Halo : Master Chief Collection XBOX ONE review

[EvilBoris]

So my copy arrived this morning, thankyouverymuch.

My digital preorder data was useable by the disc, so no need to reinstall anything, which was nice.
I had a flick through some of the maps I'm looking forward to revisiting and was actually pleasantly surprised to see they looked exactly as I remembered, just less jaggy. I'm surprised they didn't look awful by comparison to my rose tinted bespectacled view I thought I had.

I played through the first 4 levels of Halo 2, the new cut scenes are great , really amazingly high quality.
The new graphics switching option is so much better compared to the last anniversary game on 360, it is literally instant now, so it's really easy to switch, even between burst of your battle rifle. Other than seeing how they game used to look, it's actually handy as the new graphics are often better lit with clear dark areas and you can kind of cheat to see certain enemies more easily in flat old graphics mode.
Much like the last anniversary bits there are sections where perhaps the styling of the original is preferable, but overall I think they have kept in line with the over-all look of the game. this certainly wasn't the case with Halo:CE where whole colour palettes would change and the new developers didn't seem to be able to capture the look of particular areas and bungie's trademark look was lost in the remake.

[BIG EDD]

Nice one hoping my copy turns up on Mondaycan't wait....

[MrKirov]

I REALLY want this... But don't want an XBone

[teddymeow]

I've got a physical copy on the way. Am I right in thinking I can download the 15Gb patch now before the game arrives?

[Neon Ignition]

Yup, all 58GB of my copy is waiting on my system ready for tomorrow

[BIG EDD]

I think installing the game disc took longer than the 15gb patch

[stevie vip 99]

I've got a physical copy on the way. Am I right in thinking I can download the 15Gb patch now before the game arrives?

I've just looked but can't find anything. I've been reading it's only the downloaded version that can install the patch early!
I'm hoping I'm wrong as I'd like to get it downloaded

[Family Fry]

There's no way of installing the patch unless you have a disc copy early OR have pre-loaded/ordered a digital version.

[Strider]

It's worth nothing that if you're playing it from disk/download and want to play the games in order you'll need to wait a while. Once it gets to 25% it installs Halo 4. You'll then get Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3 in that order. It takes a while to install them as well.

[stevie vip 99]

It's worth nothing that if you're playing it from disk/download and want to play the games in order you'll need to wait a while. Once it gets to 25% it installs Halo 4. You'll then get Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3 in that order. It takes a while to install them as well.

I have a week off work in january so should be ready to play by then

[Strider]

Obviously if you are preloading it wont matter. If you happen to download it of install it then that's how it installs.

[EvilBoris]

My digital copy unlocked and my copy that I had been playing on disc has transferred over without me having to download anything.
There was another 100mb added to the patch today, all the playlists are up but still hardly anyone is on.

[EvilBoris]

I've played a few more bits and pieces.

Halo CE although very different to the other games is really pick up and play. The pistol is just as hilarious overpowered in multiplayer as it always was, but hey, everyone starts with one so it's ok.

The new anniversary maps are way better than I thought they could ever be, retaining the overall feel of Halo 2, which marginally changed between games but having shiny spangly graphics.

Ran through the first couple of levels of Halo 4 , which could easily pass for an actual current gen game.

[Neon Ignition]

Mine unlocked at midnight so I spent 15-20 mins picking through the menu's as the online mp seemed dead. As someone who's always been somewhat indifferent to the Halo series this hits the right note from the off. The presentation of the collection is brilliantly handled with menu's that effortlessly cover all four games and custom playlists. I can't find an mp playlist that has all maps on rotation as only one mode has all four games in its playlist and it says it has 41 maps out of the 100+ on that rotation. But straight away its apparent how much content is here.

I had already decided I just wanted to do easy run throughs of all four campaigns as the game allows you to hop in and out as you please through all four games on harder difficulties at any time so a simple refresher seemed par for the course. Just did the first level of Halo: CE and its as you remember from Anniversary but the framerate and resolution boost really make it pop and it's silky smooth.

So far very impressed, if Sony ever do an Uncharted collection like they've been mulling, THIS is how to do it.

[Digfox]

Finally had a chance to play it this morning and did a quick run through of the first level on Halo CE:A and had a look though the menu's. Wow, what a collection.

However something went wrong for me last night and therefore wasn't able to play straight away. All 59GB had already downloaded but at 00:01 the 'Play on 11.11.14' message on the store pages changed to 'Install' which very quickly rose to 100% but the game then started updating slowly as it was re-downloading everything again

I am pretty certain I didn't click 'Install' and had the initial pre-load installed since the 29th October and the 15GB patch once it was available. Maybe the original download was corrupted, they have have changed the master file somewhere or I did something wrong but I can see other users had this exact same problem: https://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/com..._reinstalling/

I preordered the digital version of Sunset Overdrive and experienced no issues with that game unlocking at release.