14 DAY TRIAL // Developer 343 Industries has revealed a plentiful bounty of details regarding the upcoming Halo: The Master Chief Collection, due out on November 11 on the Xbox One.
The collection puts together the first four titles in the series and paves the way for Halo 5: Guardians, containing various story hints that lead up to the events in the upcoming next-gen first-person shooter.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection will deliver enhanced graphics, with all the games playing in 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second, and will also pack some new features to surprise long-time fans of the series.
343 Industries has decided to regale their fans with an extensive Q&A over on Halo Waypoint, covering all four games that will be bundled together in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, revealing a ton of trivia, such as the fact that the work on the collection started years ago, even before Halo 4 was alive and kicking on the Xbox 360, as well as some useful info, like the collection also coming in a digital download edition that includes all the bonus extras.
What bonus extras, you might be wondering? Well, nothing much, just Halo: Nightfall, a digital series directed by none other than the legendary Ridley Scott, serving as an origin story for the new protagonist of Halo 5: Guardians, Agent Locke.
That's not enough? Okay, it also includes unfettered access to the Halo 5: Guardians beta, scheduled to take off on December 27, and to run through January 15, 2015.
Community Manager Andy Dudynsky has also responded to a ton of other questions from Halo fans, confirming that spectator mode is being trimmed from all the games in the collection, as the Xbox One's Twitch integration is a superior gameplay sharing solution, allowing users to seamlessly stream their matches, speedruns, Forge sessions and whatever else they would like.
"We are making huge investments to deliver a premium experience at 1080p, 60 fps. Having said that, the original game had a lot of dependencies running at 30 fps so we are focusing on making sure Halo 2 plays the way it did 'post-patch.' Gameplay will feel the way you remember it," Dudynsky reveals.
He has also informed the community that the multiplayer maps from Halo 3, Halo 4 and Halo 2: Anniversary can be modified in Forge mode, but that the developer will offer more details on that soon.
"We are dedicated to bringing a full and fun experience to Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One, providing you with dedicated servers, a unified interface, increased visual fidelity, and gameplay running at 60 fps. We do not have any plans to bring the game to Xbox 360 as the game size, enhanced features and technical specifications simply can't support it," he explains when asked if there's any chance the collection might also hit the 360.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is coming to the Xbox One on November 11, offering fans of the Halo series to relive cherished moments together with their friends, in either online or split-screen co-op.