I haven't kept up with news on the collection but what's broken about it?
Long post incoming.
Let me start off by saying I've been a Halo fan since the first one released on OG Xbox. I've logged thousands of hours in Halo games. I've earned every single achievement in Halo titles to date (although I only did Spartan Assault once, didn't stack every version of it). Not only that, but my shooter experience has a wide bredth and depth, across dozens of shooters of all shapes and sizes.
That said, Halo: TMCC is a tragedy of hubrice and greed. It was announced and rushed to market to move systems, do not doubt that for a second. Don't believe it? Count how many times you see people say 'I bought an XB1 for TMCC'. It was their ace in the hole in the console warz for the holiday season and they blew it, blew it in grand fashion.
You ask what's broken? Better to ask what ISN'T broken. Sure, you'll find those that say 'it works fine for me', but what they're REALLY saying is 'it works fine
most of the time and the times that it doesn't don't bother me. And it's true, there are people out there that it works for most of the time. But [anecdotal] I truly believe their numbers are far outweighed by those for whom it DOESN'T work more often than it does.
I'm not buying Halo 5 at launch. I'm renting it strictly for review purposes since I don't get free review copies of... of anything, really. Renting a Halo game. I've bought at least 2, if not 3 copies of every Halo game up to Reach, including ODST and Wars. I bought one of Halo 4, then my faith was restored when they announced Halo: TMCC and I ran out and bought TWO imported collector's editions from the UK, one to keep and one to give away to a Halo fan. I ALSO bought it digitally to keep my CE pristine. Three goddamn copies man. Faith was restored, then promptly shattered. I cannot believe that after nearly 15 years of this storied franchise, I'm NOT buying the next one.
Goddamnit 343i.
Yesterday I tried to play High Charity in Halo 2. I wasn't playing co-op, so the whole crashing constantly thing wasn't expected to be an issue. In fact, up until now, usually when I played single player campaign was the only really FUNCTIONAL aspect of the game. Not yesterday. I tried to run through High Charity, a mission that takes 5-7 minutes if speed running it, and I crashed to the dashboard over ten times.
Let that sink in for a minute. A 5-minute mission crashed over TEN times. In SINGLE PLAYER. I spent more time on the dashboard than I did speed running the mission for christ's sake!
So, what's broken?
1. Matchmaking. While it works for some, it is fundamentally flawed. You'll have times when it takes AGES to find a match, times when you get into a match and there are twice as many people in the lobby as there should be, times where it starts a match 1v5 after a team quits out during the process, crippling lag, rubber-banding, teleporting, 'iceskating', etc.
Is this a consequence of the game or the Xbox One itself? I personally think it's both. Why do I say this, you ask?
Well, the Xbox One's party system was a shit show at launch, and game invites, game lobbies, etc, were directly tied to it and had to be individually programmed for EACH GAME by the developers, instead of being universal and 'just working' like the 360's version of the party system. The party system has improved, but is still FAR from perfect. Also, the Xbox One has serious problems with router management, constantly getting plagued by the 'strict NAT' bug that wasn't nearly as much of a problem for 360 users. For example, I can jump on my 360 at a moment's notice and go straight into Halo 3, Halo Reach, or Halo 4 matchmaking, or any other game ever released that wasn't on dedicated servers that have since been shuttered. However, if I DO log onto my 360, my Xbox One immediately recognizes my NAT as strict rather than open. So long as I stay off my 360, it's open 99% of the time, but once I turn on the 360? Nope, strict. I think this has something to do with the system not renewing its port-forwarding lease or something?? I don't know the techno mumbo-jumbo.... all I know is it's flawed. And the party system is STILL flawed. Take Sunset Overdrive for instance. It's a FANTASTIC game, but if you want to invite friends into Chaos Squad, you cannot simply bring up the party chat and 'invite party to game' like you could ALWAYS do on ANY game on the 360. This, to me, means that while it has improved, it still isn't universal and doesn't 'just work' like the 360. It's likely that devs still have to hard-code this functionality in (invite entire party to game), and SO's devs forgot to or something? So yeah, part of the problem is the Xbox One itself.
But let's not forget that Halo: TMCC is their flagship franchise, so the fact that there are matchmaking issues, STILL, 100+ days after release, means that all the 'farming out' of the work on TMCC led to some shoddy patched-together mess of a product where certain aspects interfere with others... or something. Even if I knew how to write netcode I don't think I would even begin to understand the shambles that is this game's code.
2. Interface - These bugs have been extensively documented, and if you aren't aware of them by now I don't even have time to explain why I don't have time to explain. Multiple menu interfaces overlaying when they shouldn't, stuttering and freezing during menu navigation, game crashing while in the menus (not even trying to load a mission).
3. Online co-op campaign - Crippling..... I mean LESS THAN ONE FRAME PER SECOND AT TIMES - framerate and/or lag. Crashing when trying to launch co-op. Crashing when finishing a mission and being kicked out of your partner's lobby. Lobby leader inexplicably and mysteriously changing between members when navigating menus for no reason. Crashing when trying to launch co-op. Did I mention that? Crashing when trying to launch co-op like ALL THE FUCKING TIME. This probably goes back to the netcode problems mentioned in matchmaking? I dunno.
4. Broken achievements. I know this is a non-issue for game functionality... but broken fucking achievements in a HALO game? Seriously? Haven't we had enough of this shit already? 'Play the game 3 months after your first game.' How hard is that one to get right? Come the fuck on.
5. Did I miss anything guys? Does this deserve its own thread? I wish I could say it did, but honestly I don't even think THIS thread deserved its own thread. I'm not thread whining mind you. I'm just saying that the horse has been beaten, beaten to death, beaten some more, then turned to glue for good measure. I dunno how many more Halo is broken threads we need.
