Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary

Gamer Bhoy 89

Really lookin' forward to this one. Never got to finish the first game. Who else is after it?

Mr Freeze

Is it going to be full retail or XBLA?

It would be hard to pay full price for it, but if it was a lower price when released, I might chance it, for old times sake.

-=al=-

Yeah if its a full whack job price meh I can wait, but it does look pretty come, halo is pretty much why i have an xbox

Mr Freeze

Many an hour lost just playing DM and Team DM in Blood Gluch.

I know that level is in Reach too, but I only ever played on it once or twice.

Trevor451

It is going to be a full retail game but its going to be around €30 when it comes out

Jimbobjoeyman

If I hadn't gotten it for pc not so long ago I'd definatly be getting it.

chin_grin

After viewing this teaser I'm really excited. I do like the Halo-verse. 'tis a guilty pleasure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U95yDEhEUl8

-=al=-

some of those multiplayer maps were absolutely epic i remember playing them for the pc before i had xbox live!

if its 30 quid ill prob get it, i love a bita halo

not looking forward to seeing the flood though, that bit scared the bejesus outa me years ago

GAAman

Trevor451 wrote: »

It is going to be a full retail game but its going to be around €30 when it comes out

€44 according to play and amazon, bearing in mind halo 4 is €54, no way am i paying full price for it though will wait till it goes down a good bit in price

CiDeRmAn

Can't wait for this myself, loved the game even though I never got into Halo multiplayer.
Apparently there is plenty of awesomeness as you can switch on the fly between the original visuals and the new hotness.
Also cool is that I can mention my love of the Halo games without my A&R buddies giving me grief although they will probably find me here...

Potential-Monke

I'm so happy this is coming out, not because i want to play it, which i don't, but because it will get rid of alot of tw@s off of MW3!

ED E

Halo CE was pretty frickin boss. I'm afraid this'll ruin it. New graphics fine, but the game mechanics shouldn't be touched. And 7 maps, clearly gonna release the other 8 over time with micropurchases, the scabby gits.

Dont like them ****ing with the assault rifle ;__;

landsleaving

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Can't wait for this myself, loved the game even though I never got into Halo multiplayer.
Apparently there is plenty of awesomeness as you can switch on the fly between the original visuals and the new hotness.
Also cool is that I can mention my love of the Halo games without my A&R buddies giving me grief although they will probably find me here...

Halo, load of rubbish!



Actually, I quite liked the first Halo, after that it's not been too interesting for me, but I've great memories of the level where you roll out of a tunnel in the tank and emerge into a full-scale battle. Epic stuff, should have been more of that but I guess it wouldn't have been as effective if they'd had moments like that every level.

Pity it's going to be full price, I'd have been happy to pay maybe €20 for this, and switching between graphics sounds brilliant. My only worry would be that the better graphics might make things too detailed, Halo had brilliantly clean visuals, adding layers of extra texture might just make things look a bit muddled. The video looked great though so I'd say it's not a problem.

TerrorFirmer

Mr Freeze wrote: »

Many an hour lost just playing DM and Team DM in Blood Gluch.

I know that level is in Reach too, but I only ever played on it once or twice.

Actually, it's not. I wish it were. Best Halo map ever.

Retr0gamer

Something just seems wrong about a Halo remake. Some games I think deserve a remake or rerelease like Ocarina of Time, Chrono Trigger or Bionic Commando. Maybe I'm getting old but Halo doesn't feel like a classic game and doesn't feel old enough to me.

Switching between graphical modes on the fly is a bit worrying becuase it would seem to me that they will be keeping the same level of geometry of the old game and not redesigning the game from the ground up. Complete level redesign would really help this game because lets face it the original Halo had a lot of long boring corridors and then there was the later backtracking as well. There's a lot of room for improvement and I'd be disappointed if they didn't take that oppurtunity.

krudler

get rid of The Flood.

that is all.

landsleaving

And that little robot... thing. Sparky101 or whatever it was called. Kill it to death.

They could probably just have a dodgy edit at the point the Flood are about to appear and jump directly to the escape from the ship in the warthog. Then it'd be pretty much perfect.

Retr0gamer

Ah leave sparky alone. He's no Halo's version of Audrey II for crappy character design. I found him amusing, especially his humming, it was the only thing that made the library anyway bearable.

ED E

landsleaving wrote: »

And that little robot... thing. Sparky101 or whatever it was called. Kill it to death.

They could probably just have a dodgy edit at the point the Flood are about to appear and jump directly to the escape from the ship in the warthog. Then it'd be pretty much perfect.

343 Guilty Spark AKA "The Monitor" was concurrently one of the best and worst bits of CE. Was sooo glad to finally splazor him in 3, but you couldn't omit him though.

Are they including the rocket hog and fuel rod cannon for players again?

Shiminay

I could never quite figure out the appeal of Halo - is is an average, but enjoyable enough FPS series at best - too many people think it's the greatest thing ever cause they've never played Doom and Quake I think (I still think Quake had a better single player experience and there were a lot of people who never even realised that it had a single player campaign). The first Halo I played a bit of, but it was extremely boring in places and they designers just copy-pasted and added more enemies as you progressed. Piss poor stuff. I had tracked it's progress from before MS bought Bungie and it was meant to be a PC release as it did hold some interest for me, but when I finally got to play it (broken interface not withstanding), I was disappointed as it didn't come close to the hype.

I don't have any major beef with MS remaking the original like this though. Film makers, comic writers and musicians do it all the time and I consider game production just as valid an art form as any of them, but I can't help but feel there's more commercial than sentimental reasons for it.

Still, I hope anyone who's looking forward to it enjoys it and that maybe a few more companies might consider this option (I'm looking at you Valve/Black Mesa people).

NeoKubrick

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Complete level redesign would really help this game because lets face it the original Halo had a lot of long boring corridors

There isn't. Halo: Combat Evolved's level design was based upon circular level design. As a result, there are very few long linear corridors in the game relative to the amount of circular. The only level of ten levels where long linear corridors dominated the game was The Library.


The remastered version should have a consistent 30 frames-per-second and that's the only essential requirement, graphically, and don't fuck with the mechanics. Price is too steep, though.

Retr0gamer

NeoKubrick wrote: »

There isn't. Halo: Combat Evolved's level design was based upon circular level design. As a result, there are very few long linear corridors in the game relative to the amount of circular. The only level of ten levels where long linear corridors dominated the game was The Library.

You just don't remember the game properly. The opening level on hte pillar of autumn consists of just a long series of copy and pasted corridors. The second half of the 3rd level that takes on the truth and reconciliation is a series of copy and pasted tight linear corridors. The snow level has some outdoor sections that are good but they are interconnected by linear corridor sections that are almost identical to each other and made up of a handful of copy and pasted sections. It's even got little helpful arrows on the ground to guide you through since otherwise you'd get lost because each section looks the same as the last. The swamp level with the reveal of the flood mostly consists of an underground section of small, tight, linear copy and pasted corridors. The library is a lesson in bad level design. And then you back track through most of these.

CiDeRmAn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

You just don't remember the game properly. The opening level on hte pillar of autumn consists of just a long series of copy and pasted corridors. The second half of the 3rd level that takes on the truth and reconciliation is a series of copy and pasted tight linear corridors. The snow level has some outdoor sections that are good but they are interconnected by linear corridor sections that are almost identical to each other and made up of a handful of copy and pasted sections. It's even got little helpful arrows on the ground to guide you through since otherwise you'd get lost because each section looks the same as the last. The swamp level with the reveal of the flood mostly consists of an underground section of small, tight, linear copy and pasted corridors. The library is a lesson in bad level design. And then you back track through most of these.

Go away Retr0!
Can't you let us be happy?
Can't you just let it go?
Wait til I get you back in A&R!

Retr0gamer

I'm not saying anything about the quality of the game just saying that there's a lot of reused assets in the game and a lot of the game takes place in tight enclosed corridors all of which is a product of the game being rushed to meet the Xbox launch. It would be nice if the development team could fix these issues.

NeoKubrick

Retr0gamer wrote: »

You just don't remember the game properly.

Well, here, refresh your memory.

The Pillar of Autumn had linear sections and then it was interspersed with open areas (this was the opening training level) and flanking paths. Halo was an open and circular map. Truth and Reconciliation's first half was open and circular and then second half was interspersed with linear corridors and open circular areas. The Silent Cartographer was an open and circular map. Assault on the Control Room was an open and circular map; there was very few linear corridors and what you are referring to are the 'loading' corridors. 343 Guilty Spark had an open and circular map and half of the level took place in it and half in the enclosed underground section which had corridors and open circular areas. The Library was dominated by long linear corridors. Two Betrayals was an open and circular map. The Maw had multi-paths throughout the level interspersed with open areas.

There is nothing in the game levels that qualifies:

Retr0gamer wrote:

lets face it the original Halo had a lot of long boring corridors

Retr0gamer wrote:

a lot of the game takes place in tight enclosed corridors

Because, Halo: Combat Evolved's level design was based upon an open circular design and the majority of the game did not have a lot of "long boring corridors" or "tight enclosed corridors" as a result.

hooradiation

Shiminay wrote: »

I could never quite figure out the appeal of Halo - is is an average, but enjoyable enough FPS series at best - too many people think it's the greatest thing ever cause they've never played Doom and Quake I think

The attitude that people who like halo simply don't know any better is one that needs to die in a fire.

Shiminay

I hear that every now and again yet no one has been able to explain to me why Halo is as popular as it is other than it brought what was considered the baseline in acceptable FPS standards to a console. There was absolutely nothing new in it for someone like me who'd played thousands of hours of FPS' singe and multi-player.

I can draw a comparison to music in this instance. I used to think Oasis were an amazing band as I was the right age for them to be the first band I really got into. However, someone pointed me to the Beatles and I quickly realised that whilst Oasis were a good band, they weren't doing anything new. It didn't make me stop being an Oasis fan either, but when put in a bigger context than the one I had previously been able to because I lacked wider experience and knowledge to make a proper comparison.

Retr0gamer

There might have been some flanking oppurtunities when the corridors opened up but I'd expect that from any first person shooter, it's nothing special and still counts as linear for me. You can call them 'open circular' areas all you like it doesn't make them anything special. If a game was made up of a series of tight and enclosed 'open circular' areas like the ones I'm referring to I'd still call that game linear as well. It's the same set up Half-life or the first Call of Duty usually work by as do most FPS linear FPS games but most of them don't reuse the same box shaped assets over and over which is my main problem. These sections I'm referring to are still quite linear and enclosed and are made up of the same assets reused far too much throughout the levels and a remake would be a perfect oppurtunity to fix these sections that weren't as much fun as when the game opened up and get rid of the reuse of assets. I'm also not denying that the game works better in the more open areas so no need to bring them up.

Retr0gamer

hooradiation wrote: »

The attitude that people who like halo simply don't know any better is one that needs to die in a fire.

I wouldn't say that about someone who likes Halo, it's certainly not a bad game and sure peoples tastes differ. For me it's when the game gets praised for certain innovations or say that it was way above other FPS games at the time by people that obviously had no experience of FPS games outside of consoles at the time.

hooradiation

Shiminay wrote: »

I hear that every now and again yet no one has been able to explain to me why Halo is as popular as it is other than it brought what was considered the baseline in acceptable FPS standards to a console. There was absolutely nothing new in it for someone like me who'd played thousands of hours of FPS' singe and multi-player.

You're telling me that taking a game which took genre that has never been at home on consoles and did it so well that it not only sold five million copies, and is regularly cited as the main reason for the original xbox not failing and which popularised gameplay features ten years ago that we still see today and started the trend of FPS games being developed seriously and exclusively on consoles is a title who's popularity and importance you just don't get?

I understand not liking it, but the constant insistence that it's simply just that people don't know any better is madness. And also falls apart the second you have someone who also played as games like Quake, Doom etc and still likes the halo series.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

For me it's when the game gets praised for certain innovations or say that it was way above other FPS games at the time by people that obviously had no experience of FPS games outside of consoles at the time.

It doesn't matter who did it first, it's the first title to do it well that matters.
There is a reason people whine at the halo series when they have issues with things like dual weapon limits and recharging health.

Retr0gamer

hooradiation wrote: »

It doesn't matter who did it first, it's the first title to do it well that matters.
There is a reason people whine at the halo series when they have issues with things like dual weapon limits and recharging health.

Yeah I know but as someone with an interest in the archiving of videogame history it annoys me the most when journalists make there statements.