Halo: Master Chief Collection preview

Halo 2 is getting a full HD redo, all the rest have been boosted up

In the recent spirit of revamping games, Bungie are releasing the Master Chief Collection – all four Halo games so far, retouched and renewed for next gen. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2 Anniversary, Halo 3 and Halo 4 will all come in one package along with their DLC and Halo: Nightfall, a new TV series based on the game.

There’s not very much to say about these. Halo 2 is getting a full HD redo, all the rest have been boosted up – Halo 3 runs at 1080p and 60fps – and otherwise it’s the same games you’ve played already, with better looking cut scenes. A fair bit of coverage has picked up on the remastered Halo 2 maps, including the popular Lockout – hopefully spicing up your multiplayer experience.

In a similar vein to Resident Evil’s upcoming makeover, and the strange strange Hatoful Boyfriend, there’s something in the air that’s telling everyone to care about the looks, who cares if it’s the same old content? It’s not about the personality; it’s about the highlights.

But, in fairness, that’s not the end of the Master Chief Collection – if you get yourself a copy, you’ll also get one of the first Beta codes for Halo 5: Guardians, which is a bit more interesting.

And something else new, though slightly scarier, was another look at the Gamescom announced Halo Channel – an app for the Xbox One based entirely around the Halo world, running competitions, news, pro-streams and episodes of the new TV series Nightfall. You’ll also be able to gain points and experience in the game from watching shows on the channel.

Nightfall is assumably a show somebody somewhere will watch – it does have Ridley Scott as (what is usually the nominal position of) Executive Producer – so maybe there’s a chance it won’t go down the terrible road that TV shows and films made out of games usually do – metacritic scores rarely reaching past the 30s.

Remember Final Fantasy? Yeah… so do we. Why can’t they just make an awesome BioShock movie and be done with it?

Halo: Master Chief Collection is released on 11 November 2014