Wish we have a way to mod the graphics of CEA. Literally the only thing I have a problem with in CEA is Halo and 343 Guilty Spark. I have no problems with the other stages and found them to have a uniquely 2010s charm.
@@realmarkinator I agree. If we have a way to mod 343 GS, and all the Forerunner structures and their lighting, it'd look perfect IMO--Not the same but still unique and largy accurate nonetheless. I don't mind different looks of Elites or slightly changed look of weapons.
Keyes activating the annalise mode at 14:38 is just a call back to yelling "xbox turn off" in a public match 100% should have kept that in the retail game
The lighting visuals for the environment from the betas felt somewhat better than the final release. But it’s really cool to see an analysis of multiple anniversary builds. Not only that, it’s the first time The Vengeful Vadam gets to analyze multiple betas for a Halo game produced by 343 Industries.
Been watching these analysis videos for years now and kind of find it a comfort series for me, I have been seriously looking forward to this and I'm loving it so far! Thank you!
One correction I will make is that these builds aren’t necessarily “beta” candidates. Given our timeline, these builds were more of the post-reveal pre-Alpha. Due to the amount of contributors, and various per-vendor milestones, I’m not sure that we declared a conventional, “meets definition” Beta until nearly September. So many pipeline gotchas, tools we needed to create to align models to geo. We were always referencing an original Xbox setup, and comparing behavior. Whether or not we fixed everything was another story. I continued championing things we flagged in 2010 into MCC in 2013… all the way 2018 😅
Something I've wondered about CEA if you don't mind, I dug up a few audio clips of laughing that are present in at least the 360 retail version; do you remember what they were intended for? Names appear to be "vo_laugh_01" thru 04
I am glad you adressed the Kinect. That was a thing that was forgotten when Halo CEA came to MCC and later PC. I really liked how you could scan every item in the game.
Saber was really struggling with lighting and textures. In the early beta lighting look much better than in retail and it got worse with every newer beta. I don't know who was calling the shots here but anniversary lighting and textures feel over engineered in many ways. Like someone was telling them its not "modern" and "detailed" enough
It’s honestly so interesting how much more Reach inspired the June 28th build was at that point tbh!! :0 Just not with the Reach AR and Pistol but also the Shotgun having its red iron sight lights and yellow stripe on the stock!! Even the Marines look more different in the June build having a white outfit color and still using the backpackless variant of the Reach army trooper too, hell even the new Human flood combat form that was made for CE Anniversary based on the Reach army trooper model was also accurate to them in the June build too!!!
I believe thats due to them straight porting over massive amounts of reach assets in bulk then working on it as time went on rather than them being inspired by reach
Hey Vadam! Awesome to see you back again with another Halo Pre Release Analysis! You do a phenomenal job! That 2 part halo ce 1749 was insane! Maybe you can look into Halo 4 for your next instalment for this?
Out of all of the places I was expecting a Beta Multiplayer title screen to take you, I wasn't expecting an *online-only* (especially Xbox LIVE only) chat room, but I guess they were experimenting?? Seriously I am so confused why that of all things.
21:42 Not sure if this sounds like nitpicking, but I just realized that the magnum on the June 24th build had a slightly different firing sound sound, probably using the original CE Magnum sound source.
idk if you omitted this on purpose but i just wanted to add that based on my bit of experimenting the debug menu can be loaded on the mainmenu using LB+RB buttons on the July 08 build onwards. On the other hand, great analysis, i’ve been looking forward to this so much!
I could have sworn I heard somewhere that they were going to give all of the Grunts their Reach Ultra helmets to mimic the old face-strap design their gasmasks used to give them.
In Reach ALL grunts were going to have a helmet you would have had to shoot off first, not just the Ultras. It was scrapped as it made the gameplay "miserable".
It might have been discussed at one point, but our main edicts were: 1. Hitbox profile With the graphics switching, the silhouette shouldn’t leave extra “whiff space” where bullets look like they land, but don’t. 2. We’re picking up post-Reach, so the enemy types should align with their similar counterpart/rank. 3. Split the difference between the two. Align a hitbox, but try to keep colors and distinctive messaging/colors similar. If something like monocle lights (think Jackal snipers, even though they aren’t in CE) helps indicate a priority target, make sure *something* still indicates that.
I despise Anniversary for what it did to my most cherished and favorite game; but I will happily watch this analysis. And proudly leave a like because the quality of your videos are spectacular!
23:11 The Needles are stored in the... Bottom plate? 23:19 Honestly that effect is SO cool. 25:12 I... Actually wouldn't have minded having this sound for the shotgun in CEA 25:15 Same for this one. 25:25 I like these bright decals better... Really gives the impression that something VERY HOT was just right there. 26:59 You mean to tell me they were actually planning or considering adding the FLAMETHROWER to CEA? 27:25 I like that, it's beefy and metallic... 27:32 This one too... 29:00 Reminds me of the sounds we hear from Cylon Raiders in the Reimagined BSG series when they fly by... 33:20 Uh, modmaster 'Vadam, sir... What about the hole in the model? 34:07 As Dorn would say. This is amusing. 34:49 I think they're using the UNSC Army models as placeholder here... Which would be strange given Reach DOES have Marine models they could have used... 35:01 That is horrifying, kill it now. 35:07 It's a nice look. 35:33 I kind of like him in actual combat gear, it makes more sense for him to be wearing some actual armor for a mission like this.
Allow me to elaborate! TH-cam *had* been around for quite a few years, but its prevalence in taking over the published Game Guides market hadn’t really hit full stride. It wasn’t a sentiment myself, or many of our younger staff shared. But the framing of it from our Lead Designer is that Skulls were meant to be found and played with, and putting them in crazy places you’d have to read text descriptions of to find (in a console generation before video capture was widely common) wasn’t the direction they wanted to take. Hope that helps.
In 2011 TH-cam was nothing more than a video depository. Nobody took the side seriously. In 2011 DSP was one of the most successful channels on the platform. I think this alone says more than enough how bad TH-cam was during that time
I might be way off but it seems like CEA started off as a quasi remake using the CE engine with a new graphics engine. It seems the graphics switch was a dev tool that let them make sure the new geo didn’t cause issues with switch, triggers, and encounters instead of remaking everything from scratch
Wonder if the Engineer Skull was something to do with vehicle health, since the icon for it in CE was a wrench too. Maybe it made Ghosts/Banshees invincible like the Hog and Scorpion, or at least able to repair over time?
My assumption for the Engineer skull being a wrench would be vehicles gradually healing over time, given vehicle health also has a wrench next to it. Just spit balling.
Not a bad guess. I thought since it got cut so early I figured it might've been something ambitious involving the H1 engineers but maybe it was something simple involving vehicles that just didn't end up being nearly as interesting as the other skulls.
@ it could have been that as well, which would be more work than just having vehicle health go up. I just wasn’t sure if the engineers even had AI attached to them, or if they were just static models
The fact that I've heard "this wasn't fixed until retail" so many times just shows me how half-assed and rushed CE Anniversary was. It's worded as if a lot of these fixes were absolute last minute changes. It really does give extra context as to why CE:A is the way it is. Who knows? Maybe a lot of games are like this and I'm just exposing my complete lack of knowledge on how game development works.
50k pizza moola keep up the good work
Thank you so much, Sofa
@@TheVengefulVadam Awesome Video
wish i had some money to give but this is my best
Hi Sofa
Man, the color grading on the old CEA builds looked significantly better than retail, keeping that cold color palette really made it feel more alien
Wish we have a way to mod the graphics of CEA. Literally the only thing I have a problem with in CEA is Halo and 343 Guilty Spark. I have no problems with the other stages and found them to have a uniquely 2010s charm.
@@realmarkinator I agree. If we have a way to mod 343 GS, and all the Forerunner structures and their lighting, it'd look perfect IMO--Not the same but still unique and largy accurate nonetheless. I don't mind different looks of Elites or slightly changed look of weapons.
hi lyta
I pray this CE remake emulates the lighting of classic
@@realmarkinator CEA makes The Library and other levels playable just for the fact they have arrows on the ground.
I got to admit snowing inside the Forerunner structures is an aesthetic I didn't know I liked.
You'll probably like playing quarantine zone from halo 2 or sacred icon
Idk why 343 make all their forerunner structures look like dull silverware when its supposed to be ancient and unique like Bungie had it
Keyes activating the annalise mode at 14:38 is just a call back to yelling "xbox turn off" in a public match 100% should have kept that in the retail game
Nice pfp
Ok, I love the idea of Chief just holding an entire Sentinel and firing it's beam.
he DOES, in fact, have that dog in him. he absolutely would.
The lighting visuals for the environment from the betas felt somewhat better than the final release.
But it’s really cool to see an analysis of multiple anniversary builds. Not only that, it’s the first time The Vengeful Vadam gets to analyze multiple betas for a Halo game produced by 343 Industries.
It very much depends on the area imo.
Some areas look way better, some have better overall VIBES, and some I think the final did better.
I can't believe I've been a fan of your content for nearly a decade. Been with your channel since the SPv3 2016 build
Really happy you’ve stuck around for as long as you have! ❤️
My 2010 version is happy to see one of its dreams come true.... Thank you for bringing us this masterpiece of analysis. 😭🙏
7:05 Rythaze art spotted. great video man, LOVE this series
Awesome video!
Thank you so much, Unseen Halo! This means a lot to me!
i love this series keep it going
Been watching these analysis videos for years now and kind of find it a comfort series for me, I have been seriously looking forward to this and I'm loving it so far! Thank you!
Aww, glad to hear my vids are so comfy for you 😊
I finished the video, thank you for making it Vengeful Vadam! Wonderful content you make
keep up the good work and also I enjoyed Halo 2 Uncut
Highly appreciate it, Devyn!
16:16 Masterz is pumping his fist over this right now
Lmao. Dude is such a weirdo
I love these retrospectives. Hope the best bro!
16:17
Accidental wincest
Ao3 breaching containment
its so nice to see beta builds of non muiltiplayer stuff. CEA development is very cool, they worked very hard to get the game in the state its in
One correction I will make is that these builds aren’t necessarily “beta” candidates.
Given our timeline, these builds were more of the post-reveal pre-Alpha.
Due to the amount of contributors, and various per-vendor milestones, I’m not sure that we declared a conventional, “meets definition” Beta until nearly September.
So many pipeline gotchas, tools we needed to create to align models to geo.
We were always referencing an original Xbox setup, and comparing behavior.
Whether or not we fixed everything was another story.
I continued championing things we flagged in 2010 into MCC in 2013… all the way 2018 😅
Something I've wondered about CEA if you don't mind, I dug up a few audio clips of laughing that are present in at least the 360 retail version; do you remember what they were intended for? Names appear to be "vo_laugh_01" thru 04
I am glad you adressed the Kinect.
That was a thing that was forgotten when Halo CEA came to MCC and later PC.
I really liked how you could scan every item in the game.
It's oddly satisfying to use the scan feature lol, also spamming "Lightning Bolt" to throw grenades.
@TheVengefulVadam Yes for real lol. It always stuck with me how we didn't had the library menu with the scanned 3D models in MCC 😭
Can you use a Xbox One Kinect on CEA for the 360 via backwards compatibility?
@@banishedepsilon1802yes
yo that bathroom break made me realize I actually had to go
One hour full of PEAK FICTION
Honestly this gave me a lot more respect for this game.
Saber was really struggling with lighting and textures. In the early beta lighting look much better than in retail and it got worse with every newer beta. I don't know who was calling the shots here but anniversary lighting and textures feel over engineered in many ways. Like someone was telling them its not "modern" and "detailed" enough
26:28 I love how no matter the rendition Halo 1’s fuel rods are always cursed to have some mistake in their textures
It’s honestly so interesting how much more Reach inspired the June 28th build was at that point tbh!! :0
Just not with the Reach AR and Pistol but also the Shotgun having its red iron sight lights and yellow stripe on the stock!!
Even the Marines look more different in the June build having a white outfit color and still using the backpackless variant of the Reach army trooper too, hell even the new Human flood combat form that was made for CE Anniversary based on the Reach army trooper model was also accurate to them in the June build too!!!
I believe thats due to them straight porting over massive amounts of reach assets in bulk then working on it as time went on rather than them being inspired by reach
Quality as always. Such attention to details and the little differences.
Interesting to see the development.
Excellent video Banshee Master!
Good to see you still making good content man love you videos and this was a good one
Congrats on the credits for the H2 e3 demo release
Thank you!
19:40 now I'm imagining Elites chilling on the battlefield watching videos on their plasma rifle
awesome video and congrats on 50k subs!
i love your analysis videos
i love u more vengeful vadam
Awesome video homie!!
You always bring me to such nice places.
3:54 Gonna be completely honest, I like this logo better than release.
I’m a simple man.
I see a Vengeful ‘Vadam upload, and a beta analysis at that, I sit and watch it while I eat dinner.
16:17 Didn't know the Spv3 devs worked on this
This is awesome to finally learn about. Thanks vadam!
Congrats on 50k🎉🎉🎉 now on to 100k
god i love alpha and beta builds this stuff is so cool
0:45 this is how the mission should have looked
Yeah it looks pretty
Our lord and king has returned with another glorious video!
I was legit holding in a piss when the bathroom break came up 😂
good timing with the bathroom break lol
Hey Vadam! Awesome to see you back again with another Halo Pre Release Analysis! You do a phenomenal job! That 2 part halo ce 1749 was insane! Maybe you can look into Halo 4 for your next instalment for this?
I hope we get Halo 2 Anniversary beta builds to look through at some point, i love your breakdowns of these betas.
Out of all of the places I was expecting a Beta Multiplayer title screen to take you, I wasn't expecting an *online-only* (especially Xbox LIVE only) chat room, but I guess they were experimenting?? Seriously I am so confused why that of all things.
Full Analysis of the Halo Beta series is back!
21:42 Not sure if this sounds like nitpicking, but I just realized that the magnum on the June 24th build had a slightly different firing sound sound, probably using the original CE Magnum sound source.
45:29
Younger me would have disliked this but older me rn.. this is actually beautiful.
idk if you omitted this on purpose but i just wanted to add that based on my bit of experimenting the debug menu can be loaded on the mainmenu using LB+RB buttons on the July 08 build onwards. On the other hand, great analysis, i’ve been looking forward to this so much!
It’s not exclusive to the builds. Retail can do this too by modifying the executable to be used in debug mode.
The amount of time and effort theses must take
Really good job man.
Thank you Devon Smith!
Thank YOU, Pvt. Dubbo!
dear god he's back
I could have sworn I heard somewhere that they were going to give all of the Grunts their Reach Ultra helmets to mimic the old face-strap design their gasmasks used to give them.
In Reach ALL grunts were going to have a helmet you would have had to shoot off first, not just the Ultras. It was scrapped as it made the gameplay "miserable".
It might have been discussed at one point, but our main edicts were:
1. Hitbox profile
With the graphics switching, the silhouette shouldn’t leave extra “whiff space” where bullets look like they land, but don’t.
2. We’re picking up post-Reach, so the enemy types should align with their similar counterpart/rank.
3. Split the difference between the two.
Align a hitbox, but try to keep colors and distinctive messaging/colors similar.
If something like monocle lights (think Jackal snipers, even though they aren’t in CE) helps indicate a priority target, make sure *something* still indicates that.
The fact I can hear the Halo main menu music when its not there is pretty scary
I reckon the engineer skull was probably a test for adding skulls to anniversary
19:31 i could imagine the meme of "boring ahh halo ring" with Family Guy playing on the weapons
I despise Anniversary for what it did to my most cherished and favorite game; but I will happily watch this analysis. And proudly leave a like because the quality of your videos are spectacular!
I will always love 'smaller than it looks' Halo Ring.
When the world needed him most, he returned.
Hooray for another Vadam video upload! 😁
I’m working on 100% this game getting all of the achievements
"The Library only consists of a T-posing Elite."
THE SUPERIOR BUILD.
23:11 The Needles are stored in the... Bottom plate?
23:19 Honestly that effect is SO cool.
25:12 I... Actually wouldn't have minded having this sound for the shotgun in CEA
25:15 Same for this one.
25:25 I like these bright decals better... Really gives the impression that something VERY HOT was just right there.
26:59 You mean to tell me they were actually planning or considering adding the FLAMETHROWER to CEA?
27:25 I like that, it's beefy and metallic...
27:32 This one too...
29:00 Reminds me of the sounds we hear from Cylon Raiders in the Reimagined BSG series when they fly by...
33:20 Uh, modmaster 'Vadam, sir... What about the hole in the model?
34:07 As Dorn would say. This is amusing.
34:49 I think they're using the UNSC Army models as placeholder here... Which would be strange given Reach DOES have Marine models they could have used...
35:01 That is horrifying, kill it now.
35:07 It's a nice look.
35:33 I kind of like him in actual combat gear, it makes more sense for him to be wearing some actual armor for a mission like this.
20:14 I honestly like that so much better than the retail sound we got
25:12 that too
The age of internet videos was still young in 2011? TH-cam was already 6 years old and popular at that point idk what he meant by that.
Allow me to elaborate!
TH-cam *had* been around for quite a few years, but its prevalence in taking over the published Game Guides market hadn’t really hit full stride.
It wasn’t a sentiment myself, or many of our younger staff shared.
But the framing of it from our Lead Designer is that Skulls were meant to be found and played with, and putting them in crazy places you’d have to read text descriptions of to find (in a console generation before video capture was widely common) wasn’t the direction they wanted to take.
Hope that helps.
In 2011 TH-cam was nothing more than a video depository. Nobody took the side seriously. In 2011 DSP was one of the most successful channels on the platform. I think this alone says more than enough how bad TH-cam was during that time
Man wish the reach pistol model stuck I loved the dark shade to it.
Yoooo, a John Halo shoutout! 🎉
I might be way off but it seems like CEA started off as a quasi remake using the CE engine with a new graphics engine. It seems the graphics switch was a dev tool that let them make sure the new geo didn’t cause issues with switch, triggers, and encounters instead of remaking everything from scratch
Seeing how alot of geometry in the betas are way mismatched with the final game and classic graphics really messes with your head 😵💫
These videos are cool I've watched them all
i made popcorn before watching this
I like the thinner reach model for the magnum more, despite being less accurate
I actually think the june 24th build AR sound was kinda cool. Actually sounds like a real gun.
He's back with the milk
am i tripping or do some parts of levels and some lighting effects look way better than the final version?
yeah, it seems like they actually downgraded things in later builds
I arrive just in time!!
I actually don't hate CEA like people do nowadays
Wonder if the Engineer Skull was something to do with vehicle health, since the icon for it in CE was a wrench too. Maybe it made Ghosts/Banshees invincible like the Hog and Scorpion, or at least able to repair over time?
I like some of the older builds better than the retail
comment for the cause. you worked at this and it was awesome. so i hope a comment and like helps. hootie hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you, brother ;u;
My assumption for the Engineer skull being a wrench would be vehicles gradually healing over time, given vehicle health also has a wrench next to it. Just spit balling.
Not a bad guess. I thought since it got cut so early I figured it might've been something ambitious involving the H1 engineers but maybe it was something simple involving vehicles that just didn't end up being nearly as interesting as the other skulls.
@ it could have been that as well, which would be more work than just having vehicle health go up. I just wasn’t sure if the engineers even had AI attached to them, or if they were just static models
Used to pray for times like these
Is there any Halo 2 aniversary prerelease as i am pretty sure it was only ever on mcc
31:51 Heretic detected!
miranda… is that you…?
Off topic, but will you ever cover the cut ark in halo 2? Also, I loved this video, I never realized CEA had such a turbulent development
18:48 I kind of like the M6G here...
I’m so excited ahhdoejeneoeejej
Thats right the original assault rifle they used looked like Reach
19:41 Important question, sir, can they run Doom?
Personally I think a much better job was done on halo 2 anniversary. Wonder what halo 3 would look like.
24:31 looks like an explosion in halo infinite 😢
The fact that I've heard "this wasn't fixed until retail" so many times just shows me how half-assed and rushed CE Anniversary was. It's worded as if a lot of these fixes were absolute last minute changes. It really does give extra context as to why CE:A is the way it is. Who knows? Maybe a lot of games are like this and I'm just exposing my complete lack of knowledge on how game development works.
The Vengeful Vadam
wish we could get a version of cea that looks closer to the july 21st build without all the jank
Damn, I can't believe they dropped the plot point of Keyes's schizophrenia from the early builds 😢