Fans of the original Halo: Combat Evolved game for the original Xbox game console will soon be able to play a new version of that classic first person shooter. A Twitter message on Microsoft"s Halo Waypoint service has announced that Halo Combat Evolved 10th Anniversary has now gone gold. The game is a graphical remake of the original 2001 sci-fi shooter developed by Bungie. The remake, which will also feature Xbox Live online co-op and multiplayer, was created by Microsoft"s 343 Industries along with developers Certain Affinity and Saber Interactive. It will ship for the Xbox 360 console on November 15, 10 years to the day that both the original Halo was released and Microsoft"s first Xbox console was launched.
Halo 10th Anniversary will also be the first Halo game that will feature support for the Xbox 360"s Kinect motion controller camera. IGN reports that the Kinect specific functions will be rather limited. Kinect"s microphone can be used by players for voice commands for in-game actions like reloading weapons, throwing grenades and switching between the game"s original graphics and the new revamped graphics engine. Voice commands are also used in the game"s single player campaign for what"s being called Analyze Mode. You can point your weapon"s target at things like items, characters, vehicles and others and say "Scan." The Kinect camera hears that command and places the object in the target"s view in your Library. You can then access your Library of scanned objects and read more info about them. You can used the Kinect gesture controls to manipulate the Library"s user interface.
For people who like to have things spoiled for them, the Halo Waypoint web site has posted all of the new Xbox 360 achievements that can be accessed while playing Halo 10th Anniversary. Meanwhile 343 Industries is working on Halo 4, the next all new game in the series. It will be released in the fall of 2012.