Halo: The Master Chief Collection

I have been a big fan of Halo since day 1. I still remember going to Best Buy on the launch of the original Halo and staying up the entire night playing through the campaign. I also fondly remember all of the LAN parties that used to get set up between my group of friends. Fortunately, Halo just continued to get better and better as it went on, especially the multi-player. I honestly can't even begin to estimate how many hours I logged on Halo 2 multi-player. It would be a pretty scary figure. Well, The Master Chief has really come full circle with this release. This title contains the Anniversary Edition of Halo 1, a new remastered HD version of Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, Halo: Nightfall (a new digital series), and access to the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta. The sheer amount of content here is nothing short of mind numbing. 4 Campaigns, Over 100 multi-player maps, the Halo 5 MP Beta, and the Nightfall digital series. If you were to spend just 10 minutes on each multi-player map, it would take you over 17 hours to play them all. The best part about this release? Its just $59.99. As I stated in the title of this review, I personally consider this to be the single best deal in the entire history of gaming. MS could have easily charged $50-$60, just for the remastered version of Halo 2 and people would have lined up in droves to buy it. I can't think of a single release that beats the Master Chief collection in regards to the sheer amount of content included. It really is just a mind numbing amount of content. Obviously the main attraction here is the remastered edition of Halo 2. I finished the campaign a couple days back and it was truly amazing. The new cut scenes from Blur Studio are absolutely breathtaking and really add to the story. As with the Anniversary edition of Halo 1, Halo 2 runs 2 independent graphics engines simultaneously so you can switch between the old version and the new version with the press of a button. I really love this effect as it really shows the amount of work that has gone into these remastered versions. The difference at times is nothing short of amazing. The advances we have seen in graphics the last 10+ years is truly astounding. All in all, Halo 2 Remastered doesn't disappoint and in all honesty, is worth the price admission all on its own. And being able to jump right into Halo 3 really gets rid of the disappointment many people had with the cliffhanger ending. I really don't think I can add anything to Halo 1 and Halo 3 that already hasn't been said before. Both are amazing games. In fact, they are some of the highest rated games of all time. There was mixed consensus with Halo 4 and many people were disappointed with the multi-player aspect of the game. To be perfectly honest, I didn't really play a lot of Halo 4 MP. When Halo 4 launched, I was having one of my busiest working seasons I have ever had and I just didn't have the time to play a lot of MP. I will say that I absolutely loved the single player campaign. In fact, in regards to story, I think Halo 4 was the best title yet and I am anxiously awaiting the release of Halo 5. Now I understand that there have been some issues in regards to the multi-player component of this game, but I am giving this game a perfect 5 star rating anyways as I understand that these kinds of issues happen. Multi-player gaming is incredibly complex and a LOT of things can and do go wrong on occasion.That is simply the real world. Have you ever seen the Xbox Live Command Center? Is nothing short of INSANE!!! If you can't handle a few small delays while they iron out the MP problems, simply wait a couple weeks before buying MP games like this, or jump into the campaigns for awhile while they are working out the issues. I have no doubt that 343 and MS will work around the clock in getting these issues worked out. At the end of the day, it changes nothing in regards to the overall quality of this release. The MP component of this game will be played years down the road. A few short weeks isn't going to kill anyone. The bottom line - If your a fan of the Master Chief than this is about as no brainer as no brainers get. The sheer amount of content in this release is nothing short of mind blowing and the fact that its only $60 is nothing short of incredible. MS could have easily charged $80-90 bucks for this release. Have you even seen the number of achievements? I hate to think how long its going to take people to get to 100%. If your more interested in the MP than single player, simply wait a few weeks before buying it. If anything, that will just give you the opportunity to scope out the best deals on the game. How any fan of Halo can pass this release up is....well, that is simply beyond my comprehension. In regards to overall value, gaming simply doesn't get any better than this. 5 Stars and then some!!

The Best Game Ever This one has the potential to be the best game ever, you get 4 games for the price of one, the truth is that if you are a Halo fan or have played Halo before and you like it, then you are up to buy this one, once you play Halo 2 you will be amazed by its graphics improvement, is just great. The Best: • You get four games for the price of one • Halo 2 and Halo Combat evolved (Halo 1) have been improved big time, are a new generation games • Has about a 100 multiplayer levels or maps (Included in the game) • You can play all four campaigns and al four online battles • You get to unlock until today achievements for about 4500 • There are a lot of ways to play the multiplayer battles, capture the flag, crazy ball, team slayer, rumble pit, crazy king, and all this could be play in Halo 1, Halo2, Halo3, and Halo 4 modes which means if you play halo 4 you can use the sprint, but if you are playing like halo 2 you can not use it, so the game has all this different ways to play online • It is a never ending game, you can play it forever The Worst: • Multiplayer is broken, now after the update, is working better but still not working perfect • Games in this title are games that have been already released in the past, which means the four games are not new • Multiplayer lobby time is too long, now this has always been this way in halo games Overall this game is Amazing, if they fix the multiplayer issue, then this game will be a killer game better than any other game

Thirteen years of Halo games, all multiplayer maps ever released for each of them (including DLC and maps previously exclusive to Halo PC), 45 campaign missions, remastered and upscaled visuals, this thing is the real deal. I am one of those hardcore fans that have been playing since the original Halo: Combat Evolved on Xbox. And this collection feels like it was made just for me. *What it Includes* First of all, before release, I was curious what the physical copy included exactly. I wasn't sure if it would be four separate discs, one for each game, or what. It is one disc inside a standard size Xbox One case, and download codes for things like the upcoming Halo 5 multiplayer beta (begins December 29th) and the Halo Nightfall video series. No extra frills or fun stuff, unfortunately, and no special/collector's/legendary/etc edition to dump money into for fellow hardcore fans. Amazon pre-orders also got an exclusive skull download code, but that's not that big of a big deal since in a month or so it will be available to the general public. Just to clarify, you are getting Halo 1 Anniversary (re-release of 2011 Xbox 360 re-release of original Xbox 2001 release, and includes both original and updated graphics), Halo 2 Anniversary (brand new re-release of original Xbox 2004 release, includes both original and updated graphics), and Halo 3 & Halo 4 (both releases in higher 1080p resolution with silky smooth 60 frames per second, textures and polygons are the same as original release though). It does not include the two games which were spin-offs of the Master Chief story: Halo 3: ODST & Halo: Reach. *Physical vs Digital* I am glad I purchased the physical version simply for the sake of having a visually complete Halo collection on my shelf with all my other Halo games. I also like the feeling of actually owning something physical that I can lend to a friend or resell (I won't be selling this one though). Being the Halo nerd I am, I also purchased the digital copy, which gives you the benefit of being able to launch it without switching game discs, and that is a legitimate plus. *Download/Installation* This thing takes up 60-80GB of your hard drive space. When you run out of space, you'll eventually need to start deleting games, then doing the whole shuffling game. If you delete Halo MCC and want to re-download/install it again, prepare to give up an entire day waiting for that to complete. It takes FOREVER. The Day 1 update alone was around 20GB. Maybe it depends on your region, but my Xbox Live caps at around 10mbps on my very reliable 50mbps connection. Even overnight while sleeping for 8 hours you'll be lucky to be finished by then. *Experience* I started playing through the campaign playlist right after the midnight release, and played nearly all day since I was lucky enough to have Veteran's day off of work. It was an incredibly enjoyable and nostalgic experience, though there were a few hiccups along the way. A new feature is campaign playlists, which group various campaign missions into one themed session. There's one for all the boss missions across the four games, for example. I just started a co-op Master Chief Saga playlist, which is every single chronological campaign mission of the four games. We went through Halo 1 without a hitch, but midway through Halo 2 things began to get weird. Achievements stopped unlocking, we had some co-op (XBL, not split-screen) disconnects, trouble re-inviting him back into game, and at one point our co-op game became out of sync, and we weren't in the right spot in the game. It was both hilarious and frustrating. Our movements were still registering across the network, but our character positions were all wrong. I was walking around in a field, but on his screen it was showing me stuck way earlier in the level walking into a wall like an idiot. Dying didn't fix this, so eventually we just quit out and restarted the mission, and that fixed it. But it took about 10 minutes for us to get connected and back in. I think half of the issues were Xbox Live related (apparently other games experienced difficulties and achievements not working, etc), and half were due to issues with 343 Industry's servers. I do appreciate that within 24 hours they had acknowledged and took full responsibility for the issues, and even had an in-game main menu pop-up acknowledging the complaints and promised speedy fixes. We ended up taking a break at the peak of the issues and resuming the next day, and everything was working much smoother. There are still some bugs they need to iron out, and they have already promised they are working on them, so I guess we'll see what happens, but I'm pretty confident they will be addressed. *Multiplayer* Halo has always been my favorite multiplayer experience, which makes this collection nearly perfect. You can select any of the four Halo engines to play multiplayer on, which is amazing. They all have their own quirks and features. I tried each of them, and they each brought me back to a different era of nostalgia. The original Halo was always fun due the skill involved in pistol sniping, as well as the quicker, more responsive, and indestructible vehicles. But additedly, these types of characteristics are also what may be frustrating to those that never played the original. Halo 2 brought us our first online multiplayer and matchmaking, which was truly revolutionary. It also added dual-weilding, the energy sword, noob combo, and an excellent collection of maps. Halo 3 added abilities, armor customization, a bunch of new vehicles, and FORGE (which is usable across all four games in this release)! Halo 4 continued to expand the collection of weapons, vehicles, abilities, maps, and added a whole new race of enemies: Promethians. In Halo MCC, you can select whichever spot along the evolution of Halo multiplayer is most to your liking. In all cases, you can create endless custom maps (Forge) and gametypes (with hundreds of settings & tweaks) which alone give nearly infinite replay value. *Replay, Value, Replay Value, Bungie, and Destiny* Speaking of replay value, let me tell you why I think this is the greatest deal currently on Xbox One. As a huge Bungie fan, I was also thrilled for the Xbox One release of Destiny this September. It was fun, and I sank more time in it than I should have, but MAN what an overall disappointment. After the extremely short campaign (done in four hours), all that's left is grinding for materials, grinding for gear/loot, grinding for bounties, and the Vault of Glass raid. That raid is legitimately fun, and a great team experience, but beyond that, there's nothing substantial left to do in the game. Bungie promised the world and delivered Idaho with that game. The Master Chief Collection, on the other hand, delivers at least about 25 hours to get through the campaign once. Then there are 4500 points worth of achievements to collect (by far the highest of any single initial game release). These include revisiting the campaign missions at various difficulties, using various skull combinations, doing a variety of tasks to complete missions in untraditional ways, and discovering a plethora of easter eggs. It's an incredible value. Halo 3 & 4 also expand co-op from 2 players to 4, which is a fantastic standard team size compared to Destiny's general limit of 3 per co-op team ("sorry friend, only room for three here, and you've been voted the lease favorite!"). As far as the story, the Halo saga is captivating, innovative, and even emotional at times. Destiny's was, well, it would be a lie to even claim there is a story there. Comparing Destiny's PvP (Crucible) to the Halo MCC PvP is an even starker difference in both quality and quantity. Destiny's Crucible offers *no* local, split-screen, or system link multiplayer. System link LAN games were a huge selling point to me for all of the Halo games. I love some good XBL multiplayer, but when you can gather a big group of friends and family into one room, there is no replacement for the in-person energy and smack talk involved in a good LAN game. Destiny also has absolutely *no* custom games. It's just five game types that are all variations of the "kill people for points" formula. No CTF, no King of the Hill, just kill people. There is a mode which gives bonus points for controlling spots, but even that mode amounts to getting to a point goal first, and kills give you points in all modes. Destiny has no pure objective types where kills only act as support and don't give points towards winning. It's extremely barebones. When you then compare Halo's gametype library, which is extensive, along with all the possible custom games and maps (MCC's 100+ maps compared to Destiny's NINE), it's really hard to even comprehend that both games cost the same amount. Add Forge custom maps to the mix and Halo is even better of a deal. They always add some really fun and fresh community-created maps to the multiplayer playlists. *Summary* Here's what I love about Halo: The Master Chief Collection: [+] Huge campaign with 2-4 player co-op [+] Biggest collection of multiplayer maps I've ever seen (over 100) [+] Includes even Halo PC maps which most have never seen before, many are surprisingly good [+] Completely remastered visuals for Halo 1 & 2 [+] Upscaled 1080p visuals for Halo 3 & 4 [+] Silky smooth 60fps framerate upgrade from original versions (more on this below) [+] Custom game types and custom maps with Forge for all four games [+] Infinite replay value [+] Some of the best music ever released in a video game (with Halo 2's audio newly remastered as well) [+] HUGE achievements list to encourage even more different ways to play and goals to work towards [+] Plethora of customization options for campaign, multiplayer, custom modes, armor/character, etc [+] Captivating story from beginning to end [+] Local and system link multiplayer, which seems to be a dying breed this generation [+] Best value on Xbox One *by far* as far as how much gameplay time you can get for $60 What I don't like: [-] Some launch day server issues & other bugs [-] Takes up an ungodly amount of space on your hard drive and takes forever to download/install [-] Sadly does not include Firefight/Spartan Ops modes (not sure if this will come later) [-] Framerate sometimes drops during Halo 2A split-screen multiplayer Other thoughts: [*] I would LOVE the same treatment with a Halo ODST & Halo Reach bundle and/or DLC. I hope they can make this happen. [*] Not sure how much support this collection will have with Halo 5 on the horizon. I'm hoping they keep Halo MCC a priority as far as bug fixes and new content. Even after Halo 5 comes out, I will definitely spend a good amount of time switching back to MCC. *Conclusion* At the MSRP of $60, I think this is by far the best value right now on the Xbox One. When you think that in a few months it will likely drop to $30-40, it's even more of a no-brainer purchase. 343 Industries has, in my opinion, done a great job and continuing the Halo legacy. When I see what Bungie has accomplished with Destiny (very little), it makes it easy not to feel so bad that they left Halo in the hands of a new company. This collection is the best fan service release I have ever seen, and I am looking forward to years of fresh and fun gameplay to come. Join me for some classic Blood Gulch CTF, XBL Gamertag: Xyjar.

Easily giving this 5 stars without hesitation and I will explain why. Halo is my favorite videogame series of all time, hands down, and having all of master chief's story right at literally my fingertips is amazing. Multiplayer is broke and frustrating, but I will stand by my rating. 343 is still new, people. They have struggled endlessly with the harsh ratings and beat downs from halo 4. Understandable. Halo 4 started off rough.. now this has a rough start. THEY ARE STILL A NEW COMPANY LEARNING A LOT IN A SMALL AMOUNT OF TIME.. they are working with a titan of a franchise and if you actually look into it, they do everything they possibly can to fix the mistakes. Not for rep, but for the fans. Halo 4 for example, I played when it first came out and hated HATED the multiplayer. it was so mainstream COD feeling and just not halo simply put... 6 Months later i decided to turn back on the matchmaking and was blown away.. So much closer to home. 4 shot br was back, weapon control was much more manageable. The game felt to me like a faster halo 3 with sprinting. But by that time, most of the fanbase was already gone and not everybody got the chance to experience such a GREAT halo.. In my opinion, halo 4 was severely underrated. Its just a shame they didnt start off on the ground that it took them so long to grasp. My point is, yes, 343 is a noobish company still, and not having a solid multiplayer BEFORE release is a rookie mistake, but I promise you that a few weeks/months down the road, this game will feel polished and fresh because of the care 343 has for the franchise and the halo community.

I started out in the 70's with pong, etc... Went through various game consoles, the Mattel Intellivision, Coleco, Atari, etc... I've been doing video games since they first arrived. Most of my high school years were spent dumping quarters in arcades. I never bought a game console as an adult though, until Halo C.E. came out. I saw that, it immediately made me think of the hours spent playing Doom with a null modem cable on a few PC's at my house with friends... So I bought the Xbox, SOLELY so I could play this new Halo game. And it defined everything for me since. Loved the game, loved my son and I playing split screen before I got him his own game consoles so we could play local network multiplayer. Remastered it's looking great, but I still love flipping to the old original graphics, simply because for me, there *IS* no more nostalgic game I think, even going back to the games in the 70's and 80's... Halo C.E. was where I really learned how immersive a game could be. It's also the first time I ever purchased a soundtrack for a video game. I mean, seriously, who ever thought of video game music as being that good? This is an awesome collection, and from what I have seen recently they even include the download for Halo:Reach now with it. The redone first two games bring things up to a more modern console's capabilities, and having all of them available on Xbox One was, for me, the point in time where I could *FINALLY* sell all of the old Xbox 360's I had around here that were kept, basically, for older Halo games. Now that the prices are so low on them years later, it's still a value. I just purchased it again so I could have a copy for my console as well as my son's, and we can start doing multiplayer on it, since I've finally stopped playing Destiny and Destiny 2... Back to the beginning for me, where it all began. Master Chief, Cortana, and a storyline that you can get buried in.

I want to start this review with the observation that most people rated this game before all the patches. If you see any reviews from before around December 27th, disregard them because those people were judging a game that hasn't had the patches released to fix errors and add features. That makes all those angry release day reviews wrong and you shouldn't pay any attention to them. Anything updated or written after December 27th is probably okay assuming it isn't an angry, dejected fanboi. Okay, so my quick review. Pros 1. The multiplayer does, in fact, work. It's a little wonky here and there but it does work and it works about as well as prior Halo games (which have always been wonky). I don't know if people are mis-remembering "the good old days" or if they simply didn't play that much, but matchmaking always took 3-5 minutes on a good night and 5-10 minutes on a bad night to get into a game. That hasn't changed at all from any of the online Halo games. I've had matchmaking do its "search loop" twice since I started playing it and a quick "exit and re-enter" fixed it both times. It's not nearly as bad as the angry mob of 1-star reviewers make it seem. Some people like to just be angry. 2. The 60fps makes these games look intensely smooth. It's most notable during Halo 3 because it is so much smoother than it used to be. 60fps ftw. 3. The graphical enhancements are awesome. Especially for Halo 2. The ability to turn it on and off is not only amazing and impressive, but also tactically useful. When I need the textures turned down to differentiate from landscape and bad guy, putting it down to the old graphics settings with the older lighting and textures makes it way easier to see bad guys at a distance and in low-light scenarios. Cool! 4. Halo 1, 2, 3, and 4 campaigns in all of their glory for under $60 is glorious. 5. I like in matchmaking that any game could be any map from any title. You could play Blood Gulch one game then Valhalla the next. Halo 2 mechanics one game and Halo 4 mechanics the next. That's really fun and a good way to shake things up and keep matchmaking interesting. I think it would've been an inferior experience if playlists were done "by game". 6. Halo 5 Guardians preview until January 15th = win. 7. The ability to customize controls, armor suits (colors, etc), and more for each individual game was a good touch although I generally just leave everything the same from game to game. Cons 1. The matchmaking stats don't report right. I went 5 kills, 17 deaths in my first match (I hadn't set the controls yet and kept tossing power drains at myself...oops). I came right back and went 13-10 in the next game, and then 17-9 in my third game. Despite winning 2 of 3 games, the game reports my wins at 1 and my Kill/Death as 5-17. This hasn't changed much in the week I've been playing it. The same goes for campaign. I've done 2 Halo 2 missions and it says I've done 6...and I even got some achievements I definitely didn't do. 2. The customization is about 50% there. You can change your armor colors but you can't actually see the change in the menu. In the later Halo games, you could pick your individual pieces of armor (especially Halo 4) which you can no longer do. Either let us customize or don't, but don't give us half of it...and not even the cool half. 3. There are small graphical glitches here and there. Parts of the menu kinda bug out (they still work) every now and then. I suspect future patches will fix this and it doesn't affect game play so I'm not overly concerned. 4. There is one ranked playlist on multiplayer and I don't like the game type. Lame. 5. I bought the game and the next day they announce that they're giving away ODST to people who bought it before I did. Lame. 6. No Halo: Reach online playlists, maps, or mechanics. Lame because I really liked Reach's multiplayer 7. After matches, the game bounces you from the lobby in matchmaking. Given that it's much harder to see who you've played with recently (compared to the Xbox 360), that means it's harder to find the people you just played with and invite them to a game. It's essentially anti-social unless you're already in a party with friends. This is as much Microsoft's fault as it is 343's because the Xbox One's menu system kind of puts the "social" aspect in the background for some silly reason. Overall, this title has had a lot of problems. However, I bought the game anyway because even if multiplayer was broken, there are still 4 Halo games worth of campaign and that alone is worth the $60. As it turns out, 343 has been doing a LOT better than the reviewers here would have you believe. Multiplayer feels like a Halo game and the minor issues don't affect the game play very often. Given that 343 has announced that they're holding back work on their next Halo game (due out in Spring of 2015...and no I'm not talking about Guardians, I'm talking about another side game) to fix this one, I have confidence that the game will be more or less what was expected. Yes, it sucks that the game was released in the shape it was in. Sometimes budget constraints and deadlines are a real pain. Anyone who has ever worked in a deadline-driven environment can tell you that sometimes you release things you didn't get to finish all the way. At least 343 is doing something to make it right. Take a lesson, Ubisoft, because Assassin's Creed Unity still sucks. I would recommend this game to Halo fans who have dealt with "those Halo issues" through the first 4 Halo games (and those who believe those issues didn't exist are wrong or stupid, it's always taken several minutes to get into a matchmaking game). Casual gamers may want to wait a few more months for 343 to sort out the remaining issues...but there really aren't all that many.

I've been a hardcore Halo player for a very long time, beginning my adventure with the very first Halo game, Halo: CE, for the original Xbox in 2001. I love Halo and I've put thousands of hours into each game (except for Halo 5). After being disappointed by the story of Halo 5 (I personally don't mind the multiplayer), I decided to replay all of the main Halo games. I replayed Reach on the 360 (the controller is just so much more familiar for me to use with that game), and then replayed CE on my original Xbox with some wear and tear that barely works. After having Chief telling us that our Halo journey was just beginning, I decided it was time to pop in my disc of Halo 2. And at the end of the first cutscene it... froze. I restarted it, but nothing worked. Not even split screen multiplayer. Instead of buying a new copy of Halo 2 for my busted Xbox, I decided to get The Master Chief Collection. After replaying Halo 2 and 3 with NO errors with updated graphics (or with Halo 3 just updated resolution) at 60FPS, I decided to check out the "broken" Multiplayer. It may have been broken in 2014, but now there are NO errors or bugs in it whatsoever. Not even very long waiting times. I had a lot of fun with the Slayer playlist and was pleasantly surprised with an Infection playlist. Not only that, but there are playlists for Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 2A, Halo 3, and Halo 4. There isn't a playlist for Halo CEA, but who cares? As long as the original's there with Blood Gulch! There are also playlists for Oddball, BTB, Action Sack, Snipers, Doubles (ESPECIALLY had a lot of fun playing this with a friends), SWAT, Rumble Pit, and Hardcore. They also have Forge for Halo 2-4, and Custom Games. Also you have to buy Halo 3 ODST separately as $5 DLC, but it's well worth it. And this comes with Halo Nightfall. It's probably the worst series I ever watched, but it's canon and it leaves time for TMM to download. When I finished it everything was done except for Halo 2 (I guess they do that last), so I messed around with the Forge and Multiplayer until it was done. They have EVERYTHING I'd ever want, and there honestly isn't a SINGLE reason not to get this, unless you hate the Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST, AND the Halo 4 Campaigns and Multiplayers. Also did I mention you could switch from the Anniversary and original game engines with the tap of the Select button? As a long time Halo fan from 2001, this is honestly one of my best buys (see what I did there?) for Halo ever. Period.

I love love love this game!

Works great.

Es un muy buen producto tomando en cuenta el precio y la cantidad de juegos que incluye

I don’t know what to say this game other than it’s one of my fave Xbox games of all time.

This game was for my kids. In perfect condition 👌. An absolute blast.

Tudo ok .