"This is our gift to the fans," the two men from 343 Industries said. We're sitting in a small room set aside from a larger Microsoft event at E3, and we're about to take a look at Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, a game that sets out to take the now-classic Halo title and update the graphics for the modern day. I was able to watch one of the developers play the game in front of me, and while you can still tell that the title is based on an aging game, the updated engine goes a long way toward making the game look closer to the graphical fidelity we're used to in games.

What's fascinating about this update is that there are actually two layers of code running at any given time, and you can switch between them at will.

The classic must be preserved

It was important to everyone involved that the game feel like the original Halo, and the only way this was possible was to keep the original code. There was then another layer added on top of that code, a proprietary engine that adds modern effects and textures to the game. In an amazing twist, you can hit a button at any time and switch between the updated graphics and the game's original look. The difference is striking, and it's impressive how far graphics have come in the last decade.

Just in case you thought the graphics were the only aspect of the game being updated, the score was also re-recorded at Skywalker Ranch.

The ability to play with the old graphics used to be what the developers described as a "pet feature," a menu item that you could toggle on and off at the beginning of your session. They quickly fell in love with the feature, and wanted to give players complete control over which graphical style they played with. I watched as a Warthog was driven through the water in the old style with very little in the way of details, and then the new graphics were turned on and I could see the water churn.

The game also updates the terminal system, the text-based method the game used to explore the backstory of the world. Now the terminals are much easier to find, and feature a stylized, graphical story that tells the tale of the Halo, and how Guilty Spark found himself there. It's an interesting way to flesh out the game's backstory, and the only way you'll be able to experience it is to play this new game. "This isn't just a weapon, it's my home," Guilty Spark tells the player, describing the Halo structure. The graphics in the new story-based terminal segments feel almost like a breathing comic book, and what little of the story we saw was conveyed very well. If you're a hardcore Halo fan, this is going to be a nice bonus to replaying the original campaign.

The game will come with seven classic multiplayer maps, but those will play using the Reach engine, and in fact the game will come with a code allowing you to download the maps and add them to the map list when you play Halo: Reach. When asked whether or not there will be a way to play these maps with the original weapons and with the gameplay of the original games, everyone in the room grew coy. "We want to respect the classic game, and there are many ways to do that," we were told, and then promised more details of the different online options will be shared at a later date.

Halo: Combat Evolved looks and feels different than the modern games

The first Halo plays very differently than the modern games, and that feel is kept in the Anniversary edition of the game. The magnum is a very powerful gun in the original release, and it was pointed out how good it's going to feel to go back to that weapon to wipe out hordes of enemies. The backstory of Halo will be explored in a new way with the terminals, and the ability to play with the original graphics is another way of giving respect to the original release.

If you didn't like Halo, and lord knows people will sound off in the comments, you will continue to not like this. For those people who loved the original, this is going to be a window into the past, with graphics that are more than tolerable. Microsoft is clearly going to milk one of its most popular franchises, but at least the people helming this version of the game seem to have love and respect for the game they're bringing back from the dead.

It's a look back, sure, but sometimes that can be a very refreshing thing, especially when you can finally play the game with a friend over Xbox Live in co-op mode, not to mention earn achievements. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is coming on November 15 for the Xbox 360, and will retail for $40.