Halo 4 gets a few more days of testing, adds crossplay to Reach
A slightly longer-haul flight.
If there's been one small positive about this year, it's the reliable rollout of once console-locked Halo games on PC through Halo: The Master Chief Collection. With Halo 4 currently on the launchpad, 343 Industries have chosen to extend the game's testing ("flighting") period by another week, with the Insider client now testing crossplay support for Halo Reach.
Testing for Halo 4 kicked off just over a week ago, with 343 once again inviting all registered Insiders in on the pre-release flight. While expected to end on Tuesday, the MCC's October Update has pushed the end back to next Friday, November 6th.
If you're already in the test, there should be a small update to downloading bringing the MCC up to the latest Insider build. For the most part, not much has changed in Halo 4 - though there are a fair few small tweaks and changes viewable over in the Reddit patch notes, if you're interested.
What is new, however, is a handful of multiplayer and campaign maps for Halo Reach. This month's flight added crossplay support to Halo 4's competitive multiplayer, Forge and Firefight modes, with this week's update extending that offer to the MCC's PC debut. Like 4, Reach's campaign co-op doesn't appear to be included, though the update does include a few animation and framerate fixes that were bugging the Bungie prequel.
"Along with Crossplay and Advanced Graphics Options for PC, our Reach content features newly updated interpolation work to bring the title closer to our recent releases," 343 say in an Insider Support Post. "We’ve also implemented some fixes for the existing Halo 4 Flight content, additional information on these fixes can be found on our Halo 4 Known Issues page."
With testing wrapping up next Friday, I reckon it's only a matter of weeks until Halo 4 drops into the MCC proper. I've been putting some hours into the flight, and its a weird one - 343's first shot at the series has its share of improvements. Notably, plasma weapons that used to feel terrible now have a real punch. But it comes at the expense of a bloated plot, an overdesigned visual style, a naff new alien faction and a Warthog that feels just terrible. That, alone, is a crime.
Oh, well. At least 343 won't inflict Halo 5 on us PC folks.