"Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done?"
April 29, 2019 3:44 PM Subscribe
I would like to replay the entire Halo series, once, with my husband on our local system. We don't have an xbox (but we do have a good gaming PC). It's been years since I paid attention to anything xbox or the world of halo. Can you please advise me the best way to get the hardware and software I need to make this happen? (Renting is acceptable if that is still a thing, so is emulating if it actually works).
You could even sign up for the Master Chief Collection Beta if you want to try it sooner. It hasn't been released yet, but it seems like you'll have the best experience waiting for that.
If you're super impatient, Halos 1 and 2 were released for the PC and you should be able to get them to run on a modern Win10 system, if you can find copies. I haven't tried this myself though. All of the other titles would require emulation though, which I know even less about when it comes to the Xbox.
posted by Aleyn at 4:32 PM on April 29, 2019
If you're super impatient, Halos 1 and 2 were released for the PC and you should be able to get them to run on a modern Win10 system, if you can find copies. I haven't tried this myself though. All of the other titles would require emulation though, which I know even less about when it comes to the Xbox.
posted by Aleyn at 4:32 PM on April 29, 2019
Master Chief Collection is coming to PC sometime this year (no specific date announced yet).
If you gotta have it now, it's already been available for XBox One.
posted by neckro23 at 4:33 PM on April 29, 2019
If you gotta have it now, it's already been available for XBox One.
posted by neckro23 at 4:33 PM on April 29, 2019
Response by poster: Neckro23, does the xbox one version have split screen coop for all the games?
posted by rebent at 5:22 AM on April 30, 2019
posted by rebent at 5:22 AM on April 30, 2019
The PC announcement a few months back got me thinking about this, and I decided it was too much messing around to play it on a PC. I also didn't want to wait.
I swung by Target (you could do Craigslist, Gamestop, Facebook Market, etc), grabbed an XBox One and a spare controller. You can get the Master Chief Collection via digital download and start playing while it downloads (that is, you can start playing Halo: CE without waiting for Halo 3: ODST). Pretty easy, but note that it is a very large download - dozens of GB.
Halo 5 is a separate purchase and will probably not be coming to PC - though I'm happy to be corrected on that. Halo 6, which isn't out yet, should be available on PC.
Halo 1 was remastered, and it was fun to hit the "back" button on the controller to switch between the old and new visuals. One other thing to note is that for whatever reason the controls got switched around, probably to accommodate the new controller layout, but then Halo 5 defaults to yet another layout. The fist new layout seems decent and was an easy enough switch, just make sure to look it up instead of relying on your old muscle memory. I didn't bother with the new new Halo 5 layout, and just switched over to the "recon" layout which seemed to be a copy of the other games' layouts.
Happy to answer other questions, as a non-gamer who knows nothing about Xbox or Halo beyond wanting to re-live my high school LAN party days.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 12:31 PM on April 30, 2019
I swung by Target (you could do Craigslist, Gamestop, Facebook Market, etc), grabbed an XBox One and a spare controller. You can get the Master Chief Collection via digital download and start playing while it downloads (that is, you can start playing Halo: CE without waiting for Halo 3: ODST). Pretty easy, but note that it is a very large download - dozens of GB.
Halo 5 is a separate purchase and will probably not be coming to PC - though I'm happy to be corrected on that. Halo 6, which isn't out yet, should be available on PC.
Halo 1 was remastered, and it was fun to hit the "back" button on the controller to switch between the old and new visuals. One other thing to note is that for whatever reason the controls got switched around, probably to accommodate the new controller layout, but then Halo 5 defaults to yet another layout. The fist new layout seems decent and was an easy enough switch, just make sure to look it up instead of relying on your old muscle memory. I didn't bother with the new new Halo 5 layout, and just switched over to the "recon" layout which seemed to be a copy of the other games' layouts.
Happy to answer other questions, as a non-gamer who knows nothing about Xbox or Halo beyond wanting to re-live my high school LAN party days.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 12:31 PM on April 30, 2019
Neckro23, does the xbox one version have split screen coop for all the games?
I've been playing solo but as far as I know they all can do coop on the same system. Some of the newer games also have internet coop options.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 1:01 PM on April 30, 2019
I've been playing solo but as far as I know they all can do coop on the same system. Some of the newer games also have internet coop options.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 1:01 PM on April 30, 2019
One thing you'll have to decide is what constitutes "the entire Halo series." You can't go wrong with the core Bungie trilogy, but speaking as a long-time Halo fan, I frankly wouldn't bother with 4 or 5. The original trilogy campaign ended flawlessly, but after Bungie went independent to work on Destiny, Microsoft brought in a new studio (343 Industries) to continue the series. The multiplayer component stayed fairly solid, but IMHO the new team made some questionable design and gameplay changes in the campaign, along with even more questionable storytelling changes lifted from the increasingly fantastical and byzantine series of novels. If you, like me, haven't kept up with the latter-day mythos from the books, you'll find the recent campaigns verging on impenetrable.
I'd recommend skipping Halo 4 and 5 substituting these other Bungie titles in their place (both of which will be included in the PC release of the Master Chief Collection):
Halo: Reach (2010) - the prequel to the first Halo, and Bungie's last foray into the series before going indie. Depicts the devastating surprise Covenant assault on the human military stronghold Reach, and features an ensemble cast of other Spartans mounting a somber, doomed last stand on the dying world. Gameplay-wise, it features space combat (even spaceflight!) some new "armor abilities" like jetpacks and sprinting to mix things up.
Halo 3: ODST (2009) - An underrated "side-quel" to Halo 2, sort of a noir detective story set in the rainy, desolate streets of New Mombasa in the aftermath of a Covenant attack. Firefly alums Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, and Adam Baldwin (among others) voice a team of "orbital drop" spec-ops soldiers in a series of flashback missions throughout the occupied city. Has perhaps the most interesting gameplay, as you're a significantly weaker and unshielded human soldier who has to stealth around most enemy troops. The moody jazz soundtrack is excellent.
Also, this is purely an aesthetic thing, but don't forget that the MCC versions of Halo 1 and 2 have two different graphical styles you can toggle at will -- the original "legacy" graphics and a remastered version. The Halo 1 remaster is from 2011's Halo: Anniversary, and IMHO has some glaring issues both in terms of composition/color palette and cutscene animations. The Halo 2 remaster was made fresh for the original release of the MCC and is much more refined, and includes cutscenes which have been entirely re-animated in high-grade CGI by Team Blur. Feel free to stick with either look (or both!), but FWIW as a purist I recommend the original design for Halo 1 at least, especially since they let you see the impressive advancement in graphical fidelity from 2001 to 2004 to 2007.
posted by Rhaomi at 8:46 PM on April 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'd recommend skipping Halo 4 and 5 substituting these other Bungie titles in their place (both of which will be included in the PC release of the Master Chief Collection):
Halo: Reach (2010) - the prequel to the first Halo, and Bungie's last foray into the series before going indie. Depicts the devastating surprise Covenant assault on the human military stronghold Reach, and features an ensemble cast of other Spartans mounting a somber, doomed last stand on the dying world. Gameplay-wise, it features space combat (even spaceflight!) some new "armor abilities" like jetpacks and sprinting to mix things up.
Halo 3: ODST (2009) - An underrated "side-quel" to Halo 2, sort of a noir detective story set in the rainy, desolate streets of New Mombasa in the aftermath of a Covenant attack. Firefly alums Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, and Adam Baldwin (among others) voice a team of "orbital drop" spec-ops soldiers in a series of flashback missions throughout the occupied city. Has perhaps the most interesting gameplay, as you're a significantly weaker and unshielded human soldier who has to stealth around most enemy troops. The moody jazz soundtrack is excellent.
Also, this is purely an aesthetic thing, but don't forget that the MCC versions of Halo 1 and 2 have two different graphical styles you can toggle at will -- the original "legacy" graphics and a remastered version. The Halo 1 remaster is from 2011's Halo: Anniversary, and IMHO has some glaring issues both in terms of composition/color palette and cutscene animations. The Halo 2 remaster was made fresh for the original release of the MCC and is much more refined, and includes cutscenes which have been entirely re-animated in high-grade CGI by Team Blur. Feel free to stick with either look (or both!), but FWIW as a purist I recommend the original design for Halo 1 at least, especially since they let you see the impressive advancement in graphical fidelity from 2001 to 2004 to 2007.
posted by Rhaomi at 8:46 PM on April 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
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Master chief collection is coming to PC and will be perfect for this!
posted by bbqturtle at 3:46 PM on April 29, 2019 [1 favorite]