Today, 343 Industries launched the seventh season of content for Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Dubbed Elite, Season 7 has visual improvements and modding tools for Halo: Combat Evolved, the long-awaited custom game browser, another Halo Online map, and new customization content as its highlights.
Starting with the big items, the classic graphics of Halo: Combat Evolved should now be much improved and authentic to the original Xbox release, with 343 tweaking fog and shader effects, original character models, active camo quality, and many other visual aspects.
Meanwhile, the improved modding support for the game arrives in the form of four programs containing powerful tools, as well as zip files containing level scripts and tag files that built the campaign and multiplayer levels. More information on these tools and how to download them via Steam can be found on a separate blog post here.
The new custom game browser is available for Halo: Reach, and 343 has made quite a few improvements to the experience since its original testing sessions. These include a higher character limit for session names, full sessions being moved to the bottom of the list, notifications for missing content, and voice and text chat improvements, among others.
Aside from the Season 7 cosmetic content such as Combat Evolved vehicle skins, Halo 3 Elite armors, energy sword colors, and more, the update also carries the Halo Online map Edge for matchmaking, a move to the Firefight modes that now appear in the Social Matchmaking section for better visibility, and a whole load of bug fixes.
The update weighs the smallest on Steam, coming in at around 13GB, while Xbox console and Microsoft Store users will find themselves downloading over 30GB. The complete patch notes can be read by heading here.
It has been quite a month for the next entry in the saga Halo Infinite as well. During E3, 343 Industries detailed a lot of information regarding the free-to-play multiplayer portion that will launch alongside the campaign, including the new personal AIs, Academy training system, customization, and more.
