Gamers mingled with Hollywood celebs Monday night at the famous Avalon Nightclub & Theatre located in the heart of Tinseltown. Microsoft hosted the party in celebration of the launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
The evening was star-studded, and early on took attendants to the actual stars for the premiere of Nightfall, a live-action sci-fi show executive produced by Ridley Scott. The six-part series felt like a cross between Scott’s own Prometheus and well, Halo. The cast, which includes Mike Colter, Christian Contreras, and Christina Chong were onstage to introduce the show which included the first two episodes (for owners of the game, the Halo channel will premiere a new episode each week). Nightfall is the second live-action Halo spin-off after 2012’s Forward Unto Dawn, which was released alongside Halo 4.
On the red carpet, Joel McHale showed off his swanky VIP card that granted him access to the new game via a redeem code. However, his kids are still too young to play such a violent game so McHale insisted that he’ll only be killing the Covenant after the little ones have gone to bed. He was also quick to point out that no one at Microsoft has ever asked him to voice any characters in the franchise. Although, since Sony owns Community (the new season will appear on Yahoo), we’ll probably never see Jeff Winger and Abed do a Red vs. Blue parody, anyway. Wayne Brady rapped about how he should be the first ever black Master Chief, while Marcus Scriber who plays Anthony Anderson’s TV son Andre on ABC’s Black-ish remembered playing Halo 3 back in 2007 (he was seven at the time). Other familiar faces that came ready to play: Michelle Rodriguez, Parks & Recreation’s Ben Schwartz, and Aisha Taylor.
The biggest star, of course, was the Master Chief himself, whose numerous accolades adorned the entrance and hallways. The original Halo was released in 2001, so there were quite a few markers in the timeline showing how each game shattered records. Better than that, however, were Master Chief lollipops.
Halo 5’s multiplayer was debuted at Halofest, and it looked fantastic.
Another big highlight: the Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer demo. It showed off new ways for players to traverse its sci-fi environments, including thrusting away from oncoming fire and pounding into the ground for a devastating attack. The beta, which will feature three modes and seven maps, is set to release Dec. 29th.
Nightfall and access to the Halo 5 multiplayer beta come with Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which brings the four previous Master Chief stories to a single disc for the Xbox One. Each game runs at a 1080p and 60fps. The standout is Halo 2, which has never looked better. The remastered version is much more impressive-looking than the one studio 343 Industries did for the original Halo back in 2011.
Also See: Halo: The Master Chief Collection Review
Dan Ayoub, the executive producer at 343 Industries Studio explained, “We wanted to do an event to celebrate everything Halo. We could have done just a box set of each game on separate discs, but this wholly unified experience gave us a unique opportunity to tie the Master Chief saga together with playlists and achievements.” The playlists give players who have already finished the games the chance to pick and choose what levels and what order they want to revisit, which simply wouldn’t be possible on multiple discs. Another cool feature is being able to look up an achievement, select it, and then start on its specific challenge no matter which game it corresponds to.
The amount of content in Halo: The Master Chief Collection is staggering, awakening the spirit of Halo shortly before Halo 5 buzz is sure to engulf the internet. This is just the beginning.
