Here's Yet Another Master Chief Collection Apology From 343

'Games being so broken that the devs have to apologise' for worst trend of 2014?

So are "Post-release apologies" going to repeat in the "Please Stop" category?

DAMN RIGHT.

(Although, with all that Blur Studios CG work and such, I doubt an XB360 port was ever seriously in the cards)

Is this what Drew deserves, 343i? IS IT?

It's not propaganda, it's public relations!

Sadly, it works. Someone got paid a lot of money to come up with that phrase. I bet someone came up with the same idea in a boardroom long before that, but that guy offered it for free, so no one thought it was a good idea.

I was always going to buy the MC collection. I love Halo, I'd like to disconnect my 360 eventually, and having all the MC Halos on one console appeals to me--as does the prospect of having a sci-fi co-op shooter that isn't Destiny.

I have all the MC Halos now, and I can run through the campaigns (when the bloody thing doesn't inexplicably lock up, although that seems to have been fixed by the last patch), but if I want to play some co-op with my brother? It's a crap shoot--I think we've gotten it working about 50% of the time, which is fucking unacceptable. Hopefully 343 "makes good" by "giving me back some money" or "giving me some free shit," because DAMN son you released a busted-ass game.

I bought Halo MCC for the singleplayer so I haven't experienced any of this yet, but it sounds dreadful. This is Microsoft we're talking about and their flagship product. Why didn't they just throw money at this until it was fixed before release?

I was really excited to play with my friends who are in town this week. Bummer.

She alludes to some form of compensation... Any guesses as to what that'll be?

I'm hoping the GOTY deliberations include a category for "Most Broken Game of the Year at Launch". There sure have been some stellar candidates for this category.

The Halo MCC trainwreck has been painful to watch.

As Jeff said last week on the Bombcast, "It's Halo, you're Microsoft. Get it done!"

And for the record, include me as in the growing mob who will no longer pre-order games. It sends the wrong message to developers and publishers, it's a kick in the pills buying a game that doesn't work, and delaying one week will tell you all you need to know about a game.

4 was an absolute shit show. Should have been proof enough that fanboys of Halo don't know how to make Halo games.

Campaign was OK, I liked it.

It's kind of telling that the state of the entire big budget industry right now seems to be "ship it before its done fix it later". That kind of thing has existed since the internet age began but wow has it gotten so so much worse in recent years.

I'd much rather have "releasing broken games" in that category.

This is shoddy PR. I don't know if they can salvage this beyond some kind of refund / free game thing.

2014 will forever be known as "The year of all the broken shit."

At first I was really hoping the "mock a game mechanic as you are including it in your fucking game" trope would be named and shamed as this year's Worst Trend, but holy shit the case for unfinished games winning is overwhelming.

How the fuck is this still not fixed? It's Halo. Can you imagine if Nintendo released a broken Mario game? Or if Sony put out a busted Naughty Dog game? Microsoft has ONE job: make it so you can play Halo. Everything beyond that on Xbox is gravy, just like Mario or Zelda on Nintendo or whatever Naughty Dog is doing on PlayStation.

still don't think this is worth the hyperbole some are spewing but yeah 2 weeks out maybe it's time to get your act together.

i still need to try it after the last patch and experience it first hand, though.

@robotbee:

Try reading it again, out loud, in a shrill, panicky falsetto tone.

Sorry, no. Choosing to release popular games on the newest system is not someting to rake them over the coals over, nor is it anything new. Sure, I would have liked to have every game in the series on the 360, but it's hardly a "slap in the face" to opt to release it on the XBone. The new game being broken is a far, far more egregious offense.

My favorite part is that this statement went up at the same time as a certain announcement was made in Missouri. I sure it was a coincidence, but it sure got blown out of my twitter feed fast.

@hollitz: The campaign was fun, and I enjoyed the story--though I certainly understand how those who weren't up to date on the books and so on might've come out of it saying, 'What the fuck?'

The multiplayer... The shooting was fine. The classes, the unlock system, and those fucking ordinance drops, though? Ugh.

@superfriend: I didn't have any trouble with the framerate, though Halo 2's AI did seem kinda busted. They only started fighting me once I stood directly in front of them.

Noticed this as well. The Heretic bossfight on Legendary used to shake me to the core. Played it last night, and neither the guy nor his holo-clones even thought about chasing me down. They sat in the center of the room and watch as I pelted the leader in the frontal lobe with a rifle over and over.

Some talks are going around that the Anniversary versions of Halo 1 and 2 are built from the PC versions of the respective games, where hit detection and AI patterns were slightly modified to accommodate a different platform. There has even been proof that the version of Halo 4 on the MCC is not even the most recently updated version. It's just vanilla Halo 4. The Halo 4 multiplayer experience on 360 offers balance tweaks and patches the MCC version does not.

Such a strange situation.

The crazy thing for me is that I almost bought an xbox one for this game alone. I sure dodged a bullet there.

@kanerobot:

They never released Halo 2 for 360. So there goes the releasing popular games on the newest system idea.

I agree. The Xbox One has been out for a year now and Microsoft has, so far, lost first place in this new generation. It makes sense that they would focus on getting their main franchise on their new console. I'd love Halo 3 and 4 on PC, but it isn't a really smart move right now.

Also, does anyone else find that "slap in the face" is one of the most hyperbolic things people say in forums?

@whitegreyblack: i don't know, it's possible that's what it started as because the UI prompts like "press RB for" is a picture of a 360 controller RB, not an Xbox One RB. However, it's more likely that it's evidence that the halo 2 version they started with was the Halo 2 PC which had 360 controller support.

I'm interested to see what their idea of a "make good gesture" is for this title. It's not like i expect there to be DLC for it. Again, like most people i'm just tired of being apologized to. I just want to buy a game and have it work. it's ok if minor things are broken but i don't know how this ever passed testing.

Never admit fault.

Just sad.

I bet it's an extra couple days with the beta. "For the fans! An extra 48 hours with the Halo 5 multiplayer beta! Pre-order at your favorite retailer! Don't mind the mess!"

To be fair, Halo 2 is backwards compatible with the 360. You can find a used copy and play the campaign just fine there. Obviously with it being harder to find AND the Halo 2 servers shut down, you can't play multiplayer without a re-release, but then again, you can't play multiplayer on the XBONE right now either. (zing)

"Free golden assault rifle skins with '1337' emblazoned on the barrel for everyone! And that's not all! We're extending the Halo 5 beta period by 72 hours! Pre-order now!"

I think I'll skip this generation of consoles.

As if Halo 5 will go any better

The semi-invisible hand of PR hard at work.

always bugs me reading PR statements. It's so...executive-speak.

The Microsoft way! As opposed to Ubisofts and EAs way which is, "apoligies, admit it's all your fault, then do didely squat about it and keep on doing the shit that got people mad in the first place." Holy shit I'm happy I opted for just a Wii U and Vita this generation, those machines are niche as hell, but they at least seem to respect the time and money their audience lays into the bloody things!

They're really REALLY going to have to do something amazing to give back to us after this abortion of a game.

Definitely a free something. I just wonder what it is.

I must say to be fair of all the companies that have released disapointing and/or technically malfunctioning games this year. That 343 Industries have been exceptionally honest and upfront about their problems and have shown genuine effort in correcting it's mistakes. Sadly that's more than can be said about many other companies this year and although that doesn't entirelly make up for releasing bad product I do appreciate the work their doing to make it right.

I don't know why Halo:MCC is becoming the poster child for broken releases I picked this up on day one for the campaigns (single & co-op) and the game handles it with flying colors. I never really gave a crap about the multi-player. That being said MP being broken dose stink and as a $60 game you expect it to work right out of the gate. I do hope they fix this for those Halo MP die hearts, but I'm just saying there are worse examples of this. It's not like I can't play the single player unlike AC: Unity which it's SP and MP are complete dumpster fires. Anyway here's to better launches in the future for any and all developers.

Have you even played Driveclub?

Never forget November 2014.

There are gigantic problems with single player as well, whether you've run into them or not. The game crashes, the user interface bugs out, it falsely checkpoints your progress, and some achievements don't unlock. The whole game is broken.

well, you could do that with Halo CE as well. but they had the courtesy to put it on on demand (infact, it was one of the first XBL originals they put up). then ofcourse they made anniversary.

It is a depressing and worrying trend. Hopefully 2015 should be better.

Yes 343, we know you're sorry, you've said it a million times already. Now try following up on your apology and fix the god damn game already.

Yes, I have put significant time into the game with a friend. The game itself is not that good regardless of the issues Driveclub has had with multiplayer.

With how many bugs there are in this game in both the campaign and multiplayer, I am quickly losing faith that it'll ever be completely fixed. I expect at some point by January it'll "fixed" but still continue to be squirrely. To try and not dwell on the online problems my friends and I have been trying to enjoy custom games but even there it can be a huge hassle getting everyone into a lobby.

Looks like all the games that were delayed until "early 2015" probably had the right idea. Consumers don't like delayed games, but you know who hates them even more? Sony and Microsoft, apparently. Both companies seem totally willing to certify these busted ass games just to be able to have something out this holiday. and man, I would sure love to hear some of the horror stories coming from the QA depts at 343, Ubisoft, Sledgehammer, and Evolution if indeed any of them actually exist.