With Halo creator Bungie off making merry with Activision, Microsoft has handed the reigns to its flagship first-person shooter franchise over to 343 Industries, a studio created specifically to oversee development of the Halo franchise.
It's first order of business, a HD remake of Halo: Combat Evolved, was revealed earlier this week at E3.
When asked about the pressure of living up to Bungie's standards, 343's Frank O'Connor said although the studio will "never ignore the roots and foundation of what makes Halo successful", it also would "never try to replicate what Bungie did".
Along with the remake 343 is also working on a new trilogy of Halo titles, starting with Halo 4.
Comments
15 comments so far...
StonecoldMC on 10 Jun '11 said:
In Frank we trust
!
Padua on 10 Jun '11 said:
How do you remake a title in HD without replicating what was done before?
Is it not going to be the same story?
PandyBear on 10 Jun '11 said:
My thoughts exactly, by HD i would imagine improved graphics, models etc etc, using the Reach engine.
But seeing as Halo Reach deviated from the Book, Fall of reach (Pillar of Autumn was in orbit above Reach, but for some reason in the game, is docked in a shipyard waiting to pick up cortana, who was already on the ship; in the book) it wouldn't suprise me if they've reworked some of story line.
Either way, i'm whole heartedly looking forward to it as for me CE was the best in the series.
combatevolved on 10 Jun '11 said:
I'm very excited about this announcement. A remake of Halo is a good idea. The game will likely score between 70 and 90 on Metacritic. The Halo Reach Engine is SOLID. Therefore this should be hard to mess up. Online Multiplayer has been confirmed, both competetive and co-operative. Offline multiplayer, 4 way split screen and 2 way co-op is a must for me. I'll be gutted if they leave those Legendary features of the Original out. Also just for laughs please, please put in Warthog Racing as a multiplayer mode. Also Mongoose Racing. That would kill Mario Kart easy. All hail the Return of the Chief. Hoorah....343.....Deliver....."failure is not an option".....
Bailey-AU on 10 Jun '11 said:
"never try to replicate what Bungie did"
Just what I wanted to hear. I love me some Halo, but I'm glad 343i are going to be adding their own flavour to the Halo formula. Keep the great AI and the great sandbox (although expand upon it), but I want their own unique style of storytelling, character design and their own take on the art style and music.
The_Hun1 on 10 Jun '11 said:
with halo 3, halo odst, halo wars, halo reach, and now a remake of halo 1, what about halo 2? the only halo game not in hd, they should have done halo 1 & 2 in hd, double pack goodness.
Imaduck on 10 Jun '11 said:
I'm very happy 343 are at the helm. I imagined they'd be as passionate when the announcemenet was made, now I have proof and I'm delighted. Bungie created Halo, but to my mind, none of the sequels came close to the magic that the original had. They were brilliant games, very replayable, but they just lacked that Halo spark (not the Guilty type) CE had.
343 seem like just HUGE fans, exactly what the series needs. They support the wider universe. They're SO passionate, and seeing as their first step was to realise that CE was the best and HD it, gives me a LOT of hope. I think Bungie lost a lot of the passion really, or at least lost sight of where it started. They should've had one of the book writers write for Reach and embraced the wider Universe (not f**king Legends though).
Anyways, I couldn't imagine Halo being in better hands. I think 343 are more capable than Bungie have been for the last few entries, of returning that magic to the series that is. Having to rise to the mark will really make them push themselves too. Just focus on story again, scale, views, things unlike anything we've seen and incredible combat and we're all good. Going to need to hire an amazing sound director. If the ship is heading to Onyx in Halo 4, I will be uber happeh face.
Padua on 10 Jun '11 said:
What about a whole new spin-off trilogy featuring the Arbiter?
He was one of my favourate computer game characters ever.
damoxuk on 10 Jun '11 said:
Going off retail pricing £40 going around it looks to more than Sony's HD remakes with a lot of online modes etc with Reach's graphics BUT still is a HD remake worth the same retail as brand new titles?
Cryotek on 10 Jun '11 said:
I already played it in HD on PC.
And you know what? It still sucked.
Tom tom tom on 10 Jun '11 said:
Ce still sucked??? well I guess we all have opinions, it's my favourite FPS ever created, I guess you loved mw2. Glad frankie is at the helm again, after two the campaign lost that mysterious sense of wonder and awe. ODST had such a underrated campaign, thought it was great. Reach was my favourite campaign since CE. Not because it had the feel, but because it showed that sacrifice had to be made. Especially when the first line of CE was repeated at the end and bubbie made a full circle. I wish bungie well, great developers who listened and supported the community, completely change gaming with innovative ideas in nearly each installment. I think they were slowly becoming bored with halo though which Is why I think having a new enthusiastic team is for the better. I'm sure frankie won't let them stray to far away from the original formula.
Cryotek on 11 Jun '11 said:
@Tom:
What makes the game stand out? The bland graphics? The awkward weapons? The horrible multiplayer, with the bad level design and unbalanced weapons? The totally cheesy aliens that make it hard to take anything seriously? When my friends got it on Xbox, I played multi for about a half hour and then I was begging them to go back to playing Goldeneye on the N64. From a gameplay perspective it beats Halo hands down.
MrPirtniw on 11 Jun '11 said:
Think you were playing a different game, mate. Halo rocks.
laminated0 on 11 Jun '11 said:
multiplayer sucked? the online multiplayer is awesome in halo, I dont think they had it in halo one as I remember though, so you could be right there for just 4 players the levels were to big. Goldeneye was one of if not the best same console multiplyer ever though, I'd agree that over halo 1s same console multiplayer it was better but now, online multiplayer on halo is far above that. Halo CE, prob the best single player but I am just not into the story at all and so its a chore to play the single player of this game, I doubt ill get this as i just play online, but if they have a good online mode maybe.
PMIKE5 on 15 Jun '11 said:
But... They ARE replicating it!