Halo 3: ODST is coming to Xbox One, and owners of the Halo: Master Chief Collection will get it for free when it launches.

343 Industries head Bonnie Ross recently personally apologized for the Master Chief Collection‘s, bug-ridden launch, promising to “make things right” with the fans. In a recent post on Halo Waypoint, Ross outlines just how the studio is going about earning back the community’s trust, and it involves giving the Halo community what it wants.

Owners of the original MCC who played the game from its original release date on Nov. 11 through Dec. 19 will get free access to Halo 3: ODST via digital download, Ross reveals.

ODST won’t be a separate game, but will actually be included as part of The Master Chief Collection, and will feature enhanced 1080p graphics at 60 fps. Development on the ODST campaign is already underway, according to 343i head Bonnie Ross.

Sadly it appears that only ODST‘s campaign will make an appearance. “We do not currently have plans to include Firefight,” 343 said in their new FAQ.

343 has been listening to community feedback, and the studio is tailoring their apology with some pretty hefty rewards in the tune of one of the franchise’s most unique games.

Below is a checklist of what you’ll get from 343 “as a token of appreciation and thanks”:

• New “Relic” Halo 2: Anniversary Multiplayer Map
• 1 Month of Xbox Live Gold
• Exclusive In-Game Nameplate
• Exclusive In-Game Avatar
• Free copy of Halo 3: ODST (when it launches in the future)

A new free map inspired by Halo 2’s “Relic” will also be given out, re-imagined in full HD graphics and 60FPS action.

For their troubles, MCC owners will also get a new Halo 2: Anniversary map based on the origial fan-favorite Relic. As with the rest of the game it’ll be in full 1080p at 60fps, and it’s well-suited for objective and slayer gametypes.

• “Relic” Halo 2: Anniversary Multiplayer Map – Available via a free content update to Halo: The Master Chief Collection, we will re-imagine the fan-favorite map “Relic,” fully remastered and running at 1080p resolution and 60fps. We chose this map based on its suitability for Slayer and Objective modes and its ability to support teams of varying sizes.

343 promises that Certain Affinity will “tweak and tune” the Relic map to make it “even better than you remember”.

No games with Firefight have been included in the MCC (yet), but with Halo 3: ODST on the horizon, hopefully we’ll get access to the cooperative mode.

For the meantime, Ross affirms that owners of the Master Chief Collection will get some extra goodies like a free month of Xbox LIVE Gold, and a few in-game items. These gifts should arrive as soon as “mid-January 2015″.

The studio founder goes on to thank Halo fans for their understanding and patience. She says that 343 is humbled, but thanks to the ardent support of the community, they’ve been able to pinpoint problems and execute fixes.

“This has been a humbling experience and highlighted how we as a studio can – and need – to do better for Xbox fans around the world.  We are so grateful to our fans who have stood by our side and we appreciate all of your patience as we worked through these issues.”

All 10 episodes of Spartan Ops will be live in the Master Chief Collection next week in a new update.

Ross also confirmed that all ten episodes of Halo 4‘s cooperative Spartan Ops playlist will be released next week via a new content update, along with a few main-game tweaks here and there.

With fifty missions across all ten episodes Spartan Ops is pretty sizable so get your HDD’s ready for some data-filling downloads.

Work has just begun on making The Master Chief Collection into a bona-fide tribute to the Halo franchise, but Ross affirms that 343 Industries won’t give up on the project.

“I assure you that the team will continue to work on additional content updates to further improve the all-up gameplay experience,

“The satisfaction and joy of our fans is absolutely critical to everyone at 343 Industries and we regret the issues and the frustration you have endured.  We are truly sorry and thank you for your continued patience and support of the Halo franchise.”

I sincerely hope Firefight will make its way into the mix, but it’s hard to say at this point. The announcement really does prove 343 Industries is serious about making things up, as ODST isn’t a small feat–the game itself is one of my favorites, and it’ll be great to revisit the hallowed streets of New Mombasa in all of their neo-noir glamor.

No official details on a release date have been announced, but we’ll be sure to update you when we get more information.

The post Halo 3: ODST Coming To Xbox One, Will Be Free For Halo: MCC Owners appeared first on VR World.

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 is just as much aware of the new Halo ports’ abysmal matchmaking as gamers are, and they’re currently working on a fix.

Since its release last week, the Halo: Master Chief Collection has been plagued with uncompromisingly bad matchmaking, treating players to errors, bugs, uneven teams, incredibly long search times, and a retinue of other irksome roadblocks.

Luckily 343i is on the case. Dan Ayoub, Executive Producer for 343i, addressed the problems head-on and gave an update that players can expect the first batch of content fixes as early as Wednesday, November 19.

“Looking at our data logs, server-side adjustments that we have made over the past 24 hours have shown a 20% increase in server connectivity,” Ayoub said in a new Halo Waypoint post. “However, we are well aware that performance is not where it needs to be.”

But it won’t be as simple as few hotfixes; the dev team will need to roll out full game updates to root out the issues. Ayoub confirms that these updates are working, but they still need some time to refine and test out the changes.

“Resolving Matchmaking issues also requires client-side fixes, which require a content update.

“The client side update, which focuses on Matchmaking performance, non-matchmaking bugs, and a variety of title-specific issues, has been completed and is going through testing and certification.”

In its current state multiplayer is unplayable, and is a stain on Halo‘s stalwart PvP experience. Overall the game seems like it wasn’t extensively tested and rushed into stores, a trend we’ve been seeing too much of lately.

It’s interesting to wonder how optimized the Master Chief Collection might have been if they weren’t so deadset on Halo 5: Guardians. Furthermore with 343i having to pick up the slack for Halo: MCC, the impending Halo 5 beta might suffer as a result.

Hopefully 343i can get its affairs in order before Dec. 29 rolls around, as gamers have been looking forward to the Halo 5 beta for months now.

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