Game News Fans have been dreaming of it for over 20 years! Halo 2’s iconic E3 demo will finally be playable this weekend, but there’s some bad news
Published on 09/11/2024 at 05:40
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If Halo is today considered one of Xbox’s major licenses (if not the most important), it is partly to Halo 2 that it owes its notoriety and influence. The second episode of this essential series of shooting video games was released on November 9, 2004. Today is the day he celebrates his 20th birthday. An anniversary that Microsoft and Xbox have decided to celebrate in a special way… with the first demo of the game.
Halo 2: a memorable E3 demo
Today marks the 20th anniversary of Halo 2. It was Halo Studios (previously known as 343 Industries) who decided to pay homage to it by making the lost Halo 2 demo from E3 2003 playable. of the game including new content. It is available through the game Halo: The Master Chief Collection and is only reserved for users playing on computer / PC. It is precisely in the form of a mod available on the Steam Workshop that the curious can try it out.
At the time, it must be said that the Halo 2 demo made noise. After the success of the first game (Halo: Combat Evolved), players are impatiently awaiting the sequel. Microsoft decides to invest heavily in the license. Especially since the color code of the latter (a palette of greens) is similar to that of Xbox. And it was in 2003, at the E3 show in Los Angeles, that it was possible to put the retina on the sequel. The demo impresses with its technical quality, its very magnificent graphics for the time and even its functionalities. Being able to kick a driver out of his car was also a real feat at that time.
A demo difficult to port on current media
The Halo 2 demo, at the time, was synonymous with technical prowess for the developers. Something they had to re-release 20 years later to bring to modern media. On the official Xbox blogit is the official screenwriter of the Halo series who explains:
That (having to deal with a version of the Halo engine that no longer exists). Even the original executable is difficult to use, because you need an Xbox development kit to run it, an increasingly rare piece of equipment, even within the studio. But now, in 2024, we have the tools developed by Digsite to analyze and automate the adaptation of old assets, as well as the knowledge to understand why Bungie built things the way they did in the demo.
The Halo 2 demo is not the only way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the game’s release. Several maps from the second opus have been integrated into Halo Infinite (the last opus released) through Forge mode. It is also in Forza Horizon 5, another exclusive license from Xbox, that players will be able to celebrate the anniversary of this cult game.
