When "Halo: Combat Evolved" was included in the Master Chief Collection last year, I called it "arguably the definitive" version of Bungie's iconic shooter. One of the things that was lost was the bustling mod scene of the original PC port, created by the wealth of development tools made accessible by "Halo: Custom Edition."

This week, 343 Industries has put the kibosh on this mod scene by releasing the official mod tools for the MCC version of Halo 1.

At first glance, this release includes all the tools that were included in Gearbox's original Custom Edition. There are scenario writers, content editors, and a wealth of scripts and assets to rework "Halo" any way you like, be it Bungie's space opera or a Mario Kart remake.

Furthermore, you do not need to have "MCC" to access the mod tools for "Halo: CE". The package is available to anyone from the "Tools" category of the Steam library and includes development builds to test your creations. Don't expect a smooth experience, though; 343 is releasing these tools as is, and will only provide minimal support when the wider community needs it.

"These are tools that developers have used or are using. These tools were originally developed in the hopes that programmers would never be too far gone to fix a problem or help someone else work around it." They can be used in many ways, but not every workflow will work as expected on your machine."

This week's update also fixes a number of long-standing visual errors that were introduced in the first PC port of "Halo" and carried over after Sabre Interactive used them as the basis for the 2011 Anniversary Remaster.