GamesRadar+ got the chance to visit the museum earlier this month, and today we’d like to take you on a tour. So join me, as we walk the path of Spartans.

Halo: Combat Evolved

The Halo museum is organized semi-chronologically, with the original Halo and all of its assorted memorabilia collected into one, neat case. An inauspicious start to the tour, especially compared to the zaniness you’ll see later.

Halo: Anniversary

The first project from 343 Industries was a remake of the original Combat Evolved, and was widely hailed as the proper way to handle a reworking of classic gameplay. This version still runs on the old engine (meaning the physics and bugs are just as you remember ’em), and even lets you swap between the new and old graphical styles on the fly. It’s a celebration of the Halo franchise’s beginnings, and something 343 is clearly proud of.

Halo 2

Halo 2 paved the way not just for Master Chief and co., but Xbox Live as well. Here, you can start to see the beginnings of Halo as a serious multiplayer game. 

Halo 3

While the first two games in the trilogy certainly have their fans, it was Halo 3 that broke records and took the brand from video games to a multimedia empire. And yes, that is a Mountain Dew. Hey, cross-promotional sugar water is part of history too. 

Halo 3: ODST

A side-story that unfolds during the events of Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST focused on the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST) that fought off the Covenant left on Earth when Chief jumped into hyperspace with a Prophet’s fleet. The Brute costume you see was used in this fabulous, surprisingly heartfelt commercia (opens in new tab)l.

Halo: Reach

The final game from Bungie but the first chronologically, Halo: Reach is one hell of a bang to end on. Rather than tell another tale of the invincible Master Chief, this prequel cast you as a member of Noble Team, a squad of Spartans that were picked off one-by-one until even you fell to the Covenant horde. And while you won’t see it close up, the Elite costume you see here was employed in the emotional “Deliver Hope” commercial (opens in new tab).

Halo: Forward Unto Dawn

While the dreams of a Hollywood feature film set in the Halo universe may be forever dashed, at least fans got some semblance of live-action Master Chief with the Halo 4 prequel/tie-in, Forward Unto Dawn. Cool trivia about the suit: it was worn by actor Daniel Cudmore, who measures in at an intimidating 6’6″. Cudmore is also known for playing Colossus in the X-Men films (that’s the movies with “X-Men” in the title, not Deadpool). 

Halo 4

343’s first original contribution to Halo was met with split opinions. Some were hesitant to see veteran studio Bungie leave the series, while others embraced a more Call of Duty-inspired design philosophy. The new Master Chief suit is still sometimes worn for charity events and special occasions.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

While part of 343 Industries worked to get Halo 5 into pre-production, other portions of the studio were diligently remastering Halo 2 in the same vein as Halo: Anniversary, and then packaging it together with the three other games in which Master Chief starred. The result was The Master Chief Collection, which was rock-solid… as long as you didn’t try the multiplayer, which was broken for weeks after release.

Halo: Nightfall

Another live-action film project, this one produced by legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott. Nightfall introduced us to Agent Locke, who would go on to be a major part of Halo 5: Guardians. More grounded and gritty than the smooth sci-fi look of previous Halo projects, Nightfall also starred Mike Coulter, who went on to be Luke Cage in the Marvel Netflix series… uh, Luke Cage. 

Halo 5: Guardians

The first proper Halo game on Xbox One (no, we’re not counting The Master Chief Collection), Halo 5 had a lot to live up to. Whether it succeeded is still debated, but you can’t deny the ridiculous amount of marketing that led up to it. 

Halo: Spartan Assault and Halo: Spartan Strike

Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike took the Halo universe mobile, transforming the FPS into an isometric, tactical run-and-gun game. Assault would eventually come to PC and Xbox One, while Strike remains on mobile and PC, no console release.

Halo toys, books, and collectibles

As I said, Halo is far more than a game series now. Action figures and collectibles run the gamut from small and kid-friendly to big, expensive statuettes. 

Halo Legends

Much like The Animatrix, Halo Legends is an anthology collection of animated films set in the Halo universe. Some are better than others, but the art is undeniably beautiful. 

Halo weaponry

Whether these were used as props in commercials or part of costumes, these guns are the real deal. That DMR is heavy. 

Halo endorsements

Did you know Master Chief has had his face (well, his helmet) plastered onto the underside of skateboards, snowboards, and NASCAR cars? Neither did I. But we know now. 

Saying goodbye

As we leave the lobby of 343 Industries, a life-size statue of Master Chief lets us know that he’ll be here to watch over everything, and keep us safe. Godspeed, Chief. 

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The post Theres a real-life Halo museum at 343 industries and its full of cool stuff – take a look appeared first on Game News.

A placeholder release date for the ODST campaign for Halo: The Master Chief Collection was inadvertently listed on the Xbox Store. (1/2)May 27, 2015

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We continue final testing and will make an official announcement once our release date is determined, and apologize for any confusion. (2/2)May 27, 2015

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Original story: Well, 343 Industries did say that the Halo 3: ODST remaster, soon to be available for free to anyone who played Halo: The Master Chief Collection (opens in new tab) before 19th December last year, should be out this month. That was looking like an increasingly shaky proposition until some delightful doofus put up a listing for the DLC on the Xbox Store, along with a release date of 29th May (i.e. this Friday).

The add-on appears to be 8.1GB in size, and promises the usual 1080p/60fps experience. The listing’s since been removed – I’m guessing it was meant to be a drop shock of its own – but it seems more than likely we’ll be playing Bungie’s non-Spartan side-project come the weekend.

There’s been no word as yet on the remake of Halo 2’s Relic multiplayer map that seemed to be coming alongside ODST, although – and I am possibly showing my limited understanding of development here – I’m guessing remastering an entire game’s worth of content would be a more intensive process than a single island with a big tower in the middle.

Now we just need Reach, eh?

The post UPDATE: That Halo 3: ODST remaster listing wasnt correct appeared first on Game News.

For someone who is a lapsed Halo fan, and is underwhelmed by Xbox One so far, it is significant that I should be so enamoured with this remake. Microsoft has made a point of explaining that the games themselves haven’t been changed at all–in terms of how they play–so the only difference is the quality of the port and the visual upgrade. At risk of sounding like a Microsoft advert (I certainly am not, these days), this is the Xbox One difference.

It isn’t even that the graphical overhaul is that pronounced. I must have blinked at the switch-over moment during the presentation because I was still waiting for them to say “and now the Xbox One version” when they showed off the improved visuals. I wouldn’t say it looks massively new-gen. Here’s the new version of Halo 2 (top-left) above the old. As you can see, the new visuals are better, but not miraculous.

But even though it isn’t a revolutionary upgrade, it does look pretty damn perfect when you’re playing it. It looks how you remember Halo looking (at least the first two–I was never impressed with Halo 3 (opens in new tab), right from the first time it appeared as a playable beta). Sure, it’s nice to have smoothly-rendered creepers winding around tree trunks, and the special effects like burnish on metal are high quality, but what Xbox One really brings to the game is a feeling of solidity. You feel like you could fall forward, put your arms out to break your fall and feel cold metal or sun-warmed earth under your outstretched palms.

Perhaps the main reason for this–even more noticeable than the improvements in texture rendering and lighting–is the frame-rate. I don’t believe any graphics at 30fps can ever look truly solid. It’s why Dreamcast’s arcade conversions still look good almost a decade and a half later. It’s why CoD4 (below) still plays so well. Sure, Infinity Ward’s textures from 2007 are starting to look comparatively ropey now, but it still moves beautifully. Halo on Xbox has never been as smooth as modern Call of Duty games on the same hardware, but now it is. The Master Chief Collection is like having your eyes opened.

You know those occasional moments you get sometimes where you feel truly awake? Where everything you’re looking at suddenly has crystal clarity and it’s like you’ve had a thin veil pulled away that used to separate you from the real world? No? OK, just me. Well, if you do know what I’m banging on about, then this is like that. And it’s wonderful.

It’s like the ‘HD difference’ of a few years ago, only we’re used to Halo in HD anyway by now, so this is just like a super-deluxe version of what we already know and love. Imagine this enhanced environment scene moving at 60fps. It’s beautiful. And beautifully playable with it. But it isn’t just an aesthetic boost; it also means more responsive controls, as there’s twice the refresh rate there used to be.

This is coupled with the precision and weighting of the Xbox One pad. The feeling of solid environments from the rampant frame-rate carries over into the ergonomic chunkiness of the peripheral in your hands and makes it feel like and arcade game. Hey, don’t look so disgusted! The series is, and always has been, an arcade-oriented shooter at heart. The chunky movement, the bullet-sponge armour with replenishing shields… it certainly isn’t a real war simulator. The remastered Halo feels even more like a video game, and I’m all for that.

So what if elbow blows are still more powerful than guns? Or that the lack of a sprint button makes sedate trots away from enemy fire looks and feels just a little bit silly? These are still some of the finest multiplayer shooters ever made and they’ve never felt so self-assured. The fact that they’re all on one disc and all online-enabled is really exciting.

I don’t even really mind that these aren’t ‘new’ games (though that’s another debate entirely). It just restores some of gaming’s most iconic shooters to where they should be. Halo 2 fans don’t have to mourn the loss of the original Xbox servers any more. It’s all there on Xbox One… but feeling better than ever. In fact, it almost feels like a whole new set of games.

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