A new update for Halo: The Master Chief collection has just been announced. The Halo MCC July 2023 update arrives this July 12 and will introduce many new features, including the addition of Theater mode for Halo 4’s campaign and Spartan Ops, improvements to Firefight, and much more.
Here’s a shortened version of everything coming this July.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection July 2023 Update | Halo MCC July 2023 Update Overview:
FEET FIRST INTO FIREFIGHT
Firefight was a relatively late addition to MCC, arriving for Halo: Reach when it came to the collection in 2019, and for ODST the following year. Since then, we’ve made numerous improvements to the Firefight experience, such as the use of the distributed networking model (which was formerly available only in standard multiplayer) and the introduction of game variants with templatized waves (including Flood!) to ODST.
One thing we’ve wanted to do for a while is provide a more seamless drop-in-drop-out (insert feet first into Hell reference here) experience with Firefight, and we’ve finally achieved that with this update.
Firefight’s simulation is more complex than standard multiplayer due to the inclusion of AI-controlled units, as well as various systems which were not originally intended to be networked. As such, we weren’t historically able to support join-in-progress (JIP) for the mode. That’s no longer the case!
HALO 4 CAMPAIGN & SPARTAN OPS THEATER
From the aft of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, to the mysterious shores of Requiem, to the doomed Ivanoff Station and the trenches of the Mantle’s Approach—this update brings the ability to explore all of Halo 4’s campaign and Spartan Ops missions in Theater.
A FEAST OF FEATURES
With this upcoming update, you’ll be able to custom map your controller for the full suite of games and, if you find yourself confused between MCC and Halo Infinite, you are in good hands because there’s a control scheme for that.
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, Halo 3 is getting a brand new (to Halo 3) gametype, Escalation Slayer. It’s a race to the top to prove that you can be the best, no matter the weapon(s). Read on to learn more about it all!
- Custom Gamepad Remapping – In MCC, you are now allotted a single custom preset for each game. You can start with any built-in preset from that game as a base and modify it to your heart’s content and save as your custom preset.
- Halo 3 Escalation Slayer – Unlike its Megalo predecessors, Halo 3’s Escalation Slayer is a full multiplayer engine of its own standing alongside Halo 3’s legacy multiplayer engines (Slayer, Capture the Flag, Infection, etc.). This allowed us to create an experience which is both more polished and much more customizable. The core experience is comparable to that of its existing MCC counterparts with a few additions.
- Background Video Selection – In our previous MCC update, we released an early version of our background video selection feature. The full feature is online with this update, including mod support (and yes, the bug where your selections could be reset when relaunching the game is fixed). Like with controller mods, background video mods are fully available when EAC is enabled.
- Moa Madness – The Great Journey to find the golden moa statues comes to Halo 2. With each MCC update, we’ve added these collectibles to each campaign and we’re rounding out the collection with Halo 2. You know the drill: three levels will have a golden moa statue each week, go hunt ‘em down!
- Boots Off the Ground – The Acrophobia skull has been added to Halo: Combat Evolved. Like the moa statues, we have been adding this skull to each game in the MCC, allowing the player character to fly around campaign levels. Paired with the Blind skull, which disables the HUD and weapon model, you can effectively become a flying camera to take screenshots in the pre-Theater games—Halo: CE and Halo 2.
MOD MAYHEM
All kinds of lost content from Halo: CE and Halo 2 are coming to MCC on PC through modding thanks to our partnership with the Digsite group.
If you missed the recent Digsite Deliveries blog from just a few days ago, be sure to check it out for some really great information on the MCC mod efforts.
You can find the full update post here.
Once the patch is live, we’ll be sure to let our readers know.