Question for gamers


In anticipation of Halo: Reach, I've been thinking about what it would be like to play all four games in chronological order. After Reach, the quality of the graphics in Combat Evolved would seem pretty poor in comparison. Also, I've often wished that the first game supported widescreen, because those black bars are kind of annoying. Not to mention that Halo 2, being an original xbox title, is no longer supported by xbox live, and the first game never was. So here is what I'm thinking could be done with Halo CE and Halo 2:

Update the graphics so that they look as good as Halo 3, or even Reach, and be HD-ready.

Add achievments.

Allow online multiplayer (with matchmaking) that uses the games' original maps.

Leave the gameplay totally unchanged, with the exception of making the controls consistent with the later games (reloading/swapping with the bumpers, etc.) No equipment or Kinect features or any other BS shoe-horned into them.

I'm not suggesting that these changes are necessary; I love the games the way they are. Nor will these hypothetical games download a patch into your 360 that will make the original discs unplayable. All I'm saying is that these two titles stand head-and-shoulders above the rest of the original xbox games, in terms of popularity and love from the gaming community. Goldeneye is being updated graphics-wise for the Wii, so would it be such a bad thing to release Special Editions of these games that take full advantage of the xbox 360's capabilities?

If such upgraded versions were to be produced, would you buy them? I imagine that the process of remastering the games would not be too costly, since they would basically be taking an existing engine and tweaking it to fit the older games, plus re-rendering the cutscenes. Therefore, it is entirely possible that the new games would cost $20 or $30 and still be profitable.

What do you think?

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[deleted]

I know, but Microsoft owns the Halo franchise (via 343 Industries) and perhaps Microsoft Game Studios could handle the remastering.

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The post never said anything about Bungie. They probably wouldn't want to do it anyway, but I'm sure Microsoft will eventually. I think it'd be great because the gameplay of Halo CE was much better than any of the sequels, and I'd love to have a chance to play it over Live.

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Just as an update for this thread, apparently we're going to get a remastered version of Halo: Combat Evolved in time for Christmas. No word yet about a physical retail release or just a download.

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