Grave Gamer News & Views — 343 industries

343 Adding Halo 3: ODST Campaign to MCC for Free

343 Industries, the studio that brought you one of 2014’s higher profile video game related disasters, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, is looking to make amends with its community of fans (and ex-fans, as it were).

343’s own chief, Bonnie Ross, promised that the All-Halo, Only-Halo development house, in addition to fixing the staggering problems damaging the collection’s multiplayer suite, would find a way make things right between the studio and jilted fans.

At the forefront of that initiative is the remastering of Halo 3: ODST’s campaign, planned to be made available at no charge for players that have suffered through MCC’s failings during any date from its November launch through December 19th (anywhere outside that time slot and you’re likely paying to experience the Chief-less spin-off in full 1080p/60fps). Very unfortunately, 343 doesn’t plan on carrying over ODST’s highlight, the co-op Firefight mode, to MCC because fuck us, evidently.

Early-adopters can also look forward to an exclusive in-game nameplate and avatar to commemorate all the time wasted, fruitlessly staring at the matchmaking screen as it actively searched for games to not connect you to. Plus you get a free month of Xbox Live. So there’s that.

Halo 3: ODST, an entry best known as “Halo: Oddest” by clueless mothers shopping for their 12-year-olds circa 2009, will be yours all over again – in even HD-ier HD – sometime in the Spring. Let us not seem ungrateful, but let’s not allow 343 think it’s okay that this isn’t the vastly superior Halo: Reach. An oddest choice.

343 Industries: “We Will Make This Right With Our Fans”

“We have not delivered the experience you deserve,” wrote Bonnie Ross, 343’s head, yesterday. “I personally apologize for this on behalf of us all at 343 Industries. Our team is committed to working around the clock until these issues are resolved.”

Spartan-117’s debut on the Xbox One has been nothing short of disastrous. Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s multiplayer suite, featuring over one hundred maps spanning four main installments, is riddled with matchmaking issues, UI bugs, and has prevented a majority of players from accessing the online components that the series is famous for.

A patch targeting these problems was released late last week but for many, myself included in the ranks, its affects are minuscule with several of the same key issues like long matchmaking times, failed sessions, and uneven rosters still rampant.

“Within 343 Industries and Xbox,” writes Ross, “I can assure you that resolving these issues is our #1 priority.” Both sides of the fence are apparently prepping a slew of content updates meant to improve the title’s dismal state. Ross is careful to note that her team won’t just be analyzing data from the controlled server environment at 343 but will be studying how improvements are working with “fans at home." 

"Our primary and continued focus is first on fixing the issues at hand. Once we’ve done that, we will detail how we will make this right with our fans.” Sounds like free DLC to me.

Given the game’s high profile and Xbox’s posturing for it to be the Holiday console seller, The Master Chief Collection’s problems have overshadowed fellow broken-out-of-box releases like Drive Club, which suffered crippling server difficulties, and Assassin’s Creed Unity, a game so riddled with bugs it’s not uncommon to see NPC’s without a fucking face. You know you’ve got a crisis on your hands when people can forget that horror long enough to be angry at your game.

Halo 5: Guardians Concept Art

by Sparth

Halo 2 Anniversary’s Reworked Cutscenes Get Their Own Trailer

343 Industries main feature of The Master Chief Collection is undoubtedly the HD-ified remake of 2004’s Halo 2. Among the inner-workings being remodeled and reconfigured, the game’s prominent cinematics are getting the 2014 treatment.

Overseen by Blur Studio, the visual effects team responsible for space-bound portions of Avatar, the...

Halo 5: Guardians is a bigger effort than Halo 4.  That applies to the content and scope of the game, as well as the technology in what’s now a brand new and more powerful engine.  Certainly there are some core elements carried over from prior games, but we’ve invested a huge effort in retooling our tech to take full advantage of the Xbox One’s hardware and ecosystem to create worlds and experiences worthy of next-gen.

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