Halo: Combat Evolved has been added to The Master Chief Collection‘s multiplayer lineup, 343 Industries has announced.

In a new post on Halo Waypoint, 343i reveals that the dedicated Halo: CE playlist has arrived on MCC‘s matchmaking lists.

The new mode includes a mix of slayer and objective gametypes, and contains almost every multiplayer map included in the original, with the exception of the excellent CTF map Blood Gulch.

Oddly enough the studio says the Halo: CE playlist is optimized for 2v2 action.

“We have updated the Matchmaking playlist lineup to include Halo: CE. The playlist is now available. As we mentioned before launch, the Halo: CE playlist will be premiering at 2v2 based on community feedback.”

The new playlist includes eight multiplayer maps from Halo: CE (sans Blood Gulch) and includes CTF, Oddball and Slayer gametypes.

But the in-game multiplayer pane for the new playlist says otherwise, listing the max player count at 8 with gametypes including Slayer, Capture The Flag, and Oddball.

Below we have a breakdown:

Halo: Combat Evolved Matchmaking Playlist

• Max Players: 8

• Minimum Player Count: 6

• Max Party Size: 4

• Max Local Players: 4

• Team Size: 4

343i originally held the playlist back until the Master Chief Collection could be amended with various updates. Since the game has been patched with a smattering of updates rolled out by the studio, 343i deemed it the right time to bring the classic fragfest action back into play.

The most recent content update was released just two days ago and in the patch notes the studio notes that hit-registration has been tweaked for Halo: Combat Evolved multiplayer.

Many gamers have noticed the awful hit-reg in the game, making it near-unplayable for some, so hopefully this new update rolled out some fixes to ensure the playlist is actually…you know, fun.

Other improvements include tidying up party management and joining (a considerably annoying roadblock that’s kept friends from playing together in both campaign and multiplayer), stability tweaks for campaign playlists, and an array of matchmaking changes.

Below we have a copy of the full patch notes for Tuesday’s Master Chief Collection update:

MATCHMAKING

• Made improvements to the reliability of Matchmaking parties.
• Local split-screen players will now always be on the same team in Halo 2 Matchmaking.
• Made an update to allow players to use Voice Chat during loading screens in Matchmaking.
• Made an update to ensure that players are not forced into an incorrect party after encountering an issue in Matchmaking.
• Resolved an issue where the “Winning Team Won” text was shown in the Carnage Report.

ROSTER

• Made fixes to reduce the amount of time it takes to update the Roster:
  • Players will now be discovered sooner after starting the game.
  • Changes to the roster will be more immediate to better reflect friend activity.

PARTIES

• Made several improvements to party joining and management.
• Resolved an issue where players that were in a party could not join another party from the Roster.
• Made changes to ensure that parties cannot exceed the maximum party size of a playlist.
• Made an update to ensure that Party Leaders can assign a new Party Leader or Kick a player from their party.

CUSTOM GAMES

• Made a change to ensure that teams selections are correctly carried over in Custom Games.
• Made an update to ensure that player settings do not revert to a previous state after completing a Halo 2 Anniversary Multiplayer match.
• Made an update to ensure that players do not disconnect  after completing a Custom Game.
• Resolved an issue in Custom Games where parties would disband if some players were playing in Split-Screen.
• Made a change to ensure that Halo 3 Custom Game variants display correct author information.

HALO: CE

• Made various changes and improvements to Halo: CE multiplayer hit registration.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Made an update to ensure that the “Legend Slayer” achievement unlocks when prerequisites are met.
• The “Pacifist” Achievement will no longer be awarded for resuming “Assault on the Control Room”.

STABILITY IMPROVEMENTS

• Made a variety of stability improvements across the following areas:
  • Matchmaking
  • Custom Games
  • Campaign Playlists
  • Main Menu

CONTROL SCHEMES

• Updated the Halo 2 “Green Fingers” Button Layout.
• Updated the Halo 2 Anniversary Multiplayer Recon Button Layout.

MISC.

• Made improvements to stat-tracking.
• Improved language support for Norweigan, Spanish, German and Japanese.

*Note: The team is aware that “Legacy” controls are incorrectly functioning as “Default” in Halo 2: Anniversary and Halo 4, and are working to resolve this issue in an upcoming update. We will continue to work on additional content updates to further improve the game.

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343 Industries studio head and founder Bonnie Ross has delivered an official apology for the problems surrounding the Halo: Master Chief Collection.

“With the initial release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, however, we have not delivered the experience you deserve,” Ross said in a recent blog post on Halo Waypoint.

“I personally apologize for this on behalf of us all at 343 Industries. Our team is committed to working around the clock until these issues are resolved.”

Since it was launched two weeks ago this month, Master Chief’s return to his home console hasn’t been cause for much celebration. Rather than being a “tribute to Halo fans around the world” and earning triumphant fanfare, the game has become a testament to the current unfinished state of many next-gen games.

But Ross isn’t about to give up on Sierra 117, or the eager Spartans patiently waiting for some Halo 2 Team Deathmatch.

On behalf of 343 Industries, Ross makes a solid commitment to fix the game until it’s running smoothly for everyone. Then she even mentions an initiative to “make things right” with Halo fans.

“While our team works on continual improvements and towards solutions, my commitment to you is that we will take care of all owners of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. 

“Our primary and continued focus is first on fixing the issues at hand. Once we’ve done that, we will detail how we will make this right with our fans.

“Please accept my heartfelt apologies for the delay and for the negative aspects of your experience to date. We’re doing everything in our power to resolve it as quickly as possible.”

The Master Chief Collection has received a bounty of content updates, and 343i will undoubtedly unleash a volley of fixes and tweaks in the coming days and weeks.

But sometimes an update will cause more problems than it fixes–and as GameSpot reports, such was the case with last week’s major content update (CU).

Apparently the new fix introduces a few bugs in the user interface, which may affect in-game and post-game matchmaking.

“We realize that silence and opacity, even when we have nothing new to say, is frustrating. With each change and/or update we make, it takes time for us to capture and analyze the data to determine the tangible impact to the game experience,” 343i said.

Right now players can hop into the Halo 2: Anniversary Rumble playlist for some free-for-all action.

This playlist was introduced in light of the uneven team sizes in Team Deathmatch or objective-based matches (playing capture the flag with one man short isn’t so fun), and the Rumble playlist also gives 343i a way to test and monitor their fixes.

For news on tweaks and fixes for MCC, 343i delivers daily progress updates which can be found at http://aka.ms/mcc_updates.

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