Ten years ago this month Microsoft entered the home console and video game industry with the launch of the Xbox games console. Up to this point Microsoft was the biggest player in the operating system and home personal computer market with the popular Windows OS products and associated software. It decided to compete with video game industry giants such as Sony and Nintendo with Halo: Combat Evolved as the console’s signature headlining game leading the charge.
The rest is history. Microsoft is now an equal competitor in the video game industry and Halo is one of the most popular video game franchises. To celebrate this successful first decade, Microsoft has released Halo CE Anniversary, a high definition “remake” and port of the first Halo video game that launched with the original Xbox.
The campaign has been revisted with a coat of new high definition graphics matching, but not exceeding, the expected standard of today’s increased graphical fidelity. Every inch of every level, every blade of grass, alien structure of expansive alien skybox has recieved a solid and sometimes drastic graphical upgrade. To allow players to appreciate just how extensive the upgrade has been you can, at any time with the press of a button, switch from the newer graphics back to the original dated appearance and back again. The contrast illustrates how far video games have come in the past decade and also how loving crafted the new graphics have been to sit on top of the older look.
This new coat of paint comes with a few other enhancements, such as the music recieving a new and fully orchestrated re-recording courtesy of Skywalker Sound, and the addition of online co-operative play letting you play the campaign with a buddy in the same room, sharing space on the same television, or over the internet on Xbox Live.
Halo CE Anniversary does make a significant omission from the original release ten years ago. The original Halo multiplayer suite has not been given the same treatment as the campaign and in fact is missing entirely. In it’s place is a selection of classic Halo maps built in the Halo: Reach engine and available to play straight from the Anniversary disk or with the included Xbox Live Marketplace code to download the maps for Halo: Reach. These maps have been selected from some of the most popular maps of the first two Halo games and are sure to please fans that have fond memories of Halo classics such as Headlong and Prisoner.