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December 18, 2015
A brand new free DLC pack has been added to Halo 5: Guardians and it adds a range of new features. The DLC pack has been named "Cartographer's Gift" and it features a large number of new features and cosmetic items.
The most important addition to the new DLC for Halo 5 is Forge. Forge wasn't added at launch like it was in previous Halo titles. The wait was worth it though because Forge in Halo 5 is the most complex version we've seen of the map builder yet. Players are given a huge range of new tools in the new Forge.
On top of Forge, the Cartographer's Gift DLC has added a large range of new Spartan armor pieces, including two new armor sets, the iconic MARK IV armor set and the Raijin armor set. New emblems, new helmets and a variety of new Warzone REQ rewards have also been added into the latest DLC for December.
The December DLC is just the start of it as well. A brand new free DLC pack will also be released in January and a sneak peak at that has revealed that
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December 17, 2015
To help encourage Halo 5 players to play regularly, 343 Industries has added a new feature that rewards daily playtime in Arena and Warzone.
Starting immediately, players are now able to earn two extra REQ packs every single day so long as they follow a couple of criteria. The first REQ pack can be earned by winning an Arena match, whilst the second REQ pack will be awarded to players for their first Warzone win of the day. If you expect to play Halo 5 daily and manage to have a winning game of both Warzone and Arena, you're essentially able to collect up to 14 free REQ packs each week.
A daily login bonus isn't a new concept - in fact, we've seen countless games offer similar features. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain offers daily login bonuses to players for example, although for this reward players only have to boot up the game. Forcing players to win games in both Arena and Warzone to earn their daily rewards is great because it encourages players to play well, at
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November 26, 2015
It should come as no surprise that Halo is one of the biggest selling franchises on the Xbox. Since the release of Halo 5: Guardians on the Xbox One, a lot of people have been wondering exactly how many sales the game has managed to make.
Now that data is slowly coming in about sales around the world, fairly accurate information on Halo 5's week one sales are being announced. According to VGChartz, a website dedicated to reporting video game sales, Halo 5: Guardians managed to sell approximately 1.46 million copies in its first week.
The exact first week number, according to VGChartz is 1,457,849 copies, although this does not include digital sales, so we could be looking at over 2 million copies at least.
For an Xbox One exclusive title, 1.46 million isn't bad at all, but it is quite small in comparison to previous Halo releases. In fact, Halo 5 Guardians sold less copies than almost every other Halo release. Here's a week one sales rundown of the last eight Halo games.
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November 22, 2015
Halo 5: Guardians has already had one of it's new free DLC packs released but 343 Industries now has more content in store for the game. In December, 343 Industries will release another free DLC pack with extra content.
In the new December DLC for Halo 5, players will have the chance to unlock new armor, new weapon types for Warzone, new weapon skins and of course the new Forge mode.
When Halo 5: Guardians was released, players were not given access to Forge mode because 343 Industries still had some tweaks to make to it. In December the covers will be unveiled and the new Forge mode will finally be available to players. It looks as if players will get access to a Forge world they will feel familiar with but there may also be a space themed Forge map too.
If you have played Halo 5 you will know that the rocket launcher's appearance has been completely redesigned. Fortunately players will have the chance to use the old school rocket launcher after the December update
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March 29, 2015
A new blog post has been posted by 343 Industries that details some changes that will be made to Halo: The Master Chief Collection in an upcoming patch. The new patch will be releasing in April as part of the "April Update," which will include new features to matchmaking and the game in general.
Whilst a lot of the major issues with the Master Chief Collection that were apparent at launch have now been fixed, there are still some problems with the game that 343 Industries are trying to iron out. These changes include adjustments to the different game modes across various games in the collection.
In the blog post it wrote, "Based on results and feedback, we'll be looking to update team sizes and player counts across existing and upcoming playlists, including Team Doubles, as we get closer to the next update. Lastly, SWAT and Team Snipers will both make a return into the rotation in the near future, and we'll continue to evaluate playlist data to determine which playlists become
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January 06, 2015
Whilst we all rightly presumed that the Master Chief Collection was going to be released with all of the content from previous games at launch, 343 Industries has been very far behind with development, due to server issues and other problems with the new Halo 2 anniversary multiplayer.
As a result, many in-game features and content of the Master Chief Collection has been unavailable since launch, including the Spartan Ops missions that were released as part of Halo 4.
The Spartan Ops missions were a set of in-game objectives that followed a set story and played out like the firefight game type in both Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST did. Unlike firefight, Spartan Ops were specially designed to delve into the story that took place whilst the Master Chief was floating about in space, and many players have complained that they are an incredibly important part of Halo 4.
Fortunately enough, 343 Industries have just launched Spartan Ops for the Master Chief Collection in a
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November 23, 2014
The Halo Master Chief Collection has finally launched, but the game has so much content inside it that there's a lot to take in, so we'll be giving you a quick insight into what's new.
The Campaigns
All four original Halo campaigns from the main franchise, including Halo Combat Evolved, Halo 2, 3 and 4 can be played within the Halo Master Chief Collection. All games have had a makeover, although the most difference has been made to the Halo 2 campaign.
The Matchmaking
343 Industries are still slowly rolling out the matchmaking playlists for the Halo Master Chief Collection, and so far there have been a few issues - give it a week and everything should be running. From there, we may have to wait a couple months before all of the playlists and the entire ranking system is ready for play.
New Forge
As well as providing forge mode to all of the Halo 2 online levels, 343 have thrown in a few blank canvas maps that can be used to build to your heart's
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June 30, 2014
Would you be surprised if I told you that 343 Industries have no plans to introduce Halo: The Master Chief Collection to the Xbox 360 or the PC? I know I certainly wouldn't, as it seems Microsoft have found that The Master Chief Collection would be a solid way to encourage a bunch of their core fans to move over to the Xbox One platform.
However, it's not all just about business practice - according to a blog by 343 Industries on the Halo Waypoint, the Xbox 360 just wouldn't be able to handle the Master Chief Collection. At first, that seems like an odd thing to realize, especially considering all four games in the collection were released for either the Xbox 360 or the original Xbox, but if you think about it, it makes sense.
Halo 4 on it's own already takes two discs to play on the Xbox 360, and that doesn't include the extra included DLC maps. Throw in Halo 3, Halo 2 anniversary, which has been overhauled with brand new cutscenes, and the Halo Combat Evolved anniversary,
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June 13, 2014
A couple of weeks ago, some information about a possible Halo collection was spread around the internet, and whilst at the time it did seem quite likely, it was certainly not official at that point in time. However, Microsoft took to E3 to reveal that Halo: The Master Chief Collection is planned to be released this year for the Xbox One.
Like previously expected, Halo: The Master Chief Collection will come with all four of the main Halo games, and will be packaged into one standalone experience. Halo 2 will take the focus and will serve as the mainframe for the whole collection, and online multiplayer will be based on Halo 2's infrastructure. This means we can expect dual wielding, elites vs spartans, and pretty much everything we knew Halo 2 to be, including the wide range of strange bugs and glitches.
Halo 2 will also get a full HD re-texture, similarly to Combat Evolved anniversary, and players will be able to switch between old graphics and new graphics with the tap of
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December 19, 2013
The top down shooter, Halo: Spartan Assault was first released on Windows Phone, but it looks as if the game will now slowly make it's way over to Microsoft consoles as well. A new announcement by Microsoft has revealed that the game will be available on the Xbox One by Christmas Eve, and will be running at 60fps and in 1080P, which really isn't anything special, considering that the game can be run on a smartphone.
The game will be available on Xbox One for $15, however if you already own the Windows Phone copy (which costs $7) you'll only have to pay $5 for the Xbox One console version.
So, if you are planning to purchase the Xbox One version, it makes sense to buy the Windows Phone version first to save yourself a couple bucks.
The new Xbox One version will also include some new content such as a