Of all the broken video games that we were stuck with in 2014, none were as broken as Halo’s Master Chief Collection, which even now, months after release, is still broken. But it’s OK! You can now sign up for a beta. For an update that may or may not fix it.
Yes, that’s right. 343 is going to run a beta test later this month for a big update that they hope will solve the game’s matchmaking woes. Xbox One users in North America are eligible to sign up, test out “changes to the matchmaking experience and party system” and report any bugs they find.
In other words, we are now in the realm of beta testing games that are already out.
While the announcement post for the update never explicitly mentions problems with the game, it’s not hard to read between the lines, especially when it comes to this bit:
Q: Why are you testing the content update in the Xbox One Preview program? Don’t you have internal playtesting for the very same purpose?
A: In recent weeks, 343 Industries has been conducting extensive internal testing of the upcoming content update. However, given the scale of the update, which includes changes to the Halo: The Master Chief Collection matchmaking experience and party system, we are opening it up to members of the Xbox One Preview program to provide additional testing in an “at home” environment to ensure the official release is the best possible experience for players.
You can sign up here.
Comments
28 responses to “Last Year’s Halo Is Such A Mess, They’re Beta-Testing The Next Patch”
So let me get this straight.
You can sign up.
To beta test a patch.
For a game that came out months ago.
That people already bought.
That should have been working at release?
Yes.
In the same way that Battlefield had a test server.
Also, you , cannot sign up for it as you need to be a North American resident.
Brace yourselves…
Gonna need a not-Straya internet to get this patch.
You need to re-download Assassin’s Creed Unity to get the MCC update.
LOL
44gb patch!
This is pretty stupid but kotaku should clarify it’s only the match making that’s broken. I’ve played the single player campaigns and they are perfect. I still hate broken games and still think articles should be made on the subject but I wouldn’t call Halo the most broken game of last year when it was still perfectly playable. The most broken for me would be something like nba2k where you could no play the game at all for long periods of time due to their crappy servers and some people lost real world money when it kept resetting their VC balances and deleting players from their servers.
The campaigns still had issues themselves.
Out of curiosity, could you let me know the issues? I’ve been through all four campaigns three times (outrageous amounts of coop and 1 solo run), and have not had any issues?
Ive had no issues with campaign at all.
Apparently there’s checkpoint saving issues, progress issues, achievement completion issues, and other tiny stuff like http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PgtsVHyFJUA/hqdefault.jpg
I think I had to revert to checkpoint once cause something didn’t load in Halo 3, though I remember similar experiences back in the day. So by the sounds of that it really is just the multiplayer that is expressly ‘broken’. For a second there I thought you were going to bring up something Unity worthy 🙂
I played Halo 3 on the 360 only a few years ago and there’s an area in Africa with a bunker (like RotJ) where I frequently got stuck and had to reload.
What I’m curious about with the matchmaking is – is there just too many different games/maps on offer making the player base unreliable?
I’ve had the checkpoint one.
I had it skip a level during a playlist once. It also skipped a few cutscenes along the way (although maybe they weren’t part of the playlist?).
I’ve had it crash while trying to access a terminal (why did they do this through the Halo Channel?), and had to restart the level from the beginning.
It also didn’t seem to save mid level checkpoints (during playlists at least).
I had heard the performance in Halo 2 splitscreen was pretty bad, but it was fine for me.
Overall it’s been pretty solid.
I have had zero issues beyond the stupid idea to launch the halo channel when I find shit butthat is a dumb idea not a bug.
Unless Kotaku updated the article, it states that it has “matchmaking woes”.
since this is a patch impacting matchmaking it makes sense. they need to have as many people as possible to gather the data they need to make sure it’s working. Granted this should have happened BEFORE release, but as Cheech said in Ghostbusters II, “well, better late than never”
I for one can’t wait for the day when we can get exclusive special edition DLC for pre-ordering the Beta for an Update at a specific retailer.
Dude, that’s only for premium users.
Non-trial premium members.
I’m excited!
I hate 343i, I love Bungie and believe they shouldn’t have sold the franchise for console freedom.
Moving past that, all previous patches have been pointless for the matchmaking experience. This sounds like real change . I’m going to put the last of my eggs into this basket. They already lost my trust but not yet my faith in the franchise.
An odd thing to say considering 343i is made up primarily of ex-Bungie staff and Bungie has lost most of their big hitters making Destiny the soulless grind that it is…
Halo 4 was the first playable game since ODST, which was the first playable game since the original. Hopefully 343 can make Halo a good game at some point.
One of the most broken games ive ever played. 4 days after release before i could even play it. Co-op issues dropping out. Levels not loading. Part lobbys not working. Achievements not popping. Still to this day havent found a big team battle game. Sigh. Had such high hopes for this. I guess at least they’re fixing it, but i think its time has gone.