It has been four months since I’ve done one of these and man, we have a lot of talk about. Since E3 2014, a lot of new information about not only Halo 2: Anniversary but Halo: The Master Chief Collection as a whole has been released. With a little more than a month left until launch, should we recap on what has happened in those four months? Yes? Ok, lets get started off with a few basics.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a must-have for all Halo fans alike. Launching on November 11th, 2014 for only $59.99, players will get the following on Xbox One:

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

Halo 2: Anniversary

Halo 3

Halo 4

Halo: Nightfall – a live action digital series

Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta (December 29th – January 18th)

All four games mentioned above will be running at 1080p, 60 frames per second – all on their ORIGINAL engines and all with their original multiplayers with dedicated servers.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection launches November 14th in Europe

I suppose we should get the worst news out of the way first. Halo: The Master Chief Collection will release on November 14th, 2014 for those in Europe, three days after the North America release. While it sucks for the European guys that they won’t be able to play the Collection for three days, it seems to be becoming a common thing for all games. This will be the first Halo game since Halo Wars to not release in Europe and North America on the same day.

There will be no Spectator Mode

Although this news was expected, it still sucks. Halo: The Master Chief Collection will not introduce a spectator mode to the Halo franchise. However, 343 Industries and Twitch have teamed up to deliver an interesting spectator experience through the Halo Channel. As pictured above, players who stream Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Twitch will have an option of viewing the stream in a unique and informative way.

Viewers will easily be able to see the kill feed, current score and up to date kill/death ratios of those in the game. While it isn’t exactly a spectator mode it is certainly a huge step forwards and hopefully a sign of what’s to come in Halo 5: Guardians.

Join-In-Progress will NOT be featured

One of the biggest complaints about Halo 4 was the Join-In-Progress function which would let players actively find on-going games in Matchmaking. There was no toggle for this feature and for a long time and it didn’t work as intended which resulted in players joining games as they were ending. Although this was eventually fine-tuned, it still left a bad taste in a lot of players mouths.

During a Q&A right after E3 2014, 343 Industries confirmed this feature would NOT be returning for Halo: The Master Chief Collection across all four games.

Stats & Armor from previous games will not carry over

Remember spending months getting your rank up in Halo 2 or getting some friends together to do the Vidmaster Challenges to finally unlock Recon in Halo 3? That won’t be carrying over to Halo: The Master Chief Collection. All players will have a clean slate when it comes to armor, commendations, K/D and rank.

In regards to ranks, players will be happy to hear that all four games in Halo: The Master Chief Collection will use a near-identical ranking system like the one seen in Halo 2. That’s right, you can finally get your 50 in Halo 2 again, or Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 3 and even Halo 4.

Halo 2 Anniversary features SIX remastered maps

Similar to Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, we will be seeing six remastered maps when it comes to Halo 2 Anniversary. Those are as follows:

Ascension (Zenith)

Sanctuary (Shrine)

Zanzibar

Lockout (Lockdown)

Coagulation

Warlock (Warlord)

Warlock has yet to be officially announced but was leaked recently from a screenshot which supposedly came from Tokyo Game Show. All six maps will be getting their own unique names. For example, Ascension will be known as Zenith in Halo 2 Anniversary to separate itself from its Halo 2 Classic counterpart.

These six maps will be playable alongside the classic versions when the game launches in just over a month.

Halo 2 Anniversary features Skulls – old and new

Halo 2 was the first game to introduce collectable Skulls in the Campaign which allowed players to use them as difficulty modifiers. Some skulls can be used to the players advantage like the Envy skull while others can cause disadvantages like the Black Eye skull.

Halo 2 Anniversary will not be removing Skulls – in fact it will be adding more. While we don’t have a full list of what the new Skulls will be, we have been told a few names which will be available with pre-orders for Halo: The Master Chief Collection and others in various pieces of media such as the Halo Channel.

Bonded Pair – In co-op, if one player dies their team mate will receive a 100% damage boost.

Piñata – Enemies drop Plasma Grenades when attacked with Melee

Grunt Funeral – Grunts exploded shortly after death

Swarm – Hunters perform double damage and have triple health

Bandana – Infinite Ammo and Grenades

Halo 2 Anniversary will introduce Terminals

When playing in Remastered mode, players will be able to run into Terminals in Halo 2 Anniversary’s Campaign, similar to Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Rather than cover the backstory of 343 Guilty Spark and Installation 04, the Terminals in Halo 2 Anniversary will cover the back story of The Arbiter and his journey throughout the many wars of the Elites.

Check out the trailer above which offers some tasty lore tidbits!

Each game will have a dedicated playlist

When you’re bundling four games onto one disc and including matchmaking, pleasing all players is a pretty difficult task. Nobody wants to play Halo 4 when they’re in the mood to play Halo 2. Shortly after E3 2014, 343 Industries revealed that when the Collection releases, players will be able select playlists for a specific game rather than being forced into mixed-game playlists.

While details on the playlists have yet to be finalized, the above image is a rough idea of what the Matchmaking team currently had planned in July. These of course are entirely subject to change and may have done so already but one thing will be guaranteed – there will be at least one dedicated playlist for each game.

Halo 2 Anniversary will add new and old game modes

Ever wanted to see what gametypes like Race and Ricochet would play like in Halo 2? Thanks to the work of both 343 Industries and Certain Affinity, we will. Infection, Ricochet and Race will all be some of many new gametypes being introduced into the game when it launches later this year. Just like Halo 3 and Halo 4 – players will be able to fully customize these with custom game options and create their own maps using Forge mode.

The Silenced SMG, Assault Rifle, Gungoose, and Speed Boost are being added to Halo 2 Anniversary

Halo 2 Anniversary’s multiplayer isn’t a carbon copy of the original Halo 2. While the aim was to stay true to the classic feel of the game, it also aims to introduce new features which simply didn’t make the cut in Halo 2 due to time constraints. The Gungoose is exactly what it sounds like, a Mongoose with guns that are controlled by the player when driving.

Alongside the Gungoose, Halo 2 Anniversary will add the Silenced SMG which made an appearance in Halo 2 Vista, the Assault Rifle and the Speed Boost from Halo 4.

Halo 2 Anniversary will feature remastered cinematics

Blur Studios and 343 Industries have teamed up for the Halo 2 Anniversary project to deliver amazing reworks of the original Halo 2 cinematics. When playing in Remastered mode, players will viewing the newly created CGI cutscenes that Blur have been working on.

Of course if you prefer the classic Halo 2 cutscenes then those will be viewable while playing the game in Classic mode. The new cinematics created by Blur will not be 1:1 copies of what you saw in the original Halo 2, while the same voice acting is being used you will see different camera angles, different perspectives and more.

Halo 2 Anniversary Soundtrack

Although this was a near-given, Halo 2 Anniversary will have a standalone soundtrack release featuring the remastered tracks being done by Skywalker Sound. Alongside this, Steven Vai, the creator of Halo 2’s famous “Mjolnir Mix” has already recorded an updated version and will be used in Halo 2 Anniversary in the same place as before.

Halo 2 Anniversary Forge Mode

While we have known Forge mode will be in Halo 2 Anniversary for a while now, we never actually learned what changes were being made to improve upon the Halo 4 version which lacked basic features like zooming in as a Monitor, precision editing, etc.

As you can see above, Certain Affinity have went all out trying to make Forge mode as best as it possibly can be for Halo 2 Anniversary, including all-new Skybox-Only maps. Skybox-Only maps are completely empty spaces with a skybox. For example, one of the Skybox-Only maps will feature the skybox from Zenith. Players will be able to Forge in a large open space without any interruption from natural geometry that they were previously unable to remove. At launch, Halo 2 Anniversary’s Forge mode will feature three Skybox-Only maps.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Graphics Switch is instant

Due to technical limitations on the Xbox 360, when switching between Classic and Remastered mode in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary you were forced to wait a second or two and shown a black screen while the graphics engine switched and displayed the other set of textures. With the game being moved to an entirely new and more powerful console, this switch will now be instantaneous just like Halo 2 Anniversary.

Halo 4’s Weapon Despawn Timer will not change

Many people were under the impression that the reason weapons in Halo 4 despawned so fast was due to the Xbox 360’s technical limitations and wondered if Halo 4 on the Xbox One would remedy that by making weapons despawn after a longer time.

Frank O’ Connor – Franchise Developer Director at 343 Industries answered a question at PAX Prime which confirmed that the despawn timer would not change.

The aim of Halo: The Master Chief Collection is to keep the games the way you remember when with minor quality of life changes like increased framerates and a higher resolution.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection will have LAN support… kind of

The Xbox One has been iffy on LAN support since in launched back in 2013. The main issue is that the console doesn’t support offline profiles at all so you the console itself needs to connect to the internet at one point to download profiles for people to actually play on. Halo is no exception for this. Sadly, you will need at least an active internet connection before you can play any of the four games on LAN due to the Xbox One.

@SaUcEySOARS custom games on LAN. — che chou (@chespace) August 7, 2014

@SIayher @JoshuaKraZeR note: your router will still need an internet connection. Not for game packets but for Xbox Ones to say hi to LIVE. — che chou (@chespace) August 7, 2014

So if you’re planning on inviting a few buddies around and hosting a small LAN party, be warned you may not be able to if you have no internet.

The Halo Channel

Announced back at Gamescom, Halo: The Master Chief Collection will introduce a new application to the Xbox One called the Halo Channel. Similar to Halo Waypoint, the Halo Channel will be your go-to destination for the latest and greatest news in Halo.

As well as having the option to view content like Halo 4: Forward unto Dawn and Halo: Nightfall with new options like exploring specific scenes and characters in-depth, the Halo Channel will also introduce a new range of original content like The Bulletin, a video-version of The Halo Bulletin that will talk about upcoming Halo news and more. The Halo Channel will launch on Xbox One and Windows Phone next month with the collection.

Weapon Sets in Halo 2 Anniversary

Don’t panic, it isn’t what you think it is. When Halo: Reach introduced loadouts, many players found a special use for them in Custom Games which let teams choose from certain weapon and grenade choices. This carried over into Halo 4 and ultimately made custom games a little more exciting.

Halo 2 Anniversary isn’t going to remove this feature. When browsing the custom gametype options, players will be able to modify and create their own weapons sets that players can spawn with. This will be DISABLED in Matchmaking for the Halo 2 Anniversary playlists and gamemodes.

We could see DLC for Halo 2 Anniversary

When 343 Industries announced that Halo 2 Anniversary would only contain six remastered maps, many fans were upset that they wouldn’t be able to play some of their favorite classics in remastered graphics. In an interview with IGN, Bonnie Ross had this to say about Halo 2 Anniversary and the possibility of DLC:

“As for the DLC question – right now we don’t have any plans for DLC… but we’ve been asked this a lot. As soon as you guys find out what the last two maps are, let us know what you think and we’ll see what we can do.”

With Halo 2 Anniversary and Halo: The Master Chief Collection launching a year in advance of Halo 5: Guardians, it isn’t far fetched that DLC could be introduced in the future if players are quite fond of the original six remasters.

Customization will be huge

The best part about having over fourteen years of content bundled together is the sheer amount of customization you will be able to have per-game and overall.

In Halo: The Master Chief Collection, players will have access to most emblems from Halo 2, 3 and 4. Not only that but you will also be able to choose armour sets, emblem and armour colours, avatars, nameplates, clan tags and much more. We did a huge recap article on Customization last month, you can check that out here.

Every single map – including the PC ones

Every single map that has ever shipped on a Halo game will be featured in Halo: The Master Chief Collection. This includes every on-disc multiplayer map, every single DLC map, all the maps that were exclusive to Halo PC and Halo 2 Vista like Timberlands and the Spartan Ops maps from Halo 4.

Above is the first official image of Halo: Combat Evolved running on the Xbox One in Halo: The Master Chief Collection which shows off what Battle Creek will look like when you get your hands on it next month.

There’s more to come

There is still just over a month to go until Halo: The Master Chief Collection releases for Xbox One on November 11th, 2014. Earlier today, IGN announced that starting on October 6th, they will be revealing daily news about Halo: The Master Chief Collection including gameplay from all four games and a special live stream with Halo 2’s Multiplayer Lead – Max Hoberman towards the end of the month.

Any day now, Halo: The Master Chief Collection is set to go gold and begin mass production to ensure everyone gets a copy in November.

All of us at Beyond Entertainment could not be any more excited for Halo: The Master Chief Collection. We have aimed to cover every single piece of news that 343 Industries have given us and we hope to continue doing that for the coming years. Be sure to keep an eye on our homepage for all the latest news for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Halo 5: Guardians and everything else in the franchise.

Be sure to join our active and growing forums. For over a year now our community has been growing and with the news of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, we’re as eager as ever to discuss the franchise.