So, I've been using the Xbox for PC Beta over the last month. It's been touchy, wonky and temperamental. Working with the Xbox beta support on issues is pretty much like taking a shower with a raincoat on. They are not trained in technical issues at all, I ended up troubleshooting the problems myself, and informed them of the solutions. They're lucky I don't send them a bill for my usual consulting fee

Their last release broke it to a point where my troubleshooting and workarounds are no longer working, so... my recommendation, stay far away from that platform! At least until they come up with an app that works consistently.

I've noticed that most of the offerings on there, are also available on Steam and GOG anyway. Even the re-worked Halo series in the guise of the Master Chief Collection (which was already available for Xbox-one sometime ago) is slowly being released for PC (and is currently in my library )

TM

Sound like an epic fail to me!

Yeah, I suspect that the Devs working on this Beta are all either interns or newly released into the wild and have no seasoned Developers or Dev Managers working with them. I'm betting they pulled together an enthusiastic crew, dumped the shell of an unfinished past project in their laps, and offshored all the compiling/heavy lifting. That seems to be their model as of late...

Personally, I'm just happy as a clam that I can play Halo: Combat Evolved on PC again (on Steam). That's always been one of my favorite action shooters.

Thanks for the heads up TM. I have been interested in this but will wait, particularly if the games are available elsewhere (never played Halo so might be about time)

Halo: Combat Evolved was the game that got me into FPS. Even though it's basically just a point, shoot and duck sort of game, because they limit your weapons and ammo, you many times have to really strategize how you're going to approach a group of foes. It's also a classic, in that it's the first appearance of Master Chief, pretty much the generation's virtual John Wayne. Also, the whole mythos they built around the Spartans and the alien aggressors was very cool.

Sounds like my sort of FPS.
Checking out Steam, they have the Anniversary Edition, which it says requires the Master Chief collection base game. Which based on your comments and some googling I am happy to get, but am I failing to identify the stand alone single game?

So, I'm not sure how they classify the anniversary edition as "DLC". I just purchased the standard Master Chief Collection, which is a work in progress. Right now it only contains Halo: Reach and Halo: Combat Evolved. The anniversary edition might have some enhanced graphics and maybe some additional features. I wasn't that concerned about it, because I just wanted the original gameplay.

So, 343 Industries took over the Halo franchise from Bungie. Bungie were the ones that originally developed Halo: Combat Evolved, (which was the first to be released) through to Halo 3, which was an amazing game if you enjoyed the Halo series. They (343 Industries) are working on porting the Halo series over to PC, which is what the Master Chief Collection will eventually contain - Just not all at once. Being an old Halo fanboi, wrapped up in the nostalgia of both the campaigns and online games (these will only have the campaign components) and because I'm not as quick with a controller anymore, I really wanted to get into the series again via PC.

So, it's a judgement call. If you think you'll get into the whole series and don't mind waiting for the other episodes then it's a kind of a decent deal.

They (343 Industries) started populating the collection with Halo: Reach, which is a game they developed. It's a Prequel that directly flows into Halo: Combat Evolved. If you want to understand some of the history/mythos of the game, watch the live action movie, "Halo: The Fall of Reach". It was on Netflix for a time, may still be. I think they also had it on YouTube (with ads). It's a full length production. Because 343 produced "Reach" and Bungie was already out of it by that time, it's not 100% canon, but good enough for rock and roll.

To illustrate Microsoft and Bungie's ad campaigns, here's a group of ads they ran when Halo 3 was released. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40jdpzrpIps The interviews with veterans who served with Master Chief and the "Museum of Humanity" was a brilliant marketing idea to get gamers caught up in the mythos.

The diorama they are referring to in the first segment was actually created by hand and I think it is still at Bungie Studios.

EDIT: OK, so I took a look at the package description and I don't understand their explanation. On one hand they say you can purchase either the separate games as DLC or the Master Chief collection, but the DLC says it requires the Master Chief collection which comes with everything already including the anniversary editions. I just started up my game and it's definitely got the anniversary edition of Combat Evolved on it.

Thanks TM for the comprehensive response.
I might just get the MC edition - as you say it seems like a good deal.