The community as a whole has very mixed feelings about whether or not H3A should happen. What are your thoughts? My personal viewpoint: People say we don't need it, and that we can already play Halo 3 on MCC, however... It is obvious that MCC is a shattered fragment of a game. As for matchmaking, you can't play Halo 3 the way you want. If you do go into the H3 specific playlist, you only have access to the smallest amount H3 has to offer. Maps are prioritized to favorites, and often, the voting system means you end up playing whatever map has BR starts. Good luck getting any variety of play. This is not the Halo 3 experience people remember, or want. This is a drop in the ocean of desired content. We haven't had an actual remaster yet. CE anniversary was just a campaign remaster, and MP was attached to Reach. H2 anniversary was a campaign remaster, but a frankenstein multiplayer that pleased very few. MCC ported the worst versions of each game, is plagued with bugs, and inconsistencies. If there is to be a Halo 3 anniversary, it needs to be a true remaster. Updating visuals, but retaining same art style. Retaining physics and multiplayer components. (But improving the hit detection of the battle rifle. Not the accuracy, but the consistency.) ALL multiplayer maps are to be remade, not a handful like H2A, that were restricted to certain playlists. Implement the Halo 5 forge engine, to create maps within the Halo 3 sandbox. This would be a free content update to MCC as a relaunch of the title, completely updating UI, and fixing all known bugs/problems. This is the only way an H3A could be justified. It would not pull resources from H6 development. (The two projects are not tied.) Playlist Management: Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, Big Team Battle, Team Doubles, Halo 3 Anniversary There is no need to include full playlists for Griffball, Snipers, Actionsack, or anything else unnecessary. People do not hop back into MCC to play those playlists exclusively. It only divides the already divided player base. Make MCC focused around H3A, fix the problems and UI/menus, make it free. (Entirely possible) Also worth noting, is that it will showcase the true desires of the community to be able to decide between classic and new Halo. Especially if H6 continues the trend.
I like a lot of your points, but I would prefer it be made separately from MCC as it has tarnished the Halo name and even associating anything with it will make people turn away.
The idea that it comes with MCC would make it free. As a means of saying "We're sorry" Where as if it was a separate game, it would likely cost between $30-$60 which would absolutely kill the customer base. In addition then, we would have a real MCC like we were promised. I don't think associating it with MCC would hurt if they actually just fixed game. The community would rejoice, and hopefully install some faith back into the franchise.
I feel like they could kill two birds with one stone. - Have H3A be a paid DLC for MCC - Doing this can give an excuse for 343 to include a patch to fix their **** on MCC while bringing a large population back to MCC If they did this, I feel like it would be generally well received and it would give an excuse for people to come back to MCC. Of course some people may say that MCC is dead but if it weren't for its huge flop, MCC would probably still be thriving today. If 343 were able to make a huge free patch update along with releasing a H3A paid DLC, it could be a success and please two different kinds of people. The paid DLC may be an issue too but it is only optional since technically Halo 3 is in the game. And if the DLC only cost like $20 it'd be better than a full $60 game
add a whole game remaster that takes time and money to make, for free, and add it to mcc, and fix all of the bugs, and the ui, and everything wrong. sounds reasonable. There's a couple issues. #1 if it was easy to fix, wouldn't it be fixed? #2 how does adding an entire remaster, allowing it to work with what already exists, not going to be extremely buggy? #3 That ship has sailed, adding it for free might inspire a lot of people, but really its a net loss of profit. We are talking about a company, not a charity.
I don't think H3A is coming but if it does, with the features and content you stated, even with a pricetag, I would break my H5 disc in half and run to the store.
I would like H3A to happen because I want to play H3 online again. Not so much for the updated graphics. With that said, I don't want to see it happen because somehow 343 will **** it up.
The three most core reasons I think 343 should give us Halo 3: Anniversary is because: #1: We have already been served the first two anniversary editions, so why not complete a remastered original trilogy? #2: Halo 3's tenth birthday is fast approaching. #3: As each and every one of us are well aware, there is a huge rift and contraversy among the community between the two different artisitc visions for our beloved franchise. Giving us Halo 3: Anniversary would greatly cater to fans of Bungie's original art style. However, with the latter being said, I still think it is doubtful we will see any sign of this at E3 this year. Who knows- we shall see.
#1 No. You can see a multitude of elongated waiting for patches. Even the smallest of details; as small as fixing an intro camera in a single H5 map. They prolong any action to whenever the next content update is. There have been MONTHS where we waited for them to fix ONE incorrectly labeled initial spawn point on Nokyards BTB map in matchmaking. Months. This didn't fall through the cracks, it was an obvious flaw on the day it released, that would have taken no more than 60 seconds in forge to correct. That is absolutely absurd. So no, just because it is easy to fix does not mean it would already be fixed. Now obviously a game UI is more difficult, sure. But realistically, MCC has been out now for what 2 years? That is the entire development window some games are built in from the ground up. There has been sufficient enough time to fix it. After all, we're talking about ports. There is no reason for the game to be as flawed as it launched, and still is to this day. The game was contracted out to another studio, but 343 is responsible for it. There was no debugging, no testing, just a shipped product. 343 was completely aware of the state of the game before it launched. And they have yet to apologize. Do you realize this? They have not publicly stated any sort of apology for the state of the game. Just "stay tuned" or "we're looking into it". After two years? The only explanation I can gather is that the game is being remade, and finalized. #2 It wouldn't be extremely buggy, because the game would be remade. You wouldn't just drop a remaster into MCC as is, the same way you wouldn't just drop H5 into MCC as is. You would have to fix the known issues first. Once you have a working and polished game, adding content is easy. All you do is add menu options to access it. There isn't a science behind it. #3 It is such a pathetic and lazy excuse to say "They're a business. It wouldn't be profitable." No ****. But that doesn't mean they can walk away from their mess like nothing ever happened. What would happen if automotive companies built trucks and cars that had "issues" that caused them to stop driving. Would it be okay to accept that you bought a brick (like MCC) or would you want there to be a recall, on the companies expense? Would you still say "that ship has sailed"... Would you still say "oh well they're a company, not a charity, guess I'll just buy another car." If you would accept it you would be ignorant, idiotic, and out of money. The same applies to 343 and MCC. Issue the recall. Fix it, or give back the money. You do yourself a great disservice with that state of mind.
Forget about Halo 3: Anniversary, it's wishful thinking. It would never be the game you imagine. 343 would make wrong decisions just like they did with Halo 2: Anniversary. They actually upgraded the Halo 2 campaign's visuals, which they did a really good job on. They kept the same engine with the same sandbox, but updated the visuals, which still looked like Bungie's art style. Perfection. You know the rest of the story... They did not use that engine for H2A. They rather used their shitty, way worse Halo 4 engine and actually waisted time in doing so, although they already had the perfect H2A! In the meantime they could have focused on finishing the whole product! So why do you, ever, think it would be the Halo 3: Anniversay you desire? There are employees at 343, who make many wrong and fatal decisions. Unfortunately, those people also are most likely the ones that are in positions of power. Very bad combination. Halo 6 is going to be as bad as Halo 5. H3A will never happen, and I'm happy 343 is not making it, since 343 as a collective would **** it up.
I miss bubble shields so much ): I don't really care for competitive Halo 5 but man Halo 3 had this feel to it that other games didn't have, I actually thoroughly enjoyed competitive gameplay on it. I think the best course of action is to patch MCC and release it on PC so they can get funds back from the money spent on patching it then release the Halo 3 dlc with Halo 6 beta in the future. Of course this would patch both versions while also bringing the PC community back, given they don't release a half ass port. I hate how competitive and casual is so divided with people arguing what should be brought back, I wish they would just give us all the features but keep competitive fixed with strict abilities and rule sets. Loadouts and abilities are so great for customs and casual playlists.
With everything being said and done, this is where a company puts their foot down and steers Halo in its planned direction partnered with the delicate aid (at their discretion) of the community feedback program. That's the only way to do this right. Hypothetically, If they decided to say **** it, and listen to everything from everyone, Halo would be no more and will have died to the community driving it into the ground. A company must learn the do's and don'ts and apply it to the future. Having said that, I believe Halo 6 will be a strong comeback. Can you imagine 343 crashing this money-making icon into the ground? Wrong answer. I don't think so. Corporate needs to better accomodate the developer so that the developer may better accomodate the people. End rant.
@Given To Fly I agree with a lot of what you have to say. Though I definitely feel that money needs to change hands to make that happen. Here's a few things I want to see happen. -Continue the fair pricing that has been offered with previous Halo Anniversary titles. -Offer Halo 3A as stand alone product that, if installed, can also be accessed from within the Halo MCC. -Offer MCC either free with the purchase of Halo 3A or just strait up offer it free. (MCC is already in trickle sales. Including it free promotes future titles as well as will contribute to Halo 3A sales) -Use some of that Halo 3A money to fix/service MCC -Remaster all Halo 3 maps. (They don't need to reinvent the wheel here, a fresh coat of paint is all that's required) -Access to all Halo 3 Forge pieces (original and remastered) from within the latest Forge engine, plus a few new pieces (set pieces?) in the same style for good measure. -Include classic Forge with access to the old fileshare. -Update the classic Forge controls to function as closely as possible to the newer control style. -Blur studio - need I say more? As another note, I don't so much mind if all remastered maps are present at release, as long as they are being dropped in post launch. A set schedule is not necessary, but I would prefer they release when each individual map is completed, as opposed to waiting for an arbitrary date or for 3 maps to be completed.