Halo 3 Now Available on PC via The Master Chief Collection

[Raevenlord]

343 Industries today released a new update to its The Master Chief Collection, which includes all FPS Halo Games from Halo Reach through Halo 4 (which, in turn, covered two Xbox console releases in the original Xbox and Xbox 360). The new game, like Halo Reach, Halo: combat Evolved Anniversary, and Halo 2 Anniversary, has been ported to PC with most features one would expect. Performance-wise, the game runs pretty well, with an NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti achieving 150+ FPS on 4K and maximum quality settings - which is to be expected considering the games' original September 2007 release, and the fact that like Halo Reach, it hasn't been remastered.

It's time to finish the fight (again). In the meantime, check after the break for some 4K screenshots of the game, which still holds up pretty well with a simple resolution increase.







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[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

I really need to finish the other ones. Halo 4 is the last one and it's going to be out by fall.

 

[Chrispy_]

So the correct chronological order is Reach, 1, 2, 3, 4?

I suspect I'll be doing some kind of Halo marathon once 4's out and added to TMCC

I played 1 and some of 2, but quit after a few hours in total disgust at how awful the port was - buggy freezes and CTDs, missing features, not even true to the XBox version, crushed colour output range (16-235, not 0-255), three years late, infected with the problematic GFWL platform and DRM, locked behind a Windows Vista wall at a time when Vista was NOT in a recommendable state and those are just the specific things to the PC release. In addition to those realease-specific things it also had all of the usual console-port problems including (but not limited to) terrible performance, input lag, lack of options/customisation, godawful mouse support, auto-aim, and arbitrary limits to framerate....

I'm amazed I have any fondness for Halo at all but I did get to play the first one twice - once on a real Xbox and once again on a PC that brute-forced its way through the abysmally-performing port to PC - and it was a great game for its day.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

So the correct chronological order is Reach, 1, 2, 3, 4?

Correct. But ODST falls in there somewhere.

 

[moob]

So the correct chronological order is Reach, 1, 2, 3, 4?

I suspect I'll be doing some kind of Halo marathon once 4's out and added to TMCC

I'm gonna start playing the MCC today, but I'll be playing it as they were released, so Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST, Reach and Halo 4. Aside from the mechanics evolving over time, which would make playing Reach first kinda weird, I have no idea if there are flashbacks (flash-forwards?) etc in Reach that won't make sense unless you played the previous 4 games. Obviously I'll have to take a break after Halo 3 though, since I gotta now wait for ODST before playing Reach and Halo 4 whenever that comes out.

 

[Searing]

I started it with Reach, and there were so many bugs on launch I kind of stopped after a few missions.

Then I got into the meat of the game in the middle, WOW, I know why people like Halo. Halo Reach just gets better and better all the way to the ending.

 

[Syrensilly]

Now I'm curious, are there actual KB and mouse controls for Halo like with CSS etc? I have a hard time with controllers on anything requiring my rt thumb. (AKA aiming)

 

[Ashtr1x]

They actually fixed audio issues with Reach, HCEA, H2A with some Waves Audio integration, and I don't know where was the fully remastered sound from a Sound Studio. Also they fixed issues with MCC collection, honestly it is late. As Halo Reach came in 2019 and still had issues, now It's better, H3 will also probably have some bugs, I think anyone who likes the Halo series from their memories of Halo Combat Evolved on PC they should wait until Halo 3 ODST and Halo 4 also come and give them a couple of more months to fix all issues. Then we play this collection properly without any bugs (esp high refresh rate without stutters, no input lag, great audio etc), I suspect the modding community will unleash it's full potential to this, esp like Mass Effect ALOT, we will surely have upgraded textures preserving the art form and design. That will be truly exemplary Halo experience, esp for Halo 3 / ODST and Halo 4, as they won't be getting a remaster like Halo 2A. Since H3 didn't get any remaster on MCC PC.

343 ruined H4 ending, art style is fine but with Halo 5 they destroyed the series with the wahmen Cortana and other crappy elements into story they also downgraded the ESRB rating to T, to make it more MP game. I don't know how Halo Infinite (soft reboot ?) will be, if it has Flood, it must have the M rating back and no platforming or bs, but rumors are like it will be open world (disaster). Plus so far nothing on Steam (win32) platform, only Xbox game pass and UWP BS DRM.

 

[kayjay010101]

Correct. But ODST falls in there somewhere.

Release order is 1, 2, 3, ODST, [Wars], Reach, 4, [Spartan Assault], [Spartan Strike], (5), [Wars 2], [Fireteam Raven (arcade game)], (Infinite)

Chronologial in-universe timeline order is [Wars], Reach, 1/[Fireteam Raven], 2/[first part of Spartan Strike], ODST, 3, [Spartan Assault] 4, [second part of Spartan Strike], (5), [Wars 2], (Infinite)

In brackets are games not included in MCC. Non-FPS games in square brackets, thse are also not in MCC.

Now I'm curious, are there actual KB and mouse controls for Halo like with CSS etc? I have a hard time with controllers on anything requiring my rt thumb. (AKA aiming)

Yeah, full m&k support for everything and it works brilliantly. You'd never think these games were ported, except for Reach and Halo 2 when you enable unlimited framerates and go above ~60.

I started it with Reach, and there were so many bugs on launch I kind of stopped after a few missions.

Then I got into the meat of the game in the middle, WOW, I know why people like Halo. Halo Reach just gets better and better all the way to the ending.

True, Reach is quite slow in the beginning, but gets a lot better over time. And at launch there were a lot of bugs that since than have been getting slowly fixed, including the patch to the awful launch-state audio with this update.

And man, wait until you get to Halo 3, that game is just so much damn fun right from the start and the entire way through. If you can gather 3 friends too it's so much fun on coop.

 

[tabascosauz]

Finished H3 on legendary tonight with one friend. They really need to fix the goddamn spawning; throughout the entire game, either one of us have continuously, often repeatedly experienced being spawned off a ledge when there's clearly no reason to be doing so. Reach, CE and 2 haven't ever done this at all in co-op, so I dunno wtf is going on with 3.

I will say, the difficulty of the Cortana level on legendary is unimaginable. Legendary on the original H3 didn't feel quite this difficult, for some reason. The damage dealt by and accuracy of the Stalker flood forms are fucking unreal; as soon as there are more than a handful of them transformed into their ranged forms and nowhere to hide, it sometimes can get nigh impossible to progress.

 

[kayjay010101]

Finished H3 on legendary tonight with one friend. They really need to fix the goddamn spawning; throughout the entire game, either one of us have continuously, often repeatedly experienced being spawned off a ledge when there's clearly no reason to be doing so. Reach, CE and 2 haven't ever done this at all in co-op, so I dunno wtf is going on with 3.

That's a quirk of Halo 3 that's been there since the game launched originally.

I will say, the difficulty of the Cortana level on legendary is unimaginable. Legendary on the original H3 didn't feel quite this difficult, for some reason. The damage dealt by and accuracy of the Stalker flood forms are fucking unreal; as soon as there are more than a handful of them transformed into their ranged forms and nowhere to hide, it sometimes can get nigh impossible to progress.

Yeah, Cortana has and always will be one of "those" levels. Basically every Halo game has a few of "those" levels. For CE it was the Library and Two Betrayals, for Halo 2 it was... the entire game lol (nah but really Cairo Station, Outskirts and Gravemind are awful to play, and then Sacred Icon and Quarantine Zone are also pretty hard), for Halo 3 you had Cortana, for Halo Reach you had pretty much every level in the second half, Long Night of Solace is pretty much impossible solo on Legendary, Exodus can be annoying in the beginning large firefight as you have very limited health and ammo, New Alexandria can either be super easy or super hard, depending on what missions you're assigned throughout, The Package has that massive standoff at the end which can be quite difficult solo, and The Pillar of Autumn is just a slog to play through, it's super long and with a ton of heavy infantry. Halo 4 had Composer and Midnight which are semi-difficult, and 5 isn't difficult but still hard to get through because the game just simply isn't fun.

But I haven't found Halo 3 on PC to be any more difficult than the 360 original. In fact I think it's easier with the better mouse controls. I found myself breezing through most of the levels on legendary, Cortana was of course difficult but not as difficult as I remembered it to be. Contrast that to Halo 2 which was just terribly difficult, and I still haven't beaten Cairo Station on PC lol

 

[Raevenlord]

That's a quirk of Halo 3 that's been there since the game launched originally.


Yeah, Cortana has and always will be one of "those" levels. Basically every Halo game has a few of "those" levels. For CE it was the Library and Two Betrayals, for Halo 2 it was... the entire game lol (nah but really Cairo Station, Outskirts and Gravemind are awful to play, and then Sacred Icon and Quarantine Zone are also pretty hard), for Halo 3 you had Cortana, for Halo Reach you had pretty much every level in the second half, Long Night of Solace is pretty much impossible solo on Legendary, Exodus can be annoying in the beginning large firefight as you have very limited health and ammo, New Alexandria can either be super easy or super hard, depending on what missions you're assigned throughout, The Package has that massive standoff at the end which can be quite difficult solo, and The Pillar of Autumn is just a slog to play through, it's super long and with a ton of heavy infantry. Halo 4 had Composer and Midnight which are semi-difficult, and 5 isn't difficult but still hard to get through because the game just simply isn't fun.

But I haven't found Halo 3 on PC to be any more difficult than the 360 original. In fact I think it's easier with the better mouse controls. I found myself breezing through most of the levels on legendary, Cortana was of course difficult but not as difficult as I remembered it to be. Contrast that to Halo 2 which was just terribly difficult, and I still haven't beaten Cairo Station on PC lol

Glad to see some Halo fans in here as well

I'll just drop some self-promotion here and say that I've completed all FPS Halo Games on Legendary, solo. Cortana likely was the toughest level to get through on that difficulty out of all the Halo games, but Halo 2 really was the worst of the worst to get through.

For anyone having difficulties, the noob combo (overcharged plasma + semi-auto weapon) is your absolute best friend. As is movement. Never stop moving unless you're facing the Flood stalkers or going through Halo 2 xD

I'm really glad this is available for PC as well and can't wait to duke it out on Halo 3, but especially, to see how Halo 4 looks. As my favorite game in the series (and for me, the one with the best art style) I'm really giddy. Opinions may vary. I just really do think Halo 4 was the series' pinnacle.

 

[Searing]

Glad to see some Halo fans in here as well

I'll just drop some self-promotion here and say that I've completed all FPS Halo Games on Legendary, solo. Cortana likely was the toughest level to get through on that difficulty out of all the Halo games, but Halo 2 really was the worst of the worst to get through.

For anyone having difficulties, the noob combo (overcharged plasma + semi-auto weapon) is your absolute best friend. As is movement. Never stop moving unless you're facing the Flood stalkers or going through Halo 2 xD

I'm really glad this is available for PC as well and can't wait to duke it out on Halo 3, but especially, to see how Halo 4 looks. As my favorite game in the series (and for me, the one with the best art style) I'm really giddy. Opinions may vary. I just really do think Halo 4 was the series' pinnacle.

So far Halo Reach's story (especially the second half, a delightful example of a game that gets better and better) has affected me the most. Halo 4 was the most polished experience for me on console. I'm REALLY looking forward to playing that one on PC.