343 Industries brings Christmas gift to its Halo: The Master Chief Collection players with new content update that adds Halo 4's Spartan Ops mode.
Apart from the Spartan Ops mode, players will also see improvements to the game for matchmaking, roster, custom games and many more.
The Spartan ops will have 10 episodes. It was one of the main features in Halo 4 and was a mission-based cooperative mode.
Moreover, players will be getting Halo 3: ODST, which is still in development as a DLC for The Master Chief Collection. The developer offered ODST as a gift to players to make up for the problems they suffered due to the game's issues with the multiplayer. However, TechnoBuffalo reports that players will not be getting Firefight mode of ODST. It will be running at 1080p and 60 frames per second.
The company also noted that many players have been asking question on the dedicated server support for Halo: The Master Chief Collection. It said that the dedicated servers were active and the company constantly keeps optimising it and improving the connectivity.
It said in the case where players will not be able to connect to the dedicated server, they will still be able to play on a peer-to-peer connection. But players may soon be connected to a dedicated server and they might not see the 'connecting to dedicated server' dialog. So they are not to think that if the dialog does not appear then they are not playing on a dedicated server.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection was released on 11 November 2014 exclusively on Xbox One platform.
Below are full patch notes of the new content update that rolled out on 22 December 2014 for Halo: The Master Chief Collection (Halowaypoint):
Spartan Ops:
- Added the entirety of Halo 4's Spartan Ops mode
Matchmaking:
- Made an update to make sure a match only starts when teams are even.
- Players will now receive a 'loss' when disconnecting before a round has ended.
- Made an update to include all split screen players in vote tally.
- Resolved an issue that caused players to become stuck "Joining Session."
- Resolved an issue where players could be dropped from matchmaking after disconnecting their controller.
General Multiplayer Updates:
- Made additional improvements to Halo: CE hit registration.
- Made an update to the "Halo 2: Anniversary Career Progress" page to ensure achievements are correctly tracked.
- Fixed an issue where it took a long time to join players that are in a Multiplayer lobby.
General UI/Menu Updates:
- Made additional improvements to Roster update times.
- Fixed Halo 3 game type text when viewing saved data in "My Files".
Halo 2: Anniversary Campaign:
- Fixed an issue where the 'Black Eye Skull' incorrectly prevented players from reaching checkpoints.
Campaign Playlists:
- Fixed an issue where cross-game playlists could fail to progress to the next level.
- Made several fixes to Campaign Playlist Carnage Reports.
- Fixed an issue where Halo 3 Cooperative Playlist progress would not save correctly when completing a mission.
- Made changes to ensure that Competitive Scoring and Timing are tracked correctly in Halo CE and Halo 2 Campaign Playlists.
Stats and Medals:
- Made updates to improve stat tracking.
- Fixed an issue where the "Steaktacular" medal would not be correctly awarded in Halo 3.
- Fixed an issue where the "Supercombine" medal would be incorrectly awarded in the Halo 4 Campaign.
Achievements:
- Made an update to ensure that the "Flaming Ninja Anniversary" achievement unlocks when prerequisites are met.
Control Layouts:
- Updated the Halo 2 "Boxer" Button Layout.
- Updated the Halo 4 "Legacy" Thumbstick Layout.
General Stability:
- Made several updates to improve overall game stability.
