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Halo: The Master Chief Collection - Xbox One Review | Chalgyr's Game Room

Chalgyr's Game Room writes:

I love Halo. However, I hate how this title has been treating its fans so far.

There was an incredible opportunity here, and I have held off on publishing my review because I wanted to give 343 Industries every opportunity to make the experience right for users. It has gotten better, but with matchmaking that is still broken weeks out from the release, Halo: The Master Chief Collection represents everything that is right and wrong about modern gaming all in one large package. That is because while gaming is faster, more detailed, longer lasting with more options than ever, release cycles and publisher deadlines mean that far too often gamers are paying a premium to help serve as beta testers on buggy games that development teams have no business shipping.

G20WLY3834d ago

I like it when reviewers take this approach. You can't say fairer than leaving it for weeks before publishing your review in the hope that a broken game with potential can be fixed.

It's lenient and fair. Just because we all know what this could have been (and probably will be), doesn't mean it's okay for devs/pubs to do this, regardless of game or platform. We deserve better; we're giving them money for a product and a service.

You want your game to sell? We demand that it works properly. We want the experience you promise and nothing less is good enough.

Chalgyr3834d ago

Thanks - we wanted to rush out a review like everyone else, but Chris (our reviewer) wanted to make sure things work, and sadly Halo just hasn't to date. We actually had another article here on the topic of buggy game releases you might like/agree with: http://n4g.com/news/1633134...

Blastoise3834d ago (Edited 3834d ago )

I don't agree with that. Why should anyone have to wait two weeks or more to see if they've fixed it? If a game doesn't work at launch people would like to know, why throw a company a bone on the potential of it being fixed when they're charging $60-£40 anyway? Call it like it is, I say.

Not hating on the review, just dont agree with the notion

Chalgyr3834d ago

Definitely fair, Blastoise. Though, we were curious to see how it would be handled. We had a chance to play the game pre-release and the online worked flawlessly then. We wanted to see if this was a hiccup that was a day or three in the making or something more, given the dramatically different results after the release.

Wh15ky3834d ago (Edited 3834d ago )

What's more curious is how well the game was received by those early reviewers.

Almost all the reviews from the first few days of release scored the game above 90%.

Not one of those early reviews called it like it was.

Chalgyr3834d ago

Wh15ky - well, what we did was unusual. The game's online worked pre-release and the multiplayer was very smooth. There were scheduled groups of times where people who had pre-release access could log in and participate. So for those rushing to get the review out day one as soon as the embargo lifted, all seemed well.

The reason we held off on ours was a nagging concern Chris and I had. We saw the exact same thing happen with Driveclub when it released to the public. There were also frequent patches and code updates being applied to Halo almost right up to the day of the release. Those two things tipped us off to wait. I don't necessarily blame other review sites for wanting to get their articles out day one, but we had some concerns and decided to sit back a bit longer and see if there was, as we suspected, a problem when the general public hit the game all at once in larger numbers.

ReturnToSanity3834d ago

343 said they had something big planed as an apology. Maybe it will make up for it.

t1ckles3834d ago

While I love the Halo franchise deeply, 343 dropped the ball. Recently another company dropped the ball and their "something big" was a free DLC to Assassin's Creed: Unity owners... Not exactly the best offer, especially to folks that purchased things like the Season Pass.

I am not sure what 343 could do to appease early adopters for The Master Chief collection, besides Microsoft is attempting to apologize for their studio's biff-up by offering $15 in credit for anyone that buys the game in December (see: vg47.com's article they posted two days ago). Heck of a way to "apologize" to the players that, trusting in the Halo franchise, bought the game in November. Pretty crappy if you ask me.

Not sure what 343 can do at this point other than fix the game...

u got owned3834d ago

I agree, 343i drop the ball big time with this.

This game could have sold much more if it weren't for all this problems. But this should be a lesson for all developers, we are not beta testers, if we buy a $60 game it should be completely functional day one.

Cream3834d ago (Edited 3834d ago )

343 is going to give everyone a screen saver of a Master Chief for an apology... and a 50% off coupon for a jar of Vaseline.

Illusive_Man3834d ago

Matchmaking works fine. I've had well over 150 matches in the past week.

u got owned3834d ago (Edited 3834d ago )

If you had 0 is because you don't own the game. Saying you had 0 come off as trolling since the game has got much better since release.

When playing alone works pretty good. Playing with friends (team matchmaking) still need quite a lot of work.

marlinfan103834d ago

You sure its not your connection or nat? All my friends and I have had no problems getting games as of 2 patches ago. The connections a lot faster (it still takes a couple min every once in a while), the only real problem weve had is after 5-6 games the connections get really slow and we just reset the game and it fixes it.

equal_youth3834d ago (Edited 3834d ago )

i can only say the same and i've been trying to play almost every evening. Seems like it works in some regions at least... but not for me.

Gazondaily3834d ago

"If you had 0 is because you don't own the game"

Gamertag: SEPTIC360

Check it yourself.

I got achievements for playing MP matches for custom games. I had to resort to doing those because I couldn't find a game.

"When playing alone works pretty good. "

I was searching for games on my own. TO be fair, someone said the same thing to me. No luck for me. My NAT is open and I find games very quickly. My connection is good.

No I'm not trolling.

u got owned3834d ago (Edited 3834d ago )

@septic

Try hard resetting your XBO. Press and hold the power button on your XBO for 10 seconds. Also disconnect the console completely for two minutes. Probably need to clear the cache. I had to do it yesterday with the last update.

LonDonE3834d ago (Edited 3834d ago )

Seriously i believe u 100% i too could not play a single match since launch in any of the playlists this games multi player is complete trash! even if it does work from what everyone said it runs it on P2P like cod and is not the dedicated servers which they promised! so much for azure LOL

Ignore the kool aid drinking fan girls who get all defensive when anyone criticizes their favourite game! its one of the reasons why i took my avatar pic to shut up all the single console fan boy haters! its my way proving i own and game on all platforms unlike some!

Mate i swear i was told a 100% guaranteed way to make it work and this is the only way i have been able to play the game.

Go into your x1 settings, then go to network and then at the bottom it says "go offline" click it and then wait a minute or two without doing anything!

Then after the minute or two it should now say "GO ONLINE" in the network settings click it and the x1 will reconnect then just click on advanced settings and click auto for the ip and dns settings and then press b it should do a quick test and say everything is fine, then click on detailed statistics this should give you all the info like ping time and up and down speed after it is done go to home screen and launch the game, go straight to multi player and i pretty much guarantee it will work!!

I am thinking its some thing to do with the x1 network settings, or cache doing this will allow you to play 100%
I know its annoying as hell and why should be jump through hoops to play it online but as a temporary fix it does indeed work!

Just out of curiosity are u also from uk? allot of uk gamers are having problem with halo mcc, also make sure you are not wireless and are using a wired connection to your router/modem.

Hope it helps and just wanted to know would it be kool if i added u on live? u r pretty level headed and i wouldn't mind having you on my list.

Most times you only need to do the go offline part, wait a minute or 2 then click go online and then go straight to the home screen and launch the game and multi player should work but some times you have to do all of the above steps this has worked for me 100% of the time and for my buddies too.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 3834d ago
Yaay4me3834d ago

Still not fixed. Thats too bad.

Bennibop3834d ago

Shame it should have been great, unfortunately us gamers are in impatient lot and will move on quickly as we are not short of options SSO, Farcry, COD, LBP3 and Dragon Age to name a few.

marlinfan103834d ago

I think most appreciate how good halo really is andwill just wait until its fixed. Not to say whats happened is acceptable, cause its not, but I'm not gonna skip over such a great game because it's had a few weeks of bad connections. This game will give halo fans years of enjoyment once its finally fixed.

Show all comments (35)
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Si-Fly659d ago

Can I suggest BG3 as a 6th? It’s helping me pass the time quite well.

anast659d ago

I'm still trying to finish WotR.

DivineHand125659d ago

With the release date being just a little over a week away, it may not be a good idea to burn yourself out on mech games until then.

RavenWolfx659d ago

i want a Chromehounds sequel so bad...

raWfodog659d ago (Edited 659d ago )

Surprised that the article didn’t mention Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries if we’re talking about mech-related games.

ZeekQuattro658d ago

It was an odd article imo. Like why are games that feature a handful of mech themed levels in there. When I think of mech games I don't think Halo and Wolfenstein no matter how fun those levels were.

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Sciurus_vulgaris668d ago (Edited 668d ago )

Microsoft was involved with Halo, Gears, Forza, Ori, Flight Simulator and Fable from early development, I will give them credit for those franchises. Fallout, Elder Scrolls and Doom were established franchise before being acquired by MS.

Crows90668d ago (Edited 668d ago )

Exactly. They had nothing to do with their most popular franchises now.

Their old franchises are dwindling and pretty much non-existent.

They've had perfect dark in the chamber this whole time and haven't done squat...that tells you the kind of company they are. Fable is another franchise that's been destroyed and ignored...let's see how the new game turns out.

Profchaos667d ago

Yeah perfect dark, banjo conquer ms seems to kill more franchises then they like to admit while pretending to care about others like hexen

Sitdown668d ago

Given the article specifically says "now owned", what made you feel the need to do a break down?

thesoftware730667d ago

Sit-down,

Because it's N4G and any opportunity to shit on MS is never missed.

Rude-ro667d ago

Gears is not.
It was the same as mass effect:
Just contracted.

closed_account668d ago (Edited 668d ago )

Ah yes, feels like forever ago since Microsoft created Skyrim. So much so, I had actually forgotten they had created it and the other Elder Scrolls games! 🤔

*They really shaped my preteen years w the original Doom too!

ocelot07668d ago

Don't forget the original Elder Scrolls way back in 1994 or fallout in 1997.

Sitdown665d ago

So you don't understand the combination of "now owned"?

Crows90668d ago (Edited 668d ago )

I fully expect all these popular franchises to be killed off by Microsoft. Just a matter of time.

Unless they take a huge distance approach which pretty much means they don't ba e anything to do with the games being made ...in that case the franchises should be fine. But then...they shouldn't really get credit.

DOMination-668d ago

"I fully expect all these popular franchises to be killed off by Microsoft. Just a matter of time."

Based on what?? Microsoft usually gets stick for releasing too MANY games in their franchises, to the point where it's quite a long-running joke - one I'm sure you've partaken in before.

Pretty much all of their major IP has had releases in the last five years or have upcoming releases scheduled so I see no evidence whatsoever for this claim.

"Unless they take a huge distance approach which pretty much means they don't ba e anything to do with the games being made"

But.. They HAVE been very hands-off for a long time and have drawn lots of criticism for it?

fr0sty667d ago

See: All of Rare's games

DOMination-667d ago

I really wouldn't say that MS have let Rare franchises die. They've just had the freedom to create new IP in Sea of Thieves and Everwild. MS are currently developing a Perfect Dark game, licensed Killer Instinct out, Rare themselves released several compilations and several Banjo games as well as PDZ in the past.

I'm not sure what else you could want. They can only make one game at a time. You can't say MS let all their franchises die but also be annoyed that they allow their studios to make new IP.

Profchaos667d ago

If that's the case where my banjo or conquer sequel why didn't I get sunset overdrive 2 oh yeah not enough bro in those games

ChasterMies667d ago (Edited 667d ago )

EA is a good example of what can happen to a franchise when a larger corporation buys up studios from a smaller corporation. Quarterly earnings should never matter more than quality.

wiz7191667d ago

@Crows that is the case , Zenimax is operating independently of MS and have full creative freedom to do what they want. Zenimax games aren’t being published under XGS ,

ravens52668d ago

Soon Microsoft will be known for making Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Candy Crush, Call of Duty etc. Lmao they know what they're doing. Especially with the archiving issue the gaming industry has.

closed_account668d ago (Edited 668d ago )

Microsoft built the game industry. Microsoft invented games. Didn't you know? ;)

**What a bizzaro world we live in where the losers can become the winners overnight.

Hypertension140667d ago

@ravens52

What are those franchises you're talking about?
Activision/Blizzard only makes Call of Duty and Bethesda has Elder Scrolls and Starfield only, stop making it seen that is much more anti competitive/consumer than it actually is.......

Profchaos667d ago

Zero creative vision and the ability to bankroll it by purchasing everything that everyone else had success with even Halo wasn't technically theirs Bungie had to sell it to them to become independent

Atari6052B667d ago

You mean any studio Microsoft could acquire to flog last gen games on game pass ... What happened to HD-DVD that Microsoft pushed so hard ...

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closed_account669d ago (Edited 669d ago )

Bethesda makes the most consistently stupid NPCs, like really bad... yet I still can't help but love playing their games. Guilty pleasure, I guess. *sigh* 😩

Flawlessmic669d ago

How did redfall not make the cut.

anast668d ago (Edited 668d ago )

Every Bethesda game and Every Halo game. This list needed to have Cyberpunk somewhere.