Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary - still the best Halo!

[Mr. Gerbik]

It's Halo CE, so it deserves its own thread!

Linky

From that link:

Quote

A remake of Halo: Combat Evolved is on the way from Microsoft for 360, according to a rumour in the new issue of GamesMaster.

In the next edition of the mag, which will have a blowout on the next Tomb Raider title, it claims that 343 Industries are working on a HD remake of the Bungie shooter that will run from Halo Reach's engine.

The release, if true, is most likely to celebrate the IPs tenth anniversary: the original launched as a launch title for the first Xbox in March 2002.

A Halo 1 HD remake is then set to set the stage for a fully-fledged Halo 4.

343 took over the reigns of the Halo IP following the release of Reach in September, Bungie's last attempt at the series.

As far as I'm concerned, and yes I played the game on legendary from start to finish earlier this year, Halo CE is still by far the best Halo game ever made, and also still one of the best fps games ever made. Certainly in terms of fps combat nothing has come close since. The thought of a remake with online co-op and fancy HD graphics gets me rather excited! However, I don't want them to change anything in terms of level design, enemy placement, AI, indestructible warthogs etc etc. in short, I want the exact same game only with beautiful new graphics in glorious HD and the addition of online co-op and multiplayer, which is the only thing the original sorely lacked.

[Monkeyspill]

I'd be happy with a version that ran on VGA.

[Mr. Gerbik]

I'd be happy with a version that ran on VGA.

Well a HD remake is your best bet, since MS is unlikely to ever bother giving us PAL plebs access to the NTSC version on Live

[Ketchup]

People will still piss and moan when the weapons don't feel right or the AI is slightly different or a rock has moved a foot.

[Lothar Hex]

Well I'll buy it. Hope it's true.

[Guest]

I really, really hope this is true. I don't envy the guys at 343 though. What a task.

[Snowman]

However, I don't want them to change anything in terms of level design, enemy placement, AI, indestructible warthogs etc etc. in short, I want the exact same game only with beautiful new graphics in glorious HD and the addition of online co-op and multiplayer, which is the only thing the original sorely lacked.

They'll get it wrong somehow. I just know they will.

People will still piss and moan when the weapons don't feel right or the AI is slightly different or a rock has moved a foot.

Yes. Yes I will.

[BrerLappin]

In 2 minds about this, on one hand its fantastic news, as CE is still the best game in the series, on the other, CE is only 10 years old, still looks and plays fine (if youve got the PC version it still looks good, at any rate). Not sure a remake is really needed.

[LongHairStu]

As much as I love Halo, as much as I would be quite happy with more Halo every year or couple of years, the series has become something of an enigma. To cut to the chase, for me, each game has something that each of the others lacks. And as such, would I really want a remake to Halo to be exactly as it was? I don't think I'd want to be without armour abilities, or the needle rifle, and elements such as these could bring a lot to the Halo CE setting.

So, basically, I want Halo CE in a Halo Reach skin (save, off the top of my head, the Hunters - they haven't been the same since Halo CE, and should stay as they were in any remake). Having said that, several levels from Reach (and Halo 3 for that matter) felt like Halo CE tributes, so how fresh will a full remake feel?

Still, not much of a rumour, is it? Assets in Reach point in this direction, and it's a relatively easy way for them to get yearly update out without risking quality.

[Moz]

Not to make a bland pro PC post (Halo played like crap on a mouse and was a bit broken) but Halo:CE looks really nice at 1080p 60fps with AA and AF etc. Whether they go that route of tidying up or do a proper remake remains to be seen.

If they remade Halo in the Reach engine it'd be fricking awesome.

[Preacher]

1UP's news item on this pretty much sums it up perfectly:

Now, a couple of interesting points: On the one hand, this seems to fit with what Microsoft Game Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer said back in September about wanting to increase the frequency of Halo releases, even potentially making annual releases. On the other hand, though, this also seems to contradict what Phil Spencer said last month, when he expressed skepticism about "HD remakes" of classic Xbox games. "If you can provide real value to the customer, there could be possibilities for that, but I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it," Spencer said.

[jonamok]

Predictable "fix the library" comment. Otherwise big thumbs up from me.

[Vulgar Monkey]

Ahh, it wasn't even that long ago I spent 1200 points on the straight-up re-release.

[Scarbir]

It's Halo CE, so it deserves its own thread!LinkyI don't want them to change anything in terms of level design, enemy placement, AI, indestructible warthogs etc etc. in short, I want the exact same game only with beautiful new graphics in glorious HD and the addition of online co-op and multiplayer, which is the only thing the original sorely lacked.

Amen to that. If they tweak the power of the pistol by even one bit, I'd have them arrested.

[Mr. Gerbik]

People will still piss and moan when the weapons don't feel right or the AI is slightly different or a rock has moved a foot.

Yes I will. I definitely will. They better get it right or else!

[Space Renegade Ulala]

Fine with me as long as it is just a straight up graphical tart-up and nothing else. Don't fix the bugs, don't tweak the physics, don't add in the lame newer weapons, don't change the grenade properties and, for the love of Christ, leave the guddamn Hunters the fuck alone.

[Jack]

Fine with me as long as it is just a straight up graphical tart-up and nothing else. Don't fix the bugs, don't tweak the physics, don't add in the lame newer weapons, don't change the grenade properties and, for the love of Christ, leave the guddamn Hunters the fuck alone.

They should do both. Have the option when you start a chapter.

[___]

As far as I'm concerned, and yes I played the game on legendary from start to finish earlier this year, Halo CE is still by far the best Halo game ever made, and also still one of the best fps games ever made. Certainly in terms of fps combat nothing has come close since.

That's why there's still an original XBox sitting under my telly.

How can they possibly make it feel exactly the same if it's running on a different engine?

[RubberJohnny]

Fine with me as long as it is just a straight up graphical tart-up and nothing else. Don't fix the bugs, don't tweak the physics, don't add in the lame newer weapons, don't change the grenade properties and, for the love of Christ, leave the guddamn Hunters the fuck alone.

What about the PC Edition content? Usable Fuel Rod Gun, Flamethrower and a Silent Cartographer Multiplayer map.

[Scarbir]

Oh, please no. They just didn't improve the original. The multiplayer maps were pretty bad as well.

It's a bit tragic. Bungie's best game ever was a rushed product for the Xbox launch and yet everything in it was better than its sequels.

[Eighthours]

I'm not sure how some of the level design would fare now. Remember the horrible interior sections with the endlessly repeating rooms and the arrows on the floor? Hmmm.

[Scarbir]

At least you had to find your way around when they got too repetitive... damn repetitive. But it also had horrible, creepy, intense moments. Still prefer it over a huge yellow marker on the screen that removes every sense of exploring from the game.

[Shook]

So, basically, I want Halo CE in a Halo Reach skin

This is what you'll get I imagine.

I want it to be the same as the original, but that just isn't going to happen.

[barkbat]

They should the original game untouched except in HD (classic), and the original in Reach engine (Redux) with added environmental complexity, Reach models, new AI for marines, all the PC extras, and tweaked level design to add diversity and allow for 4 player co-op.

[Okotta]

Sounds good if it's true. I would love online co-op too.

Also, I'd like Capcom to remake Resident Evil 4 and release it for the PS3 and/or 360. Now that would be cool!

[Dr Seedyman]

Sounds good if it's true. I would love online co-op too.

Also, I'd like Capcom to remake Resident Evil 4 and release it for the PS3 and/or 360. Now that would be cool!

Do you have both already?

[Miner Willy]

I'd buy it for sure if it were the exact same game with HD visuals and online co-op. Hell, I'll probably buy it if they fuck it up too, but I'll hate myself and 343.

[Okotta]

Do you have both already?

Both what? PS3 and 360? Have had both since their respective launches.

[Mr Cochese]

It's like some horrific race to add as many superfluous characters after the colon as possible, on what should have been one of the shortest and most iconic videogame titles ever.

[A Hen]

Can the Reach engine handle it? I'm serious - although it does some amazing things, there is substantial slowdown in that bit with

Halsey's lab - face away from the doors to the lab, especially when the enemy bodies mount up, and it chugs to the extent that aiming is very, very difficult. You can see this quickly by playing it in Firefight - it doesn't take long for the amount of stuff to slow the game down when you face out of the tunnel.

I'm thinking about the large environments of Halo, coupled with large numbers of enemies. The Covenant "army" at the end of Two Betrayals (where you can hang back and snipe them) might be a problem in that vast canyon. Or the Forerunner structure in Assault on the Control Room - that's pretty similar to the area I mention above in Reach where there's slowdown.

I realise they can always cut back on the detail to improve the frame rate in these areas, but then it would have less detail than the environments in Reach, which is I guess not what we want/expect.