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Halo: The Master Chief Collection should be recalled

DieH@rd

Banned
Is there no Twitter protest style to be done like was done against Microsoft, with the used games/DRM?

Seems like there needs to be a concerted effort of #NOMOREBROKENGAMES or something. They sure worked against Microsoft post e3.

Very large "used games/NoDRM" twitter movement was targeted at Sony.

Large MCC problems receive less attention because only Xbone users have access to that game, and IMO majority of them don't want to openly bash MS.

Now, why gaming journalist are not making larger fuss with highly visible website articles, that's beyond me. Maybe they also don't want to bash it, even though MS has 100% deserved it. Game is out for a month, and it still has serious issues.
 
I 100% agree with the op. They need a full team dedicated to finishing the game, not just a few people patching it piece by piece.

I feel i wasted my money getting an Xbox 1. This is much worse than battlefield 4.
Don't feel like that. Check out Sunset Overdrive or Forza Horizon 2. I never owned a racing game before and loved FH2!

Is the single player game save glitch still happening. I haven't risked stopping midway through a mission to check.
 
I'm sure at some point there will be a class action lawsuit filed, maybe there already has.

I'm not a legal expert by any means. But I do know that there was a failed class action lawsuit against EA following the BF4 release last year. The suit alleged insider trading saying EA execs sold off a bunch of stock prior to the release of BF4 because they knew about the game's technical problems. That part of the suit was recently dismissed I think in Oct 2014 (feel free to verify that date).

I know that you can't do class action suits against XBL because you sign that right away in the terms of service agreement that you have to sign when you purchase the subscription.

Unfortunately, legally I think there is very little that we can do. Not saying this is right, but it's the current state of the video game industry.

I just wish there was more exposure about this game on mainstream media outlets. This game is pulling in Hollywood blockbuster money, can you imagine if studios sent theaters copies of films that didn't run the entire playtime, or not at all?
 

Sephzilla

Member
Sorry I agree with your statement but I almost started laughing at work thinking about the chances of this happening. If this happens I can foresee the end times coming and the riders coming to claim the land.

Oh I laughed too because it's absolutely not going to happen. I think a huge reason MCC is in the state it's in right now is because Microsoft desperately wanted a Halo game out for the holidays, so there's no chance in hell they're going to not have a Halo game ready for next year's holiday window.
 
This was so disappointing. I did the digital pre-order for this game. After about 10 attempts restarting the download it finally finished downloading. I bought it specifically for multiplayer and the damn thing still seemed broken up to a few days ago. Any excitement I had for this has long vanished. This is pretty much the only game on the XBO I was looking forward to for the time.

So, so many bugs. It's unforgivable, really.
 

VinFTW

Member
Ah ok. I'm still waiting for some campaign stuff to be addressed before I play more.

It sucks because I haven't really touched the game since launch but I only plan on playing through the games once and I want it to be the best possible experience

I assume the MP stuff is a priority for them though

I've played all 4 campaigns on legendary with the only issue being the checkpoint save glitch. You gotta beat the whole level or it won't save mid level progress.
 

Ogimachi

Member
I'm glad people have been so vocal about the game's issues when the press did nothing but praise it. I almost bought the Xbone for this.
 
What I find weird is that there seems to be no consistency in what problems you can face with this game. My single player works fine but others have what sounds like a completely broken experience.
 
I've played all 4 campaigns on legendary with the only issue being the checkpoint save glitch. You gotta beat the whole level or it won't save mid level progress.

Really? I played 2 levels of Halo CE and the cutscenes were super jittery and the framerate seemed to chug when I was driving the Warthog. Very annoying
 
I am honestly amazed that the mid-level save glitch has yet to be fixed. That seems like something that should have been addressed in the very first patch.
 

Sydle

Member
I don't think a recall is realistic, but putting everything else on hold while they divert all their resources into fixing it and offering a generous form of compensation is warranted.

It really is the biggest disappointment of the year for me. Should have been a slam dunk.
 

Wereroku

Member
What I find weird is that there seems to be no consistency in what problems you can get with this game. My single player works fine but others have what sounds like a completely broken experience.

Yeah I think the networking issues are breaking other parts of the game for people. Basically they tied everything so closely together for the UI goals that when one part is having problems it will trickle down to other parts. So if your MP is fairly smooth you are going to see less SP problems.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Why did you get the digital its not like you couldn't of known it was going to take up space?

They have added constant patches that are typically all over a gig that seem to be doing a whole hell of a lot of nothing. It's extremely irritating.

I also think at the very least they should remove it from the marketplace until it's far more stable. Their patchwork attempts at fixing this haven't given me any faith that this is going to actually be working as intended for awhile, if ever.
 

hawk2025

Member
Really? I played 2 levels of Halo CE and the cutscenes were super jittery and the framerate seemed to chug when I was driving the Warthog. Very annoying




Yep, I have no idea how people can claim with a straight face that they played through all four with no issues other than checkpoint saving.

This collection slaps you in the face right as you start the very first game with the ridiculous cutscenes in Halo CE, and it proceeds to add insult to injury by having a consistently sub-par framerate as soon as you hit the Halo surface.
 

Orca

Member
What I find weird is that there seems to be no consistency in what problems you can face with this game. My single player works fine but others have what sounds like a completely broken experience.

Yeah, I played a little bit of customs one day but the majority of my time with the game has been in running through single player campaigns again. My only problem there has been that I really got bad at Halo in the years since CE...trying to run them on Legendary has made it take a while.
 
Oh I laughed too because it's absolutely not going to happen. I think a huge reason MCC is in the state it's in right now is because Microsoft desperately wanted a Halo game out for the holidays, so there's no chance in hell they're going to not have a Halo game ready for next year's holiday window.

I also think the Microsoft execs/advertising guys are completely out of touch with developers/programmers/artists and gamers on the front line. Look no further than the botched Xbox One reveal.

Also, regarding Halo MCC... when developers said, "Lets create the anniversary edition of Halo 2," The execs came back and said "You'll do one better. Make a package containing all of the Halo games, that will really sell the Xbox One."

Also, they seem to be relying too heavily on focus groups, and big data for their biggest titles. They're entering this period where they're producing some of the blandest homogenized content in hopes of capturing as many demographics as possible. See: Halo 5, I know, I know, nobody has played it yet... but the design decisions have inarguably been crafted by the execs and advertising guys. Halo is losing all of it's character and charm.
 
Don't force games on him to try to justify his expensive console purchase. We all have different tastes.
Sorry, I didn't mean to come off as pushy. Just sharing my experience. I can sympathize with everyone's disappointment and anger.

I've played all 4 campaigns on legendary with the only issue being the checkpoint save glitch. You gotta beat the whole level or it won't save mid level progress.
Do you know by chance if this is still the case after the last couple of patches? Thank goodness for the Xbox One resume feature.
 
Yep, I have no idea how people can claim with a straight face that they played through all four with no issues other than checkpoint saving.

This collection slaps you in the face right as you start the very first game with the ridiculous cutscenes in Halo CE, and it proceeds to add insult to injury by having a consistently sub-par framerate as soon as you hit the Halo surface.

Yeah exactly. As I mentioned I only plan on doing 1 playthrough of these campaigns so I'm not going to accept "good enough" or "playable". I'm going to be patient and wait for the game I deserve.
 

Shpeshal Nick

aka Collingwood
You can't be serious. That is not how ANYTHING works, anywhere. Ever.

The game still has issues but I was able to play 4 matches back to back without any problems, in different playlists. Never once did I have uneven teams, too.

I even got a 7v7 big team battle multi CTF flag game in...it was really fun.

I know it won't happen. I'm just saying that's what should happen.
 

_woLf

Member
I know it won't happen. I'm just saying that's what should happen.

That's not what should happen. That would set an unrealistic precedent that if a game is broken, developers should just give up and not even try to fix it. That's not how it should work at all.
 
They refunded my digital copy without any problems.



I think this, in part, is part of the problem with support of this game. You have some people that got a refund without any issues, then you have people that have tried multiple times and they CANNOT get a refund. MS Support telling them they have to contact 343, then 343 telling them they do NOT have the capacity (which a dev here supported this claim) to even offer refunds at all.


So you have a broken game, that is frustrating people to the point of asking for refunds, some getting them without problems, some getting the run around multiple times.



Also, I agree with the silence from the gaming media on the functionality of Halo MCC. You dont really see ANY articles about how each patch has performed, the changes that did or didn't work, the current state of the game today. The media rushed to get those day 1 reviews out (and we all know the online worked fine for the media supposedly) but nobody waited to see how the game functioned in the wild before releasing reviews. I also agree that many of these sites scored the game so high, they are probably embarrassed to even publish such articles. The whole situation is just crazy really.
 

jelly

Member
Final judgement of Halo MCC will be after the last major patch it receives.

Microsoft obviously didn't care at launch but will they care in the end or just dump the game for Halo 5.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
Actually I kind of agree. This release was a big fucking joke. One month after release, and it doesnt seem to me, it will be in a good state anytime soon.

Thats what I posted in Halowaypoint today:

"I will be the most honest as I can be about this whole situation.

I've pre-ordered this collection and it was, by far, the most expected game of the year for me. It was released as a broken mess but I was actually having some fun with Halo CE campaing, and adivising people in other forums that they should calm down, that in one or two weeks everything would most certainly be fine, cause Halo was the biggest MS franchise and they would not let things be that messed for so long. People were claiming for refund, and I never said they should not do it, because since it was a broken product they sure had the right to take their money back; but I was believing it would be fixed soon after release.

Well... I was wrong. Very wrong. And now I'm kind sick of the defenders and 343i. It was released more then one month ago, and patch after patch I come back to it to check if something is better... it indeed is better then the 1st week (that I couldnt find a single match) but thats still extremely far from any acceptable state. Every single multiplayer game I played this gen I was able to find matches almost instantaneous, and with Halo, a franchise that certainly holds a much bigger player base, I think I cannot find any match in less then 3 minutes when trying alone (cause in a party is much longer), and that is when it just doesnt present me other problems during or between matches, such as lag, crashes or whatever.

Also, one of their biggest selling points were the damn DEDICATED SERVERS, and where the hell are them?? We are not playing on dedis at all apparently. Not in co-op, and neither in match-making. One month after release and they still have not activated that and neither gave us some light about when they will turn that on, and if they intend to. That is what I call a lie.

If the multiplayer aspect is still not enough, then guess what? The SP also is filled with problems!! Halo 2 campaing doesnt save progress properly till this date. Halo 4 campaing has a bug where, when you load your checkpoint it recognises you twice and now the game thinks you're playing co-op with yourself. The split-screen co-op has some serious performance issues that I'm certainly will never be fixed. All of these problems were there at day one, and yet, one month after release, none of them were fixed.

I dont understand how they had the courage to release such a broken product. I dont think they have tested it, and if they did I dont believe they could not see all of that mess. That alone make me really dubious about 343i competence to deal with a valuable title such as Halo and its fanbase.

Its nothing more but their OBLIGATION to give us clear answers! Tell us what they intend to do before the end of this year, and how long they belive it will take to fix BOTH SINGLE PLAYER AND MULTIPLAYER issues. And also, it is Microsoft obligation, to refund every single player who asks for it!

Also, if Microsft doesnt want to lose more of their market, they should be aware and attempted about this whole Halo joke situation, and assure that Gears of War wont suffer the same fate!

For such a big title, that may be the worst release ever."
 
This is the only game I've been playing since it was released 5 weeks ago. I'm almost done the fourth campaign and have played probably 30 games of multiplayer. It's not perfect and multiplayer has been frustrating, especially for the first 2 weeks but otherwise I'm having a blast reliving the Halo series.

Not to discount others problems but it seriously feels like I'm playing a different game then some of the posters around here.

To suggest it be recalled makes zero sense to me.
 

Jtrizzy

Member
In this case it's multiple games and companies, though. AC:U, Driveclub, LPBP3 and Halo:MCC all released unfinished.

Yes and we hammer them all with the same hashtag.

Very large "used games/NoDRM" twitter movement was targeted at Sony.

Large MCC problems receive less attention because only Xbone users have access to that game, and IMO majority of them don't want to openly bash MS.

Now, why gaming journalist are not making larger fuss with highly visible website articles, that's beyond me. Maybe they also don't want to bash it, even though MS has 100% deserved it. Game is out for a month, and it still has serious issues.

This is a major industry wide problem. Sony, Microsoft, Ubi, EA. #Nomorebrokengames
 

Sydle

Member
I also think the Microsoft execs/advertising guys are completely out of touch with developers/programmers/artists and gamers on the front line. Look no further than the botched Xbox One reveal.

Also, regarding Halo MCC... when developers said, "Lets create the anniversary edition of Halo 2," The execs came back and said "You'll do one better. Make a package containing all of the Halo games, that will really sell the Xbox One."

Also, they seem to be relying too heavily on focus groups, and big data for their biggest titles. They're entering this period where they're producing some of the blandest homogenized content in hopes of capturing as many demographics as possible. See: Halo 5, I know, I know, nobody has played it yet... but the design decisions have inarguably been crafted by the execs and advertising guys. Halo is losing all of it's character and charm.

The H2A documentary made it seem like it was an internal decision at 343i.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Do you know by chance if this is still the case after the last couple of patches? Thank goodness for the Xbox One resume feature.

I could be wrong since I've redirected my attention to products that actually value my time but I don't believe campaign stuff has been patched at all as they seemed more focused on getting MP up and running.
 

RyudBoy

Member
The game is shit. People will quickly say it's great when it works, but it seriously doesn't work like 90% of the time (matchmaking). Biggest disappointment of the next-gen era so far.
 

Sephzilla

Member
I also think the Microsoft execs/advertising guys are completely out of touch with developers/programmers/artists and gamers on the front line. Look no further than the botched Xbox One reveal.

Also, regarding Halo MCC... when developers said, "Lets create the anniversary edition of Halo 2," The execs came back and said "You'll do one better. Make a package containing all of the Halo games, that will really sell the Xbox One."

Also, they seem to be relying too heavily on focus groups, and big data for their biggest titles. They're entering this period where they're producing some of the blandest homogenized content in hopes of capturing as many demographics as possible. See: Halo 5, I know, I know, nobody has played it yet... but the design decisions have inarguably been crafted by the execs and advertising guys. Halo is losing all of it's character and charm.

In hindsight I kind of wish MCC was simply "The Original Xbox Halo Collection". Have Halo CE multiplayer, Halo 2 Classic, and a more fully realized Halo 2 Anniversary multiplayer.
 

amnesiac

Member
Imagine if this was released back in the Xbox/PS2 era when there were no patches. Honestly so surprised that Microsoft's biggest game of the year is also probably the most broken one.
 

HTupolev

Member
So you have a broken game, that is frustrating people to the point of asking for refunds, some getting them without problems, some getting the run around multiple times.
It's a metaphor for the MCC itself, some users are having a great experience and the game is still awful for others.
 

hawk2025

Member
I also think the Microsoft execs/advertising guys are completely out of touch with developers/programmers/artists and gamers on the front line. Look no further than the botched Xbox One reveal.

Also, regarding Halo MCC... when developers said, "Lets create the anniversary edition of Halo 2," The execs came back and said "You'll do one better. Make a package containing all of the Halo games, that will really sell the Xbox One."

Also, they seem to be relying too heavily on focus groups, and big data for their biggest titles. They're entering this period where they're producing some of the blandest homogenized content in hopes of capturing as many demographics as possible. See: Halo 5, I know, I know, nobody has played it yet... but the design decisions have inarguably been crafted by the execs and advertising guys. Halo is losing all of it's character and charm.



It just sucks.

Frankie came here a couple of days after released and promised a full explanation and breakdown of what happened once it was fixed. This is great, and I was looking forward to it. It was time to fix first, explain later.

Well, that's not acceptable anymore, because any reasonable time frame for a fix is gone. It's worth keeping in mind and highlighting that yes, it's gotten better over the past month -- but that was at the cost of basically leaving the campaign in the shambles it was delivered in with only very minor patching. I assume they tackled the easy-to-solve campaign issues but are otherwise all hands on deck to fix the multiplayer.

And again I just have to point out how utterly and completely reviewers have failed us. So many, so many reviewers pointed out how this was a labor of love and care, how thorough and joyful the collection was.

And yet, as soon as I fucking launch for the very first time the very first game in the collection, I'm met with an awful, janky, clearly sub-par delivery for the very first cutscene in the game. That's not a labor of love. I don't know if it's a labor of rushing, of negligence, or of simple incompetence.

Did they somehow not notice this? Do the people that say they've played through the campaigns without issue somehow not notice what in the fuck is going on with the CE cutscenes? Or is the "eh, it's an old game, it's good enough" mentality dominating here, when what we were actually promised were the definitive, 60fps versions of these games?
 

turcy

Member
This is the only game I've been playing since it was released 5 weeks ago. It's not perfect and multiplayer has been frustrating, especially for the first 2 weeks but otherwise I'm having a blast reliving the Halo series.

Not to discount others problems but it seriously feels like I'm playing a different game then some of the posters around here.

this.

i think $60.00 is just a lot more to some people - which is totally fair.

i was happy paying that amount of money for the singleplayer campaigns in HD.

yes, i'm also frustrated by the state of multiplayer, and think it's pretty inexcusable, but i'm still finding plenty of value in what i've purchased and am too busy with other games [*cough Titanfall *cough] to bother with Halo multiplayer anyway.
 

Leyasu

Banned
Where's the fucking dedicated servers??

I bought an xbone day not because of t"tvtvtv" or sub-resolution games, but because of the "dedicated servers for every game" promise. The thought of halo on dedicated servers was the decider. (I had both consoles pre-ordered, yet my girlfriend fell pregnant in July... Only one console for me)

One month later, and I've seen these mystical servers twice. The bugs and lock-ups I can live with, the fucking shit p2p is just too much.

Pro-tip 343, speak to respawn of t10 or playground games or insomniac and ask you them how to get a game running on azure!! Also, bear in mind that titanfall doesnt fucking need and never has needed a p2p fallback
 
I've only played the single player aspects of the MCC and enjoyed them, with some weird bugs here and there, but if what the OP says about the multiplayer is true - and I have little reason to doubt it from what I've read since launch - then he's absolutely right.

What a mess.

And what a fucked up trend in gaming right now. Just another post-mortem to add to the list, because god damn, somebody needs to explain why and how this keeps happening.
 
That's not what should happen. That would set an unrealistic precedent that if a game is broken, developers should just give up and not even try to fix it. That's not how it should work at all.

I think there is a fair argument to be made on both sides. However, I don't think that consumers should just be a doormat to this sort of shovelware. I think patches are fine for most games/software, but in the case of the MCC the fundamental framework is broken and I don't think there is much of a foundation for these patches to solve the root of the problem.

Halo MCC is literally the wikipedia definition of shovelware:

"Shovelware is a derogatory computer jargon term that refers to software bundles noted more for the quantity of what is included than for the quality or usefulness.[1] The term is also used to refer to software that is ported from one computer platform or storage medium to another with little thought given to adapting it for use on the destination platform or medium, resulting in poor quality."(Wikipedia)
 
Really? I played 2 levels of Halo CE and the cutscenes were super jittery and the framerate seemed to chug when I was driving the Warthog. Very annoying

The only time I ever had any frame drops was halo 4. Now the others might not have been 60fps but they never dropped to where it was noticeable for me. Think the xbox OS has some problems with running for long periods of time. I reset mine almost every week now because of issues I had with KI running weird after leaving the xbox in standby for longer than a week.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
I dunno about recalled, but MS should stop selling it until it works and give people who've already bought it at least a partial refund.
 

Wereroku

Member
Where's the fucking dedicated servers??

I bought an xbone day not because of t"tvtvtv" or sub-resolution games, but because of the "dedicated servers for every game" promise. The thought of halo on dedicated servers was the decider. (I had both consoles pre-ordered, yet my girlfriend fell pregnant in July... Only one console for me)

One month later, and I've seen these mystical servers twice. The bugs and lock-ups I can live with, the fucking shit p2p is just too much.

Pro-tip 343, speak to respawn of t10 or playground games or insomniac and ask you them how to get a game running on azure!! Also, bear in mind that titanfall doesnt fucking need and never has needed a p2p fallback

The p2p fallback is there because they decided that custom games couldn't be on an Azure server due to the cost and planning that would be required to support a server instance for possibly millions of people.
 
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