Halo: Combat Evolved AnniversaryXbox 360

Released on 15-Nov-2011.

• Bungie sets date for official Halo handover

  March 31st. Mark the date in your diary, as that's when legendary developer Bungie finally cuts the cord and officially hands over the Halo baby to its new mummy, 323 Industries.

  343 has already taken over development on the new Halo titles, including last year's Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary remake and the upcoming Halo 4, but the behind-the-scenes systems powering all those multiplayer matches and stats were Bungie's. That changes at the end of March, and from that date Bungie will have nothing more to do with the franchise it created way back in 2002.

  "Bungie will no longer be able to update game stats and player service records, to host new user generated content, or to operate the Bungie Pro service. All currently supported, Bungie-developed Halo titles will be impacted by this change," the Bungie website explains. "Any replacement functionality, and all future Halo support, will be provided by Microsoft and 343 Industries via Halo Waypoint at http://halo.xbox.com."

  "Thanks for making the Halo-era version of Bungie.net more successful than we could have possibly imagined," the post concluded. "You complete us."

  No, no, we're fine. We've just got something in our eye.

  Halo 4 is set for release later this year on Xbox 360, of course. Bungie's next project is a mysterious new multi-console game, set to be published by Activision.

  Published: 02/02/2012

• Halo 4 beta invites are a hoax, warns 343 Industries

  Halo 4 beta invites are a hoax, warns 343 Industries

  David Ellis of 343 Industries, the studio which inherited the Halo series from Bungie, has taken to Twitter to warn fans that offers to take part in a beta trial for the upcoming Halo 4 are not to be trusted.

  If you see a page claiming to allow you to sign up for a Halo 4 beta be advised, IT'S A FAKE, he posted, which is pretty conclusive. It seems fans had been lured in by unscrupulous phishing sites which requested personal account details in return for access to the hotly anticipated FPS sequel.

  Halo 4 sees the return of Master Chief, having sat out both Halo ODST and Halo: Reach, and marks the start of a new trilogy for the award-winning series. The game is expected later this year, exclusively for Xbox 360 of course, but Microsoft has yet to announce any further details.

  Published: 20/01/2012

• Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary - Review

  Ten year itch...

  Ten years is a long time in any business, but in video games it's an absolute age. Since 2001 we've seen the rise of online gaming, the increasing domination of the console shooter and the ascension of the Xbox as one of the premiere gaming brands.

  There's one game that's been instrumental in all three of those things, of course, and Bungie's 2001 Halo: Combat Evolved has helped usher in and define an entire generation of gaming. And ten years on, it's perfect timing for Microsoft to celebrate the franchise that's helped it get to where it is today.

  Ringing in the changes

  Going back to Halo: Combat Evolved's world was always going to be a tricky business, but to the credit of Saber Interactive - the developer that's largely responsible for this remake - it's been handled delicately.

  Graphics in 2001 weren't quite what they are today, and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary's biggest change comes to the visuals. The strange alien world of Installation 04 pops with a clarity not possible on the last Xbox, and the game looks and feels as good as any shooter that's been released on the 360 in the past year.

  There's still a brilliant sense of wonder when stepping from the wreckage of an escape pod early on in the game's campaign, and Halo itself remains one of the great sci-fi creations conjured up by video games. Lavish purples mix with vibrant greens to create a backdrop that's much more colourful than the monochrome shooters that dominate today, and as such it's a refreshing place to explore.

  Remaster Chief

  One of Anniversary's neatest touches is how the visual update can be washed away with the press of a single button, swapping out the bold new visuals for those of the 2001 original. The difference is striking - in stark contrast, the original Halo can look shockingly primitive, though we'd be lying if we said that some of the magic hasn't been lost in the new version.

  What hasn't been lost is the thrill of playing the original Halo, as Anniversary wisely doesn't tinker with the core mechanics of Combat Evolved at all. What's really incredible is how Halo's mechanics haven't aged a jot - playing around in this sandbox shooter is as fun now as it was back in 2001.

  There's a freedom to Halo's shooting that's been lost in many of the games that followed it, and the game's strong AI and brilliant set of weapons allow you to engage with it in a thrillingly vast number of ways. As ever with Halo, it's best played with a friend by your side, and Anniversary adds online co-op to the split-screen option of the original.

  Multiplayer Madness

  And as it's Halo, there's a generous helping of multiplayer too. The original maps from the 2001 game are re-purposed, re-imagined, and thrown into the Reach engine so they can benefit from all the perks that last year's definitive take on the series brought with it. Admittedly, it's a shame that you can't play with the four player split-screen on which the original was based, but it's a disappointment that's washed away in one headshot kill, pulled off with the brilliantly overpowered Magnum that makes a return.

  It all makes for a superb celebration of the game that started it all, and Halo Anniversary manages to do justice to the original while freshening it up for a whole new audience to enjoy. Ten years on and it remains one of the best first-person shooters ever made - and here's hoping that Halo can enjoy another decade of brilliance.

   

  

  Halo to the King:
  + Looks as good as any modern shooter.
  + Plays as good as any modern shooter.
  + It's the original Halo, and arguably still the best one.

  Missing the Mark:
  - Original MP modes are missed.
  - New visuals lose some of the original magic.
  

  Published: 24/11/2011

• Halo 4 creative director quits to go indie

  Ryan Payton, lead designer on Halo 4 and a veteran of Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 4 team, has walked away from his job at Microsoft-owned 343 Industries.

  In an interview with Kotaku, he reassured fans that he wasn't leaving because the game was going badly, just that it wasn't the game he wanted to make. "I had a great run at Microsoft," Payton said "I don't regret one day of it. But after a few years, there came a point where I wasn't creatively excited about the project any more."

  Payton relocated back to the US from Japan when his mother became ill with cancer, and he was recently diagnosed with depression. "I think time is the most valuable thing we have," said Payton, "and I've decided that I'm not going to waste one more day working on something that doesn't speak to my values."

  He has now set up his own indie studio, Camoflaj, and aims to create "a game that one billion people play at once...something that hits them harder than a great book or film."

  Halo 4 continues under the guidance of franchise director Frank O'Connor, and will drop into action late in 2012. For those hungry for a taste of Master Chief before then, may we direct you towards Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, which remakes the original Xbox game in glorious HD, adding Kinect commands and co-op play to the mix. Look out for that on November 15th.

  Published: 06/09/2011

• Bungie teases Project Tiger

  What, exactly, has Bungie been up to ever since it bequeathed the Halo series to 343 Industries? Lounging around, munching Haribo and watching repeats of Morse? Hanging around shopping centres and drinking Red Bull and cider? Nope, the legendary studio has been hard at work on a mysterious new game for Activision, and details are finally starting to drip out of the news spout. Most notably, that the game is codenamed Tiger.

  ne reason that Tiger is so intriguing to so many people in the studio is that it's reaching players in a way that we haven't beforesays Bungie co-founder Jason Jones, when the question of their post-Halo work comes up near the end of the studio's 20th anniversary documentary, O Brave New World.

  We even get painfully brief glimpses at what the game might look like. What do we see? Deserts, windmills and some people doing motion capture. What does it all mean? Bungie ain't saying.

  What they do say is that the game will be a ame changerin the same way that the original Halo was, way back in 2001, and that they've created a world where razy s***can happen.

  Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary lands on November 15th, the same day Master Chief blows out ten candles on his birthday cake.

  Published: 05/08/2011

• Xbox fails if Halo flops says Microsoft

  Microsoft has admitted that the performance of its key hardcore game titles, particularly Halo, is their best way of telling how the Xbox 360 console is evolving.

  In an interview with Official Xbox Magazine, Microsoft Game Studios head Phil Spencer said quot;I think it's important that our AAA first party titles do help craft and shape how the platform evolves.

  "If we lose our way with Halo, we lose our way with Xbox, because Halo and the importance of games like Call of Duty and other shooters, that state of the art needs to continue to move forward, and our team at 343 need to move forward with that. That's always going to be one of our success criteria."

  The team at 343 Industries inherited the Halo mantle when creator Bungie moved on to develop a top secret new project for Activision. The Washington-based studio now has two Master Chief related projects in the pipeline. Their HD remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved comes out in November to celebrate the series' 10th birthday. Halo 4 will follow in 2012.
  

  Published: 04/08/2011

• Cool Kinect features for Halo Anniversary

  Frank O'Connor, the man who looks after the Halo series for Microsoft, has spoken up to clarify some of the confusion surrounding the Kinect features in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

  Of course, larifydoesn't mean he's explained exactly what the features will be that would be madness, clearly but in an interview with Official Xbox Magazine he has promised that they'll be ooland that they won't interfere with the classic Halo gameplay.

  Having said that, he went on: "I don't think it's going to be something that people need to be hyper-excited about...I don't want to downplay it, but I think of it like this - I use voice on Netflix and it's awesome, and that's what this'll be. Something that enhances you overall experience."

  Anniversary developer 343 Industries backed up O' Connor's assessment, with a posting on their forum declaring he Kinect features we're exploring with Halo: Anniversary are optional and won't affect your core gameplay experience."

  So, voice commands then? The chance to scream at Guilty Spark and tell it to shut up? We'll have to wait and see. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, a tweaked and HD-sexy remake of the original 2001 Halo game, rockets onto Xbox 360 on November 15th.

  Published: 03/08/2011

• Halo 4 in secret development for two years already

  The explosion of warm fuzzy nerdlove that is the San Diego Comic Con is now winding down for another year, but games had a higher profile than usual thanks to discussion panels for some of this year's biggest upcoming releases.

  Chief among these (oh ho!) was Halo, which is preparing for all kinds of anniversary shenanigans as well as the launch of an all-new trilogy of games with returning hero Master Chief, the only man who can make bright green space armour look good.

  Although Halo 4 was only announced officially at E3 in June, 343 Industries has been working on the project since 2009. The pressure to keep the game secret was often unbearable, Franchise Development Director Frank O'Connor told the assembled fans.

  e know wee going to be under a different spotlight and microscope because wee a new developer as far as the fans are concerned, and that a lot of pressure. But the simplest thing to do is just be confident in the work you are doing and confident in the strengths and talents of the people that work with you and know that they are going to execute on something amazing./p>

  Also revealed at the Con were two new Halo novels. Halo: Grasslands will span the gap between Halo 3 and Halo 4, while Halo: Cryptum (by popular SF novelist Greg Bear) will dip into the distant past to explore the Precursors and the origin of the Halo program.

  Published: 25/07/2011

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