It was the 20-year anniversary of Halo 2 at the weekend, which saw the shooter's modern counterparts celebrating with classic multiplayer maps and long-lost levels. But also emerging from the dust of time are insights to the sequel's development back in 2004. Rolling Stone interviewed two key designers of the game and made a fun discovery. The Flood (the sickly pale alien infestation that briefly turns Halo into sci-fi horror) was partly inspired by a colourful and innocent children's book about a nice elephant.
]]>Halo Infinite recently received a big update in the form of Delta Arena, a playlist that features recreations of Halo 2's most popular maps and a special third-person mode. The true highlight, though, is yet to come. And that's through an entirely different Halo game: The Master Chief Collection. Soon enough, you'll be able to play Halo 2's lost E3 demo on it, thanks to some lovely modders.
]]>Halo is a series where you explore ancient places and uncover secrets left behind by an alien civilisation of engineers, so it's fitting that developers 343 Industries and modding team Digsite have been doing a bit of Halo excavation of their own in real life. Over the weekend, Halo's community team posted a new blog post detailing the results of a year-long partnership with Digsite to restore lost features from Halo's cutting room floor to the Master Chief Collection - including never-before-seen maps and weapons from the archives of Halo: Combat Evolved, as well as some vehicles from the series’ earliest days as a third-person shooter and real-time strategy game.
]]>Forget rumours of a portable Xboy. Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s newest update has enabled matchmade multiplayer, and together with the custom game browser for the Steam Deck, you can now play some of the wackiest maps in any FPS from the comfort of your bed - or anywhere in the galaxy really. MCC’s multiplayer was previously disabled on Steam Deck since the mode required Easy Anti-Cheat, which has now been turned on.
]]>Fancy tweaking some Halo games to make some cool or cursed content? Then good news! Yesterday, developers 343 industries released modding tools for Halo 2 and Halo 3 alongside the Master Chief Collection's season 8 update. Halo: Combat Evolved got its own official modding tools back in June, and the new tools for 2 and 3 offer similar programs for modders to mess with. I look forward to seeing what good stuff they make.
]]>Today is an exciting time for those of you who like Halo rebalanced, tweaked, or completely cursed. Developers 343 Industries just released modding tools for the Master Chief Collection along with the season 7 update. They're only for the MCC's version of Halo: Combat Evolved but will enable you edit all the values in the game, should you be brave enough to mess with the Silent Cartographer’s glorious flow.
]]>The Oxford English dictionary describes a bug as: "a sort of computer oops". It is the result of errant coding, mismatched texture, wonky physics or (sometimes) a briefcase. Developers must fight bugs day and night to safeguard the digital realms we call our playgrounds. Sometimes they lose that battle and a bug comes stomping ravenously into our game, ready to upset us. But sometimes that bug is not an annoyance or a game-breaker, but instead the funniest thing to ever happen. Here are 9 of the best bugs in PC gaming.
]]>With Halo 4 done and dusted and dropped onto PC, you'd be forgiven for thinking 343's work here was done. But our big green pal still has some work to do, and the developers have been thinking of more ways to tinker with Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Speaking in a blog post this week, 343 laid out plans for cut content and future rewards, musing on how modders may eventually pick up the slack when it comes to keeping John Halo suited up for years to come.
]]>Halo 4 has just been released on the PC. After an eight-year-long beta test on the Xboxes, they’ve decided that it’s finally in a good enough state for us exacting PC nerds. With this deployment, the Master Chief Collection is considered complete for the PC. No Halo 5 for us.
]]>The year 2020 sure has been full of game delays and surprises, but one thing we've been able to count on is the man in the big green getup arriving every couple months. That's right, The Master Chief Collection will finally be complete when Halo 4 launches next Tuesday, November 17th.
]]>If there's been one small positive about this year, it's the reliable rollout of once console-locked Halo games on PC through Halo: The Master Chief Collection. With Halo 4 currently on the launchpad, 343 Industries have chosen to extend the game's testing ("flighting") period by another week, with the Insider client now testing crossplay support for Halo Reach.
]]>Sorry, Mister Chief. With testing for Halo 4 about to begin for The Master Chief Collection on PC, 343 have once again confirmed that their first game will also be The MCC's last - with no plans to bring Halo 5 into Captain Motocross' big ol' bundle. It might have a reputation for being a bit rubs, but that's a weird, Cortana-shaped hold to leave in between the MCC and Infinite's release next year.
]]>Happy Star Wars: Squadrons day, internet. I have nothing to offer but the sneer of a veteran Elite Dangerous pilot. A disdainful scoff as you vroomify your engines in the docking bay, click-clacking your flight checks in the seat of some dusty Y-wing, some classless X-Wing, some bogus B-wing. Who do you think you are? Sitting there in the pilot’s seat of that garish tin can. Only an exponent of the foulest incorrectitudes would indulge a shipyard with all the basic-ass nomenclature of an episode of Sesame Street. Here, you fripperist, you child, gaze upon the true list of the 9 best spaceships in games.
]]>Halo: The Master Chief Collection has gained another game, except this one isn't actually about that Master Chief guy. Halo 3: ODST arrived on PC today, giving players the chance to follow the story of some normal human dudes, and not a giant Spartan. It takes place before the events of Halo 3, and you play as some Orbital Drop Shock Troopers who're trying to figure out why the Covenant invaded New Mombasa.
]]>Halo's long-overdue missing PC releases will continue with Halo 3: ODST next Tuesday, the 22nd of September, Microsoft announced today. ODST was one of Bungie's last Halo games and it turns away from jacked supersoldier Master Chef to focus on some regular squishy humans: Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. The game has a good squad of these, borrowing voices from noughties sci-fi stars including Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, and Adam Baldwin off Firefly and Tricia Helfer off Battlestar Galactica (plus Nathan Drake, just because). I heard good things but never played it, so I'm quite looking forward to this.
]]>343 are finally getting weird with Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and that's great. But they were never going to hold a candle against the game's modders, who've lately decided what Halo 3 really needs is to turn everyone into a rat. That's exactly the premise behind Rat Slayer, an upcoming mod that - daft as it is - never dared to consider whether John Halo isn't already just two-dozen rodents wearing a man-shaped suit of power armour.
Now there's a thought to keep you up at night.
]]>Microsoft Flight Simulator’s accuracy is astounding. I was up far too early to get to the download gate on time, but now I’m just waiting at customs, sweating, while no-one has any idea when I’ll be able to get into the air. All because Microsoft doesn’t know how to pre-load a game.
]]>The standard edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator costs £59, but like me trying to show my parents their house from a Airbus A320neo, we can go lower. A lot lower, as it turns out. Here’s how you can play (but not own) what’s looking to be the first game of the next, next, next-generation for as low as £1. And you get over 200 other games with it as well.
]]>First up, I’m going to incept the Halo theme song into your brain: Oohwawawawahwahwawha...
There, that should do it. Now we have the scene properly set, I’m excited to tell you that the Halo: The Master Chief Collection isn’t going to settle on just bringing the Halo series back to the PC. There are plans afoot that will let Xbox One and PC gamers fight together in multiplayer. Everything is connected, people.
]]>From weary old gorillas to graphical japes, we've all had our fun with Halo Infinite over the last few weeks. But haud on, we've still got the rest of Halo: The Master Chief Collection to get through before finishing that particular fight. This month, 343 will begin closed insider flighting for Halo 3: ODST, Master Chief's moody, jazz-noir cousin that's secretly the best of the bunch.
]]>The PC remaster of Halo 3 is another beautiful, robust polish job that shows just how well Bungie’s bombastic shooter series has aged. I recommend it heartily. Yes, it’s marred with some baffling narrative choices, bungled ally AI, and a few instances of phoned-in level design, of course. But then, in the immortal words of that astronaut meme, “always has been”. And at this point, the whole Halo experience is so firmly bound up in nostalgia, at least for me, that its flaws have long since become endearing quirks.
But as much as this is a good moment to talk about Halo 3, what with it being out today and all, I’ve realised this post is just as much about the Master Chief Collection, the compilation/launcher… thing which now contains the whole of the classic Halo trilogy, plus Reach. I’d assumed the MCC was basically an electric version of a cardboard box with games in it. But now my four favourite Haloes are in it, the MCC seems to have reached a critical mass, and I’ve had something of a revelation.
]]>13 years after its Xbox 360 debut, Halo 3 is finally out on PC. While the first two games came over from Xbox, the conclusion to Bungie's first-person shooter trilogy stayed home. After 13 years, you'll finally be able to see what became of Master Ian Chief. Did he, as he vowed at the end of Halo 2, finish this fight? You'll have to play it to find out.
]]>As history would prove, Halo 3 didn't quite finish the fight. For better or worse, they sure did keep making Halo games long after the reigns were handed over to now-caretakers 343 Industries. But us lot on PC will soon be able to close out Bungie's original trilogy, as the stellar closing act finally joins Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Steam and the Windows Store next Tuesday, July 14th.
]]>The year of Halo on PC is rolling right along. We've checked off several PC Halo releases already this year and by lore order Halo 3 is next up to bat. As with the others, 343 Industries are inviting registered members of the Halo Insider Program to what they call "flights," basically a big beta test. Instead of continuing to pick select groups of players, 343 say that they're shooting off an invite to the current Halo 3 test to all registered Insider members. The test is scheduled to end on June 26th.
]]>If you were an Xbox kid around my age, Halo 3 might be the first game you remember arriving with deafening levels of hype. The sole reason most folks picked up Crackdown. The Return Of The King in John Halo's ring-smashing quest, in fellowship with a squid-mouthed Keith David and that cigar-chewing lad from Aliens. Now, developers 343 Industries are preparing the trilogy closer's PC debut in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, with select testing set to take place within the next few weeks.
]]>The adventures of Master Chief will continue in Halo 2: Anniversary next Tuesday, May 12th, Microsoft have announced. This time Master Chief (a name I still refuse to believe is real, even as characters say it) and Cortana (a name I still reuse to believe Microsoft reused for their voice-activated searchbot) are joined by a new ally, switching perspectives for part of the story. I'm weirdly hesitant to say more. It might be a cool surprise if you've not heard owt about Halo 2 over the past 16 years?
]]>The Halo: Master Chief Collection is rolling right along this year. It appears that 343 Industries are approaching the release for Halo 2 Anniversary. They've also shared first looks at Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST in the meantime. Their newest development update covers that and, as usual, much, much more.
]]>The Master Chief Collection is rolling right along. Now that Halo Reach and Combat Evolved have both been released, Halo 2 Anniversary is on the flight deck. Beta tests for the next remake begin today for registered Halo Insiders—a program you can still freely chuck your name into if you want to get into tests for either Halo 2 or the rest of the Master Chief Collection.
]]>Not two weeks after Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary snuck onto PC, and we're already talking about the sequel. Steady on, team. This week, John "Masterchief" Halo's handlers over at 343 Industries announced plans to flight (that's Halo-speak for "test) Halo 2's return to PC in The Master Chief Collection. It'll trial alongside Forge and Theatre modes for Halo: Reach by the end of the month, with potential fixes for that game's stubborn audio bugs.
]]>Good old Halo: Combat Evolved. It's like that one character archetype from American bro comedies, of the guy who's sailing rapidly into his thirties, but can't leave behind his jock glory days and keeps showing up at frat parties, whooping and getting messy-drunk despite not really knowing anyone there. Actually, that might not be an archetype at all - I think it's just the plot of the 2003 movie Old School. Well, anyway. Halo is that guy. With the difference being that everyone still kinda loves Halo regardless, and indulgently pours beers through its motocross helmet whenever it shows up.
]]>Surprise! With little warning, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary launched on PC today. This is the remake of Bungie's very first game in the first-person shooter series, the one which started Master Ian Chief's adventures on Xbox way back in 2001. I never played it but my god, the things I've heard about its powerful pistol... maybe I'll finally see for myself. It is only £7, after all. You can snook a look in the launch trailer below.
]]>343 Industries have released their January development update for the Halo: Master Chief Collection and it's a chunky one. The update goes over progress made on all of the Halo games that 343 are bringing to PC as part of the collection, from test flight plans to matchmaking playlists, and Halo Forge. I'll stick to the last one and let you read the rest of the novel if you so choose.
]]>With Halo: Reach firmly securing John Halo's boots on Steam and the Windows Store, Developers 343 Industries are preparing to bring the rest of the Master Chief Collection to desktops over the coming year. Halo: Combat Evolved is next on the batting stand, with devs announcing that flighting (testing) for the series-starter should kick off next month, letting PC players get their mice and keyboards behind the big green lad's visor for the very first time.
Gearbox whomst?
]]>Ever since the Master Chief Collection was announced for PC back in March, fans have been clamouring for the Xbox version’s classic split screen local co-op to be included in the PC port. But so far, it seems they’ve had no luck. In a Reddit AMA at the time, 343 Industries’ community director Brian “ske7ch” Jarrard said it was a “tricky” issue, and that 343 was still “looking at what can be supported”. Eight months later, the collection’s roll-out on PC has started with Halo: Reach - but there’s no split screen to be seen.
Luckily, however, I can reveal that Rock Paper Shotgun has secured answers to the local co-op question at last. Or at least, the answers to a local Co-op question. By which I mean, I can tell you how all the main characters in the Halo series would handle a trip to the local branch of Co-op, the UK’s beloved budget supermarket. I've got no idea about the split-screen thing. Here’s the information you were almost definitely looking for:
]]>I'm bad at liking old shooters, because I struggle to see through the ways they've been surpassed. Modern games look better. They feel better. They have bumslides. They are generally obliged to develop their protagonists into something more than a number and a helmet.
These are all problems for the nine-year-old Halo: Reach, but I've ultimately enjoyed myself despite them. There is wisdom in the old ways, even if they no longer punch so hard. Although, in fairness, the punching itself is still solid.
]]>Halo's Master Chief Collection starts today with the release of Halo: Reach, the prequel to the rest of the sci-fi space marine stories and the first of the revamped bunch to spawn on PC. Five other Halo games will follow, ending with Halo 4 by the end of 2020.
]]>This is, really and truly, the last ever Steam Charts.
Which, I realise, is something I've said before. More than once. But this time it's really true!
Erk, I'm not really sure how to convince anyone of this. I'm the boy who cried last ever Steam Charts.
]]>The revamped PC rereleases of Bungie's classic console shooter series Halo will kick off with Halo: Reach on December 3rd, Microsoft announced today. Reach was the fifth Halo FPS to be released but will be the first to come from The Master Chief Collection cos it's a prequel to the lot. Have a gander at the new trailer below.
]]>It's nice to see Microsoft and 343 Industries being so open about Halo: The Master Chief Collection's progress. No need to worry about spoilers, or embargoes, or anything that generally accompanies modern game development. Their monthly Halo blog digs fairly deeply into what they've been working on. Reading this month's, I learned that campaign progress will carry over between platforms, they've ported an extraordinary number of custom maps from their in-game editor, and just what specs you'll need to hit the magic number of 52 FPS.
]]>Let’s just take a moment to appreciate how good Halo looks on a PC gaming website. Look at all those guys, freed from the box of standardised entertainment units and into the uncapped land of KB+M. You can’t tell because they’re not moving, but they’ve all been rendered mid-tippy-tap.
And with that little love fest out of the way, let’s take a look at how Microsoft is getting on at inviting Halo: The Master Chief Collection to the PC party, with details of the PC port's features from a recent devblog.
]]>With Halo finally coming back to PC starting with Halo: Reach, it only seems fitting for the original's small modding scene to get a second wind. Covered previously, Halo SPV3 is the biggest, most ambitious mod for the game yet. A nearly-standalone re-imagining of the first Halo, bringing it in line with Reach's tech, timeline and story. The new version (3.2) released over the weekend polishes it up a lot and adds another six missions to the mix, extending the game by hours. Below, a new trailer showcasing what they've stuffed into Halo's creaky old PC version chassis.
]]>In a Q&A session on Reddit today, 343 Industries's Brian "Ske7ch" Jarrard had plenty of good news on the upcoming PC version of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. In addition to Steam support, the remastered Halo series (starting with Halo: Reach) will also support Windows 7 and plenty of PC mod cons too. Among the goodies mentioned were FOV sliders, uncapped frame-rates and even the possibility of mod support. Check out the full list of the good news, the bad news and the stuff we still don't know yet below.
]]>When Microsoft and 343 Industries announced last week that Halo: The Master Chief Collection was headed to PC, and even to Steam, I was quietly waiting for the other shoe to drop. It couldn't be quite as good as they were describing, right? While the entire Halo series up to Halo 4 is headed to Steam, remastered, starting with the excellent prequel Halo: Reach, an irritatingly vague statement from Microsoft (as reported by Kotaku here) suggests it won't part of the Xbox Play Anywhere program. This means that anyone who already owns it on Xbox One will have to double-dip. At least they're taking beta beta sign-ups over on the Halo Waypoint site here.
]]>We've known for a while that the upcoming Halo: Infinite is headed to PC, but today Microsoft and 343 Industries have announced that the remastered series up to Halo 4 is headed our way too. While there's still no date on it yet, Halo: The Master Chief Collection is PC-bound, including a planned Steam launch. Better yet, it will include a remastered version of Halo: Reach, my personal favourite game in the series. They'll be releasing the collection one game at a time, so hopefully we'll be caught up by the time Infinite reaches PC shores. Below, an announcement trailer.
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