Halo: The Master Cheif Collection is Golden

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Dust Storm

E3-2014-Halo-2-Anniversary-Cairo-Station-Chief-Hero-Home-jpgToday, Halo fans everywhere rejoiced when the announcement came in that Halo: The Master Chief Collection has gone GOLD, but that’s not all!  Since the game is ready for prime time, you can pre-order your digital copy of the game and pre-download the content today from the Xbox Marketplace.  The digital version does come with the Microsoft Store pre-order Boom Skull so you don’t miss out on the digital goodies.

The Master Chief Collection is so large and complete that after the 45GB of space the game takes up on one disc will be a day-one 20GB update that will deliver the rest of the game’s content to your console.  Campaign is playable straight from the initial game install, which you can sink your teeth into while you wait for the update to download.  Spartan Ops will be a separate update coming in December.

We want to congratulate everyone on the 343 Industries team who has made this a reality and we can’t wait to play it in just under four weeks!

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The Eight Halo Multiplayer Maps Making their Xbox Debut

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Dust Storm

H2DistrictIf you think you’ve played every single Halo multiplayer map, but you’ve never touched the PC side of Halo, then you haven’t quite played them.  Among the six new remastered maps for Halo 2 Anniversary, eight maps exclusive to Halo: CE and Halo 2 Vista for PC are making their way to Xbox One in The Master Chief Collection.  Six maps from Halo: CE including Death Island, Danger Canyon, Infinity, Ice Fields, Gephyrophobia and Timberland and two maps from Halo 2 Vista including District and Uplift will make great additions to the multiplayer sandbox.  One of the maps may be familiar to fans who played Halo: CE Anniversary’s Ridgeline, which was a remake of the original Timberlands.

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New Campaign Leaderboards for TMCC

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Dust Storm

halo-the-master-chief-collection-leaderboardsHalo: The Master Chief Collection is taking the campaign experience to new heights introducing an all new leaderboard system that takes Halo 3, ODST and Reach’s scoring system to a whole new level.  We already know from the list of achievements announced last week that every campaign will have timers and scoring, and with the new leaderboard, you can compare your progress to friends in real time!  From the unified UI, you can select a rival that will enable a HUD element in-game that tracks your score and time progress against your rivals.

One other feature mentioned in the video is the ability to select an achievement from your career stats and automatically jump to the right mission or playlist with the correct settings to earn the achievement, similar to Halo: Reach’s challenges.

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Halo: Spartan Strike Announced for Windows 8 and Steam

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Dust Storm

halo-spartan-strike-key-art-horizontal-rgb-finalThe next installment of Halo twin-stick shooters is coming with Halo: Spartan Strike.  The spiritual successor to Spartan Assault comes with new Promethean enemies, new weapons, new armor abilities, drivable Warthog and the new Kestrel VTOL!  Spartan Strike starts in New Mombasa and takes players through 30 missions to Gamma Halo.  Spartan Strike is developed by 343 Industries in conjunction with Vanguard Games and releases on Windows 8, Windows Phone and Steam December 12th, 2014 for 5.99USD.

IGN sat down with Fred LaPorte from 343 Industries talking about Spartan Strike and some of the new features we will see in the game.  The game starts in 2552 during the events of Halo 2 as you are trying to recover an artifact in New Mombasa the Covenant are trying to recover and eventually takes players to 2557 during the events of Halo 5 on Gamma Halo and New Alexandria.  There are currently no plans for Xbox platforms or other mobile platforms.  Windows and Steam achievements are separate and three of the Windows achievements will unlock entitlements in The Master Chief Collection.  Micro-transactions have also been removed.

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Halo at 1080p Videos from IGN

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Dust Storm

Halo: The Master Chief CollectionWhile we’ve been inundated with footage of Halo 2 Anniversary, there hasn’t been much to show of the classic graphics of Halo: CE and Halo 2, until now.  IGN has posted two videos showing off how smooth HD 60FPS Halo can look, even for games that are a decade old.  Halo: CE will be running the anniversary campaign and classic multiplayer while Halo 2 is a mix of anniversary campaign, classic multiplayer, and the select Halo 2 Anniversary multiplayer experience featuring the six remastered maps.

Halo: CE at 1080P, 60FPS

Halo 2 at 1080P*, 60FPS

Halo 3 at 1080P, 60FPS

Halo 4 at 1080P, 60FPS

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Halo 2 Anniversary Soundtrack Sampler

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Dust Storm

h2a-soundtrack-centerAt Pax Prime in Seattle this year, our ears were treated to the first sound bites of the remastered soundtrack for Halo 2 Anniversary.  IGN has posted the new Halo Theme Gungnir Mix and 5 track samples from the soundtrack including some of the more iconic pieces from Halo 2.  The soundtrack you hear in game is tied to the engine you are running, so as you’re switching back and forth, so will the soundtrack audio.  The soundtrack is available for pre-order from Amazon and releases alongside The Master Chief Collection on November 11th.

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Podtacular 446: NYCC 2014

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Dust Storm

This past weekend was New York Comic Con and unfortunately the Halo presence there was minimal.  Frankie had two different signings at Mega Bloks and Dark Horse, but other than that, 343 was absent this year, which is a little odd being just before the release of TMCC.  No matter however because there were plenty of displays showing off new Halo figures, toys and publications.  Thanks to our friends over at Halo Collector, we were able to attend and get some first hand looks at what’s to come.  There were many figures ranging from McFarlane Toys to Mega Bloks, to Square Enix, to Insight Editions, which had the only new, purchasable Halo merchandise at the show with the Halo journal and poster collection.  Kevin Hurd and Laird MacLean from Halo Collector join us to discuss the upcoming toys we saw this weekend.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:56:14 — 80.9MB)

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