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December 01, 2015
Now that backwards compatibility has been added to the Xbox One, we have plenty of exciting things to look forward to in the future. Whilst the catalogue of available backwards compatible Xbox 360 games is still quite expansive, Microsoft plans to add more games to the list.
In fact, Microsoft has revealed that they will be unveiling new backwards compatible titles each month. If you've got any Xbox 360 games lying around that aren't yet supported for backwards compatibility, we'd definitely suggest holding onto them.
Phil Spencer revealed on Twitter that the Xbox team will announce new games monthly. It's expected that each month a new updated list will be posted online by somebody working at Xbox, although the exact date for the monthly titles has not yet been decided.
It's great to see that Microsoft will still be putting resources into the new backwards compatibility feature. I personally cannot wait to see what new games are added to the list each month. I have
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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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November 20, 2015
A brand new update has been released for Destiny and it brings in a couple of new features to the game. Firstly we will finally be getting some new Iron Banner content and secondly a refer a friend program has been added.
With the Iron Banner, the game mode is finally getting added back to Destiny. This time round a few things will be different, including reward loot. Here is an excerpt from the blog by Destiny's senior designer Derek Carrol.
"I'd expect to see a bit less Super ability usage, and a lot more shooting across the board, but good teams will work together and hold territory even without the scoring incentives that Control provided. This will be the first time we've played Clash with power differences enabled, so it will be interesting to see how power affects this most basic of 6v6 gametypes."
As for loot, things will be a lot more rewarding this time round. 20% more reputation is being rewarded for wins and better rewards are being handed out in general
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November 14, 2015
The new Xbox One experience has now been released across all internet-connected Xbox One consoles. The new update brings a completely new UI redesign and adds a few new features onto the console software as well.
The most talked about feature of the Xbox One experience is of course the backwards compatibility feature. Backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 titles is now possible and for the most part it works very smoothly with all backwards compatible games.
In the new UI you'll get a new Xbox Home that is very simple to use. Within the new Xbox Home you are able to share achievements and game clips to friends within seconds. Finding out what your friends are playing has become more convenient as well. For the most part, everything has become more connected, more social and more streamlined.
The Xbox Dashboard button has been reworked too - you're now given a game guide that can be accessed from within any game or app, or even from the home screen. The new dashboard
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October 29, 2015
Halo has always been the franchise that has helped Microsoft sell consoles so it's no surprise that the game always performs well. With that being said, Halo 4 didn't bring in as many sales as 343 Industries may have hoped, but it looks like they've returned Halo to it's former glory with the latest release of Halo 5: Guardians.
After just one week, Halo 5 Guardians has already made a large number of records, including day one sales, week one sales and most sales for an Xbox One exclusive title. On top of the numerous sales records for performing so well in the first week, the 343 Industries launch stream for Halo 5 received a Guinness World Record for being the most watched video game launch ever.
Microsoft has revealed some interesting first week stats for Halo 5, along with sales numbers. On top of bringing in $400 million in revenue from Halo themed consoles and the Halo 5 game itself, Halo 5 Guardians has been played for an accumulative 21 million hours thanks to the
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October 14, 2015
343 Industries has just released a bunch of details about the upcoming matchmaking system for Halo 5. In the newly released information, 343 explained how penalties will work for bad behavior and how the new ranking system will work.
Players who repeatedly follow any of the following behaviors will be given temporary cooldowns which will prevent them from playing online matchmaking.
+ Quitting matches
+ Betrayals or team killing
+ Idling (AFK)
+ Intentional suicides
+ Excessive disconnectsThe ranking system in Halo 5 has taken an interesting redesign. Players will first have to play placement matches. Once they have 10 wins under their belt, they will be given a rank. There will be a number of different ranks including Bronze, Gold, Platinum, Onyx and Champion.
Each rank will have a number of tiers within and once a player reaches Onyx and Champion the tiers will be replaced with a MMR score, which will be their leaderboard
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October 05, 2015
Halo 5: Guardians will be getting a new clan system upon launch and players can already create their own clans and add their friends. The new clan system in Halo 5 is called Spartan Companies and each company can include up to 100 players.
As well as being an opportunity for players to create a social hub for communities and friends within Halo 5, Spartan Companies can be used to bring new players together. If you visit the Spartan Companies page you will find a list of all of the clans already created and it's possible to request invitations into these companies.
A player can only be in one company at once so players will have to remain loyal to their groups. As an added incentive to try out the Spartan Companies system, when a player joins a company for the first time, they will be rewarded a REQ pack with a guaranteed cosmetic item inside.
These REQ packs can of course not be used till Halo 5 is actually available and players can only gain 1 REQ pack from Spartan
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September 29, 2015
There's no way to deny it. Halo: The Master Chief Collection launched with tons of issues and it completely ruined the possibility for many players to even play the game properly. 343 Industries has definitely taken the poor launch of the Master Chief Collection to heart though, and the boss of Xbox, Phil Spencer has spoken out about 343's promise to make sure Guardians is released without any problems.
"I know that of all of our teams, no team at their core feels the need to hit a great launch from a multiplayer and connection issues more than 343. That team took the issues around the launch of Master Chief Collection, it kind of hit them in the heart, because it's Halo Nation. It's the people who love these past Halo games."
Every time Phil Spencer has gone to visit 343 Industries, he's been impressed by their dedication to ensuring the quality of Halo 5, and it's multiplayer in particular, is as high as possible.
"No team is focused on it more than 343," Phil Spencer
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September 27, 2015
Halo: The Master Chief Collection will soon get an update that will finally add a system to punish quitters. As it currently stands, players can quit matchmaking games half way through with very little punishment which leaves games unbalanced and unfair, especially in team games.
Thankfully 343 Industries has nearly completed development for a system that will punish and discourage quitters. Unfortunately 343 didn't go into much detail about how the Master Chief Collection will punish quitting. Instead, a small blog post was listed to explain that the upcoming patch will "address a variety of areas, including ranking, will add new systems for quitting and penalties, and will improve a number of community items."
So far, 343 Industries has not set a release date for the changes, but it would be safe to say that the new changes will be released in a patch before the end of the year. Hopefully in between now and then we'll hear some further details about exactly how the quitting