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Halo: The Master Chief Collection should be recalled

Blarg

Neo Member
I can play Destiny, but have zero desire to do so. MCC may be only 50% playable but that's more than I'm playing Destiny.

Don't get me wrong, this is the biggest travesty of the year. But it's still Halo.
 

MysteryM

Member
My problems are:

1. Maps failing to load once i.e. you are waiting for the white progress bar to appear on the loading screen but it never does and you are thrown back to the main menu (I only get it for H3/H2A Maps), other party members may make it through. I'm sure other people must be suffering from this as you see players have dropped out with no greyed out name when you start leading to uneven games. I can always find players fine but for H3/H2A its so hit and miss as to if you will find games. I'm running a fibre connection in the UK, and have a cone nat. I believe I'm only getting this when hosting a party but i'll see if I have time to confirm it this weekend by playing some rumble pit.

2. Dedicated servers - playing halo 2 is just like it used to be i.e. its p2p, 7-8 shots to kill someone with a BR whereas they knock your shields off completely.

3. Ranks, at the moment its like playing social slayer, you end up playing with either good or bad teams and are just wasting your time. Coupled with the dedi issue its heart breaking to get rolled over unfairly.

If they can fix these then I will come back but its an utter shit show that they haven't managed it so far - 5 weeks in. I went back to playing gears 3 yesterday (out of frustration) and had more fun than I've had in the last fortnight trying to play MCC.

I understand that 343 are in a media blackout to try and minimise the fall out from this, but not being forthcoming with what they have planned is hurting them badly. I'm pissed off enough not to try the Halo 5 beta as a protest.
 

Leyasu

Banned
My problems are:

1. Maps failing to load once i.e. you are waiting for the white progress bar to appear on the loading screen but it never does and you are thrown back to the main menu (I only get it for H3/H2A Maps), other party members may make it through. I'm sure other people must be suffering from this as you see players have dropped out with no greyed out name when you start leading to uneven games. I can always find players fine but for H3/H2A its so hit and miss as to if you will find games. I'm running a fibre connection in the UK, and have a cone nat. I believe I'm only getting this when hosting a party but i'll see if I have time to confirm it this weekend by playing some rumble pit.

2. Dedicated servers - playing halo 2 is just like it used to be i.e. its p2p, 7-8 shots to kill someone with a BR whereas they knock your shields off completely.

3. Ranks, at the moment its like playing social slayer, you end up playing with either good or bad teams and are just wasting your time. Coupled with the dedi issue its heart breaking to get rolled over unfairly.

If they can fix these then I will come back but its an utter shit show that they haven't managed it so far - 5 weeks in. I went back to playing gears 3 yesterday (out of frustration) and had more fun than I've had in the last fortnight trying to play MCC.

I understand that 343 are in a media blackout to try and minimise the fall out from this, but not being forthcoming with what they have planned is hurting them badly. I'm pissed off enough not to try the Halo 5 beta as a protest.


Gotta agree with this. It dont matter what connection you have, this game will ALWAYS give host to US players.

We need the dedicated servers now! And it either needs a select the datacenter option or it just puts you in the closest datacenter and we matchmake there.

It has gotta be said, wtf are you doing 343?
 

watership

Member
Gotta agree with this. It dont matter what connection you have, this game will ALWAYS give host to US players.

We need the dedicated servers now! And it either needs a select the datacenter option or it just puts you in the closest datacenter and we matchmake there.

It has gotta be said, wtf are you doing 343?

How can you tell who has host?
 

psychotron

Member
Was just playing the scarab level on Halo 3 the other night. Made it through almost the entire level, just needing to get to the AA gun, when my 2 month old son woke up. This means diaper change, bottle, burping, etc. I know it's probably not going to work, but I pause, choose Save/Quit. I come back about two hours later to see if it worked and I was met with the beginning of the level again. Awesome job 343!
 

Leyasu

Banned
How can you tell who has host?

In general it is the person who has the biggest green bar or the person that can two, three or four shot with ease.

Or the only american in the room. I played swat last nighu and I was getting killed before their guns were even firing on my screen. Or I was getting killed around corners and all other sorts of nonsense.

@ ebullantprism ofcourse anyone that complains about the shafting the non US players get in regards to host is a shit player. Got ya
 
The following was just posted in the other thread. A comment made by a 343 employee on reddit:

"Hey Sosd, we're aware that non-US players, especially AUS players, are still seeing Matchmaking difficulty. Can you PM me your gamertag? I'll have the team take a look.
If you're reading this and have what you believe to be gamertag-specific Matchmaking issues (i.,e. you're having an issue but your friends are not), please feel free to reply to this comment or PM me with gamertag and issue, with details of which playlist(s) are affected. I'll get the info over to the team, which will help with debugging and investigation."

Seriously, what the fuck is this shit? Are you kidding me? Non-US players are still seeing Matchmaking difficulty? How about everyone is still seeing Matchmaking difficulty. This game is clearly never going to be fixed. What a bunch of bullshit.
 

OneUh8

Member
The following was just posted in the other thread. A comment made by a 343 employee on reddit:

"Hey Sosd, we're aware that non-US players, especially AUS players, are still seeing Matchmaking difficulty. Can you PM me your gamertag? I'll have the team take a look.
If you're reading this and have what you believe to be gamertag-specific Matchmaking issues (i.,e. you're having an issue but your friends are not), please feel free to reply to this comment or PM me with gamertag and issue, with details of which playlist(s) are affected. I'll get the info over to the team, which will help with debugging and investigation."

Seriously, what the fuck is this shit? Are you kidding me? Non-US players are still seeing Matchmaking difficulty? How about everyone is still seeing Matchmaking difficulty. This game is clearly never going to be fixed. What a bunch of bullshit.

Oh boy... I don't think they know how to fix it do they...
 

TomShoe

Banned
The logistics of fixing this game must be absolutely maddening. 343i, Saber Interactive, Certain Affinity, United Front & Ruffian Games probably have to work on their own fixes for their own portions of MCC and somehow incorporate it all into one patch. No wonder it feels like when one thing gets fixed, another gets broken.

Perhaps this was a project too big in scale for 343i to handle, at least in the time they were given.
 
Hell no.

Sorry to be greedy but all four of my campaigns work great and look slick as hell. Also, my online works fine for the most part. Sorry to those who are still having big issues, but I'm having an awesome time with the game. No way MS would get this out of my grubby hands, I just hope they keep up with the updates.

Plus, they just released the Halo CE playlist, which has been a good time so far with minimal issues for me.

The logistics of fixing this game must be absolutely maddening. 343i, Saber Interactive, Certain Affinity, United Front & Ruffian Games probably have to work on their own fixes for their own portions of MCC and somehow incorporate it all into one patch. No wonder it feels like when one thing gets fixed, another gets broken.

Perhaps this was a project too big in scale for 343i to handle, at least in the time they were given.

Yup, Master Chief Collection was an insanely ambitious game from a multiplayer aspect. Out of all the broken games this christmas, this is the one I'm least surprised about. I think it's pretty obvious at this point that the multiplayer just wasn't finished on release day. Things certainly seem to keep getting better for me, even if in small steps. I'm quite confident everything will be sorted out eventually.

On the other hand, it's kind of too bad that this 'experiment' hasn't really panned out the best. Everything about this collection is on the brink of being exceptional. It would have been nice to get a Gears Collection of similar style, but I kind of doubt we'll see any studios doing something this ambitious for a while....if ever again. Perhaps if they just had an extended beta things would be better?
 
Different reviewers with different perspectives and biases.

In the first place, Ryan McCraffey should never be allowed to review Halo.

Oh I totally get the different reviewers thing, and I normally hate comparing totally different reviews like that. But I think in terms of a thing like functionally broken games there should be some sort of template a site follows and holds its reviewers to.

Eg. Two reviewers may review the same game and one loves it and one hates it and I get that, it's fine. But there should be some general rules that their scoring system follows:

1. Are games are reviewed without the day 1 patch, or with the day 1 patch?
2. If a game is reviewed a week prior to release and subsequent patches that solve major issues with the game hit before the consumer can buy it, should the game be re-evaluated accordingly?
3. Should a game with significant online components like multiplayer, co-op, etc, be reviewed on pre-release servers and traffic or in a "real" environment ie. once everyone has access to it?

The answers to questions like those should always be the same for reviews coming from the same website. Reviewers are free to flavour the rest of it with their own take and bias but those types of fundamental practices have no reason to be inconsistent.
 

IISANDERII

Member
The following was just posted in the other thread. A comment made by a 343 employee on reddit:

"Hey Sosd, we're aware that non-US players, especially AUS players, are still seeing Matchmaking difficulty. Can you PM me your gamertag? I'll have the team take a look.
If you're reading this and have what you believe to be gamertag-specific Matchmaking issues (i.,e. you're having an issue but your friends are not), please feel free to reply to this comment or PM me with gamertag and issue, with details of which playlist(s) are affected. I'll get the info over to the team, which will help with debugging and investigation."

Seriously, what the fuck is this shit? Are you kidding me? Non-US players are still seeing Matchmaking difficulty? How about everyone is still seeing Matchmaking difficulty. This game is clearly never going to be fixed. What a bunch of bullshit.
They seem so out of answers that they're now trying to fix the game one user at a time lol
 
Playing the game post-update tonight. The game is still completely broken. Tried to play Halo CE 2v2 playlist. Spent 5 minutes searching. Tried to back out, "leaving matchmaking" icon appeared and was unable to go anywhere else. The game wasn't frozen, could still hear input noise from b button, but I could not back out of "leaving matchmaking."

Again, this game need to be recalled, and there should be some other way to get the Halo 5 beta pass. This is ridiculous...
 
Also, does anyone else think that the compensation that we're getting is a tad bit ridiculous? At this point I feel like they need give everyone free access to something non-Halo. I don't even want additional content on this collection until the base content is in a stable state.
 

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
For anyone wondering, I read this thread and called Microsoft and got a refund (having bought digital) a few days ago, even though I bought the game on launch. So for those still dissatisfied, it's possible.
 

Celestia

Member
Also, does anyone else think that the compensation that we're getting is a tad bit ridiculous? At this point I feel like they need give everyone free access to something non-Halo. I don't even want additional content on this collection until the base content is in a stable state.

What sort of compensation would you like to see?
 
Also, does anyone else think that the compensation that we're getting is a tad bit ridiculous? At this point I feel like they need give everyone free access to something non-Halo. I don't even want additional content on this collection until the base content is in a stable state.

I dont like having another campaign added to the collection even though ODST was good. We wont get the game till its done by spring. I rather have horzion 2 since i could play that now. But at least they are giving us something.
 

Hubble

Member
Also, does anyone else think that the compensation that we're getting is a tad bit ridiculous? At this point I feel like they need give everyone free access to something non-Halo. I don't even want additional content on this collection until the base content is in a stable state.

I don't know about ridiculous. It is really disappointing though considering many people who purchased the game did not play it for weeks after release due to the annoyances. I do think most people who play MCC have little interest in the ODST campaign. They really needed to provide everyone who bought the game at launch a new map pack for free. One remade map and one month of live is not enough for compensation imo but I wouldn't say ridiculous but pretty disappointing and not satisfied.

After playing more games with the latest update, the game is still frustrating. There is a bug where one person in parties can hear the other person but that person cannot hear anything. There is also a new bug that just started with the last update. It will say one person in the party is not ready to matchmake when everyone is and you cannot start the search.

And guess what? Parties are still NOT fixed when matchmaking. I haven't had this issue in awhile but today, me and a friend in a party got split up on different teams.

Another bug is when starting a search, one person in the party will randomly disconnect and you will search by yourself.

Another bug is the game will start to load but doesn't and crashes out.

The last patch broke carrying the party over after the game ends that did not work at first. This patch seems to have fixed it back but this still needs work. It is one of the most annoying things.
 
You have my sympathy OP

I'd be livid if I spent 60 euros on a hd rehash of a series I loved that then doesn't even work properly compared to the originals

You don't even get to fall back on playing the original halo 2 because the service has since long been shut down... (the same faith awaits every single brand new/to be released DD, "always online" and every single multiplayer game that doesn't put the server browser and the servers themselves in the hands of the community in 5-10 years)

false advertising and delivering broken products is REALLY getting out of hand, there needs to be some kind of legal standards to protect consumers
If any of you in this topic bought a toaster and it didn't work or the timer button was stuck you'd be outraged and ask for a refund.

You pay a ton of money for this shit, it's no different than any other product.

OP: until laws are updated to protect you from these practices the only thing you can do as gamer and consumer is stop preordering games and stop buying them at launch, because right now it's the wild west and you are only enabling them to keep doing it.
 
Given the good deals on an xbone recently i would have caved and gotten one if the MCC wasn't so broken.

Guess i'll just wait for the price war next fall.
 

Hubble

Member
You have my sympathy OP

I'd be livid if I spent 60 euros on a hd rehash of a series I loved that then doesn't even work properly compared to the originals

false advertising and delivering broken products is REALLY getting out of hand, there needs to be some kind of legal standards to protect consumers
If any of you in this topic bought a toaster and it didn't work or the timer button was stuck you'd be outraged and ask for a refund.

You pay a ton of money for this shit, it's no different than any other product.

Agree 100%, more needs to be done for consumer protection. It would for any other industry. I don't know how 343 hasn't been sued. The game was literally unplayable for weeks.
 

FlyinJ

Douchebag. Yes, me.
What is the deal with the single player save games? Do the mid-mission saves work sometimes, or never?

I seem to recall that Halo never had mid-mission saves after you quit the mission. Didn't it always start the whole thing over?

Or are mid-mission saves a feature that 343 added (or apparently tried to add)?
 
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.
I find this very interesting. The Ubi fallout was massive, but I personally haven't seen as much anger directed towards Microsoft. I wonder if the UK law that came into being recently about returning digital downloads (I think) can enable people to get their money back.
 

Occam

Member
Again, Microsoft's reason for releasing this game in this unfinished state is that they needed it in time for Black Friday as part of their sales strategy, which was obvious from the moment they announced the 20GB day-one patch. It doesn't matter that the game still isn't working properly; no-one is going to return their Xbone because of it and stop buying Xbone games and switch to a competing console. There are no negative ramifications for Microsoft. Which is why a recall won't happen, either.
 
I'm enjoying the campaigns so I cant agree with you at all

I love that this post here didn't read a damn word the OP said, next time this poster should read a little further than the title.

I would actually like to buy this game one day just for the campaigns.

I'm still disappointed to hear people are having a shit time with the multiplayer.
 

membran

Member
Played on the newest patch yesterday. Long matchmaking search times, party joining issues, uneven teams, rank exploit quitters, lag fests.

Still broken. I'm giving up on it for good.
 

Bgamer90

Banned
Again, Microsoft's reason for releasing this game in this unfinished state is that they needed it in time for Black Friday as part of their sales strategy, which was obvious from the moment they announced the 20GB day-one patch. It doesn't matter that the game still isn't working properly; no-one is going to return their Xbone because of it and stop buying Xbone games and switch to a competing console. There are no negative ramifications for Microsoft. Which is why a recall won't happen, either.

It was pretty much hinted at that the patch was due to the XB1 not being able to install two seperate discs as one game. That's not to say though that the game wasn't rushed to meet the Holiday season.
 
Again, Microsoft's reason for releasing this game in this unfinished state is that they needed it in time for Black Friday as part of their sales strategy, which was obvious from the moment they announced the 20GB day-one patch. It doesn't matter that the game still isn't working properly; no-one is going to return their Xbone because of it and stop buying Xbone games and switch to a competing console. There are no negative ramifications for Microsoft. Which is why a recall won't happen, either.

Only that's exactly what I did. I sold my XB1 with MCC and even made a profit due to a shortage in the area, turned right around and bought a PS4.
 
Was just playing the scarab level on Halo 3 the other night. Made it through almost the entire level, just needing to get to the AA gun, when my 2 month old son woke up. This means diaper change, bottle, burping, etc. I know it's probably not going to work, but I pause, choose Save/Quit. I come back about two hours later to see if it worked and I was met with the beginning of the level again. Awesome job 343!

This has happened to me a few times now. So fucking frustrating. some of these missions are really long and i dont want to do the whole thing again.

I dont understand how they could fuck up a save system - it's the same shit with BF4.
 

Balb

Member
Again, Microsoft's reason for releasing this game in this unfinished state is that they needed it in time for Black Friday as part of their sales strategy, which was obvious from the moment they announced the 20GB day-one patch. It doesn't matter that the game still isn't working properly; no-one is going to return their Xbone because of it and stop buying Xbone games and switch to a competing console. There are no negative ramifications for Microsoft. Which is why a recall won't happen, either.

It hurts the Halo brand in the long term which is Microsoft's most important IP. If Halo 5 doesn't connect with players I would worry about the franchise going forward.
 

Bgamer90

Banned
It hurts the Halo brand in the long term which is Microsoft's most important IP. If Halo 5 doesn't connect with players I would worry about the franchise going forward.

Exactly. Halo 5 is now make or break. It wouldn't be in that great of a position if Halo MCC didn't have as many problems.
 

psychotron

Member
This has happened to me a few times now. So fucking frustrating. some of these missions are really long and i dont want to do the whole thing again.

I dont understand how they could fuck up a save system - it's the same shit with BF4.

It's so damn frustrating, and has received no attention by 343 yet. The whole focus has been multiplayer, which isn't fair to those of us who actually like the damn campaigns.
 
Not played for a few weeks, decided to try it out again today since Destiny is bumming me out, my heroic save for halo 1 was wiped lol. Halo 2 already deleted my mid-level saves nearly every time I try to save and quit.

I really feel no urge to play this game, every time I go to play it something dumb happens.

ODST better work when it's released as I loved that game but I expect it to have problems either way.
 

mike4001_

Member
Not played for a few weeks, decided to try it out again today since Destiny is bumming me out, my heroic save for halo 1 was wiped lol. Halo 2 already deleted my mid-level saves nearly every time I try to save and quit.

I really feel no urge to play this game, every time I go to play it something dumb happens.

ODST better work when it's released as I loved that game but I expect it to have problems either way.

This has been said many times.

There are no mid level saves in HALO.

There never were and they didn´t implement it from scratch just for this collection.

You have to play one level and finish it.

Yes it´s not optimal but this is no bug !
 
This has been said many times.

There are no mid level saves in HALO.

There never were and they didn´t implement it from scratch just for this collection.

You have to play one level and finish it.

Yes it´s not optimal but this is no bug !

what are you on about, you can save and quit in halo 1 when the game checkpoints.
 

Akai__

Member
I'm still getting uneven teams, just as often as before. It's so close though, everything else is working fine.

I often get a full 8vs8 match and then people drop, before the game even starts. I think it's because the map fails to load, because I had this happen to me very often and I would just be stuck in the post-game lobby screen.
 
I got the digital version yesterday at around 4:30 p.m. This morning at 10:30 a.m. it was still at 39% downloading/installing....
I was told by Microsoft, if you can't live in the digital age with Xbone, they are still willing to sell your peasant rear-end a 360.


Seriously, for this big of a game to Microsoft, I don't know how it got away from them?! Especially after a couple of months and still basically doesn't work. I was playing Halo:CE Anniversary, and that game is fantastic overall compared to what they released here. They even did a fairly good job in giving Halo:CE and Halo 2 upgrade bumps when playing on the 360 compared to the original Xbox. I don't know if I will ever buy an xbone with as poor as it has been doing and how badly MS burned me last gen.

Other than the disaster this has been, it has been pretty interesting to watch as a developing story.
 
I was seconds away from pulling the trigger on an Xbox One black friday deal just for this game.

good thing I checked the official thread first
 
This has been said many times.

There are no mid level saves in HALO.

There never were and they didn´t implement it from scratch just for this collection.

You have to play one level and finish it.

Yes it´s not optimal but this is no bug !

You are thinking of co op. Halo 1 saves fine mid level otherwise.

I mean not in this POS maybe. But in general.
 
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