Halo: The Master Chief Collection now on Steam

[DalekFlay]

Just played two levels of this. For all the articles about what amazing effort they were putting into the PC port I expected more. There's only one graphics quality option with three settings, low, medium and high basically. The cutscenes are limited to 60fps. The HUD is massive and old console game looking. It feels slightly clunky. That stuff aside though it's otherwise well done. FOV options, every input can be remapped, you can turn off mouse smoothing and acceleration, etc. etc. That's the stuff they were focusing on and that's fine. Glad it doesn't feel like an emulated controller.

Game seems like an old Xbox game given some better textures, which is all it is. Enjoyable for FPS and sci-fi fans like me but not gonna suck anyone off.

I do not have or use any of these things and have never bought anything from the Microsoft Store either.

Tons of games on Steam require another account/client as well. It is what it is dude.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

I don't understand, it says on steam that reach only works if you buy the whole master chief collection? but why does reach even have a separate buy page then?? Since the collection includes reach?? Then on the reach page it says you can buy it separately or purchase the whole collection? I'm so confused

I think I only care about getting the first halo + whichever other halo has the most multiplayer custom map fuckery

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Good lord, the sound is absolutely fucked. Started it up on game pass which was a hassle in itself (For some reason it didn't want to launch through the Xbox program, but would launch if I launched it regularly in Windows. Then it had to go to the Microsoft store and enable Reach specifically, THEN it would launch) but once the game got rolling the sound's all weirdly quiet/muted and the levels are weird. The voices sound a little flat/muted, they don't have subtitles outside of cutscenes even though subtitles are enabled, and the guns make almost no sound at all. They're like half or less volume than the voice actors. I don't know what the fuck's going on with it.

 

[JDR13]

The cutscenes are limited to 60fps

Eh? Is that supposed to be some kind of big drawback?

 

[Alienman]

Been reading a bit from Steam reviews and forums, and holy shit... the rabid fanboys that attack for every little thing is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen! It's up there with Sony fanboys. Apparently even if you have a minor technical problem you must be burned at the stake for

 

[JDR13]

Been reading a bit from Steam reviews and forums, and holy shit... the rabid fanboys that attack for every little thing is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen! It's up there with Sony fanboys. Apparently even if you have a minor technical problem you must be burned at the stake for

The overall review sum is still "Mostly positive" despite that. I'm assuming it must be pretty decent at least.

 

[Grauken]

Is Reach any good? I'm somewhat interested in pirating that one when it comes out, god forbid giving steam and microshit money for anything.

Man, just wait until it's cheap enough then buy the game. The only time pirating is acceptable is if you've already purchased the game on one platform but DRM has prevented you from using it on another.

Or if it's a Japanese game.

No Valky should pirate to his hearts content, its always the right option

 

[DalekFlay]

The cutscenes are limited to 60fps

Eh? Is that supposed to be some kind of big drawback?

"Big" is subjective but yeah, I love high framerates. 60fps looks choppy to me now, and having choppy cutscenes is a bummer. Also normal gameplay doesn't really feel as smooth as 144fps should. I've seen some say it outputs 60hz either way which would be bad, but I need to test that myself. The point is when you specifically advertise high framerate gaming you should deliver it, no?

 

[Pero_Gamechuck]

Tried to play it last night via Gamepass. The game is not launching at all. Apparently the workaround is to start the game by clicking on it in the start menu. Great job microsoft

 

[DalekFlay]

Well my monitor says it's outputting 144hz, and it definitely feels smoother than 60 during gameplay, but there is definitely something... off. It just feels clunk and stuttery to aim, especially quick movements. Maybe it's so designed around analog stick aim-assist it feels odd without it? I dunno, I'm not an expert, but I know it just feels off.

Also the game isn't living up to my decade old memories of the PC original, but I pretty much expected that.

 

[what am i doing]

It's alright. Looks pretty. Controls are kind of awkward. I played Reach with a XIM3 on 360 and this feels similar. Mouse aiming isn't restricted in max speed but otherwise it's basically the same as playing the console version with KBM. This is not an especially well done port. That said, it's Halo - being able to play the campaigns on my computer is nice.

The multiplayer is alright, but it's definitely not as good as 1 or CE. Cosmetic customization is now locked behind multiplayer progression. It already sort of was soft locked in the 360 version, but you could get a lot of stuff via singleplayer progression.

I've heard reports of the sound being bad and I can sort of hear it when I set my card to hi fi. If I turn on dolby digital and let the card do its own enhancements it sounds a lot better.

Even with mouse acceleration off something is weird about the mouse controls, I often find my mouse way over to the side for a very minor amount of turning, so I think maybe it's tied to the old analog stick movement or something, not letting players turn around fast while moving.

I miss Tribes Ascend.

 

[Puukko]

COOP has atrocious lag for the non-host at higher ping, was just playing with my buddy from Tennessee and it was like playing drunk if I wasn't the host.

 

[JDR13]

I was going to grab this, but it sounds like it could use a little more time in the oven. I'll wait till after a patch or two.

 

[DalekFlay]

Even with mouse acceleration off something is weird about the mouse controls, I often find my mouse way over to the side for a very minor amount of turning, so I think maybe it's tied to the old analog stick movement or something, not letting players turn around fast while moving.

Sounds like the same "off" feeling I'm having. I read on the Steam forums last night that the game has massive latency/frame-time issues if you unlock the framerate, which might be my issue. Gonna try locking it to 60 next time I play. If you're already locked at 60 I dunno, we're both fucked I guess.

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

Having a lot of fun with the multiplayer, still a little too much grenade spamming for me though. Game feels really good, though crouch is fcked as well.

To temporarily fix the sound I had to mess around with the ingame levels and then download FXenhancer to get the guns to fucking pop.

 

[DalekFlay]

Capping it at 60fps does indeed fix the feel of movement and aiming. Game plays pretty good at 60. Not as good as a game made for PC or whatever, but it's competent now at least. Why specifically advertise higher framerates if they break the fucking game? Christ.

Also I can't believe this was a 360 game. It looks more like Deus Ex Invisible War than Deus Ex Human Revolution. I was no bullshit surprised when I discovered it was a 360 game, I thought it was a mildly enhanced Xbox1 game.

 

[passerby]

You don't take into account the size of the levels when comparing visuals to both Deus ex games, also plain looking textures and empty environments is Halo visual style.

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

Also I can't believe this was a 360 game. It looks more like Deus Ex Invisible War than Deus Ex Human Revolution. I was no bullshit surprised when I discovered it was a 360 game, I thought it was a mildly enhanced Xbox1 game.

You are seriously overestimating how good games before 2007 looked.

 

[DalekFlay]

You are seriously overestimating how good games before 2007 looked.

Probably, but I still think this looks pretty poor compared to other 360 era games like Deus Ex HR, Skyrim, Dishonored, Tomb Raider, etc. Though maybe those games are greatly enhanced on PC? I dunno.

 

[what am i doing]

Capping it at 60fps does indeed fix the feel of movement and aiming. Game plays pretty good at 60. Not as good as a game made for PC or whatever, but it's competent now at least. Why specifically advertise higher framerates if they break the fucking game? Christ.

Interesting, I'm gonna give that a try. Thanks mate.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

You are seriously overestimating how good games before 2007 looked.

Probably, but I still think this looks pretty poor compared to other 360 era games like Deus Ex HR, Skyrim, Dishonored, Tomb Raider, etc. Though maybe those games are greatly enhanced on PC? I dunno.

I think you mix up graphics and visual esthetics. Amost all Bungie's games (Marathon, Oni, Halo, Destiny) are very bland and boring in terms of visual esthetics. Myth series is the only exception.

Halo Reach is, actually, one of the best looking Halos, but still, compared with any Deus Ex, Dishonored and even Skyrim, it is bland as fuck. At the same time, I believe that in purely computational terms, graphics in Halo Reach is more sophisticated than in, say, Deus Ex HR. By purely computational terms I mean the complexity of models, the resolution of textures, the geometry of levels, etc.

 

[Pero_Gamechuck]

Finally managed to play some last night. They've fixed the Gamepass app. Well, the game runs quite well and it looks rather good for an Xbox 360 (?) port.

Two things that annoy me currently: the lack of graphics settings and troublesome audio. The game sounds... weird. I have a 5.1 system, and yet I can't hear anything that is in front of me.

 

[Dexter]

https://www.dsogaming.com/news/halo...n-2-million-copies-on-steam-in-just-two-days/

Halo: The Master Chief Collection has sold more than 2 million copies on Steam in just two days
December 6, 2019 John Papadopoulos 20 Comments

It appears that Halo: The Master Chief Collection is selling like hot cakes. According to the Steam Charts, this collection has sold more than two million copies in just two days.

Of course this number includes all the pre-orders for this collection so this should not really surprise us. Still, it clearly shows the high PC demand for this particular franchise. And, to be honest, we are pretty sure that Microsoft is delighted with these figures.

According to the charts, the game also had an all-time player peak of 161,024. Furthermore, the collection has Very Positive Reviews on Steam.

Halo: Reach is the first part of the Halo: The Master Chief Collection that is currently available on Steam. While the game looks dated, it runs extremely well on the PC platform. We’ve already published our PC Performance Analysis article so be sure to read it.

Stay tuned for more!

 

[JDR13]

Let me know when they fix the audio. I'll pass until then.

 

[DalekFlay]

Halo Reach is, actually, one of the best looking Halos, but still, compared with any Deus Ex, Dishonored and even Skyrim, it is bland as fuck. At the same time, I believe that in purely computational terms, graphics in Halo Reach is more sophisticated than in, say, Deus Ex HR. By purely computational terms I mean the complexity of models, the resolution of textures, the geometry of levels, etc.

Still don't think I agree, but it's all subjective so maybe I'm just looking for things it ain't got. Even the character models look terrible to me, boxy unrealistic looking heads and whatnot, compared to the face in the avatar above me. I dunno, I'm far from an expert, just saying to me it looks very poor compared to other "big" games of that time. But if that's their "style" then okay.