Halo Infinite's Craig the Brute is the spiciest meme right now

By Brendan Lowry
published

Halo Infinite
Halo Infinite (Image credit: Windows Central)

If you're been online in the video game side of social media at any point over the last few days, chances are good that you've seen "Craig," a Brute from the Halo Infinite gameplay reveal that fans have become infatuated with.

The meme started when fans picking apart the gameplay demo frame-by-frame paused at the exact moment Master Chief thwacks a Brute, giving them a close look at his goofy deadpan face. Immediately, the comical image began to circulate through social media circles on Twitter and other sites, but the community realized something: if this Brute was going to become internet famous, he would need a name. After some deliberation, the community christened him with the divine title of Craig. This name was supported by Brian Jarrard, Community Director at 343 Industries, who encouraged the take-off of the meme.

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Since then, fans have been creating custom images using Craig's blank expression — and they're hilarious. Here's a showcase of some of the best Craig the Brute memes we've seen so far.

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https://twitter.com/dude_largepants/status/1286766758033072130?s=20 https://twitter.com/LumksAwakening/status/1287244741583736832?s=20

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Some have even taken things a step further, creating custom fanart of Craig and making custom models and animations of him. Talk about dedication to the meme!

from r/halo
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Overall, the Craig the Brute meme has quickly become one of our favorite things to come out of the Halo Infinite gameplay reveal.

Halo Infinite is expected to launch on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and Windows 10 PCs in the Holiday 2020 season. Make sure to catch our article on five details you may have missed from the Halo Infinite gameplay demo as well.

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Brendan Lowry
Brendan Lowry

Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he's been an avid fan since childhood. You'll find him doing reviews, editorials, and general coverage on everything Xbox and PC. Follow him on Twitter.

18 Comments
  • Wow, people must be really bored, but OK.
  • Meme is funny but Be real.. Who tf goes out there watching every Brute close up while playing the game. Nobody unless your goal is to bash the game.
  • I guess watching Digital Foundry stop and image and zoom 300% to see that some distant trees are more blurry on one version doesn't matter then?
  • I didnt even know this was a thing until yesterday. Damn, if only someone would have warned us that when we have the ability to know all of human knowledge using our fingertips that we would waste our powers putting text on images of a video game character while there is a global pandemic happening. Humanity is the best!
  • People can have fun and also stay informed about COVID dude. 2020 sucks enough as it is. Let people have a good time.
  • No kidding. I'll take Craig the Brute over 2020 any day (year).
  • Totally agreed; people having little harmless fun on the internet.
    @Avatar of Apathy: At least most are at home and having little fun with this. Twitter can be such a toxic place these days with political issues and stuff. I would say this is actually fine...
  • No fun allowed!!! This is 2020! 😜 I guess that comment came off a little more old man on the porch more than I meant it to. I guess I was more irritated than I thought about the internet once again nitpicking the crap out of something rather than asking the real questions or having real discussions.
  • "People can have fun and also stay informed about COVID dude." Are you sure about that? Look at the bars and beaches. Here is a nice video showing you about how informed people are in their fun.
    https://youtu.be/EbxwGi8bTO8 At the same time, point taken. I was just irratated that the game became a joke rather than people discussing the possible real issues with the game or potential.
  • I'm gutted for the artists for 343. They are getting some real grief, and they're still 1000 times more talented than I am. I do think 343 are handling this right though. I imagine they're doubling down since that reveal. The 1080p stream didn't help. My score of the event still ranges from 7 to 8. Just wish they'd shown a reason to upgrade.
  • I think it's cool that they're leaning into the meme. It shows that they're engaging with things that makes fans smile, even if it is sort of rooted in teasing about Infinite's visuals
  • Yeah, excellent handling. Embrace the issue, and get it sorted.
  • I think the reason why this has taken off is because for the more than 4 years now MS and it's loyal fans suddenly started hyping power and visuals like crazy. The highest resolution, the best pixels and what not. Almost making it sound like it's the most important thing in gaming...
    Halo is MS's biggest franchise and this happens to it few months before release.
    So all that power and visuals talk just back fired a bit. Also Add to that, their first party studios hardly showed anything that looked "next-gen"...
    But I don't think it matters. It'll will probably hurt MS or XB's image but that shouldn't bother gamers. People will still enjoy the game regardless...
  • While the graphics didn't look quite up to par, the gameplay/environments look like classic Halo. And that's a good thing. Like one of the bloggers said on YouTube, why not just pre-record the shows in 4k and just release the video. That way everyone can see all the games the way they are meant to be seen from the get-go. Do away with the streams. All they are doing is hurting the presentations.
  • It was pre-recorded. I assume the 4k stuff was at 30fps, or something. Definitely a silly way to do it. Apparently the gameplay trailer looks better than the reveal. Bonkers in my opinion. I'll be glad when CGI is not used as the totality of a reveal.
  • Then they should have just uploaded the 4K show instead of streaming it in 1080p. Well I'll be glad when Microsoft figures out that people don't want to see CGI trailers anymore. We want to see gameplay when a new console is getting ready to release. There were quite a few games that I was interested in, but there was no gameplay shown. They had an opportunity to really stick it to Sony with this show, but as usual, they took their foot off the gas and eyes off of the road and nearly crashed. It was still a good show but a couple of poor decisions held it back. Funny how a couple of shows has almost caused them to lose all momentum that they had. But I'm still going with the X day one, no doubt
  • Yes indeed. They were riding high... Then this. Personally, the May show was good for me, I liked it. This I liked less.
  • definitely an early build