Halo: The Master Chief Collection coming to Steam

[Skel]

 

[Artorias]

I've only played the first Halo game on PC and just hearing that main theme gave me goosebumps. I still got the original CD and box for that.

Actually very interested.

 

[Zenoth]

This is very good news.

I only hope that the campaign in Combat Evolved can be played co-op online. If not, it will drastically reduce my interest in buying it. What made the original Halo special - for me - was playing it with my friends and my cousin back then in co-op. It changed the whole dynamic of the game, made it a ton better (in my opinion) and was an absolute blast on Legendary difficulty (especially against the Flood in the later levels).

 

[KeithP]

It is coming, but not all at once.

The PC version of Halo: MCC will come in stages, with each game released individually, in chronological order, rather than all of them together in one big bundle. That means Halo: Reach will be first, followed by Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST (Campaign), and Halo 4. 343 Industries said that staggered scheduled will enable it to ensure that each game is "right"—emphasis theirs—with PC-standard features including FOV sliders, 4K resolution and ultrawide monitor support, adjustable framerates, and remappable keys.

-KeithP

 

[Zenoth]

It is coming, but not all at once.



-KeithP

I applaud them for doing that. If it ensures better polish and stability then I can only agree with such a move. Especially in our times when what apparently matters (for most big companies) is to rush their products out while clearly unfinished / untested.

 

[balloonshark]

FWIW the xbox version was nearly 90GB.

 

[JujuFish]

I got Halo: CE with an ATI card years ago and couldn't get into it. Didn't play more than an hour or two and never touched another Halo game.

Tastes change over the years, so maybe I should consider the series again?

 

[quikah]

This is very good news.

I only hope that the campaign in Combat Evolved can be played co-op online.

It is in the Xbox version, I can't imagine they would remove it, but you never know.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I bought an Xbox for Halo. Loved Halo 2. Never got a 360, but played the Halo 3's campaign at a friend's house.

Solid FPS games and really brought home the magic thanks to their split-screen co-op modes and a real attempt at a universe + story (clearly drawing off a wealth of established Sci-Fi like Heinlein, Niven, and others).

AI was absolutely fantastic in shooter as well, with enemies flanking, leading you with grenades and even when it wasnt planned, sometimes the many simple sub routines would meld to make it look like the AI sprung a trap on you.

Nothing is really a day one purchase for me anymore, but in a weird way this is the first time in a long time I've had that happy butterflies feeling about a game launch in a long time. Halo did for console FPS games what Doom and Half-Life did for the PC and there is a strong emotional attachment to the games even if the mechanics in some of the older titles might not quite hold up today.

Bravo to MS for brining the game to where the gamers are as well (steam) and not trying to use a flagship title as a cheap play at boosting their market numbers (I know you need to sign into an Xbox Live account, but that's nothing compared to a totally different launcher).

 

[mnewsham]

I haven't played since Halo CE and Halo 2 on PC, but i'm excited to play MCC and replay CE and Halo 2 in their anniversary editions.

I want to try doing a full LASO (Legendary All Skulls On) playthrough, but i'm sure that will take some real effort, but we'll see.

 

[Aikouka]

I think it's pretty interesting that they're releasing the game on Steam at the same time. Microsoft has been seemingly random in whether a game gets a Steam release or not. Actually, thinking about it, wasn't Killer Instinct the only Microsoft-published, originally-Xbox-One game to also get released on Steam?

Part of me wonders if Microsoft realizes that their earlier Xbox One policies and ideas weren't necessarily bad, but they were maybe a bit too much all at once. This gave them a lot of ill-will at the start, and given their lack of system-defining exclusives, they fell behind Sony pretty badly this generation. Although, on the other hand, if we look at the past one to two years, Microsoft has sort of "become the face" where Sony has been rather cantankerous on doing things for the fans. (The best example of that being their hold-out on cross-platform play.) If Microsoft can start building up favor before the next generation and maybe get some exclusives under their belt (they did just buy a bunch of studios), could we see a bit of a shift back?

What I can say is that this seems to benefit us, and I'm not complaining about that!

 

[quikah]

I think it's pretty interesting that they're releasing the game on Steam at the same time. Microsoft has been seemingly random in whether a game gets a Steam release or not. Actually, thinking about it, wasn't Killer Instinct the only Microsoft-published, originally-Xbox-One game to also get released on Steam?

Part of me wonders if Microsoft realizes that their earlier Xbox One policies and ideas weren't necessarily bad, but they were maybe a bit too much all at once. This gave them a lot of ill-will at the start, and given their lack of system-defining exclusives, they fell behind Sony pretty badly this generation. Although, on the other hand, if we look at the past one to two years, Microsoft has sort of "become the face" where Sony has been rather cantankerous on doing things for the fans. (The best example of that being their hold-out on cross-platform play.) If Microsoft can start building up favor before the next generation and maybe get some exclusives under their belt (they did just buy a bunch of studios), could we see a bit of a shift back?

What I can say is that this seems to benefit us, and I'm not complaining about that!

There has been a change of management at MS. Previous philosophy of MS was platform focused, everyone needs to used windows/xbox. Current philosophy is service focused, everyone should buy Office 365, build your apps on Azure, play your games with gamepass. The change means it doesn't matter what your platform is, you can use Mac, Windows, android, etc. They just released gamestack for development for any platform https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/games

This also probably means that the idea of exclusives changes. You won't need to buy an Xbox for the next "exclusive", you will be able to play it on Windows, or play it streaming through gamepass on your Switch (or maybe PlayStation?).

 

[zinfamous]

I hated all 15 minutes or so that I played of the first Halo. What's the deal with this series?

 

[Stg-Flame]

I hated all 15 minutes or so that I played of the first Halo. What's the deal with this series?

It was the Goldeneye of the 2000s. The graphics were outstanding, the controls were extremely tight, and the story was well done. It was just an all-around great game on the XBOX and many people (myself included) played it for years.

My older brother loved the first game but didn't care for the rest. I played the second game more times than I care to remember and had individual saves through several different accounts just for each skull so I could run through the game at the absolute hardest possible settings. I was pretty excited when I heard it was finally coming to PC.

 

[cmdrdredd]

It is coming, but not all at once.



-KeithP

So i guess I'll wait for them all to be released before I purchase. If I'm buying a collection, I expect the whole collection.

 

[mnewsham]

I wonder if at the end of the staggered release for MCC we will get a Halo 5 PC release standalone for $40-60, before we finally get Halo 6 sometime next year or the year after.

 

[quikah]

Will be interesting to see what they eventually charge for each installment. The entire thing is $30 for Xbox,
Would $20 each be too much? That is quite the price hike compared to Xbox version.

 

[mnewsham]

I'm hoping they'll be $5.99-9.99. I'd be okay with $15-20 I guess, but anything more than that would start to be a bit insulting.

 

[Ryland]

My older brother loved the first game but didn't care for the rest. I played the second game more times than I care to remember and had individual saves through several different accounts just for each skull so I could run through the game at the absolute hardest possible settings. I was pretty excited when I heard it was finally coming to PC.

I feel the same way. I loved the first game and just couldnt get into the second one. Im hoping that they redo the first game with updated graphics.

 

[Stg-Flame]

It's the MC Collection which has the HD remake (upgrade?) of them all.

 

[quikah]

It's the MC Collection which has the HD remake (upgrade?) of them all.

It was enhanced to support 4K and HDR on Xbox, so unless they decide to throw all that out for some reason it should be.