Spartan Strike Delayed for Early 2015

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Dust Storm

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With the ongoing issues continuing to plague The Master Chief Collection, 343 Industries announced today, a week before the scheduled launch of the title that Spartan Strike will release early 2015.  This delay let’s 343 Industries focus on fixing the Matchmaking system without having to worry about an additional title to maintain. Spartan Strike is the new top-down shooter produced by 343 Industries and Vanguard Games and is the successor to Spartan Assault taking place around the events of Halo 4.

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MCC Patch Notes: Dec 3rd

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Dust Storm

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Another Content Update for The Master Chief Collection has hit the streets focusing on addressing more issues with finding matchmaking games, party stability and post match actions.  Overall it seems that the patches are making a difference for the masses, but it seems there’s still quite a ways to go.  Next week’s update will focus on the all-too-familiar team balance issues with matchmaking that has been sacrificed in the face of finding games.  Let us know how the update has affected you in our forums.

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Bonnie Ross Comments on State of The Master Chief Collection

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Dust Storm

Xbox gamescom 2014 Briefing

A couple days ago, Bonnie Ross came out with a public apology on the current state of Halo: The Master Chief Collection not being the experience we deserve.  In her Status Update on Halo Waypoint, Bonnie states that the studio continues to work around the clock to get the game working.  Their number one priority is to fix the issues with matchmaking that were not made apparent during their internal testing and to roll out updates as quickly as possible that addresses this as well as other issues currently affecting the game.  Server and client side updates will continued to be rolled out as the team evaluates where issues crop up and the latest update is now available next time you launch the game.

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Podtacular 453: Are We Fixed Yet?

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Dust Storm

Since the release of the Master Chief Collection, there have been many frustrations amongst Halo fans with the numerous issues plaguing the game.  The content update that came out this week, while it seems to statistically helped as reported by 343 Industries, many people are either seeing better results, new issues, or a degradation in capabilities.  Despite the issues, the Halo Championship Series announced during the week leading up to the Launch Invitational is shaping up to bring Halo eSports a new life in competitive gaming.  One of the people responsible for helping put together HCS is none other than one of the favored eSports commentators Goldenboy, who happens to be our guest on this episode to give us the details and where we can expect the series to go in the coming months.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:46:31 — 76.5MB)

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Halo 2 Anniversary Forge: Scripting

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Dust Storm

IGN AwashThe fine folks over at Certain Affinity have put together a video showing forgers how scripting works in the new Forge for Halo 2 Anniversary included in The Master Chief Collection.  Scripting adds a whole new dynamic and interactive element available to forgers like we’ve seen in Halo 2 and Halo 3 multiplayer.  See how switches interact with gadgets, channels and spawning to give forgers more options and control over their creations.  Also, as you’ll note in the credits, our friends over at ForgeCast pete the duck and Ducain23 helped contribute to this video.  Well done guys!

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Master Chief Collection Update Goes Live Tomorrow

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Dust Storm

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343 Industries has just announced that the content update that should fix most of the issues people are having with Halo: The Master Chief Collection will go live tomorrow evening.  They have included a list of fixes in their update, which are caused by some larger issues addressed in this update.

Matchmaking

  • Addressed a number of issues that resulted in extended matchmaking times and low matchmaking success rates.
  • Made a number of updates to how matchmaking progress is communicated to the player. With this update, you’ll see better, more frequent and more informative status updates throughout the matchmaking flow – so “Players Found” for example, will be displayed to let players know where they are in the matchmaking process instead of simply wondering if it’s going to connect.
  • The improved matchmaking flow is as follows:
    • Searching
    • Searching for more players
    • Players found
    • Finalizing matchmaking process
    • Connecting session
  • Made an update to ensure that parties stick together when returning from the post-game carnage report
  • Prevented the ability for players “kick” other players from matchmaking games
  • Made an update to ensure that the Roster correctly displays the “searching” UI rather than “My Game Session” while searching for players
  • Removed the possibility to boost ranking through a custom games exploit
  • Made an update to ensure that players cannot get stuck in the matchmaking screen during map voting
  • Made an update to ensure that the “Connecting to your game” message no longer incorrectly displays in the lower right of the screen during gameplay
  • Made an update to the “team creation” phase that allows players to be grouped by team
  • Made an update to prevent players from seeing the “connection failed” dialogue if disconnected during the map voting screen
  • Improved roster / matchmaking lobby stability
  • Made improvements to the accuracy and stability of the “Game Session Details” UI
  • Improved version compatibility

UI

  • Improved emblem and nameplate behavior to ensure that they do not reset to default (especially after game sessions)
  • Corrected career stats that did not update uniformly across different profiles in multiple titles
  • Improved Forge map display names in Theater
  • Corrected various medal inconsistencies across titles

Campaign

  • Made updates to the attainability of various achievements, including “Goat Roped,” “Monopolized,” “You’re Joking,” and “Devastating.”
  • Improved Halo: CE career stat tracking
  • Resolved scoring and time HUD reset and display issues
  • Made an update to ensure that rival emblems are displayed correctly

Halo: CE

  • Improved consistency and reliability of shot registration
  • Improved headshot hitboxes
  • Fixed an issue where respawning players could momentarily appear at their death location
  • Made an update to ensure that the match ends when the entire opposing team quits
  • Improved fall damage consistency (specifically in regards to uneven surfaces)
  • Improved Halo: CE menu and loading screen stability
  • Improved consistency with multikill rewards
  • Made an update to improve post-game carnage report accuracy for Halo: CE FFA games
  • Updated default language settings

Halo 2

  • Made an update to ensure that the team color shown in pre-game lobby matches in-game
  • Improved a variety of networking issues to allow for improved consistency between host and clients in peer to peer matches
  • Improved a variety of networking issues to allow for improved gameplay consistency
  • Made an update to service tag functionality, allowing for service tags to appear for all players
  • Improved the post-game carnage report to correctly display team color
  • Made an update to ensure that the match ends when the entire opposing team quits
  • Improved “original” medal icon functionality in split-screen
  • Improved host migration functionality
  • Corrected “headshot” stat tracking
  • Addressed a crash that occurred with the Scarab skull
  • Addressed art errors that occurred on the opening cinematics for “Uprising” and “High Charity”

Halo 2: Anniversary

  • Made an update to prevent players from gaining achievements in Forge
  • Improved Forge item display names
  • Resolved text overlapping issues
  • Improved split screen stability
  • Made an update to resolve the notorious “-1th” scoreboard text
  • Improved lobby functionality to address players not being able to reconnect to the party leader after completing a match
  • Improved host migration functionality
  • Corrected vehicle and weapon thumbnails in the “Tools of destruction” table in the post-game carnage report
  • Addressed a dedicated server issue that caused gameplay physics issues on Stonetown
  • Improved split-screen party functionality to ensure that players are not directed to a broken lobby screen after completing a game session
  • Improved Forge mode stability
  • Made an update to King of the Hill scoring to prevent multiple hills from counting down at the same time
  • Improved Shrine objective spawn points
  • Improved King of the Hill and Ninjanaut mode stability
  • Addressed an issue where controller vibration could persist during the pause menu
  • Improved Race mode respawn zones

There will be more updates to come but this mountain of an update should address many of the issues that people are having with The Master Chief Collection.  Granted everything goes well, we will migrate our game nights over to the Master Chief Collection starting next week.  Let us know in the forums how the update fairs for you.

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Content Update Delayed for The Master Chief Collection

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Dust Storm

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The content updated slated to be released tomorrow that is supposed to fix a majority of the issues currently plaguing the Master Chief Collection has been delayed allowing for a few more additional fixes and for certification to be completed for the update.  This update is, what many Halo players are hoping, the solution that will get the Master Chief Collection back on track and be the experience we are all hoping for.  From 343 Industries:

This content update includes a variety of fixes across the title, including Matchmaking performance issues, general UI and game stability improvements, as well as fixes for game-game specific issues in Halo: CE, Halo 2, and Halo 2: Anniversary, and more.

Full patch notes will be released soon before the update goes live.  To keep up to date on the efforts 343 Industries are making to address the game’s issue, visit their bug investigation thread on their forums and follow them on Twitter.

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