New Halo 2 Anniversary cinematic screenshots released
343 Studios have today released brand new screenshots of the cinematic cutscenes from Halo 2 Anniversary. The gallery below shows a number of important characters from the game including the Arbiter, Sergeant Johnson and one of the Prophets, with each being given more detail than ever before. Earlier in the year, Blur and 343 released a cinematic trailer on YouTube showing off their updated graphics but these latest screenshots but them completely to shame. It is important to remember though that these screenshots are CGI and in no way represent the graphics of the game itself – we are probably still a long way off from having these kind of visuals during gameplay.
As part of the remastering of Halo 2 for The Master Chief Collection, with updates visuals, soundtrack and audio effects like with Halo: CE Anniversary, the visual effects studio Blur were hired by Microsoft to rework all of the original cutscenes in the title. The shot for shot remakes were built from the ground up by Blur to create a much more immersive story experience, giving players the chance to see characters from the series in a new way. While they have primarily worked in the movie industry they have previously the animation company has worked on producing trailers for games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Rocksteady Studios’ Batman: Arkham series.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection was first revealed in June at E3. It is a compilation of all of the Halo games that feature Master Chief as the primary protagonist, and so excludes Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST, including remastered versions of both Halo: CE and Halo 2. Both Halo 3 and Halo 4 will also get some graphical boosts though not to the same extent as the first two titles in the series. The collection includes every multiplayer map from all four games alongside the original multiplayer modes from each title. It is due to launch worldwide for the Xbox One November 11.