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'Halo' will bring back local multiplayer
When I critiqued Halo 5: Guardians, the lack of split-screen co-op was low on my list of gripes with the game. But that's not to say it wasn't a problem. In the lead-up to the 2015 game's release, developer 343 Industries crowed that there were no sacred cows on the road to hitting 60 FPS in the campaign mode -- including the local co-operative play that'd been a part of the series since 2001. That's changing, though. "I would say for any [first-person shooter] going forward we will always have split-screen," 343's head Bonnie Ross said recently at the DICE summit in Las Vegas, according to Polygon.
Join the perfect match in 'Halo 5' with the custom game browser
Today's update to Halo 5: Guardians adds a long-requested feature to Xbox One and Windows 10: a custom games browser. The new browser allows players to search for in-progress games from the main menu, customizing search parameters by specific maps, modes or players. It's been a long time coming, considering Halo 5 debuted in October 2015.
'Halo 5: Guardians' is getting Warzone Firefight this July
With the Halo Wars 2 beta freshly ended, Halo fans are likely looking for something solid to sink their teeth into. Halo 5: Guardians developer 343 Industries has come forward with exactly that: The big Warzone Firefight update, which launches on July 29th. Get ready to dust off those Needlers.
'Halo 5' multiplayer is coming to PC... sort of
Leave it to Microsoft to fulfill fans' long-standing wish of bringing modern Halo multiplayer to PC and then obfuscate accessing it in the most spectacular way possible. It's coming by way of Forge -- Halo 5: Guardians Edition for Windows 10. As the name suggests, the free download is for Halo's custom map toolset, Forge, and it features full keyboard and mouse control, up to 4K resolution and the ability to build stuff on PC and then play on Xbox One. The devil is in the details here, though: the Xbox Wire post also mentions that you can test levels and play them with your friends on PC.
Microsoft wants you to hack together a 'Halo 5' app
Sure, you've been making multiplayer levels with Halo 5: Guardians' Forge mode, but now Microsoft wants you to create something different for the game. Like a web app or something along those lines for the stats coming from its online gametypes. Last year near Halo 5's launch developer 343 Industries released an API in beta, and now it's added access to "raw match events endpoint" data that the studio says will offer a wealth of info on each kill from any match. That's including, but not limited to, Gamertag of the rival, weapon used in the kill, where it was in terms of the game's play clock and map coordinates for where it went down.
'Halo 5' gets cooperative Firefight game mode this summer
Apart from the odd silly weekend playlist, Halo 5 doesn't really cater for your more casual gaming moods. You've got Arena matches for classic competition, and Warzone games when you're up for grand-scale carnage. A more chilled (or not) cooperative mode is coming, though, in the form of Warzone Firefight. It'll pit you and chums against increasingly overwhelming waves of alien enemies, similar to cooperative multiplayer modes you may have played in previous Halo titles. Over the weekend, Microsoft revealed a few more details about the new game type, as well as a trailer to get you nice and hype.
'Halo 5' is bringing back the long-missed Firefight mode
Life hasn't been kind to you if you're a fan of the players-versus-AI Firefight mode in Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. You didn't just lose a direct equivalent to it in Halo 4 or Halo 5 -- you didn't even get it back with the remastered ODST from the Master Chief Collection. However, 343 Industries has finally heard your cries. As part of a content roadmap, the studio has revealed that Firefight is coming to Halo 5 in several months through a new mode, Warzone Firefight. The developer isn't saying much about what's different at this point, but you should get your fix of players-versus-environment gameplay as you fight off "common foes." Riveting! This won't make up for the relatively undercooked initial launch, but it could give you a reason to keep playing well into Halo 5's lifespan.
The first big 'Halo 5' update brings 16-player vehicle battles
Whatever you think of Halo 5's solo component, 343 Industries is determined to keep you interested in the multiplayer part. As part of a first content drop due next week (Battle of Shadow and Light), the studio is introducing 16-player Big Team Battles where vehicles play a big role. If your favorite memories of Halo involve epic Warthog duels, you'll likely get a kick out of the new mode and its four accompanying maps. You'll also find dozens of armor, weapon and vehicle sets (such as the Tundra Mantis, below). It should all be good news if you're a fan of the Halo series, although the real question is whether or not 343 will keep this up. Hopefully, you won't run out of things to do in the Xbox One's flagship title several months down the road.
'Halo 5' pushed Xbox One sales past the PS4 in October
No matter how you feel about the single-player experience for Halo 5: Guardians, its place as the Xbox family's standard-bearer is secure. NPD data reveals that its release last month not only topped software sales charts in the US, but also drove Xbox One to a victory over the rival PlayStation 4. There aren't any exact numbers attached, but in a statement Microsoft said Xbox One sales were up 81 percent over the same month last year. In case you didn't already know, the expensive but oh-so-good Elite Controller sold through its supply at most retailers, also providing a lift. The only question now is if the victory will turn into a streak, as Xbox features the new Tomb Raider this week to go with an early launch of Star Wars: Battlefront on EA Access. In other NPD news, the Yoshi's Wooly World on Wii U came in at number 8 in game sales for the month, beating out Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live.
I played through 'Halo 5: Guardians' solo and hated it
This article contains spoilers. Proceed at your own risk. Halo 5: Guardians is not the Halo you remember. It's a different kind of game altogether, something that more closely resembles a modern first-person shooter that focuses on multiplayer rather than a strong solo experience. This isn't the first time that's happened, but it is the first time in 11 years that a new Halo campaign feels like a massive step backward compared to its predecessor. Microsoft-owned studio 343 Industries is capable of better than this and proved as much with its killer freshman effort, Halo 4. But instead of addressing what it got wrong with that installment (e.g., an unexplained main villain) and doubling down on what it did right (e.g., an emotional storyline and constantly varying gameplay), the team fundamentally altered how a Halo campaign works to horrendous results.
Playdate: Giving away the farm with 'Halo 5: Guardians'
Halo 5: Guardians launches next week on Xbox One and we're celebrating the only way we know how on Playdate -- by giving stuff away and playing video games on Twitch. What's the giveaway? A special Xbox One console packing 1TB of storage, Halo 5 stylings and the game itself. And for runners up, a pair of Astro A40 headphones decked out in the sci-fi shooter's livery. Oh, right, we're playing a game too. You can probably guess by now what that'll be, but if not it's Halo 5. Join Sean Buckley, myself and our special guest Richard Lawler as we form a Blue Team of our own and fight through Covenant and Prometheans for two hours starting at 4 PM Eastern / 1PM Pacific. You'll be able to find us in the usual places, too: Here on this post, the Engadget Gaming homepage and Twitch.tv/joystiq if you'd like to join us in chat.
Microsoft built Halo 5's weapons 'from scratch' for Xbox One
Halo 5: Guardians' soundtrack isn't the only aspect of the game's audio that got an overhaul -- the developers at 343 Industries had to reimagine what the Xbox One exclusive's weapons sound like, too. Because of the sheer amount of sounds happening at once during firefights, 343 had to figure out some creative ways to keep the aural calamity in check. It's quite a bit different in scale from 343's last outing, 2012's Halo 4, where there was a handful of characters on screen simultaneously, as opposed to 40 or 50 in the forthcoming sequel. "We have many more sounds and the mixing is a very challenging situation," 343 Industries audio director Sotaro Tojima said in a recent interview. "We're establishing pretty much all the weapon sounds from scratch again for Xbox One."
The 'Halo 5: Guardians' soundtrack gives fans what they want
When Microsoft's in-house Halo studio 343 Industries took the franchise over from creator Bungie, it made a bold statement by abandoning longtime composer Marty O'Donnell's iconic score for one mostly written by Neil Davidge of the English trip-hop group Massive Attack. Think of it like Disney replacing John Williams' iconic Star Wars score with something by Randy Newman and you're about halfway there. His changes were drastic, eschewing established musical tropes for something simultaneously foreign and familiar, leaving no sacred cows behind. It was a ballsy move, and at the time 343's freshman bravado made a statement about how it would handle the franchise moving forward. But something happened in the three-year gap between then and now: 343 released Halo: The Master Chief Collection to disastrous technical results. How broken that game was (and in some cases still is) had an effect on the development team, and likely killed some of its confidence.
Here's how 'Halo 5: Guardians' multiplayer rankings work
Halo 5: Guardians is almost upon us, and once the campaign credits roll (or the game itself finishes installing on your Xbox One, depending on your style) you might be curious how multiplayer ranking works. Wonder no more because it's similar to League of Legends according to a post on Halo Waypoint. Your starting placement in matchmade Arena games is determined by how you fare in your first ten games. That "Competitive Skill Rating" breaks down into seven categories: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Onyx and Champion. The post stresses that the only way to increase your rank after those initial ten matches are set is by winning.
Cortana won't help you on Xbox One until next year
If you were hoping to experience Cortana's most helpful version on your Xbox One this year, you might have to settle for her possible appearance in Halo 5 at the end of the month instead. The virtual assistant won't make her full debut to owners of Microsoft's latest console until early next year. Don't fret though: Redmond spokesperson Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb says that the voice from Master Chief's ear will be available to folks in the Xbox One's Dashboard Preview Program later this fall. There's a joke to be made about rampancy in this news -- I'm almost sure of it. Oh, and speaking of Halo 5, there's a new live-action trailer out today (embedded after the break) that nurtures the seeds of doubt in Spartan 117 that Microsoft's been sowing since the first teaser hit.
'Halo 5' card system gives you a leg up in multiplayer mayhem
We're going to need a lot more time to properly judge the main story campaign in Halo 5: Guardians, but -- as with all Halo games -- the story mode is far from the only reason to play. Halo 5 will come with co-op multiplayer in the main game and the classic "arena" four vs. four deathmatch, but there's also a new mode this time around. The new Warzone is a vast 12-on-12 multiplayer matchup where your team fights not only other players but also computer-controlled AI as well.
How 'Halo 5: Guardians' hits 60 fps and stays there
The developers at 343 Industries won't sacrifice Halo 5's aim for a buttery smooth 60 frames per second by adding local co-op (for now), and it turns out that the team isn't married to 1080p resolution if it means a lower frame rate, either. The game's creative lead Josh Holmes writes on Xbox Wire that maintaining that benchmark is the result of tech that allows the game to adjust the resolution on the fly. "This enables us to deploy resources where they have the most impact across a diverse series of experiences throughout the game while delivering the most visually stunning Halo game ever," he says. From the sounds of it, that means when there's less stuff onscreen it'll be in higher detail.
Latest look at 'Halo 5' is entirely devoid of Master Chief
If you were hoping to see more of Spartan 117 ahead of Halo 5: Guardians release this October, today isn't your day. Sure, there's a new trailer embedded below, but it isn't gameplay. Nor does it tell us much about what's going on with the game's story (Dr. Halsey working alongside Covenant Elites is intriguing, though). It's bombastic, pretty, and stars Nightfall protagonist Jameson Locke, but the clip ultimately rings a bit hollow. If you want to see what Nathan FIllion looks like after spending some time in the uncanny valley, however, you're in for a treat. Everyone else that's expecting some hot new footage of Master Chief on the battlefield will almost assuredly be disappointed, though.
Trade the limited edition 'Halo 5' code for a disc, if you want
The Halo 5: Guardians Collector's Edition costs $250 and comes with a fair amount of stuff for die-hard fans, including this pretty little statue, a special box, a metal Guardian model and a download code for the full game. That last part was a disappointment to some potential players who were looking forward to a physical game disc in such a pricey package. Now, developer 343 Industries says that fans will be able to exchange the digital code for a physical copy of the game at no additional cost. As 343i writes on Halo Waypoint: "When we last left off, we let you know that we had heard the feedback that some of you prefer a physical disc instead of a digital copy.... We'll get into details as we get closer to launch, and we'd like to once again thank you for the feedback."
This is the 'Halo 5: Guardians' collector's edition statue
$250 worth of static love from Master Chief.
