Forum:Halo: Anniversary features

Well it's less than four months until the release of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, so I say it's time to open the door to wild speculation about what features will be included. I'm guessing most will be options to toggle on and off, like skulls or the classic graphics we've already been shown. I've come up with three categories: That which is almost certain or has already been confirmed, that which is possible, and that which would be really cool but almost certainly won't be included.

(Almost) Definitely in the Game Possibly in the Game Not in the Game (but Cool)
 * Classic graphics
 * Online 4-player co-op
 * Achievements and avatar awards
 * Full-motion video terminals
 * Re-recorded non-vocal audio
 * Forge
 * Skulls: The original Halo is the only game in the series without Skulls, so it just made sense to add them. This has since been confirmed with the "Grunt Funeral" skull pre-order bonus. The only question is whether players will be given the skulls from the outset or have to find them hidden throughout the game as in Halo 2 and 3.
 * Theater: A staple of the Halo series since 3. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has an awesome moment from Halo: CE they which they could have saved.
 * Improved AI: Both enemy and ally AI has improved significantly in the decade since the game first came out. Toggling improved AI wouldn't necessarily be too difficult, as we saw something similar with the That's Just... Wrong skull in Halo 2.
 * Weapon Swapping: Another feature found in all but Halo 1, the ability to swap weapons with AI allies is both fun and incredibly helpful. Giving a rocket launcher or sniper rifle to a marine riding shotgun in your Warthog or on your tank treads makes them so much more useful allies, and after playing the other games it's really annoying not to be able to do it.
 * Commendations and Daily Challenges: These were great additions to Reach, providing even more incentive to keep playing even after unlocking your favorite armor pieces.
 * Assassinations: I don't know about the rest of you but after playing Reach I feel a little robbed when I smack an enemy in the back in one of the other games and I don't get the cool animation. As awesome as this would be however, it would require rewriting the game code which could be difficult and would go against 343 Industries statements that the game will stick with the original game engine.
 * Destructible and boardable vehicles: These two go hand in hand and are both elements absent only from Halo 1. Just like assassinations it would require changing the game code. It might also change the game experience too much from the original.
 * Armor customization in campaign: I wouldn't really want this anyway. Customizing your armor in campaign was awesome in Reach, but it doesn't really work when playing as the Master Chief.

Anybody else have any speculations?--  Rusty  - 112   23:21, 29 July 2011 (EDT)
 * In the new terminals teaser i noticed a few things.. I saw that the banshees in the video were of the Halo 3 type, I also saw the marine shooting a spartan laser, although the spartan laser may only be seen in cinematics and not in-game. -- Tentacle tornado  09:57, 30 July 2011
 * Looked at it again, it wasn't a spartan laser, sadly. -- Tentacle tornado  18:14, 31 July 2011 (EDT)
 * You're 99% right. Co-op will only be 2-player, and AI, enemy or otherwise will not be touched. - Black Mesa.jpg Halo-343   (Talk)
 * I don't know. Perhaps some currently unannounced Skulls could have some form of effect on the AI. I realize the folks at 343 Industries want to keep it as close to original experience as possible, albeit with major graphical updates. But the fact that the Grunt Funeral Skull seems to suggest that these skulls will effect the AI. I don't see how it could detract from the fun since they are optional, after all. Anyway, I also hope to see:


 * A Behind the scenes documentaries of the making of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary with 343 Industries as well as the making of Halo: Combat Evolved with some Bungie members who helped develop it (if it is possible). Perhaps they could reveal even more insight into Halo 4. I know the terminals and Halo: Primordium are already attempting to do that. But I'd still love to hear from more sources about Halo 4 and the future of the Halo franchise.


 * An invitation to the Halo 4 Multiplayer beta (assuming one is ever produced). I would imagine that it would be a similar process to Crackdown's invitation to the Halo 3 Multiplayer beta or Halo 3: ODST's invitation to the Halo: Reach Multiplayer beta.


 * A new Firefight map(s?) to be included within the new maps. There are three with have not been announced yet, if I am correct. I hope to see something which utilizes most types of vehicles. I'd love to see the standard Warthogs, a Scorpion or a Banshee/Falcon.


 * Campaign Scoring


 * New armour for Halo: Reach Multiplayer. I'd love to see a Mark V version of the Hayabusa Powered Assault Armor (even if it was over used in Halo 3).

I'm probably asking for a bit much. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is currently looking great as of now. But I would personally love to see some of these factors implemented into the game.-- Brute Honour Guard  ( "Talk" ) 00:08, 1 August 2011 (EDT)


 * Ah of course, I knew there was something I was forgetting when I wrote the post. Yes of course campaign scoring and medals will be included.--Emblem 1.jpg  Rusty  - 112   00:23, 1 August 2011 (EDT)


 * With regards to the AI; 343i have stated explicitly that they are not touching the AI at all. They even cut some skulls because they do exactly that. To quote; "The greatest challenge we had with skulls was how restricted our options were. A lot of skulls in Halos 3 through Reach functioned through changing character behaviors for AI, or replacing AI units with tougher versions. We were deathly afraid that any change to the game that involved mucking around with the AI might in some way affect the AI itself. Preserving Halo 1’s AI was critical, and we just didn’t feel it was worth the risk. As such, we had a few different ideas that, upon examination, had to be cut because they involved some kind of change to character behavior, or how the game would spawn AI into the game. In particular, we had one skull that would cause Grunts to immediately panic upon sighting a player. Funny on paper, but it broke the rule of leaving the AI code untouched. As such, we cut the skull, and found ourselves left with a hole in our lineup, and a desire to mess with the Grunts beyond just Birthday Party. Thus Grunt Funeral was born." - Black Mesa.jpg Halo-343   (Talk)  08:57, 1 August 2011 (EDT)


 * Aye, thank you for correcting me. I suppose 343 Industries should not change the AI behaviour in anyway if they want to make it seem exactly like Halo: Combat Evolved. Even if these changes are only optional.-- Brute Honour Guard [[Image:HGBrute.jpg|20px]] ( "Talk" ) 00:52, 2 August 2011 (EDT)

Somehow I feel that they should have made this game as a direct sequel to Reach, and keep all the stuff from the Reach engine, and possibly the new weapons. The objectives and map layouts can be exactly the same, but I think using the new engine will attract a lot more players. If they have the original Halo: CE, would it be worth it just to get the game again with newer graphics? Bioniclepluslotr 07:32, 5 August 2011 (EDT)

Anyone thinking they might add Engineers, since they were cut from the actual game? --VadersFist666 23:04, 15 August 2011 (EDT)
 * That would have been a great additon! But as Rusty said, it'll need rewriting of the original game code; going against their faith in the original Halo.
 * Actually I thought they were in the original game code, they just weren't in the actual campaign. --VadersFist666 15:07, 17 August 2011 (EDT)
 * Why do they need to keep everything the same as the original? Wouldn't it be more popular to remake the entire game and keep only the plot and missions the same? They could use this opportunity to gap plot holes. Bioniclepluslotr  12:23, 18 August 2011 (EDT)
 * That would be because the original had unique form of gameplay, controls, story and music which made it special and ground breaking. Many gamers still view Halo: Combat Evolved as the best Halo game ever produced. It would be viewed as disrespectful to both them and Bungie's effort by remaking most of the core elements of Halo: Combat Evolved. After 10 years, many Halo players today will have been too young to have played Halo: Combat Evolved.


 * By updating the visuals for the Xbox 360, this gives more gamers the opportunity to play the game that inspired many other First person shooters, while allowing the older fan base to both re-experience the original Halo and to see how much gaming visuals have improved in the last ten years. Not to mention that remaking all of the elements of Halo: Combat Evolved is both time consuming and much more expensive. It makes more sense to place that amount of effort into Halo 4.-- Brute Honour Guard [[Image:HGBrute.jpg|20px]] ( "Talk" ) 14:46, 18 August 2011 (EDT)

Update
Well it's been almost two weeks since Halo: CEA was launched, so let's take a look back at our predictions. What did we get right? What did we get wrong? What disappointed us and what was a pleasant surprise.

Right on the Money Most of these were kind of gimmes. We already knew about the remastered audio, classic and new graphics, online co-op and skulls. Achievements were a given. Pretty much everything I said might or wouldn't be in the game, wasn't.

Kinda Right You can use Forge to edit the new maps if you download them to Halo: Reach so it's kind of there, but it's not in the game itself. The only avatar "award" was the downloadable extra if you pre-ordered, nothing you could unlock just by playing.

MIA Contrary to our expectations, there was no addition of campaign scoring and medals, and as a result no online record-keeping. Disappointing, but it wasn't as missed as much as Theater was. I don't know about the rest of you but I was really looking forward to being able to replay campaign moments, not to mention its absence makes it a lot more difficult for us to capture screenshots and upload them to Halopedia. We also didn't get any Beta invites or new armor permutations for Reach.

Pleasant Surprises I was really glad to have the ability to switch between the Classic and Remastered scores. This wasn't announced until late, and I wasn't holding my breath expecting it to happen, figuring the score would be like the new sound effects - updated only. It was a nice touch. The Library is also an interesting feature - or so I assume, as I, like most Halo fans I don't own a Kinect, and therefore can't access the feature. Lastly, integrating the control schemes from the newer games ("Hero" and "Recon") was a nice feature.

Thoughts anyone?--  Rusty  - 112   19:28, 27 November 2011 (EST)