Missed halo 3 days, traveling to my friends house with an extra controller. Playing community map like fat kid, dig to China, prison break and duck hunt. Good time good time.😔🥺
Fun fact: in CE Anniversary the first guy you encounter in the game who gives you the tutorial after waking up, his remastered design is based on a deceased fan who was a three time cancer survivor, he said he wanted to live in Halo’s universe, he got his wish
They gave him the worst role what the fuck lol he dies in the first minute of the game . So out of place too, no disrespect to the fan who died. But I’m sure even he would agree his role was out of place
Blur Studios carried that remaster. Yeah, it was a big improvement, though. I'd give my first-born child to get a Halo film* animated by Blur. (*Assuming that moonbrains like at 343i don't write it.)
I agree, despite all the michael-bay style with sound design, and a few inaccuracies and a lack of overall minor details here and there, it is much more faithful. God i love their Elites. I love them. Seriously peak design.
A bit late to comment here, but I would argue that instead they slightly scuffed the audio (although this is a very minor nitpick, most people can ignore it and the rest of us can move past it without issue). I didn't even notice it myself until I replayed it again recently and noticed I was having a little trouble making the dialogue out, and after switching to "classic mode", I noticed the accompanying background music wasn't as loud. After that I noticed that the music had been turned up across the board throughout the game. Not really sure how to explain this, but if you have the game try switching the graphics while music is playing and see for yourself (maybe I'm just crazy)
God that thing is so glitched, I tried to 100 percent sync for the first time and got screwed by the Homestead Missions not getting checked off, FUCK THAT at least I beat it finally
My boyfriend had actually bought me this game not too long ago, and he’s taught me how to change the graphics once we started, he has great nostalgia for this game and I never had even played it and so far I’m having a great time I switch between anniversary graphics and classic and while I do like the anniversary graphics better because I can see but my boyfriend does have me switch to classic at very specific points that change the game completely. Im having a great time experiencing it for the first time and I do share a great appreciation for the old graphics even though I have a hard time traversing through because I have bad direction and I’m bad with being aware of my surroundings. Thanks for reading my Ted talk.
Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary made a breakthrough in video games by putting so much detail into everything that it actually becomes lifeless again. The original CE was great because the simplicity truly FELT alien and unusual. The nature textures were fine for the time, but if anything have retained a charm. The Mark V armor chief wore is still the most iconic and toughest looking.
I think part of it is the fact that a lot of time in development was spent on literally figuring out how to run 2 games simultaneously, which at the time was a new technology basically. And since the technology was already there for halo 2 anniversary, saber were able to do a way better job on art related aspects. That’s just my theory, as a college student studying animation and game design, it’s my dream to work at Saber lol.
@@DerDrecksack87You're not understanding what CE did for its time, and how far ahead it was of all its competitors. Yes its an old game, we have much better techniques now, but better graphics techniques can often fail to capture the same wonder and charm.
@@Challseus He said anniversary has the option to switch to the old graphics, and I don't know this because I haven't played it (I'm going to) but they might have the option to pair the new sound design with the old graphics.
This is an amazing breakdown of the problems with the remaster. For me, it was one of those things where it just didn't feel right, but I couldn't fully explain why. Thanks to this video, now I can, haha. Kudos.
Yea I never played halo combat master evolved, but I played the remake. I got bad eyes and the constant shift in brightness in between levels always confused me and made me have to go into my settings at some points. And the worst part is that the enemies always looks like walls. I don't want to be playing in space Vietnam let me see what im supposed to be shooting at!
The color of enemies matching backgrounds reminds me of action movies where two people are fighting in the dark wearing all black. So you can't tell them apart or tell what's happening. Which is now considered bad film making.
With this coming out during the Bayformer/Battle: LA/Battleship/COD at its peak/etc... era it's no surprise even Halo fell into the trap of "Gritty and grey means cool"
Well that’s the thing, it’s not always a bad thing. It is a disadvantage for games but it can make an enemy more interesting or stressful, even memorable, when well used. And in a movie it can be used as a sequence with a confusing intention.
@@badbeardbill9956 yeah everything can be done well, problem is that most people who know what they're doing avoid needlessly complicating visual fidelity when there are much clearer and more appealing alternatives, leaving people who don't know what they're doing to make these horrible decisions that end up stigmatizing shit like 7th gen piss filter and other stuff.
8:26 something to also consider is that the "classic mode" on MCC isnt even how the game truly looked. The fog looks SO rough on MCC compared to the original Xbox release
If I remember correctly, another studio (Gearbox or something?) made a PC port of Halo CE and all other versions of CE are based on that port. And they royally fucked up.
@@darassylmoniakam The remastered graphics were based on what they could see, not what the game was. Assault on the control room level, for instance, the roof of the huge empty space your pelican flew in from? Remastered graphics displayed the wrong situation up there because Gearbox messed it up lol. One of many instances. Let's not forget that with being able to compare the two visual styles, it sucks that the fidelity of the original is absolutely compromised and makes it look inferior in unfair ways. Then again, 343 knows about all this. Mods have it fixed relatively easily, yet half a decade goes by and 343 still hasn't tried to fix it?
@@JuiceboxCE SHUT UP. Stop wanting everything. they're not visual remakes. they're just ports. go play your broken mods and let the others enjoying the game as it is on the MCC.
Dude, I just played through this and kept switching back and forth trying to figure out how to summarize what didn't feel right. Your explanation is perfect!
As someone who personally knows an ex-Saber Interactive dev who also playtested Halo 4, CE:A’s development was more of a hellfuck than anyone on the outside could even think. Imagine being given around half a year to remaster one of the most popular video games of all time, with 343 giving you free Mountain Dew as you worked on the game instead of bonuses (I wish I was kidding), and your team is almost entirely composed of Custom Edition modders who all have separate takes and ideas for Halo and want to cram them in for what was supposed to be a simple remaster, culminating in ‘fuck we’re out of time just drag ‘n drop Reach assets in’ at the literal last minute because nobody could fucking work together consistently. THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is how you get A Combat Evolved: Anniversary. God I wish this project was never greenlit in the first place.
I used to fuck around with custom edition and my God, anyone who dealt with that community should know that it's easier to teach a seal to run a marathon than to get them to finish a project of a decent scale.
Please tell me the one who called himself Mr. Ifafudafi in the modding community was not involved on HCE:A at all. Also please tell me Masterz1337 (who I know personally) was also not involved. Neither of them should be allowed to touch Halo, the former is completely incompetent at running a project and the latter thinks every idea is the best evar and should all be included.
Are you sure? You know Halo CEA was developed in russia right? By a company that isn't owned by 343 or microsoft. That had made entire games before taking on halo combat evolved. Somehow I doubt this is an accurate description of its production.
Tuna Cat I can tell you as a software engineer this account is most likely entirely accurate. It’s been a nightmare anytime I’ve worked for a company that did subcontracting. They probably had 4-6 months to make this.
This is maybe 1/3rd true at best, and not at all why this happened. And 343 was NOT in charge of budgeting or anything financial. The problems stemmed from Bungie not giving 343 the source code for the games (later apologized for from Marcus Lehto), and the fact 343 was just transitioning from a multimedia franchise company to a game development, nobody had time or anything like that.
Halo Infinite has the look at the Halo CEA should have had. The landscapes and forerunner structures fit the theme of Halo CE. A remastering with Infinite's assets would be amazing.
As a newcomer to the Halo franchise, I played Halo CE: Anniversary with a friend who told me about the old graphics, and I had fun swapping between the old and the new just to see what had changed. While I enjoyed the game in the new graphics (and didn't really mind the overcomplications much), I immediately noticed the difference in tone, *especially* on the first Flood level.
@@mayflowwy where is your source? Is it a random RUclipsr? Is it this video? Because the only one saying this is Noodle. Marty didn't even say this. He said that his friends working on the Halo 2 anniversary remasters music and sound weren't allowed to talk to him specifically. And I haven't found any where or anyone stating otherwise. So if you're claims are true it should be easily verifiable, and I'd like to see the source. You know Marty? Marty O'Donnell? He composed a lot of childhoods. He's also the guy who was fired from Bungie for talking shit about Bungies publisher Activision for not handling his composition and creative vision for a Destiny trailer. Yes I'm sure Microsoft was clamoring to have someone leaking industry insider bullshit and talking shit like he's Colonel Sanders vs KFC because Marty didn't respect their decisions. The only credit he got for his work in the remaster credits is a mention they used "Legacy Scores" no name, no nothing, dudes career working on a franchise boiled down to two words, and no recognition. I'd be mad too. But I'm not going to sit here and pretend it's not a personal/business issue with Marty because a RUclipsr was either confused, misspoke, or lied and Noodle doesn't seem like he'd have any reason to lie, but regardless it's misinformation.
Seeing the shot of Certain Affinity's interpretation of CE at 12:00 makes me kinda excited for what they'll do with Infinite's upcoming game mode. They have a good feel for the franchise from a design perspective.
Fun fact: a lot of the anniversary concept art was done by Eddie Smith, who also did a lot of concept art for CE and Halo 2, as well as designing the Mark V for the canceled Halo movie.
I love how low detail and (boring) the level looks that introduces the flood. It's like saying the backrooms would be more terrifying if they had mist and spooky lights and things creeping around. What unnerves me about it is how lifeless it feels. You're going deeper and deeper into this massive alien structure light years from home in what feels like a forgotten corner of a facility built eons ago. Whatever purpose these rooms would've had it doesn't look like they were ever finished, and it makes me feel like I"m really somewhere I shouldn't be.
The biggest lighting problem I saw was not 343 guilty spark at least it had this shattered glass tank with green mist but no the biggest one I complain about is two betrayals I thought it was broad daylight out then old graphics revealed this pitch black starry sky I get to fly my banshee through well not anymore
The funny thing about Truth and Reconciliation is that the new graphics make the beginning of the level so bright that you can't even actually use the night vision on your sniper. It will make it harder for you to see. The night vision was the whole point of that level being so dark originally lmao
Wow, the animation in you're videos have so much charm, i can't help but feel a sense of delight when watching your videos, especially this episode, It takes me back to being 12 years old when i bought Halo: CE Anniversary when it came out for 40 bucks at gamestop, and how i always recalled sticking to the older graphics because of the seemingly stark advantage in combat (excluding dark sections), and it eluded me as a 5th grader why this was the case, but you're video, along with the Act Mans and Late Night Gamings explained why in detail, and motivated me to pick up and softmod an original xbox so i could experience CE like it was released in 2001, and wow! I am pleased to say that replaying the campaign with the og controller was an exhilarating experience for me, I was shock at how good everything looked on my 480i Trinitron CRT, i recommend to anyone who can get an og xbox to try out CE on one of these beastly consoles, anyways you're videos are an inspiration for me and I hope you keep making videos in well into the future!
It looks a lot like those shader mods you see for games where they went for "looking good" to the point where it fucks with the visual design. It seems more like they wanted a more dramatic comparison between the old and new then they wanted a good looking game.
I don’t play video games. I’m not good at video games. But Noodle brings up so many perspectives I wouldn’t ever think about while watching/seeing a video game. Helps garner appreciation for so much work people put into animation. Plus, he’s hilarious. That’s good enough for me
I actually have insight and know people who worked directly on this project. The development was only given 6 months (Thanks Don Mattrick) and 343 wasn't even ready to move into their new office when the project was given to them. Saber also had issues beginning the project because the techs that were leaving Bungie after the split from Microsoft refused to give over the source files for the games, so everything had to be reverse engineered as fast as possible. Marcus Lehto would later apologize for not knowing this happened until it was too late. So, 6 months, moving into a new office, creating their staff (343 was barebones at this point, not even enough staff to begin Halo 4 yet), and they had to reverse engineer the game from scratch WITHOUT proper Blam development tools that were used. This project was doomed from the start and the portrayal of 343 being bad and "not having played the games" is pretty unfair due to it. Microsoft absolutely fucked over everyone involved with this project, and bungie not handing over the source codes was a major part of the problem in this cyclone of awful bullshit. I'm surprised they were even able to get the game out.
I find it really hard to believe that Microsoft would have trouble getting source code from Bungie when they owned them and the fact that Microsoft is corporate in culture.
@@OmegaF77 I don't. Having personally worked on a remaster where getting anything from the original developers was like getting blood from a stone (despite them literally being owned by the publisher), what I'll say is you'd be surprised how easy it is to stall and avoid emails. Especially if the people you're trying to reach are balls deep in another project. Can't speak for what happened, only saying from experience you'd really be surprised at how disorganised these things are. Companies are less well-oiled machines and more like somewhat controlled chaos.
@@0lionheart Hm. As far as I know, Microsoft is also a major software company, you'd think they'd know that there is a possibility of this situation going down.
Halo 5 was my first Halo experience in like 2017. A month ago I finished the rest of the games. What an experience it was going back to 5 and wondering: The fuck is this?
I am so glad you talked about the geometry!!! I recently replayed this game and that damn geoetry kept screwing me over. Especially with shots and driving ghosts. How could not take that into account? So weird.
If you want an amazing example of the halo ce forerunner architecture updated right, you dont need to look any further than the terminal location on the last level of halo 3. It's located in a room that is a room that is a recreation of the pulse generator rooms on AotCR/ Two Betrayals from halo ce but (obviously) with h3 graphics. It looks fantastic 👍
I'd like to point out how important it is that blood splatter in Halo CE was important for balancing as much as AI color palette. Since the levels utilized big open areas with backtracking and moody dark corridors, the glow-in-the-dark splats of carnage are highly visible breadcrumbs of areas you have already been to. This way you can tell at a glance if you've been turned around or not. The Anniversary version not only makes enemies blend in with surroundings, but it makes glowing splats smaller and only linger for a few seconds before the blood "dries up" and stops glowing. The way the sandbox was set up also encouraged backtracking to find resources that you will need to pick up. Say you need bullet ammo. Well. Look for red bloodstains. off in the distance you see a tinge of red pixels. Approach it and you will find human corpses which always drop bullet ammo and supplies. If you need plasma pistols, you look for blue bloodstains since wherever a grunt died is bound to be a plasma pistol or needler. And wherever there is purple blood is bound to be plasma rifles and plasma grenades. It all comes together as something you can determine at a glance and is heavily ingrained in the sandbox. If you cannot see the massively cartoonish different colored bloodstains, you are at a severe disadvantage and are unable to make use of the very level design itself in the sandbox. A new player NEEDS this kind of visual information as they are learning which AI carries what supplies in the sandbox and how to find them as well as have viable breadcrumbs so that you don't get lost.
I don't even know that it dries up, seems like every type of splatter from every species is always damn near black unless directly looked at in light. Wish someone could mod it to make the blood more luminous like the original. That alone would be a huge difference.
Honestly that is so true; I literally always get lost on 343 guilty spark; spent 1-2 hours on it once trying to find my way out of the damn area since every room looks the same lol
Word of warning: Don't buy manscaped. Apparently they have a habit of overpromising just as large as their habit of accidentally maiming your testicles. They're largely over marketed cheap razors with ceramic blades as apposed to metallic ones, all the more likely to wear down and require replacements. Anyway, keep collecting that bag Noodle.
The unspoken rule of RUclips is: Everyone knows that the products RUclipsrs get paid to advertise suck (mostly), but we still support the RUclipsrs because they get to make a living out of entertaining us.
PJ CB I think that’s not the case with Harry’s razors though, I have a decent liking for their razors, though I’ve never gotten the trial box, I just get them at Walmart
@@RGInquisitor Yeah, as drew gooden once said: You can _not_ make a living off of ad revenue alone. You have to get creative. That might be merch, podcasts, patreon, tours, but also sponsorships. I'm always happy to see the youtubers I know and love get that kind of money, because it enables them to spend more time on making their videos even better.
John Marston Apparently Raycons actually arent that great compared to similarly priced wireless earbuds, check out DankPods’ video on it for an in depth description about it
Raycons suck. If it’s your first wireless earbuds you wouldn’t know though. Unfortunately they weren’t my first. Overpriced garbage. I’ve had 40 dollar earbuds with better sound quality, build quality and connection quality. Raycons are very susceptible to interference. Like say. When you run a microwave. Something that never happened on my half priced earbuds. Oh yeah the effective range is shit too.
Actually what's going on there is the IK bones that move the model got stretched straight, meaning that the MoCap wasn't polished enough to eliminate that glitch. They basically captured the movement and slapped it on without tweaking some of the errors like that.
Another issue with the remaster is it uses the Gearbox port as the base, and Gearbox botched much of the lighting and alpha (transparent) textures. Which you might think is a small thing, until you realize the bump mapping used through the entirety of the game is completely broken making surfaces and textures appear more flat than they're supposed to be. and transparent textures look fucking gross (covenant cruiser hanger shield, example) Which will give people the impression that Halo looks worse than it actually was.
Fucking THANK YOU! Between this issue and the mandatory usage of the remastered sounds and HUD, even Anniversary's Classic mode still doesn't really capture everything that the original was. Even some of the level scripts are still broken!
@Quentin Lecuva It kinda does when you know what it's supposed to look like, and it's depressing knowing that nobody is going to know what it should look like unless they play the original.
@Quentin Lecuva on a technical level, apart from the resolution and aspect ratio, the Xbox version of CE is superior in every way bumpmaps actually work without needing a dynamic light to be shown on them transparent objects like jackal shields react to gunfire, and other transparent surfaces don't look like they used a JPEG for the texture Fog isn't completely broken (Assault on the control room is a good example) and in the PC port, they used the wrong Captain Keyes model edit: and in anticipation to anyone who says that the 1st part isn't all that important, I will now remind you of what uses bumpmaps in Halo:CE 1. Forerunner walls (note that this is basically the scenery for about a fourth of the game) 2. The MA5B (also known as the AR) 3. The sandy ground in Truth and Reconciliation
16:55 You hit it right on the head. During lockdown my roommate and I decided to make our way through the MCC and we tried to stick with the original graphics as much as possible for CE. There were multiple times when we got lost or stuck (neither of us had played Halo in around a decade) and turning it to the new graphics made the level light up like a christmas tree so we could progress or see what was going on.
this is a combination of it being a bad pc port not true to the original (research this) and playing on an lcd display with horrible abilities to display blacks.. oleds black crush a lot too (not so much the newer ones)
The moment at 5:44 in the video is just the most genius thing. I can’t believe I just noticed he’s illustrating why separate voice acting and motion capture is hard.
tbh i adore the original halo graphics. are they super low detail and not that stylistically 'nice'? yeah for sure but i think it looks super neat anyway
@@bread9276 Really, do you have more info on that? Why would they do that instead of using the release version? How does the early dev build graphics differ from the final release?
@@El_Jefe_Maestro Basically the original port made by Gearbox used an earlier build that was already on PC instead of actually porting the game over from Xbox to PC, so there's a lot of lighting effects and assets that were unfinished. And 343 used the Gearbox port for Anniversary because modding it would be easier than using the Xbox version. So the MCC doesn't even use the final version of the game. Over time they fixed a lot of these issues but I'm not sure if they fixed them all. And the other games are littered with these issues too, but that's mainly because porting them to the MCC and PC broke a lot of stuff
As a new player, my first playthrough was on the Anniversary edition, and after landing on halo and pressing tab, I immediatly noticed just how more atmoshperic the old version looked, space vs. clouds, sun vs darkness. Though I kept playing on the Anniversary edition, because like Noodle said, the barrier of entry for the old version was too high, I can say that my second playthrough on the old version was actually better, the flood level in particular was much more foreboding, though at that point, the surprise of the flood had already been ruined, anyhow, yeah, I like the old shit better now and will recommend any friends who're about to play mcc to play the old version.
You should try to play the original Xbox version. The Anniversary edition is based on Halo PC, which has many of its own foibles that they didn't bother fixing and are carried over into the Classic mode of Anniversary in graphics and gameplay. You also don't get to experience the original sound design which, and I will disagree with Noodle, was both more iconic and better than the remastered ones (the Flood carrier forms used to explode with powerful "BANG!" and not a wimpy "splat", for example).
@@vomErsten I'm pretty sure mcc allows the old sound design on to a tee now. It was the most glaring thing for me when I originally played anniversary on 360 and the og sound effects couldn't be turned on. That all said, with compatibility, there should be old copies of Halo lying around that should work in modern xboxes
deadonarrival you’re more likely to find gold digging on the side of the highway. Buy the original gearbox version or abandonware it, get custom edition, get the refined / chimera mod.
Quentin Lecuva yes releasing accurate ports is clearly so laborious that fan mod teams can do a better job without Microsoft funding. 343 fanboys are Stockholm syndrome level insane.
15:24. Just finished CE Anniversary, never played original so in most instances I didn't notice anything too off, but that is something that very much stood out to me. I never used the flashlight at all, save in those escape pod corridors in the Pillar of Autumn. Found myself questioning why it was even included
When I started this I was like "I didn't think anniversary graphics were THAT bad." Then I realized I've never actually played through on anniversary graphics. I always played on classic graphics. I am shame
I love the little details like the chair becoming a couch after being destroyed but staying destroyed for 2 episodes or the laser beam marks from Ice cream sandwich or the robots hole in the wall
You forgot the part that because guns and characters were detailed and the levels weren’t, you could see weapons on the ground and what not. It’s a lot harder in Anniversary mode. Also blood elevator on the flood level.
That elevator was the breaking point for me.. i pretty much never use anniversary graphics now. Made an even easier decision due to the triple buffered vsync that locks the fps to 30 everytime it dips to 59 fps
When I was playing Halo CE on MCC PC, and had a shotgun. When I had grabbed an active camo the everything except the shotgun shell (in the chamber) had became transparent....
When I played CEA co-op with a friend we picked up on that straight away. He was playing anniversary graphics, I was playing classic, and I'd keep pointing out plasma grenades to pick up and he'd respond "where? there aren't any?" It's an interesting wrinkle in the "we don't want to change the gameplay" angle, since the visuals actually negatively impact the gameplay in terms of readability.
yeah ummmmm not gonna definitivley say anything but this might be noodle pointing out that nostalgia plays greatly into our memorys of the first time we played that level
Something I personally noticed was that the music in Halo anniversary and Halo 2 anniversary (on MCC) was way louder in the remaster versions than in the original. That could’ve been an issue on my end but idk. Also I could never find a way to change the music volume in MCC for the anniversary games. Again, probably on my end. I much prefer the originals of both games just because the music wasn’t ear splittingly loud.
Whenever I talk about how bad the Anniversary graphics are, I always bring up the collision mismatching. It's INFURIATING when the geometry is misaligned and I swear all the streamers on twitch trying CE for the first time get mad about their shots not being registered when in reality it was them playing on the newer graphics and not knowing... They just blame CE in general. I have seen this happen like a dozen times and it disappoints me that this is such a big issue.
I think this is a direct reason as to why Halo 2 Anniversary didn't use the Reach models for enemies. They made new models from scratch that lined up with the old models.
I remember this pissing me off beyond belief when they first released the remaster in 2011. I didnt even have a decent understanding of atmosphere in games yet, but I ended just sticking to old graphics by the second mission because I was tired of having my shots blocked by alien pines that had been completely restyled to look like normal trees. Its so bad. That even though I liked the update visuals at the time, I just didn't think it was worth it. The only reason I knew there was something wrong, is because I grew up playing the original releases with my cousin all those years. So I knew the hit detection was better than that.
@@MCSPARTAN501 well that and the reach models were massively out of date and low res..... so they couldn't really steal models from older games (as much) without people noticing, I still managed to find reuse of crappy assets for H2A...
I like the stark style forerunner buildings because forerunner tech is incredibly advanced even by covenant standards so it makes sense for things to look flashy and weird. But they could have improved on the lighting and shadow effects A LOT. Like for the Flood level, they should have made it low lighting with lots of shadows, almost to the point of having difficulty seeing; that would have made the level like a survival horror once the Flood showed up
Worst part of the remaster is that the original Halo CE engine used is the tampered with Gearbox port for the PC, you know... the one that was so poorly done that some pieces of code were just forgotten, deleted or tampered with that destroy ambient lighting, detailed textures etc etc... so you can't even play original CE in anniversary. Case in point: Shield flickering. Try shooting a jackal's shield, tell me if it gradually gets less blue and more red. Protip, it won't.
Kinda suprised that wasnt mentioned even though i never noticed that since i was first exposed to halo via the pc port and custom edition. Atleast they added native ultrawide support this time around so that i dont need a mod to toggle my fov so that that camera isnt zoomed in on the muzzle of my gun.
The worst offender is the loss of bump maps. Bump maps are a technique used that make textures look nicer, they still work in the gear box version, but only when the light source is the flash light, go ahead and try it, you can instantly tell the difference. With no bump maps, the walls and other surfaces look straight up ugly.
(Speaking as someone who works in 3D graphics optimized for games.) I'm glad this video was released. Because I've had mixed feeling about both versions. I played CE for the First time earlier this year and yeah, from a technical point, Anniversary looks great. But every time I stumbled upon a scene that I thought looked amazing while playing in the Original Graphics, I was curious to see how it holds up in the Anniversary release. And I have to agree that CE in it's original form looks a million times better. Because of the intent. Anniversary has no intent. Its only purpose is to be pretty. While CE tells a story. And in the end, the Story is what makes the game worth playing. Yes the gameplay is amazing, but truth is, without a goal, noone wants to play so if the story looks boring, much like Anniversary graphics, no one would care. At least I didn't while Playing Anniversary. CE is charming, welcoming and sometimes Foreboding.
@DCaladbolg To be fair, Saber Interactive had to deal with 2 buggy PC ports that weren't up to snuff with the Xbox originals due to the spaghetti code that Bungie wrote for the OG Xbox making it hard to port to PC along with the 2 ports being rushed as hell
You ever just listen to this again and realize that when the halo cover at the first 30 seconds comes up and the sound is when you go somewhere in the halo wars menu and than realize how much work is in this video.
One thing that makes me sad is how badly people need their graphics and CGI to be top notch. Theres no love for simple designs that can be used to make a good game cheaply...
11:36 Hehe. The inside of Covenant ships went from "Feel the might and militaristic ruthlessness of our technological superiority" to "Biatch our spaceships are _soooo_ much more *FABULOUS* than yours"
I like anniversary graphics, but even with original graphics the forerunner generators were hard to navigate until I noticed they literally put arrows on the ground since they knew people were going to get lost. It’s bad enough when even back then they thought circular structure was good. With anniversary it is how Halo 3 would’ve done it. I was even impressed with how anniversaries had actual glass.
@Quenny Lekiavil Funny because it was one of the first modern remasters from a game last decade so that new people could experience it, but then you have people complaining about modern remasters instead of making new games and then you have "Bioshock Remastered" which is just the game on PC ultra settings
Even today one of the best things Bungie does (DONT @ ME THAT ALL THE OLD DEVS LEFT THERE ARE STILL LOTS THERE ESPECIALLY ARTISTS LIKE SHEIK) is consistent cohesive visual design and style. Everything fits together and looks like it belongs in the world, like it has a purpose.
I realised how bad the remaster was when I couldn't navigate the levels at all with the new graphics. The solution was simply to switch to original graphics. That made my jaw drop. Pretty bad botching of the visual cues and style.
Personally, I love it when games are minimal in certain ways (Like the "Classic" graphics). Your brain isn't on sensory overload and you can properly appreciate the slight details that are there. The simple design also makes combat feel better as it's easier to focus on enemies and what's going on.
@@Sir_toaster As someone with 3k hours in arma 3, the enemies are supposed to blend in because of camo and their surroundings but it doesn't because objects etc don't render past 30 ft without tanking your framerate.
I replayed FEAR for the first time since I was a teen. And holy shit I had fun. It felt like everything with the ai and level design was thought out. The AI is impressive and still holds up today and even better than some AAA games.
My first video game I actually got into was Zelda botw and I can still appreciate halos original graphics as not a big deal because they still convey atmospheric just without the three millionth polygon
I had no problem with Anniversary. Being able to switch between graphics on the fly was amazing. If you want to see how not to do a remaster see Last of Us PS3/PS4. No game needs a remaster after 7 months.
Ahh, I did a playthrough on Steam just last week and the amount of times I had a "Goddamn these fucking invisible trees/rocks that don't line up with the original geometry" moment... It's nice to look back on :')
bro legit im 15 and im so happy my cousin made me play these games before newer games. cause now i appreciate a game based on the story and game play and not just the graphics
Im so glad i found this video I just started the Master Chief Collection and after about 5 minutes of the new graphics was just like "ohhh this isnt good" The only 2 things that I think it improved was the actual look of halo "from space" and the outdoor portion of the 3rd level (specifically the background).
Yes I know the audio is fucked. Looking into it
Is it fixed already? It’s fine for me
love you noogle
wgat
@@danielmoran3578Dunno, it's fine for me?
What
So much to say - so little time.
I laughed again.
I just wanna tell you your music is heckin great
Missed halo 3 days, traveling to my friends house with an extra controller. Playing community map like fat kid, dig to China, prison break and duck hunt. Good time good time.😔🥺
return of a legend
hmm the legend cames back....
*Noodle brings joy to Martin O'Donnell part 2*
Fun fact: in CE Anniversary the first guy you encounter in the game who gives you the tutorial after waking up, his remastered design is based on a deceased fan who was a three time cancer survivor, he said he wanted to live in Halo’s universe, he got his wish
The guy who gets killed by an explosion while leading you to the bridge????
I wondered why he looked so different and out of place.
@@NoSignofSanity :D
@Jack Cooper Plays No, god, please no
They gave him the worst role what the fuck lol he dies in the first minute of the game . So out of place too, no disrespect to the fan who died. But I’m sure even he would agree his role was out of place
I’m so happy that the Halo 2 remaster was so much better and they learned from their mistakes
Blur Studios carried that remaster.
Yeah, it was a big improvement, though.
I'd give my first-born child to get a Halo film* animated by Blur.
(*Assuming that moonbrains like at 343i don't write it.)
I agree, despite all the michael-bay style with sound design, and a few inaccuracies and a lack of overall minor details here and there, it is much more faithful.
God i love their Elites. I love them. Seriously peak design.
Yep, except for some areas which are way too dark, but it beats them being too bright
A bit late to comment here, but I would argue that instead they slightly scuffed the audio (although this is a very minor nitpick, most people can ignore it and the rest of us can move past it without issue).
I didn't even notice it myself until I replayed it again recently and noticed I was having a little trouble making the dialogue out, and after switching to "classic mode", I noticed the accompanying background music wasn't as loud. After that I noticed that the music had been turned up across the board throughout the game.
Not really sure how to explain this, but if you have the game try switching the graphics while music is playing and see for yourself (maybe I'm just crazy)
@@MetaKnightsApr no, i experienced the same
"You can't just drag and drop high res assets and call it a remaster"
Assasin's Creed 3 Remastered: *you called?*
dang, even the pros have to (edited) sometimes, very inspirational.
God that thing is so glitched, I tried to 100 percent sync for the first time and got screwed by the Homestead Missions not getting checked off, FUCK THAT at least I beat it finally
haha
I feel like Justin would be the coolest friend to have
Go away
I played a Halo game for the first time in my life this year. Someone called me a dork in the multiplayer and i havent played it since
Now thats big sad. Btw u gonna upload?
It's part of the experience
im so sorry you had that experience
halo has some damn good reload animations eh?
Shame I can't get roasted like I did in old H3 pre-game lobbies, made me the man I am today.
My boyfriend had actually bought me this game not too long ago, and he’s taught me how to change the graphics once we started, he has great nostalgia for this game and I never had even played it and so far I’m having a great time I switch between anniversary graphics and classic and while I do like the anniversary graphics better because I can see but my boyfriend does have me switch to classic at very specific points that change the game completely. Im having a great time experiencing it for the first time and I do share a great appreciation for the old graphics even though I have a hard time traversing through because I have bad direction and I’m bad with being aware of my surroundings. Thanks for reading my Ted talk.
I'm now a changed person
Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary made a breakthrough in video games by putting so much detail into everything that it actually becomes lifeless again.
The original CE was great because the simplicity truly FELT alien and unusual. The nature textures were fine for the time, but if anything have retained a charm. The Mark V armor chief wore is still the most iconic and toughest looking.
I think part of it is the fact that a lot of time in development was spent on literally figuring out how to run 2 games simultaneously, which at the time was a new technology basically. And since the technology was already there for halo 2 anniversary, saber were able to do a way better job on art related aspects.
That’s just my theory, as a college student studying animation and game design, it’s my dream to work at Saber lol.
The original CE sucks though, bunch of low poly flat surfaces especially in the Pillar of Autumn, everything looks blend & empty.
@@DerDrecksack87someone didn’t watch Noodle’s first Halo video
@@DerDrecksack87You're not understanding what CE did for its time, and how far ahead it was of all its competitors. Yes its an old game, we have much better techniques now, but better graphics techniques can often fail to capture the same wonder and charm.
i didn't know it was possible to get second-hand nostalgia
Lol yeah me too
Same
I’m about to try to figure out how to play halo 1.... immediately
@@Challseus He said anniversary has the option to switch to the old graphics, and I don't know this because I haven't played it (I'm going to) but they might have the option to pair the new sound design with the old graphics.
@@Challseus the halo master chief collection has every halo game in it
This is an amazing breakdown of the problems with the remaster. For me, it was one of those things where it just didn't feel right, but I couldn't fully explain why. Thanks to this video, now I can, haha. Kudos.
Walshy chad
The Legend who has good content has arrived amazing
YOUR HERE TO?
EAT Y'GREENS, BOY
Yea I never played halo combat master evolved, but I played the remake. I got bad eyes and the constant shift in brightness in between levels always confused me and made me have to go into my settings at some points. And the worst part is that the enemies always looks like walls. I don't want to be playing in space Vietnam let me see what im supposed to be shooting at!
The color of enemies matching backgrounds reminds me of action movies where two people are fighting in the dark wearing all black. So you can't tell them apart or tell what's happening. Which is now considered bad film making.
With this coming out during the Bayformer/Battle: LA/Battleship/COD at its peak/etc... era it's no surprise even Halo fell into the trap of "Gritty and grey means cool"
Well that’s the thing, it’s not always a bad thing. It is a disadvantage for games but it can make an enemy more interesting or stressful, even memorable, when well used. And in a movie it can be used as a sequence with a confusing intention.
@@badbeardbill9956 yeah everything can be done well, problem is that most people who know what they're doing avoid needlessly complicating visual fidelity when there are much clearer and more appealing alternatives, leaving people who don't know what they're doing to make these horrible decisions that end up stigmatizing shit like 7th gen piss filter and other stuff.
Okay Mauler
problem with sync audio/video
8:26 something to also consider is that the "classic mode" on MCC isnt even how the game truly looked. The fog looks SO rough on MCC compared to the original Xbox release
If I remember correctly, another studio (Gearbox or something?) made a PC port of Halo CE and all other versions of CE are based on that port. And they royally fucked up.
Agreed, the jackal shield, the wall designs, and many more. That’s where they fucked up bad.
@@darassylmoniakam The remastered graphics were based on what they could see, not what the game was. Assault on the control room level, for instance, the roof of the huge empty space your pelican flew in from? Remastered graphics displayed the wrong situation up there because Gearbox messed it up lol. One of many instances.
Let's not forget that with being able to compare the two visual styles, it sucks that the fidelity of the original is absolutely compromised and makes it look inferior in unfair ways.
Then again, 343 knows about all this. Mods have it fixed relatively easily, yet half a decade goes by and 343 still hasn't tried to fix it?
@@JuiceboxCE SHUT UP. Stop wanting everything. they're not visual remakes. they're just ports. go play your broken mods and let the others enjoying the game as it is on the MCC.
The only thing that I really don’t like about the anniversary graphics is how freaking useless the flashlight became
I love how the carpet still has burn marks from the vr episode
noodle and attention to detail, cant have one without the other
Don’t forget the burn mark under the couch from when he threw the grenade
Official NCU Lore (Noodle Cinematic Universe)
Dude, I just played through this and kept switching back and forth trying to figure out how to summarize what didn't feel right. Your explanation is perfect!
holy shit your recolour of the flood level interior looks so damn good
Noodle: What's the purpose of a remaster?
Me: M O N E Y
Bless Your Soul
Infinite: M O N K E
Muh knee
Hmmm, it almost seems as if capitalism is the way to make that bag.🗿
You work for disney or sumthin
As someone who personally knows an ex-Saber Interactive dev who also playtested Halo 4, CE:A’s development was more of a hellfuck than anyone on the outside could even think.
Imagine being given around half a year to remaster one of the most popular video games of all time, with 343 giving you free Mountain Dew as you worked on the game instead of bonuses (I wish I was kidding), and your team is almost entirely composed of Custom Edition modders who all have separate takes and ideas for Halo and want to cram them in for what was supposed to be a simple remaster, culminating in ‘fuck we’re out of time just drag ‘n drop Reach assets in’ at the literal last minute because nobody could fucking work together consistently.
THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is how you get A Combat Evolved: Anniversary.
God I wish this project was never greenlit in the first place.
I used to fuck around with custom edition and my God, anyone who dealt with that community should know that it's easier to teach a seal to run a marathon than to get them to finish a project of a decent scale.
Please tell me the one who called himself Mr. Ifafudafi in the modding community was not involved on HCE:A at all. Also please tell me Masterz1337 (who I know personally) was also not involved. Neither of them should be allowed to touch Halo, the former is completely incompetent at running a project and the latter thinks every idea is the best evar and should all be included.
Are you sure? You know Halo CEA was developed in russia right? By a company that isn't owned by 343 or microsoft. That had made entire games before taking on halo combat evolved.
Somehow I doubt this is an accurate description of its production.
Tuna Cat I can tell you as a software engineer this account is most likely entirely accurate. It’s been a nightmare anytime I’ve worked for a company that did subcontracting. They probably had 4-6 months to make this.
This is maybe 1/3rd true at best, and not at all why this happened. And 343 was NOT in charge of budgeting or anything financial. The problems stemmed from Bungie not giving 343 the source code for the games (later apologized for from Marcus Lehto), and the fact 343 was just transitioning from a multimedia franchise company to a game development, nobody had time or anything like that.
Halo Infinite has the look at the Halo CEA should have had. The landscapes and forerunner structures fit the theme of Halo CE. A remastering with Infinite's assets would be amazing.
Infinite's graphics are to heavy for Xbox 360.
@@godnyx117 he isnt talking about graphical quality but art style
As a newcomer to the Halo franchise, I played Halo CE: Anniversary with a friend who told me about the old graphics, and I had fun swapping between the old and the new just to see what had changed. While I enjoyed the game in the new graphics (and didn't really mind the overcomplications much), I immediately noticed the difference in tone, *especially* on the first Flood level.
"I didn't kill him; how did... he die?"
That moment when FPS turns into survival horror.
thats pretty sus
so true
It went from typical epic shooter to friggin resident evil
its that forboding feeling of "holy shit theres something more powerful than my current enemy that could kick my ass 300 yards"
@@orangeboi3387 "F O R B O D I N G"
They weren’t allowed to talk to the original team? The people who specifically designed these levels with a purpose?
not sure what was goin on here, they wanted to get creative in their own way or were just being idiotic
Idk about the whole team but they said they weren't allowed to talk to the original sound designer
@@wargex they werent allowed to talk to the whole team about it not just marty
@@mayflowwy where is your source? Is it a random RUclipsr? Is it this video? Because the only one saying this is Noodle. Marty didn't even say this. He said that his friends working on the Halo 2 anniversary remasters music and sound weren't allowed to talk to him specifically. And I haven't found any where or anyone stating otherwise. So if you're claims are true it should be easily verifiable, and I'd like to see the source.
You know Marty? Marty O'Donnell? He composed a lot of childhoods. He's also the guy who was fired from Bungie for talking shit about Bungies publisher Activision for not handling his composition and creative vision for a Destiny trailer. Yes I'm sure Microsoft was clamoring to have someone leaking industry insider bullshit and talking shit like he's Colonel Sanders vs KFC because Marty didn't respect their decisions. The only credit he got for his work in the remaster credits is a mention they used "Legacy Scores" no name, no nothing, dudes career working on a franchise boiled down to two words, and no recognition. I'd be mad too. But I'm not going to sit here and pretend it's not a personal/business issue with Marty because a RUclipsr was either confused, misspoke, or lied and Noodle doesn't seem like he'd have any reason to lie, but regardless it's misinformation.
@@mayflowwy but since you've corrected my statement, I look forward to seeing your proof/source.
Man your sponsored segments are the best on the platform, somehow you manage to make them worth watching, and this one was histerical, holy balls
I see what you did there
Now that I look at the concept art you showed in this video, they look similar to how Infinite turned out. Especially that forerunner room art.
Cant wait for Halo CE Anniversary: Anniversary this year.
Not expecting much
Halo CE modders will do it for free
Wait there making another ce remaster
Still waiting for Halo 3: anniversary
(It's been 4 years, for god's sake)
@@user-mx1fq6qm6i at least some Blur cutscenes for H3.
Anyone gonna talk about how impossibly well he animated flying out of the Warthog?
that's where all the budget went.
It was made in source filmmaker actually
I’m guessing he traced over footage of a rag doll sim (aka rotoscoping)
Using the white colourway for the spartan model was a great choice too before the subtle fade out
Can I get a time stamp?
I didn't grow up with the original Halo trilogy, but I personally think the original graphics in CE have a charm to them.
Exactly, though I grew up with reach as my first halo game, I find CEs classic graphics more charming and they also just look better to me in general
Seeing the shot of Certain Affinity's interpretation of CE at 12:00 makes me kinda excited for what they'll do with Infinite's upcoming game mode. They have a good feel for the franchise from a design perspective.
Everyone is talking about how your animation gets better every episode, but I wanna talk about how Braeden gets 𝓦𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓻 every episode
What?
Yes
lmao
"Sir this is a Wendy's. Please order something and stop telling me about Halo."
This one got a chuckle, thank you
Fun fact: a lot of the anniversary concept art was done by Eddie Smith, who also did a lot of concept art for CE and Halo 2, as well as designing the Mark V for the canceled Halo movie.
Don’t forget that the helmet from the Mark V concept art was reused for the Halo Wars Mark IV.
I love your ranty videos, feels like my attempts at convincing, but much more well executed
Keep it up!
After years of hearing about "The flood" I have finally figured out what all those memes meant after playing halo ce for the first time.
Lmao
Haha, I was literally expecting an actual flood. Thought it would be some escape type situation
@@ethanarchibald9106 I mean .... your half right lol
@@ethanarchibald9106 Exactly like a flood, but instead of water, tons of fucking annoying enemies
@@sly5660 i like the flood more than the covenant, theyre easier
“Nope, you are nitpicking and biased, I win bye bye.”
Yeaaaa
No.
-Dunkey
Oh Dunkey !
I stopped listening to you when you said Bubsy 3D was bad.
I really hope we get a 20 year anniversary remaster where they do it properly this time
Well 343i is still patching CE Anniversary
Since came out on MCC so...
Love this video so much I can't stop rewatching it. PLEASE make more Halo content of any kind, or more in depth design stuff
10% female audience is actually pretty impressive for gaming content on RUclips.
no its not, because the gaming community is made up of 50% females (being sarcastic)
@@maximusgladi8or most play candy crush or puzzle games tho, apparently
@@justsomeguywithnoeyes7303 r/whoosh
@@maximusgladi8or Oh you use Le Reddit bro?? Keanu Chungus Wholesome 100 oof 100. Does the narwhal bacon at midnight???? xD xD
Uh... how?
good vido :)
Agreed, good vido :)
noice
Bruh can you make another video on a VR game? The saints and sinners video was sooooo good
Ooooo it’s vido man
Bruh that feeling when you find out a channel you like likes other channels you like!
I love how low detail and (boring) the level looks that introduces the flood. It's like saying the backrooms would be more terrifying if they had mist and spooky lights and things creeping around. What unnerves me about it is how lifeless it feels. You're going deeper and deeper into this massive alien structure light years from home in what feels like a forgotten corner of a facility built eons ago. Whatever purpose these rooms would've had it doesn't look like they were ever finished, and it makes me feel like I"m really somewhere I shouldn't be.
Me thinking of noodle clean balls while he babbles about manscaped😨
Oh
"Is this foreshadowing? Idk im seven." Proceeds to be mentally scarred in 10 minutes. All too relatable lol
I played it when I was seven aswell 🥲
Nice Spy Pfp bro
@@jacklarsen7362 idk if this is sarcasm but thanks
@@the_cosmic_cowboy12 Nah bro I fucking love tf2
@@jacklarsen7362 lmao awesome. I still have the orange box for pc on my shelf
I feel like they focused way too much on “polishing” the map’s design rather than factoring in atmosphere, as pointed out through the video.
The biggest lighting problem I saw was not 343 guilty spark at least it had this shattered glass tank with green mist but no the biggest one I complain about is two betrayals I thought it was broad daylight out then old graphics revealed this pitch black starry sky I get to fly my banshee through well not anymore
The funny thing about Truth and Reconciliation is that the new graphics make the beginning of the level so bright that you can't even actually use the night vision on your sniper. It will make it harder for you to see. The night vision was the whole point of that level being so dark originally lmao
Wow, the animation in you're videos have so much charm, i can't help but feel a sense of delight when watching your videos, especially this episode, It takes me back to being 12 years old when i bought Halo: CE Anniversary when it came out for 40 bucks at gamestop, and how i always recalled sticking to the older graphics because of the seemingly stark advantage in combat (excluding dark sections), and it eluded me as a 5th grader why this was the case, but you're video, along with the Act Mans and Late Night Gamings explained why in detail, and motivated me to pick up and softmod an original xbox so i could experience CE like it was released in 2001, and wow! I am pleased to say that replaying the campaign with the og controller was an exhilarating experience for me, I was shock at how good everything looked on my 480i Trinitron CRT, i recommend to anyone who can get an og xbox to try out CE on one of these beastly consoles, anyways you're videos are an inspiration for me and I hope you keep making videos in well into the future!
anyone gonna talk about how his animation and art gets better everytime he releases a new video?
Bruh it went simple and now the old style is back and I like it alot
thanks, I try
@@noodlefunny, but why?
@@Vulpilux why not?
I agree what an inspiring evolution
the whole of anniversary just feels like an ambitious but ultimately directionless mod.
It looks a lot like those shader mods you see for games where they went for "looking good" to the point where it fucks with the visual design.
It seems more like they wanted a more dramatic comparison between the old and new then they wanted a good looking game.
Well, Halo 2 Anniversary proved that it had a sense of direction *and* ambition.
still a good game. blame the Microsoft producers
Oh so SPV3? LMAOOOO
You will burn in the pits of hell sir
Woah, I'm blown away by how impressive your analysis and presentation are. Have a good one.
I don’t play video games. I’m not good at video games. But Noodle brings up so many perspectives I wouldn’t ever think about while watching/seeing a video game. Helps garner appreciation for so much work people put into animation. Plus, he’s hilarious. That’s good enough for me
I actually have insight and know people who worked directly on this project. The development was only given 6 months (Thanks Don Mattrick) and 343 wasn't even ready to move into their new office when the project was given to them. Saber also had issues beginning the project because the techs that were leaving Bungie after the split from Microsoft refused to give over the source files for the games, so everything had to be reverse engineered as fast as possible. Marcus Lehto would later apologize for not knowing this happened until it was too late.
So, 6 months, moving into a new office, creating their staff (343 was barebones at this point, not even enough staff to begin Halo 4 yet), and they had to reverse engineer the game from scratch WITHOUT proper Blam development tools that were used. This project was doomed from the start and the portrayal of 343 being bad and "not having played the games" is pretty unfair due to it. Microsoft absolutely fucked over everyone involved with this project, and bungie not handing over the source codes was a major part of the problem in this cyclone of awful bullshit. I'm surprised they were even able to get the game out.
I find it really hard to believe that Microsoft would have trouble getting source code from Bungie when they owned them and the fact that Microsoft is corporate in culture.
This comment really changed my perspective on Halo aneversity, and how shitty it ended up being.
@@OmegaF77 I don't. Having personally worked on a remaster where getting anything from the original developers was like getting blood from a stone (despite them literally being owned by the publisher), what I'll say is you'd be surprised how easy it is to stall and avoid emails. Especially if the people you're trying to reach are balls deep in another project.
Can't speak for what happened, only saying from experience you'd really be surprised at how disorganised these things are. Companies are less well-oiled machines and more like somewhat controlled chaos.
@@0lionheart Hm. As far as I know, Microsoft is also a major software company, you'd think they'd know that there is a possibility of this situation going down.
They shouldn't have gotten the game out, they should have delayed for a year. But then again, Microsoft happened.
"An SD card of someone's brain."
Ah, you too understand the deep lore.
Not just someone, Space Mengele.
Cortana was always better before she was retroactively made an SD card of someone's brain.
@@CloneLoli That wasn't retroactive. That was always the lore.
@@CloneLoli that was the lore even before the first game even came out
Halo 5 was my first Halo experience in like 2017. A month ago I finished the rest of the games. What an experience it was going back to 5 and wondering:
The fuck is this?
I am so glad you talked about the geometry!!! I recently replayed this game and that damn geoetry kept screwing me over. Especially with shots and driving ghosts. How could not take that into account? So weird.
You're literally the only creator that I'll watch the sponsorship sections of.
oof
Check out Internet Historian
*Internet Historian*
You don't watch enough creators then haha.
Internet Historian has the best, most smooth transitions into sponsorship sections. And the actual section is hilariously entertaining too.
"Its- uh- a- shave ball" -Noodle
You're the only channel where I choose to watch the sponsorship, secondly this is probably like my ninth time watching this video
If you want an amazing example of the halo ce forerunner architecture updated right, you dont need to look any further than the terminal location on the last level of halo 3. It's located in a room that is a room that is a recreation of the pulse generator rooms on AotCR/ Two Betrayals from halo ce but (obviously) with h3 graphics. It looks fantastic 👍
I'd like to point out how important it is that blood splatter in Halo CE was important for balancing as much as AI color palette.
Since the levels utilized big open areas with backtracking and moody dark corridors, the glow-in-the-dark splats of carnage are highly visible breadcrumbs of areas you have already been to. This way you can tell at a glance if you've been turned around or not.
The Anniversary version not only makes enemies blend in with surroundings, but it makes glowing splats smaller and only linger for a few seconds before the blood "dries up" and stops glowing.
The way the sandbox was set up also encouraged backtracking to find resources that you will need to pick up.
Say you need bullet ammo. Well. Look for red bloodstains. off in the distance you see a tinge of red pixels. Approach it and you will find human corpses which always drop bullet ammo and supplies.
If you need plasma pistols, you look for blue bloodstains since wherever a grunt died is bound to be a plasma pistol or needler.
And wherever there is purple blood is bound to be plasma rifles and plasma grenades.
It all comes together as something you can determine at a glance and is heavily ingrained in the sandbox.
If you cannot see the massively cartoonish different colored bloodstains, you are at a severe disadvantage and are unable to make use of the very level design itself in the sandbox.
A new player NEEDS this kind of visual information as they are learning which AI carries what supplies in the sandbox and how to find them as well as have viable breadcrumbs so that you don't get lost.
I don't even know that it dries up, seems like every type of splatter from every species is always damn near black unless directly looked at in light. Wish someone could mod it to make the blood more luminous like the original. That alone would be a huge difference.
Honestly that is so true; I literally always get lost on 343 guilty spark; spent 1-2 hours on it once trying to find my way out of the damn area since every room looks the same lol
you had me at *CRASHES WARTHOG ON THE SAME ROCK I CRASHED INTO EVERY TIME*
Noodle, you are literally the only content creator who's ads I don't skip. You are funnyman pls keep uploading
Wow I played anniversary today and had the exact same thoughts! I'm so glad it has the original graphics as a option
Word of warning:
Don't buy manscaped. Apparently they have a habit of overpromising just as large as their habit of accidentally maiming your testicles. They're largely over marketed cheap razors with ceramic blades as apposed to metallic ones, all the more likely to wear down and require replacements.
Anyway, keep collecting that bag Noodle.
The unspoken rule of RUclips is:
Everyone knows that the products RUclipsrs get paid to advertise suck (mostly), but we still support the RUclipsrs because they get to make a living out of entertaining us.
PJ CB I think that’s not the case with Harry’s razors though, I have a decent liking for their razors, though I’ve never gotten the trial box, I just get them at Walmart
@@RGInquisitor Yeah, as drew gooden once said: You can _not_ make a living off of ad revenue alone. You have to get creative.
That might be merch, podcasts, patreon, tours, but also sponsorships. I'm always happy to see the youtubers I know and love get that kind of money, because it enables them to spend more time on making their videos even better.
John Marston Apparently Raycons actually arent that great compared to similarly priced wireless earbuds, check out DankPods’ video on it for an in depth description about it
Raycons suck. If it’s your first wireless earbuds you wouldn’t know though. Unfortunately they weren’t my first. Overpriced garbage. I’ve had 40 dollar earbuds with better sound quality, build quality and connection quality. Raycons are very susceptible to interference. Like say. When you run a microwave. Something that never happened on my half priced earbuds. Oh yeah the effective range is shit too.
at 6:13 Chief's arm briefly changes models,
I guess someone decided that the frame looked better with a quick swap than clipping?
Actually what's going on there is the IK bones that move the model got stretched straight, meaning that the MoCap wasn't polished enough to eliminate that glitch. They basically captured the movement and slapped it on without tweaking some of the errors like that.
That is hands-down the BEST Manscape promo I've ever watched. Well done sir. Well done.
I have bought multiple items thanks to your sponsorships, it's genuinely hilariously good
Another issue with the remaster is it uses the Gearbox port as the base, and Gearbox botched much of the lighting and alpha (transparent) textures. Which you might think is a small thing, until you realize the bump mapping used through the entirety of the game is completely broken making surfaces and textures appear more flat than they're supposed to be. and transparent textures look fucking gross (covenant cruiser hanger shield, example) Which will give people the impression that Halo looks worse than it actually was.
Fucking THANK YOU! Between this issue and the mandatory usage of the remastered sounds and HUD, even Anniversary's Classic mode still doesn't really capture everything that the original was. Even some of the level scripts are still broken!
@@vomErsten There's an option hidden deep in the audio settings to revert it back to old sounds
343 Should've made the option clearer, but it's there
@Quentin Lecuva It kinda does when you know what it's supposed to look like, and it's depressing knowing that nobody is going to know what it should look like unless they play the original.
@Quentin Lecuva on a technical level, apart from the resolution and aspect ratio, the Xbox version of CE is superior in every way
bumpmaps actually work without needing a dynamic light to be shown on them
transparent objects like jackal shields react to gunfire, and other transparent surfaces don't look like they used a JPEG for the texture
Fog isn't completely broken (Assault on the control room is a good example)
and in the PC port, they used the wrong Captain Keyes model
edit: and in anticipation to anyone who says that the 1st part isn't all that important, I will now remind you of what uses bumpmaps in Halo:CE
1. Forerunner walls (note that this is basically the scenery for about a fourth of the game)
2. The MA5B (also known as the AR)
3. The sandy ground in Truth and Reconciliation
@Quentin Lecuva when a fourth of the game and an entire half of a mission have broken visuals, I think that warrants some pointing out
16:55
You hit it right on the head. During lockdown my roommate and I decided to make our way through the MCC and we tried to stick with the original graphics as much as possible for CE. There were multiple times when we got lost or stuck (neither of us had played Halo in around a decade) and turning it to the new graphics made the level light up like a christmas tree so we could progress or see what was going on.
Yeah me and my brother recently did the same thing, we played the game mainly as it was from 2001
@Potato King I did it for the Library lol, so damn dark and with a lot of the Flood ambushing you
I did the same, it was pretty fun because if i put them for too long the game would just crash, it was like a mechanic
this is a combination of it being a bad pc port not true to the original (research this) and playing on an lcd display with horrible abilities to display blacks.. oleds black crush a lot too (not so much the newer ones)
The moment at 5:44 in the video is just the most genius thing. I can’t believe I just noticed he’s illustrating why separate voice acting and motion capture is hard.
tbh i adore the original halo graphics. are they super low detail and not that stylistically 'nice'? yeah for sure
but i think it looks super neat anyway
On the remaster, the "original graphics" are from a early dev build of halo ce, and are not the same assets used in the final Xbox release.
"not that stylistically 'nice'? yeah for sure"
bad opinion. have less opinions
@@bread9276 Really, do you have more info on that? Why would they do that instead of using the release version? How does the early dev build graphics differ from the final release?
@@El_Jefe_Maestro Basically the original port made by Gearbox used an earlier build that was already on PC instead of actually porting the game over from Xbox to PC, so there's a lot of lighting effects and assets that were unfinished. And 343 used the Gearbox port for Anniversary because modding it would be easier than using the Xbox version. So the MCC doesn't even use the final version of the game. Over time they fixed a lot of these issues but I'm not sure if they fixed them all. And the other games are littered with these issues too, but that's mainly because porting them to the MCC and PC broke a lot of stuff
As a new player, my first playthrough was on the Anniversary edition, and after landing on halo and pressing tab, I immediatly noticed just how more atmoshperic the old version looked, space vs. clouds, sun vs darkness. Though I kept playing on the Anniversary edition, because like Noodle said, the barrier of entry for the old version was too high, I can say that my second playthrough on the old version was actually better, the flood level in particular was much more foreboding, though at that point, the surprise of the flood had already been ruined, anyhow, yeah, I like the old shit better now and will recommend any friends who're about to play mcc to play the old version.
You should try to play the original Xbox version. The Anniversary edition is based on Halo PC, which has many of its own foibles that they didn't bother fixing and are carried over into the Classic mode of Anniversary in graphics and gameplay. You also don't get to experience the original sound design which, and I will disagree with Noodle, was both more iconic and better than the remastered ones (the Flood carrier forms used to explode with powerful "BANG!" and not a wimpy "splat", for example).
@@vomErsten I would, but I don't have an xbox...
@@vomErsten I'm pretty sure mcc allows the old sound design on to a tee now. It was the most glaring thing for me when I originally played anniversary on 360 and the og sound effects couldn't be turned on. That all said, with compatibility, there should be old copies of Halo lying around that should work in modern xboxes
AWanderingTraveler Do you have any version of Xbox? The original disc will tray and play in all versions of Xbox (OG, 360, Xbone, and the new XSX).
And you didn’t even touch on the fact that the old version used in the remaster is a worse version
I still hope we get bump mapped textures, aotcr fog and fixed shaders on mcc someday.
deadonarrival you’re more likely to find gold digging on the side of the highway. Buy the original gearbox version or abandonware it, get custom edition, get the refined / chimera mod.
Worse but more stable version.
Quentin Lecuva
We can have everything in this instance. If modders can fix a broken port, there’s no reason the actual, official IP holders can’t.
Quentin Lecuva yes releasing accurate ports is clearly so laborious that fan mod teams can do a better job without Microsoft funding. 343 fanboys are Stockholm syndrome level insane.
15:24. Just finished CE Anniversary, never played original so in most instances I didn't notice anything too off, but that is something that very much stood out to me. I never used the flashlight at all, save in those escape pod corridors in the Pillar of Autumn. Found myself questioning why it was even included
This is a great video. I've watched it maybe...10 times now? I always give it another watch. Great work Noodle!
Glad I'm not the only one who loved the art direction for Infinite
Yeah, I really hope they don’t make the graphics fucking gritty realism after all the criticism
I really love it also! Much simpler and colorful similar to the Bungie games but is still a more modern take.
This comment needs three more likes to achieve greatness.
I am the 114th like.
everything looks like megablocks i dont like it :|
It's good, I just don't like it as a Halo game. They could totally implement it into another game though.
When I started this I was like "I didn't think anniversary graphics were THAT bad." Then I realized I've never actually played through on anniversary graphics. I always played on classic graphics. I am shame
Classic Graphics are absolutely dogshit
We know, thats why we wanted a remaster
Mario Badia (you)
@@mariobadia4553 Doesn't matter when it did the job it was supposed to do: Impose an atmosphere
@@mariobadia4553 someone has 2 brain cells it seems...
I love the little details like the chair becoming a couch after being destroyed but staying destroyed for 2 episodes or the laser beam marks from Ice cream sandwich or the robots hole in the wall
possibly the only youtuber that makes me watch the sponsors because they're funny. good on u :)
You forgot the part that because guns and characters were detailed and the levels weren’t, you could see weapons on the ground and what not. It’s a lot harder in Anniversary mode. Also blood elevator on the flood level.
That elevator was the breaking point for me.. i pretty much never use anniversary graphics now. Made an even easier decision due to the triple buffered vsync that locks the fps to 30 everytime it dips to 59 fps
When I was playing Halo CE on MCC PC, and had a shotgun. When I had grabbed an active camo the everything except the shotgun shell (in the chamber) had became transparent....
When I played CEA co-op with a friend we picked up on that straight away. He was playing anniversary graphics, I was playing classic, and I'd keep pointing out plasma grenades to pick up and he'd respond "where? there aren't any?"
It's an interesting wrinkle in the "we don't want to change the gameplay" angle, since the visuals actually negatively impact the gameplay in terms of readability.
"idk, I am a seven" this is my favorite line ever in anything
yeah
ummmmm not gonna definitivley say anything
but this might be noodle pointing out that nostalgia plays greatly into our memorys of the first time we played that level
Something I personally noticed was that the music in Halo anniversary and Halo 2 anniversary (on MCC) was way louder in the remaster versions than in the original. That could’ve been an issue on my end but idk. Also I could never find a way to change the music volume in MCC for the anniversary games. Again, probably on my end. I much prefer the originals of both games just because the music wasn’t ear splittingly loud.
Might have something to do with the vastly better audio quality of the re-recorded anniversary soundtracks
13:07
"Unnatural"
That can't be a coincidence.
I laughed, I cried, I cried laughing
and that was for the Manscaped ad
Me as well.
Sir?
Whenever I talk about how bad the Anniversary graphics are, I always bring up the collision mismatching. It's INFURIATING when the geometry is misaligned and I swear all the streamers on twitch trying CE for the first time get mad about their shots not being registered when in reality it was them playing on the newer graphics and not knowing... They just blame CE in general. I have seen this happen like a dozen times and it disappoints me that this is such a big issue.
I think this is a direct reason as to why Halo 2 Anniversary didn't use the Reach models for enemies. They made new models from scratch that lined up with the old models.
I remember this pissing me off beyond belief when they first released the remaster in 2011. I didnt even have a decent understanding of atmosphere in games yet, but I ended just sticking to old graphics by the second mission because I was tired of having my shots blocked by alien pines that had been completely restyled to look like normal trees. Its so bad. That even though I liked the update visuals at the time, I just didn't think it was worth it. The only reason I knew there was something wrong, is because I grew up playing the original releases with my cousin all those years. So I knew the hit detection was better than that.
@@MCSPARTAN501 well that and the reach models were massively out of date and low res..... so they couldn't really steal models from older games (as much) without people noticing, I still managed to find reuse of crappy assets for H2A...
@@nightmareeternal8454 They could have updated the Reach models and shoehorned those into H2A. Thankfully they didn't do that.
@@MCSPARTAN501 They uuuuh reused the RPG model from HCEA for H2A, and I'm not too sure but pretty sure it's a reused asset :/
my first time I played halo ce I played the remastered version, after watching your video I went back and replayed the original ce.
thank you.
I like the stark style forerunner buildings because forerunner tech is incredibly advanced even by covenant standards so it makes sense for things to look flashy and weird. But they could have improved on the lighting and shadow effects A LOT. Like for the Flood level, they should have made it low lighting with lots of shadows, almost to the point of having difficulty seeing; that would have made the level like a survival horror once the Flood showed up
Worst part of the remaster is that the original Halo CE engine used is the tampered with Gearbox port for the PC, you know... the one that was so poorly done that some pieces of code were just forgotten, deleted or tampered with that destroy ambient lighting, detailed textures etc etc... so you can't even play original CE in anniversary.
Case in point: Shield flickering. Try shooting a jackal's shield, tell me if it gradually gets less blue and more red. Protip, it won't.
Kinda suprised that wasnt mentioned even though i never noticed that since i was first exposed to halo via the pc port and custom edition. Atleast they added native ultrawide support this time around so that i dont need a mod to toggle my fov so that that camera isnt zoomed in on the muzzle of my gun.
It took fans over 10 years to fix Gearbox's shit on PC.
@@Razgriz_01 see Halo CE: Refined project
The worst offender is the loss of bump maps. Bump maps are a technique used that make textures look nicer, they still work in the gear box version, but only when the light source is the flash light, go ahead and try it, you can instantly tell the difference.
With no bump maps, the walls and other surfaces look straight up ugly.
They even used the wrong Captain Keys model T-T
(Speaking as someone who works in 3D graphics optimized for games.) I'm glad this video was released. Because I've had mixed feeling about both versions.
I played CE for the First time earlier this year and yeah, from a technical point, Anniversary looks great.
But every time I stumbled upon a scene that I thought looked amazing while playing in the Original Graphics, I was curious to see how it holds up in the Anniversary release. And I have to agree that CE in it's original form looks a million times better.
Because of the intent.
Anniversary has no intent. Its only purpose is to be pretty.
While CE tells a story.
And in the end, the Story is what makes the game worth playing. Yes the gameplay is amazing, but truth is, without a goal, noone wants to play so if the story looks boring, much like Anniversary graphics, no one would care.
At least I didn't while Playing Anniversary.
CE is charming, welcoming and sometimes Foreboding.
@DCaladbolg To be fair, Saber Interactive had to deal with 2 buggy PC ports that weren't up to snuff with the Xbox originals due to the spaghetti code that Bungie wrote for the OG Xbox making it hard to port to PC along with the 2 ports being rushed as hell
You ever just listen to this again and realize that when the halo cover at the first 30 seconds comes up and the sound is when you go somewhere in the halo wars menu and than realize how much work is in this video.
One thing that makes me sad is how badly people need their graphics and CGI to be top notch.
Theres no love for simple designs that can be used to make a good game cheaply...
11:36 Hehe. The inside of Covenant ships went from
"Feel the might and militaristic ruthlessness of our technological superiority"
to
"Biatch our spaceships are _soooo_ much more *FABULOUS* than yours"
Not sure why i think this but, I just have a feeling, like just a gut feeling, that you don't like halo anniversary.
I like anniversary graphics, but even with original graphics the forerunner generators were hard to navigate until I noticed they literally put arrows on the ground since they knew people were going to get lost. It’s bad enough when even back then they thought circular structure was good. With anniversary it is how Halo 3 would’ve done it. I was even impressed with how anniversaries had actual glass.
@Quenny Lekiavil Funny because it was one of the first modern remasters from a game last decade so that new people could experience it, but then you have people complaining about modern remasters instead of making new games and then you have "Bioshock Remastered" which is just the game on PC ultra settings
343 even removed the marathon symbol from the badges in mcc, and that game is now open source
Even today one of the best things Bungie does (DONT @ ME THAT ALL THE OLD DEVS LEFT THERE ARE STILL LOTS THERE ESPECIALLY ARTISTS LIKE SHEIK) is consistent cohesive visual design and style. Everything fits together and looks like it belongs in the world, like it has a purpose.
I realised how bad the remaster was when I couldn't navigate the levels at all with the new graphics. The solution was simply to switch to original graphics. That made my jaw drop. Pretty bad botching of the visual cues and style.
Personally, I love it when games are minimal in certain ways (Like the "Classic" graphics). Your brain isn't on sensory overload and you can properly appreciate the slight details that are there. The simple design also makes combat feel better as it's easier to focus on enemies and what's going on.
@@Sir_toaster As someone with 3k hours in arma 3, the enemies are supposed to blend in because of camo and their surroundings but it doesn't because objects etc don't render past 30 ft without tanking your framerate.
I replayed FEAR for the first time since I was a teen. And holy shit I had fun. It felt like everything with the ai and level design was thought out. The AI is impressive and still holds up today and even better than some AAA games.
My first video game I actually got into was Zelda botw and I can still appreciate halos original graphics as not a big deal because they still convey atmospheric just without the three millionth polygon
I had no problem with Anniversary. Being able to switch between graphics on the fly was amazing. If you want to see how not to do a remaster see Last of Us PS3/PS4. No game needs a remaster after 7 months.
Ahh, I did a playthrough on Steam just last week and the amount of times I had a "Goddamn these fucking invisible trees/rocks that don't line up with the original geometry" moment... It's nice to look back on :')
I didn’t mind the remastered graphics but I do agree that the introduction of the flood wasn’t that suspenseful compared to the original graphics
same
the lightings weren't enough darker
@@darassylmoniakam it needs more of a darker theme to fit in with the original
There were NO bloody messes to come across to even hint that the Flood were coming like there were in CE. They ruined it.
And that god awful rocket shot delay..remember when you could shoot the rocket launchers barrels fast? Pepper ridge farms remembers..
bro legit im 15 and im so happy my cousin made me play these games before newer games. cause now i appreciate a game based on the story and game play and not just the graphics
Im so glad i found this video I just started the Master Chief Collection and after about 5 minutes of the new graphics was just like "ohhh this isnt good" The only 2 things that I think it improved was the actual look of halo "from space" and the outdoor portion of the 3rd level (specifically the background).