Halo 2 PC Tech Review - The Master Chief Collection's Best Port Yet?

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  • čas přidán 29. 06. 2024
  • Fortunes have been mixed with the PC conversions of Halo Reach and Halo: Combat Evolved - so how does the latest release fare? Alex Battaglia revisits Halo 2, the Anniversary Edition improvements and rates the technical proficiency of this new PC port.
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Komentáře • 920

  • @samuelnathan312
    @samuelnathan312 Před 4 lety +471

    Second Half of 2004: Doom 3, Half Life 2 and Halo 2
    First Half of 2020: Doom Eternal, Half Life Alyx and Halo 2 MCC Remaster

    • @jarg8
      @jarg8 Před 4 lety +16

      But also Halo 2 has been remastered since 2014 so no.

    • @turnerd.jennings5987
      @turnerd.jennings5987 Před 4 lety +56

      @@jarg8 But Halo 2 MCC is now on PC, along with Doom Eternal and Half Life Alyx. So, it counts

    • @5dloljared
      @5dloljared Před 4 lety +8

      @@turnerd.jennings5987 but Halo 2 PC only came out in 2007 :(

    • @doubtinglee105
      @doubtinglee105 Před 4 lety +4

      @@5dloljared But this Anniversary Edition is remastered/remade graphics on the PC version. So different.

    • @cynicalgold9992
      @cynicalgold9992 Před 4 lety +1

      @@jarg8 what do you mean by "so no"? So, its just not happening right now or something?

  • @DylanFromAZ
    @DylanFromAZ Před 4 lety +474

    The cinematic cut scenes are gorgeous. It's gonna be mind blowing when those cut scenes turn into gameplay one day

    • @DBTHEPLUG
      @DBTHEPLUG Před 4 lety +48

      Halo Infinite

    • @penumbrum3135
      @penumbrum3135 Před 4 lety +125

      @@DBTHEPLUG X to doubt.

    • @awesome9174
      @awesome9174 Před 4 lety +16

      @@DBTHEPLUG lol no. Squadron 42 is probably the closest to looking that good.

    • @alexjay8257
      @alexjay8257 Před 4 lety +15

      @@awesome9174 Oh when does that come out? : ]

    • @scissortongue5772
      @scissortongue5772 Před 4 lety +7

      Awesome! When it’s out.

  • @Clockwork0nions
    @Clockwork0nions Před 4 lety +414

    "Guess we'll be waiting for fixes then" the tagline of the MCC since it was released.

    • @alexanderbattaglia6048
      @alexanderbattaglia6048 Před 4 lety +8

      unfortunately :(

    • @mitchellp7739
      @mitchellp7739 Před 4 lety +26

      @Dayko sad that the only decent thing 343 has brought to the Halo franchise is just remastering Bungie’s Halo games

    • @MajoraZ
      @MajoraZ Před 4 lety +11

      @@mitchellp7739 I have issues with 343i, they do mess 1 thing up for every 1 thing they do right, but that's just hyperbolic nonsense. Off the top of my head, here's a list of postive things they've done:
      Halo 4:
      >The live action commercial
      >The sense of atmosphere and environmental design in general
      >The skyboxes
      >The lighting and shaders, generally looks good on a technical level even if the UNSC art design is trashed
      >the soundtrack, even if it's not marty level
      >The Storm rifle
      >The redesign for the Carbine, Plasma Pistol, and Beam rifle
      >The introduction of the Prometheans/didact in the campaign
      > the moment when you get out of the cave in mission 2
      >Regicide
      >The scoreboard changes
      Halo 5:
      >The weapon balance (Pre-TU)
      >The ARG
      >Getting rid of 4's loadouts, perks, killstreaks, etc
      >Return to even starts with weapons and powerups on map
      >Brings back the golden triangle of guns, melee, and nades with no equipment or armor abilities
      >new movement options add a ton of skilljumps
      >The Trials music
      >The ambient dialog in the campaign
      >Blue team/Argent moon
      >Free DLC
      >Everything relating to forge
      >Everything relating to customs
      >like seriously holy fuck forge and custom potential is insane
      >Seat swapping
      >Health visibility
      >Shield recharge indicator
      EU stuff:
      >Halo evolutions
      >Bits of Legends
      >Cryptum
      >Primordium
      >Silentium
      >Half of Glasslands and Thursday War
      >Broken Circle
      >Last Light
      >Fractures
      >Mythos
      >Warfleet
      >A bunch of other books/comics that are apparently good but I haven't read yet
      Infinite
      >Going back to more classic visual design
      Other
      >CEA's sound design
      >H2A in general
      >Working with/allowing some fangames/fanmods, such as sins of the prophets
      >The community feedback program and their degree of community interaction
      >MCC update initiative is super throughugh, but this is negated by MCC being broke to begin with
      >Bringing MCC to PC, but this is somewhat negated by rushing the ports even after a year of saying "they are taking their time with it to do it right"

    • @kamilpotato3764
      @kamilpotato3764 Před 4 lety

      @@dayko.He forgot to mention weird audio issues. Missing sounds when firing sometimes, central channel definitely too quite and few other problems

    • @Baxtexx
      @Baxtexx Před 4 lety +2

      @@dayko. yeah and then it's never fixed. They still haven't fixed the muffled sound in Reach or plasma pistol bugs in CE.

  • @stefdevs
    @stefdevs Před 4 lety +39

    Best of all: They didn't butcher the art style.

  • @omgomgomgd
    @omgomgomgd Před 4 lety +87

    6:10 thanks for using the correct skin for the correct music player

    • @Solruc_
      @Solruc_ Před 4 lety +6

      Winamp gang rise

    • @NanoBite
      @NanoBite Před 4 lety +5

      It really whips the llama's ass.

    • @xmaverickhunterkx
      @xmaverickhunterkx Před 4 lety +1

      Wait.... there are other music players?

    • @gamerxt333
      @gamerxt333 Před 4 lety +1

      7 out of 10 boomers agree, winamp or get out

  • @RonkeyRong
    @RonkeyRong Před 4 lety +147

    One of the best remasters in terms of keeping the original visual tone. Looking forward to watching this right now

    • @yobro6053
      @yobro6053 Před 4 lety +8

      I think the overall best I have seen is the gears ultimate remaster, it looks gorgeous, like a game that released this gen.

    • @Awaks
      @Awaks Před 4 lety +1

      yes, but actually no
      that flat look Vs the needed vibrant proper look

    • @alexsilva28
      @alexsilva28 Před 4 lety +5

      Not a remaster but a remake. Although I agree. Every artistic choice feels consistent and respectful to the original game unlike CEA where they took many liberties (I still love it tho)

    • @ArabianFreedom
      @ArabianFreedom Před 4 lety +1

      @S. TThe AI in that game is easily one of the worst. I've played PS2 games that has superior AI.

    • @user-qe7bt9dz1l
      @user-qe7bt9dz1l Před 4 lety

      Movefasta Bro Nah the RE1 Remake Remaster is really good! Probably the best!

  • @rubiantary
    @rubiantary Před 4 lety +35

    Everytime i saw master chief, it always reminds me of my friend saying
    "Strong enough to lift a tank, but can't handle smg recoil" 😅

    • @3dmarth
      @3dmarth Před 4 lety +10

      ...and dies if a slow-moving hoverbike grazes the side of his armour.

    • @shreder75
      @shreder75 Před 4 lety +2

      Lol So true

  • @EonsArt
    @EonsArt Před 4 lety +179

    It isn’t perfect but it is as fun as ever. I just wish they’d fix that ambient occlusion dithering bug.

    • @treywar25
      @treywar25 Před 4 lety +2

      The what?

    • @noobishmacgaming
      @noobishmacgaming Před 4 lety +12

      treywar25 if you have the graphics set to “enhanced” with the new graphics and look at shadows up close, they will almost always be a pattern of small dots. It’s noticeable on NPC / enemy models skin, and weapons, but it’s really all over the place.
      Also that way in anniversary graphics of halo 1.

    • @justfitz08
      @justfitz08 Před 4 lety +2

      Get in line. Everyone has that one bug they really want fixed badly.
      Halo 2 Classics MP needs love first!

    • @PhyrexJ
      @PhyrexJ Před 4 lety

      @@hihowrya370 I do feel I'm only playing 3 different maps in 4v4

    • @davemccombs
      @davemccombs Před 4 lety

      You can shoot the floor on any map with any gun and kill enemies. It's the glitchiest piece of shit launch in Halo history and you're worried about "ambient occlusion dithering"

  • @blindrezo
    @blindrezo Před 4 lety +145

    Winamp, it really whips the llama's ass!

    • @GraveUypo
      @GraveUypo Před 4 lety +11

      funny seeing people getting all nostalgic for the music player i never dropped.

    • @mduckernz
      @mduckernz Před 4 lety +1

      2.73 fo lyfe

    • @blairlohnes8103
      @blairlohnes8103 Před 4 lety +2

      Still use it.

    • @Jaqen-HGhar
      @Jaqen-HGhar Před 4 lety +2

      @@GraveUypo so you probably have a rootkit on your pc...unless you somehow managed to keep the exact copy of winamp you originally downloaded back in the early 2000's and even then without patches it's a huge security flaw.

    • @UnknownUser-fg3fs
      @UnknownUser-fg3fs Před 4 lety

      Boomer

  • @cactusmann1268
    @cactusmann1268 Před 4 lety +228

    I feel like they should add splitscreen support this year.

    • @prithvigill3827
      @prithvigill3827 Před 4 lety +10

      It is there on Xbox

    • @stealthmaster6472
      @stealthmaster6472 Před 4 lety +57

      He is obviously talking about pc.

    • @stahl1624
      @stahl1624 Před 4 lety +11

      PC Master race lmao
      Have not even got Split screen

    • @thegreenbastard1
      @thegreenbastard1 Před 4 lety +13

      Kerberos Consoles lmao
      Cant even have mods! Lol

    • @cactusmann1268
      @cactusmann1268 Před 4 lety +36

      @@stahl1624 Nobody mentioned PC master race. 343 Industries, Saber Interactive and Bungie have collectively decided *not* to add in support for the release of all the games featured in the MCC. Blame the developers for being short-sighted and not supporting such a trivial feature from the Halo franchise upon porting it. Because of such actions, PC gamers have no other option but to either run the games on an emulator or - in the case of Halo: CE (the only Halo port that has multiplayer functioning normally) you have to set up a janky virtual machine and then split 2-4 instances of the game onto 1 display. Feel free to forward this to the developers.

  • @LateNightHalo
    @LateNightHalo Před 4 lety +75

    I’m surprised you guys didn’t notice the music timing issues and AI behavior bugs

    • @NazmusLabs
      @NazmusLabs Před 4 lety +23

      Umm, late night...AI the dual weilding bug has been fixed for the first time since MCC 2014 released. It’s even mentioned in their blog post. Elites duel wield in game in Halo 2: Anniversary on PC

    • @gabenewell3955
      @gabenewell3955 Před 4 lety

      NazmusLabs okay but not on Xbox so what’s your point

    • @joshuak5798
      @joshuak5798 Před 4 lety +18

      @@gabenewell3955 the point is that this is a video on the PC port.

    • @gabenewell3955
      @gabenewell3955 Před 4 lety

      Josh Wilson and shows that the Xbox version has been downgraded for example the frame rate yet 343 doesn’t give a shit

    • @Luke-ih1oc
      @Luke-ih1oc Před 4 lety

      Hey LNG; do you know if H2 on PC suffers from the same poor audio encoding issues as Reach (and I assume also CE)? Supposedly an issue that a third-party company is remedying or in the process thereof, but I don't know if H2 has the same issue or not.

  • @buckshotgaming4066
    @buckshotgaming4066 Před 2 lety +3

    I'm so glad to hear that I'm not the only one getting hitching issues, thought it was a problem on my end.

  • @cad3nce
    @cad3nce Před 4 lety +43

    Just finished playing this and it was glorious. Why can't they make single player FPS games like this any more. Also the remastered soundtrack is incredible. I'd forgotten how great the music in halo 2 is.

    • @josemartha5977
      @josemartha5977 Před 4 lety +5

      make the games like how? with poorly tested mechanics caused by a tight deadline?

    • @bizalicioso8990
      @bizalicioso8990 Před 4 lety +4

      @@josemartha5977 yesn't

    • @PhyrexJ
      @PhyrexJ Před 4 lety +1

      @@josemartha5977 The game itself, smartass. Halo 2 still is a great game to date.

    • @josh223
      @josh223 Před 4 lety +2

      @@josemartha5977 despite the development hell the game turned out spectacular.. unlike some modern releases *cough* Anthem *cough*

    • @josh223
      @josh223 Před 4 lety +6

      @@josemartha5977 part of it also is the emphasis on gameplay, story, and a sandbox. Rather than shoving RPG mechanics into every game that exists and calling it a day

  • @TheLifeoflink
    @TheLifeoflink Před 4 lety +3

    It would be nice to see a final review and analysis of the MCC after it's all released.

  • @4horsemenoftheapocalypse58
    @4horsemenoftheapocalypse58 Před 4 lety +72

    MS should make Gears 2 &3 Ultimate for PC

    • @Balnazzardi
      @Balnazzardi Před 4 lety +1

      Perhaps but I think there should be a limit to remaster and remakes....doing too much of them isnt something I would like to see either.

    • @victorsegoviapalacios4710
      @victorsegoviapalacios4710 Před 4 lety +8

      Yeah, they should launch a "Gears of War - Classics Collection" or something.

    • @oneeyedlittleman
      @oneeyedlittleman Před 4 lety

      I doubt it. They got so much praise for releasing on steam and it's not like epic is going to cooperate with them releasing an epic made game anywhere other than the epic store.

    • @miikasuominen3845
      @miikasuominen3845 Před 4 lety

      If it's anything like the first one, then maybe not...
      On the other hand, if it's made like Nathan Drake collection, then go ahead...

    • @shth34d57
      @shth34d57 Před 4 lety

      @@Balnazzardi remakes? Gears 2 and 3 never came to pc

  • @Hits9Nine
    @Hits9Nine Před 4 lety +57

    After playing Halo 2, I can't wait for 3 and ODST

    • @sharpshooter5417
      @sharpshooter5417 Před 4 lety +11

      Replayed ODST again on legendary during Christmas holidays with Dolby Atmos and reaffirmed my love and assertion that it is the most atmospheric Halo game. Imagine it on PC

    • @alexsilva28
      @alexsilva28 Před 4 lety +1

      @@sharpshooter5417 GOD they better not mess that one too 😩

    • @eticket48
      @eticket48 Před 4 lety +1

      @@alexsilva28 fingers crossed

    • @skirmich
      @skirmich Před 4 lety +2

      I am not trilled with H3.. Considering 343 already confirmed there wont be an Anniversary edition... This means you have played the best looking and sounding halo of the original trilogy of the MCC which is truly a shame since H3 looks like dog shit compared to H2AMCC.

    • @eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeo
      @eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeo Před 4 lety

      I cant wait to play Halo 3 for the first time. I loved 1 and 2 at the time. Idk why I skipped to 4 (and didn't beat it) 😂

  • @ZSTE
    @ZSTE Před 4 lety +102

    Breaking Benjamin, energy sword, and the hog is why I play in classic.

    • @alexsilva28
      @alexsilva28 Před 4 lety +7

      Same, but the music is incredibly messed up. It plays and loops at the wrong moment and the audio is glitchy

    • @Reach4God1
      @Reach4God1 Před 4 lety +18

      Agreed, though the sword is the biggest offender to me. I hate the new sounds and miss the pink/purple of the old model.

    • @JaronActual
      @JaronActual Před 4 lety +6

      I see a person of refined tastes . . .

    • @eticket48
      @eticket48 Před 4 lety

      Yeah, the energy sword sounded to much like a lightsaber

    • @cynicalgold9992
      @cynicalgold9992 Před 4 lety +1

      @S. T so is classical version not there for people to use or something?

  • @carlospinto5845
    @carlospinto5845 Před 4 lety +12

    So much for quality assurance. Those frame drops look major!

  • @jogaraven
    @jogaraven Před 4 lety

    Thank you for great work! Always watching your reviews! Hopefully fixes will be released soon

  • @x4MatCx
    @x4MatCx Před 4 lety

    Das "und auf Wiedersehen" hat mich voll aus dem Konzept gebracht :D. Schönes Video :)! Die Ruckeleinlagen scheinen wirklich bei jedem zu sein. Hatte es auch, mein Koop-Partner auch, wir beide nutzen auch einen 3900X. Aber hey, das Spiel macht verdammt viel Laune :)!

  • @darthmarticusLFC
    @darthmarticusLFC Před 4 lety +3

    I just finished a co-op playthrough of Halo 2 Anniversary on my X and it never once felt like 60fps.

  • @WaxsteinOriginal
    @WaxsteinOriginal Před 4 lety +3

    I was waiting for this, thank you :)

  • @JJ_Khailha
    @JJ_Khailha Před 4 lety

    Great video, thanks. Am playing through MCC on PC and am nearing the end of Reach and am thoroughly enjoying it.

  • @fishwithlipslipson8945
    @fishwithlipslipson8945 Před 3 lety +1

    I got this as my only game alongside my pc around 2011/2012. The multiplayer was already dead when I started playing because windows vista was a damn PAIN to manage. But I still fondly remember the campaign. As my only game for a couple of months I did a lot of campaign. The dual wielding and vehicles were so much fun!

  • @Edmundostudios
    @Edmundostudios Před 4 lety +134

    Halo 2 Classic multiplayer is completely messed up

    • @ArabianFreedom
      @ArabianFreedom Před 4 lety +5

      How?

    • @philipbanks632
      @philipbanks632 Před 4 lety +20

      @@ArabianFreedom You can shoot at the ground and kill random people, both teammates and enemies alike.

    • @UnL1k3
      @UnL1k3 Před 4 lety +2

      @@ArabianFreedom Ground shooting lmao

    • @aacob2
      @aacob2 Před 4 lety +7

      @@ArabianFreedom I shot a rocket downwards at an enemy and it disappeared and i betrayed a teammate lmao

    • @Edmundostudios
      @Edmundostudios Před 4 lety +5

      Philip Banks Also grenades and hits just not registering at all consistently.

  • @mrnelsonius5631
    @mrnelsonius5631 Před 4 lety +29

    I’m kind of shocked how good this looks. I’ve become a huge fan of Saber Interactive. All this stuff about Raytracing... and I’m more impressed with their porting of a 2016 game to Switch and their tech/artistic choices updating a Halo game from 2004 😂. But really, they are doing amazing work and I wish Reach had gotten this same treatment.

    • @Baxtexx
      @Baxtexx Před 4 lety +2

      Yeah I agree, reach looks awful. H2A actually looks something like Bungie intended it to look! HCEA on the other hand wasn't that good. I think the design was changed too much.

    • @BlindTrustProject
      @BlindTrustProject Před 4 lety +8

      @@Baxtexx I Agree. Saber butchered Halo CE anniversary art direction and lighting with a frankenstein monster made of out-of-place REACH assets and new poorly made assets that looks nothing like Halo. And the framerate on xbox 360 was worse than the OG Halo. The worst kind of remaster you can think of. Fortunately they came to their senses with Halo 2 Anniversary with a way more respectful remade assets and lighting.
      I wish both 343i and Saber would acknowledge that HaloCEA was reworked with bad taste and would ditch it and work on a way more faithfull remake.

    • @rickygforce4217
      @rickygforce4217 Před 4 lety +1

      @@BlindTrustProject I think Halo 3 should get the anniversary treatment first, 2022 is coming around the corner for the 15th anniversary, and those facial animations could do with a touch up

    • @robertyoung406
      @robertyoung406 Před 4 lety

      What game on the Switch are you referring to?

  • @fourthdirective
    @fourthdirective Před 4 lety +1

    I remember the 2007 pc release included achievements which of cause were missing from the og game. Looks really good.

  • @andymath89
    @andymath89 Před 4 lety

    this video flooded me with nostalgia, damn...thank you so much for the review.

  • @Jamesssssssssssssss
    @Jamesssssssssssssss Před 4 lety +10

    "Guess we'll be waiting for fixes then".... is what i said with Reach and nothing has been fixed.

  • @noa670
    @noa670 Před 4 lety +32

    Can't wait for Halo 3.

    • @MrGRmask
      @MrGRmask Před 4 lety +6

      After 13 years of waiting, we're gonna finish this fight.

    • @Brandon-gz9nx
      @Brandon-gz9nx Před 4 lety +3

      Can't wait for Halo 3 to launch bugged and/or broken just like every other PC launch game. And also no forge for a year and a half because it's so hard for 343 to do their job

    • @user-qe7bt9dz1l
      @user-qe7bt9dz1l Před 4 lety

      I can’t wait for another great Halo game like Halo Combat Evolved... the rest pretty much sucked imo...

  • @livingthedream915
    @livingthedream915 Před 4 lety +2

    @Digital Foundry
    The reason for those stutters is because on remaster graphics the game keeps the distant level geometry rendered (no occlusion culling) at some kind of unusually high level of detail. This is especially noticeable on High Charity because you can see fully rendered distant platforms on the left in full detail after you go down the very first gravity lift outside the weird Prophet conference. On classic graphics the models and textures aren't loaded in until you get close, which means A: Occlusion culling is broken or B: Anniversary graphics mode loads THE ENTIRE LEVEL in memory and holds it there instead of loading it in sections like classic. Glad you noticed the stuttering.

    • @WrathDrago
      @WrathDrago Před 2 lety

      This may be a late reply, but could that also be why my 1070 is using 6.3gb of 8gb of vram because the remastered graphics are loading the entire level, hence why I get the big hitching?

    • @livingthedream915
      @livingthedream915 Před 2 lety

      @@WrathDrago IDK about the vram but I know that the hitching is caused by massive amounts of level geometry being rendered when it shouldn't. I've been trying to get word of this bug out but whatever, classic mode is better anyway, especially if you adjust brightness

  • @moses3167
    @moses3167 Před 4 lety

    In regards to the audio design changes, I think I saw somewhere that for later games Marty O Donnell had them make the guns less loud so the music would stand out better. It was in an interview or vidoc or something like that. Makes sense considering music has had to share its place in game audio with more and more things as time has passed.

  • @TheJakeSweede
    @TheJakeSweede Před 4 lety +28

    when i played through the campaign, i switched a lot between classic and anniversary. In short: sometimes its better on classic, sometimes its better on anniversary.
    Overall i think the anniversary remaster for halo 2 is a lot better than the anniversary for halo:CE. If the audio or music sounds really weird, try switching to classic. Best example i can think of is when you enter that room and the classic plays a breaking benjamin song (that is really good) but the anniversary plays some other song that is not as good. I think it depends on what type of experience you are after. I like the nostalgic feel of the classic graphics, so i am prone to play on classic. Martys music is sometimes better than the new score, so whenever you hear music, i reccommend switching to see the differences. Overall i switched around a lot just to compare the versions, and if i liked on version better, i played that part of the level on that version. I got the "play every mission on both classic and anniversary graphics" achievement on steam the moment i finished the campaign. I think the MCC on PC is WELL worth the price now, even if you are only interested in the single player campaign.

    • @zak-ur6yy
      @zak-ur6yy Před 4 lety +2

      I switched a lot so I could actually see stuff. The contrast in anniversary is way out there and muzzle flash on the BR and SMG almost covers up the crosshair. Was disappointed to see that there are still walls that got visually smaller in enhanced graphics but the hitbox of the wall is the size that it is on the OG graphics

  • @alexjay8257
    @alexjay8257 Před 4 lety +47

    I'm all for new and better audio... But the sniper rifle shot was kind of iconic. Eh, I'll get used to it.

    • @MajoraZ
      @MajoraZ Před 4 lety +6

      Halo 2's sniper rifle audio was always pretty low and not very punchy, though?

    • @MrPerson61
      @MrPerson61 Před 4 lety +5

      @@MajoraZ I always liked the high pitch Bark that it made after each shot, it sounded so cool. Combo the Bass from the new one with the Bark from the old and I would be very happy

    • @budthecyborg4575
      @budthecyborg4575 Před 4 lety

      Iconic, yes, the new one sounds pretty darn good though.

    • @scottcooper9089
      @scottcooper9089 Před 4 lety

      Serious, I had the same thought. That original really brings you back.

    • @Headgear
      @Headgear Před 4 lety

      I also enjoyed the old audio for the sniper more

  • @8Paul7
    @8Paul7 Před 4 lety +2

    I am playing it now and it is MINDBOGGLING how amazing the presentation is. Visuals, Audio, Cutscenes - everything is 10/10. Saber and Blur did AMAZING JOB.

  • @MrMightyZ
    @MrMightyZ Před 4 lety

    Very well spoken and extremely well written. A great video, Alex. A worthy addition to Digital Foundry’s greatness. 10/10.

  • @GameplayandTalk
    @GameplayandTalk Před 4 lety +4

    Great to see this is a solid conversion. I've got to say, the older versions of the game are tough to go back to. I picked up the Vista port and man, while it can look *okay*, it controls poorly. Just judging by the footage here, it seems they really improved it in that regard. And man, does this new version look really good. Looking forward to trying it out!

    • @cynicalgold9992
      @cynicalgold9992 Před 4 lety

      Og halo 2 on xbox still plays smoother than most shooters nowadays. Playing a pc port of a console game might be the issue. Halo 2 has a lot of issues, but poor controls are NOT one of those issues

    • @gonzo4637
      @gonzo4637 Před 4 lety

      This "solid conversion" is full of piss poor decisions and rushed design philosophy. Not too mention the numerous bugs which have presented themselves that dont even exist on the other ports EVEN THE VISTA. Also the fact forge still isnt in these ports is telling. Im just giving you a fair warning, Id wait for a sale on this one muh dude.

    • @LiNK52500
      @LiNK52500 Před 4 lety

      Honestly playing Halo 2 Anniversary on a standard X1 via MCC would be better than Halo 2 Vista even with the performance tradeoff.

  • @SamH94
    @SamH94 Před 4 lety +18

    The remade sounds make as much of a difference as the remade visuals, it's incredible how much better it sounds, especially the music

  • @thingsiplay
    @thingsiplay Před 4 lety +4

    While I enjoy the work and upgrade they have done in the remade graphics, I also really like the fact you can switch to old look (and sound) with a press of a key. I saw this in Monkey Island Special Edition as well and wish more developer would do this. I really really love like this.

    • @thingsiplay
      @thingsiplay Před 4 lety

      @referral madness Is this a positive or negative face?^^ Edit: Now I know its a positive one. lol

  • @lahma69
    @lahma69 Před 4 lety

    That original grenade sound effect is so iconic though.. it literally transports my mind back to a much, much younger time.. Nostalgia is weird...

  • @wc999
    @wc999 Před rokem +5

    probably the best remake we will ever see in our lifetimes, those cutscenes are beyond gorgeous

    • @alumlovescake
      @alumlovescake Před měsícem

      Demon Souls, Nier and Crisis Core were pretty good remasters too though they dont have prerendered cutscenes like that

    • @wc999
      @wc999 Před 29 dny

      @@alumlovescake imo the demon souls remake sucked because it took alot out of the art direction of the original
      and crisis core has new VAs that suck
      havent played nier

  • @paterson90
    @paterson90 Před 4 lety +3

    The campaign anniversary graphics look amazing, especially the cutscenes. I hope they used this for inspiration for Infinite.

  • @TilSkywalker
    @TilSkywalker Před 4 lety

    Noticed those weird hitches aswell... besides that I had such a great time with the game. As you showed the audio is just sublime and the redone SOundtrack is insane! Trapped in Amber is still one of my personal favourite Halo tracks!

  • @dmoneyballa
    @dmoneyballa Před 4 lety

    This was so well made. I very much appreciate it.

  • @SolarMechanic
    @SolarMechanic Před 4 lety +19

    It has online connectivity issues?
    It really is just like 2007, hoo-rah!

    • @user-ky9ou5dz9q
      @user-ky9ou5dz9q Před 4 lety +4

      It's funny that no one seems to remember how trash the connections were in all of bungie halo games and how completely broken host was and how bad hit detection could be.
      Halo 2 and 3 were the first games were as a kid I'd scream at the tv and run into theater because I know for a fact I hit that guy lol. Good times.

  • @BLAZINGwaffle56
    @BLAZINGwaffle56 Před 4 lety +3

    Honestly looks amazing, running it on enhanced at 120fps+ with my GTX 970. It feels amazing.

  • @N8TM8T
    @N8TM8T Před 4 lety +1

    A note about the campaign co-op lag. A friend and I have been paying through it and the lag spikes always seem to happen in parts of the map where I would expect it to be loading assets for the next part of the level. This may be coincidental though.

  • @Eclipzify
    @Eclipzify Před 4 lety

    Appreciate the technical breakdown and impressive attention to detail in the video! Interesting points about performance hitching later in the video, perhaps 343 haven't optimised the occlusion of world data. It looks like they need to either stream levels progressively or simply occlude data over a specific distance away from the player if it's blocked by another object - though I suspect DLODS and progressive streaming will be the winner.

  • @FatSacks
    @FatSacks Před 4 lety +4

    I really wish I could play the remastered graphics with classic sounds. I love how the new game looks with the remade visuals, but the soundtrack in Halo 2 is by far my favorite and I much prefer Marty's music to the remastered stuff.

  • @Lb8068
    @Lb8068 Před rokem +5

    Any updates on the frame timing and hitching issues? I’m still suffering from terrible stuttering in Halo 2 MCC’s Anniversary graphics.

  • @DuckmanR10
    @DuckmanR10 Před 4 lety +1

    Love the spotlight on Misha's songs in this.

  • @Nilzzzon
    @Nilzzzon Před 4 lety +1

    Just started playing it. Graphics looks really neat, cinematics are compeltely re-made and the audio is more punchy. The ability to switch from old to remaster with the flip of a switch (tab) is also very nostalgic. Thinking of buying it? GO!

  • @bdcbenjie
    @bdcbenjie Před 4 lety +14

    It honestly sounds like they captured real weapon audio for several weapons in the remaster. I was even able to recognize a few weapon sounds from my time in the infantry lol much better than the halo 2 original sounds

    • @whodatninja439
      @whodatninja439 Před 4 lety +3

      No. The original sounds are iconic. but it's nice to have the option

    • @rickygforce4217
      @rickygforce4217 Před 4 lety +3

      @Who Dat Ninja *iconic and easily recognisable due to how bad they are. Hell, the H3 sniper sound is way better than the H2 sniper even though it used the exact same base sound. Halo 2's sound engineering was just abysmal, nothing had weight to it.
      The only people who like them are the ones that grew up with those sounds, and even I, who grew up with these games, cringe everytime I hear something like the H2 SMG

    • @potatotablet727
      @potatotablet727 Před 4 lety +1

      They did record real weapon sounds for this remaster, go check out their behind-the-scenes.

    • @Arnaud57915
      @Arnaud57915 Před 4 lety +1

      @@rickygforce4217 I grew up with it and I agree

    • @Luke-ih1oc
      @Luke-ih1oc Před 4 lety

      @@whodatninja439 what do you mean "no" ? Lol, you are disagreeing with a point that he didn't even make.

  • @Dashadvent
    @Dashadvent Před 4 lety +6

    With regards to the hitching, I found that the game tended to hitch when vram was near maxing out. I'm running on a GTX 970, and at 1080p a couple game levels maxed out vram on the "enhanced" graphic setting.

    • @sean8102
      @sean8102 Před 4 lety +1

      Yeah I've noticed this game uses a large amount of VRAM for some reason. On my GTX 1080 at 1440p it stays around 6.5 - 7+ GB of VRAM usage (or at least requested).

    • @WrathDrago
      @WrathDrago Před 2 lety

      Yay I have the same problem is there fix for it or do you think 343 will ever fix it, I know year late reply?

    • @Dashadvent
      @Dashadvent Před 2 lety

      @@WrathDrago are you monitoring your vram usage? If it's close to being maxed out, try lowering the texture quality. Otherwise, check your RAM usage.

    • @WrathDrago
      @WrathDrago Před 2 lety

      @@Dashadvent system ram is fine afterburner states about 6gb is used. But the vram on the gpu is high over 6gb on a 8gb 1070 is used playing at 1080p. Thats when I notice frame hitching happening.
      Oh forgot to mention I have 16gb of system ram.

    • @Dashadvent
      @Dashadvent Před 2 lety

      @@WrathDrago have you tried reducing texture quality? I think on max quality the game loads 4k textures- which would explain why it gobbles up all vram at max regardless of render resolution

  • @Zzzooooppp
    @Zzzooooppp Před 4 lety

    Damn, what a thoughtful review. This earned a sub, great job DF and to the author

  • @reticulating_splines
    @reticulating_splines Před 4 lety +2

    Love to see you using Winamp, it really does [still] whip the Llama's ass hunh?

  • @WhiteInk47
    @WhiteInk47 Před 4 lety +8

    Though the Blur cinematic’s and the remade graphics are beautiful, I still prefer the original graphics somehow. I like Cortana’s model better, and there’s a lot of nostalgia for me in the original graphics. Really love what they did with the remade visuals though, and very glad Halo 2 has made it’s return to PC. I loved playing the OG PC Halo 2.

    • @IainsTheName
      @IainsTheName Před 4 lety

      Halo 2 Anni in-game Cortana model really is atrocious, no idea what they did there 🤷🏽‍♂️. It’s like they took Halo 3’s model then slapped a horrible texture over it which didn’t quite fit

    • @Luke-ih1oc
      @Luke-ih1oc Před 4 lety

      @referral madness check out Project Cartographer (it's free)

  • @GoldSrc_
    @GoldSrc_ Před 4 lety +25

    "waiting for fixes", have they fixed Reach's audio on PC? lol.

    • @gamerxt333
      @gamerxt333 Před 4 lety

      what audio issues ? - Steam forums

    • @mango40000
      @mango40000 Před 4 lety

      @@gamerxt333 works on my machine

    • @zenoncma
      @zenoncma Před 4 lety

      i have played Halo Reach and CE with no issues , now playing Halo 2 and no problems so far ...

    • @FUnzzies1
      @FUnzzies1 Před 4 lety

      @@zenoncma people just want to complain :/

    • @sinizzl
      @sinizzl Před 4 lety +2

      @@FUnzzies1 Teh audio mix in reach is absolute dog shit and doesn't do the game justice.

  • @Inkerlink
    @Inkerlink Před 4 lety

    I'm pretty sure that the hitching issue on Delta Halo you experienced was the same one I experienced, but the problem only seemed to occur when I had the frame rate set to Unlimited. I set it to 60 and the level played buttery smooth for me from there on out. It's definitely something that should be fixed.

  • @JDoG867
    @JDoG867 Před 4 lety +2

    Hopefully they fix the frame rate for the OneX. I have been experiencing frame rate issues since the Halo Reach update.

  • @MrH-GB
    @MrH-GB Před 2 lety +5

    I'm getting big lurches where the game just chugs and hitches. It'll be running fine at 144FPS then plummet to 40FPS whilst it freezes for a second or two. I'm using a RTX 3080 and 10700K @ 4.9GHz. The Delta Halo map has been the worst so far too.

    • @dimaz3
      @dimaz3 Před 2 lety +2

      Yep. Same but on a RTX 2060 for me. Starting of the mission Delta Halo and Regret chugs hard.

  • @Pedro_The_Neco
    @Pedro_The_Neco Před 4 lety +20

    The framerate on Halo CEA, Halo 2A and halo 3 has been broken since the reach update.

    • @rickygforce4217
      @rickygforce4217 Před 4 lety +5

      "Fixed" says 343, Im just waiting on that patch to come out

    • @CC42_
      @CC42_ Před 4 lety +4

      @@rickygforce4217 fixed my ass! are they really saying that?

    • @user-qe7bt9dz1l
      @user-qe7bt9dz1l Před 4 lety

      They need to fix some of the animations in Halo CE like the Gatling gun blast fire doesn’t stay aligned with the gun while driving and blasting in classic graphics and also the in game cutscenes at the beginning of the stage seems to have off frame rate on your gun and the onscreen characters like the intro to The Silent Cartographer. Very annoying!

    • @Pedro_The_Neco
      @Pedro_The_Neco Před 4 lety

      Fix is coming later today, apparently!!!

    • @rickygforce4217
      @rickygforce4217 Před 4 lety

      @@CC42_ bruh, fixed as in they've found the reason for it and have made a fix to it in a test build, not as in they've released the update already.
      Calm down man lmao

  • @JetKNINE
    @JetKNINE Před rokem +1

    The stuttering or hitching on delta halo is a sharder cache related problem. If the shader cache size is changed. The results of the stuttering changes

  • @jensonian2148
    @jensonian2148 Před 4 lety +1

    Good breakdown. I had no idea the new soundtrack absolutely slaps. Guess I have to pick it up

  • @PhalasaGames
    @PhalasaGames Před 4 lety +7

    How does 343 not donate to this channel for blatantly play-testing and doing the legwork of highlighting fixes for future patches?????

  • @riaz8783
    @riaz8783 Před 4 lety +4

    The soundtrack in H2A is so badass. Props for featuring some of the best tracks in the game.

  • @sidremus
    @sidremus Před 4 lety

    I really felt the same about the audio. It took me a little to accept that the weapon balancing hadn't been changed, because just from the new sound alone some I could have sworn some guns to be more powerful..

  • @ThePurpleSquares1
    @ThePurpleSquares1 Před 4 lety

    I Can also confirm hitching on Delta Halo and other missions using a 3800X/1080. As well as particle effects playing in what looks like slow motion when using classic graphics

  • @justonaut5622
    @justonaut5622 Před 4 lety +4

    It's always awesome seeing Halo getting covered on DF!
    The port does seem pretty decent from what I've played and the Anniversary graphics look stellar.
    When playing on my personal rig with an RTX 2070 paired with an i7-6700 I was getting major stuttering when trying to play at 144fps, when locking it to 60 in game it all seemed to work fine.
    Think it was on Delta Halo too so that definitely seems to be a problematic level which is a shame.
    Great analysis as always Alex!

  • @lucapassalacqua2762
    @lucapassalacqua2762 Před 4 lety +4

    I didn't know Misha made some music for this! Maybe he could replace Mick Gordon for future Doom things?

  • @2ndLastJedi
    @2ndLastJedi Před 4 lety

    Alex , is that you on the AMS 2 leader board as DFAlex ? I hope it is as i hope we will a great Digital Foundry break down of the Sim/game and its graphical techniques :)

  • @Ponlets
    @Ponlets Před 4 lety

    adding Screen Space RT with a specific shader also improves the look even more :)

  • @TeknoRiderF1RE
    @TeknoRiderF1RE Před 4 lety +4

    Can't wait for Halo 4. Cmon i know im not the only one, right ...?

  • @Vartazian360
    @Vartazian360 Před 4 lety +8

    You really need to try the multiplayer.. its locked at 60fps even in unlocked fps and its completely broken. Shame because the campaign doesn't have this problem

    • @sameerkhatri588
      @sameerkhatri588 Před 4 lety

      Locked? Mine runs at 144 most of the time with drops to 120. And I capped it at 144

    • @Vartazian360
      @Vartazian360 Před 4 lety +4

      @@sameerkhatri588 the mouse movement is unlocked but the motion of the world players and reload animations is all locked to 60fps without interpolation. It feels terrible. The campaign does not exhibit this issue. It's not a performance problem it's an engine problem. Been on 144hz for 8 years and recently switched to 240hz. I can instantly that it is not behaving as it should and it feels terrible. It's not just the fact that the counter shows 180fps. The way they have implemented it is trash.

    • @MlSTERSANDMAN
      @MlSTERSANDMAN Před 4 lety

      lets not forget about aim assist too. no point using mkb on a pc game feels like

  • @WrenchMonkey91
    @WrenchMonkey91 Před 4 lety

    damn, i didn't expect that kind of improvement over the anniversary that's awesome, but I wish Reach had gotten this treatment.

  • @Noxat
    @Noxat Před 4 lety

    I'm sure they'll jump right on those hitching issues. You know like the sound issues on Reach and the plasma pistol charging sound on CEA. Honestly though I'm still so stoked to be playing these campaigns on PC.

  • @MrPerson61
    @MrPerson61 Před 4 lety +4

    I love everything about the new visuals in the remaster, but I actually like the older weapon sounds more. Sure they aren't as punchy, but I like how different and unique each weapon sounds from one another.
    All the human weapons sound like generic real weapons that you could hear in a Battlefield game or something, which while it fits there, doesn't so much in a sci-fi world where you can make a weapon sound like whatever you want. The Covenant weapons all sound like they use some sort of same base sound effect and just changed slightly per weapon making them all feel same-y. While Classic Halo 2 weapon sounds aren't the best in quality or "punchyness" they all sound completely unique and you can tell what gun is going off and from where just from the first time you hear it shoot. Also the Tank shell firing seems to be the opposite, the Classic tank sounds way more impactful than the remaster that sounds like your shooting something with no recoil or force behind it.
    I also prefer some of the classic music tracks as well. The Choir in the remakes seems WAY too loud over the rest of the instruments, and while their replacements are still pretty great, I will always prefer "Blow Me Away" and "Follow" over their replacements.
    If they had an option to play with the remastered graphics with classic audio like Halo CE:A does, I'd be a happy camper.

    • @user-qe7bt9dz1l
      @user-qe7bt9dz1l Před 4 lety

      So you like bland sounding guns?!?? I personally prefer Halo CE classic gun sounds the best. The anniversaries and Halo 2 classic sounds fake.

  • @KarimLikes2Play
    @KarimLikes2Play Před 4 lety +4

    Hello everyone
    Actually iam expériencing thé same with my halo mcc on one x
    At first i tought it was my hardware but it is. Brand new almostI played and finished the complete mcc collection 3 month prior to halo reach being added to it . The gameplay was just fine and I never noticed any stutering or framer drop at that time ...
    I finished halo reach when it came out in December 2019 the game was running quiete well also and now I decide to play the complet collection once again and started noticing stutering and frame drop on halo 1 anniversaryI also noticed few days ago an update of 23 GB was made to the collection but I'm now really frustrated!
    This game is no longer what it was few month ago...
    Can anyone tell what is happening?
    Frame drops and string in halo 1 anniv halo 2 anniv and overal in general!
    So frustrating!

    • @CC42_
      @CC42_ Před 4 lety +2

      they fucked us over on the One X. After the Reach update they broke the framerate in Halo 1 and Halo 2 campaigns. They're now focused on the PC release instead of remedying tge situation for their original buyers of their game. It's really bad look on their part.

    • @themannis3749
      @themannis3749 Před 4 lety

      @@CC42_ ce and reach is ducked on pc too dude, not fps wise but visually

  • @gamerman644
    @gamerman644 Před 4 lety

    i was without my pc for a week and was playing on my xbox one s and i noticed it was really smooth with free sync on

  • @cremvursti
    @cremvursti Před 4 lety +1

    Dayum, Misha slaps on this one. Wasn't even planning on picking up the collection but now it's a guaranteed buy.

  • @sdewey4152
    @sdewey4152 Před 4 lety +3

    Oh Winamp, nostalgia shot right there.
    Lol @ them attempting a DOOM 3 lighting and shadow systems, MC can't shake being DOOM Guys clone can he.

    • @ok-hd1fk
      @ok-hd1fk Před 4 lety

      Who's trying to be a Doom guy clone?

  • @miladesn
    @miladesn Před 4 lety +5

    Halo: Waiting for Fixes Collection

  • @stephennorthway8017
    @stephennorthway8017 Před 4 lety +2

    Thanks for analyzing Halo 2 Anniversary on Xbox One X! I knew there was something wrong, the same issues are also present on the CE Anniversary graphics. I didn't notice these issues until December with the Reach patch.

    • @Finger112
      @Finger112 Před 4 lety +1

      Yep that was around the time I noticed as well when I went back to play the new crossgame playlists on Xbox One X with Reach added. I think the reason is because 343 mentioned alot last year adding Reach into the collection caused memory allocation issues (or maxing out on memory usage) so the engines are more strained now than before.

    • @IainsTheName
      @IainsTheName Před 4 lety

      Series X can’t come quick enough! (It’s disgusting we’ll probably need new hardware for this game to run ok, but I’m getting SX anyway and have MCC so I’m looking forward to seeing what Back Compat does for it!)

  • @deabreu.tattoo
    @deabreu.tattoo Před 4 lety +1

    that Winamp 3 window tho

  • @albal156
    @albal156 Před 3 lety +3

    The constant frame drops not just on Delta Halo for me make this game kinda of unplayable in all honesty. I recently had to switch back to Clasic graphics because it was so bad.

  • @SerdceDanko
    @SerdceDanko Před 2 lety +9

    Best port? It stutters all the time.

  • @jvchannel11
    @jvchannel11 Před 4 lety

    I did not know Periphery played a part in the anniversary but now I definitely realize it wow holy shit.

  • @Decenium
    @Decenium Před 4 lety

    Thanks for doing the bit on Audio, you guys should do more with this.
    Audio is always underrated compared to graphics, like waaaay too underrated.
    Any horror game without audio is not scary, audio (engineers) needs more love in videogame reviews honestly.

  • @granatengeorg
    @granatengeorg Před 4 lety +5

    What is it with developers obsession to remove splitscreen for PCs.

    • @frankwren8215
      @frankwren8215 Před 4 lety +1

      It's more a consistent disregard for consumers and playing blame games with the person literally one rung higher on the corporate ladder.

    • @granatengeorg
      @granatengeorg Před 4 lety

      @@frankwren8215 y tho. It's not like happy customers are more likely to attract new ones down the line or anything...

  • @Lionlovesunity
    @Lionlovesunity Před 4 lety +3

    9:50 that was the first time I’ve EVER seen 120 FPS vs 60 FPS. Now 60 looks slow 😂😂😂😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

    • @DriveCancelDC
      @DriveCancelDC Před 4 lety

      That wasn't 120 vs. 60, it was 120 at 12-25% playback speed

  • @upon1772
    @upon1772 Před 4 lety

    I noticed the heavy stuttering within game as well - but even in SP. Seems the stuttering would mostly go away if you turn 360 degrees for some reason. Also on the levels that this was an issue, I noticed my 980ti was at full memory utilization (6GB), but on most other levels, it was between 2-3GB.

  • @franklinramosdasilva5140

    Oh how I was waiting for this videos...

  • @automatik25
    @automatik25 Před 4 lety +4

    I don't like how the new version puts more hard edges on the guns while the old versions looks more rounded and sleek.
    They should've kept the rounded look form the original.

    • @user-qe7bt9dz1l
      @user-qe7bt9dz1l Před 4 lety +1

      Exactly they should’ve kept the art style simple yet detailed like Halo 1 in classic mode. Halo 1 Anniversary and Halo 2 Anniversary look TOO busy in its graphics. Almost hurts my eyes!

  • @WonderMePartyStrip
    @WonderMePartyStrip Před 4 lety +7

    hahaha they believe 343i will fix this XD

  • @TheDanupro
    @TheDanupro Před 4 lety

    Ya the soundtrack when you play as Arbiter, is very beautiful...Follow in Flight...

  • @fiftybottles
    @fiftybottles Před 4 lety

    Interestingly, I noticed the every-other-frame hand refresh on even a 60Hz monitor. I'm not sure what's causing it but it doesn't seem to occur if vsync is on / framerate is locked to 60. Going unlimited and switching sync off however, it was IMMEDIATELY apparent and genuinely made me think frames were being dropped, even at a 60Hz refresh.

  • @ScarthyUK
    @ScarthyUK Před 3 lety +4

    Xbox one x is still broken! Performance is awful on all anniversary campaigns, this occurred when reach was added a year ago and still isn’t fixed :(

    • @scotchwhisky6094
      @scotchwhisky6094 Před 3 lety

      Get a series x then.

    • @ScarthyUK
      @ScarthyUK Před 3 lety +4

      @@scotchwhisky6094 ermm no. How about 343 fix the game that used to run at locked 60fps on the one x and now plays like garbage...

    • @scotchwhisky6094
      @scotchwhisky6094 Před 3 lety

      @@ScarthyUK Well the CPU on the one x is trash so they can't fix it.

    • @ScarthyUK
      @ScarthyUK Před 3 lety +5

      @@scotchwhisky6094 what a stupid comment. How did it run perfectly before? There are also performance issues on the series X on the anniversary campaigns so it needs work. Blindly telling people to buy a series x is not the answer here

    • @scotchwhisky6094
      @scotchwhisky6094 Před 3 lety

      @@ScarthyUK Well xbox updated the operating system. It now has more features and uses more of your CPU. So sorry to say but your one x will always have these problems. Hence why you should just get a Series X.

  • @buttermilk5364
    @buttermilk5364 Před 4 lety +3

    And the MCC is still horribly fucked on xbox one x...

    • @gabenewell3955
      @gabenewell3955 Před 3 lety

      Go on halo waypoint and make a thread

    • @H.E.M.
      @H.E.M. Před 3 lety

      Is still fucked. They’re not gonna fix it at this point. Especially since they have to go back to fixing halo infinite which looked like a 360 game on the “worlds most powerful console”

  • @daltonrandall4348
    @daltonrandall4348 Před 4 lety

    This is how you do a proper video review of a game. Thank you.

  • @misterjeffa2128
    @misterjeffa2128 Před 4 lety

    i have noticed those hitches, not on delta halo but instead on the oracle but it did happen a few times. im on a ryzen 25 2600 but a friend on a ryzen 7 3700x did have those spikes as well.