Halo 2: Anniversary 
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"The whole studio was burning the candle at both ends" - Two of Halo 2's most important designers reflect on the beloved sequel's working conditionsNov 11, 2024 - VG247Halo 2 had a bit of a troubled development, and now a couple of important designers have shared their perspective on working on it. Read more Ex-Halo composer goes into politics, of course his campaign site looks like a rejected sci-fi main menu designMar 4, 2024 - VG247Ok, so, you remember Halo and Destiny co-composer Marty O'Donnell, known for putting together the soundtracks to your childhood with the likes of Michael Salvatori? Well, he’s now running for US congress in Nevada, with a campaign site that looks like something a lovechild of Master Chief and Captain America might appear behind. To get them out of the way, here are the serious facts. O'Donnell’s running for the Republican party. Where, you ask? It’s the third congressional district of Nevada, which is currently represented by Democrat Susie Lee, whom O'Donnell will be battling for votes once November rolls around. If you want an idea of what kind of platform the ex-composer - who most recently soundtracked VR game Golem after a pretty messy divorce from Bungie - is running on, the essay he’s written on Twitter in order to announce that he’s doing so doesn’t exactly leave much to the imagination. Read more Long time Halo dev Joseph Staten is leaving Microsoft after nine yearsApr 9, 2023 - VG247Head of creative on Halo Infinite and cinematic director on the original three Halo games Joseph Staten is leaving Microsoft. As reported by IGN, Staten is leaving Microsoft after nine years with the company, though the reasoning behind his departure hasn't been confirmed as of yet. "We’re grateful for Joseph’s contributions to the Halo franchise and Xbox as a whole," reads a statement from a Microsoft spokesperson. "We wish him all the best in his new adventure." Staten has been a notable name behind the Halo series for years, working on the first three Halo titles (Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3) as a cinematic director, and also served as a lead writer on Destiny while working at Bungie. Staten commented on the report himself, writing, "Hey folks, I am indeed leaving Microsoft. I'll have more info to share soon, but for now, I'd just like to thank all my Xbox colleagues for all their understanding and support as I embark on a new adventure." Earlier this year, Staten left 343 Industries to return to Xbox Publishing, where he was prior to joining 343 Industries to lead development on Halo. This came shortly after Microsoft laid off around 10,000 employees, which did affect 343 Industries. Read more You can now play Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s multiplayer on Steam DeckApr 6, 2023 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunForget rumours of a portable Xboy. Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s newest update has enabled matchmade multiplayer, and together with the custom game browser for the Steam Deck, you can now play some of the wackiest maps in any FPS from the comfort of your bed - or anywhere in the galaxy really. MCC’s multiplayer was previously disabled on Steam Deck since the mode required Easy Anti-Cheat, which has now been turned on. Read more Halo 2 and Halo 3 have official modding tools nowOct 14, 2021 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunFancy tweaking some Halo games to make some cool or cursed content? Then good news! Yesterday, developers 343 industries released modding tools for Halo 2 and Halo 3 alongside the Master Chief Collection's season 8 update. Halo: Combat Evolved got its own official modding tools back in June, and the new tools for 2 and 3 offer similar programs for modders to mess with. I look forward to seeing what good stuff they make. Read more What we've been playingMay 21, 2021 - EurogamerHello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: Halo, an adventure that can only be enjoyed once, and an adventure that can thankfully be enjoyed twice. If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What we've been playing, here's our archive. Look, you don't need me to tell you that Halo: Combat Evolved is still a banger. But here I am anyway, because I went back to it for a piece about its setting earlier this week and of course I couldn't stop. I went backwards, from The Silent Cartographer to The Truth and Reconciliation (the two best-named levels in any video game, this side of Super Mario World's Cheese Bridge Area) and then jumped forwards to The Library. I slipped and slid from drifting Warthogs on the beach to popping Hunters with a pistol shot to the midriff; from blowing Grunts out of gun emplacements with that explosive sniper rifle to blasting through shiny mauve corridors with ruthless bursts of brilliant plasma; and finally to the worst but also best of the game, the panicked, heart-in-mouth, shotgun-powered backpedal through a featureless tomb in the face of a pulsating horde. And it was so, so smooth - once I had stopped throwing grenades instead of aiming down sights with the left trigger and come to terms with the fact Master Chief just can't, or won't, sprint. The clarity of it, the punch of the feedback, the simply incredible situational awareness from the audio and the motion sensor and the colour-coded lighting of the crossfire. The organic, elastic combat loops, unpredictable but also instinctive and reassuring. Later this year, we'll celebrate this game's 20th anniversary, but - played in crisp Classic form on modern hardware, thanks to the Master Chief Collection - it simply hasn't aged. It's still fantastically, brutally modern. Read more My favourite planet: The quiet awe of Installation 04, AKA the original HaloMay 17, 2021 - EurogamerThis week, while a lot of you will be (re)exploring the galaxy of the original Mass Effect trilogy, we thought it would be fun to revisit some of our own favourite video game planets. First up, Oli remembers the glory of Halo. Halo's a planet right? It isn't? Oh well, nobody said this stuff was simple - just ask Pluto. Halo, the series, owes a lot more than just its name to its original setting. The name is a pretty good start, though, with its evocation of holy reverence, of refracted glory, of encircled perfection. It is the name the religious zealots of the Covenant have bestowed upon a mysterious celestial body: a ringworld orbiting a gas giant, and an artificial paradise harbouring a dark purpose. Its creators, a long-lost race known as the Forerunners, called it, rather prosaically, Installation 04. Whichever angle you approach it from, the Halo inspires awe. Lore first: the Halo is both ancient, a hundred thousand years old, and futuristic, created by a society far more advanced than either the humans or aliens of the game's nearish future. Over the course of Halo: Combat Evolved, you discover that it is both a research station and a terrifying weapon. The Forerunners created an array of such Halos that, when triggered together, would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy, to prevent it being overrun by the parasitic Flood. It's terrifying! Read more Ex-EA exec Peter Moore returns to gaming at UnityJan 21, 2021 - EurogamerFormer EA executive Peter Moore has returned to the game industry, joining engine maker Unity as senior vice president of Sports and Live Entertainment. Moore announced the news on Twitter. Moore's career in video games began at Sega, where he worked to launch the Dreamcast in North America. He later joined Microsoft to work on the Xbox, displaying tattoos of Halo 2 and Grand Theft Auto 4 during E3 announcements. The video below shows the Halo 2 E3 2004 demo during which Moore showed off his Halo 2 release date tattoo. Read more Bungie's Halo website and its player stats go dark permanently in FebJan 15, 2021 - EurogamerBungie's Halo website goes dark permanently in February, scattering its many player stats to the wind. In a post on Bungie.net, the developer said halo.bungie.net goes offline permanently on 9th February. Almost nine years ago, stats and files from Bungie's Halo games stopped getting updated on Bungie.net. Since then, all stats, files and other data from Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach lived on at halo.bungie.net. Read more Halo 4 is out now on PC, completing the Master Chief CollectionNov 17, 2020 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun Halo 4 has just been released on the PC. After an eight-year-long beta test on the Xboxes, they’ve decided that it’s finally in a good enough state for us exacting PC nerds. With this deployment, the Master Chief Collection is considered complete for the PC. No Halo 5 for us. (more…) Halo 3 makes its PC debut with limited testing next monthMay 30, 2020 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun If you were an Xbox kid around my age, Halo 3 might be the first game you remember arriving with deafening levels of hype. The sole reason most folks picked up Crackdown. The Return Of The King in John Halo’s ring-smashing quest, in fellowship with a squid-mouthed Keith David and that cigar-chewing lad from Aliens. Now, developers 343 Industries are preparing the trilogy closer’s PC debut in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, with select testing set to take place within the next few weeks. (more…) A Halo 2 multiplayer bug is killing your friends with ghost rocketsMay 14, 2020 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun The PC release of Halo 2: Anniversary arrived on Wednesday morning with a revamped look and a nasty new bug. Folks trying its widely-adored multiplayer have found that trying to rockets and grenades fired at enemies will sometimes magically teleport to teammates and blow them up instead. That’s bad, that. And then teamkilling protections can kick in and you get kicked from the match and… oh dear. The developers are investigating the problem and did briefly think they had made a fix, but it didn’t hold so here we are. (more…) Halo 2: Anniversary is now out on PCMay 13, 2020 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun Ian Halo’s remastered adventures continue on PC today with the release of Halo 2: Anniversary in the wee hours. Ian and his sexy pet search engine, Cortana, are continuing to get into sci-fi trouble with ringworlds, and this time we also get to play parts from an alien Arbiter’s perspective too. Halo 2 has been on PC before, with a wonky port back in the day, and now Bungie’s FPS returns fancied up with new models and textures, remastered cutscenes, support for higher resolutions, adjustable FoV, and other such modern technobits. (more…) Halo 2: Anniversary comes to PC next weekMay 6, 2020 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun The adventures of Master Chief will continue in Halo 2: Anniversary next Tuesday, May 12th, Microsoft have announced. This time Master Chief (a name I still refuse to believe is real, even as characters say it) and Cortana (a name I still reuse to believe Microsoft reused for their voice-activated searchbot) are joined by a new ally, switching perspectives for part of the story. I’m weirdly hesitant to say more. It might be a cool surprise if you’ve not heard owt about Halo 2 over the past 16 years? (more…)
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