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Halo 2: Anniversary won’t be running at 1080p afterall

When Microsoft announced the Halo Master Chief Collection at E3 earlier this year, it made every effort to hammer home the fact that all of the games would run at 1080p, 60 frames per second. However, it turns out that the development team has been running in to issues with Halo 2: Anniversary and as a result, the resolution has had to be scaled back a bit for the campaign mode.

Speaking with IGN, 343 Executive Producer, Dan Ayoub, confirmed that full 1080p resolution with 60 frames per second, was proving a challenge to reach due to running two separate graphics engines at once. The Halo 2: Anniversary campaign will be running at 1328×1080 rather than 1920×1080- which is actually slightly fewer pixels than 1600×900.

2679008-sdcc-2014-halo-2-anniversary-cinematic-the-arbiter-jpg

As you can imagine, some fans are a bit disappointed by this news, which is why Halo development director, Frank O'Connor, took to NeoGAF to explain the decrease in resolution:

“Halo CE Anniversary is running Xbox 360 fidelity assets at 1080p with some rendering and lighting improvements. H2A is running higher res textures, geo, characters and animation AND running the OG engine at the same time.”

All other games in the Master Chief Collection with run at 1080p with 60 frames per second.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: 1328×1080 is actually slightly fewer pixels thank 1600×900. If the game didn't run both old and new graphical engines at once to allow users to switch between the two at any time, the game would likely run at a higher resolution. Do you guys think the graphical switch feature is worth the hit to resolution?

Source: IGN

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18 comments

  1. Would love to see this on PC!! I wish Microsoft would start getting their exclusive xbox titles also developed for PC also…. it would be a good way to help keep consumers on PC’s instead of joining the Mac fan boys.

  2. Very few run games on a mac, that’s not an issue. The growth of Linux amongst gamers would be a bigger concern for them, especially with SteamOS around the corner

  3. I found the graphical switch feature in the 360 version of Halo Anniversary to be pretty superfluous, a pointless novelty. If you are playing the visually updated version, then that’s a big part of why you’re playing it, 343 were too enthusiastic for the nostalgia factor. They should have just ditched it for Halo 2 (the weakest game in the series by far, anyway, at least as far as campaign is concerned) if it was going to be causing problems with performance.

  4. I’d definitely buy it on PC, and I have all the originals (barring Halo Wars, wasn’t interested). I already have Halo CE on PC (which was great back in the day, if not very well optimised – MP was great fun).

  5. Disagree, Halo 2 was by far the best of the series, and it continually rolled downhill after that game.

  6. Jonathan Proxci Wright

    343 is so incompetent. This is a disgrace. If these “next gen consoles” were actually “next gen” they would be able to run everything at 4k. The hardware and the developers are just absolutely pathetic. It blows my mind how the consoles can’t run games at 1080p, despite low end pc hardware from 4 years ago being able to do it easily. Anyone with a copy of the dx11 reference book could get is running at 1080p on PC. Consoles are the biggest scam. Halo needs to come to pc where it belongs.

  7. hello dave.

  8. Hi Lizi

  9. its not runing at 1080p because that particular game is runing 2 graphixs engings if it was runing one it would be 1080p the same as all the other games l2r

  10. WTF DID A JUST READ…

  11. This article is a disgrace to journalism everywhere. Instead of reporting on the many cool new aspects of the game that sprung from IGN’s article, you singled out the only controversial item in the whole report, something that IGN narrowed into a small paragraph in the extra info section that was invited l included for the sole purpose of reporting the entire story. Instead, here you are using that small section to fan the flames on the “resolution craze” that has every other gamer going ape sh*t as click bait.

    As for the question you asked at the end, yes I wholly believe that the trade off is worth it. As much as MS wants to get people ready for Halo 5, this is really a HUGE way of saying thank you to the fans. It’s fanservice at its best. Allowing players to switch back into classic mode at a whim is the epitome of nostalgia, nostalgia that is hard to find nowadays. Simply re-playing the old games show the technical cracks of a decade old game. Now it feels exactly how we all remember it and plays smoother than ever. Absolutely worth it.

  12. 343 Industries incompetent? They are currently one of the most beloved developers in the business. The sheer amount of love, admiration, and respect they have for the series is radiating from everything they do for Halo! If you can’t comprehend that then look at the swaths of content and personalization option that come with the game. It’s the definition of having your cake and eating it too. Try reading things other than click bait meant to get you riled up and you might get it through your ignorant skull that the MCC is one of the greatest deals to come across gaming.

    The MCC/”next-gen” a disgrace? The MCC is one of the highest quality games to come out in recent memory. “Next-gen”? That’s an antiquated term. We’re in the current gen. There are exactly zero natively 4k games out now and coming out in the near future. For now it’s a matter of upscaling. It blows my mind how you can’t see that consoles are systems for the masses, i.e. they gotta be cheap. If High-end PC’s were best option then everyone would have one. Find a way to bring high-end specs, unparalleled support and optimization, all on a budget and still have it move 15 million units in a single year and then come back to me. By reaching that many people, it bring forth the capital necessary to invest in more and better quality projects. Have fun playing Forza, TLoU, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, Bloodborne, Quantum Break, Gears, and yes, Halo, on your godly PC gaming rig.

    /rant

  13. we found the console peasant. lynch him boys.

  14. Big words for someone with no reading comprehension. Incompetent because they made a game that runs 2 engines in parallel and giving you the option to switch between them at ANY point in time? Yeah, sounds like you have all the arguments right.

  15. If the MCC is one of the ‘highest quality games to come out in recent memory’ for the consoles then it’s worse than I thought for you guys. I could, have, and will continue to build PCs that outperform the consoles for the same price or cheaper, because unlike previous generations of consoles these are not loss leaders – i.e., they aim to make a profit on the hardware. Before the release of the XB1 at £430 I built a particularly nice gaming machine for my wife for £430 including the gaming monitor, and it still beats both consoles in performance, plus it looks fantastic and is obviously more versatile; but I’ve built many comparable machines before and since. The very reason that game devs aren’t developing for higher resolutions is *because* the consoles can’t play them. Unfortunately, the rest of us get brought down by the outdated and inferior console capabilities.

    PCs are the best option. This is a fact, not a theory or an opinion. On any scale: compatibility, price, potential, exclusives, games in general, performance, fun – they beat the consoles. The only reasons that people buy consoles are brand loyalty, the meagre exclusives, and primarily misinformation.

    Oh, and have fun playing the well over 5000 games and several *genres* exclusive to the PC. FYI, I play Mario Cart, Super Smash Bros, and Gears, and Halo 1/2 on my PC – good luck playing all of those on the XB1.

  16. Well, on PC we would just go back and play the old game… But whatever floats your boat I guess. The reason KG reported on this aspect is because it’s a tech website, and focussed on PCs. PC gamers and tech enthusiasts will find this interesting, because it indicates that 343 are struggling to implement 1080p for Halo 2, which should be as easy as pie on modern hardware – but it seems that the XB1 isn’t even up to that, for one reason or another.

    IGN is a console gamer website. It’s barely journalism at all, so it’s not surprising that they glossed over this. Their audience don’t want to know, and their masters would probably whip them for making them look bad.

  17. I disagree as well – Halo 2 was a good game. 4 was pretty awful, 1 was good, and 3 was the best in my opinion.

    Anyway, I agree, if they were struggling to implement 1080p with the graphics switch, they should have dumped the switch not 1080p. Then again, I guess console gamers are used to low res gaming (obligatory console dig).

  18. 343 is Incompetent ? They are not the reason. and 4 year old PC’s have much better hardware than the so called “Next gen” consoles. The Problem is that the consoles Hardware is outdated and will never be able to play 4K games. do u actually know what it would take to run 4K ? at least a Computer worth more than 2000$. Know your shit before u start talking.