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Halo:CE Anniversary Announced (MS Conf, Nov 15th 2011, $40)

I ended up only paying €40 for ODST, when it had been advertised as costing €60, so I'm pretty confident the price won't be too steep this time around, either.
 
they are using the old animations? the fuck is this shit?
does that mean floating up ladders is back in too?
and no vehicle jacking/trading weapons?
aw jeez...
i was hoping that they would update the remake with new animations, vehicle jacking (which is what i miss most when playing halo ce) and possibly even sprinting
sort of like what nintendo is doing with zelda: oot 3d
this is basically a port with a reach coat of paint slapped on...smh
 

Izayoi

Banned
scar tissue said:
they are using the old animations? the fuck is this shit?
does that mean floating up ladders is back in too?
and no vehicle jacking/trading weapons?
aw jeez...
i was hoping that they would update the remake with new animations, vehicle jacking (which is what i miss most when playing halo ce) and possibly even sprinting
sort of like what nintendo is doing with zelda: oot 3d
this is basically a port with a reach coat of paint slapped on...smh
Woah, woah. Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Any gameplay changes, especially sprinting, would really fuck up the original gameplay. No thanks. They did well in that regard. The only bungle (be it a gigantic one that will make me wait until I can pick this up from the bargain bin) I see here is the decision to exclude the original multiplayer.

Updated animations would be fine, so long as I had the option to turn them off (just like the updated graphics), but I can't really slight them for not including them.
 
Ningo said:

to be fair it's the same with every game at the moment, our dollar is so strong but we just don't see that reflected on the price of games.
Also, we all know it'll be around the $80aud mark at launch, places like EB rely on the odd ignorant parent who won't price match.

and if that's not good enough just wait for the inevitable price slashing.

i'll be getting it day 1, Halo:CE with next gen paint? i'm there!!
 
Izayoi said:
Woah, woah. Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Any gameplay changes, especially sprinting, would really fuck up the original gameplay. No thanks. They did well in that regard. The only bungle (be it a gigantic one that will make me wait until I can pick this up from the bargain bin) I see here is the decision to exclude the original multiplayer.

Updated animations would be fine, so long as I had the option to turn them off (just like the updated graphics), but I can't really slight them for not including them.
well, obviously they would include a classic mode which would be exactly what we are getting right now
I'd just like to get the gameplay up to scratch - while halo held up brilliantly, the lack of sprinting is pretty painful
the lack of vehicle jacking even more so, as i've gotten accustomed to it in the course of 4 (!) games
Halo CE is BC on the 360, why would I buy this just for a new coat of paint?
 

Slightly Live

Dirty tag dodger
scar tissue said:
why would I buy this just for a new coat of paint?

CEA is the product they advertised. New graphical mode, touched up sound and re-orchestrated score along with new Easter Eggs with seven new maps for Halo: Reach and a full multiplayer environment to use them if don't have Reach. All of this for more than the of price a budget game and less than the price of a new game, in terms of RRP.

If that doesn't appeal to you, then fine. You can save money and just play the original two Halo CE releases right now or whatever. It's more than a coat of paint though (and sexy paint at that!).

I do share your sentiments. I would have liked to have seen some gameplay enhancements as maybe some sort of new mode to bring the gameplay up to speed with the rest of the series. And a mode to keep the original music. And a full CE multiplayer mode given the same visual treatments. And a full Halo: Reach multiplayer suite including all the maps.

Unfortunately we aren't getting everything but what we are getting is pretty sweet.
 
Dani said:
CEA is the product they advertised. New graphical mode, touched up sound and re-orchestrated score along with new Easter Eggs with seven new maps for Halo: Reach and a full multiplayer environment to use them if don't have Reach. All of this for more than the of price a budget game and less than the price of a new game, in terms of RRP.

If that doesn't appeal to you, then fine. You can save money and just play the original two Halo CE releases right now or whatever. It's more than a coat of paint though (and sexy paint at that!).

I do share your sentiments. I would have liked to have seen some gameplay enhancements as maybe some sort of new mode to bring the gameplay up to speed with the rest of the series. And a mode to keep the original music. And a full CE multiplayer mode given the same visual treatments. And a full Halo: Reach multiplayer suite including all the maps.

Unfortunately we aren't getting everything but what we are getting is pretty sweet.

Im not convinced on that last statement, im going to give them the benefit of the doubt as they seem to have some hidden multiplayer plans which could be awesome. Right now however this deal kills off any chance of a full remake with multiplayer.
 

PooBone

Member
OuterWorldVoice said:
Saber is not doing online or co-op. Saber did the graphics layer engine and its supporting elements. Netcode is a combination of Bungie's Reach netcode for MP, and internally developed code here.
Awesome.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
JonCha said:
Curious how they're saying that they are goin to make changes that give you the option of
playing classically, rather than removing the Reach mechanics completely.
I'm guessing it will be something specific to these six maps, rather than a global title update.
 

LunaticPuma

dresses business casual
GhaleonEB said:
I'm guessing it will be something specific to these six maps, rather than a global title update.

My guess is that they'll make a mirror set of the Halo CE weapons (pistol, AR, sniper, shotgun, plasma rifle, plasma pistol, and rockets) to include as part of the map data. This CE weapon set will have same models as the Reach version but highly altered characteristics (no bloom, modified damage, firing rate, stun effects). If they're feeling ambitious maybe they will have new weapon models, but I think they'll just have a double set of those weapons with different names in the Forge menus.
 

ElRenoRaven

Member
PooBone said:

I have to agree. That makes me less worried. While I preordered and planned to buy it I'll be honest I was also worried because Timeshift sucked royally. It looked decent at times though. So knowing they are only doing the graphics makes me a lot less worried about the quality of HCEA.
 

Slightly Live

Dirty tag dodger
JUST ONE THING FOR THE FIREFIGHT CE MAP

Halo_Reach_Warthog.png


No Rocket, no lasers. Just the plain old hog. You don't even need to work or do anything, just copy and paste it in there. Please, oh please, give us this one thing. It's absence as been sorely felt in Reach's FF mode.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
So true.

Also:

Don't be afraid to spawn a Ghost or Revenant on the map from the start. You know, so a solo player can hop on a vehicle and have fun with it.

Think Beachhead's vehicle load out, with the room of Unearthed to roam on. There still isn't a good vehicle based Firefight map in Reach, and since I assume this will be the last one, I have high hopes. Unearthed was so close.
 
LunaticPuma said:
My guess is that they'll make a mirror set of the Halo CE weapons (pistol, AR, sniper, shotgun, plasma rifle, plasma pistol, and rockets) to include as part of the map data. This CE weapon set will have same models as the Reach version but highly altered characteristics (no bloom, modified damage, firing rate, stun effects). If they're feeling ambitious maybe they will have new weapon models, but I think they'll just have a double set of those weapons with different names in the Forge menus.

I'm pretty sure they can add new gun models, they are stored in the .map files. Bungie added the golf club skin to Halo 3 DLC.
 

Magni

Member
I haven't been able to play Reach since January due to being abroad, but isn't there a Warthog on one of the FF maps from launch?
edit: nevermind, I'm thinking of Beachhead and it's a Rocket 'hog, right?

How did Bungie forget the Warthog? ><
 
MagniHarvald said:
I haven't been able to play Reach since January due to being abroad, but isn't there a Warthog on one of the FF maps from launch?
edit: nevermind, I'm thinking of Beachhead and it's a Rocket 'hog, right?

How did Bungie forget the Warthog? ><

Rocket-hog.

And the terrain layout makes it a bit tricky to use.

Fake edit: Oh, I've seen the edit. I've still had tons of fun in that map though, even if its size is not really suited for that type of gameplay. It becomes like a separate challenge: keep the warthog alive no matter what, and try not to roll over on every turn. xD
 

watership

Member
scar tissue said:
they are using the old animations? the fuck is this shit?
does that mean floating up ladders is back in too?
and no vehicle jacking/trading weapons?
aw jeez...
i was hoping that they would update the remake with new animations, vehicle jacking (which is what i miss most when playing halo ce) and possibly even sprinting
sort of like what nintendo is doing with zelda: oot 3d
this is basically a port with a reach coat of paint slapped on...smh

That's not Halo CE then. The remake is a REMAKE. If you want those other features, Halo 2 onwards is where they are.
 
scar tissue said:
Halo CE is BC on the 360, why would I buy this just for a new coat of paint?

Online co-op.

Those things would be cool as optional features.

Fresh paint job.. cool new story snippets in terminals.. online co-op.. $40 price. It all sounds great to me.. really don't want anything else. Sprinting and vehicle jacking are cool, but that's not how CE was balanced.

I haven't played CE in YEARS though.. I can see how someone whose been spending time with it using BC on 360 wouldn't be as excited.
 
Noble Map Pack - $10 for 3 multiplayer maps
Defiant Map Pack - $10 for 2 multiplayer maps and 1 firefight map

Halo: CE Anniversary - 6 multiplayer maps, 1 firefight map.

So let's say that's worth $20 (you get one extra map since you're buying in bulk)

So for the other $20 you get:
Halo CE with untouched gameplay, new graphics, old graphics, re-recorded soundtrack, and online co-op.
New easter eggs.
New story details in the form of animated terminals, possibly hinting at Halo 4 stuff.
Access to some form of "Classic++" playlist that gives Reach even more of a vintage feel than the current Team Classic playlist.
Whatever extra features that haven't been announced yet. (Halo 4 beta invite?)

Not a bad deal, IMO.
 

PooBone

Member
I don't like the discussion of whether it's a worthwhile deal or not for the dollar amount they're asking. The same thing was done over and over with ODST. All it really takes is a customer looking at it and saying "is that too much for me to pay for this?" and no amount of forum reasoning is gonna change anyone's mind.

That said, I'm all over this like white on rice. I'd pay $100 for the campaign and co-op alone.
 

Slightly Live

Dirty tag dodger
ncsuDuncan said:
So for the other $20 you get:
Halo CE with untouched gameplay, new graphics, old graphics, re-recorded soundtrack, and online co-op.
New easter eggs.
New story details in the form of animated terminals, possibly hinting at Halo 4 stuff.
Access to some form of "Classic++" playlist that gives Reach even more of a vintage feel than the current Team Classic playlist.
Whatever extra features that haven't been announced yet. (Halo 4 beta invite?)

Not a bad deal, IMO.

Surprised they didn't announce this. Worked with ODST/Crackdown.
 

aesop

Member
scar tissue said:
they are using the old animations? the fuck is this shit?
does that mean floating up ladders is back in too?
and no vehicle jacking/trading weapons?
aw jeez...
i was hoping that they would update the remake with new animations, vehicle jacking (which is what i miss most when playing halo ce) and possibly even sprinting
sort of like what nintendo is doing with zelda: oot 3d
this is basically a port with a reach coat of paint slapped on...smh

I'd be pissed if they replaced the animations. Especially the death animations. The Master Chief flop is probably one of my favorite death animations ever. That and the headshot spin-o-rama are classic.

(I just made up those phrases.)
 
watership said:
That's not Halo CE then. The remake is a REMAKE. If you want those other features, Halo 2 onwards is where they are.
the fuck are you talking about?
remakes often contain elements from the successors of the original, or new elements altogether
that's the whole point: a re-imagining of the original, with the progress made in the sequels in stuff like the interface, gameplay options, AI and graphics department
e.g. the REmake incorporating defensive melee weapons, lisa trevor and crimson heads
e.g. pokemon fire red/leaf green incorporating improvements such as breeding and double battles
e.g. mgs tts incorporating manual aiming from mgs 2

halo ce anniversary is a port in a new coat of paint, not an actual remake

Dani said:
Unfortunately we aren't getting everything but what we are getting is pretty sweet.
I'd be inclined to agree if it wasn't for the old animations
hands flailing around in the death animation and floating up ladders is not acceptable in 2011
so sad they had it right in halo reach... :(
no usable swords and fuel rod guns in ridiculous as well, come the fuck on

tl;dr: this offering is borderline offensive and does not do justice to the glorious game that is halo: ce
halo has aged, and this facelift would've been a nice time to iron out the kinks, like nintendo is doing with oot 3d
 
This is closer to a re-release than a re-make. It's called "Anniversary Edition".

It's like a digitally re-mastered film.

People who want changes to be made sound like George Lucas ;)

And you are really that bothered by "floating up ladders"? That's something you'd only see in co-op... and it's not like the game has that many ladders.
 

GloveSlap

Member
LunaticPuma said:
My guess is that they'll make a mirror set of the Halo CE weapons (pistol, AR, sniper, shotgun, plasma rifle, plasma pistol, and rockets) to include as part of the map data. This CE weapon set will have same models as the Reach version but highly altered characteristics (no bloom, modified damage, firing rate, stun effects). If they're feeling ambitious maybe they will have new weapon models, but I think they'll just have a double set of those weapons with different names in the Forge menus.

You have more faith than me, but this would go a long way in making up for the lack of original multiplayer. The no bloom part is key though, any settings with bloom will not feel like the original at all.
 
GloveSlap said:
You have more faith than me, but this would go a long way in making up for the lack of original multiplayer. The no bloom part is key though, any settings with bloom will not feel like the original at all.

One of the main reasons for doing the Halo CE multi-player within Reach is to boost the amount of players playing Reach.. so they have marketing and financial reasons to actually go through with something Halo CE Anni purchasers will want to play.

If it can help keep Reach relevant until Halo 4 launches, I don't see why they wouldn't.. unless they truly just didn't budget much for the game.
 
nVidiot_Whore said:
This is closer to a re-release than a re-make. It's called "Anniversary Edition".

It's like a digitally re-mastered film.

People who want changes to be made sound like George Lucas ;)

And you are really that bothered by "floating up ladders"? That's something you'd only see in co-op... and it's not like the game has that many ladders.
i guess you're right about the re-release, but it's still such a missed chance

floating up ladder is just a personal pet peeve of mine, i even hate it when i'm in first person because it's ridiculous in this day and age
fuckin halo 3 and shadowrun made my blood boil with this stuff
 
GavinGT said:
I bet it has something to do with how the UK market tends to not buy full price games, and instead wait for price drops. If they launch at $60 (the Euro equivalent of $60, I mean), then they can drop it to $40 two weeks after release and people will feel like they're getting a deal.

I would love to see where you get your info from, I live in the UK and havent noticed that trend.
 
Dax01 said:
I could only recall one ladder in Halo 3, and that was in Sierra 117, and you didn't have to climb it.
crow's nest
ladders, lots of them
also, i was lumping odst with halo 3 since it was a stand-alone addon
 
scar tissue said:
but it's still such a missed chance

Some of the stuff you mentioned would be very cool as some sort of optional mode.. I'd love to try it, but I wouldn't want those changes made w/o the option to play in classic mode.

None of this is impossible, but they are using the Halo : CE engine for the core gameplay.. w/ a graphics layer on top.. that is important for maintaining the feel of CE, but it means that they'd have to re-code Halo : CE's engine to fit those features in..

They could do it 2 different ways..seems like what YOU want would be best accomplished by simply importing Halo CE's maps into the Reach Engine.

That would make for an awesome DLC for Reach. Perhaps those who own both CEA and Reach would get it free.. but Reach owners could pay $20 to get Halo:CE's full campaign imported.

Either way I think MS clearly feels CEA is a cool project for the fans, but something they worry about taking away from their future plans.. so they are putting limited resources on CEA... I'm glad we are getting what we are.. and that they included the most important feature.. on-line co-op.

floating up ladder is just a personal pet peeve of mine, i even hate it when i'm in first person because it's ridiculous in this day and age
fuckin halo 3 and shadowrun made my blood boil with this stuff

Haha.. yeah.. the different way games have handled ladders over the years has been pretty funny to me.
 

Detox

Member
bobs99 ... said:
I would love to see where you get your info from, I live in the UK and havent noticed that trend.
I don't where he got the idea that full price games don't sell in the UK but the games do drop in price fairly quickly over here, not sure if it happens in the US. Regardless I will bite on this game around the £20-25 mark, unless it 'fixes' some of the problems with Reach's MP and makes it feel like a classic Halo game. If that is the case I will buy at any price.
 

border

Member
nVidiot_Whore said:
One of the main reasons for doing the Halo CE multi-player within Reach is to boost the amount of players playing Reach.. so they have marketing and financial reasons to actually go through with something Halo CE Anni purchasers will want to play.

I still don't understand why it's so important to boost the player numbers. AFAIK the total number of players doesn't translate into any kind of revenue stream for them.

A Halo CE with its own community would not be a problem.
 

ElRenoRaven

Member
Dani said:
JUST ONE THING FOR THE FIREFIGHT CE MAP

http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/b/b0/Halo_Reach_Warthog.png[IMG]

No Rocket, no lasers. Just the plain old hog. You don't even need to work or do anything, just copy and paste it in there. Please, oh please, give us this one thing. It's absence as been sorely felt in Reach's FF mode.[/QUOTE]

I second this. Not a big fan of Reach's Rocket Hog.

[QUOTE=GhaleonEB]So true.

Also:

Don't be afraid to spawn a Ghost or Revenant on the map from the start. You know, so a solo player can hop on a vehicle and have fun with it.

Think Beachhead's vehicle load out, with the room of Unearthed to roam on. There still isn't a good vehicle based Firefight map in Reach, and since I assume this will be the last one, I have high hopes. Unearthed was so close.[/QUOTE]

I also couldn't agree any more with you. ODST had some amazing firefight maps with plenty of room for vehicles but none in reach. The closest is Unearthed but we have one rocket hog and that's it.

[QUOTE=ncsuDuncan]Noble Map Pack - $10 for 3 multiplayer maps
Defiant Map Pack - $10 for 2 multiplayer maps and 1 firefight map

Halo: CE Anniversary - 6 multiplayer maps, 1 firefight map.

So let's say that's worth $20 (you get one extra map since you're buying in bulk)

So for the other $20 you get:
Halo CE with untouched gameplay, new graphics, old graphics, re-recorded soundtrack, and online co-op.
New easter eggs.
New story details in the form of animated terminals, possibly hinting at Halo 4 stuff.
Access to some form of "Classic++" playlist that gives Reach even more of a vintage feel than the current Team Classic playlist.
Whatever extra features that haven't been announced yet. (Halo 4 beta invite?)

Not a bad deal, IMO.[/QUOTE]

Exactly. You know damn well if those maps alone were sold seperate that they would be two map packs for 10 bucks each and the other might be a freebie or sponsered one.
 
border said:
I still don't understand why it's so important to boost the player numbers. AFAIK the total number of players doesn't translate into any kind of revenue stream for them.

A Halo CE with its own community would not be a problem.

If Halo CE had it's own community, the Reach community would shrink.

Reach is the current main Halo community they are supporting, including offering DLC for it.. which is the direct financial incentive to getting more people into Reach, or back into Reach who abandoned it early on.

Especially if they are spending the cash to include some sort of proper Halo CE classic game type.. that game type could be leveraged across all Reach maps.. including DLC.

Beyond that it's better for marketing overall to have all of your "online players" in one batch.

Halo Reach currently sits in 3rd place behind the last 2 COD games.. fragmenting that user base across 2 games would probably cause both games to not even be in the top 5 played games.. while that has no direct financial impact it does have a marketing impact.

You are better off keeping your "last game" as relevant as possible, to ensure interest in your "next game."

And that's not to mention the other reason for making CEA a Reach add-on for multi-player, which is cost. Reach has all of the online multi-player bells and whistles built into it and then some.. and is connected to bungie.net/Halo Pro, etc. Halo CE's engine was built for LAN only.
 

Striker

Member
After those CoD games and Reach, I imagine there's a steep dropoff. It's weird, I see people say things in gaming threads and some times in the official Reach threads on the Community side, "Halo Reach is dead", "No one plays this", or maybe it's simply tongue in cheek. This past week it has hit 700K with pretty good stride, and I doubt that goes down any time soon.

14t81zr.jpg


Splitting the top side Halo FPS user base has not been the idea for MS, or Bungie, and I doubt it would be for 343 as well. It works right now for CoD because their userbase is larger, and some gamers that enjoy those games have one of each and probably plays both. That could happen here, as well, however I think with Halo there's more individuality among us. Some like the armor abiltiies, some liked Halo 3's stuff, Halo 2's online, and there's still many out there who never really liked what Bungie did with Halo 2 and 3 and still prefer Halo 1; to this day still don't play those games online because it's not their style of Halo.
 
Striker said:
Splitting the top side Halo FPS user base has not been the idea for MS, or Bungie, and I doubt it would be for 343 as well. It works right now for CoD because their userbase is larger, and some gamers that enjoy those games have one of each and probably plays both.

It also works for them because they are doing it with a $60+ game each year then turning around and selling new DLC.. Activision still wishes every MW2 player was playing Black Ops though.

If MS thought they could get away with marekting Halo : CEA as a $60 title I imagine they'd have little problem giving it full support.. it's own online.. it's own DLC, etc.

But it would still be an odd direction for them to take the series.. is a fully supported CEA a good way to usher in Halo 4 and beyond? If Halo CEA's online is popular,do they then continue that with Halo 4 being closer to CE's gameplay? To some extent they always are watching people's reactions.. they have dropped features.. brought some of CE's weapons back, etc. over time... but fully reverting backwards is a bit different than that.

I'm not even saying MS made the right decision here... I just sort of see why they did it. The bottom line is that Halo CE Online would potentially kill the Reach community, or at least seriously cut the numbers back... and they have reasons NOT to do that.
 
ncsuDuncan said:
Noble Map Pack - $10 for 3 multiplayer maps
Defiant Map Pack - $10 for 2 multiplayer maps and 1 firefight map

Halo: CE Anniversary - 6 multiplayer maps, 1 firefight map.

So let's say that's worth $20 (you get one extra map since you're buying in bulk)

So for the other $20 you get:
Halo CE with untouched gameplay, new graphics, old graphics, re-recorded soundtrack, and online co-op.
New easter eggs.
New story details in the form of animated terminals, possibly hinting at Halo 4 stuff.
Access to some form of "Classic++" playlist that gives Reach even more of a vintage feel than the current Team Classic playlist.
Whatever extra features that haven't been announced yet. (Halo 4 beta invite?)

Not a bad deal, IMO.

I assume when the maps drop on marketplace as DLC they will be $20/1600 space bucks.
 

Striker

Member
If those six MP maps are going to be worthwhile, the price is well worth it.

Beaver Creek, Hang 'em High, Damnation, and three mystery ones. I can only hope.
 
Steelyuhas said:
I assume when the maps drop on marketplace as DLC they will be $20/1600 space bucks.

Yep. Though I wouldn't recommend skipping Anniversary just to wait for the standalone map DLC.

ODST came out in September, but the Mythic 2 Map Pack didn't come out as a separate download until the following February. I imagine Anniversary could follow a similar schedule, meaning the Classic Map Pack wouldn't come out until next April at the earliest.
 

Tunavi

Banned
Striker said:
If those six MP maps are going to be worthwhile, the price is well worth it.

Beaver Creek, Hang 'em High, Damnation, and three mystery ones. I can only hope.
I really need to know what the other maps are....
 

PooBone

Member
Traded in LA Noire yesterday and laid the money down on Halo: CE Anniversary. I only owe like ten bucks on it. w00t.
 
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