Halo MCC savaged by Gamespot for MP problems

I'm waiting now for a review update of TLOU remastered on PS4. An amazing game, no doubt about it but the MP was really boring. The single player was great but that's not what's important to GS I want every game re-reviewed and scores adjusted for MP since they shamefully hung MCC out to dry despite four amazing remasters of seminal games in one package all working perfectly at launch because the MP needed a f***ing patch.

Gaming journalism reaches an absolute all time low with this idiocy.

Personally, I'm glad they hung MCC out to dry, because it deserved it. Can't speak on the rest of the game reviews, but it's time this attitude of forgiving games for being LAUNCHED broken stops.

It wasn't broken. The MP was broken. There are four amazing remastered games to play on that disc all which work perfectly at launch I got it day one I preordered it. They actually delayed the score just for the MP which is actually a BONUS it is not an MP only game it never was. Now 343 announce a patch on Wednesday for the bonus FREE MP content they deliver a score of 6 it is fucking shameful.

The MP is HALF of the game! It's 15 gig that disc buyers have to sit around for hours to download, and it doesn't work! I love how you call someone calling them out for that fucking shameful. How about you call the current industry trend of releasing unfinished/broken games and then patching it afterwards fucking shameful...

If we were talking about the single player I would agree. The single player games are not broken at all are you going to call them out now for every review they've ever given to a game that has NO multiplayer because that's all you are interested in? Not a chance in hell you will do that because you'll look stupid. The importance on MP WHICH IS BEING FIXED is hilarious when their is so much single player content. 343 should have said **** the lot of you we'll put out 4 remastered games much much better than they were originally all of which got great scores on this and other sites and said 'we'll do MP later, maybe, cry more entitled bitches'.

Yes, the single player is fine, but the problem is, this game is a PACKAGE deal. Some people bought the game SPECIFICALLY for the MP, and for many, it doesn't work. It doesn't matter that it's being fixed; it doesn't work out of the box! That is impacting, regardless of the promise of it being fixed later. It's like when you order a pizza, and they fucked up your order. Sure, they're going to fix your order and deliver you a new one, but that still leaves you hungry, and probably wanting some kind of refund as well.

As for the bolded, I'm not sure what you mean. Call GS out for reviewing games negatively for not having MP? As in, games that weren't designed with MP from the start? That aren't being advertised with MP? If all I wanted was MP, why would I even have interest in those games they reviewed that had no MP? :?

Halo is not just an MP experience. I get that people who bought MCC JUST for the MP experience feel let down, I really do. But there are 4 incredible games on that disc that justify a 9 on their own. GS should have mentioned MP problems in their review but scored the game based on single player they do that with everything else but not Halo it seems. Rank hypocrisy. The real lesson here is don't fucking preorder. I preordered this game and I love it but I wanted the single player games I play online on PC.

My point is, if this collection was released as SP only it would get 9s and 10s across the board but because they went to such extraordinary lengths to include every fucking MP map for Halo ever and it hasn't worked out for them on launch some sites are slaughtering them for that forgetting what else is in there. 343 are probably incredibly dispirited given what they have achieved with this collection I don't expect gamers to cut them any kind of slack self entitled me me me morons that they have become in recent years but I do expect GS to exercise some kind of professionalism and not slap a shitty score on a truly iconic games collection because the MP patch wasn't delivered to their door in time for them to play Halo MP at lunchtime. Shameful.

@blueinheaven: The campaigns aren't working perfectly for me. My progress isn't saving. I'm being sent back a long way when I load my game. Hours of progress was lost today.

But... let's say that I wanted to buy the game SPECIFICALLY for the MP, and it doesn't work. I become dispirited and then get my money back on the game to play something else. Let's say I don't care about how incredible the four single player campaigns are. I give the game a 0, then. Remember when I said the game's a PACKAGE deal? That means EVERYTHING needs to be working, out of the box. The fact that HALF the game doesn't work and it got a 6 instead of a five is actually a good thing! And there you go again, shifting blame trying to call out GS as unprofessional when it's MS and 343 being unprofessional by releasing a shoddy collection. It's unfortunate that it got a 6, because like you said, the four SP campaigns it includes are amazing, but... again... MP. IS. HALF. OF. THE. GAME.

Okay dude I can solve all your problems instantly. Wait. Don't buy the game the day it comes out. Wait. Read the reviews, wait a couple of days. If you preorder you take a risk, a stupid risk, you should know better. Did I mention you should wait? But some people never will because if they did that they can't bitch and moan about everything they HAD to have it day one it didn't solve all the world's problems and deliver the perfect gaming experience and it's somebody else's fault.

Wait ONE day after release and read the reviews and player reaction online.

Any other questions?

THAT'S your solution? Can you imagine the commercials? "Don't pre-order GTA 5 for PS4 and XBox One now! There's a good chance the online probably won't work. GTA 5 is released 11/18/14, but you'll probably want to wait until at least the 25th to give us extra time to make sure the game works.... which we probably should have done before we released it."

Sorry, but the nature of the business is to make sure your product passes inspection before it's released. If you can't do it before launch, either push the release date back or suffer the consequences. Asking your consumers to wait to buy your game you've already released because you need more time to work on it is just fucking asinine. Stop excusing this.

Why would you buy Halo MCC specifically for the MP?

I think you need to take your fanboy goggles off TC, the game is broken no matter which way you look at it. It doesn't matter if part of the game works, the other (and arguably the more important part) doesn't and that's not acceptable in this day and age. It's quite obvious they rushed it out for release instead of taking their time and getting it right. You can defend them all you want but that doesn't change the fact that this game is broken and Gamespot did the right thing by picking them apart for it.

Instead of kissing ass more reviewers need to start doing this instead of giving free passes to games because we like them. Oh and The Last of Us wasn't a broken game, get your facts right before you start stupid and pointless threads.

Some people simply don't have the time to play by themselves and would rather play with their friends and family. Not a very hard concept to understand.

@blueinheaven: HaloClub haaahahahaha...get it hahaha.

Now you know how DriveClub fans felt when Kevin savaged such a great closed road simcade.

@blueinheaven:

I'm waiting now for a review update of TLOU remastered on PS4. An amazing game, no doubt about it but the MP was really boring.

I loved TLOU MP....it was amazing. I remember avoiding it after beating the game as I too didn't have any expectations on it, but boy was I wrong.

There were MANY articles on how overlooked and fun the TLOU MP is, which I will link a few below. If you were trying to make a point about critics and MP, using TLOU was a poor choice due to the critical acclaim of the SP and MP of the game.

Anyways, the Halo MCC had a lot of Singleplayer (SP) bugs as well.

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http://metro.co.uk/2014/08/10/why-you-should-play-the-last-of-us-multiplayer-readers-feature-4826519/

Why you should play The Last Of Us multiplayer

"The best bit of The Last Of Us is not its acclaimed story campaign, but its often overlooked multiplayer."

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http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2014/08/feature_why_you_should_try_the_last_of_us_remastereds_multiplayer_mode_on_ps4

Feature: Why You Should Try The Last of Us Remastered's Multiplayer Mode on PS4

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http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/06/24/why-the-last-of-us-multiplayer-is-awesome

IGN: Why The Last of Us' Multiplayer Is Awesome

In short, not playing The Last of Us Multiplayer is a mistake!...The Last of Us Online should NOT be missed.

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SHORT 3 MINUTE VIDEO ABOUT THE SPECTACULAR MP IN TLOU:

Correct, there are numerous bugs in the singleplayer modes of Halo MCC.

New Halo developer 343 apologized for the many Master Chief Collection bugs and issues.

I posted a list of some Singleplayer and Multiplayer problems found so far in the collection. I'll repost for you TC:

Game Specific Bugs & Single Player:

Halo CE:

- Audio in Single Player is flawed. Loops sometimes forever/overlapping/different tracks playing at the same time/wrong sounds (More..).

- Completed Single Player games sometimes don't save.

- When playing co-op campaign, it seems impossible to finish a mission. The game is always disrupted with disconnects (More...).

H2A:

- Campaign seems to randomly crash when attempting to start a mission.

- Campaign progress won't save.

- Campaign glitch preventing the story from being completed.

H3:

- One user reports that he can't play Halo 3 at all. No single or multiplayer. Game freezes at the loading screen. As this happens only with one user so far we need more people confirming this here...

Mixed:

- Cross game singleplayer playlist skips mission (specifically Mission 6 on "Normal")

- The Master Chief Collection sometimes responds poorly to snapping. This behavior has exhibited crashing, freezing, and persistent significant frame drops.

- These are only a few things that happened to me and the players I played with last night. Please add more.

Matchmaking bugs:

- If you switch between the playlists you lose your party most of the time. You can't take your party and often don't get asked if you want to.

- Sometimes the teams get shuffled during the loading screen. E.g If you are with friends in the "red" team while voting for the map it doesn't mean you are in the same team when the game starts. "Team formulation" seems very broken (More...).

- Colors/Emblems, etc. is not available in Matchmaking and you just get a generic/random emblem.

- It doesn't give priority to your party when creating the teams. I've played about 10 Team Slayer games and most of the time was in the opposite team of my friend.

- Big Team Battle description says it's 8vs8, but it's only 6vs6.

- Rank up bug that let's you get the highest rank via a Matchmaking/Custom Game bug. Details: http://redd.it/2lyo3c

Custom Game bugs:

- Team colours shuffle after each game. And because changing team colours is now a 4-5 step process this is very annoying.

- Settings shuffle if you make some changes after the game and you have to setup everything again.

- You can't join a game after it started. It always says it's full, even if it isn't.

- The game gives the host randomly to players depending on the game. We played a few H2A games with a perfect and lag-free host. When we switched to H2C with the same players the game was suddenly unplayable, because it gave the host to someone else.

Other problems / missing features:

- Game chat randomly doesn't work for some players. Many people meet in parties.

- Players randomly disconnect from the game.

- The game freezes sometimes during the loading screen. Often after a game ends.

- You can't see the ping in matchmaking or custom game. In any game. This is really important.

- Changing the team colour is now a 4-5 step process. We were able to press "x" and could right away change the team. Now you have to press "X" to open the roster. Scroll to your gamertag and select it with "A". Then choose "Change Color" from four different options with "A". Then select the colour and leave the menu again.

- Loading times for maps seem extremely long. It also doesn't seem to preload the map like it always did.

- The roster doesn't work right. It often doesn't show anyone or only a few of the people that are online and sometimes you can't invite players. Sometimes the game get's unresponsive/freezes after using the roster or a snapped app.

- You can't see anymore who's talking in game. This used to be an important feature in previous games. Now you are in matchmaking with new players and just have to "guess".

- You can't see who is wearing a mic unless they speak.

- Less customization options for game type settings in custom games.

- There should be an option to turn off (or at least lower the volume of) the menu music. It used to be only in the main menu in the past, but now it's everywhere and just far too loud.

- The roster always shows 1/16 players for every group/friend, even if they play with more people,

@JustPlainLucas: That doesnt make sense if you dont have time to play by yourself why even pic up the game at all. Also the problem is with finding players in matchmaking. Not people you already have in your friends list.

Somehow I doubt you even own this game...

So far I've played Halo CE and Halo2 AE., I haven't had any of the problems mentioned above. My only problems are that the videos wont play in the via the Halo Channel when you find those hidden terminals.

The game and everything that comes with it should be ready the day the game is out.

I just explained why in the first sentence. They would rather play with people online, so they don't spend time playing the single player. I did that with Quake 3 when I bought it on the DC. I never wanted to spend any time playing the single player, because I valued my gaming time more with other people.

And I do own the game. I'll admit to not trying the MP yet, though.

I agree with that but you stated playing with friends and family, you shouldn't have any problem playing with people that you are already acquainted with, it's just the matchmaking.

The reason why I asked why would somebody buy Halo MCC just for MP(yes I admit it was kind if bold) was because that I see it more of game for the fans that have new content and updated graphics, not only for the MP. I don't really see it like COD, Battlefield or other serious competitive MP games.

I kind of agree why TC is fired up(not with TLOU though,the MP is fun in that game) because games like NBA 2k and GTA got good reviews and they both had problems with the MP when those game were released, which they eventually fixed.

A 6 is harsh. The 4 single player campaigns are worth an 8 on there own, especially with all the remastered content for Halo 2. It does suck that finding multiplayer matches is almost impossible, but when it does work it has no lag or any other problems. Yeah does seem like an unfair score to me, especially when many others games launch with appalling multiplayer and the devs don't make any attempt to fix it, where 343 have been working around to clock to fix Halo:MCC.

Consider this, also. Some Halo fans have played the campaigns to death. They would have already played through the anniversaries of the first two Halos, and 3 and 4 wouldn't be enhanced by that much. MCC gives the opportunity to play all the MP maps in any order, so some Halo fans were simply looking to jump straight to those. You might be able to play online with your friends, but honestly, when has every single friend you wanted to play with been online at the same time? Matchmaking not only lets you play with a full group of people at any time, but you can also make new friends out of the process.

I haven't found many SP bugs so far.

I agree with your main point TC, that Gamespot is basically not being consistent with their reviews, as I've seen them ignore online launch issues and not even mention them in their review. The reviewer of MCC is actually my favorite reviewer of this website, and he has the right to his opinion. Maybe this is a new direction Gamespot is taking, and that's fine as long as they keep doing this from now on.

Your example (TLOU) was perhaps not the best one, because you are on the Xbox forum, and also I would avoid putting negative spins on Sony games as you could ruffle the feathers of some Sony fanboys, and they are rampant on this site. So I'll use a multiplatform game, Battlefield 4. This game launched to some of the worst online issues in the history of gaming, and yet got an 8/10 score here, and it is actually mentioned that when the review copy was played , they didn't encounter online issues. That's the kind of inconsistency I'm talking about, but the good thing is that in the MCC text review, it's pretty clear the main issue is just online.....so I think most Gamespot readers are smart enough to understand that this could very well be a temporary situation, and will wait to see what happens if they were on the fence.

That's good. Not too many, eh? I hope you continue to avoid most bugs, but you aren't done with the product yet.

My copy is sitting unopened while I wait for the fixes.

Setting aside your fanboy observations and how rampant you believe a segment of users is on the site (other sections of GS complain about how rampant fanboys are against their machines as well), the main problem with using TLOU in this thread isn't due to fanboys as it is TLOU MP was notable as an excellent addition to an excellent game.

I posted some proof for the TC as he declared TLOU MP was really boring and I cited evidence to the contrary above. I posted three links to drive the point home, but I'll just post one of those three below:

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http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/06/24/why-the-last-of-us-multiplayer-is-awesome

IGN: Why The Last of Us' Multiplayer Is Awesome

In short, not playing The Last of Us Multiplayer is a mistake!...The Last of Us Online should NOT be missed.

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Even if TLOU MP was "boring" (which according to users and critics is untrue), that's an opinion. MCC having bugs is a fact. The TC would do well to compare MP games with bugs, like BF4, instead of games he simply found boring.

Imagine: World of Warcraft MP is boring, therefore MCC collection review noting the bugs shipped in inconsistent! It was a flawed thread from the start.

Some fair and professional game critics went so far as to declare TLOU MP as better than the SP, and the comparison is certainly poor in comparison to shipping MCC having bugs and issues. It's a poor comparison, fanboys or not, between the two products, so the entire bit about fanboy population is irrelevant, especially to those that played TLOU MP or read the many reviews praising the MP. I've read in PC, PS, and Nintendo forums they say there are too many of X & Y fanboys as well, so perspective is vital and I understand we're in the Xbox forums, and in that, I agree comparing TLOU was poor also due to the fanboy factor...but that didn't really matter in this case since this thread was virtually fanboy free from the segment you were worried about feather ruffling.

As far as GS reviews? I've never liked the reviews for this site since the PS1/N64 reviews and found them inconsistent for a GREAT many years, save for Halo. Every single retail FPS Halo game released was a 9.0 or higher. MCC broke that trend, so in that, perhaps a new gaming fanboy segment is noticing inconsistencies, but rest assured they were already there (I could point to game reviews from 2000-2010) that were inconsistent.

I agree with your post for the most part, but I took exception at the fanboy angle since there is a much bigger problem with the TC's logic than the fanboy angle. I understand though, If I remember, you never completed TLOU (and therefore missed the MP), so in that it might be hard to relate to someone who has played it. It obviously would be hard to defend or acknowledge such a game without having any time with it.

I would liken the TC's logic to this: GeoW's MP component is boring, therefore the review should reflect that. Bioshock 2's MP is boring, therefore the game should be docked. MCC shipped with bugs and was docked points for the bugs and that is an issue. It doesn't make sense since I'm comparing what I find boring to a game shipping for $60 with MP and SP bugs. Just my take on it.

Heck, I don't like The Sims Online, but I know others do. I would NOT compare The Sims Online experience being "boring" to a FPS game shipped with MP bugs like BF4 or a game shipped with SP and MP bugs like MCC.

Anecdotal opinion MP games =/= Buggy MP games. BTW: I got the MCC myself, but I am saving it for when all these bugs blow over.

^ This. This right here. Battlefield 4 is the perfect example. Battlefield = multiplayer way more than Halo does. Problem here is that reviewers (no matter what video game journalism website) are caught in the various moods that effect all gamers. Opinions. Preferences. Expectations. Hype. Disappointment. Frustration at every game being released unfinished. New console honeymoon-bliss. ETC.

who cares about the scores lol :D

If we didn't care about scores we wouldn't be on Gamespot or any other gaming site. Don't act like you don't care just because Halo suddenly got a bad score.

I'm not too concerned about the multiplayer of Halo MCC. I'm having a blast playing back through the campaigns.

The campaigns had a lot of trouble/glitches too, but as you know, bugs are hit and miss depending. Some Singleplayer and Multiplayer Halo MCC bugs were fixed today.

IGN gave it a 9, metacritic has it in the high 80s....one guys opinion from this site does nothing for me. i know its a great game with epic multiplayer when it works.

But we're not on IGN or metacritic, we're on Gamespot - which is exactly what my comment indicates. It's very funny how people suddenly go "Oh who even cares about scores?" when their favourite franchise scores poorly.

I don't care about this site except for its forums, which are the best in the biz. The raters on this site are the laughing stock of the industry. Metacritic averages ALL the gaming websites reviews, not just 1 pissed off gamer who couldn't get his multiplayer to work. And when you average ALL the review sites you get a score of...http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/halo-the-master-chief-collection

My comment wasn't even directed at you to begin with - you just chose to butt in when not asked. Anyways It's funny how many websites gave this game a free pass only because it's "Omg Halo!!!!". Whether you like it or not the game was released broken and it deserved these poor scores, if it was any other game people would have ripped it a new asshole. Let's not give it a free pass only because it's Halo...

remember fallout 3 and its game breaking bugs? like literally "i just spent 5 hours on a quest and i froze and lost all my data" bugs. it still managed to get a 9 because it was a different reviewer. despite the 6 here for halo mcc I still feel it is the best shooter released all year, and for me my opinion is all that matters. not some random guy.

my point is you shouldn't hold someones review and a buy or not buy factor, because ALOT of 5s and 6s turn out to be great games. its like with movies, dumb and dumber and scarface got shit reviews and both became classics. alpha protocol was one of the best games last gen despite its shitty reviews.

Yes, my friend, I understand you shouldn't base your purchasers off one reviewer but the game in itself was a buggy mess when it launched. Even 343 came out to apologise on behalf of the game, that's a fact. Hell, I'll probably be buying the game myself when they fix It all. All I'm saying is people shouldn't be giving this game a free pass based off it's success - as for Fallout 3 (my favourite game of all time) that should of been reamed too for it's bugs and glitches although at the time I didn't encounter many.

Otherwise I'm sure the MCC is a great little package.

well i encountered many bugs in fallout, tear my hair out bugs. I still finished it and built a shrine to it, because it was just that good. all halo needs is a multiplayer fix, paradise is there behind the brush.

I agree with this,a lot of my progress is not being saved in singleplayer,very discouraging.It almost wants to make me give up on singleplayer,and multiplayer is still not working.I live in Quebec,Canada,and games for the Xbox One are not cheap,I guess like everywhere else.Maybe I wasted $80 on Halo:MCC.Not happy.

Darn, I was hoping the new patch would fix the broken Single Player of MCC. Guess I'm going to keep on waiting.

That's discouraging.