So I guess I'm going to throw a few words in about the multiplayer offerings for the PC port of MCC at the moment since I've done really everything I can at this point in terms of this current "season" of progression.
I have the game marked as "shelved", but I'm certainly not shelving this game. Master Chief Collection will continue to be a game I progress in as time goes on, essentially being my ideal "forever game" with the insanely replayable campaigns and robust multiplayer offerings, but that's more the Xbox version at the moment. I really wanted to have some words about the PC port.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC is a pretty great experience. While not being the most flushed out in terms of totally customizing the experience (unless you're modding), the game on PC has enough on offer at the moment to be an attractive offer for people to play. Currently, on PC we have both the campaigns and multiplayer offerings for both Reach and Combat Evolved, which are both great for completely different reasons.
To get my positives in first: Halo is just fantastic to play with a mouse and keyboard. I have heard some grumblings that PC controls feel "off" to some people, but I haven't had that issue, myself. Overall, the game just plays fantastically and it's always jarring to go from throwing down constant headshots and quick-turns with a mouse and keyboard setup, to then feeling like a fridge with little stumpy legs when playing on console. As more Halo titles get released onto this version of the game, the less and less I will be touching the Xbox version of this game.
Visually speaking, MCC's current games look rather great. There's apparently some visual upscaling done to Reach with graphics options available for toggle, but the differences for each options seem minimal to me, overall. Nevertheless, there's some good customization options on offer including a FOV slider (praise be), but there isn't a whole ton on offer to severely customize your own Halo experience, here.
The games themselves are great, at least the multiplayer offerings. I love that new modes are added to both Combat Evolved and Reach to keep the games feeling fresh as time goes on, so I can go through long play sessions of this game without getting too stale.
Lastly, the multiplayer framework for this game feels rather solid. As someone who holds a 250+ MPS download/upload speed, whenever I encounter connection issues I can pretty safely pose those complaints onto the game, itself and not my connection, yet MCC runs really without a hitch! While I may see some lagging players from time to time, my connection is always extremely stable with no rubber-banding, no server crashes, and no "time outs" when I'm in the middle of the game. As a day-one purchaser of MCC on Xbox One, seeing the game actually work the way it's supposed to is extremely refreshing nowadays.
As for the issues I have, there's one in particular that severely hampers the experience for me...
Similar to the original release of Halo Reach, MCC has an unlocking system put in place to earn armor pieces for your customizable spartan that'll be shown in both singleplayer and multiplayer. To unlock new pieces of armor, you have to progress through the free battle pass season that's on offer. As you gain XP, you can earn tokens to get armor and further progress. Everything is free, so that's all good with me; the issue lies solely within the grind.
Originally, Halo Reach was pretty freakin' grindy, like, you had to invest an ungodly amount of time in it to get anywhere within the game, and as someone who spent a lot of time in Reach both during and after its hayday, I can attest to how painful it was to progress, but there were two things done better in Reach's original release than here:
1. When you got XP, you were able to take the "credits" of said XP and allocate them to any unlocks you wanted to. Reach did have rank requirements locking off specific kinds of armor at any point in time, but once you hit that rank, you could used any banked up XP you previously had to unlock your desired armor. MCC instead has a more linear progression system where you earn tokens by passing ranks, which then can only be used on the next item available in the pass. I hear that 343 is working on changing that to make the progression not feel so linear, and I would hope that's the case because the system we have at the moment certainly works, but it's not ideal.
Next, let's complain about the grind. As I previously stated, MCC is not nearly as grindy as OG Reach, but it's still a hassle. Earning XP in matches can be rather rewarding at first, seeing great progression rewards flowing in and constantly getting new items, but soon enough, a grind wall is put in place that slows the pacing to a halt, and continues to do so as you go through the separate "tours" (prestige) of the multiplayer. Now, there's two different things I take issue with this grind.
1. THERE ARE NO CAMPAIGN PROGRESSION REWARDS! Besides a "pat on the back" in form of achievements to flush out your Steam/Xbox profile(s), MCC has no XP or token rewards for playing the campaigns. If you want to go out and play any campaign, you're earning jack for playing them. 343 is supposedly working on a challenges screen for players to do specific in-game things to get rewarded with XP/season tokens, but they're still seemingly a long ways away, and as someone whose put in 95 hours on the PC version of the game alone, not to mention the time I've put into the Xbox version when I'm sick of just playing CE and Reach, that's absolutely crazy. I am just now approaching the end of the current season's pass. The amount of time needed to get these rewards is just unacceptable, even with the permanent XP increase we were given a while ago. I know it de-incentives people from investing in multiplayer in the long run, but the XP caps per match need to be increased, or the XP per medals needs an increase; either way, it would shorten the grind and make it more manageable. The combination of giving campaign rewards and having the multiplayer dull out higher XP caps would make this whole system flow much better, especially when there's insane XP requirements to hit a single rank.
As an example, I just barely hit "tour 4", and there's 11 total. Right now, I hear that you can't pass 6, and that makes sense because I rarely see people much above my current rank, but I've seen people in tours 5 and 6 from time to time. To leave tour 3 and enter 4, you have to earn a total of 400k XP to rank up. Now, on a double-XP event, that's not too bad as long as you perform well, but not everyone is going to have banger matches after banger matches, meaning that it takes hours even during an XP event to hit those requirements. Just think how long it takes to hit those milestones without the assistance of 2x XP! I cannot begin to imagine how much time people in significantly higher ranks than I am have invested in this game! If it's already getting to be borderline unbearable to grind in tour 3 of 11, then there's a serious issue that needs to be addressed.
Okay, this has gone on long enough, and I doubt anyone will actually read this to conclusion, but right now, MCC is an attractive offer on PC. I would say that even if you're considering on picking this up that you do so at your earliest convenience, because it's worth every penny. Hopefully as more titles are released and we get more features, that the game shapes up to the masterpiece potential it has. In the meantime, the PC port of MCC is great, but far from perfect, yet is still something all FPS fans have to pick up.
I have the game marked as "shelved", but I'm certainly not shelving this game. Master Chief Collection will continue to be a game I progress in as time goes on, essentially being my ideal "forever game" with the insanely replayable campaigns and robust multiplayer offerings, but that's more the Xbox version at the moment. I really wanted to have some words about the PC port.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC is a pretty great experience. While not being the most flushed out in terms of totally customizing the experience (unless you're modding), the game on PC has enough on offer at the moment to be an attractive offer for people to play. Currently, on PC we have both the campaigns and multiplayer offerings for both Reach and Combat Evolved, which are both great for completely different reasons.
To get my positives in first: Halo is just fantastic to play with a mouse and keyboard. I have heard some grumblings that PC controls feel "off" to some people, but I haven't had that issue, myself. Overall, the game just plays fantastically and it's always jarring to go from throwing down constant headshots and quick-turns with a mouse and keyboard setup, to then feeling like a fridge with little stumpy legs when playing on console. As more Halo titles get released onto this version of the game, the less and less I will be touching the Xbox version of this game.
Visually speaking, MCC's current games look rather great. There's apparently some visual upscaling done to Reach with graphics options available for toggle, but the differences for each options seem minimal to me, overall. Nevertheless, there's some good customization options on offer including a FOV slider (praise be), but there isn't a whole ton on offer to severely customize your own Halo experience, here.
The games themselves are great, at least the multiplayer offerings. I love that new modes are added to both Combat Evolved and Reach to keep the games feeling fresh as time goes on, so I can go through long play sessions of this game without getting too stale.
Lastly, the multiplayer framework for this game feels rather solid. As someone who holds a 250+ MPS download/upload speed, whenever I encounter connection issues I can pretty safely pose those complaints onto the game, itself and not my connection, yet MCC runs really without a hitch! While I may see some lagging players from time to time, my connection is always extremely stable with no rubber-banding, no server crashes, and no "time outs" when I'm in the middle of the game. As a day-one purchaser of MCC on Xbox One, seeing the game actually work the way it's supposed to is extremely refreshing nowadays.
As for the issues I have, there's one in particular that severely hampers the experience for me...
Similar to the original release of Halo Reach, MCC has an unlocking system put in place to earn armor pieces for your customizable spartan that'll be shown in both singleplayer and multiplayer. To unlock new pieces of armor, you have to progress through the free battle pass season that's on offer. As you gain XP, you can earn tokens to get armor and further progress. Everything is free, so that's all good with me; the issue lies solely within the grind.
Originally, Halo Reach was pretty freakin' grindy, like, you had to invest an ungodly amount of time in it to get anywhere within the game, and as someone who spent a lot of time in Reach both during and after its hayday, I can attest to how painful it was to progress, but there were two things done better in Reach's original release than here:
1. When you got XP, you were able to take the "credits" of said XP and allocate them to any unlocks you wanted to. Reach did have rank requirements locking off specific kinds of armor at any point in time, but once you hit that rank, you could used any banked up XP you previously had to unlock your desired armor. MCC instead has a more linear progression system where you earn tokens by passing ranks, which then can only be used on the next item available in the pass. I hear that 343 is working on changing that to make the progression not feel so linear, and I would hope that's the case because the system we have at the moment certainly works, but it's not ideal.
Next, let's complain about the grind. As I previously stated, MCC is not nearly as grindy as OG Reach, but it's still a hassle. Earning XP in matches can be rather rewarding at first, seeing great progression rewards flowing in and constantly getting new items, but soon enough, a grind wall is put in place that slows the pacing to a halt, and continues to do so as you go through the separate "tours" (prestige) of the multiplayer. Now, there's two different things I take issue with this grind.
1. THERE ARE NO CAMPAIGN PROGRESSION REWARDS! Besides a "pat on the back" in form of achievements to flush out your Steam/Xbox profile(s), MCC has no XP or token rewards for playing the campaigns. If you want to go out and play any campaign, you're earning jack for playing them. 343 is supposedly working on a challenges screen for players to do specific in-game things to get rewarded with XP/season tokens, but they're still seemingly a long ways away, and as someone whose put in 95 hours on the PC version of the game alone, not to mention the time I've put into the Xbox version when I'm sick of just playing CE and Reach, that's absolutely crazy. I am just now approaching the end of the current season's pass. The amount of time needed to get these rewards is just unacceptable, even with the permanent XP increase we were given a while ago. I know it de-incentives people from investing in multiplayer in the long run, but the XP caps per match need to be increased, or the XP per medals needs an increase; either way, it would shorten the grind and make it more manageable. The combination of giving campaign rewards and having the multiplayer dull out higher XP caps would make this whole system flow much better, especially when there's insane XP requirements to hit a single rank.
As an example, I just barely hit "tour 4", and there's 11 total. Right now, I hear that you can't pass 6, and that makes sense because I rarely see people much above my current rank, but I've seen people in tours 5 and 6 from time to time. To leave tour 3 and enter 4, you have to earn a total of 400k XP to rank up. Now, on a double-XP event, that's not too bad as long as you perform well, but not everyone is going to have banger matches after banger matches, meaning that it takes hours even during an XP event to hit those requirements. Just think how long it takes to hit those milestones without the assistance of 2x XP! I cannot begin to imagine how much time people in significantly higher ranks than I am have invested in this game! If it's already getting to be borderline unbearable to grind in tour 3 of 11, then there's a serious issue that needs to be addressed.
Okay, this has gone on long enough, and I doubt anyone will actually read this to conclusion, but right now, MCC is an attractive offer on PC. I would say that even if you're considering on picking this up that you do so at your earliest convenience, because it's worth every penny. Hopefully as more titles are released and we get more features, that the game shapes up to the masterpiece potential it has. In the meantime, the PC port of MCC is great, but far from perfect, yet is still something all FPS fans have to pick up.
it's a bunch of good games that i like, cool
Two stellar games, one very good game, two terrible games, and one absolutely execrable game. A decent enough bundle if you don't still have an OG Xbox on hand, but the good only marginally outweighs the bad. The two graphical updates (CE: Anniversary and 2: Anniversary) are an interesting curiosity but honestly add very little; once the novelty wears off from switching back and forth between modes it becomes pretty clear that those "updated" versions were designed within an inch of their lives (I don't think I made it through either game entirely in Anniversary mode). Sometimes less is more!
Multiplayer experience ranges from barely tolerable to absolutely unbearable. I've not played Gears or Battlefield multiplayer but I can't imagine how they could be worse than this.
Multiplayer experience ranges from barely tolerable to absolutely unbearable. I've not played Gears or Battlefield multiplayer but I can't imagine how they could be worse than this.
Flawed, but the coop is too good to not rate it high.
Duh.
great, albeit quirky remasters of the old halo games. very good price point for all these games atleast
9
When this game came out on PC and I fired up multiplayer, after absolutely cooking the other team one of the opposing players made sure to call me a racial slur and talk smack about my mom.
We back :]
We back :]
Sin nostalgia solo queda la vejez y Halo ha envejecido regular.
there's not entirely a lot to say for a collection of games that have all already been out for long enough to get plenty of reviews on their own, but for a collection of games, there really isn't one quite on the level of the master chief collection of just purely having fantastic, fun as hell games. not even halo 4's averageness can bring down the rest of the games in this collection, it's worth buying even if ONLY for halo 3
This is a really neat set of games that I'm thankful allow you to switch back to their original graphical version instead of just giving you hd-ified versions that just don't quite match the aesthetic.
One thing I wish you could see would be the original credits for each entry instead of the current plan of the xbox sending you to a web browser and just reading off credits on a website. Though considering the work that went into everything else in this I can understand why that was not high in the priority list.
Quick review of games as I go through them:
Halo:CE - First and still best of the franchise. New graphics stink and lose the mood and energy from levels
ODST - I hate josh weedle and his stuff so this was ass
Reach - a more refined version of what ODST was going for. Wish I cared more about characters in the story.
One thing I wish you could see would be the original credits for each entry instead of the current plan of the xbox sending you to a web browser and just reading off credits on a website. Though considering the work that went into everything else in this I can understand why that was not high in the priority list.
Quick review of games as I go through them:
Halo:CE - First and still best of the franchise. New graphics stink and lose the mood and energy from levels
ODST - I hate josh weedle and his stuff so this was ass
Reach - a more refined version of what ODST was going for. Wish I cared more about characters in the story.
Proper packaging.
Beat Combat Evolved and Halo 2.
halo on pc feels good, but progresson still feels a back from halo 5 or reach
master cheif is cool
All four games together in one bundle, one the first few games I played on my Xbox one. Halo's 1 and 3 are great, but Halo 2 was amazing. The anniversary version's cutscenes make it look like it came out this year, thats how good it is.
Better now that it has been fixed and patched.
Top 1 redemption arcs.
Beat this in 2 days on stream, its a little crusty at this time due to its age but its still a fucking amazing game to just turn your brain off and fuck around with your squad
Multiplayer kinda dog but w/e
Multiplayer kinda dog but w/e
Halo good
brabissimo
good
What's better than the original Halo trilogy + ODST + Reach? All of them packed up in the same game with anniversary graphics and their multiplayers for your convenience.
3 > 1 > 2 = ODST > Reach >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 4
The first release was terrible but things have changed quite a lot since. This is now the definitive way to play HALO 1 to Reach on PC & Xbox.
The Lego Star Wars Complete Saga of Halo.
Edit: i was playing today on the custom browser that got added and i bumped into an old friend from original Halo Reach. today has been amazing
Edit: i was playing today on the custom browser that got added and i bumped into an old friend from original Halo Reach. today has been amazing
actually an outrageous bargain.
343 is the devil.
It's some of the most polished (excluding 2) first person shooters ever created, with campaigns so memorable (including 2) that they would go down in history. This game is a straight up masterpiece almost specifically because it compiles Halo CE, halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST, AND HALO REACH all in ONE PACKAGE FOR $50. THAT PRICE IS A LITERAL STEAL. Halo CE needs no words for what it did to the entire concept of a console shooter, let alone the entire FPS genre. Incredibly solid gameplay, perfect soundtrack, good as FUCK levels, and a fantastic experience. Halo 2 would go on to be the weakest entry in the Bungie franchise, but in my eyes is one of the most memorable. the arbiter missions would go down to be an incredible take on this series future; with the straight up twist of the Prophets betrayal of the Elites, the Arbiters punishment, the introduction of Gravemind, etc. for every absolute misstep of this game it does so much right. Halo 3 is a perfect masterpiece of a video game. In my mind the story of John 117 ends with this game. The story beats? Perfect. The gameplay? Perfect. THE SOUNDTRACK? SWEET MOTHER TERESA ON THE HOOD OF A MERCEDES BENZ THIS SOUNDTRACK WAS GIVEN TO US BY GOD TAKEN FLESH, MARTY O MOTHER FUCKIGN DONNELL. EVEN THE FUCKING ADVERTISING WAS PERFECT. YOU CAN NOT TELL ME THE "Believe" ADS DIDNT TRASNCEND THE MEDIUM OF MERE ADVERTISING. THOSE MINUTE LONG ADS WERE THE THE PILLARS OF A MYTHOLGY, THEY BRING TEARS TO MY EYES. THE ENDING OF THIS GAME, SWEET FUCKIGN JESUS (pardon my French) but this game is perfect. It's everything Halo could have ever been, and we still got ODST the truest successor of the Halo mantle. In all the same ways that Halo 3 is a perfect conclusion to Johns story and the franchise as a whole, ODST was the perfect way to continue the series; by telling incredibly compelling side stories. Now, ODST had some favors going for it considering it was built in the same engine as 3 was so it didn't have to do a ridiculous amount of engine work but that clearly gave the Bungie team the time to develop an incredible story and world of New Mombassa. If there's any one thing that I never could have expected the direction of Halo to be taken, it was in a character driven, smooth jazz tracked, mystery/detective/stealth shooter but it was incredible. Finally, Halo Reach. This game is very personal to me much in the same way Halo 2 is. Reach is a tragic game, about fighting a doomed fight, where nobody will survive; yet the legacy that you will leave behind will become so much more than you could ever imagine. ALL OF THIS FOR FIFTY FUCKING DOLLARS, ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? THERE MUST BE SOME MAGIC GOIGN ON HERE, THIS CANT ACTUALLY BE REAL. BUY THIS GAME. PLAY THIS GAME.
If you loved Halo this is an excellent time. The story is often ridiculous and a bit sophomoric but reliving being in your teens is probably why you are here.