In the ongoing saga that is Halo: The Master Chief Collection, 343 Industries has put out another patch for the game that hopes to improve certain aspects that are still less than favorable. Among the contents of the update, players that are still sticking with the games may notice tweaks to matchmaking, UI, stats and more; hopefully, a much better experience overall. The most notable addition, however, is the implementation of Halo 4's episodic co-op mode, Spartan Ops. All of it. No waiting between episodes this time around.

It's been a month since the collection released for the Xbox One, so the updates and patches must be doing something right. The most recent update began rolling out today, and should be a difficult one to miss out on. As soon as The Master Chief Collection is loaded up, players will be prompted to download and install the patch as soon as possible (provided the system hasn't already done it on its own).

Following that all too familiar process, things should be smoother than ever before. For both 343 and the existing Halo community, that's sure to offer some amount of comfort. Here's a small sampling from the patch notes:

Spartan Ops:

• Added the entirety of Halo 4’s Spartan Ops mode

Matchmaking:

• Made an update to make sure a match only starts when teams are even.
• Players will now receive a ‘loss’ when disconnecting before a round has ended.
• Made an update to include all split screen players in vote tally.
• Resolved an issue that caused players to become stuck “Joining Session.”
• Resolved an issue where players could be dropped from matchmaking after disconnecting their controller.

General Multiplayer Updates:

• Made additional improvements to Halo: CE hit registration.
• Made an update to the “Halo 2: Anniversary Career Progress” page to ensure achievements are correctly tracked.
• Fixed an issue where it took a long time to join players that are in a Multiplayer lobby.

Additionally, the developer decided to address the sizable amount of concerns regarding dedicated servers - specifically, whether of not the MCC actually has them. Contrary to what you may believe, dedicated servers are present within the collection. And according to 343, they've been there the whole time:

"Dedicated servers have been up and running since launch, and we continue to optimize and improve connectivity. The vast majority of games are being played on dedicated servers, but in the event that players cannot connect to a dedicated server, the lobby will stay together and the match will still occur on a peer-to-peer connection.

"Please be aware that you may connect to the dedicated server quickly enough that you won’t see the ‘connecting to dedicated server’ dialog. The absence of that dialog doesn’t mean that you’re not playing on a dedicated server."

Halo: The Master Chief Collection's post-launch life hasn't been the best for either side. Although, with the various updates and constant communication from 343, the collection can only improve. To compensate for the game's launch woes, owners of the game are primed to receive an HD remake of Halo 3: ODST for free upon its release. Seeing as how ODST has one of the best Halo stories, it's certainly a decent way to say 'sorry.'

Source: Halo Waypoint