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Panel all'RTX 2014 per Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
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00:00:27Andi Dodinski
00:00:30Most of my friends call me Bravo, and I'm community manager for Halo at 343 Industries.
00:00:34To my left is Dennis Ries.
00:00:36He is lead producer on Halo The Master Chief Collection,
00:00:39and also worth noting that Dennis served as lead producer on Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary.
00:00:44Yes, thank you.
00:00:46Thank you.
00:00:49To his left is Max Schlager.
00:00:51He's lead designer on Halo The Master Chief Collection.
00:01:00To his left is Max Hoberman, the original multiplayer and online design lead for Halo 2.
00:01:08Yeah!
00:01:13Max is also president of Certain Affinity, who is Austin's own top game development studio.
00:01:19Yeah!
00:01:24And to Max's left is David Mertz, who is lead multiplayer designer on Halo 2 Anniversary.
00:01:36So when I was first asked to moderate this panel, I got really excited,
00:01:40because not only do we have four awesome guys on stage with us here,
00:01:43but they're also building some really great experiences within the Master Chief Collection.
00:01:47So to start off, Dennis, I'd love to just talk about everything that's packed into this game.
00:01:52Yeah, there's so much here.
00:01:53So, you know, when we started thinking about Master Chief Collection,
00:01:57it's just we wanted the entire Master Chief Saga.
00:01:59So you're going to get Halo CE Anniversary,
00:02:02you're going to get Halo 2 Anniversary,
00:02:04Halo 3, Halo 4,
00:02:06as well as the, you know, live-action digital series
00:02:11executive produced by Ridley Scott called Halo Nightfall.
00:02:14And then lastly, but not least, is the Halo 5 Guardians multiplayer beta.
00:02:20So there's a ton of content in here,
00:02:22and we're really excited for it to come out this November.
00:02:26Yeah, I think actually we're ready to jump right into things.
00:02:29And Max, I think we have a build of the Master Chief Collection running right now on Xbox One.
00:02:33Can you walk us through some of the philosophy behind the Master Menu
00:02:37and some of the menus themselves?
00:02:40Yeah.
00:02:41Let's go ahead and switch over to that.
00:02:43Let's go ahead and switch it over.
00:02:48Cool.
00:02:48Get a controller over here.
00:02:50Let's get him a controller.
00:02:51Isaac!
00:02:52Isaac!
00:02:55Isaac!
00:03:01Do we have audio?
00:03:04Yes, magic.
00:03:05Okay, we're good.
00:03:05Great.
00:03:06Thank you, Andy.
00:03:07So I want to talk through some of the ways in which we're bringing in nostalgia
00:03:13as well as a unique look for the unified menu for this particular game.
00:03:17So one of the subtle touches that you'll notice as you browse the menus in the game
00:03:23is you'll get your music cues from each game as you browse Halo 1,
00:03:32Halo 2, and you'll also notice the backgrounds, again, will be sensitive to the game that you're
00:03:41looking at at the particular time that you're moving through the menu there.
00:03:43So, again, they change each time.
00:03:45And this is going to be reflected in each part of the game.
00:03:48So campaigns, multiplayer, and something a bit unique for each one.
00:03:55So just a way we're trying to make the experience of browsing Master Chief Collection really exciting
00:03:59and bring you some of that nostalgia.
00:04:03Now, we talked about playlists before.
00:04:05I wanted to talk a little bit about the philosophy behind how we thought about some of these playlists.
00:04:09And specifically, we've talked about cross-game.
00:04:12In this case, though, let's talk about the particular game that we're doing our anniversary treatment for.
00:04:16So Halo 2, here's a sampling of some of the playlists that we're thinking about for this particular game.
00:04:20So in the past, some folks who really love a hardcore challenge,
00:04:26they would do things like the Lazo campaign, for example.
00:04:29Now, that's a particular configuration where you've got the game on Legendary, all Skulls on.
00:04:35And people know how to set that up.
00:04:37We wanted to curate this and make it something that basically is more discoverable for everybody out there.
00:04:43And then also to recognize the achievement associated with doing that.
00:04:46So we're thinking of a number of different ways to reward people for playing through that playlist.
00:04:50There's some other ones on here that are a good example of ways in which we think about it.
00:04:53Because we think about these in terms of themes.
00:04:55And so one of the great things about Halo 2, you play it as the Arbiter.
00:04:59You play it as Master Chief.
00:05:00So we actually have a combination of levels that plays specifically for the Arbiter back-to-back.
00:05:07That's a new experience because if you remember in the original campaign,
00:05:10you actually were doing them interspersed from one to the next.
00:05:13So that's a pretty cool way to think about it.
00:05:15And the flip side of that, of course, is the Master Chief journey.
00:05:19Which, you know, again, it's those particular Chief levels back-to-back.
00:05:23Now, another collection that we have here is fan favorites.
00:05:26It's just some of the maps that missions that people particularly enjoyed playing on this one.
00:05:30And there's going to be a variety of these types of playlists that call out basically some of the particular
00:05:35highlights of the game
00:05:36and great moments in them.
00:05:38Now, another key piece to remember for Halo 2 Anniversary is for the first time ever,
00:05:42we're going to have online co-op play through this campaign.
00:05:46So that's pretty exciting.
00:05:48Yeah, that's pretty cool.
00:05:55Now, I'd also like to speak a little bit to how we think about curating the multiplayer experience.
00:06:00With 100 multiplayer maps, a lot of great game types available to you,
00:06:05how are you going to find the best of the best?
00:06:07So, here's a sampling of some of the multiplayer playlists that we're thinking about.
00:06:12And you're going to see a wide range of content here.
00:06:14Now, one thing I do want to clarify is you notice when I go through these,
00:06:18there are some that are dedicated to each title.
00:06:21So, yes, there is one for Halo 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and Halo 2 Anniversary.
00:06:31As well as some cross-game ones.
00:06:34And there's a kind of a few different ways we think about these cross-game ones.
00:06:38So, in one particular case, we have a very broad range of content here, right?
00:06:41So, Team Slayer, this particular multiplayer playlist has a wide variety of content in it.
00:06:52Nice.
00:06:56Now, that's to get back to some of the spirit of what it felt like to be in multiplayer
00:06:59at a time when, you know, while we will have voting, we want to make sure that a lot of
00:07:03those maps
00:07:03that maybe, you know, didn't get as much discoverability back in the day will bubble them up.
00:07:08And, you know, having four games worth of content there is a great way to really bring that vibe
00:07:12back to these playlists.
00:07:13Another thing that we think about is rotational playlists.
00:07:17So, in this particular case, we have a rotation of, you know,
00:07:20some of the best swap maps across these particular games.
00:07:23And you'll notice this particular list is shorter than the other one because, again,
00:07:27these are curated to be specifically the best maps for SWAT across all these different games.
00:07:34So, you may be wondering, how exactly, you know, do you have a seamless experience as you go from
00:07:39one of these titles to the next because things have changed over time, right?
00:07:43Dual wielding, equipment, loadout, sprint, all these different things.
00:07:48So, one of the things that we thought about in unifying this package is our universal control schemes.
00:07:54So, we haven't talked about this.
00:07:56And this is something that we wanted to give you a brief demo of.
00:07:58But you can customize your controls for each title, for each option individually.
00:08:05And we have the option for these things to, for example, apply a setting like, let's say,
00:08:11your sensitivity.
00:08:12And with the press of a button, you can apply that setting to every single title in the collection.
00:08:16The other cool thing about this is we have universal control schemes.
00:08:20So, here's an example of one for you.
00:08:22And in this particular case, the goal with these is to unify what an action,
00:08:28how that action occurs across games.
00:08:30And we did a lot of digging on this.
00:08:32And we really feel like we have a number of control schemes that are going to work across all the
00:08:35games.
00:08:36That said, again, if you really want to get in there and, you know, have a custom one for a
00:08:40particular game,
00:08:40you're always welcome to override that.
00:08:42You can have everything customized per title for all these options, however you like.
00:08:48So, that's how we think about that.
00:08:51Awesome.
00:08:52Thank you, Max.
00:08:57So, something that we mentioned on stage at E3 is that Halo 2 is getting that full anniversary treatment.
00:09:05And, Dennis, I want to talk a little bit about both in terms of campaign and multiplayer, what that means
00:09:10for Halo 2.
00:09:12Well, when we started thinking, you know, like the anniversary treatment, we really looked back to Halo 1 anniversary and
00:09:18what did we do there.
00:09:20And right off the bat, from a campaign perspective, obviously, you just need to remaster the campaign.
00:09:24So, we worked with Sabre Interactive again, who worked on Halo 1 anniversary and they're completely remastering all the graphics.
00:09:30And it looks incredible.
00:09:32Additionally, we also wanted to do some of the other fan favorite things that were like skulls.
00:09:36We added tons of skulls to Halo 2 anniversary.
00:09:40So, yes, exactly.
00:09:42All of the existing skulls that were there are still there, but then we added a ton.
00:09:46So, there's actually over 30 skulls that are available now in Halo 2 anniversary.
00:09:52Additionally, we really thought about, you know, the audio.
00:09:54The audio is completely remastered in Halo 1 anniversary.
00:09:57We wanted to do that again and we're doing it in a very big way.
00:10:00And I'm excited to talk more about that at Comic-Con.
00:10:02So, get excited because there's some really cool stuff we're doing on the audio side.
00:10:06Additionally, terminals.
00:10:07Now, terminals in Halo 1 anniversary, we hid them all throughout the game.
00:10:12And then, when you get to a terminal, you would unlock a video and learn more about the franchise.
00:10:16Well, we're doing a lot, you know, a lot of the same thing here.
00:10:20And you're going to be able to learn the story, the backstory of the Arbiter.
00:10:23So, that's something I think that everyone's going to be really excited.
00:10:26And then, also, Blur.
00:10:29So, in cinematics, you know, telling the Halo 2 story, it's just a ton, a huge story.
00:10:35And there's like over 50 minutes of cinematics.
00:10:38So, we contacted Blur Studios, who actually have worked with us before.
00:10:41They worked on Halo Wars.
00:10:43So, if you're familiar with the Halo Wars cinematics,
00:10:45Yeah, it's pretty incredible.
00:10:47And Blur has been working with us to remaster all of those cinematics.
00:10:51So, they're going to look incredible.
00:10:53As far as multiplayer, really, first things first,
00:10:57we had to make sure we included the original multiplayer.
00:11:00Something we didn't do with Halo 1 anniversary.
00:11:02So, we definitely made up for that here.
00:11:03And we included the original multiplayer.
00:11:05Yeah.
00:11:10But, we knew Halo 2 was so well known for its multiplayer.
00:11:14We wanted to do something different.
00:11:16Something unique.
00:11:17And so, we contacted Max.
00:11:19Max Oberman from there at Certain Affinity.
00:11:21And we asked him for some help.
00:11:24And, you know, our major goals were number one.
00:11:26We really wanted to expand upon that sort of core Halo 2 experience.
00:11:31We wanted to make sure that whatever we created was true to how Halo 2 was back then.
00:11:37And then, also, we wanted to create the definitive version of each of the remastered maps.
00:11:41As we're remastering six of the most nostalgic multiplayer maps.
00:11:46And we wanted to make sure that we stayed true to how those played and how they feel.
00:11:50And we didn't just want this to be a remake, right?
00:11:52We wanted this to be an upgrade.
00:11:54And that was really important for us.
00:11:56And so, I know Certain Affinity and Max especially spent a lot of time making sure that would be the
00:12:00case.
00:12:01Cool. Thank you, Dennis.
00:12:02One thing, since we do have Max Oberman with us, I'd love to take kind of a step back and
00:12:06look
00:12:07at Halo 2 and why we're here celebrating the 10-year anniversary.
00:12:11I mean, Halo 2 was such a pivotal game, I think, for everyone on stage.
00:12:15For me, I can say there's no way I'd be up here and working on Halo
00:12:17if it wasn't for Halo 2 and my career.
00:12:20And I mean, year after year, it was the most popular game on Xbox Live.
00:12:23And for many people, it was also an introduction, you know, to online multiplayer.
00:12:28Not just on console, but I think all up.
00:12:30Max, can you tell us a bit about how you got involved specifically in Halo 2 development?
00:12:36Yeah, sure.
00:12:37So, let's see.
00:12:38First of all, just a quick side note.
00:12:40I just want to commend these guys for the effort of pulling together all these different games with this
00:12:45unified UI and matchmaking, all these things.
00:12:49It's, when they told me what they were planning when we first started this project, I told them they were
00:12:52crazy.
00:12:53But it's awesome.
00:12:54We're still crazy, Max.
00:12:56Crazy.
00:13:03This particular project has a ton of significance for me.
00:13:07Halo 2, there's a ton of nostalgia, I guess you'd say.
00:13:11I started, I was actually at Bungie before Microsoft acquisition days, working on the early Halo games.
00:13:19But just helping out a little bit on the side.
00:13:21After we got acquired, I ended up starting up the community team at Bungie.
00:13:26So, I was running all, you know, all the community relations type stuff that Bungie does.
00:13:30And then my group was also handling the user interface design.
00:13:33So, we did the user interface design for Halo 1.
00:13:36And all along, all those years, I kept telling them that I want to do multiplayer design.
00:13:40And I really want to be a, you know, really want to be a designer.
00:13:43So, I don't, I think this is common knowledge.
00:13:46I don't know how much it's been talked about.
00:13:48But what we actually shipped for multiplayer for Halo 1 was not what we were originally imagining for Halo.
00:13:55It was kind of something that we crammed in real quick at the last minute, didn't have a lot of
00:14:00time.
00:14:01And, you know, what we had planned was very different.
00:14:04And it was really impressive how crazy popular it was and how fun it was in LAN parties.
00:14:10And honestly, it kind of caught us by surprise a little bit.
00:14:13So, when we started on Halo 2, and I was, I was actually still on the community team until about
00:14:18six months in.
00:14:19And the team is basically, they were regretting that, the dev team was regretting that they hadn't shipped the original
00:14:26big, you know, big mega round-based 32 player, you know, type thing that we had originally envisioned.
00:14:33So, that was the plan for Halo 2 multiplayers.
00:14:36It was going to be this big thing that we were, I think we were calling it warfare internally.
00:14:40And for about six months, that was the plan, and I kept telling everyone, but everyone's playing Halo 1 style,
00:14:48this arena combat, you know, this real fast-paced, small maps, LAN party-type experience, and everyone's having a great
00:14:55time.
00:14:55Shouldn't we just take that online?
00:14:57And, no, no, no, we don't want to do that.
00:14:59We want to do something new.
00:15:00That's old.
00:15:01So, I just kept making a lot of noise about it.
00:15:04And eventually, I guess Alex and Jason, or the two founders of Bungie, came to me and they said, hey,
00:15:10you know, we think, we think we should have the small-scale stuff, you've convinced us, why don't you, why
00:15:16don't you take care of that, we'll call that the party game, that'll be for LAN parties, and then we'll
00:15:20go do this big, you know, warfare thing separately.
00:15:23So, okay.
00:15:24So, then I, then I fought really hard to get one dedicated resource, which was Chris Carney, one environment artist.
00:15:30So, finally got one dedicated resource, and Carney and I went to town.
00:15:34Well, meanwhile, this big, epic multiplayer thing was supposedly happening.
00:15:38I was still on the community team.
00:15:40So, fast forward about six months, and we had, we had actually laid a groundwork for the multiplayer for the
00:15:47game.
00:15:47A bunch of the maps that you guys know and love, actually, we had planned out and even implemented in
00:15:53their kind of early forms and designed, and we were playing it, and we were having a great time.
00:15:57And, you know, six months later, the big mega game was no further than a single piece of paper.
00:16:03So, eventually, we, you know, they came to me and they said, hey, we're cutting warfare, and, you know, you're
00:16:09going to be in charge of multiplayer, and, you know, you're doing everything.
00:16:11So, I ended up being in charge of all the, everything multiplayer, design-wise, online design, you name it.
00:16:19So, that's kind of how I got sort of full-time involved in development.
00:16:22Cool. Yeah, let's talk about some of the first things that you did once Halo 2, kind of this arena
00:16:28multiplayer, was locked.
00:16:29What was the first onset? Was, I mean, was it designing those maps?
00:16:32What was the first thing that really was the first step?
00:16:34Yeah, you know, it was funny because a lot of Halo 2 was born out of this sort of desperation
00:16:39of just having me and, you know, Chris Carney, and that was it.
00:16:43We really didn't have a lot of resources. I didn't even have a dedicated programmer for gameplay-related stuff.
00:16:48So, we just knew that there was really no room for error with such a small group. So, we laid
00:16:52out our plans.
00:16:53I think originally we laid out our sort of master plan. We need X number of maps that do, you
00:16:58know, serve these groups.
00:17:00It was interesting because on the large scale, the really big stuff, 16 player, we didn't actually think we needed
00:17:05much for that
00:17:06because we had, we thought, oh, the warfare is going to take care of that.
00:17:09So, we tended to focus on the smaller scale maps and some of the kind of medium-sized maps and
00:17:14then a lot of the arena maps.
00:17:15So, yeah, just in our early designs, I put together a document that laid out all of our maps and
00:17:20laid out names actually for just,
00:17:22we didn't know what the maps were going to be, but all right, this is going to be a four
00:17:25-player map that supports CTF
00:17:26or, you know, this is going to be a five-player, six-player map that supports Team Slayer or something
00:17:31like that.
00:17:31And I gave all those maps names and a lot of those names actually stuck in the map designs too,
00:17:36like, let's see,
00:17:39Lockout was one of the very, very first ones we did.
00:17:41I know everybody loves Lockout.
00:17:45Let's see, Lockout, Ivory Tower, Midship, Ascension.
00:17:49Those were four of the very first ones that within like six months we had them all up and playable
00:17:52and they basically, they didn't change that much over the course of the project.
00:17:56And three of those four names actually stuck.
00:17:59The only one of those four that changed was Ivory Tower.
00:18:02When we did it on paper originally, it was originally called Cyclotron.
00:18:08Cyclotron, thank you.
00:18:09Cyclotron.
00:18:10Yeah, and then we made this like fancy penthouse suite at the top of a tower and we're like,
00:18:14that looks nothing like a cyclotron.
00:18:16So we had to change it.
00:18:17So we renamed Ivory Tower in honor of what everyone called Marty O'Donnell's private office.
00:18:23We called it the Ivory Tower.
00:18:25So that was how that map got its name.
00:18:27That's so funny.
00:18:28Awesome.
00:18:28Speaking of those original paper designs, you've been so kind to dig into the archives
00:18:33and give us a few of those which I think a lot of us are going to be seeing for
00:18:37the first time
00:18:37if you want to switch over to some of these map designs.
00:18:40Talk a little bit about how Midship changed and some of these maps changed from the paper design.
00:18:44So this one, this one's a lot of fun.
00:18:46This is Midship and this is actually, Midship is the very first map that I ever designed,
00:18:52like put pen to paper and designed, which is, this is Chris Carney's version of, he took it over and
00:18:58redid my layout.
00:19:00But this was Chris Carney's version of the layout.
00:19:02And Midship just blows my mind that it became so popular.
00:19:05I think it became one of the most popular among all the competitive players also.
00:19:09Yeah, it was the only map I think in Halo history to serve every tournament game type.
00:19:14So Free For All, Oddball, King of the Hill, Assault, Slayer, everything.
00:19:19So it's, yeah, it became pretty universal.
00:19:21When I was working on Midship originally, I had this, my spec called for,
00:19:26basically I wanted to have a two-on-two CTF map because I figured, all right, we're going online,
00:19:30but there's going to be a bunch of people who still don't have the internet back then.
00:19:34This was a while ago. So anyway, I was like, all right, but CTF is so much fun,
00:19:39and I'd love for people just playing four-way split screen to be able to play a CTF game.
00:19:42So I'm going to do a two-on-two CTF map.
00:19:45So the basic idea on this map was that you'd have two flags basically across a chasm looking at each
00:19:50other,
00:19:50and they were so close that the one guy goes on offense, one stays on defense,
00:19:56and the guy that's back there on defense can still participate on offense.
00:19:59So he can lob grenades across, he can still shoot across.
00:20:02Yeah, and this is pretty close to what the final map ended up as,
00:20:06and we did this like two years before the game shipped actually.
00:20:09That's awesome. And we've also got an early Ascension, which similarly to Midship,
00:20:15does look a bit different just in terms of the map layout.
00:20:19This was actually a rework of Ascension, because Ascension, which we're showing off here,
00:20:23and turned out to be a really popular map, Ascension almost got cut,
00:20:26because when we first did Ascension, it was really not any fun.
00:20:29They had a similar problem to lockout, which is that all of the traffic routed through that dish in the
00:20:35middle,
00:20:35and there was no way to get to any of the three satellites without going through that dish.
00:20:39So the map just wasn't working.
00:20:41So this is actually my drawing when I got my hands on it, and I was proposing some changes to
00:20:46kind of make it work,
00:20:47and adding these peripheral lower paths around the outside, which weren't there originally.
00:20:53The Leap of Faith was, you know, you can see I wanted to have this spot where you jump down.
00:20:57If you look up in the left, you see it says fog right there.
00:21:00Yeah.
00:21:00That's an awesome drawing.
00:21:01Nice fog.
00:21:02The idea was, for the Leap of Faith actually, that you'd run up, and you'd look down,
00:21:06and all you would see was a bank of fog, and then you'd just have to jump down through the
00:21:10fog and hope you landed it.
00:21:11So that was what that was indicating.
00:21:13So yeah, this one, yeah, after we made these changes, it totally turned around the map, so it got a
00:21:19lot better.
00:21:19And this next one that we're going to go to right after this slide is, I think, a last minute
00:21:24addition.
00:21:24We just got this paper design in this morning, and I'm sure it's also a fan favorite.
00:21:31Oh, Zanzibar.
00:21:35So Zanzibar's kind of interesting, and just a side note, this panel's interesting for me,
00:21:39because these guys all have stuff they're talking about about the product, and they just asked me to come here
00:21:44and reminisce about Halo 2 development days, so this is kind of fun.
00:21:49Zanzibar was really interesting.
00:21:50What happened with Zanzibar is, after we did an E3 where we showed off single-player new Mombasa,
00:21:57and then the following year, about maybe two months before E3, Pete Parsons and Jason Jones came to me,
00:22:05and they said, hey Max, we have a problem, the single-player is so on fire, we have so many
00:22:11problems,
00:22:12we can't afford to spend any time working on anything for E3 for the campaign,
00:22:16so we need you to show off something multiplayer for E3.
00:22:19So I said, okay, sure.
00:22:21So I said, all right.
00:22:22We started looking at what we had, and we realized that we really didn't have anything
00:22:26that we thought was sexy enough for E3.
00:22:29So we kind of scrambled, all of a sudden we had a bunch of additional resources to make something,
00:22:34so we sort of scrambled, and this is the paper design for Zanzibar that we did,
00:22:39and we built it this whole thing start to finish in less than two months, specifically for E3,
00:22:43with all the crazy dynamic elements and all that stuff.
00:22:46None of those features were supported up to that point.
00:22:48All the dynamic lighting from the wheel turning, all that stuff we crammed in at the last minute,
00:22:53took it to E3 and had it playable, and we had a great show, and one of the reasons for
00:22:58that,
00:22:59one of the things that I really wanted to do with Halo was really focus on adding game modes that
00:23:03were round-based,
00:23:05sort of single objective, so like single flag CTF, single bomb assault, that sort of thing.
00:23:10So we looked at it and we said, this is a kind of fun game mode,
00:23:13but we don't have a map that's really designed around, you know, around this kind of round-based single objective.
00:23:19So that's where we came up with Zanzibar and really kind of went to town on it.
00:23:22So yeah, this is cool.
00:23:24Awesome. Thank you, Max.
00:23:26I think I'd love to move now forward and fast forward ten years later to designing Halo 2 Anniversary Multiplayer,
00:23:31and one of the coolest things that I heard when I first heard this project was in the works.
00:23:36Not only did I not believe that we were going to pull it off,
00:23:38but also hearing that we had commissioned you and your team to look at Halo 2 Multiplayer and say,
00:23:44what are the things that you would have liked to have done ten years ago that might not have been
00:23:48able to?
00:23:48And also hearing that your team now has that opportunity is pretty exciting, too.
00:23:53Yeah. So yeah, there are a couple of things.
00:23:55At the start of the project, I sat down with Dave Mertz here and the rest of the team,
00:23:59and we talked a bunch about stuff.
00:24:01But I'll probably let Mertz speak to some of the things that we've added that I wanted to add back
00:24:06in the day.
00:24:08Thanks, Max. I think we're going to throw up the build.
00:24:11Yeah, I think we're going to get a little bit more of a sense.
00:24:14So what you guys are going to see, what we're going to have loaded here.
00:24:17Yeah, no problem. Thanks.
00:24:22What you guys are going to see is the latest development build.
00:24:25This is the build in the raw, so any apologies.
00:24:27Hot off the presses.
00:24:28Yeah, really hot off the presses, literally.
00:24:30So, you know, if any strangers or issues, we apologize.
00:24:33But no, this is the build.
00:24:44So this crowd is in for a real treat.
00:24:46We showed this at E3, but you guys are going to get really the most detailed walkthrough of the map,
00:24:52the first detailed walkthrough of the map.
00:24:54So, you know, like Max said, when we started the project, there was a huge number of decisions that we
00:24:59had to make.
00:25:00You know, we sat down with Max.
00:25:01We really went over the things that worked, the things that didn't work, kind of his wish list items, those
00:25:04types of things.
00:25:06Really, the first thing was the hardest decision was what six maps.
00:25:09And as you can see, Ascension here made the cut, obviously.
00:25:12So what I like to do is just kind of walk through the map a little bit.
00:25:15So, first of all, you guys will notice the updated visuals.
00:25:20Now, I'm going to talk to the visuals just for a little bit as it relates to design, and then
00:25:24we'll kind of get into some of the wish list items
00:25:25and some of the other stuff that kind of was the results of the feedback that we got from talking
00:25:30with Max,
00:25:31as well as just all the research and everything that we do, listen to community and listen to the fans.
00:25:36Obviously, you know, with Xbox One, oh, sorry, thank you.
00:25:40With the Xbox One, we're able to do an incredible amount of visual fidelity.
00:25:44But there's a challenge there.
00:25:45We found very quickly early on the project that we're sitting here, we're making the map super sexy, we're really
00:25:50pimping them out.
00:25:51But what happens is you start to get a lot of visual noise.
00:25:54And some of our basic kind of really design goals are that any change cannot affect gameplay.
00:26:01So that even goes for visuals.
00:26:02The things that visuals can do is they can really start to muddy really the gameplay.
00:26:06And well, how does that happen?
00:26:07Well, target acquisition.
00:26:09Just a lot of noise and level.
00:26:11People not knowing paths or paths, those types of things.
00:26:14So, you know, that was a big challenge we really tackled head on.
00:26:18So let me kind of point out some of the kind of some of the key visuals here.
00:26:21And a lot of it really deals with just really we wanted to just immerse you even more in the
00:26:29levels.
00:26:30You can see here.
00:26:33So what our artists did here.
00:26:35Obviously, we have a beautiful skybox with the halo ring rotating around it.
00:26:40They basically created a halo ring that's to scale in game.
00:26:45And that's what you're seeing right now.
00:26:47It's pretty fantastic.
00:26:49Can you drop down there and run around?
00:26:50Yeah.
00:26:51So.
00:26:52Show us.
00:26:53Prove it.
00:26:54Totally.
00:26:54Totally do that.
00:26:56What I can do is give you guys a much better view of it.
00:26:59Just to kind of give you a fantastic view.
00:27:02Jump on the ledge, Murch.
00:27:03Just to see how good you are.
00:27:04How much work went into this.
00:27:06So we're over here by the leap of faith.
00:27:09Oh, I'll jump.
00:27:09Okay.
00:27:10I'll jump.
00:27:14And you just don't really realize just how incredible the visuals are until you.
00:27:19Oh.
00:27:21So.
00:27:29Huge, huge just hats off to our artists.
00:27:32They've done a fantastic job.
00:27:33So obviously, there's a lot of other things you guys can see.
00:27:36And I'll move through this pretty quickly.
00:27:38Just incredibly detailed terrain, natural features.
00:27:43The forerunner structures are just gorgeous.
00:27:46Just absolutely gorgeous.
00:27:48So let's move on to the gameplay stuff a little bit.
00:27:50You know, when we got together and we talked to Max, you know, there were a couple things
00:27:55at a high level that we wanted to do with the maps.
00:27:58There's a lot of skill that's involved.
00:28:01There's a really nice skill gap in Halo 2.
00:28:03And people love to know the trick jumps.
00:28:05To know these different paths to do this type of stuff.
00:28:08So what we really tried to make sure was that we maintained those.
00:28:11That was really important.
00:28:12We maintained all the skill jumps in the original maps.
00:28:15In addition, we wanted to add more.
00:28:17So, you know, all your classic skill jumps and those types of things will be in the map.
00:28:21Including some additional skill jumps.
00:28:23Now, this is a pretty standard one.
00:28:27And then just really small things.
00:28:29Because really the most important thing here is that every single change, no matter how small,
00:28:35has got to add to the gameplay.
00:28:36It has absolutely got to add to the gameplay.
00:28:38Every single thing that we did to the game had to be a home run.
00:28:41Anything that was 50-50, anything that was kind of like meh, no.
00:28:45Cut.
00:28:46Everything had to move the game forward.
00:28:47So just simple things like this.
00:28:49For those of you that are familiar with the sniper rifle platform here.
00:28:52So, you know you could drop down here before, right?
00:28:55Well, what we wanted to do was, for skilled players, they can get up here from another route.
00:29:00So we've seen a lot of really, truly skilled players actually jump up that path, flank their opponent.
00:29:05And it's just fantastic.
00:29:06It's just really subtle things like that have really added a lot to the game.
00:29:09I'm going to go through here and show you guys a couple other really, really important paths that we have
00:29:16changed.
00:29:17Because we know everyone really wants to see the map.
00:29:19You kind of see all the changes that we've done.
00:29:21So I'm really excited to kind of show you guys that stuff.
00:29:23So here's the Banshee platform.
00:29:26Again, fantastic view of the Vista.
00:29:28So, something that really kind of came out of the feedback with Max when we were talking about the map
00:29:34was,
00:29:34the SkyBridge does not really get used a lot for obvious reasons.
00:29:38It's really kind of one big circular loop, travel loop.
00:29:41There's not a lot of cover.
00:29:43And when you're out there in the middle of the SkyBridge, your options are really limited.
00:29:47You can't really bail out very easily.
00:29:52So what we thought we'd do is we thought we'd do a couple of really subtle things.
00:29:56So everyone always thought that the connection here was kind of awkward.
00:29:58So what this did is we added some additional space here, some modifications, and it just played fantastic.
00:30:04People liked the additional space to fight.
00:30:06They liked being able to approach the Banshee platform in a different way.
00:30:09And then most importantly, one reason that people really didn't use the SkyBridge a lot was they would get sniped
00:30:14from Big Tower.
00:30:15And that's fine.
00:30:15And what's really important about all these changes is that we've got to maintain the original spirit of the map,
00:30:22the original gameplay of the map, the original spirit of the map.
00:30:25The map, Halo 2 in general, and this map in particular, is really about the zone control, about controlling the
00:30:30big tower,
00:30:31about controlling the small tower.
00:30:32So we don't want to take that away from players, but we want to give the other players a chance
00:30:37to counter the people that hold these power positions.
00:30:40So you can see we've added some additional cover while running along here from the big tower.
00:30:45And then really one of the biggest changes is we added this entire center kind of platform structure here.
00:30:50And it's fantastic.
00:30:51People really get a chance to kind of fight in here.
00:30:52It gives them a lot more tactical advantages or tactical strategies they can do.
00:30:56And then, of course, this was originally an original skill jump.
00:30:59And, of course, I botched it.
00:31:03That's how you can tell it's a live build when the lead designer is not paying attention and botches a
00:31:07skill jump.
00:31:08And I'll probably hear about that from QA on Monday.
00:31:11So what we did is we made this skill jump a little easier.
00:31:16But what's great is we noticed the more skillful players are now able to do this jump backwards.
00:31:20They're able to do all this type of stuff.
00:31:21So we haven't taken anything away and we've added stuff, especially for, you know, your less skilled players or your
00:31:26more casual players.
00:31:26And by having this additional structure here, it's just really played well.
00:31:30It's so subtle.
00:31:31But it's just really worked out fantastic in terms of adding additional cover when you're trying to approach either way.
00:31:36Either approaching the Banshee platformer or attacking the big tower.
00:31:40There's a lot of other changes that we did.
00:31:42You know, for instance, there were not a lot of, you know, long-range weapons around this area.
00:31:47We added a Covenant Carbine here.
00:31:49It gives you a little bit to counter the BRs and the sniper rifle.
00:31:56Let me go up here to the big tower.
00:31:57So I think really one of the biggest things that we identified in this map when talking with everyone, getting
00:32:02feedback, when talking with Max is just the dominance of long-range combat in this level.
00:32:07So there's a number of things that we tried to do to kind of help along with this.
00:32:12We adjusted spawns.
00:32:13We added additional cover.
00:32:15I think one of the biggest changes, though, and the thing that I'm most excited about is we've really tried
00:32:19to add a lot of dynamic elements into the maps.
00:32:22And what's neat about this...
00:32:24Wait, have you shown this yet?
00:32:25No.
00:32:26This is the first time anyone's seen this.
00:32:27Are you sure this is okay, Dennis?
00:32:28Wait, I didn't think you were going to show this, Dave.
00:32:31All right.
00:32:32Okay.
00:32:32Do you guys want to see this?
00:32:37I didn't know we were showing this either, but...
00:32:39There goes...
00:32:40No, now we're showing it.
00:32:41We're showing it now.
00:32:42So, you know, when talking with Max, one of the wish listings for Max, and Max can verify this, is
00:32:48he wished that they had done...
00:32:50He will verify that.
00:32:52He wished that they had done a lot of the more dynamic stuff like in Zanzibar.
00:32:55You know, the bridges, the wheel, those types of things.
00:32:57Those people find those things exciting.
00:32:59So, something that we've done with this map in particular is we have added an energy shield in the middle.
00:33:19So, not only is it gorgeous, it blocks gunfire, it blocks projectiles.
00:33:26And what's really fantastic about this is, well, when you get into kind of cough in the middle of this
00:33:30map, it gets insane.
00:33:32I mean, it's like Thunderdome inside there.
00:33:33But what's really important about this is there are three control panels around the map.
00:33:37And when it comes up, players can basically activate this and they can provide cover in the middle for their
00:33:43teammates.
00:33:44Whether they're running around it or whether inside of it.
00:33:46And what that really does is it gives players just another really interesting tactical advantage that they can do.
00:33:50And it's just been fantastic to watch people hit the shield and then, you know, assault a big tower, assault
00:33:56a small tower.
00:33:57It's just been really, really exciting to see that type of stuff.
00:33:59And this is really, to go at a high level, this is the type of stuff that we're doing across
00:34:03all the maps, even though we haven't announced what the maps are yet.
00:34:05But you can expect to see this type of stuff.
00:34:07You know, really going, taking Xandibar and spreading that throughout, you know, kind of levels.
00:34:12As well as, you know, going just above and beyond things like plasma coils and those types of things.
00:34:16Really trying to up the interactivity and stuff in the levels.
00:34:18Awesome.
00:34:19Thank you, David.
00:34:20Thank you.
00:34:25I think I'd love to go right from there talking about how important it is maintaining, you know, everything about
00:34:31the core Halo 2 experience.
00:34:32I'd love to get right into talking about the sandbox and how you did that with the challenges associated with
00:34:38an updated engine working at 60 frames and stuff like that.
00:34:42Yeah.
00:34:42Yeah, I can speak to that.
00:34:47When we're out, do you have the?
00:34:48Yeah, it's right.
00:34:49Excellent.
00:34:49Okay, perfect.
00:34:51So when we're discussing the gameplay, what we're really talking about is the sandbox.
00:34:55And for those that aren't familiar with the term, the sandbox encompasses all the mechanics that form the core gameplay,
00:35:00really the heart of the game.
00:35:02Everything outside of the levels.
00:35:04So we're talking player movement, incredibly important in Halo 2.
00:35:08Weapons, equipment, and vehicles.
00:35:10Now, most importantly also, it includes all the game modes, variants, and related options.
00:35:14And that is something that we have really, really expanded upon.
00:35:17We've added a huge number of game modes and related game options.
00:35:20So really when all this stuff kind of comes about, we come up with our goals.
00:35:27And the goal for Halo 2 MP anniversary was to recreate the original H2 sandbox with targeted enhancements.
00:35:37And that's a very, very important phrase there is targeted enhancements.
00:35:40You heard me talk about this issue when I was running around Ascension.
00:35:43We took an incredible amount of care, not just recreating the sandbox and the levels in the game, but also
00:35:50vetting every single change, no matter how minor, that went into the game.
00:35:55And I think it definitely shows in the final product.
00:35:58I think all the play testers would agree.
00:36:01So out of the goals, to kind of speak more to your question, Andy, design pillars really come out of
00:36:08what those goals are, what that particular goal is I just talked about.
00:36:11And really, our design pillar can really be summed up in a very simple sentence.
00:36:18All of our design decisions must promote teamwork, tactics, and game mode customizability.
00:36:24It's really as simple as that.
00:36:26And everything that we do, every change that we make, whether it be in the levels or whether it be
00:36:30in the sandbox that we're talking about,
00:36:31everything gets tested against that goal, against those pillars.
00:36:35So there were a huge number of challenges, naturally, with recreating the H2 sandbox.
00:36:42We had to recreate everything.
00:36:45Everything is based on Halo 2 Retail Auto Update 3.
00:36:49So that was our base.
00:36:51And we had to recreate the movement behaviors.
00:36:54That's the speed, the jump.
00:36:56I know we spent weeks just trying to get the jump right, trying to get just that perfect apex for
00:37:01the lofty jump.
00:37:03You know, dual-wheeled.
00:37:04Very first thing we did, probably the first day of starting on the project, was we started implementing dual-wheeled.
00:37:11And I'd have to say, once dual-wheeled got in, that's when it really started to feel like Halo 2.
00:37:16Yeah.
00:37:16And it was a really neat day.
00:37:19First time I got dual-wheeled up.
00:37:21The Elite.
00:37:22The Elite is awesome.
00:37:23You know, we had to bring him back in.
00:37:25You know, this was a character we had to, thank you.
00:37:28Yeah, that's big.
00:37:33We had to add in this entire character that had not been in the game, you know, for quite a
00:37:36long time.
00:37:37As well as, you know, visually update him.
00:37:39And it really kind of fixed a lot of the issues that people had run into previously.
00:37:43And then, you know, the really big, the biggest thing is recreating the game modes and options.
00:37:47You know, that's a huge amount of work, as anyone will tell you.
00:37:49Just a huge, huge amount of work.
00:37:52So as far as kind of the decisions on improvements and additions, we really had to kind of challenge ourselves
00:37:58to find a way to improve Halo 2 multiplayer.
00:38:01You know, some would say, you know, it's perfect.
00:38:03And I agree with that to a certain extent.
00:38:06So we really did very targeted changes.
00:38:10And, you know, I talked about that before.
00:38:12And, again, I talked about how all that was vetted against our design pillars.
00:38:15Cool.
00:38:15One thing, Andy, that's really interesting to me about that, having been, you know, in charge of all these different
00:38:21things,
00:38:22these map designs and a lot of these game modes and everything else, it's just crazy.
00:38:27I've come to the conclusion that it's far, far more difficult to recreate something to this exacting standard
00:38:33than it is to actually just do it the first time around.
00:38:36Yeah.
00:38:36Because the first time around when I wanted to put a weapon down or change a spawn point or timing
00:38:40or anything, I just made the change.
00:38:41Now, these guys, every single change, they have to go back and think about the consequences and how it relates
00:38:47to my original, say, haphazard decision-making.
00:38:51And it's a monumental task.
00:38:53And I think, you know, I tell these guys all the time, I'm like, I don't understand how much, like,
00:38:58I didn't anticipate how much work this would be.
00:39:00But testament to the team that they're doing such an amazing job at it, and it's coming together really, really
00:39:05well.
00:39:06Absolutely.
00:39:07Yeah.
00:39:08Playtests are so much fun.
00:39:09Yeah.
00:39:11I think it really speaks to that point we talked about earlier about Halo 2 anniversary multiplayer being an upgrade,
00:39:17not just a remake.
00:39:17And I think the fact that David and you and your team are so in tune with what those changes
00:39:23mean to every aspect of the gameplay, I think, is important.
00:39:25And I know the fans are really going to appreciate that.
00:39:27Along with that, and talking about, Max, how much work is required, how important is testing?
00:39:32I mean, when we get builds here, you know, all the pro players back home and Frank O'Connor, when
00:39:37we're lucky, we're all playtesting every day.
00:39:39And it's incredible to see map geometry change, and how the sight lines tweak, and feedback coming in from all
00:39:44different areas, and then we see these maps evolve.
00:39:46How important is testing on your side?
00:39:48Oh, testing's critical.
00:39:50I mean, especially when you're trying to nail the feel of Halo 2.
00:39:53I mean, it is one of the, probably the most important thing that we do outside of actually implementing the
00:39:57game.
00:39:57Absolutely.
00:39:59And, you know, I was sitting here talking to some folks the other day.
00:40:01We were only a few weeks into, really, the project.
00:40:04Maybe two, three weeks.
00:40:05And we already had the core game up and running, and we had Ascension, a very rough version of Ascension
00:40:10we brought over, you know.
00:40:13And from that point, we started playing.
00:40:15And we have been playing every single day since that two or three weeks into the project.
00:40:19Sometimes twice a day, when we want to test both the sandbox and levels in the same day.
00:40:24But, I mean, that is what we have been doing every single day, and we'll continue to do that up
00:40:27until we ship.
00:40:28And in addition, on the 343 and Microsoft side, yourself and everyone else, you guys are testing.
00:40:34And between those two things, I think we have probably the most insane amount of test coverage that I've ever
00:40:39seen on a single project.
00:40:40Even on just our section of the game.
00:40:42So, it's been really fantastic.
00:40:44Yeah, you can ask Dennis.
00:40:45I'm testing probably eight hours a day and not doing anything else.
00:40:48Yeah, he's not joking.
00:40:49I mean, Andy's been one of the key people that, you know, the whole pro team actually that works at
00:40:53343 comes and they play regularly.
00:40:57Fantastic job.
00:40:57And the feedback is critical, right?
00:40:59Because there's a lot of those details that Max is mentioning trying to create is so difficult that these, you
00:41:05know, all the pro team and the hardcore fans out there, they know what those are.
00:41:09And so they can really point to where they exist and it really helps certain affinity kind of tune the
00:41:14map to make sure this feels like Halo 2.
00:41:16That's a rough job you've got, Andy.
00:41:18Oh, no.
00:41:18It's really tough.
00:41:19I'm surprised I still have the job.
00:41:21But I just write it off as testing each day.
00:41:23Just four v four matches on ascension.
00:41:25So, speaking of testing, we have just an outside witness.
00:41:29We have one of our lead testers in the audience on the project.
00:41:32Hey, Ryan, why don't you stand up?
00:41:33Woo!
00:41:34Yeah, Ryan.
00:41:35Woo!
00:41:36Ryan Fox.
00:41:37So, Ryan.
00:41:38Ryan, tell us.
00:41:39How often do we play test?
00:41:42Oh, man.
00:41:42We play test for an hour and a half a day for every single day.
00:41:47And we try to do at least one a day.
00:41:50We'll do 4v4 Magic Slayer.
00:41:54We'll play game mode.
00:41:55So, every single day.
00:41:57And it's not exactly the easy thing getting some of the people in there.
00:42:10Cool.
00:42:11Thanks, Ryan.
00:42:11Thanks, Ryan.
00:42:13Thanks, Ryan.
00:42:16I just want to say, at 343, we never actually have a problem filling up our play test.
00:42:20We usually actually have to turn some people away.
00:42:22It's been a problem lately, especially as it gets polished.
00:42:25That's good.
00:42:26Yeah, the last thing I'll say about that is just coming into the project after, you know,
00:42:30on the test side, just giving feedback from the community team feedback.
00:42:34Coming in several months into the project, when we fired up for the first time, I just,
00:42:37I mean, the Halo 2 jump is a good example across the board of how the game feels.
00:42:42And, you know, I think everyone's going to be pretty excited to get their hands on it.
00:42:46I'd like to, we have a little bit of time left.
00:42:48I want to move through a few more things and a few announcements.
00:42:51Let's talk a little bit about game types.
00:42:53Max, you talked before about Zanzibar and how One Flag CTF, you know, is perfect on that
00:42:59game type.
00:42:59And something that you and I talked about is how Halo 2, obviously, was the introduction
00:43:03of a lot of those round-based game types.
00:43:05That was, you know, never foreseen and not too common in console shooters.
00:43:11So let's talk a little about the game types and how big was that?
00:43:14Because there's, not only do they play so well, but there's quite a few one-sided objective
00:43:18game types within Halo 2.
00:43:19Yeah, I think, I mean, I'll let Mertz speak to the games.
00:43:24As far as the philosophy on that, you know, I'm a big guy that I really care about accessibility.
00:43:29It comes from doing a lot of the UI, the user interface and all that stuff.
00:43:33And I really want everyone to be focused on a single goal, all headed in the same direction,
00:43:38all on offense, defense, whatever.
00:43:39So that's kind of where that all came about.
00:43:41But Mertz, you want to talk more about what we're actually doing?
00:43:43Yeah, yeah.
00:43:44So you can see some of the returning favorites here.
00:43:46You know, again, we have brought over every single original game mode into the new Halo
00:43:522 anniversary, which is really exciting.
00:43:55And going back to kind of the goals and design pillars I talked about, we targeted a bunch
00:44:00of other game modes, too, that we wanted to add that really kind of fed into the whole,
00:44:03the spirit of teamwork, the spirit of tactics, and all that type of stuff.
00:44:07So Ricochet, we brought over Ricochet.
00:44:10It was one of the first things that we thought of, one of the first games we thought of to
00:44:13bring over from, in this case, from H4 into H2.
00:44:16And it just plays fantastic.
00:44:18Ricochet was incredibly fun in Halo 4, but now with dual-wheeled SMGs, with everything going
00:44:23on, and with kind of the movement speed, the more kind of deliberate, kind of, you know,
00:44:27just the more deliberate movement speed and everything, it's just really, really shown,
00:44:31I think, even more in Halo 2 than it did in H4.
00:44:35Something else that's really exciting is we have Race. Race is back.
00:44:39Woo!
00:44:41With a huge number of game mode options added to it.
00:44:44You know, I had Race in Halo 2, but I had to cut it, so I'm glad it's back.
00:44:48Yep. And that kind of goes back to a lot of the wish list.
00:44:51We kind of call it director's cut.
00:44:52That's kind of really how we treated this whole particular project, is treat it like a director's
00:44:56cut, almost like, you know, Halo 2.5 or Halo 2++ is really how we kind of really thought
00:45:01about it.
00:45:01And everyone's really kind of glommed on to that and really just been excited.
00:45:05And that's just what everyone has just been so excited about, is, you know, we're going
00:45:08to take Halo 2, which is fantastic, and do everything that we can to make it better.
00:45:12So, you know, another fan favorite.
00:45:14Not just a fan favorite, but one that was really, you know, created by the fans and made
00:45:18popular, you know, and is now, you know, formalized in Halo 2 multiplayer anniversary.
00:45:24So, SWAT.
00:45:26And here's one that I'm really, really excited about, Infection.
00:45:29So, this is old school Halo 2 Infection.
00:45:32You can swap out your weapons.
00:45:34You can do all types of customizations to it.
00:45:36We really went with old school Infection with this.
00:45:39And everyone's just been having an absolute blast with it.
00:45:42Cool.
00:45:42That's good.
00:45:46Well, thank you, David.
00:45:47I think you mentioned the director's cut.
00:45:49And that's, I think, if we want to, we're running close on time.
00:45:51But if you want to talk about both Max and David, some of the director's cut items that
00:45:55we do have on this list, on this right-hand side, are pretty cool.
00:46:00Yeah.
00:46:01You want to speak to this?
00:46:02Yeah, I can.
00:46:03Go ahead.
00:46:03Yeah, sure.
00:46:04So, yeah, like Annie said, we're running a little short on time.
00:46:07So, I want to get through this stuff pretty quickly.
00:46:08So, improvements and additions.
00:46:09We talked about, you know, modernizations and, you know, everyone always gets a little scary.
00:46:13That means we're going to pull stuff over from other games or, you know, other titles.
00:46:17Modernizations, thus, just means really taking advantage of a lot of stuff that we have now
00:46:19that we didn't have 10 years ago.
00:46:22Improved spawns.
00:46:23You know, more robust feedback systems.
00:46:26You know, and really more power to customize game modes than we ever did before.
00:46:30I want to talk a little bit about weapons.
00:46:32So, really, I think a really good example of one of those director's cut or one of those kind
00:46:37of wish list things was the assault rifle.
00:46:39The assault rifle was, you know, wasn't in the multiplayer game.
00:46:43So, what really worked out well with that was we felt like we were really lacking.
00:46:47You know, when we go back and get all this feedback that I talked about, we looked at
00:46:49the weapons and went, you know, we could really use some more mid-range weapon options.
00:46:53And the assault rifle just slid right in there.
00:46:55In fact, the assault rifle is actually on Ascension in the big tower on the second floor.
00:47:00And it's just worked out really well to really give players something to kind of balance
00:47:04against the BR and the sniper rifle and even the SMG to a certain degree.
00:47:07So, something else that's kind of really exciting is we've tuned the Magnum.
00:47:12We've tuned it across all the weapons as well as in dual wield.
00:47:16And tuning just means we've upped the damage a little bit.
00:47:18And it's actually really, really worked out well.
00:47:21It's worked out really well.
00:47:24Really well.
00:47:28And we know it's been working great when we see people actually select that option in weapon sets.
00:47:34When people actually use it, we know it's working great.
00:47:36Yes.
00:47:37Yeah.
00:47:38We're just going, man, people aren't using the Magnum.
00:47:39What can we do?
00:47:40Jump to the Mongoose.
00:47:40Yeah, let's jump to the Mongoose.
00:47:42So, one thing I want to talk about is the Mongoose.
00:47:45So, the Mongoose was a major feature that Max wanted in Halo 2.
00:47:49And we put it in.
00:47:50And it's just been fantastic to have the Mongoose running around in Halo 2.
00:47:54There's some additional vehicles and stuff that we're going to talk about, I think, at a later date, Dennis.
00:47:58Yeah.
00:47:58Yeah.
00:47:59But I think there is one that I definitely want to talk about now.
00:48:03Did you want to show this one?
00:48:04Yeah.
00:48:04You want to show something?
00:48:05Let's show this one.
00:48:06Tell us a little bit about it.
00:48:07Tell us a little bit about it, David.
00:48:09So, what's better than a Mongoose?
00:48:14A Mongoose with guns.
00:48:16Yep.
00:48:17Nice.
00:48:18Yeah.
00:48:23We talk about changes that have got to be an overwhelming success.
00:48:26I can think of no other change than adding guns to the Mongoose.
00:48:30That's true.
00:48:31Plus, it has, like, the coolest name ever.
00:48:34And speaking of incredibly successful additions, it's kind of hard to play.
00:48:40Gungoose CTF without a Gungoose.
00:48:42So, that's a new game mode that we're doing.
00:48:44Something completely new to Halo no one's ever done before.
00:48:46You are basically on a Gungoose and you're playing CTF.
00:48:49And it's one of the, I think, one of the most fun experiences that I've had in any Halo game
00:48:54ever.
00:48:54It's insane.
00:48:55Especially when you see a fleet of gun geese flying over a hill.
00:49:00So, it's just been really fantastic.
00:49:02Really fun.
00:49:03Awesome.
00:49:04Just shooting that around is pretty awesome.
00:49:06And what it adds to the sandbox is really great too, right?
00:49:08Because you have the ghosts and the hogs with gunners running around.
00:49:11But to see people kind of lone wolfing and just flying over hills on the Gungoose is pretty awesome.
00:49:17And you can still have the passenger on it.
00:49:18So, you've got effectively three guns, maybe four if you'll do it willing.
00:49:22That's right.
00:49:23It's awesome.
00:49:24Yeah.
00:49:25You're welcome.
00:49:26It is definitely a fun vehicle to use.
00:49:28Something I didn't get to cover that I wanted to quickly cover is what role concept plays in the design.
00:49:35For example, we just saw a little sketch of the Gungoose on a project like this where Halo 2, like
00:49:40we said, is so defined.
00:49:41Of how that multiplayer needs to play, how does concepts start playing in when you want to bring in new
00:49:45things?
00:49:48In terms of concept, you know, really after design and art get together and we kind of come up with
00:49:53our general visuals and our themes and stuff, we really just start concepting right away.
00:49:58It's incredibly important.
00:49:59It's hugely integral.
00:50:00Yeah.
00:50:01We actually, yeah, I mean we don't do anything art wise without concepting it in some form or fashion these
00:50:06days, which is radically different than the way we used to do it back in the day.
00:50:09But I think you might be trying to lead up to something.
00:50:14Maybe we should show some.
00:50:15What's this?
00:50:16These are some of our concepts.
00:50:18So what you guys are seeing here is a piece of concept from a map we haven't announced yet.
00:50:23Any ideas what map?
00:50:24Yeah.
00:50:24Has anyone guessed it yet?
00:50:26What?
00:50:27Yell it if you know it.
00:50:28Come on.
00:50:29I can't hear you.
00:50:30That's right, guys.
00:50:31That's right.
00:50:33Yeah.
00:50:42That's nice.
00:50:45That was a setup.
00:50:46Yes.
00:50:49I mean we had to have some place to drive the gun geese.
00:50:52That's right.
00:50:52A gun geese.
00:50:53Lots of gun geese.
00:50:54That's right.
00:50:55Coagulation is officially announced as one of the remastered maps, the second announced
00:50:59remastered map.
00:51:00It will be available in Halo 2 anniversary multiplayer and I think David will have a lot
00:51:03more to share on kind of the reimagining of Coag later this summer.
00:51:07We can kind of dig into everything that's being done to that map.
00:51:09I think fans are going to like the new way that it plays.
00:51:12We've only got about eight minutes but I'd love to do some quick Q&A.
00:51:15If any of you might have questions, you can line up at the microphones and we can get to
00:51:20those quickly.
00:51:24And if a guardian wants to help us get that started right away, that'd be awesome.
00:51:36Oh man, that's the line.
00:51:40Good stuff.
00:51:47Hi.
00:51:48Hey.
00:51:49So will we be able to use different game sandboxes with different levels?
00:51:53So like match Halo 2 sandbox with like Halo 3 maps?
00:51:58No.
00:51:59So the answer to that question is no.
00:52:01The games will play as they originally played, so you won't be able to take one sandbox and
00:52:05apply it to another.
00:52:06But you'll be able to enjoy the games as they existed when they launched.
00:52:13Cool.
00:52:14I was wondering, are you guys going to be bringing back a Forge world to the game and if so,
00:52:19is it going to be like multiple maps or one big map?
00:52:22You mean specifically Forge world within…
00:52:24Or like a Forge game mode in it.
00:52:27Yeah.
00:52:27So Forge is…
00:52:28Dennis can correct me if I'm wrong, but Forge is confirmed for Halo 3, Halo 4, and Halo 2
00:52:31anniversary.
00:52:32So you'll have all the canvases that you had.
00:52:34Thanks, man.
00:52:37Awesome.
00:52:37Thank you.
00:52:38It's a huge deal.
00:52:39I mean, this is the first time people will be able to Forge in Halo 2, the Halo 2 sandbox.
00:52:44And when combined with all the game options and everything we've done, it is just really
00:52:48an enhanced experience.
00:52:49It's fantastic.
00:52:49I didn't know we were talking about that.
00:52:52Well…
00:52:52We are now, right?
00:52:54Yeah.
00:52:55But yeah, so any canvases that you remember in Halo 3 and Halo 4 will be available in the
00:53:00Master Chief collection as well.
00:53:02Yeah.
00:53:03Hey.
00:53:04Hey.
00:53:05My favorite thing was the Easter eggs in the campaign in Halo 2, like the scarab gun.
00:53:09I was wondering if things like that were going to be coming back.
00:53:12Yeah.
00:53:13So definitely.
00:53:14The existing Easter eggs are there and I think Max is…
00:53:18So I like these new achievements that we're thinking about too.
00:53:20And it might be kind of interesting to think about maybe we should have some achievements
00:53:23based around those Easter eggs as well and maybe some new ones.
00:53:26Yeah.
00:53:27That would be a good idea.
00:53:29Something we should think about, Max.
00:53:31Something we should think about.
00:53:33Hey.
00:53:34Oh.
00:53:35Hey.
00:53:36One of my favorite parts about the Halo games is that you have the ability to customize your
00:53:42own Halo Spartan.
00:53:44And I know in Halo 1 you can only choose one color but Halo 2 and 3 are similar and
00:53:49Halo 4
00:53:49has a bunch load of armor.
00:53:51How is that going to work across all four games seeing that all customizations are pretty
00:53:57different?
00:53:59So that's a great question and I'll get back to the idea of what the unified experience
00:54:05that we're thinking about for this game is.
00:54:07We basically want to bring together customization in a really interesting way for this particular
00:54:13game.
00:54:14However, the multiplayer experience and a lot of the customization that feeds into that,
00:54:18we're going to be talking a lot more about that at Gamescom so we can have more to reveal
00:54:22at that time.
00:54:23Thank you.
00:54:26Hey.
00:54:28Regarding the cancel button in Halo 2, are combos like BXR and BXB going to be in?
00:54:35Yeah.
00:54:35So the experience as Dennis said is largely as you remember it.
00:54:40And like David said, so post auto update 3 for Halo 2, what that means is your melee
00:54:46damage is higher, your plasma grenade times are shorter and everything like you remember
00:54:49it.
00:54:49So in Halo 2 Classic we will have things like the button combos but in Halo 2 Anniversary
00:54:54those won't exist.
00:54:59This is from the top question on Reddit from the user ToonZova.
00:55:04Hey ToonZova.
00:55:06Will there be a bigger Forge budget in Halo 3 for an anniversary?
00:55:11I don't think we're talking Forge just yet.
00:55:13Yeah, we'll talk a little bit more about that most likely at either San Diego Comic Con
00:55:18or Gamescom.
00:55:18All right.
00:55:19Thanks for asking.
00:55:23Hey.
00:55:24How's it going?
00:55:24Hello.
00:55:25Hi.
00:55:25One of the favorite things I liked about Halo was the fact that you guys do have like
00:55:30an extended universe.
00:55:30So how is it going deciding that we're going to go into the Arbiter's back story?
00:55:36I'm sorry.
00:55:37I didn't hear.
00:55:38Oh, you're good.
00:55:39How is it tying into the Arbiter's back story and the larger fiction associated with
00:55:43the entire Master Chief collection?
00:55:45Ah.
00:55:46So for terminal videos, you will find out a little bit more about the Arbiter and there's
00:55:51also some cool links to Halo 5 in there.
00:55:54You know, I mean, I hate going into too much detail, but there's a lot of really good information
00:55:58there, a lot that you don't know that you're going to learn.
00:56:01Cool.
00:56:02Thank you.
00:56:02Hey, what's up?
00:56:03Hi.
00:56:05So I know it's a few years in the future, but will the anniversary theme that you guys
00:56:10are having, will that continue into Halo 3 or future Halos?
00:56:13Or is it going to stop at Halo 2?
00:56:15I think right now we're just focusing on Halo 2 Anniversary and a lot of other projects,
00:56:19Halo 5 Guardians and everything else apart.
00:56:22So right now just that focus is on Halo 2 Anniversary.
00:56:24Don't forget though, I mean, these games are running at 60 frames a second and that's
00:56:28a huge, huge change.
00:56:30To really see it in motion, I think, is pretty amazing.
00:56:33And a lot of these games really look beautiful when you see them on the Xbox One running
00:56:36at that frame rate.
00:56:37So I think you'll appreciate the up-res feel of all the games actually.
00:56:43We've got time for probably one or two more.
00:56:46All right.
00:56:49By any chance, will Theater Mode be coming back?
00:56:53Yeah.
00:56:54Yeah, go ahead.
00:56:54Do you guys want to take this?
00:56:55Theater Mode, yep.
00:56:56It is going to be coming back where it existed before.
00:56:58You'll be able to use it again.
00:57:00Thank you.
00:57:03I think this is going to be the last question.
00:57:05If you guys do have any questions for us, you can swing by our booth.
00:57:09The 343 and Halo booth at 1.30.
00:57:12We're going to have a panel signing where we're all going to be hanging out.
00:57:15You can ask us questions.
00:57:17You can get a free limited edition poster that you can only get there.
00:57:20And so this will be the last question.
00:57:21But if you have more, please swing by and say hi to us.
00:57:24Oh, yeah.
00:57:25So one of my favorite things about Halo Anniversary, the first one,
00:57:29was that the cutscenes were complete reskinned.
00:57:33They were in different models.
00:57:34And so you mentioned how you're working with Blur to make, like,
00:57:38what we saw in the trailer was it's not the exact same cutscene.
00:57:43It's kind of redone.
00:57:44But will there be an inclusion in the game of the reskinned cutscenes?
00:57:48Or are you only doing the Blur stuff?
00:57:51So for Blur, everything that they're going to be showing is going to be pre-rendered.
00:57:55As for the original, like, essentially the exact same cinematics,
00:58:00but using updated models, that won't actually exist.
00:58:05So it'll only be the classic cinematics,
00:58:09and then you'll have an awesome pre-rendered version
00:58:11that's going to be, like, cinematic quality.
00:58:12It'll feel like a movie to you.
00:58:15Thanks.
00:58:16So I want to thank Rooster Teeth.
00:58:18I want to thank everyone here up on the panel.
00:58:21Thank you, everyone.
00:58:22Thanks for coming.
00:58:23Really appreciate it.
00:58:24Thank you, guys.
00:58:25I want to thank all of you for joining us,
00:58:27and we'll see you soon.
00:58:29And also, if...
00:58:30Also, a certain affinity has a booth at the show.
00:58:33We're launching our game.
00:58:34And you've got a game.
00:58:35You've got a game.
00:58:35Yep. Age of Booty Tactics.
00:58:37So come by.
00:58:38Check us out.
00:58:39Well, thanks, guys.
00:58:51I have had many names in this long war.
00:58:59The humans knew me as Destroyer.
00:59:05For the Covenant, I was Supreme Commander.
00:59:12The prophets named me...
00:59:15Arbiter.
00:59:18And your master chief calls me...
00:59:21Friend.
00:59:32How well do you know your friend, human?
00:59:36And what will you call me when you learn the truth of what I have done?
00:59:44So...
01:00:00Eno, we don't take my...
01:00:00Thank you everyone for attending the 343 Industries panel.
01:00:04They do have some posters for you guys just out the far doors where you see the big bank of
01:00:08doors if you'd like to pick one of those up.
01:00:10They are also doing a signing
01:00:12of all the panels that you saw on the panel today
01:00:14down at their booth
01:00:15We would encourage you to attend and go meet these nice folks
01:00:18Thank you again for attending
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