As part of 343 Industries’ ongoing mission to bring all of the Halo titles to the PC, they’ve announced that Halo 2: Anniversary will be released for the PC as of today. That’s right, one of the most epic Halo titles of all time is set to grace (again) the PC as part of the Halo: Master Chief Edition. For a bit of trivia, this would be the second time Halo 2 arrived for the PC, with the first time being with Halo 2 Vista.
Here’s when you can play Halo 2 on PC
Normally when Microsoft releases a game, it’s usually during the afternoon. That way by the time everyone gets home from a busy day at work, they can sit back and enjoy the game. However, we’re living in the COVID-19 pandemic, so things are a bit different. To not completely cripple everyone’s internet, Halo 2: Anniversary is being released much later than normal. So if you were looking forward to playing it today, you’ll be waiting longer than normal.
Halo 2 will launch at the following times if you’re located in North America.
- 8 PM PDT
- 10 PM CDT
- 11 PM EDT
Expect some issues
While Halo 2 is heading back to the PC, 343 Industries has mentioned that this release will include many issues that remain to be ironed out. Below you can see the vast number of issues that will affect the game. At the very least they’re being upfront about the issues and we know they will be addressing those in the future.
Global
- Settings saved in the flight are saved in the same file as used with retail MCC on PC
Campaign
- On Xbox in Co-op multiplayer, the HUD will become off centered when zooming in
- Terminal videos default to English only
- In-game audio plays while viewing terminal videos
- Subtitles are not present in campaign gameplay
- Subtitles are out of sync with audio when viewing cutscenes
- Users on AMD hardware may encounter missing and/or flickering textures across campaign (such as the Elevator on Oracle)
- Oracle in has several graphical issues including around glass flood tanks, clouds, and lightning effects
- Cinematic audio for in Halo 2 and Halo 2: Anniversary is affected by different audio option sliders.
- Enemy Elites do not dual wield in the Campaign
- Campaign cutscenes are much louder than gameplay
- Some Campaign missions have FPS drops on first launch of the mission
- When having multiple audio devices and swapping between classic and remastered graphics in cutscenes, audio can change output devices
- When using a Ryzen 5 and AMD GPU, large rectangle volumes appear on the mission Oracle
- Blur Cinematics and Terminal videos can have visual issues in non-16:9 aspect ratios as they were rendered at 16:9
- Gunfire sounds are missing from multiple weapons with the Scarab Skull active
- With the Scarab Gun skull active, a hardlock can happen when firing a plasma rifle after swapping weapons with an Elite
- Sentinel lights will display for a short time after death before disappearing
- Some environmental textures appear in lower than expected resolutions
- Music will loop incorrectly on Metropolis while in the Scorpion tank
- Using Nvidia GPUs on Classic graphics, various foliage environment LOD textures are missing
- Gravemind on co-op has hitches and with poor network conditions disconnects can happen
- When swapping between Classic and Remastered graphics music will change to different parts of the track
Halo 2: Anniversary
- Pixilation on shadows can be seen in Anniversary graphics
- Forge map lighting is not appearing correctly
- Performance lowers during games of 3 plots
- Texture resolution is displaying in low quality through various parts of the title
- When looking at the fan on Stonetown, FPS sometimes drops to 45
- Audio is missing when reloading weapons when done quickly
- Primary weapon audio decreases if you are shooting while picking up a secondary weapon
- Decals on the Gauss Warthog turret will detach from the model during the firing animation
- When using newer Intel drivers with onboard graphics, you cannot launch
- Performance in theater films is capped at 60 fps when framerate is set to unlimited
- There are no inversion options in the Settings Menu for dual wielding
- Lighting is inconsistent between Elite and Spartan armors
- There is visible stuttering on objects when strafing with Unlimited Framerate enabled
- Sound effects do not play for the player holding the oddball when playing Hot Potato
- The Hoplite armor is missing a rear armor piece in gameplay
Halo 2
- When using voice chat there is no notification that players are talking
- The music mixing is much quieter in MCC compared to the original
- Team Spawn system does not have parity with original
- Bullet registration is not in parity with the original
- The respawn timer is hidden by the territory capture meter in multiplayer
- Gamma values are excessively blown out compared to legacy
- Super bouncing does not mirror legacy
- Snow VFX do not match legacy behavior on snow weather missions and maps
- The sun is not rendering on most maps and missions
- When playing at higher field of view, textures will appear to pop in more frequently as the LOD distance is shortened
- Banshees turn faster when using Mouse and Keyboard
As one Halo fan to another, I can’t wait to give this a try on my PC. When it’s finally up and available to download that is. Of course, if you don’t already own Halo: The Master Chief Collection for the PC, you can still give the game a spin if you’re subscribed to Xbox Game Pass for PC. You can also pick up the game on Steam if you like having your PC games (well, mostly) in one place. The title also supports cross-play with both the Windows 10 and Steam versions, so you can still play with your friends.
Get ready to continue the fight all over again, or for the first time ever!
