In 343 Industries’ latest podcast, they answered some of the community’s biggest question about Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Find out all the details on the new upcoming game after the break!
In the 40 minute podcasts, 343 Industries tackled the questions that were raised after the Halo reveal at E3.
They first went into discussion of how they re-polished the Halo: Combat Evolved engine so that everything will work the same as the original, yet will look like a next-gen game at the same time. They did this because many of the popular Combat Evolved physics were not possible using the Halo: Reach engine. This also made another available feature possible. As shown at E3, if you press the ‘Back’ button on the 360 controller, you will see the old Combat Evolved engine, made in 2001.
Multiplayer, which is confusing everyone, was also talked about. They went into detail of how the maps were made and what importnat decisions they had to make so it will still feel like the original and be balanced at the same time. In order for them to do this, they integrated the multiplayer into the Reach engine. Another reason for this move is so they wouldn’t “interrupt the flow” of Reach players and the new Anniversary players in all the multiplayer aspects. Still a little confused, here’s an easy way to look at it:
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Disc
Campaign
Multiplayer (7 maps)
Only available in Anniversary
Redeem code
Will make the 7 new maps available in Reach
This will work similar to Halo 3: ODST, but instead of having the whole multiplayer experince on a separate disc. You will have a code to make the 7 new maps playable in Reach in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.
The developers in the podcasts did not state whether the 7 maps included in Anniversary will be available on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
These 7 re-made maps will include:
6 maps from Halo: Combat Evolved
1 Firefight map
The 6 competitive multiplayer maps were chosen to be re-made judging by what the community enjoyed the most in Combat Evolved and Halo 2.
In the podcasts, the developers also went into detail on how some of the maps will include small changes to be balanced with the Reach engine. They used armor abilities as an example of the changes and they emphasized that they are small changes that are needed.
The Firefight map will be a new experience and according to Frank O’ Connor, “It is the perfect place for a Firefight map.”
They also talked about how they put a lot of work into the achievements that will be available for Anniversary. They didn’t go into detail, but they did say they were going to be “great”.
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is a collaboration of three differnet developers:
343 Industries
Certain Affinity – Multiplayer maps in Anniversary
Saber Interactive – Engine in Anniversary
The developers in the podcasts also stated that the partners involved in Anniversary are ambitious and they’ll even “do this project for free.”
The most exciting thing in this podcasts was the announcement that Anniversary will have a hands-on demo at PAX Prime, which will be on August 26th, 27th, and 28th. This is all part of the HaloFest that will be at PAX. The podcasters also teased with other announcements that will be made at the show, but did not go into detail.
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary will be available on November 15, 2011 for the Xbox 360 as a 10 year celebration of the Halo franchise.
Subject: 343 Industries answers Halo Anniversary questions 
Mon Jun 13, 2011 4:05 pm