IGN Just released 6 remastered soundtracks for Halo 2 Anniversary. 5 of them are short previews and one is the full length remastered Halo Theme (Mjolnir Mix) with Steve Vai reprising his role – now with the name of Gungnir Mix!
Misha Mansoor’s 2 newly commissioned songs will be replacing Breaking Benjamin’s Blow Me Away and Incubus’s Follow in the Anniversary version. However, Blow Me Away and Follow will still be there in the classic version of the campaign – it’s your choice which to experience at the touch of a button!
IGN just released a video expressing their thoughts and experiences with Halo the MCC and within the video we got our first gameplay and glimpses of the Remastered Coagulation for Halo 2 Anniversary, now with the new name of Bloodline.
And as you can see…. There’s a Hornet on screen. No this is not Halo 3, this is Halo 2 Anniversary gameplay and it looks like in the anniversary version we’ll be able to use the hornet! This makes me wonder what other additional vehicles have made their way over to the Anniversary multiplayer.
We know that the assault rifle, silenced SMG, and other sandbox items like the mongoose have made it into Halo 2 Anniversary – as well as the Gungoose a brand new vehicle! Now you can add Halo 3’s Hornet to the mix!
Looking back at the footage you can see there’s a large bunker like structure in the middle of the map. There are also man cannons on top of the bases. And to the side of each base there’s a large metal bridge that was shown to us many Halo bulletins ago.
There’s no mention what the map’s dynamic element is but I’m speculating that it could be a river. The “path” that winds through the map seems deeper than before and leads all the way to the box canyons – and back when Warlock was leaked the map’s image in the menu system shows a distinctive blue color winding through the map which was not in the concept art released back in RTX.
As part of IGN First, IGN announced that Warlock will be the 6th and final remastered map for Halo 2 Anniversary.
The remastered Warlock, now called Warlord now joins
Ascension now called Zenith
Coagulation now called Bloodline
Zanzibar now called Stonetown
Sanctuary now called Shrine
And, Lockout now called Lockdown
Warlord has a few changes beyond the graphical remastering and amazing skybox – jump boxes and additional minor pieces of cover have been added to the map. At the moment, no mention of a dynamic map element like the other remastered maps for Halo 2 Anniversary
IGN just announced that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be the IGN First game for the month of October. They’ll be revealing footage of all 4 games within the collection and revealing the 6th and last remastered map for Halo 2 Anniversary – which is rumoured to be Warlock. IGN’s coverage will begin on October 6th with content every weekday and on Oct 22nd they will have a livestream with Halo 2’s original multiplayer lead designer Max Hoberman.
Along with this announcement IGN posted a trailer which had a few seconds of new remastered cinematics for Halo 2 Anniversary.
We get to briefly see Sergeant Johnson delivering the scorpion tank during the Metropolis mission, followed by Tartarus using his Fist of Rukt gravity hammer to capture 343 Guilty Spark after Arby killed the Heretic, and then finally Master Chief running outside of the temple after killing the Prophet of Regret as a Covenant fleet fires upon the temple.
Now Blur Studios is in charge of remastering Halo 2 Anniversary’s cinematics for the Master Chief Collection. The remastered cinematics won’t be a 1 for 1 recreation of the originals but that’s because Blur has added their own tiny spin to them and they’ve been extended bringing the total length of the cutscenes to around 1 hour. There will also be brand-new prologue and epilogue cutscenes that will act as bookends and these will provide some details and story elements for Halo 5: Guardians.
Blur Studio has worked with Halo in the past, producing Halo 4’s Scanned Trailer and the cinematics for Halo Wars.
Now when you pick up Halo: The Master Chief Collection and go to play Halo 2 Anniversary’s Campaign you will have to make a choice of which cinematics you want to experience – original or remastered – so choose wisely as you won’t be able to switch between them on the fly like you can with the graphics and sound.
It appears that Warlock will be the 6th and final remastered map for Halo 2 Anniversary. A leaked photo surfaced today apparently from the Tokyo Games Show convention – which just wrapped up – showing a section of the Halo 2 Anniversary Custom Games menu screen; and in the list of maps the concept art for Coagulation appears on the left, Shrine – the remastered Sanctuary on the right, and in the middle we see an image which can be the for map Warlock – now with the new name of Warlord. You can see Warlock’s iconic ramps and circular center structure in this tiny map image.
This would be the 3rd rendition of the map – first appearing in Halo CE under the name of Wizard and then remade in Halo 2 as part of the Bonus Map Pack in 2005.
The Tokyo Games Show has just wrapped up and I would expect that 343 Industries will have the official announcement and reveal for the remastered Warlock very soon – perhaps at EuroGamer Expo, now known as EGX, which kicks off September 25th.
If this is true, which it appears like it really is – Warlord, the remastered Warlock will be the 6th and final remastered map for Halo 2 Anniversary. Joining alongside Ascension (now called Zenith), Coagulation, Zanzibar, Sanctuary (now called Shrine), and Lockout (now called Lockdown).
Of course all of Halo 2’s original maps will be playable in Halo 2 classic multiplayer in the Master Chief Collection. In terms of Halo 2 Anniversary maps we’ve yet to hear the remastered names for Coagulation and Zanzibar – and we’ve only seen concept art of the remastered Coagulation.
What do you guys think of having Warlock as, most likely, the final remastered map for Halo 2 Anniversary? Leave your thoughts in the comment section down below!
Check out the new gameplay footage of the Cairo Station and Delta Halo missions from Halo 2 Anniversary’s Campaign. Halo 2’s campaign is receiving the Anniversary treatment this November 11th as part of the Master Chief Collection. It will feature remastered graphics, remastered weapon sounds, a remastered soundtrack, and will run at 1080p and 60fps. Of course you’ll be able to instantly switch to classic mode and relive the campaign as it was 10 years ago – but this time in 1080p and 60fps. Enjoy!
Also a few new screenshots from the remastered campaign have been released!
Check out the gameplay reveal of the remastered Zanzibar for Halo 2 Anniversary. We also have our first glimpse of the highly anticipated Gungoose, a new mongoose with guns!
343 Industries also released eight new screenshots for the remastered Zanzibar.
Frank O’Connor, Dan Ayoub, Kiki Wolfkill, Paul Libson and Max Hoberman hosted the Halo panel at this years Pax Prime.
They unveiled a new ViDoc for Halo: Nightfall, talked about the Halo Channel, the remastered soundtrack for Halo 2 Anniversary, the remastered weapons sounds, broke down the design concepts for Lockout and it’s newly remastered version Lockdown for Halo 2 Anniversary, and showed off a demo of Halo 3 running on Xbox One at 1080p and 60 fps.
343 Industries talks about the setting and challenges Agent Locke will face in Halo: Nightfall, a new digital series launching in November and comes with Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
343 Industries showed us the classic and remastered weapon sounds in Halo 2 and Halo 2 Anniversary at Pax Prime 2014
Get a first look and some tips for the remastered Lockout for Halo 2: Anniversary, part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, from Andy “Bravo” Dudynsky.
Here’s the first look at Halo 3 campaign running on Xbox One from the Halo: The Master Chief Collection at Pax Prime 2014.
GameSpot and 343 Industries just announced that Lockout will be one the six remastered maps in Halo 2 Anniversary. Lockout joins Ascension (now called Zenith), Coagulation, Zanzibar, and Sanctuary (now called Shrine). The 6th map is still unknown.
The remastered Lockout is now called Lockdown and was playable at Pax Prime 2014. The map features 3 stalactites that can drop down after a few bullets and kill any enemies in the area. They’re located on Battle rifle tower, top mid, and behind sniper rifle tower. The glass in the center is also breakable and can allow players to drop down. The glass takes a lot before it can break, about 4 grenades, and eventually respawns after a certain amount of time. The stalactites do not respawn.