Excellent read below about 343 working with modding teams to bring as much cut content from HCE and H2C to the retail build. Do be aware this will mostly be used in PC modding and there is no guarantee this will come to Xbox.
So. What does this mean to the wider Halo community? The TLDR is that we are working to bring as much of this prerelease content to the community as possible, using the Editing Kits for Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
Data, tags, everything you need to put these in your own mod, and enough information to let experienced modders experiment, remix, and even port to other Halo engines than what they were made for (not other games, read your license info, folks!)
A piece of me was hoping it’d be implemented into the game itself, the phrasing can make it confusing whether these were just for modding tools or for general use. I’d love to be able to use that Orion armor as a cosmetic option or Spectre as a multiplayer vehicle option outside of modding. Though the new NPCs and Campaign levels make sense as PC modding exclusive.
I’m curious if maps at the least could be made publicly playable in matchmaking, but as a console player it’s still exciting to read about all the history.
Maybe if they restore that one gearbox map Indoor, they might add the Specter and other goodies?
I’m just hoping the wording on some of the animation stuff is an open “we’re removing the gearbox workarounds for the legitimate Bungie
content”
I also hope they actually do intend to add the other bipeds as customization in CE similar to how ODST does it.
It’s very cool to see this happening. The idea that we could finally get to play the Halo 2 E3 level is incredible. Would love to get to see that level with Halo 2 Anniversary graphics. And if they’re doing the opening and closing cutscenes with Blur? That would be amazing looking. Pretty cool to see MCC still getting this kind of support even after 343 announced they were pulling back on how much they were gonna do with Infinite’s release. So fingers crossed that we might get more new multiplayer maps down the line too.
Them doing the cutscenes with blur may be a little optimistic I feel like we could see the gameplay in the H2A graphics possibly but that’s at best, the fact it’s coming at all is great though
As a PC player, I’d be convinced to buy the game if 343 managed to restore the long-rumored “split screen” gameplay.
See, as early as Halo CE, there were whispers of modes where multiple players could play the game at once - with just one console and one TV or monitor! No fighting for outlets, lugging around displays, or cobbling together janky LAN setups; people would just be able to play together on what was already set up in the living room.
Of course, this clearly never came to pass, due to both technological and lore issues. How can you possibly show multiple camera angles on one monitor? What methods exist for connecting and polling more than one input device? Can there really be more than one Master Chief running around? Ultimately, Bungie was forced to scrap the idea, time after time.
However, with the power of modern PCs, I believe 343 can look at what remains of the old code and implement a workable solution. I know it’s a high hurdle to clear, but I don’t doubt that they can do it if they put their minds to it.
See, I’d much rather this be made into a paid DLC with:
New cyborg armor usable in CE customization.
CE campaign playable with new assets in each level (weapons/vehicles/characters/creatures)
Halo 2 Earth City playable mission…
I was gonna suggest new weapons and vehicles and things only be accessible to host in custom games through this, but I dunno how they’d stop people from downloading custom gametypes that feature them.
;than a microtransaction method to buy Spartan points.
Personally I would prefer to have the modding community have access to a lot of this stuff for free and eventually release even more amazing content for free. Maybe some of the content can be polished enough to make its way into the retail build proper, but I don’t see any reason why they need to paywall this sorta stuff.
Y’know, with what they’re kind of saying in regards to maps…
It just crossed my mind they might genuinely add that rumored Blastacular map from Halo 2 Classic that was “cut for the wrong reasons”, maybe the other ones like anchorpoint to.
If they do, everyone should mark down “CE and Halo 2 get new maps” on their bingo cards
It would be nice to get cut-maps to make their return alongside armors.
Sure we have Halo Online maps coming to Halo 3, but what about Halo 4’s lost maps or Halo 2’s cut map of “Anchor Point”?
I know the modding community should have the assets, I’m just suggesting that they let us use these cosmetics in the retail multiplayer, and give us new versions of retail version campaign content, maybe some new related achievements, particularly for console players, as another small payed dlc, which I’m suggesting because it’d be better than introducing limitless mtx.
Sure it’ll be interesting to see on console and if fails I could probably a console like experience with the Steam Deck someday. I just hope these updates help with long term population.