If you read my recap of Microsoft’s E3 press conference, you already know I’m really excited for the new Halo games that were announced. However, after reading a bit more, my excitement for Halo: CE Anniversary is a bit more subdued.

Since the press conference, a bit more news about the title has come out:

First, it is only a graphical remake. They didn’t touch the gameplay, physics, AI, etc. This bothers me simply because I wanted to play Halo: CE as if it were made in 2011. I don’t want to play 2001 Halo with 2011 graphics. That doesn’t really excite me. Apparently you can also switch back and forth between the old and new graphics. Cool? Sure. What I wanted? No.

Second, the multiplayer maps that they spoke of so highly in the trailer? They’re for Halo Reach. Yep, theres no online multiplayer for Halo: CE besides co-op. No wonder all the multiplayer footage looked like Reach!

With those two tidbits, I’m not nearly as excited as I was earlier. The one bit of good news is that it is supposed to be a “budget” title. Then again, ODST was supposed to be “budget” too and look what happened there. Hopefully they realize that this isn’t worth a full disc release and make it downloadable or something. I’d much prefer that over a physical copy of a 10 year old game that they just reskinned.

Halo 4 on the other hand… still REALLY excited for that