Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary Review

[Monsterfurby]

But then I guess Halo has never been about graphical prowess.

Erm... I do think that the general opinion at the time of original Halo's announcement and consequent release would say otherwise.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I'll get it.

Of course I will, I'd buy any remake of a game that I loved. I bought Tomb Raider Anniversary and loved it. I still play Halo: CE the original version, and I still love it, probably more than a lot of the other more recent games I've bought.

 

[Kahani]

your motion detector (another first)

Alien vs Predator will be surprised to hear that, given that it came out two years earlier.

For better or worse, Halo is the progenitor of everything you know about videogames in the 21st Century

No, that's Wolfenstein 3D you're thinking of. Don't get me wrong, there have been plenty of good shooters since then and by all accounts Halo is one of them. But aside from improved graphics, limited weapons, regenerating health and knee high walls, nothing has changed. And arguably only one of those can really be considered an improvement. Halo is basically the Apple of shooters - it's a perfectly decent product in its own right, but for some reason people constantly try to pretend it's some revolutionary innovator instead of just one of many similar products doing the same as everyone else.

 

[Sewer Rat]

God dammit Microsoft, why do you not want my money!? It's clean, it's legal, it's moneytastic! All you have to do is release this game for PC, it's not hard! Hell, the Xbox uses a windows based operating system as it is, how damn hard could it possibly be?!

Halo was the first FPS I ever played, and while other games eventually overshadowed it in my mind, I still would love reexperiencing it with a graphical upgrade. I lost my disk for it 2 years ago and as a result, have not been able to play my copy, and was rather excited when I heard this was coming out since in my mind rebuying the original isn't worth it since copies still run around $20 despite the game being 10 years old. But then I heard it was an xbox exclusive... Bullshit, why must you show such disdain for your PC gaming fanbase?!

 

[repeating integers]

Well I believe a lot of people will get it because anyone who never got Halo 1 they can buy it now and not have to deal with out-dated graphics when you can get it with modern graphics, after all it is still a full game. Also anyone that is a halo fan and is buying this game probably already have the original game still

Persoanlly I can't justify paying $60 for a graphics update and a multipler map pack I will never use, even if it is to guy a great game.

Actually, it only costs about $40.

 

[Frostbyte666]

bah forget a remake, what I'd like would be halo 2/3/reach on the pc (2 on a non-vista op) because i am god awful at using a controller when it comes to fps's on consoles and I just won't bother playing it. There's a reason why I have a pc with keyboard and mouse.

 

[Okysho]

When did Mr. Pitts return?! Oh I love his reviews! Whether I agree with him or not he does such a good job. These new guys.... neeeiiirrrr.....

OT: I knew this game was going to be a flop from the start. Anyone who makes a 10th aniversary remake is mishandling their IP I think (Yes pokemon too!!) while I don't think there's anything wrong with remakes in general, it should go through and fix the stuff that didn't work in addition to it's graphical upgrades. To be fair this was 2001 so it kind of did need one, but what got me most when I saw this in the e3 trailer was their boasting about how you could hit select and it'd change instantly back to how it looked TEN YEARS AGO!

I... I just... ugh!!! It's one of the worst premises for re-making a game I've ever heard. If nothing has truly changed as Mr. Pitts has said, then this isn't work a hair on my dwarven beard!

(Now go take your job back, Russ we miss you)

 

[VoidWanderer]

Ironically, Halo was the game that got me into PC gaming back then (along with Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, awesome game), I can't remember how many times I finished this game and how many hours I spent playing multiplayer online (a huge advantage that the PC version had over the original Xbox game). I know that the game feels incredibly slow and clunky to be played on a PC these days, but I just loved it back then, even when I already played such PC classics, like Half-Life 1/2, Max Payne and others.

If I hadn't already sold my Xbox 360, I'd buy this game in a flash.

What is truly ironic is that Halo was supposed to be an Xbox exclusive.

 

[legendp]

Well I believe a lot of people will get it because anyone who never got Halo 1 they can buy it now and not have to deal with out-dated graphics when you can get it with modern graphics, after all it is still a full game. Also anyone that is a halo fan and is buying this game probably already have the original game still

Persoanlly I can't justify paying $60 for a graphics update and a multipler map pack I will never use, even if it is to guy a great game.

Actually, it only costs about $40.

it's $60 in australia (granted the average game is a $110)
Good memories of first time on PC and co-op with friends on xbox (although I would like a anniverasary PC release). personally I think this looks great. I am not a fan of realistic shooters wich is why I like halo so much and plan on getting this. it's not that the halo franchise has not advanced as a FPS massively, it's that the whole FPS genre has not, the only games I can think of that tried to really push the industry recently was crysis 1, mirrors edge and portal 2 (which the last 2 are not really shooters) (and I never really liked half life 2 before someone mentions it)

 

[Arronax]

What does this review tell us about all the games to date?

 

[intheweeds]

Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary Review

The game that started a legacy looks better than ever.

Read Full Article

Was it really necessary to dig on android? What was the point of that? Have you ever even an android? 'Cause mine works perfectly with no effort.

 

[Speakercone]

You defy me to name any other game which feels as fresh now as it did on release? Ignoring the obvious fact that games released very recently (like, this year) will have this quality, I'd be willing to nominate a few:

Team Fortress 2
Half life 2
Portal
Beyond Good and Evil
Zelda: Wind Waker
Mario Galaxy
Yoshi's Island: Super Mario World 2
Gears of War
God of War
Dota

Halo also makes the list, but it's far from the only one. Also, I've never had a problem making my droid 'just work'. Perhaps you should try rebooting yourself?

None of them really re-defined or had a great an impact of there genera of games they are apart of. While portal and Half life 2 had great story telling with amazing stories but neither really re-defined the way in which a First person shooter is played.

Well maybe God of War and Mario Galaxy but I can't say anything about Beyond Good and Evil and Zelda: Wind Waker because I haven't played them.

You're moving the goalposts. The challenge was to find games that "feel as fresh now as they did on release." (paraphrased). Games which were gamechangers in their genre is a different thing. As you've kindly pointed out though, there are a few games in my above post which belong on both lists. Thus, Halo is not singular in this distinction.

Once again I'd like to point out that Halo CE was on release and remains today a really good game. It's just not the only really good game.

 

[repeating integers]

Ironically, Halo was the game that got me into PC gaming back then (along with Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, awesome game), I can't remember how many times I finished this game and how many hours I spent playing multiplayer online (a huge advantage that the PC version had over the original Xbox game). I know that the game feels incredibly slow and clunky to be played on a PC these days, but I just loved it back then, even when I already played such PC classics, like Half-Life 1/2, Max Payne and others.

If I hadn't already sold my Xbox 360, I'd buy this game in a flash.

What is truly ironic is that Halo was supposed to be an Xbox exclusive.

Actually, it was originally supposed to be a mac exclusive. And an RTS. Yeah, this game had a troubled childhood.

 

[Erttheking]

I have to say, for a game that is ten years old I had quite a fun time playing it. I only got it last night and I only finished the first level (Mainly because I also got Skyrim) but for some reason the new graphics and the old engine...it just feels right. I find it oddly fun to keep switching the graphics and say "wow...we came this far"

 

[SnakeoilSage]

Less is more my friend, less is more.

Look at games like Dead Island for example.

I will never say that returning to the basics is a bad idea. More games should follow that kind of lead.

But it is not an innovation and should not be lauded as such.

 

[Erttheking]

if 343 had the decency to make games in the Halo Universe, and not recycle S-117 as a protaganist character maybe. I would like to see a Halo Wars 2, or a Tactical Espionage Action game surrounding the Arbiter, more ODST titles, explore an Ace Combat like Flight Sim or a Mass Effect Esque Rolepalyer 343. this forerunner trilogy idea is garbage.

I actually like what they did with Halo Anniversary. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. You see, I came into the series during 3, and it was nice getting a nice new package with some nice extras with it and being able to play it with some updates.

I actually wish that they would also do a Halo 2 Anniversary, so that I can have Reach, 1, 2, ODST, and 3 all on one system. I'm also very interested in Halo 4 and I'm glad it will also be on the 360.

But as you said, it would be nice for them to branch out, I loved ODST, and Reach too with all it's changes(love the armor abilities, because they've actually leveled the playing field so that it is also a strategy of using abilities along with shooting skills).

I had the same thought about the flight game, because of the space flight level in Reach, which was one of my favorite parts of that game. I've really only played that campaign all the way through 4 times(2 Normal, 1 Heroic, 1 Legendary), but I do pick out single missions on occasion to play by themselves, and that flight mission is the one I play the most.

They could make a game Halo: Sabre, or whatever other type of spacecraft that the UNSC used. Then when you beat the game you unlock Covenant Mode, where you fly Covenant ships and play the missions with a different take where the Covenant win instead of the Humans.

While we're talking about ideas for a new Halo game, I saw a (Fan made) box art cover for when you control a Haylcon class cruiser. How awesome would that be? You could change things around from manuvering the ship and firing the MAC and Archers and switching to a gun turret, maybe take control of a Marine if you get boarded and thrown in a Saber/Longsword mission here and there.

 

[klasbo]

I will never forgive Microsoft for refusing to let me play this on my PC...

after Battlefield 3 fails (which it will, because DICE has absolutely no interest in the competitive community), I think CS:GO will be where things start happening again. Though to be honest, I prefer the wide-open respawn- & positioning-based gameplay of 5v5 BF2, over the SnD variations CS and CoD4 promod gives.

I've played Tf2 competitive for 4 years now... Tournament? you mean season? There's signups every 3 months etf2l and esea have taken over since cal is dead and cevo is on it's way out.

I did not know... The only things I found was an almost completely inactive forum on ESL, and a really old article on Cadred. There was also some results from EMS season 7 where epsilon won (who else? Team Rush doesn't play TF2, so they beat epsilon at the 4players BF3 tournament instead ).

I think moving into a whole other community is maybe a bit big of a commitment, so for now I'm rather gonna see where vitalGaming (my former BF2 team) and Team Rush (where a bunch of my other friends played) will go with BF3 or other games first. I was initially thinking about switching to Starcraft when BF3 fails, but if TF2 really is as active as you say.. I might have to change that.

But I still want the latest Halo games for PC. Seriously.

 

[mariofan1000]

Well, the XBOX classics version of Halo is a pile of shit, so...