• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection should be recalled

I'm surprised how much little buzz this gets in the gaming journalist world compared to Assassin's Creed which got absolutely slammed. This game is a bigger blunder than both Unity and BF4, and that's saying a lot. I still can't properly play online one month after launch.

As a Halo fan it's hard to admit but I am definitely agreed! Unity was not SO BAD I played day one and I got only some strange NPC spawns nothing else, Halo? Well I can't play MM correctly since more than 1 month :/

343i is silent completely and I really expect a big compensation for the issues, if we have nothing I will probably not buy Halo 5 (the first time in my life I will not buy an Halo game!)

When I think I bought an Xbox One for this collection only (for now at least), there is nothing that I wanted on Xbox One except this game.
 

Cow

Member
My main Halo friend who is a massive casual can't believe the state of MCC, yet alone the future direction of the franchise looking like Call of Duty, and said he will not buy Halo 5 because of these reasons. I'm with him there. MS and 343 are really fucking this up. You know it's bad when you want your favourite franchise to completely flop and be abandoned by the masses.
 

danmaku

Member
They shouldn't recall it, but they should do what they did with the RROD fiasco: quick, kind and efficient customer service. You want a refund? you get it, no questions asked. They'll lose some sales but keep their customers. When 360s were exploding left and right people were still buying them because they knew in case something went wrong they'd had a new console in a few days.
 

Random17

Member
That's the part that bothers me. Communication is the least people can expect.

Even if 343i spoke now what MORE do you expect them to say? At this point actions speak louder than words; once (and if!) they fix the game I'm sure they'll have a lot of talking to do.

At this point looking at every site, video, and Facebook post, I see only masses and masses of hate or "fix the game", even on Halo 5 Beta videos.

They can't even show their faces in the (metaphorical internet) public until the patching reaches a satisfactory level. The issues are known, the patches are weekly, at this point we're all just waiting for the game to be fixed.
 

RowdyReverb

Member
I can't believe how quiet they've been over the last month. That's really the worst part it.

That's the part that bothers me. Communication is the least people can expect.

343i is silent completely and I really expect a big compensation for the issues, if we have nothing I will probably not buy Halo 5 (the first time in my life I will not buy an Halo game!)

I thought they've been handling communication rather well on Halo Waypoint and Bravo's Twitter. If you read through the older posts on there, it becomes evident that the updates they give between patches just say that they're hard at work on the next patch. I think there just isn't much more to say beyond that. I'm sure the supposed compensation that Bonnie Ross mentioned will be announced in due time, but I'm more concerned about MCC improving than getting bonus free stuff.
 

Spineker

Banned
Wow, this is under the radar isn't it. MS would be thanking their lucky stars about that. I had no idea this game was that bad
 
The post launch issues have taken the attention away from that crazy day one patch.

I think in the future, if your game is going to need a 15gb day one patch, your game is not ready to be released.

In 343's defense, it wasn't really a patch. It added all the MP content to the game. They chose to do it that way instead of putting the game on two Blu-rays.
 

Wabba

Member
I dont think it should get recalled, but people definitely should get a refund if they want to. And yes i find it strange that the media isn't as vocal about this as they were with Unity, Driveclub and BF4. I haven't played Unity and Driveclub yet, but they are by no regards worse then MCC. BF4 worked for me almost all of the time when i played domination so i have always loved it, but MCC now one month after the launch i still can't get into games. And the few times that i find games they are uneven and the hole process just makes it no fun.

Love Halo, buti really think this is my last game from 343 studios.
 

Glass

Member
In 343's defense, it wasn't really a patch. It added all the MP content to the game. They chose to do it that way instead of putting the game on two Blu-rays.

Ah if thats the case then I misunderstood. I thought it was due to the game having to go gold but content not being ready to go on the disc at the time.

Hope there's still time for another patch before Christmas. That'd surely bring a bump in matchmaking users who I hope come away with a positive experience.
 
Ah if thats the case then I misunderstood. I thought it was due to the game having to go gold but content not being ready to go on the disc at the time.

Hope there's still time for another patch before Christmas. That'd surely bring a bump in matchmaking users who I hope come away with a positive experience.

That's how they explained it at least. They packed the disc with all the SP content and made the MP content a download instead of packing it with two discs.
 

terrier

Member
I'm surprised how much little buzz this gets in the gaming journalist world compared to Assassin's Creed which got absolutely slammed. This game is a bigger blunder than both Unity and BF4, and that's saying a lot. I still can't properly play online one month after launch.

or driveclub.
I guess the game needed to be on shelves before black friday, so that is why is buggy
 
1) Such a cluster-fuck it did the impossible: Made me happy I decided to pass on a Halo game. I'm now looking forward to buying it for $10 in the bargain bin.

2) Don't pre-order games.

3) If you must pre-order, buy it physical.

Every other release so far this gen is reinforcing #2 & #3. So, the fact that MCC turned out to be a bag of flaming shit isn't too surprising. But its still unexpected given that Halo is the Xbox flagship title. If there was ever a game to get juuuust right it'd be this one. Talk about screwing the pooch.

I'm gonna agree with the OP, but rather than do a recall they should simply announce a refund for anyone who wants one, no hassle, no questions asked.
 
I thought they've been handling communication rather well on Halo Waypoint and Bravo's Twitter. If you read through the older posts on there, it becomes evident that the updates they give between patches just say that they're hard at work on the next patch. I think there just isn't much more to say beyond that. I'm sure the supposed compensation that Bonnie Ross mentioned will be announced in due time, but I'm more concerned about MCC improving than getting bonus free stuff.

What I see personally is only stuff about competition... they even also forgot that Halo is not only about competition btw... We need more reassurances from 343i that just “we are working on it”
I can understand the situation as I am also working in the industry but there is a limit and Halo is reaching it at least for me.
 

BokehKing

Banned
I thought they've been handling communication rather well on Halo Waypoint and Bravo's Twitter. If you read through the older posts on there, it becomes evident that the updates they give between patches just say that they're hard at work on the next patch. I think there just isn't much more to say beyond that. I'm sure the supposed compensation that Bonnie Ross mentioned will be announced in due time, but I'm more concerned about MCC improving than getting bonus free stuff.
Where is Uncle Phil
You know, the guy who has been pushing and promoting this game since the beginning?
The face of Xbox, outside of a few re-tweet messages from 343i he has not given a statement or an apology.

Recall? During the holiday season? When they can have more people buy the system for this game? Not going to happen.

Is it really that bad? I dont see as many people talking about it like they did with Unity or even Driveclub.
Coverage has been different, 85% of MCC OT1 is fans complaining about problems
 

RowdyReverb

Member
What I see personally is only stuff about competition... they even also forgot that Halo is not only about competition btw... We need more reassurances from 343i that just “we are working on it”
I can understand the situation as I am also working in the industry but there is a limit and Halo is reaching it at least for me.
I just don't understand what more you want them to say. They have given many reassurances and have been releasing patches regularly with extensive patch notes. What more reassurance do you need to convince you they're hard at work? Would you like them to take programmers away from working on the patch to say what tedious but they're ironing out? Daily updates that tell you what each staff member accomplished that day? Btw, the Twitter I linked is more for his responses to people complaining about bugs, etc, not for his announcements.
 

Akai__

Member
And MM is still fucked up?

It's definitely an improvement, but there are still some game breaking bugs and UI glitches. Parties still don't really work and search times can take forever, especially in a party.

Friend of mine reported, that he had to quit a MP match and when he did, he ended the game for everybody. Just hilarious and sad at the same time.
 
In 343's defense, it wasn't really a patch. It added all the MP content to the game. They chose to do it that way instead of putting the game on two Blu-rays.
Which in the consumer's defense, was a shitty idea that only allowed them to cut back on distribution and production costs.
 
I just don't understand what more you want them to say. They have given many reassurances and have been releasing patches regularly with extensive patch notes. What more reassurance do you need to convince you they're hard at work? Would you like them to take programmers away from working on the patch to say what tedious but they're ironing out? Daily updates that tell you what each staff member accomplished that day? Btw, the Twitter I linked is more for his responses to people complaining about bugs, etc, not for his announcements.

What are the reassurances? Only a letter of one month ago now? A complete silence from some of 343i staff that was very active before the release of the game?

I would like reassurance on these facts that: Yes we will have a fully working game ASAP, yes we will have dedicated servers (Because I honestly start to have doubts about that), that Halo 5 WILL NOT have the same issues (The beta can have instead, its a beta after all but I will avoid that if I was 343i because players will judge the beta/H5/343i regarding MCC issues) and when the Spartan Ops will be released? (It was planned for December but then again no news…)

These kinds of things... simply what they promised to us and promoted the game.
 

vort3x

Member
Vote with your wallets people. Money Talks. Threads aren't gonna do shit. Return the game. MS isn't gonna do a recall not with xmas around the corner. Its sad that the gamers hold on to this notion of oh its ok its broken it'll be fixed in the next patch. This only shows weakness on our end. To the companies we are just the amount of money we spend on their products and thats it. Thats all we are. They're counting on our good nature to not say/do anything. Most of the people like to avoid the problem or make excuses about it, rather than face it head on. RETURN/DON'T BUY THAT SHIT. I for one refuse to stand for shitty practices like this which have become the norm.
 

Montresor

Member
As huge Halo fans, my partner and I bought Xbone's for MCC. I watched the vidocs and allowed myself to get really excited by them.

I've lost count of times we've both had to force-close the game in order to get the game to miraculously allow us to co-op together.

Other things like the lack of options to reduce or turn off the menu music, the lack of indicator or options that tell us our pings and whether we're in a system-link / LAN session, and the whole luck-of-the-draw experience when it comes to starting a co-op game. I haven't tried the other MP modes yet so I can't comment on those aspects but I tend to agree with everything in the OP.

The other thing is the input lag - I couldn't figure out why our melees didn't seem to be connecting or why it felt like it was going 'through' characters. And don't get me started on why we can't resume our game from a checkpoint or why selecting 'continue' will dump you at the start of the campaign again.

MCC was our first game on the X1 and it really dulled the excitement from firing up a remastered set of classics (and the Halo games look fantastic when they're working) and soured my experience with the Xbox One, perhaps unfairly, as a consequence.

343i and Microsoft better not fuck up Halo 5.

MCC is designed to not save checkpoints in co-op campaign. It's not a bug. They purposely did that. That is how Halo always worked, and since 343 had the bright idea of porting that "feature" from the original games, it's there for good.

Yep - it's why I will never, ever buy this game.

Edit: Same with the input lag you described. The original Halo games had this input lag in co-op campaign so that's there for good.

:lol this game is just trash. I can't get over how on top of all the bugs this game has, two of the few things that are working as designed are game-breaking features implemented on purpose: 1) No checkpoint saves in co-op, and 2) Input lag in co-op.
 
One of my biggest issues regarding the MCC are the reviews. Half the game is broken, yet the game still has great scores in the upper 80s. I've heard people in the industry talking about how the SP portion still gives you bang for your buck, so they justify the high scores. A game where half of it is broken, one where that half is one of the most anticipated and heavily advertised aspects, deserves nothing more than to be completely hammered in reviews. That's one of my problems with games journalism and their reviews, that they won't take the necessary steps to deduct points for broken games. If headphones came out where you only got sound half of the time, those headphones would be slammed and proclaimed as broken, and people would be told to avoid them. I want to see the same response from reviewers in the game industry.

Yeah the reviews are really disconcerting since you know they had to of been aware of a lot of the issues. There was a member on here Jleack that was really pushing the game and fanning some crazy hype and after this whole debacle I can't trust another thing that guy says because it was so blatantly contrived.
 
In 343's defense, it wasn't really a patch. It added all the MP content to the game. They chose to do it that way instead of putting the game on two Blu-rays.

This is what I thought initially too. But having seen the game, I just think the MP was not ready when it went gold.
 

Proc

Member
My Xbox live gold ran out today. MCC would have been the reason I renewed since all my 3rd party is played on ps4 and pc. I don't mind continuing Forza and sunset offline.

I really like online halo too. It's a shame. This is microsoft's current flagship online shooter of 2014 and they fumbled it big time. I can't be the only one holding back Xbox gold money because there is so little to play online exclusively on Xbox one.
 

vort3x

Member
One of my biggest issues regarding the MCC are the reviews. Half the game is broken, yet the game still has great scores in the upper 80s. I've heard people in the industry talking about how the SP portion still gives you bang for your buck, so they justify the high scores. A game where half of it is broken, one where that half is one of the most anticipated and heavily advertised aspects, deserves nothing more than to be completely hammered in reviews. That's one of my problems with games journalism and their reviews, that they won't take the necessary steps to deduct points for broken games. If headphones came out where you only got sound half of the time, those headphones would be slammed and proclaimed as broken, and people would be told to avoid them. I want to see the same response from reviewers in the game industry.

THIS!

Gaming "Journalism" nowadays are just paid marketing shills. I stopped reading/listening to these so called "journalists" around the start of the 360 era. They live in fear, fear that they won't get to review the next big game from said company if they give a bad score. This game should have been panned across the board but nope it walks out with great scores when the game clearly suffers with so many problems that if this was a no name developer it would have gotten a 4 or 5 score from most mags just for the singleplayer part. In all honestly this game should have never been reviewed without the multiplayer aspect since that was the very reason that made it so popular.
 

Uzny

Member
After the recent patch I'm having a blast with this game. Halo CE on XBL is a dream come true for most halo fans.

QFT. I've waited 13 years for this.

I was worried it just wasn't possible for CE to have a solid netcode due to the engine's nature or something, I'm glad I was wrong.
 

Isurus

Member
This game is my biggest disappointment of the year and I say that as a huge Halo fan (I have the limited editions, special Halo consoles, toys, etc.). This game has been broke to the point that I have moved on and probably won't play again for a long while. It soured me a lot for Halo 5

Also, when comparing the communication and responses from 343 to Ubisoft with Unity, Ubisoft gets huge kudos. Ubisoft has been very transparent and communicated regularly about what they were doing to address Unity and went out of their way to make amends with gamers via a free game for season pass owners and free downloadable content for the rest of us. 343's response and communication? Lacking. They've been very silent for weeks now and have offered nothing to those of us that purchased this rushed piece of shit.

Frustrating.
 
Yeah the reviews are really disconcerting since you know they had to of been aware of a lot of the issues. There was a member on here Jleack that was really pushing the game and fanning some crazy hype and after this whole debacle I can't trust another thing that guy says because it was so blatantly contrived.


dude...jleack its one of the microsoft biggest fanboys on the gaming press,wadda u expected?
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
Which in the consumer's defense, was a shitty idea that only allowed them to cut back on distribution and production costs.
I read that the Xbox One OS doesn't support two disc installs, and that it had to be a download.

Edit: I don't dispute that the game appears to have needed more development time though.
 
Ok so the game works how I want to about 67% of the time now. It is strides better than the 0% for the first week but still not consistent and still unacceptable. I think we do need to acknowledge that it does work to some extent now because it seems like many including myself may be inadvertently spreading misinformation. It is still not great but you can find matches (much of the time) it will now put you in even teams (they haven't penalized quitting though) and you can party with friends consistently without bugs or crashes. Im not apologizing. It seems people who may have not even tried the matchmaking in a while are piling on and I just hope people know it does work but still kinda clunky and definitely not at 100%. There is still work to be done.
 

Sanpei

Member
Is this normal ?

did I kill most my teammate ?? Am i looking wrong ?

And lag sucks so bad !


WP_20141216_006.jpg


WP_20141216_007.jpg
 

Shadders

Member
I just got a refund from them on live chat. I actually bought both a physical and digital copy of the game so I still own it. I was too excited to wait for the delivery so bought the digital copy so I could play from midnight at launch.

The guy on live chat was super friendly and gave me the refund because "I've been such a valuable customer over the last nine years", which I took to mean "This guy is a fucking whale, lets not piss him off."
 

Raptomex

Member
This is just another reason I don't play multiplayer in anything and why I always focus on the single player. But it does suck for anyone who does enjoy the multiplayer. The 20gb patch wasn't enough? I actually got this game and don't have an XBone. But that's because I've always enjoyed the Halo series. So eventually when I get the console I can check it out. I'm also burnt out on Halo at the moment.
 

iso135

Member
I hate to be negative about my beloved Halo franchise, but MM has been awful for me. My friend and I were having serious issues getting into a party. Once we were in a party we had issues getting into a game. Once we got into a party AND a game we were in a 4 V 3 game which promptly changed to a 4 V 2 game. After that game we got booted back to the lobby. We tried for almost an hour to get into another game. We finally got into another game with even numbers and he had to go. At this point I look at the clock and it has been over an hour and a half and we got in 2 games (one with even players).

I don't think they should recall it, but I think the following should happen (at a minimum):

1. Allow anyone to return/refund the game if they so desire.

2. Fix the damn game.

3. After fixing the game, provide some sort of compensation to everyone.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
I'm really confused as to how this game was reviewed. Seems like theres really only two options:

A. Reviewers played multi in some sort of extremely controlled environment where everything worked. When you consider how fucked up the game was though, this seems somewhat unlikely.

This is what I believe happened, which is not how a game should be reviewed. This isn't the first time we've been burned by a game being well reviewed in some optimal environment not representative of what consumers would experience.

What burns me up is that I was watching online multiplayer match clips on Youtube, and it looked great. I hate being led to believe something is in fine working order only to find out the opposite after I forked my money over. Same exact thing happened with Battlefield 4.

You can no longer trust reviews or gameplay clips on Youtube prior to the actual launch. Only when the finished product is in your hands or the hands of Gaffers will you find out the truth.
 

LNBL

Member
3rd time is a charm. Got denied a refund by the microsoft support live chat twice, but the 3rd person refunded it without any complications.
 

Zombine

Banned
When the game runs, I have a blast with it. When it doesn't, It takes me 6 plus headshots to get a kill with the BR. It's super frustrating, and I've honestly stopped playing the game.
 
Top Bottom