The long-rumoured Halo: Combat Evolved remake is real, having just been unveiled at the Halo World Championship in Seattle. It brings the 2001 Xbox classic into the world of 4K Unreal Engine 5 visuals on Xbox, PC and, most notably, PS5 in the series’ first-ever PlayStation release. (As the name suggests, though, it’s only the campaign with optional local/online co-op; no competitive multiplayer content is supported.)

I got to play a slice of the remake dubbed Halo: Campaign Evolved this week, and my impressions are… complicated. While Campaign Evolved certainly seems like a well-done remake from developer Halo Studios, its positioning in the Xbox ecosystem — and, by extension, the wider gaming landscape — leaves me feeling a bit cold.

First, let’s get the good out of the way: the game su

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