Modders Intend To Recreate 'Halo 3' By Stripping Off 'Halo Online's' Microtransactions And Region Locking

Vistors Wait At The 'Halo: The Master Chief Collection' Exhibition Stand During The Gamescom 2014 Fair. — IN PHOTO: Vistors wait at the "Halo: The Master Chief Collection" exhibition stand during the Gamescom 2014 fair in Cologne August 13, 2014. The Gamescom convention, Europe's largest video games trade fair, runs from August 13 to August 17. Reuters

Despite being a veritable console seller, the original "Halo" eventually saw a PC release, and so did "Halo 2." However, no game in the franchise since the second instalment has made it to the PC. It seems that just two weeks since announcing the PC-exclusive "Halo Online," Microsoft is gradually learning why that was a bad idea. Just a day after modders leaked a pre-alpha copy of the game, there's already a tug of war going on between Microsoft and modders, who are determined to strip the game of microtransactions and region locking.

Earlier in the week, Microsoft had begun cracking down on unauthorised pre-alpha copies of the game uploaded onto GitHub by successfully issuing DMCA takedown notices. Soon enough, more copies of the 2.1GB archive containing the game popped up on various filesharing websites such as Mega. It must be noted that the leak comes before the game even reached the closed beta testing phase. The game was thrown open to public after two prolific modders going by the handles Gamercheat13 and Lord Zedd had somehow obtained the files from a user on 4chan's /v/ board.

VG247 reports that another hacker named Emoose used these assets to create a custom launcher called ElDorito, which allows the leaked code to be played like a normal unrestricted version of the game. The launcher is remarkable because it fixes two pivotal restrictions imposed by the free-to-play online FPS. Firstly, it is a version of the game devoid of any microtransactions and other gameplay as well as feature limiting factors. More importantly, it also defeats region locking and opens up the game to the rest of the world. Otherwise, the official "Halo Online" has been restricted solely to Russia, with no official word on whether it will be opened up for the rest of the world.

Speaking in an interview with TorrentFreak, one of the modders involved in the project named Woovie cited gamers' apprehension with the apparent pay-to-win elements interwoven into the game through microtranasctions as their motivation to leak the game. The other reason was the need to defeat the region restriction and make "Halo Online" accessible to gamers across the globe.

"We of course still don't know 100 per cent what items are purchasable with real money, but it would appear at first glance to have pay-to-win potential," said Woovie in an interview with TorrentFreak. "We also of course want to play this game, which as far as we see, is a Russian market only game."

Microsoft will have a tough time keeping tabs on the unauthorised copies of the game despite the successful DMCA takedowns, according to Eurogamer. The modders have claimed to set up redundant backups of the source code on both private and public git hubs. The code is being maintained and updated by multiple modders, with changes synchronised between updates just like the original instance of the game code on GitHub, which was taken down by Microsoft.

The primary objective of the modding team behind ElDorito is release an improved version with the microtransaction stripped out in order to negate any pay-to-win potential in the final version of the official release. The fact that the game is based on a highly modified "Halo 3" engine is viewed by the modders as an opportunity to give PC gamers the "Halo 3" that they had always wanted. According to them, stripping the official version of pay-to-win elements and region locking seems to be a priority for achieving an authentic experience.

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