Halo marks 10th birthday with art book

By Fred Dutton Published 11 May, 2011

Coffee table tome due out in October.

Microsoft is marking the Halo franchise's 10th birthday with a lavish 192-page hardback art book.

So grand it needs two titles, Halo: The Great Journey: The Art of Building Worlds collects over 400 images from Bungie's universe, encompassing early sketches to final concept art. Many of the original artists will be providing commentary on their work.

Published by Titan Books, it will be on shelves from 18th October priced at £24.99.

That's not all Microsoft has up its sleeve to celebrate its flagship FPS's big day. The inaugural Halo Fest is taking place during the annual PAX event in Seattle this August, while speculation is rife that a remake of Combat Evolved is in the works.

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About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (16) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • darkmorgado #1 1 year ago

    Must... resist... buying

  • sfp_noodle #2 1 year ago

    I'd prefer the Halo remake thank you MS. I was late to the Halo party. I only experienced them once I got a 360 as I didn't bother with the original Xbox. Whilst Halo 2 looked and played fine, Combat Evolved looked horrendous on my HD display. I simply could not play it. It remains the only Halo game I've never finished so I'd welcome a proper remake.

  • Iain815 #3 1 year ago

    Proper macho cover.

  • darkmorgado #4 1 year ago

    @sfp_noodle

    Erm, they used the same engine.

  • RhapsodyRules #5 1 year ago

    Holy shitballs, that's something worth the pre-order.

    @sfp_noodle

    Patience dude. It will take some months untill the Halo Fest event. And i bet that will be the biggest surprise MS has on their sleeves.

  • BuckEntropy #6 1 year ago

    @darkmorgado it's really not the same engine, Bungie completely rebuilt the rendering at least. But I can't agree at all about CE looking bad on the 360, I think it actually holds up much better than Halo 2, the up-res plus AA gives it a cleaner look than most current gen games. But I guess some people just can't deal with it cause it's too 'simple' or something.

  • peterfll #7 1 year ago

    Not sure I'd agree with Halo CE looking "horrendous" on the 360 - at all. Peoples attitudes about older looking games is a bit puzzling to me at times, especially when the game plays mechanics haven't aged badly (something else I think that applies to Halo CE). It's a bit like saying, "I can't watch Blade Runner as they didn't use CGI for the effects".

    Although like others, would welcome a proper HD remake.

  • J.C #8 1 year ago

    Getting fed up with all this halo hd remake etc. Where are the screenshots? Their is no real proof that it exists at all.

  • matrim83 #9 1 year ago

    Problem with Halo 1 on the 360 is not that it looks bad (it doesnt IMO) but the fact that frame rates are incredibly poor.

    I tried it split screen with a friend and on the second level itself (where you find the first group of downed marines) the frame rate would go into single digits almost every other minute. Pretty much unplayable.

    TBH though it might be better solo for all I know.

  • Subdominator #10 1 year ago

    @J.C: Because it doesn't. It started as a silly rumour last december because this year marks the 10th anniversary of Halo CE. Back then the rumour said "which will use the Halo Reach engine" which allready gave it away as BS. Because Bungie and 343 Industries seperately announced they would use their own tech to power future games.

    Business wise it makes no sense at all for Microsoft. They have Gears 3 this year. And there are games like Battlefield 3, Rage, Call of Duty. I'm not saying there'll never be a Halo remake, in fact I think that the rumour got 343 thinking it might be a good idea. But it's not coming out 2011. It all depends on when the new Xbox is supposed to come out. If that comes in 2013 they will switch Halo 4 as a launch title and cash in on the existing hardware with a remake late 2012. Because they still need a blockbuster for next year and so far it has always been Halo or Gears (then again there is still that mystery Gears project that Epic once teased, wanted to present at ... Comic-Con? ... and got pulled back from Microsoft. Gears Kinect or whatever.).

    If the next Xbox doesn't appear before late 2014 they will release Halo 4 in 2012 and have Halo 5 as a launch title or one year after launch. But then there won't be a remake anytime soon. If you want to experience Halo CE in HD just play the PC version.

  • RealityCheque #11 1 year ago

    As long as the art doesn't include stuff from the awful graphic novel or some of the worse animated shorts. There have been some truly dire bit of Halo art that don't fit at all with the vision and style of the games.

  • rob_of_the_robots #12 1 year ago

    "especially when the game plays mechanics haven't aged badly"

    Does that say something about how good CE was for it's time, or that the genre hasn't moved on much over the last 10 years? Maybe a bit of both I think.

  • coolbritannia #13 1 year ago

    Halo is perfection. Trying to move on the Halo gameplay is like trying to add autotune to The Beatles.

  • the_inchworm #14 1 year ago

    Halo doesn't need a remake. I played the original not long ago on the 360 and it is still total perfection. Best FPS ever.

  • MaFlippinHeadHurts #15 1 year ago

    I reckon Microsoft will release a new Halo game in 2012…….I’ll be pi$$ed off if they don’t!

    ….and it better have Master Chief back in there!

  • BuckEntropy #16 1 year ago

    ^And you know what? That's easily my biggest disappointment with Sony, they've spent this entire generation hunting XBOX's demographic...

    Ahh well, there's still Last Guardian at least.