Halo: CE on Steam

[Guest]

https://www.pcgamer.com/halo-1-combat-evolved-pc-release-date/

 

 

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Halo: Combat Evolved is on PC. Again. Unlike its original release back in 2003, this new release has the fancy campaign graphics of the 2011 Xbox Anniversary remake, along with multiplayer matchmaking and other perks of the Master Chief Collection, like being available on Steam. Developer 343 did a surprise launch today with no lead-up announcement, though there was a hint that Combat Evolved might be coming soon. This is the second game in the MCC to hit PC following Halo: Reach back in December.

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On Steam, you can buy the whole Master Chief Collection for $40, or you can buy individual games for $10 apiece (assuming they all cost the same as Halo: Reach). This version of Halo: Combat Evolved has an unlocked framerate, FOV options, and supports high resolutions like 4K. The original PC version still has an active playerbase today thanks to a long-lived modding and mapmaking scene, which 343 called a "community tradition" in a recent blog post.

 

I am so glad that the MCC is coming to PC; I have been missing out on most of the franchise because I do not own a console. It'll have its quirks and issues as with any port, but damn it's good to see the PC crowd getting some love. I understand that for a good chunk of the gaming community, Halo is pretty much old news...especially the first one that came out way back in 2001.

 

But I grew up on this game and its lore and have always been a fan, despite the butchering it got after Bungie let go after Halo 3. Is anyone else excited for these releases or has this game lost its mojo? 

[Engineer.AI]

This is....untimely. Why not remake and re-release it, boasting a new engine, and creating something similar (but different) from the ground up? Oh wait...I know! Because newer Halo titles just dont sell as well as they used to.

 

In my opinion, this is just poisoning us with nostalgia. I however, don't really mind it. Just dont give us that "Anniversary Remake" BS, say it like it really is - an up-res of a 17 year old game.

~Engineer.AI

[Letgomyleghoe]

This game will be the same with new graphics, nothing new.

 

the series went on for to long, I miss the days of playing halo online. 

[Syaoran]

I've played Halo CE on PC back in the day with custom downloaded maps.

I might get this collection if it goes on sale and I hope they let us use the steam workshop for custom maps.

But I'm not going to buy the collection right now, I've already played them all and I have other games to play.

[Engineer.AI]

18 minutes ago, Syaoran said:

I've played Halo CE on PC back in the day with custom downloaded maps.

I might get this collection if it goes on sale and I hope they let us use the steam workshop for custom maps.

But I'm not going to buy the collection right now, I've already played them all and I have other games to play.

IKR, the biggest draw of playing older titles, was definitely the drive to customize one's experience, which I hardly find to be the case now, given the obnoxious copyright hurdles that one has to overcome. Buying CE on sale seems to be the more viable option imo rn.

~Engineer,AI

[Andreas Lilja]

Wish you could play with the old graphics. 

 

Still a steal at $10 a pop. 

[JoostinOnline]

50 minutes ago, Engineer.AI said:

This is....untimely. Why not remake and re-release it, boasting a new engine, and creating something similar (but different) from the ground up? Oh wait...I know! Because newer Halo titles just dont sell as well as they used to.

 

In my opinion, this is just poisoning us with nostalgia. I however, don't really mind it. Just dont give us that "Anniversary Remake" BS, say it like it really is - an up-res of a 17 year old game.

~Engineer.AI

It's a hell of a lot more than that. Besides the online game play, it's got massively improved visuals. Here are some screenshot I took. I tried to line them up exactly, but it's not perfect.

The textures and lighting are vastly improved. You can use wide-screen without it just zooming in the image. 60fps is possible instead of being capped at 30 (and they're working on adding support for higher framerates). And finally, they actually added subtitles to the game and fixed the audio balance issues! It was damn near impossible to hear what they were saying in the original.

[That Franc]

57 minutes ago, Syaoran said:

I've played Halo CE on PC back in the day with custom downloaded maps.

I might get this collection if it goes on sale and I hope they let us use the steam workshop for custom maps.

But I'm not going to buy the collection right now, I've already played them all and I have other games to play.

Halo MCC on PC openly supports modding

 

29 minutes ago, Andreas Lilja said:

Wish you could play with the old graphics. 

 

Still a steal at $10 a pop. 

You can set your graphics to performance and it will look a lot like the original!

Spoiler

 

[Engineer.AI]

3 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

It's a hell of a lot more than that. Besides the online game play, it's got massively improved visuals. Here are some screenshot I took. I tried to line them up exactly, but it's not perfect.

The textures and lighting are vastly improved. You can use wide-screen without it just zooming in the image. 60fps is possible instead of being capped at 30 (and they're working on adding support for higher framerates). And finally, they actually added subtitles to the game and fixed the audio balance issues! It was damn near impossible to hear what they were saying in the original.

Wow, really does make all the difference in the world. I wouldn't mind playing it after all this time though...but for a few days maybe, before I return to something more current gen.

As much as I love Halo, as much as we all love Halo, there's no harm in accepting that the franchise is past its prime now. There's no reason for me to switch from Overwatch and Borderlands3 to CE, apart from old timely nostalgia. I remember when me and my friends used to play Halo the entire day, for weeks on end.

Microsoft needs to dangle a juicer carrot, for folks like me to come back to this once beloved title once more.
~Engineer.AI

[Engineer.AI]

3 minutes ago, That Franc said:

Halo MCC on PC openly supports modding

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

OK. SOLD!!!!!!!

[it_dont_work]

another game i own that steam is trying to sell me again. 

 

if multiplayer works, ill buy it...at this point its my own fault.

[JoostinOnline]

37 minutes ago, Engineer.AI said:

Wow, really does make all the difference in the world. I wouldn't mind playing it after all this time though...but for a few days maybe, before I return to something more current gen.

As much as I love Halo, as much as we all love Halo, there's no harm in accepting that the franchise is past its prime now. There's no reason for me to switch from Overwatch and Borderlands3 to CE, apart from old timely nostalgia. I remember when me and my friends used to play Halo the entire day, for weeks on end.

Microsoft needs to dangle a juicer carrot, for folks like me to come back to this once beloved title once more.
~Engineer.AI

I'm guessing you haven't been following the progress of this for the past two years like many other Halo fans. This release was in no way a surprise. They're releasing them as they get completed, and doing them in chronological order. Reach was the hardest one to port, but they said it should go much faster now. The rest will (probably) all be done this year. One of the things I really respect about 343 is that they've actually been working together with the modding community to implement unofficial patches for the originals, which is a matter of swallowing your pride, and something many developers (*cough*Bethesda*cough*) refuse to do.

 

My only real gripe is that going over 60fps isn't possible right now. While being stuck at 60 definitely isn't a terrible experience, I've gotten used to 144, and it's annoying seeing my GPU and CPU usage not breaking 30%.

[JoostinOnline]

23 minutes ago, it_dont_work said:

another game i own that steam is trying to sell me again. 

 

if multiplayer works, ill buy it...at this point its my own fault.

I'm far more exited for the rest of the games. I've never been able to play the others on PC. Halo 2 is completely broken because it requires Windows Live, and Halo 3 and later were never ported.

 

I honestly don't know why people are being so cynical. Nobody is pushing you to buy it. For those of us who want it (especially those who never had a Microsoft console), this is amazing.

[That Franc]

4 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

The rest will (probably) all be done this year

My understanding is that they are aiming to release the entire Master Chief story before Halo Infinite - it comes out on PC as well as on consoles, and PC gamers who never owned an Xbox will appreciate having a better understanding of the story. I never played Halo 4, for example, and never completed Reach on a console, so creating an ablility to play them before Infinite is a nice move on Microsoft's part.

[JoostinOnline]

9 minutes ago, That Franc said:

My understanding is that they are aiming to release the entire Master Chief story before Halo Infinite - it comes out on PC as well as on consoles, and PC gamers who never owned an Xbox will appreciate having a better understanding of the story. I never played Halo 4, for example, and never completed Reach on a console, so creating an ablility to play them before Infinite is a nice move on Microsoft's part.

Yes. And they have announced that it will all be done this year. I just included the "probably" part because they also had a lot of unexpected issues, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of it got delayed.

[Delicieuxz]

1 hour ago, Andreas Lilja said:

Wish you could play with the old graphics. 

 

Still a steal at $10 a pop. 

Pressing Tab while in the game switches the visuals between the original and the Anniversary edition graphics.

 

The Anniversary edition graphics are higher fidelity but their art direction is amateur and generic, IMO, and the newer graphics take away a lot of the surrealism of the original's look.

[Guest]

Is Halo still a groundbreaking series that will mesmerize you for thousands of hours? Probably not.

But for $7 each (if you buy the collection) you're still getting good games worth that money. The campaings are fun especially in co-op and the multiplayer also has a few hours in it before you'll get bored.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Engineer.AI said:

This is....untimely. Why not remake and re-release it, boasting a new engine, and creating something similar (but different) from the ground up? Oh wait...I know! Because newer Halo titles just dont sell as well as they used to.

 

In my opinion, this is just poisoning us with nostalgia. I however, don't really mind it. Just dont give us that "Anniversary Remake" BS, say it like it really is - an up-res of a 17 year old game.

~Engineer.AI

I certainly don't mind either, even if it is a higher res update of an older game because I never really got to experience them fully. Without a console I was left out and I'm just thankful something official is coming to PC, rather than a very complicated and suspicious workaround (*cough*, Halo Vista).

 

4 hours ago, Andreas Lilja said:

Wish you could play with the old graphics. 

 

Still a steal at $10 a pop. 

$40 for every Halo up to 4 including ODST is the steal in my opinion; if EA were in charge these would be $60 installments. And you can play with the old graphics AND audio with the touch of a button, it happens right on the fly without a stutter so that was a nice touch.

 

2 hours ago, That Franc said:

My understanding is that they are aiming to release the entire Master Chief story before Halo Infinite - it comes out on PC as well as on consoles, and PC gamers who never owned an Xbox will appreciate having a better understanding of the story. I never played Halo 4, for example, and never completed Reach on a console, so creating an ablility to play them before Infinite is a nice move on Microsoft's part.

It is a nice, plus even if I had a console I just like PC better and felt handicapped with a controller; I wouldn't be able to play to my full potential and it'll be easier to get achievements and play Legendary with a mouse and keyboard combo.

 

2 hours ago, Delicieuxz said:

Pressing Tab while in the game switches the visuals between the original and the Anniversary edition graphics.

 

The Anniversary edition graphics are higher fidelity but their art direction is amateur and generic, IMO, and the newer graphics take away a lot of the surrealism of the original's look.

The newer art style isn't too bad, I think it's greatest strength is the detail on the characters like the Marines and Covenant. They seemed to try and keep them more in line with the other titles in terms of look. And some of the audio changes are much more realistic. But true to your point, it does lack something the original had and in the end doesn't quite compare.

 

27 minutes ago, Medicate said:

Is Halo still a groundbreaking series that will mesmerize you for thousands of hours? Probably not.

But for $7 each (if you buy the collection) you're still getting good games worth that money. The campaings are fun especially in co-op and the multiplayer also has a few hours in it before you'll get bored.

It'll still be fun as fuck to have all the games and start chronologically and play the ENTIRE series as a cohesive story...without dying! That'll be a challenge I'm looking forward too!

[RejZoR]

3 hours ago, JoostinOnline said:

It's a hell of a lot more than that. Besides the online game play, it's got massively improved visuals. Here are some screenshot I took. I tried to line them up exactly, but it's not perfect.

The textures and lighting are vastly improved. You can use wide-screen without it just zooming in the image. 60fps is possible instead of being capped at 30 (and they're working on adding support for higher framerates). And finally, they actually added subtitles to the game and fixed the audio balance issues! It was damn near impossible to hear what they were saying in the original.

Still looks pretty bad for today's standards. Which is bizarre that such big titles fail where indie titles like Black Mesa, done in a frigging garage by some enthusiasts look trillion times better. If someone served me Black Mesa as brand new game today I'd still be impressed. I think no remake or remaster will really impress me after playing Black Mesa. They just set the bar for remake/remaster quality so high not even big studios can catch up apparently.

[Gaires]

I wouldn't recommend this collection for new players yet, as it has some problems and some features are still missing.

It would be such a shame for new players to end up not liking the games, because they have some problems with the games.

[JoostinOnline]

11 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Still looks pretty bad for today's standards. Which is bizarre that such big titles fail where indie titles like Black Mesa, done in a frigging garage by some enthusiasts look trillion times better. If someone served me Black Mesa as brand new game today I'd still be impressed. I think no remake or remaster will really impress me after playing Black Mesa. They just set the bar for remake/remaster quality so high not even big studios can catch up apparently.

Black Mesa is a remake, not a remaster.  This is a port with some updated graphics. Black Mesa also isn't finished after years of being worked on, where as 343 completed this port.

 

I still don't get why this is news. It's DLC for the MCC.

 

Edit: So it turns out Black Mesa is finally completed. But my point remains that you shouldn't compare a remake to a remaster.

[Andreas Lilja]

8 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

Black Mesa is a remake, not a remaster.  This is a port with some updated graphics. Black Mesa also isn't finished after years of being worked on, where as 343 completed this port.

 

I still don't get why this is news. It's DLC for the MCC.

Black Mesa 1.0 was released today.

 

But yeah it's a remake, it's hardly that faithful.

 

HL: Source was the garbage remaster.

[Guest]

50 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

I still don't get why this is news. It's DLC for the MCC.

I thought it was noteworthy because it's one more step closer to getting the MCC on the PC. Not groundbreaking I admit and 90% probably don't give a shit, but I wanted to highlight it for that small niche market that may be interested. 

[Eaglerino]

Man I love Halo 1, I feel like I'm actually shooting something. All the new Halo games make you feel like you're shooting cardboard, nothing ever reacts to your bullets

[JZStudios]

22 hours ago, Engineer.AI said:

This is....untimely. Why not remake and re-release it, boasting a new engine, and creating something similar (but different) from the ground up? Oh wait...I know! Because newer Halo titles just dont sell as well as they used to.

 

In my opinion, this is just poisoning us with nostalgia. I however, don't really mind it. Just dont give us that "Anniversary Remake" BS, say it like it really is - an up-res of a 17 year old game.

~Engineer.AI

uhh... the Halo 1 AE is completely redone from the ground up, as well as Halo 2.

 

22 hours ago, Andreas Lilja said:

Wish you could play with the old graphics. 

 

Still a steal at $10 a pop. 

You can. That's the entire point. They have a dedicated in game toggle button to swap between new and old. Granted, the "new" is from the 360, but Halo 2 looks pretty good, that's more current gen. 

 

20 hours ago, JoostinOnline said:

I'm far more exited for the rest of the games. I've never been able to play the others on PC. Halo 2 is completely broken because it requires Windows Live, and Halo 3 and later were never ported.

I have Halo 2 up and running just fine. Granted, the multiplayer number is pretty pathetic so hopefully the MCC will bring more players.

 

18 hours ago, Stylized_Violence said:

The newer art style isn't too bad, I think it's greatest strength is the detail on the characters like the Marines and Covenant. They seemed to try and keep them more in line with the other titles in terms of look. And some of the audio changes are much more realistic. But true to your point, it does lack something the original had and in the end doesn't quite compare.

I think it's decent in general, but the flood design they went with was not as good. But hey, with open mod support I'm sure someone can fix it.

 

18 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Still looks pretty bad for today's standards. Which is bizarre that such big titles fail where indie titles like Black Mesa, done in a frigging garage by some enthusiasts look trillion times better. If someone served me Black Mesa as brand new game today I'd still be impressed. I think no remake or remaster will really impress me after playing Black Mesa. They just set the bar for remake/remaster quality so high not even big studios can catch up apparently.

That's probably because it's not today's standards.