Recent reviews by Sittin' Sam the Saychet Man

The other night I sat down to puff a J and play some video games. I've been playing Halo since no one cares when, I figured I had some good opinions on the MCC and what the hell, I may as well write it down in a review. Why not, right? So, here be the stoney musings of Sittin' Sam playing Halo.

Is it cheating to award a positive review because this is the only available option for PC halo fans? The MCC is perfect in concept. All Halo games back to back on a single platform. Nice. No one could flub the implementation of a concept so sublime. Right? It seems easy enough. Well...There are a lot of aspects of the MCC that I consider mistakes.

First up is the UI. It kinda sucks. In the beginning, the devs are presented with a choice. Does the MCC have a cohesive UI that encapsulates all the games under it, or does it serve as a launcher of individual games that have their own classic UIs and menus? They went for the former, and I kinda like the idea of the latter. This choice leads us to a problem, which is how faithfully will the experience be recaptured. How closely to the original will the games be emulated?
It's foolish to believe the original game experience does not also include its UI and menus, themes, even loading screens. It might seem like useless nostalgia to claim that Halo was better with its own original menu, but in some cases it actually does make a large impact on quality: cases like Halo 2, which old timers will remember had NO LOADING SCREENS! Yessir, the whole damn campaign loaded at once and levels and cutscenes played back to back. It was a very cinematic experience. The MCC jarringly slaps loading screens where once there were none. This also causes jumpy transitions between cutscenes.

I debated on claiming that skulls ought to be unlocked by being found in game like times of old. Maybe I still will. We'll see.

There's another aspect of MCC that totally rules, which is seamless support of keyboard and gamepad. I use both and switch between the two on a whim. Very nice. Oh, but how about 100% gamepad keybinding customization, instead of relying on a few available options?

Here's another thought. MCC is loaded with achievements, leaderboards or whatever, collectibles, XP, etc. Maybe this is me but I don't give a flying ♥♥♥♥ about that. It's stupid bloatware garbage. It hinders my enjoyment when at random points spammification pops up claiming ♥♥♥♥ like "Car Alarm 2/1,000,000,000!!!" Like come on, man. No one cares.

This may be a separate conversation, but let's talk about the Anniversary editions. Halo 1's Anniversary thing looks like absolute ASS. Cranking up saturation and contrast does not better graphics make. Coming from a background of art and design, with humble experience in 3d modeling and lighting, the "updated" graphics are amateurish and lazy. Back in the day, when hardware and processing was limited, designers had to make careful choices to make their limited assets look amazing, something they actually pulled off very well in Halo 1. It has ATMOSPHERE. Values are paid close attention to. Design choices made bigger differences, so overall design was much better. In the new look, it seems they merely added ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of little lights, high bloom, and slapped some shiny bump maps without any attention to composition. The design is weaker. The artistry is gone. Oh yeah, and the foley! Christ! Let's make every single noise way edgier and harsher for no reason. The guns sound like ass. The melee sounds like scraping metal. Where's the nuance? Who tf thought the sounds needed updating? For the love of God, do not play this game on the updated graphics. Unfortunately the "classic" graphics is also flawed, because the classic graphics are the same as the hastily ported Halo CE, with broken fog and missing textures. Community mods for CE do better than the MCC does in capturing the original graphics in their aged splendor. Halo 2 Anniversary, however, I actually quite like. They did very well with that one, with minimal loss of atmosphere (oh yeah, and swapping in real time with the tab key? Super dope). I still play it on original graphics, but swap once in a while for funsies. Nice.

Now then, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and moaning about aspects of the campaigns of the first 2 games obviously covers a small amount of all that the MCC is. The multiplayer still feels solid, ignoring the already mentioned bloatware like XP and unlockables. The co-op is rife with connection problems, but is great when you get it to work. Also, saving progress on co-op? Brilliant. The option to scale the resolution down is very entertaining if you want a really, really retro feel. Personally I adore the aged, arcadey feel of early shooters. Gotta remember that Halo 1 and Metroid Prime were contemporaries.

Ultimately I do recommend the MCC, as the only way to play Halo 2 and 3 on PC. I strongly, strongly recommend folks to investigate community mods for Halo CE (Come on, with 144 fps, vsync and frame interpolation? You'll make Legendary your ♥♥♥♥♥. The Covenant was never prepared for flickshotting Spartans) as the best way to play the first game.
Yes, Reach, ODST, and 4 are also on the MCC but....well, they're not as great. Call me a purist or nostalgic loser, but Halos 1 and 2 are supreme. 3's pretty cool too. Respecc to the OG.

Every reviewer likes to think the devs/art directors might one day read this and be like, wow, I never thought of it that way. For you fine industry folks, the tl;dr is 1. clear out the bloatware, 2. get rid of the pesky loading screens, 3. restore the true original graphics, 4. UI improvements pls, 5. Fix co-op connection (somehow). All these points will help to make the MCC more faithful to the original games.

Well, these have been my high thoughts, hopefully not too erratic to follow. Here are your orders. I want you to find the Control Room by any means necessary. Keyes out.

As I recall this game was pretty neat, like a slightly less cool Monster Hunter but with guns and mechs. Unfortunately Games For Windows Live is a malignant cancer that cannot be eradicated, try as you might. Every time you think you've beaten it comes back. You're given the diagnosis, again. The doctor is tired. You are tired. You can't afford the treatment, again. The doctors know it. Your wife knows it. She tightens her grip on your arm but you know it's just for show. The cancer has strained your marriage to breaking point. She doesn't want this anymore. You don't want this anymore. At this point you just want to end it; to be done with this tired cycle. You uninstall and play something else.

Verdun is an awesome game.

It has something that a lot of other shooters these days don't, and that's pacing. Instead of fast paced, guns-blazing inanity, you're going to spend most of your time squatting in mud staring down your ironsights at the horizon. Don't think that this makes it boring, however. It's tense. It's adrenaline-filled. Every shot counts and you will die a lot. It's very immersive.

Verdun has squad based teamwork stuff in it. Playing in a squad with your friends, therefore, would be totally awesome, since you get important bonuses for your team by operating as one. Get your friends in on this.

The controls can be awkward at first, but with a little rebinding and some gameplay you'll sort it out.

Verdun's only flaw is that there often aren't enough people playing. Since all gamemodes are multiplayer, some may not be available or fun if no one's playing.

History lovers, you won't be disappointed.