H3A Isn't Happening? Here's why it SHOULD.

Games Other Halo
1

We’ve had several official sources(Frank o’ Conner, GrimBrotherOne, and even the head of Xbox) confirm Halo 3: Anniversary isn’t happening. Even given that Frank has a history of denying H2A before it was announced, it’s a bit unusual that even the head of Xbox has weighed in on the matter. For the time being I still believe it will happen, because of several reasons that I will list below.

Halo 3; Right on the edge of graphics
So, we’ve all noticed this, I’m sure. Most games today haven’t aged that much - not JUST because of the shorter passage of time, but also because games have become so close to the real world visually that it can’t age that badly(after all, it’s not like the real world constantly has graphic upgrades). Even Halo 3. Compare it to Halo 2 just before they announced Halo 2 Anniversary. Halo 2 definitely aged. Look at Halo 3, though. It hasn’t aged nearly as badly as Halo 2 Anniversary, despite the same amount of time passing after release. That being said, Halo 3 was right on the edge; it’s still aged, but not as badly. With Halo 3 being the last main-trilogy Halo game to not be natively HD, it’s graphics reflected that. A Halo 3: Anniversary(like CEA and H2A) will give it that boost, where it crosses the threshold of aging too badly, meaning H3A would be the last game to require an anniversary. (Heck, even ODST somehow hasn’t aged as much as Halo 3 did.)

Finish what you started

Halo 3 was the final entry in the original(main) trilogy by Bungie. A trilogy, the one place where “third wheel” ISN’T a bad thing. With 343 Industries having released Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Halo 2: Anniversary, it would simply feel utterly incomplete without a Halo 3: Anniversary right alongside it. Halo 3 is the most logical stopping point for the anniversary editions, especially as the last non-HD game.(at least, natively).

Halo 3 - out of place
Halo 3, with the release of CEA and H2A, is the most visually dated Halo game to date. Pretty crazy, huh? Well, that also means that for the occasional re-playthrough of the franchise, Halo 3 looks out of place. Playing through CEA, then H2A, then Halo 3, Halo 4, and Halo 5, Halo 3 feels like the odd one out. Plus, a lot of the later additions to the art-style(everything from a few Halo: Reach grunt armors to the not-perfectly-carved needler needles) are completely excluded from Halo 3 - lending an odd sense of in continuity. Halo 3: Anniversary would of course resolve this.

Sound - remastered
The sound and music in Halo 3 has felt a bit out of place - even as Halo: Reach released. It’s quieter, non stereo-mixed, and while it does avoid traditional gun sounds, that might be one of it’s big downsides.

MCC? Not a problem
Remember how CEA released? It was a remastered campaign alongside Halo: Reach’s multiplayer on six classic Halo: CE maps. I didn’t have a problem with that. They don’t need to completely recreate Halo 3’s multiplayer weapon-for-weapon, power-up for power-up, stat-for-stat, they just need to give us six classic maps in Halo 5’s multiplayer and the custom games can do the rest. (Especially since Halo 5 players already want some classic remakes). Halo 3 Anniversary does not need to be held back by the MCC’s shortcomings.

343 wouldn’t have to touch it, they can focus on Halo 6
Both Halo: CEA and H2A were only overseen by 343 Industries, while Sabre Interactive remastered the campaign, and Certain Affinity designed the multiplayer, and the maps. 343 Industries had a little more hand in H2A because of the MCC, but if H3A releases as it’s own product, that won’t be an issue. Heck, if Sabre Interactive wanted, they wouldn’t even have to create new models; they could just use what they did for H2A.

Blur could do the cutscenes
Considering how few(albeit impressive) cutscenes were in Halo Wars 2, Blur had plenty of time to work on Halo 3(especially since a couple of HW2’s assets were from H2A) - especially given that they could, like Halo Wars 2, simply use Halo 2: Anniversary assets for Halo 3: Anniversary.

One more reason why I personally believe it’s coming:
With all that out of the way, let me take some time to remind you(or inform you in the first place) that Mega, the company responsible for the Halo: Mega Construx line of collectors building sets, has already had a few classic Halo 3 sets leaked - one with a shade turret and two Halo 3 armored Spartans(Scout and CQB), and a line of figures of characters from Halo 3: A brute bodyguard, Cortana(and 343 Guilty Spark), Sgt. Johnson, H3 Master Chief, H3 Arbiter, and the Prophet of Truth. It’s not unusual for Mega to get information early; the MegaBloks Phaeton was seen before the Phaeton was announced in-game.

Tell me, since when does a merchandise company make tons of new, dedicated plastic molds for an old game, for the sake of celebration, when it doesn’t tie directly into something more official and first-party?( Mega hasn’t given us classic-armored Elites ever since Halo 4 was announced(the only exclusion being the Elite Honor Guard, which was more for Halo Wars 2 - which happened to use an H2A design), so why are they suddenly giving us a dedicated Arbiter mold? Something that people won’t buy a dozen of to make an army out of? Something that the un-informed won’t even recognize without official media to remind/introduce them?) What kind of world would we live in if the people at MegaBloks/Construx were simply more celebratory and festive than 343 Industries was?

2

This all makes me wonder. How exactly did guys like Frankie phrase it. That there won’t be Halo 3 Anniversary specifically?

Because that doesn’t mean there can’t be Halo 3 Remastered.

3

Well Phil did say there would be no Halo or Gears led game for Christmas this year. Perhaps his quote was to not confirm it yet. I honestly think it will happen or a MCC 2.0 with 3A included in it (DLC if you own it already). Back to Phils quote in my opinion what I think he’s saying is it’s the year of the Scorpio. He or anyone at Microsoft or 343 isn’t going to confirm a Halo 3A or MCC 2.0 on a forum,twitter or Reddit. It’ll happen at E3. Besides what’s the big title for this Christmas? Crackdown 3 and Sea of Thieves aren’t system sellers and all the big third party games Destiny 2, COD WW2, Battlefront 2, and Read Dead Redemption 2 all have PlayStation exclusive content or timed DLC so you know the advertisements will only be for the PS4. Microsoft needs a seller for Christmas and the Scorpio. Every year since 2006 we’ve had either a Halo or Gears game except in 2013 when Xbox One launched and that was because it was a new console generation and the Scorpio isn’t part of a new console generation it’s an Xbox One with more power to it. Besides what better way to sell your new Xbox One than Halo? I don’t think the masses are going to buy a Scorpio just to play the MCC,Halo 5, Halo Wars DE, or Halo Wars 2 with a 4K patch and that’s it.

4

> 2533274850493408;2:
> This all makes me wonder. How exactly did guys like Frankie phrase it. That there won’t be Halo 3 Anniversary specifically?
>
> Because that doesn’t mean there can’t be Halo 3 Remastered.

He admittedly phrased it a bit differently than he did for H2A. A definitive ‘no’. Some people asked about H3A and GrimBrotherOne replied with a simple, “No.” Frankie usually toys around with it a bit, but he didn’t do that this time.

> 2710872097142413;3:
> Well Phil did say there would be no Halo or Gears led game for Christmas this year. Perhaps his quote was to not confirm it yet. I honestly think it will happen or a MCC 2.0 with 3A included in it (DLC if you own it already). Back to Phils quote in my opinion what I think he’s saying is it’s the year of the Scorpio. He or anyone at Microsoft or 343 isn’t going to confirm a Halo 3A or MCC 2.0 on a forum,twitter or Reddit. It’ll happen at E3. Besides what’s the big title for this Christmas? Crackdown 3 and Sea of Thieves aren’t system sellers and all the big third party games Destiny 2, COD WW2, Battlefront 2, and Read Dead Redemption 2 all have PlayStation exclusive content or timed DLC so you know the advertisements will only be for the PS4. Microsoft needs a seller for Christmas and the Scorpio. Every year since 2006 we’ve had either a Halo or Gears game except in 2013 when Xbox One launched and that was because it was a new console generation and the Scorpio isn’t part of a new console generation it’s an Xbox One with more power to it. Besides what better way to sell your new Xbox One than Halo? I don’t think the masses are going to buy a Scorpio just to play the MCC,Halo 5, Halo Wars DE, or Halo Wars 2 with a 4K patch and that’s it.

Very true. We really won’t know for sure until the time comes, though.

5

I don’t know, I don’t personally find those good enough reasons. It’s already on the Xbox One with upscaling and the upgrade of graphics would not be as dramatic as it was for CE and 2. I just want to see the features that were broken in the MCC fixed and custom games from the Xbox 360 brought to the Xbox One. I know it’s not an amazing argument, but that’s how I personally feel.

6

I stopped reading at “we don’t need full multi -player”. Yes…yes we do , or don’t do it.

Halo 5 is not built to support Halo 3 gameplay , just as Reach wasn’t built to support C.E. (and it showed). For C.E. fans , it died in Reachs’ multi player , as Halo 3 would in 5s’.
Ask for them to release another cash grab to try and pay lip service to the classic fans one last time if you want , but as for me , I say go all in or not at all.

7

These are probably the best reason I’ve seen supporting the release of Halo 3: Anniversary I for that commend you. (Except for maybe the multiplayer thing, while I hate Halo 3s multiplayer, it is iconic and a lot of peoples first experience of Online Multiplayer which means a complete multiplayer would be a mandatory feature of a potential remake.)

I feel like this year would be a bad year to release a Remake, especially since leaks of other games are suggesting this to be the year of long awaited games, particularly for Activision/Blizzard who have Destiny 2, CoD WWII, and the many Overwatch updates that will happen this year. Rockstar are finally releasing a new game, Ubisoft’s major franchises should all be making an appearance this year and Bethesda have brought back Quake, all of this before E3 has even happened.
It’s gunna be hard for a remake of an old game to compete and sell to anyone who didn’t already play the original, and even then there is going to be people miraculously pissed off at nothing.

The only way I can possibly see Halo 3:A having any good attention is through Xbox Scorpio and PC. And by PC I do not mean the Windows Store, after the disastrous launch of HW2 on PC, very few people want to give the Windows Store a second chance. Halo games need to be releasing on all versions of Windows through an actually useful and popular system rather than stupidly taking up space on a store designed for mobile games (I mean the layout of the Windows Store on PC is almost exactly the same as the App Store on an iPad).

8

> 2533274974033696;1:
> We’ve had several official sources(Frank o’ Conner, GrimBrotherOne, and even the head of Xbox) confirm Halo 3: Anniversary isn’t happening. Even given that Frank has a history of denying H2A before it was announced, it’s a bit unusual that even the head of Xbox has weighed in on the matter. For the time being I still believe it will happen, because of several reasons that I will list below.
>
> Halo 3; Right on the edge of graphicsSo, we’ve all noticed this, I’m sure. Most games today haven’t aged that much - not JUST because of the shorter passage of time, but also because games have become so close to the real world visually that it can’t age that badly(after all, it’s not like the real world constantly has graphic upgrades). Even Halo 3. Compare it to Halo 2 just before they announced Halo 2 Anniversary. Halo 2 definitely aged. Look at Halo 3, though. It hasn’t aged nearly as badly as Halo 2 Anniversary, despite the same amount of time passing after release. That being said, Halo 3 was right on the edge; it’s still aged, but not as badly. With Halo 3 being the last main-trilogy Halo game to not be natively HD, it’s graphics reflected that. A Halo 3: Anniversary(like CEA and H2A) will give it that boost, where it crosses the threshold of aging too badly, meaning H3A would be the last game to require an anniversary. (Heck, even ODST somehow hasn’t aged as much as Halo 3 did.)
>
> Finish what you started
> Halo 3 was the final entry in the original(main) trilogy by Bungie. A trilogy, the one place where “third wheel” ISN’T a bad thing. With 343 Industries having released Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Halo 2: Anniversary, it would simply feel utterly incomplete without a Halo 3: Anniversary right alongside it. Halo 3 is the most logical stopping point for the anniversary editions, especially as the last non-HD game.(at least, natively).
>
> Halo 3 - out of placeHalo 3, with the release of CEA and H2A, is the most visually dated Halo game to date. Pretty crazy, huh? Well, that also means that for the occasional re-playthrough of the franchise, Halo 3 looks out of place. Playing through CEA, then H2A, then Halo 3, Halo 4, and Halo 5, Halo 3 feels like the odd one out. Plus, a lot of the later additions to the art-style(everything from a few Halo: Reach grunt armors to the not-perfectly-carved needler needles) are completely excluded from Halo 3 - lending an odd sense of in continuity. Halo 3: Anniversary would of course resolve this.
>
> Sound - remasteredThe sound and music in Halo 3 has felt a bit out of place - even as Halo: Reach released. It’s quieter, non stereo-mixed, and while it does avoid traditional gun sounds, that might be one of it’s big downsides.
>
> MCC? Not a problemRemember how CEA released? It was a remastered campaign alongside Halo: Reach’s multiplayer on six classic Halo: CE maps. I didn’t have a problem with that. They don’t need to completely recreate Halo 3’s multiplayer weapon-for-weapon, power-up for power-up, stat-for-stat, they just need to give us six classic maps in Halo 5’s multiplayer and the custom games can do the rest. (Especially since Halo 5 players already want some classic remakes). Halo 3 Anniversary does not need to be held back by the MCC’s shortcomings.
>
> 343 wouldn’t have to touch it, they can focus on Halo 6Both Halo: CEA and H2A were only overseen by 343 Industries, while Sabre Interactive remastered the campaign, and Certain Affinity designed the multiplayer, and the maps. 343 Industries had a little more hand in H2A because of the MCC, but if H3A releases as it’s own product, that won’t be an issue. Heck, if Sabre Interactive wanted, they wouldn’t even have to create new models; they could just use what they did for H2A.
>
> Blur could do the cutscenesConsidering how few(albeit impressive) cutscenes were in Halo Wars 2, Blur had plenty of time to work on Halo 3(especially since a couple of HW2’s assets were from H2A) - especially given that they could, like Halo Wars 2, simply use Halo 2: Anniversary assets for Halo 3: Anniversary.
>
> **One more reason why I personally believe it’s coming:**With all that out of the way, let me take some time to remind you(or inform you in the first place) that Mega, the company responsible for the Halo: Mega Construx line of collectors building sets, has already had a few classic Halo 3 sets leaked - one with a shade turret and two Halo 3 armored Spartans(Scout and CQB), and a line of figures of characters from Halo 3: A brute bodyguard, Cortana(and 343 Guilty Spark), Sgt. Johnson, H3 Master Chief, H3 Arbiter, and the Prophet of Truth. It’s not unusual for Mega to get information early; the MegaBloks Phaeton was seen before the Phaeton was announced in-game.
>
> Tell me, since when does a merchandise company make tons of new, dedicated plastic molds for an old game, for the sake of celebration, when it doesn’t tie directly into something more official and first-party?( Mega hasn’t given us classic-armored Elites ever since Halo 4 was announced(the only exclusion being the Elite Honor Guard, which was more for Halo Wars 2 - which happened to use an H2A design), so why are they suddenly giving us a dedicated Arbiter mold? Something that people won’t buy a dozen of to make an army out of? Something that the un-informed won’t even recognize without official media to remind/introduce them?) What kind of world would we live in if the people at MegaBloks/Construx were simply more celebratory and festive than 343 Industries was?

Well if it doesn’t happen (because it has been confirmed four times now that it is not happening) don’t be disappointed.

9

> 2533274847627340;6:
> I stopped reading at “we don’t need full multi -player”. Yes…yes we do , or don’t do it.
>
> Halo 5 is not built to support Halo 3 gameplay , just as Reach wasn’t built to support C.E. (and it showed). For C.E. fans , it died in Reachs’ multi player , as Halo 3 would in 5s’.
> Ask for them to release another cash grab to try and pay lip service to the classic fans one last time if you want , but as for me , I say go all in or not at all.

No, no we don’t. Halo 5’s custom game settings are perfectly capable of mimicking Halo 3’s multiplayer. Going all in is what broke the MCC. The more complicated something is, the easier broken it is. The anniversaries are for the campaigns. They are the entire reason for it. H2A’s multiplayer was a rough recreation rather than a proper remaster, showing it wasn’t their main priority. PLUS - the multiplayers don’t NEED visual remasters because VISUALS don’t matter in a PvP arena setting; the campaigns have ALWAYS been the more visually spectacular because there it’s an important part of the experience.

> 2535434980546598;8:
> > 2533274974033696;1:
> >
>
> Well if it doesn’t happen (because it has been confirmed four times now that it is not happening) don’t be disappointed.

I have every right to be disappointed. Maybe if 343 didn’t go down the typical “Boy who cried wolf” path, I would believe them when they say it isn’t coming, but they lost that privilege when they said the same stuff for H2A. Lying to hide a surprise is still lying.

10

> 2533274974033696;9:
> > 2533274847627340;6:
> > I stopped reading at “we don’t need full multi -player”. Yes…yes we do , or don’t do it.
> > Halo 5 is not built to support Halo 3 gameplay , just as Reach wasn’t built to support C.E. (and it showed). For C.E. fans , it died in Reachs’ multi player , as Halo 3 would in 5s’.
> > Ask for them to release another cash grab to try and pay lip service to the classic fans one last time if you want , but as for me , I say go all in or not at all.
>
> No, no we don’t. Halo 5’s custom game settings are perfectly capable of mimicking Halo 3’s multiplayer. Going all in is what broke the MCC. The more complicated something is, the easier broken it is. The anniversaries are for the campaigns. They are the entire reason for it. H2A’s multiplayer was a rough recreation rather than a proper remaster, showing it wasn’t their main priority. PLUS - the multiplayers don’t NEED visual remasters because VISUALS don’t matter in a PvP arena setting; the campaigns have ALWAYS been the more visually spectacular because there it’s an important part of the experience.
>
>
> > 2535434980546598;8:
> > > 2533274974033696;1:
> > >
> >
> > Well if it doesn’t happen (because it has been confirmed four times now that it is not happening) don’t be disappointed.
>
> I have every right to be disappointed. Maybe if 343 didn’t go down the typical “Boy who cried wolf” path, I would believe them when they say it isn’t coming, but they lost that privilege when they said the same stuff for H2A. Lying to hide a surprise is still lying.

No , MCC was overly ambitious and tried to be every thing for every one. I am saying a full Halo 3 experience. Not homogenized , hybrid cross game playlists , no bastardized mechanics. Just Halo 3. Either go all in or don’t do it. The last thing we need is another half -Yoink- port of a classic game.

11

I for once thinks it is going to happen. I’m not going to list my reasons, have done so in other parts of waypoint and all the arguments are similar anyway. If H3A comes out the same time as scoripio it would help boost the amount of scorpios sold. If there is a limited edition console, controllers etc… I can see it selling. It will still be avaialbel on the other xbones so don’t threat.

12

> 2533274847627340;10:
> > 2533274974033696;9:
> >
>
> No , MCC was overly ambitious and tried to be every thing for every one. I am saying a full Halo 3 experience. Not homogenized , hybrid cross game playlists , no bastardized mechanics. Just Halo 3. Either go all in or don’t do it. The last thing we need is another half -Yoink- port of a classic game.

How was the MCC not “all-in”? It was literally everything, original AND enhanced multiplayer. Like it or not, 343i(and Microsoft, who they need to convince a turn-of-profit to) barely wants to risk bothering to put full development on a H3A. We need to make some sacrifices, if we want to see it at all.

The only way I’ll accept them going “all-in” and include the multiplayer is if they remaster the visuals for the multiplayer too. Otherwise they shouldn’t do it and should cut their losses, let go of some stuff, and put out the whole point of an anniversary in the first place.

A multiplayer is replaceable. A singleplayer is not. In fact, I dare-say Halo would benefit from having one multiplayer platform which receives constant updates and expansions(like Halo 5), and keep that separate, and instead release campaign-only Halo games serially.

13

While you may have some good points on why it should happen, Halo 3: Anniversary likely is not being created, due to one large issue: running two game engines simultaneously. Halo: CE and Halo 2 were able to achieve this due to the more simple nature of the original games, but Halo 3 sometimes has large framerate dips in its current state on MCC. The Xbox One would probably have a very difficult time running the original, which still looks pretty good, and some remastered engine, at 60fps, simultaneously.

And don’t even think about the Scorpio; Microsoft has confirmed there will be no Scorpio-exclusive titles.

14

> 2533274991067213;13:
> While you may have some good points on why it should happen, Halo 3: Anniversary likely is not being created, due to one large issue: running two game engines simultaneously. Halo: CE and Halo 2 were able to achieve this due to the more simple nature of the original games, but Halo 3 sometimes has large framerate dips in its current state on MCC. The Xbox One would probably have a very difficult time running the original, which still looks pretty good, and some remastered engine, at 60fps, simultaneously.
>
> And don’t even think about the Scorpio; Microsoft has confirmed there will be no Scorpio-exclusive titles.

Then they don’t have to. As cool as the switching-visuals feature is, it’s not a deal-breaker.

Also, thank god finally someone else who knows the Scorpio isn’t going to have dedicated games designed for it.

15

Halo: CEA was half Reach.
Halo 2: A has been refused its own game.
Halo 3: A has been dumped on by Microsoft.

What’s up with the Anniversary games?

I was horribly disappointed when I received my Halo: CEA only to realize that it was half Reach. I loved, and continue to love, the classic CE MP, and a remastered version would have been perfect. Instead, we got a spin-off’s multiplayer that had so many things wrong with it. (Armor Lock, nonexistent classic weapons (BR (instead we got a slow human Carbine), Covenant Carbine, SMG), Sprint as an AA instead of always on or always off, etc.)

MCC is not awful, but Halo 2: A deserves its own game. MCC is a 5-game conglomerate, making it a cheap and lousy substitute for H2: A, similar to how 343 swapped CE’s MP with Reach’s. You can’t really get H2: A MP in matchmaking because everyone wants H3, which is horrible in MCC. A standalone H2: A is necessary for it to be considered a game and not a gametype, which is exactly what it is in MCC.

H3 came out in '07? So it’s 10 years old now, and it’s not getting any younger. Either it needs a remaster now, or 343 should wait another 5 years for another reasonable “anniversary”. No remaster is unacceptable, and no remastered MP is almost as unacceptable. H3 was the first Halo I played, and it is well worth an anniversary. As has already been said, 343 can oversee the project while letting other companies build it.

MCC was a great idea, but it came out too quickly. it should have come out after Chief dies or this trilogy/saga ends, not after it begins, and H3: A should have been incorporated, while it and H2: A still getting their own games.

16

Halo 3 Anniversary should happen. It should. I would be fine if they didn’t make a remaster of halo 2, but since they did, I think 343 should finish the anniversary trilogy. If it doesn’t happen, then we are left with an awkward broken puzzle of remasters. Yes, it may seem like 343 is overdoing it, but it should be the last anniversary title. Some may say that it looks fine on MCC. I think it looks fine too, but when you play MCC, you are playing one great looking Halo CE, an amazing Halo 2, and then the original Halo 3 which was released in 2007 on XBOX 360. Plus, it may bring back some old fans that left during halo reach and 4. It was the most popular halo game too and it sold a ton of copies. There really is no reason for 343 not to make it.