The 10th anniversary of Halo is time to ‘give back’ to the community. The goal of this is to ”relive the experience of what it was like” playing Halo 10 years ago.
”Why are we doing this game now? November 15 is the tenth anniversary of the birth of this franchise, and the fans have been asking for this game for a tremendously long time,” said Dan Ayoub of Microsoft Games Studios’ Halo focused 343 Industries.
”Now we’re at the ten-year anniversary it makes sense; now is the time to give this back to the community. It’s something we’ve wanted to do for a while.”
The Halo: CE Anniversary edition updates the visuals and audio effects of the original Xbox shooter that started a console FPS revolution. Its multiplayer however is powered by the same engine technology as Halo: Reach. The core single player remains as it was.
”The core goal of this game is to relive the experience of what it was like to play Halo ten years ago,” he said. “Everyone remembers the first time they played Halo because it was such a magical, unique experience. It was a game that felt like no other, and it really inspired ten years of console shooters.”
Gamers can swap between the new HD look, feel and sound of Halo: CE and the original classic code at the touch of a button. ”A pretty stunning difference,” Ayoub notes.
“I like to say it’s ten years of gaming evolution. It’s really amazing. What’s fun is that you can go back and forth as many times as you want at any time during the campaign. It’s a truly magical feature, not just for Halo fans but for gamers in general.”
The Anniversary remake also features online co-op play via Xbox Live and stereoscopic 3D support, with the latter resulting in ”very specific modifications, level-by-level in some cases” to ensure the third dimension didn’t break the game.
Despite the inclusion of 3D in this remake, Microsoft doesn’t appear keen to enshrine it as a mainstay feature moving forward with Halo. ”I don’t think that 3D is representative of one of the goals for the franchise,” he said. “This is something we wanted to do for Anniversary because we wanted to make it special with as many cool features as we could.”
“We really wanted this to be a celebration of ten years of Halo.” Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary releases exclusively on Xbox 360 November 15th. Multiplayer gets 6 maps with a Firefight level too, and you can play with Reach owners.
”All of this is about being a love letter to the fans,” said Ayoub. Check out the full interview between Dan Ayoub and VG247. “We’re very passionate about this, and we wanted this to be more than a simple remake. Everything about this is celebrating our heritage and the ten years of Halo for our fans, right down to the price tag of $39.” Excited, Halo fan?
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