Halo: The Master Chief Collection (confirmed)

Played a little after work (up until you arrive at Sword Base) before I got too tired to continue. Quick impression so far:

Noticed a little sound funkyness, but not too bad.

Performance is crazy. 4K with Enhanced graphics I still need v-sync to keep my FPS under my monitor's refresh rate (144hz).

Enhanced graphics look pretty good, especially considering the age of the game. That said, I would love to see Reach get an "Anniversary" style update.

Every time I go back to a Halo game after taking some time off I am always reminded just how beautiful the music is, thankfully that isn't too effected by the audio issues.

Controls feel good. Mouse smoothing and mouse acceleration are turned off by default and it is so nice to see a PC FPS release with that crap off by default. The options are there for people that like them, with options to adjust their intensity.

Halo style gun combat is still among the best from the past 20 years. Reach was the last Bungie Halo game and it really showcases how good they are at developing moment-to-moment action when they're focused on delivering a good single player experience.

I haven't played Reach since it's release in 2010, but a lot of memories came flooding back to me as I went through the early missions.

We'll see how things go as I get further in, but I am very happy with this release so far. I hope that feeling continues as I play more of it.
 
This isn't Play Anywhere, so I bought it on Steam. But I fell asleep before it finished downloading, so I haven't had a chance to play it yet.
Played a little after work (up until you arrive at Sword Base) before I got too tired to continue. Quick impression so far:

Noticed a little sound funkyness, but not too bad.

Performance is crazy. 4K with Enhanced graphics I still need v-sync to keep my FPS under my monitor's refresh rate (144hz).

Enhanced graphics look pretty good, especially considering the age of the game. That said, I would love to see Reach get an "Anniversary" style update.

Every time I go back to a Halo game after taking some time off I am always reminded just how beautiful the music is, thankfully that isn't too effected by the audio issues.

Controls feel good. Mouse smoothing and mouse acceleration are turned off by default and it is so nice to see a PC FPS release with that crap off by default. The options are there for people that like them, with options to adjust their intensity.

Halo style gun combat is still among the best from the past 20 years. Reach was the last Bungie Halo game and it really showcases how good they are at developing moment-to-moment action when they're focused on delivering a good single player experience.

I haven't played Reach since it's release in 2010, but a lot of memories came flooding back to me as I went through the early missions.

We'll see how things go as I get further in, but I am very happy with this release so far. I hope that feeling continues as I play more of it.
This is a stark contrast to what seems to be a lot of butthurt on Steam and Reddit. A lot of 0.0 hour negative reviews are being left on Steam right now with people commenting that none of what they are complaining about is an issue in the retail release. Gaslighting by Xbox fanatics?
 
4K DSR is where it's at!

I clearly have a lot to learn but this feels like the best 10 bucks I've spent in a minute..
I'm using DSR also, but I have to change my resolution back to 4k every time I start the game again, it defaults back to the monitor's base resolution. Just me?
 
I'm using DSR also, but I have to change my resolution back to 4k every time I start the game again, it defaults back to the monitor's base resolution. Just me?

Nope not just you..

I have the same issue even with the latest drivers. So, I'll assume this'll be fixed in a patch etc.
 
Does this collection have Multiplayer?
I used to strain the bugs out of my eyes when I couldn't turn off Bloom with these games.
 
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I had the most fun in multiplayer with Halo 4. I didn't really get into Halo's MP until Halo 3. I recall finding it in the first two games to be lackluster and boring.
 
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I had the most fun in multiplayer with Halo 4. I didn't really get into Halo's MP until Halo 3. I recall finding it in the first two games to be lackluster and boring.

i spent more time trying to find glitches and easter eggs from the dev's then actually playing the matches, lol.. game play was kinda meh once you put a couple hundred hours into the game.
 
This is a stark contrast to what seems to be a lot of butthurt on Steam and Reddit. A lot of 0.0 hour negative reviews are being left on Steam right now with people commenting that none of what they are complaining about is an issue in the retail release. Gaslighting by Xbox fanatics?

I can only comment on my own experiences. That said, looking at the Steam forums there does seem to be a lot of people with pretty serious audio issues and matchmaking (in tradition with every MCC release) seems a bit busted for some people. In yesterdays Waypoint post 343 said the team is already working on updates for Reach, but they didn't say exactly what bugs they're working on. Hopefully audio is their highest priority since that seems to be the biggest issue I'm seeing people talk about.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I had the most fun in multiplayer with Halo 4. I didn't really get into Halo's MP until Halo 3. I recall finding it in the first two games to be lackluster and boring.

Never really played 3's MP and haven't played 4 at all. I played a lot of LAN multiplayer with CE on the original Xbox back in the day and spent many hours playing 2 on Xbox Live during release.
 
is it actual problems or "it doesnt sound the same as i remember" whining?!
As far as I know the audio mix in Reach was always terrible, but the audio codec being used in this release exacerbates the issue. This is one of the things the developers acknowledged and said they are working on it.
 
And ran into my first real bug, broken scripting. Ran into a part of a mission where Kat is supposed to follow and she just sits in the Warthog doing nothing. Blowing up the vehicle, attacking her, reloading, none of it fixes the broken script. Going to have to restart the entire mission to see if that works. Pretty sure she is needed so the mission can progress and I can kill the stupid Hunters because even though they're strong they shouldn't be standing up to a couple hundred BR bullets, a bunch of shotgun blasts to the face, and a dozen or so grenades. This isn't really a port specific issue though, all the Halo games have had some horrendous scripting bugs like this. Frustrating when you don't have much time to play though.

is it actual problems or "it doesnt sound the same as i remember" whining?!

For me it's just a bad sound mix, but other people are having problems with the audio not working at all or with a lot of crackling and other serious problems. Apparently this has been a problem since the first Flight and they haven't got it fully fixed yet.
 
For me it's just a bad sound mix, but other people are having problems with the audio not working at all or with a lot of crackling and other serious problems. Apparently this has been a problem since the first Flight and they haven't got it fully fixed yet.
but it also isnt everybody experiencing it. it is a whole new sound engine or whatever they call it. im sure theyll sort it out, eventually....
 
The $40 bundle includes all the games, yes. As they're released they will appear in your DLC list in Steam. On the Microsoft Store version I believe they get bundled automatically, or you have the option of downloading them through the game.
 
The $40 bundle includes all the games, yes. As they're released they will appear in your DLC list in Steam. On the Microsoft Store version I believe they get bundled automatically, or you have the option of downloading them through the game.
Yea I purchased through steam. I do not use the MS store. All of the DLC was listed as included. It’s just currently greyed out and says n/a. The plan is all games will be released in 2020, in chronological order of their original release.
 
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As far as I know the audio mix in Reach was always terrible, but the audio codec being used in this release exacerbates the issue. This is one of the things the developers acknowledged and said they are working on it.


Good. The mix is terrible as is.
 
Yea I purchased through steam. I do not use the MS store. All of the DLC was listed as included. It’s just currently greyed out and says n/a. The plan is all games will be released in 2020, in chronological order of their original release.

Strange they are releasing in a sentimental fashion.
 
Digital Foundry took a look at the game and they confirmed something that people have suspected since launch: Animations are only done at 60fps, even when you're above 60fps. Mouse movement above 60fps is not linear either. Guess this is why they're calling it an experimental feature. For now, its probably a good idea to keep the FPS capped to 60 until they fix the animation and mouse issues.
 
Finished the campaign on hard this morning. I thought I was going to faceroll with kb+m, but I still got wrecked plenty. I have very little interest in MP Halo, never did even on the Xbox version - so likely won't give it much thought here. But well worth the money, especially if you're like me and have an Xbox game pass subscription. I'll look forward to playing all of the entries in this series. Definitely did a good job with this remaster, and playing in 4K with Vsync I never experienced a single issue, crash, glitch, that I can remember through my SP play session.
 
For $39.99 it does. However, those won't be available for some time. They are starting the work on Halo: Combat Evolved in January if I remember right.

They started work on CE around the same time as Reach, if I remember correctly. They have two different external studios (Splash Damage and Ruffian) working on the PC versions so while work was being done on Reach, the other studio took the lead in developing CE. They're planning to start Flighting/beta tests and release CE in early 2020. Can't remember whether or not they specifically said Jan or not for the first Flight.
 
343 put out a new update blog post. A small patch was released earlier that did the following

New Features & Content
Additional details for the New Features & Content items can be found below in the design update section for rotational playlists, featured content, and events for the month of February.

  • Featured playlists in Match Composer
  • New nameplates for future events
  • New upcoming Matchmaking content
Accesibility Bug Fixes
PC Only
  • Fixed an issue where pressing the spacebar would search for a player while typing a Gamertag in the “Find Player” prompt.
Global
  • Fixed bugs where pop-up messages were not read properly by Narrator & Xbox Game Transcription.
  • Fixed bugs button prompts were not read properly by Narrator & Xbox Game Transcription.
  • Fixed bugs where on-screen text was not read properly by Narrator & Xbox Game Transcription.
General Fixes
Xbox Only
  • Fixed an issue where the Main Menu would not appear after passing the title screen when launching for the first time.
Global
  • Fixed a rare crash related to player stats and leaderboards.
  • Reduced some excessive diagnostic reporting to improve performance.
  • Improved player reporting on dedicated servers when identifying potential anti-cheat violations.
Playlist Update
Social 1v1
  • Removed Magnum secondary from Halo: Reach Head to Head based on community feedback.
Social 1v1 is intended as a warmup arena for the Halo: Reach Hardcore playlist, so it’s important that the settings match.

Social 4v4
  • Team Slayer option has been replaced with “Precision Slayer” and “Auto Slayer.”
Historically, we’ve compromised by combining these into a single selection. We fully understand that different players have different preferences here, so now we offer players choice over their starting weapon/experience.

  • Precision Slayer includes weapon starts of DMR, BR, or Magnum.
  • Auto Slayer includes weapon starts of AR, SMG, and Halo 4 loadout starts.
  • Rotated in featured Halo: CE Anniversary category for Halo: Reach which contains maps and game settings which emulate Halo: CE.
This has been a commonly requested addition and rotational categories provide great opportunities to expose this sort of content.

Social 8v8
  • Reduced hill movement timer from 120s to 90s and reduced score to win from 250 to 200.
Out of the box, Reach’s base King of the Hill variant does not support a 90 second hill rotation option. The 120 second timer was longer than we liked so we took the opportunity to add the option for this variant. As the hill spends less time in each location, players will spend a bit more time moving between hills, so it was important that we reduced the score to win slightly to match this. We weren’t able to add the 90 second option globally as this would require all King of the Hill variants in the game to be rebuilt, but players seeking a 90 second timer for custom games can use the Big Team King variant as a base.

  • Replaced Territories with 3-plot Territories on Tempest.
As a symmetrical map, Tempest is well-suited to 3-Plot Territories. In 4v4, this game type was already paired with this map and, after seeing some intense matches of it played in the recent Big Team Battle Throwback Throwdown tournament, we wanted to make it official for 8v8 as well.

  • Rotated in experimental AR starts category containing AR start versions of all core Halo: Reach 8v8 map and game variants.
The range utility of the DMR makes it incredibly effective on some of the more open battlegrounds common in Big Team Battle. This leads to many engagements occurring at extreme range and can result in stagnation where players are discouraged from using certain movement options. Many players have requested that DMR starts be replaced with AR / Magnum starts in 8v8. We have concerns that this would leave players too vulnerable off spawn, leave them ineffective against vehicles, not provide enough starting ammunition, and lead to “snowballing” (where the score gap between two teams grows exponentially) when some players gain control of long range rifles. However, we wanted to give players a chance to try it for themselves. Depending on feedback and data, we’ll consider pulling Big Team AR starts into the core categories more permanently.

On the subject of the lingering audio issues they state they are working on a bigger patch to address audio and other major lingering problems. This major update will be the next update they release for the game. However, it sounds like it might be a bit as they will want to beta test the patch first.

Flighting for Halo: CE will not begin this month (obviously) as they needed to work on an issue with Halo Wars 2 that pushed things back. They did not announce when CE flighting or new Reach flights would begin.

No new info on Forge PC, but the blog post has an early screenshot of the work they're doing on it.

Towards the bottom they list some of the top community reported issues (I'm just going to mention the ones that stand out to me).

In regards to the audio issues, they claim that they will be applying "preemptive fixes" to future MCC titles to prevent the issue going forward.

Regarding stuttering. They narrowed some of it down to issues with 3rd party software (they're working with developers to find ways to improve performance) and the uncrapped frame rate option. For the second, they've started prototyping a frame rate limiter to allows users to cap the FPS to their monitor's refresh rate.

They're not going to work on co-op. They say it would require re-writing the legacy network code and that isn't something they're capable of supporting.

Additional keybinding is being "worked on".

They are going to add the option to crouch while moving, it is something they plan to beta test in the future.

No current update to aim assist, but they hope to talk more about in the Feb update.

Their external partner studios are working on the rest of MCC games at once now.

Reach Forge & Theater Support on PC
We’ve continued to make great progress, fix bugs, and iterate on design around Halo: Reach’s Forge and Theater. We are now beginning to touch some of the universal systems that will support other titles on PC for their implementations of these features.

  • 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.
  • Forge and Theater support for video, audio, and other settings for each game as selected in the front end.
  • Support for placing and manipulating all Forge objects via mouse and keyboard.
  • Support file saves MVars/GVars saving and uploading to Xforge.
  • Forge and Theater modes respond appropriately to Windows events such as resizing, minimizing, switching to full screen and windowed, etc.


Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

Shortly after the break, we hit Alpha and are making good progress on our Beta candidate, which is largely what you’ll see in the upcoming flight.

  • Mod support
  • Terminal videos
  • MP deterministic model on PC.
  • Localization work
  • Bug Fixing
  • Flight Support
Halo 2
  • FOV Support in progress
  • First pass at latency reduction
  • VFR Support in progress
  • First optimization pass is complete
  • Profiling on min spec PC is complete
Halo 2: Anniversary

  • M&K Support
  • FOV Support in progress
  • Aspect Ratio Support in progress
  • VFR Support in progress
  • Profiling on min spec PC is complete
  • Forge support work has begun
Halo 3

  • M&K Support
  • FOV Support in progress
  • First pass at latency reduction
  • VFR Support in progress
  • Aspect Ratio Support in progress
  • Forge support work has begun
Halo 3: ODST
  • Game runs on PC
  • Profiling on min spec PC is complete
  • M&K Support
  • FOV Support in progress
  • Aspect Ratio Support in progress
Halo 4
  • Game runs on PC
  • Profiling has begun
There is one screenshot each for CEA, H2: A, and H3 if you want to look.

There's a bunch of other stuff in the update that I'm not going to post. I posted the stuff that stood out to me the most. There's some MP-related stuff in there that I skipped over and some other things that people might find more interesting than I did.
 
I seem to have been invited into Flight 4, which includes the first flight for CEA and some Reach updates (not audio). Since the rules of Flighting allow people in the program to talk about what they're experiencing I plan to do so. The Flight runs until the 24th. If anyone has questions about CEA they want answered, asking in a reply to this post and I'll see what I can uncover while playing. Both SP and multiplayer are in this flight, though MP is only active at specific times.
 
I seem to have been invited into Flight 4, which includes the first flight for CEA and some Reach updates (not audio). Since the rules of Flighting allow people in the program to talk about what they're experiencing I plan to do so. The Flight runs until the 24th. If anyone has questions about CEA they want answered, asking in a reply to this post and I'll see what I can uncover while playing. Both SP and multiplayer are in this flight, though MP is only active at specific times.
i got my email invite too. said the flight started thursday but still waiting on a new key...
 
I fired this up finally last night.. geez the audio is terrible. Is it really like this for everyone? Everything is muffled and muddy... it sounds like I'm under water. Loud things like gunshots and explosions are the worst. A gunshot is probably 25% of the volume of anything else going on, except that they rattle my sub like a son of a bitch. Makes the game unenjoyable, I quit during the first gunfight. I definitely don't remember it being like this when I played it on 360.
 
I fired this up finally last night.. geez the audio is terrible. Is it really like this for everyone? Everything is muffled and muddy... it sounds like I'm under water. Loud things like gunshots and explosions are the worst. A gunshot is probably 25% of the volume of anything else going on, except that they rattle my sub like a son of a bitch. Makes the game unenjoyable, I quit during the first gunfight. I definitely don't remember it being like this when I played it on 360.

Yeah, Reach has audio issues. Seems to be the biggest issue they have right now. It effects everyone. They’ve been working on it since the first beta.

Thankfully it seems like CEA doesn’t suffer from the same problem, at least from the little I’ve played of the first beta so far.
 
Yeah, Reach has audio issues. Seems to be the biggest issue they have right now. It effects everyone. They’ve been working on it since the first beta.

Thankfully it seems like CEA doesn’t suffer from the same problem, at least from the little I’ve played of the first beta so far.

I did some reading about it last night... I can't even see how they could launch a product like this. Maybe having a 7.1 audio setup exaggerates the issue and it's not so bad off stereo speakers or headphones? That's the only justification I can think of. If it sounds like this on all configurations, the game is straight up unfinished.
 
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