«We just took on too much real estate,» she said. «We had a very ambitious initial creative direction that I think for a while strayed us away from the core of what we wanted to deliver on: paying homage to Halo.»
Today, Ross said she’s proud of what the team’s accomplished, and early reviews for the parts of the game that have been made public have been glowing.
«Given the slow burn recession the series has experienced over the past decade, it’s impossible to read Halo Infinite as anything other than a shocking return to form,» CNET’s Mark Serrels wrote in his review of the game Monday. «Halo Infinite is a very special video game.»
GameSpot’s Jordan Ramée, who gave the game a «superb» score of 9 out of 10, said that while the story occasionally falters, it otherwise «feels like the best Halo campaign in years and an excellent evolution of what Halo can be.»
Below are edited excerpts from our conversation with Ross.
Halo has one of the longest development times for a regular running series in the industry. Why does it take so long?
Ross: I’ll be transparent: I think you could probably see it was not intended to be quite as long. We needed time to overhaul the engine, figure out free-to-play and figure out how to have a more expansive world. And so, just that tech infrastructure just took a lot more time than we had had planned. I think that there’s a lot of learnings on doing both, as they were both new things for us to do. So I would just say that those just took longer than we had planned to do that. And then you can add COVID in there to make it even harder to do anything.
It seems from the outside that development was a struggle, COVID aside. What did your team run up against?
There’s a lot of different things there. I’d say one thing would be that we made the commitment to create a new engine and overhaul. And there were pieces that were not done as we were moving into preproduction and even production. It’s kind of like we’re trying to fly the plane while we’re building the plane. And I think that that just caused a lot of pain for people. Things just took way longer than they should to get the content into the game and make sure the content is polished.
We had a very ambitious initial creative direction that I think for a while strayed us away from the core of what we wanted to deliver on: paying homage to Halo. I think we just took on too much real estate.
Was that ambitious «initial creative direction» the open-world mechanics?
I want to say I’m super proud with where we are. And we took the time to get there. But if you could go back in time, there are some decisions — maybe we shouldn’t have tried so many new things at once. Like doing free-to-play and doing a more expansive world with your more traditional story, but you’re also allowed to have a lot more agency in your play. Those two things are huge in and of themselves. And we decided to take them both on.
It just meant we had to be a lot more thoughtful on what is the most important thing to land with each of those. So again, where we are today, I’m so proud of what the team got to. And as far as a leadership perspective, there are probably decisions — not probably, there are decisions I should have made earlier on that would have made an easier development path for the team.
And those decisions being whittling down some of the effort?
Yes, or even picking one and not both of them.
So COVID is this big thing in the room. I’ve heard a lot about how it’s impacted work all over the place. I think a lot of people see game development as being hunched over a keyboard all the time because it’s on computers, so why is it any different in the office or at home?
Ross: The positive was that it was incredibly impressive how quickly — from the moment we were told to go home for just two weeks, and hopefully it wasn’t going to be more than that — we were actually able to get the team up and productive. I assumed we were a day-for-day slip [needing to delay the game’s launch] being in the pandemic, but I would say that the team definitely pulled together and was able to be a lot more productive than I had anticipated.
But what you lose: You talk about how yes, it’s technology, but it’s also art. You just lose that shared perspective. Even where we obviously stumbled on the Ascension demo, we shouldn’t have.
I do want to say there were multiple people on the team pointing out, «Hey, I think this is wrong.» But we’re all looking at it at home on whatever monitor with whatever color grading that we have. And that was a huge wakeup call for us. We did need to have those touch points with people coming in, sitting side by side — at a distance — and looking at monitors.
After Ascension, we cleared out a whole section of our fourth floor and then put monitors in with all the different versions of the game and then also set up cameras so people who didn’t feel comfortable coming in could still work from home and participate from home.
And then basically, we had someone that kind of controlled and said, «OK, we’re looking at this build on this screen» and everyone can give input. And the team came in, and for both campaign and multiplayer, weekly to do those evaluations. And that, just I don’t think at least for where we were in production for our game, we couldn’t do that from home.
Again, I’m incredibly impressed with what the team was able to do, but you know yourself and from your friends or family, COVID created additional life challenges and personal challenges. I definitely feel that a lot of focus was on just people contact and spending your time that you would have on a one-on-one making sure the team’s OK. I don’t know, I kind of meandered from what your question was.
But that’s important. They are human beings, and as much as they’re professionals and good at what they do, I think all of us had that fuzzy time in the middle of all this where we couldn’t really get anything done. And multiply that by however large your team is, and that adds up.
Yup.
I think of your team as very attuned to your community. Did you already have a sense that you were going to need to delay before showing the summer 2020 demo?
What I would say happened before is we made a tremendous amount of cuts. And you see some of those cuts reflected in, I think, the Ascension demo. So we had people on the team already raising flags that we’ve cut too deep.
And I think that was just more of a very public look in the mirror that, «Yes, we did indeed cut corners that we shouldn’t have cut,» and we needed to really take a step back and make sure that we were spending the time we needed.
But I would say, unfortunately, putting that out in public was not what the team wants to see. You know, I think the team wants to be proud of everything they put out and wants it to represent the quality of their work. And what we put out didn’t.
So I think that that was definitely a more visceral wakeup call than before, going, «Yeah, it’s really important to be there for day one launch [of the new Xbox]. And «We can do it» to «We actually can’t do it.»
That’s a journey for the team, but ultimately, what they were able to do with the additional year — I’m really proud of what they’ve been able to do.
One of the things I constantly hear from you or someone on the team is that this is a Master Chief story. In the past, with the previous game Halo 5, there was some controversy about how you played as Master Chief for some of it, but not others. I’m curious what you’ve learned, because obviously you need to grow and change and innovate, but there seems to be a limit to what at least parts of the community will accept.
I think that the Halo 5 story was not a bad story. It’s just not the story you want to have when you’re looking at a numbered game that’s sitting on Master Chief’s journey. It’s an interesting side story, but I think our learning is that we have to pay homage to what is Halo, and there are things that are sacred and Halo. And if you’re going to change them, you have to have a deliberate, meaningful reason, and you have to bring the audience along with you. And we just kind of jumped into a disruptive story. I think we missed, you know, with our campaign story. Again, not a bad story, not bad gameplay — I’m not criticizing the work there. It just wasn’t the right — that wasn’t what users would expect and I think, really, what is iconic to Halo. And it doesn’t mean that we can’t go tell different stories, it’s just you need to make sure you’re being pure and true with your programming why you’re making changes.
OK, a little off to the side, what is Infinite? We’ve had numbered games for a long time. Why Infinite now?
As we were looking at the console ecosystem and PC, I think that starting with a number means you kind of needed to be there for the whole series. And as we’re starting a service — a free-to-play service — we want to start from a point where if you love Halo and you know Halo, it feels comfortable. If you’ve never been in Halo, you can jump in whenever and experience any part and we’re gonna keep adding things, but we want to make sure that it’s open and inviting to everyone. So, it’s basically just, you know, a fresh start for how we look at Halo for the next 10 years. Like a platform upon which to build storytelling for the next 10 years.
So should I expect Halo 7 at some point? Or Halo Infinite Plus One?
I think we have our hands full in making sure that we stand up and support this game. So, infinitely Infinite.
Update, 11:36 a.m. PT: Clarifies name of Halo’s new game engine.
Technologies
This Rumored Feature Could Make NotebookLM Essential for Work as Well as School
NotebookLM takes another step toward being the do-it-all AI tool for work and school.
Since it launched, NotebookLM has been aimed at students. While just about anyone can use the AI tool to some benefit, it’s a great study buddy thanks to an assortment of features for the classroom. But a promising new feature may help with your next work presentation: Slides.
Powered by Gemini, NotebookLM can help you brainstorm ideas and generate audio or video overviews. That sounds like most AI tools, but NotebookLM is different. You can provide it with your own material — documents, websites, YouTube videos and more — and it’ll only use those sources to answer your questions and generate content. Adding a slide generator to such a tool would be a solid, professional power-up.
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Google already has its own slide deck creation tool, but NotebookLM could make it even easier to create them. Using your uploaded sources and the recently integrated Nano Banana image generator, the ability to create a slide deck on the fly could soon be on its way.
The tech and AI tool-focused site Testing Catalog recently spotted an unreleased and incomplete Slide tool. Not all of the features seem to be available, but it’d be easy to assume you’ll be able to create a slide deck based on your uploaded documents with just a few clicks. It’ll also likely allow you to further customize the deck by giving NotebookLM specific instructions and topics within your sources to focus on.
That’s not all, though. Another, similar feature might also be on the way. Also spotted was an option to generate an infographic — allowing you to create a visual chart or image based on your data sources. We’ll have to wait and see when either of these features goes live, but NotebookLM remains a robust tool that has little competition, and I expect it’ll only get better.
Technologies
I’m a Longtime Jackbox Games Player. The New Party Pack 11 Might Be My Favorite
I spoke with the Pack Lead about Party Pack 11, which might be the most well-rounded collection yet.
The Jackbox Party Pack 11, launching Thursday, Oct. 23, offers the series’ trademark variety of casual party games, from trivia to drawing to joke writing. I own a handful of these bundles, breaking them out whenever I have a group of friends over and we want something with lower stakes and less of a time commitment than playing a full D&D session or even breaking out a game of Camel Up.
The great thing about a Jackbox title is that it mixes five different mini-games into one package, meaning almost anyone can find at least one they enjoy among the variety. The trouble is that the group may not always enjoy the whole pack, or even most of it. There may be only one or two of the five that really click with your group, perhaps neglecting the more experimental or complex challenges.
«There’s a lot of different people out there,» Rich Gallup, director of production at Jackbox Games told me. «There’s a lot of different types of parties [with different ways they] play our games, and not every game is gonna fit every group.» Gallup referred to the «power of the pack» — the idea that each Party Pack should have a game for everyone, and in some cases, more than one game.
Party Pack 11 manages the remarkable feat of being pretty even throughout. I played through the mini-games ahead of launch with a group of friends I would describe as «abundantly familiar» with prior entries in the Jackbox series. After playing through the entirety of the new Party Pack, we all agreed that almost every game felt equally interesting to us… even if we came out with some early favorites that we’ll probably go back to over and over again.
All the games in Jackbox Party Pack 11
Hear Say
The standout of the new Party Pack is Hear Say, a game where your group is asked to record sound effects in response to prompts like [example] and [example]. Then you vote on the best recording.
«It’s a whole new form of creativity for our players,» Gallup said. «Writing jokes is hard. Drawing is hard. Making a fart noise, y’know… maybe that’s a little more universal. And the game has shown you can make fart noises over a lot of things, and they make a lot of people laugh.»
The simplicity is a huge part of the charm. Unlike Jackbox staples like Quiplash, which asks you to carefully craft cerebral (or crass) jokes, Hear Say is all about blurting silly little sounds into your phone. Pretend to almost sneeze. Forget your coworker’s name. You only have about 5 seconds for each sound effect, so brevity is king.
Hear Say also gives you plenty of opportunities to make other players laugh. My group heard each other recording their sound effects, and sometimes had to redo our own because we burst out laughing in the middle of recording. If there’s a particularly popular sound effect, you can also replay it on demand after hearing everyone’s responses before voting is finished.
The result is a characteristically delightful Jackbox jumble of chaos, aided by some great details like the animations of your chosen avatar whenever your recording plays. I would fire up Party Pack 11 just for Hear Say, and could probably play it several times in a row without feeling bored of the gimmick.
Doominate
Look, I’m sure you’re not a bad person, but I’m equally sure you’d find it fun, occasionally and in small doses, to act like one. Doominate prompts you with nice, wholesome things, and then asks other players to ruin those things by twisting them out from under you. Then it ups the stakes by asking you to list extra things you enjoy so other people can spoil them. It’s a more personal brand of ruination.
Things come back around at the end when you get to un-ruin a prompt for someone. So maybe you ruined «puppies» with the answer «puppies… running away from you.» You can redeem yourself by twisting it back into a semblance of its original shape: «puppies… running away from you… into your home together!»
It’s a fun variation on the joke-writing format seen in prior Jackbox mini-games like Quiplash or Fibbage. And while you might wrinkle some relationships in the early rounds, the un-ruination in the final round gives you a chance to smooth things out again.
Gallup said the final, good-natured twist came through playtesting. «There was a lot of testing of, like, do we like how the game ends if you’re just ruining things, or do we like that, like, upnote at the end of, like, eh we made it better — we’re still friends, right? And through our playtesting, that stuck.»
My group liked it as a warm-up game to get the jokes turning in our brains. It’s a pretty zippy game, too, which makes it easy to come back to.
Cookie Haus
One of my favorite styles of Jackbox Games is games like Tee K.O., where you’re drawing something on your phone and matching the drawing with delectably funny titles. Cookie Haus asks you to do that by decorating cookies.
Customers will walk into the Cookie Haus with prompts for weird specific cookies they want. For example: «Mermaids, the wrong way.» Then it’s up to you to choose a cookie shape and get to frosting (and naming) their wildest dreams.
The music and art design also make it a pleasant game to play.
«Cookie Haus is magical. It’s cozy,» Gallup said. «The act of icing a cookie just feels so delightful. It just feels really good. It looks delicious.»
The cookies look surprisingly realistic, with smooth textures on the icing, and a variety of sprinkles you can place on top. I enjoyed the flexibility of working with different colors or sprinkles, but watch out for the restriction of only being able to undo your single most recent icing stroke or sprinkling. My whole group struggled with that.
Be prepared to make revisions to cookies later in the game, giving you a chance to improve upon (or, depending on your mood, totally ruin) someone else’s creation. Overall, it’s a great game for when you just want to doodle and maybe get a few chuckles out of it. I’ve been mentally sketching out cookie abominations since I last played.
Suspectives
Suspectives has everyone fill out surveys about themselves and then secretly casts one person as a criminal while the rest of the group is tasked with interrogating everyone as survey info about the criminal slowly rolls in.
Candidly, social dedication games are not my thing — I’m in the camp of people that finds them more stressful than fun. So Suspectives is the one game in Party Pack 11 that I don’t expect to replay much, although I did find it slightly less stressful than other games in the genre.
Gallup acknowledged that challenge. «We knew it needed to be a game where someone like you and I, who don’t love lying, could have fun and, at the very least, hide a little bit. And the surveys and the pacing allows for that. Generally, you only have to stand up to one round of grilling, more or less, maybe two. And if you can make it through that one, I’ve found, personally, I can do OK.»
What I appreciated most about Suspectives was the fun Noir-ish atmosphere. The game has a strong flavor, and if anything brings me back, it’s most likely to be that. But I did also enjoy filling out the surveys and having a more structured game instead of being forced to argue nonstop for 20 minutes about who the criminal was.
If you like social deduction games, there are a few neat inclusions in Suspectives, notably the ability to reveal one person’s answer to see if they’re telling the truth. These extra twists can mix up the formula and keep things interesting.
Legends of Trivia
While Hear Say is my favorite game in the pack, Legends of Trivia is the one I expect to play the most. Partly because it supports two players, which means my wife and I can pick it up at any time, but also because it blends together two things I love: trivia and roleplaying games.
It’s also the first time Jackbox is making trivia collaborative.
«The goal was: We want people to work together on trivia,» Gallup said. «We learned very quickly that making a collaborative trivia game is a little harder than a competitive trivia game. Because if it’s collaborative, there’s almost always going to be someone who knows the answer. And so this is also likely Jackbox’s most difficult trivia game, because you don’t want that one person who’s going to answer every single question. (Which is me. I’m that person.)»
Legends of Trivia starts unlike any other trivia game, asking you to choose your character, complete with stats that affect the game. Health gives you more of a safety net, attack rewards you more for getting answers right, and gold gives you resources to pick up items.
Then you set out on your adventure, where you’ll be stopped by trivia-obsessed monsters. Answer their questions correctly and you’ll deal damage to them and gain gold. Answering incorrectly means you miss an opportunity for damage, and you lose some health and gold. You can shop for items along the way, trading gold for trinkets that might heal your character or give you hints on tough questions.
Survive your trek and the game will measure the gold you acquired to determine whether you’ve reached «legendary» status.
My group loved the combination of collaboration and individual choice in a trivia game. It’s up to you to buy your own items (or save your gold). Don’t agree with the consensus answer? Everyone answers individually, so you’ll either bask in the glory of being the smartest person in the room… or be yelled at by your party because you’re the reason the monster didn’t die this turn.
Legends of Trivia also has the distinction of being an uncommonly long Jackbox game. While trivia tends to run a little longer than more joke-based entries, Legends of Trivia has three different levels for you to explore, each one taking around 20 to 30 minutes to complete, so a full run might reach an hour and a half. If you don’t want to trivia for that long, you can take a smaller slice, but I like the opportunity to keep going, similar to starting a «sequel» at the end of a Trivia Murder Party round.
Turn it up to 11
I’ve spent a lot of time in Jackbox games, and I expect Party Pack 11 to quickly rise near the top of my most-played list. Hear Say and Legends of Trivia tickle different parts of my brain and will both keep me coming back, and while I have the game open, there’s little reason not to also throw in a few rounds of Doominate and Cookie Haus.
«Whenever you create something, you never believe it’s good until it’s out. So we’re really excited for the game to come out and for people to hopefully tell us it’s good,» Gallup said, before adding a characteristic Jackbox quip: «But if they don’t, we’ll be ready for that because we’re creators.»
Jackbox Party Pack 11 launches on Oct. 23 for all major platforms.
Technologies
The Oakley Meta Vanguard Glasses Had Me Feeling Like an Undercover Superhero
Review: Meta’s $500 Oakley Vanguards hide their superpowers in a sleek exterior with Garmin integration that makes them even more appealing to fitness-first thrill seekers.
Our Experts
Pros
- Sleek and weatherproof design
- Hands-free video capture
- Garmin integration elevates fitness metrics
- 9-hour battery life with fast charging
Cons
- Setup can be tricky with multiple apps
- Niche use case
- Video capture lags on command
As a practical frugalist who’s never owned more than a gas-station-quality pair of sunglasses, getting to test a pair of Oakleys already felt like I was living in some kind of alternate universe. And the fact that they pack the latest tech launched them straight into superhero status. My first outing with the Oakley Meta Vanguard AI glasses had me feeling like Clark Kent: strolling through the city, pretending to be a mere mortal, while hiding my superpowers in plain sight.
Unlike Clark Kent’s inconspicuous black-rimmed frames, the $500 Vanguard sunglasses curve around your eyes as streamlined shields. They’re styled like the «wraparound shades» usually associated with performance sports like skiing or running, except these come fully loaded with Meta AI and Garmin integration, making them the first glasses geared for nerds and thrill seekers alike. They’re tough enough to handle the elements, yet smart enough to deliver real-time training stats in your ear as you hit the trails or slopes. You can also play music, take calls and document all your action shots completely hands-free.
These are by no means Meta’s first smart glasses. The company has been experimenting with wearable eyewear (virtual, augmented and everything in between) for over a decade. What’s new, and the reason they landed on my desk (as a health and fitness wearables reviewer), is the fitness integration.
Garmin, the leader in performance-focused smartwatches, brings the serious fitness clout and deep training data that Meta lacks. Together, they have a real shot at expanding beyond the early tech adopters and hardcore athlete crowd and reaching the mass-market territory currently ruled by the Apple Watches, Fitbits and Galaxy Watches of the world.
This first attempt gets close, but it’s still niche. Unless you’re moving so fast you can’t afford even a split-second distraction, you’ll probably still reach for your phone for better photos and glance at your watch for stats, which you still need to lug with you for the whole experience to work in the first place. Plus, getting them all to play nice together isn’t exactly easy. It took me three failed workouts before Meta AI, the glasses and my Garmin watch finally started communicating. But once they did, everything clicked into place.
The glasses’ true potential lies in this hands-free trifecta of audio playback, media recording and real-time fitness coaching spread before your eyes and curving around your ears. And even if they’re not for everyone yet, these glasses offer a glimpse of how wearables and phones are literally coming to a head.
One thing to note: This isn’t intended to be a review of Meta AI (the voice assistant that powers the glasses). For that, you can check out our in-depth review of Meta AI. As a general rule, though, take any AI-powered data responses (even the workout metrics it spits back) with a grain of salt. They’re not always accurate, as I’ve come to find, and definitely not a substitute for verified, real-world data.
Great-looking glasses. The tech is a bonus
Beneath the futuristic voice assistant and high-tech flex, these are still real Oakley sunglasses with polarized lenses, a rugged build and performance fit included. Even if the AI fried itself tomorrow, they’d still hold up as head-turning sport shades that have earned me more than a few compliments out in the wild.
I tested the 24K lenses with the black frame, which mostly look like a golden-hour gold but pick up reflections of whatever color I’m wearing, making them a nice neutral match for almost any outfit. They’re also available in reddish, blue and black finishes.
In terms of fit, they’re a lot lighter than what I expected considering the extra features. But the subsequent red mark left on the bridge of my nose would signal they aren’t quite as light as traditional shades (they weigh 66 grams). I ended up swapping out the nose piece (it comes with three) to make them more comfortable for longer wear, but I still had the evidence on my nose the way a swimmer has goggle rings after a pool sesh. The earpieces also felt a bit stiff and narrow for my head, but I like that they stayed put even on bumpy trail runs.
Visibility in full sun was excellent, but (like most other sun glasses) wasn’t optimal on a cloudy day when I was darting in and out of tree canopies. They did hold up to light rain sprinkles, and surprisingly, none of the footage from that day showed any water spots on the lens. I probably wouldn’t wear them instead of ski goggles during a full-on snowstorm, but they are rated to withstand water, sweat and dust.
The glasses have a few physical controls: a power button on the right temple, a small swipe-sensitive touchpad on the right arm and a customizable action button on the left. Without being able to see them, finding and remembering which side does what takes a bit of practice. I did most of my controlling via voice commands anyway, so the buttons were just a safety net.
Unlike Meta’s new Orion AR (augmented reality) glasses, these don’t have a floating screen in your line of sight. The Garmin overlays you see in the videos and images from the glasses reflect your real-time stats from that moment, but they’ve been added after the fact in the Meta AI app and meant for sharing (not live viewing). Strava users can do the same, adding performance stats to workout footage in the app to share with their community.
The only visual signal you’ll see inside the glasses is a small white LED light on the upper right-hand side of the lens. It indicates when the glasses are powered on, when Meta AI has been activated or when features like video recording are in use. It’s subtle enough not to distract mid-run, but helpful for confirming you’re actually recording — or not accidentally recording. There’s also a white LED light on the outside of the glasses, just below the camera lens, to let others know when you’re capturing video.
The sleek black carrying case doubles as a charging station, which is a nice touch. It plugs into a USB-C cable, but also holds a charge for a quick power up on the go. The color of the light on the front of the case indicates whether you’re fully charged (green), in pairing mode (blue) or running low on battery (red).
Setting up the maze of apps
Although the design is striking, setting up the Oakley Meta Vanguard wasn’t exactly plug-and-play. I tested it with a Pixel 9 Pro phone and a Garmin Fenix 8 Pro smartwatch. The new Oakley’s aren’t compatible with the Apple Watch, but you can use them with an iPhone and Garmin setup. First, you have to download the Meta AI app to your phone, make sure your software is up to date, then pair the app with the sunglasses. If you’re also connecting a Garmin watch, prepare for even more steps. You’ll need to install the Meta AI app on your watch via Garmin’s Connect IQ store and ensure everything is updated across all platforms.
That’s three layers of pairing and three potential points of failure. And yes, I absolutely got it wrong on the first try. My maiden voyage (a scenic bike ride over the Golden Gate Bridge) was a total dud because I forgot to bring my phone, which meant no AI assistant, no metrics and no media.
Even after I finally got the glasses up and running, it took two more workouts before I finally managed to pair the Garmin watch successfully to get real-time metrics in my ear. I had to run two separate updates (one for the Meta app on Garmin IQ, and another for the watch software itself) before things started talking to each other. By launch, some of this may be streamlined, but be warned: If something breaks, you’ll need to play tech detective to figure out whether the issue lies in the Garmin IQ app, the Meta AI app or the watch itself.
The number of privacy disclosures also put me on edge, and handing over my health data required another layer of trust that I wasn’t sure I was willing to give up, let alone to Meta. It’s basically pay-to-play, with your personal metrics as currency.
Yes, I appreciated that the disclosures were at least transparent and, in theory, you can manage your data in the settings, but having to repeatedly grant permissions for things like AI training and Spotify preferences served as a stark reminder that these aren’t just sunglasses. They’re data-hungry smart devices that will know everything about you, even what you see.
Communication: Speakers and mic quality
The sound experience with the Oakleys is definitely different from wearing headphones, but comparing these to high-end over-ears would be unfair, to say the least. They’re not meant to be noise-canceling, and that’s a good thing considering the use case.
The open-ear speakers are built into the temples of the glasses, creating a natural sound profile that feels immersive without isolating you from the world. These are made for high-impact, high-speed activities, so it’s actually a benefit to retain environmental awareness while still hearing your music, stats or calls. I was impressed by how clear the audio was in most conditions.
Sound even adjusts to your surroundings, and in normal settings — trail runs, solo hikes, even light city traffic — they performed great. The one place they fell short was biking over the Golden Gate Bridge on a windy day. Between the hum of cars whizzing by and the gusts off wind hitting in opposite direction, the speakers couldn’t compete, even at full volume.
It’s worth noting that unlike earbuds, the sound doesn’t stay sealed inside your ears. At full blast, people nearby will hear it. That might seem obvious, but it’s easy to forget when you’re used to private listening. Especially during calls, it’s something to be mindful of so you don’t end up with the accidental eavesdropper.
The mic quality, though, really surprised me. It’s five built-in mics means callers could hear me clearly, and the glasses honed in on my voice (and panting) on videos with minimal background noise. One test even managed to capture my toddler’s voice from a baby carrier strapped to my back.
Voice command responsiveness was solid as well. I rarely had to repeat myself. And when I did, it wasn’t a mic issue — it was Meta AI not understanding the request.
Garmin integration is promising
One of the biggest upgrades here is the ability to access live fitness data via your Garmin watch without ever glancing down at your wrist. While my muscle memory still had me glancing at my watch more often than not, it was surprisingly useful to hear someone call out my pace or heart rate zone when I asked. In situations where looking down isn’t safe or even possible given the amount of gear on your arms (mountain biking, downhill skiing, etc.), this hands-free feedback could be a game-changer.
You can call up stats mid-run or after your workout just by asking Meta AI. I tested it with questions like, «What’s my longest run?» or «What’s my average pace to beat?» and it delivered. The glasses even went a step further by offering training suggestions like encouraging me to work on increasing my pace while staying mindful of not overexerting in high heart rate zones. It’s not quite the full Garmin Connect experience in your ear (it stopped short of setting up heart rate zone alerts), but it does bring some of the most helpful insights front and center without having to dig for them on your watch, which often can’t display more than four stats on one screen.
Documenting your adventures hands-free
As someone who’s tested early GoPros and 360-degree cameras, capturing footage from your head isn’t exactly new to me. But doing it hands-free from a pair of sunglasses — no awkward helmet or bike mounts in sight — completely elevated the experience.
The glasses have a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera with a 122-degree field of view and 3K UHD video capture. The lens gives you that signature fisheye GoPro-like look with an ultra-wide frame that works for both vertical and horizontal formats, whether you’re posting to Instagram or your Strava highlights reel.
Image stabilization was surprisingly solid. During a rocky trail run in my neighborhood regional park (they don’t call it Rockville for nothing), the footage came out impressively smooth. Same for my bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. You can adjust stabilization levels in the settings, but I kept mine on auto for all my outings.
You can shoot time-lapse and slow-motion clips with just a command, and there’s also an AutoCapture feature that kicks in automatically when you start a workout on your Garmin watch. It’s designed to record what it thinks are the «highlights» of your session, but that’s a bit of a black box. I’m not sure what the algorithm is using (heart rate spikes? speed bursts?), but it definitely missed the best views on my trail run. On the upside, it also skipped the less flattering moments, like stopping to pick up after my dog. You can also override AutoCapture (which I did) at any point. Still, be warned: There’s a small delay between the command and when the camera actually starts recording. One time I spotted a coyote on my trail, but by the time capture kicked in, it was long gone.
Media quality overall was solid for a wearable. You can adjust camera settings in the app, and while it won’t replace your DSLR or high-end phone camera, it’s more than good enough for capturing action moments without stopping to fumble with gear. It also has 32GB of onboard storage for phone-free captures, although it will need the phone’s processing power for any Meta AI requests.
Saving and sharing media, however, could be smoother. Your content first has to process from the sunglasses into the Meta AI app. Standard video and photo files will eventually sync to your phone’s gallery, but AutoCapture clips need to be manually saved, and only if the app is open during the transfer.
There is an option to share directly to Instagram if you connect your account, but I personally prefer to review what I’ve captured before broadcasting it live, thank you very much.
Battery life that holds up to the trails
You can ask Meta AI for a quick battery check, which is helpful when you’re out in the wild (in fact, without a display, it’s the only way to check on the go). Meta claims the glasses last up to nine hours with typical use, and up to six hours of continuous music playback. I didn’t wear them for nine consecutive hours (that’s next level commitment), but after a two-hour trail run with constant recording and AutoCapture enabled, I came home with about 75% battery left over. Charging speed is also impressive; you can get up to 50% in just 20 minutes on the charger.
Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses: Bottom line
The Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses are novel and exciting, but they’re still niche. Most people will still find it easier to glance down at their smartwatch or pull out their phone for the same functionality.
Where they truly shine is in high-speed situations where checking your wrist mid-action isn’t an option: think downhill skiing, cycling, dirt biking or even trail running. They could also be great on race day (marathon, triathlon) when time is of the essence. In those moments, having real-time voice feedback and the ability to capture first-person POV video completely hands-free is a game-changer.
That said, the experience still lacks the user-friendly polish that Apple and Fitbit have mastered to win over mainstream users. This Meta-Garmin partnership feels ambitious and promising, but it also reinforces how niche the product remains. Right now it seems mostly geared towards serious athletes and tech enthusiasts who value cutting-edge innovation over seamless usability.
Still, the Vanguard gives us a clear glimpse into the future of wearable tech as AI continues to weave a tighter web between devices, and we start to see a synchronized ecosystem of connected gear that operates seamlessly within our daily lives.
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