The improvements made toHalo: The Master Chief Collectionover the past year have been substantial. Bringing the bundle to PC has led to an in-depth overhaul of many aspects ofHalo: The Master Chief Collection. Now, with all games available on PC, 343 Industries is getting more experimental. It’s focusing on adding Seasonal content, but also starting to experiment with new maps. However, these things take time, andHalo: The Master Chief Collection’s next maps are being caught up in a delay.
The developer announced a week ago that it was planning to start testing for a new map this upcoming week. The map was described as aHalo Onlinemapthat would be used inHalo 3’s multiplayer. Those plans have changed, as 343 says it has encountered a handful of bugs big enough that the previously planned public test can’t go forward. As a result, the test flight has been pushed to later next week, as early as February 25.
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It’s not all bad news from 343. While the public test flight has been delayed, 343 is going to take the opportunity to add something to the mix. Now there won’t be just one map available to try in the public testing, but two. The developer saysHalo Online’s Edge and Waterfall maps will both be inHalo 3when the test goes live. That’s in addition to Season 6’s content, FOV sliders on Xbox One, and various other additions.
For those unfamiliar,Halo Onlinewas a canceled project intended to release in Russia.Halo Onlinewas a free-to-play, online-only experiencebased onHalo 3, so it could run on lower-end PCs to reach a wider market. It would have basically been a live service game for Russia, where such things are very successful. The project ended up scrapped, but several unused maps have been waiting for 343 to repurpose and rerelease them.
While a new map addition is exciting for the upcomingHalo: The Master Chief Collectiontest flight, another planned addition has been delayed further. The highly anticipated custom games browser is being split off from the next test flight. It’s likely the source of the bugs, so 343 needs to put some extra work into it. The developer says it’ll need at least a couple of extra weeks to work things out.
With these planned additions, 343 Industries shows that even after finishing the PC port ofHalo: The Master Chief Collectionit has no intent to slow its support. Seasonal content, additional maps, and new functionality like the custom game browser are great examples of 343’s efforts. At the very least, it should hopefully make thewait forHalo Infinitemore tolerable.
Halo: The Master Chief Collectionis available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
