At E3, we got our first looks at the remastered Halo 2 Anniversary Campaign on Cairo Station, the first playable mission in the game. At GamesCom, 343 showed off live gameplay from Delta Halo during the Xbox Press briefing and in subsequent streams throughout the week. The remastered campaign will feature instant switching between old and new graphics running at 1080p, 60fps and have Xbox Live Co-op campaign for up to two players.
Bridge
Honor Guard
ODSTs
Sniper Paradise
Gamescom has been a whirlwind of Halo information and juicy details on the upcoming Master Chief Collection. At the end of the Xbox Press event Tuesday morning, Halo took to the stage to tell us about the upcoming Halo Channel App for Xbox one and Windows 8.1 devices, more details on the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta, live gameplay demo of Delta Halo, and Sanctuary unveiled as the next map to officially join the Halo 2 Anniversary multiplayer experience. On this impromptu podcast, we discuss everything revealed during the Halo presentation and other information released throughout the day.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:08:37 — 89.7MB)
During yesterday’s Halo presentation in the Xbox briefing, Sanctuary was officially announced to join Ascension, Coagulation and Zanzibar in Halo 2 Anniversary Multiplayer. Sanctuary is one of the more iconic competitive maps from Halo 2 and earns a well-deserved spot in the remastered multiplayer experience. Two more maps are yet to be revealed with Lockout being unofficially announced by Frankie on NeoGAF, and Beaver Creek being speculated from it’s appearance in the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta trailer.
Sanctuary Comparison – Tomb of Heroes
Sanctuary Comparison – Ancient Secrets
During the Xbox Press briefing, 343 Industries took to the stage to talk about Halo: The Master Chief Collection. During the Halo presentation, they showed off more of what’s to come with the Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta coming this December. Not only will the beta focus on an arena style of Halo gameplay, but is an opportunity for 343 to get valuable fan feedback during the development of the multiplayer experience.
The multiplayer beta includes 11 weapons, 7 maps, 3 game modes and 7 armor sets you can customize. The arena shooter focus of the beta will include 4v4 games to refine the competitive nature at the core of the Halo experience. The multiplayer beta also features “Fair Starts” as described by Quinn DelHoyo:
Small maps that are really tailored to 4v4 combat. We’ve also got fair starts. What that means is, no one is going to have a different loadout than the other person. Every member on Red Team is going to be the same as every member of Blue Team.
Ship Deck
Rooftops
City Scape
Of the eleven weapons coming with the beta, we know of six that will be present in the game (depicted below): Assault Rifle, Battle Rifle, DMR, SMG, Rocket Launcher or RPG and Sniper Rifle.
Thanks to Vic Deleon, we know that one of the maps shown today is a re-imagining of the Halo 2 map Midship.
Beta Map 1 (Midship) – Bridge
Beta Map 1 (Midship) – Center Point
Beta Map 1 (Midship) – Command
Beta Map 1 (Midship) – Command Center
Beta Map 1 (Midship) – Core
Beta Map 1 (Midship) – Decisions
Beta Map 1 (Midship) – Flowing Forms
Beta Map 1 (Midship) – Invitation
Beta Map 1 (Midship) – Map Room
Beta Map 1 (Midship) – Secrets
Beta Map 1 (Midship) – Soell
We don’t know what the second map is, but here’s screenshots of it.
Beta Map 2 – Aftermath
Beta Map 2 – Broadway
Beta Map 2 – Corner
Beta Map 2 – Dark
Beta Map 2 – Dawn
Beta Map 2 – Fanbase
Beta Map 2 – Light
This morning at Gamescom, 343 Industries announced the Halo Channel, a new interactive digital experience that aims to be your source for everything related to the Halo Universe. The new Xbox One and Windows 8.1 devices app connects you to original programming like Halo: Forward Unto Dawn and the upcoming Halo: Nightfall, as well as Community Content, background information into the Halo franchise harkening to the likes of an encyclopedia, and supercharged Twitch integration. The app launches this fall with The Master Chief Collection on November 11th.
Twitch broadcast within the Halo Channel includes live stats during a match being watched, including the “kill feed” and scores for all players during a match. The Halo Encyclopedia lets you dive into the background of scenes your watching in original features like FUD and Nightfall. You can share your experience with friends via integrated social media platforms like Twitter. Rewards can be earned and unlocked by watching Halo programming. Rewards include in-game content for upcoming Halo titles like The Master Chief Collection and Halo 5: Guardians. You can access the Halo Channel on Windows 8.1 devices by syncing it to your Xbox One, acting as a second screen where you can seamlessly transition your experience from your TV to your Windows device.
Halo Channel Live and Welcome Screen
Encyclopedia
Promo
Scene Explorer
Twitch TV Stream
Social Feed
Halo Channel Guide
Halo Channel Detailed Guide
Multiplatform Access
Challenges and Rewards
Community Polls
Community Poll Results
The Penny Arcade Expo just released their schedule for PAX Prime and includes some Halo events to get involved with. While there are sure to be more details listed out in the 20 Aug and 27 Aug Halo bulletins, two Halo console tournaments and two panels of interest have been announced. A Halo: Reach tourney begins on Friday at 2:00 PM and a Halo 4 tourney on Sunday at 8:00 PM. As for the two panels, here’s the info:
Main Theatre – Saturday 8/30 11:00AM – 12:00PM
Join the Halo Developers from 343 Industries for an in-depth look into Halo: The Master Chief Collection and other upcoming Halo projects and releases. Come celebrate The Master Chief and the future of the franchise as we take you on the next steps of your Halo journey.
Panelists: Dan Ayoub, Executive Producer; Frank O’connor, Franchise Director; Kiki Wolfkill, Partner Executive Producer
Notice in the description how it says, “and other upcoming Halo projects and releases.” This is likely just for Halo 5: Guardians, but with the term “projects”, perhaps there’s something else they are working on they will be discussing, like a Halo Wars sequel.
Sphinx Theatre – Saturday 8/30 5:30PM – 6:30PM
What does it take to write music for games? Hear from five of the industry’s most accomplished composers as they share their experiences and discuss the craft of scoring music for some of the most popular titles in interactive entertainment. Featuring the award-winning composers of Assassin’s Creed, Bastion, Borderlands, Dead Rising, Destiny, Halo, Hitman, Mass Effect, Ratchet & Clank, State of Decay, Sunset Overdrive, Transistor, and many more!
Panelists: Martin O’Donnell, Jesper Kyd, Darren Korb, Boris Salchow, Sascha Dikiciyan, Oleksa Lozowchuk
We will be at both panels showing off our Halo support, so if you’re going to be at PAX, we’d love to meet you.
Next week, Halo heads to Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, what is essentially the European version of E3. Bravo details all the Halo sightings you’ll find at Gamescom in this week’s Halo Bulletin, which will include the first Halo 2 Anniversary Tournament. Halo will have a stage presence during the Xbox briefing on Tuesday and will likely announce the next map in the Halo 2 Anniversary experience on Wednesday from the Xbox booth. Halo: The Master Chief Collection Special Editions have been spotted and available exclusively from Game.co.uk, thankfully just retailer and not country exclusive.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:15:16 — 52.7MB)
iTunes
Zune
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch