Halo: The Master Chief Collection now on Steam

[LESS T_T]

Recent and upcoming updates to Reach, and teasers for Halo 1, 2, and 3 ports: https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/mcc-development-update-december-2019

ROAD AHEAD
As we close the year out and start to look at what’s ahead of us in 2020, I wanted to give you an update on progress we’re making on the other games heading to MCC on PC.

Right now, we have a good-sized army of developers working through different development streams to support our efforts across ongoing Reach updates and quality of life improvements in addition to Halo: CE Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, and Forge & Theater support (Reach first). Halo: ODST (Campaign) and Halo 4 are a little further out but rest assured they’re also coming to MCC on PC in 2020.

REACH FORGE & THEATER SUPPORT ON PC
Good progress is being made here on implementing M&K support and bringing these features to PC.

• Support for mouse and keyboard controls for all functions of Forge and Theater
• Support for in-game HUDs of Forge and Theater to support mouse clicks, selection, and keyboard shortcut keys
• Support for Forge and Theater settings in pause menu and front end

HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED ANNIVERSARY
We are currently in a pre-alpha phase and have been making good progress against many of the same features you see in Halo: Reach today. To list a few that are in progress and/or being tested:

• M&K Support
• FOV Support
• Aspect Ratio Support
• Customization: We are already integrating a 3d model with live color adjustments for H:CEA and are investigating what more can be done
• HUD Upres
• VFR Support
• Input Latency Reduction
• PC Optimizations

If work continues on its current trajectory, we are looking good to start flights in January. (you are signed up wtih the Halo Insider program, right?)

HALO 2: ANNIVERSARY
H2A is trailing behind H:CEA but not far, the team is making great progress on core features:

• M&K Support
• FOV Support in progress
• Aspect Ratio Support in progress
• VFR Support in progress

And as a final teaser - Should I press the button?

 

[J1M]

Gotta wonder how much of the "Halo 4 and up suck ass" talk is because that's when Bungie left. People let stuff like that color their perceptions. Not saying Halo 4 and 5 are great or anything, I have no idea. Just saying I don't trust the hive-mind on that kind of thing.

 

[sullynathan]

 

[DalekFlay]

Too into Pathfinder right now to give it a go, but does Halo 1 fix the issue Reach had with high framerates? I doubt it but you never know. They keep advertising unlocked framerate, but it breaks the game.

 

[Theodora]

I've wanted to play Halo since I was a tween, finally get to 15 years later. \o/

 

[Valestein]

I've wanted to play Halo since I was a tween, finally get to 15 years later. \o/

Patience is truly a virtue.

 

[Funposter]

THEY DIDN'T FIX THE BUMP MAPPING OR THE SHADER ON THE ENERGY SHIELDS SO IT'S STILL JUST THE SHITTY GEARBOX PORT FROM 17 YEARS AGO BUT ALSO NOW WITH WORSE AUDIO

 

[sullynathan]

 

[wahrk]

Gotta wonder how much of the "Halo 4 and up suck ass" talk is because that's when Bungie left. People let stuff like that color their perceptions. Not saying Halo 4 and 5 are great or anything, I have no idea. Just saying I don't trust the hive-mind on that kind of thing.

No, they really are worse. You are of course welcome to play them and decide for yourself, but most of the criticism is completely warranted. I could write a wall of text here but I’ll just say that 343 doesn’t really seem to get Halo - or worse, actively dislikes it and wants to change it into something it’s not.

The best thing 343 has ever done is put Bungie’s games on PC, and they can’t even get that quite right.

 

[Funposter]

Halo 4 online was fun because it was hilariously easy and lopsided in the favour of player's with any semblance of skill (like Call of Duty, but with Banshees), but this also stopped it from being serious in any competitive sense. The campaign is really boring and clunky, and 343 completely misunderstand the original series' art direction with many enemies' designs and silhouettes being obfuscated by pointless additions. Visually it's very overdesigned, although this was a problem in Reach as well. All of the new enemies are really boring to fight too, with teleporting enemies that can recharge shields, turning many of the encounters into mindless grinds. I completed every Halo campaign several times, all on legendary solo etc. etc. but I played Halo 4 once on Normal and never touched the campaign ever again.

 

[Cyaniv]

THEY DIDN'T FIX THE BUMP MAPPING OR THE SHADER ON THE ENERGY SHIELDS SO IT'S STILL JUST THE SHITTY GEARBOX PORT FROM 17 YEARS AGO BUT ALSO NOW WITH WORSE AUDIO

AND STILL NO SPLITSCREEN HAHAHA JUMP OFF A CLIFF YOU CUNTS

 

[DalekFlay]

If you want to play with the OG graphics I'd imagine the best way to go is still the original Gearbox PC release, which had a bunch of fan patches and whatnot. Only reason to go with this version would be the remastered graphics or multiplayer, right?

 

[Tigranes]

They made the multiplayer interface & general UI worse than the original, somehow.

 

[luj1]

Amazing that this thread has seven pages when the only good Halo was the first one. But generally speaking it's a massive turd of a franchise.

 

[karoliner]

The first Halo was pretty bad too.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Amazing that this thread has seven pages when the only good Halo was the first one. But generally speaking it's a massive turd of a franchise.

2nd halo is better than CE. better campaign (imo the flood section in latter half are really bad. just throw hordes of enemy to you endlessly , more balanced weapons (especially the handgun from halo CE which is just overpowered handheld sniper rifle)

halo 3 ain't bad too. anything after 3 sux tho

 

[Biscotti]

Halo 2 has stuff like dual wielded needlers and the BR, so it's not exactly a balanced game either.
I agree the campaign is better however. It's enjoyable all the way through unlike CE which has some egregious level design like the one level where it's literally just a sequence of a room followed by a bridge copy pasted like three or four times in a row, and it then has you backtrack through a solid chunk of that very same level later on in the game.

 

[DalekFlay]

2nd halo is better than CE. better campaign (imo the flood section in latter half are really bad. just throw hordes of enemy to you endlessly , more balanced weapons (especially the handgun from halo CE which is just overpowered handheld sniper rifle)

I don't know what the remaster is like, but I played Halo 2 on PC back in the day and thought it was a total dumpster fire compared to the original.

 

[JDR13]

Yeah, I also thought Halo was better than Halo 2. I couldn't even finish H2. Maybe it was just the shittiness of the PC port.

 

[wahrk]

IMO Halo 2 really benefits from the remaster, more so than the first game.

 

[The Decline]

I have PTSD from the terrible interior levels of the first Halo. Just endless copy pasted corridors everywhere.

 

[U-8D8]

I'm of the opinion that pretty much all of the Bungie Halo games have a few fatal flaws that keep them from being anything above "good" or "okay." I'd also say Combat Evolved was the best of them, but each of the games have their own kernel of good that the others lacked.

Overall, Bungie did decent work and it's a shame that the larger FPS genre only copied regenerating health and the two weapon limit.

 

[Morgoth]

I have PTSD from the terrible interior levels of the first Halo. Just endless copy pasted corridors everywhere.

Copy & Paste levels + Jumping Flood Zombies + Shotgunning ad nauseum = Brian damage for life.

You could say that's how one becomes a Halo fan.

 

[DalekFlay]

I have PTSD from the terrible interior levels of the first Halo. Just endless copy pasted corridors everywhere.

Halo was considered a great game for two main reasons: 1) It made FPS games work well enough on console for the mainstream, and 2) it had some neat open air combat with groups of varied enemies that encouraged using grenades, melee and varied weapons. Number one doesn't count on PC at all, and number 2 only counts on a handful of levels, which mostly go away later in the game. Those 2-3 open levels in the first half are pretty good though.

 

[wahrk]

I would also add 3) soundtrack.

But yea big open levels like Silent Cartographer or the Arbiter mission on the mining station in 2 are where Halo is at its best. Don’t forget about all the vehicles in the mix too, Bungie’s always done those well.