Halo 3 battle rifle coming to ODST Firefight on MCC, matchmaking too

Halo 3 ODST's Firefight is the best. Reach is good, but ODST is on a whole other level. It's a four-player co-op survival-fest with no equipment--just your wits, your weapons management skills, and silenced 2x scope pistol. Now 343 Industries reveals how it's completely revitalizing ODST's Firefight mode for MCC.

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Today 343 Industries confirmed some exciting news about Halo 3 ODST's Firefight mode on the Master Chief Collection, including new weapons, gametypes, custom games, and more. Halo 3's weapons are coming over to Firefight. This is a big, big deal that adds a new dimension of play.

343i says a lot of Halo 3's weapons are coming into ODST's Firefight that simply weren't available before. We'll see weapons like Halo 3's BR55HB cross over, and 343i teases a redacted weapon. What could it be?

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The devs also confirm online matchmaking will be supported in ODST's Firefight mode. This is also a big deal. ODST has never supported Firefight matchmaking with strangers; ODST shipped with Halo 3, which had PVP matchmaking. You always had to set up teams and invite people in order to play Firefight online with friends.

Custom Firefight will also be a thing. This is another feature ODST didn't have on Xbox 360--only Halo: Reach let you customize Firefight settings for wacky results and crazy gametypes. 343i is bringing Reach's level of customization to ODST's Firefight settings.

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Now the big question is whether or not gamers can keep the original ODST settings--no BR55HB, no wacky effects, etc--in online matchmaking, or if we'll be stuck with the new features. 343i says the legacy content will be preserved, but I'm wondering if this is only for solo/custom play.

Either way, this is a tremendously exciting time for hardcore Firefight fans like myself. I absolutely can't wait to check it out when ODST drops on the Master Chief Collection on PC with uncapped FPS, online matchmaking, challenges, and new weapons.

343i plans to start testing ODST sometime next month, so be sure to sign up as a Halo Insider if you're interested.

Players are going to be able to look forward to ODST's Firefight which will include all of the legacy content, meaning all 10 maps, all of the classic settings, variations, and then some. We've also conducted several upgrades across the board.

For the first time, we have upgraded the networking to an asynchronous networking and dedicated server model like what we have in Halo: Reach's Firefight. This represents a serious improvement over the networking model which is used in Co-op campaign gameplay.

The next big upgrade is matchmaking for Firefight. This will be comparable to what we have for Halo: Reach. Players can expect to see a survival themed option and an arcade themed option to support the newly introduced game variants for ODST's Firefight.

This is also something entirely new and will be introducing a lot of new game options that players may be familiar with from games across the collection.

Players can look forward to new options like customizing your starting weapons, movement speed, player gravity, time limit, set limit, number of lives, damage output, and more! They are not quite as advanced as Halo: Reach's Firefight options as far as customizing the contents of waves or enemy variety within a wave, but this will provide a substantial amount of customization of your experience like never before.

So this is something I'm working on right now. We have been able to add a couple new weapons into the mix for now.

Previously, you were limited to what was on the map and what enemies drop when you killed them. But now, you can spawn with a Spartan laser, a Fuel Rod, or whatever you want that is available. With these changes you have a lot more weapons at your disposal.

With this update there are definitely a couple of additional toys bundled in there that players will be able to play with.