Details of the Price Hike: With Season 5's arrival, the in-game economy of Halo Infinite saw a significant shift. A new pricing model was rolled out, with coatings now being multi-core enabled. This change, aimed at providing more customization options, has come with increased costs, causing a stir within the community.

Community Reaction: The reaction was swift and vocal, with players expressing their frustration on social forums and community boards. The price hike has not only affected the affordability of cosmetic items but has also raised questions about the direction of the game's monetization strategy.

343 Industries' Response: In the wake of this backlash, 343 Industries has stepped forward to address the concerns. Acknowledging the players' sentiments, the developers have explained the reasoning behind the new pricing, emphasizing the value they believe these changes bring to the player experience.

Impact on Gameplay and Customization: While these adjustments do not directly influence gameplay mechanics, they significantly affect the customization landscape—a feature many Spartans hold dear. The new pricing may alter how players engage with the game's cosmetic content, potentially impacting the overall enjoyment for some.

What are your thoughts on these adjustments? How do they influence your experience as a Spartan?

Hello Halo fans! Here’s a roundup of the latest news and updates from the Halo universe.

Halo Infinite Season 5
After a rocky year and a half, Halo Infinite’s upcoming Season 5 seeks to bring new content and features that have been long awaited by fans1. The developers are working hard to improve the game and provide an enhanced experience for all players1.

Unwritten Rules of Halo Infinite
A recent article explained some of the unwritten rules of Halo Infinite2. It emphasized the importance of avoiding team killing to maintain a sense of camaraderie and enhance the overall experience of the game2. The article also discussed responsible teabagging, using it as a means of communication with teammates rather than just taunting fallen enemies2.

343 Industries’ Role in Future Halo Games
There have been reports that 343 Industries will no longer be actively developing Halo games, but will oversee outside development3. This means that new games in the series will be created by third-party studios3. However, 343 Industries has denied these reports and clarified that it is not ending active Halo development at its studio3.

Upcoming Events
The Halo World Championship is returning to Seattle, WA! Join us this October 13-15 for a full-on Halo-Fest4. In just a few weeks, the greatest Halo players in the world will face off here in Seattle, Washington4.

Tenrai III Event Launch
From September 19 to October 3, the Tenrai III event was active in Halo Infinite, bringing a free 10-day event4.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more updates and news from the Halo universe!

Halo 5: Guardians has just been hit with another playlist refresh. Breakout, Halo's newest gametype, was introduced in the Halo 5: Guardians beta as a strategic, no-shields gametype that mixed elimination slayer and objective. The gametype was made to promote the sporting competitive aspect (in a lore sense) of Spartan training. Previously, players would start with SMGs and Magnums with one Grenade on maps where precision weapons were power weapons along with the Hydra and Shotgun. With this new playlist refresh, players have full shields, one grenade, a Magnum with extended magazines and a Shotgun to start. Maps have been given overhauls to complement the new style of play the playlist will be bringing:

CROSSFIRE 2.0

GAMBOL 2.0

TRENCH 2.0

TRIDENT 2.0

ALTITUDE 2.0

KNELL

Not only do players have a new loadout but the Frag Grenade capacity has been increased to 4 max and capturing the neutral flag on the map is done on your team's side (as opposed to previously running it to the other team's base). "This now forces teams to be mindful of the flag and push out for position early. We’ve found that opening rushes are more exciting and offer more viable strategies," according to Quinn DelHoyo, a multiplayer designer at 343 Industries.

Do you guys think this will help or hurt the already weak Breakout community? Do you like these changes? Please share! And on Waypoint, here's the official Breakout Refresh Feedback thread.

Source: Halo Waypoint

The cut in staff is alleged to be about 5% of the workforce, which is monumental after such a carefree conference. Activision Publishing is allegedly the only branch applying these layoffs, with Blizzard and MLG notably not affected. Developers Infinity Ward, Beenox, and Treyarch took the brunt of the hit, with around 20 people laid off at Infinity Ward, the developers of the latest entry in the Call of Duty franchise, Infinite Warfare.

This also comes after Activision’s CEO stated that he felt Infinite Warfare did not resonate with fans, and promised a return to form in 2017. Activision reported a “better-than-expected” fourth quarter, citing record sales numbers. Their line-up for 2017 so far looks precariously slim, with only two main titles, Destiny 2 and Call of Duty, gracing the market so far.

Source: Kotaku.com

Bonnie Ross stated at the D.I.C.E Summit earlier this year that Halo 6 will involve a more "simpler story" that focuses on the Master Chief and no new playable characters. She also stated that future titles will include the splitscreen option due to the backlash of Halo 5's lack of having splitscreen functionality. It was explained that taking it out in Halo 5 was a tough choice due to Halo 5's 'mass scale environments, improved AI behavior and increased visuals and gameplay fidelity.' Regarding the story, she said "while we love our transmedia, sometimes I do think we tell a little too much story in our games." This statement by itself stirred some confusion in the community. Some saw it as bad thing because they feel that the future entries could end up lacking the amount of lore and detail that Halo 4 and Halo 5 Guardians contained. Other saw it as a good thing becasue they feel it would be a lot easier and lighter on the casual players to understand the story. Bonnie Ross later cleared up the statement on Twitter that she also enjoyed the direction Halo 4 went storywise.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Halo fans who are looking forward to the sequel to Halo 5 will have to sit back and get comfortable because 343industries stated that the next major title's announcement won't be anytime soon. That means out at Germany's Gamescom or the upcoming PAX 2017 conventions.

Back in May, 343's community manager Brian Jarrard (aka Ske7ch) had warned fans that 343 will have no major announcements at E3 2017 for Halo. "I'll slip into my dreamcrusher persona for a minute in the name of realistic expectations. We've said this already but we'll have a little something at E3 but it's not related to the next major entry in the franchise." This 'little something' was revealed to be a paid expansion for Halo Wars 2 which brings the Flood back into the fray on the Ark post-HW2 titled "Awakening the Nightmare".

In last week's Halo Community Update, Jeff Easterling (GrimBrotherOne) acknowledged the already predicted disappointment of the community from what E3 did and didn't show. "While there's little to nothing to be said on that front, it's been made clear that we won't be talking about Halo's next major title for quite sometime. And no, that doesn't mean Gamescom. Or PAX. Trust us, when we're ready to pull pack that proverbial curtain, you'll know. It won't be soon."

Some members of the community took to the internet to voice their displeasure at this news, but also a good amount took to various forums such as Reddit's r/Halo and Waypoint to explain how this could mean 343 is willing to take their time to make the next entry better than the last, and fix their mistakes to ensure they deliver a game that the community wants. Many speculate that the next entry's reveal may take place at E3 2018 with a release later in 2019, but we won't know until 343 is satisfied and ready for an unveiling.

Sources:

Twinfinite | IGN | IGN DICE article | DigitalTrends | Halo Community Update | Flood of Emotion 6/15/2017 | VentureBeat DICE article

343industries had their panel at Rooster Teeth's RTX 2017 event today, where they discussed future content and support for already released Halo titles from then to now. At E3 2017, the Xbox One X was officially revealed, along with some launch titles that run at 4k 60fps. Unfortunately, Halo did not have a spot at this years E3, and caused many to speculate whether any Halo title was in the works, or if Halo 5 was to get the 4k treatment. Today, 343 confirmed that Halo 5: Guardians will indeed get the 4k 60 fs treatment later this fall when the Xbox One X releases on NOVEMBER 7, 2017.

Halo 5 in 4k wasn't the only announcement 343 had today, as they revealed that Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo 4 will be coming to backwards compatibility very soon, and all DLC including Halo: Reach's and Halo Wars' DLC will be free going forward. In fact, the DLC's are free now on the Xbox Marketplace website! Halo 3 and ODST on Xbox One are playable at RTX also. (Assuming you're at RTX in the first place.)

Halo 3 Addons

Halo Reach Addons

Halo Wars Addons

Halo 4 Addons

Halo Wars 2 Season Pass holders are getting two more months worth of content before the launch of the Awakening the Nightmare expansion in the Fall. This month's content drop will feature a returning UNSC leader, Serina! This month will also drop the UNSC Campaign expansions based off of Operation SPEARBREAKER during the events of Halo Wars 2 against Banished forces. In August, we get a taste of Unggoy might as Yapyap the Destroyer comes into the fray. This may mean we'll get a Grunt Goblin mech as a unit! (pls)

Halo 5 is getting another playlist update this fall in time for Halo 3's 10 year Anniversary. Though it's not an Anniversary title, Halo 5 will be getting a dedicated Halo 3 classic playlist in the future. It is being built from scratch with the maps being made in Forge and will use "classic" gameplay settings. More info to come soon! New season has started today as well! Jump into arena and get those ranks in! (If you want.) Snipers is back up for the season and fan-favorite modes such as Warzone Turbo, Mythic Shotty Snipers and Double XP Weekend will be returning soon!

Source: Halo Summer Celebration

Took a while, but we've got some more news on the TV series.

Announced in 2013, it got everyone hyped, however 2018 is the year all the dead hype resurrects. Here's what we have:

• 2020 premiere, early 2019 production: 2018's coming to an end, believe it or not, and as each day passes we're getting closer to the next year. Spielberg's series will begin production soon, and we'll see the first episode sometime in 2020, if all goes to plan.
• 10 Episodes for the first Season: I think this is a fair choice, 10 good-length episodes. A lot can be packed in, whilst keeping it all relevant. If the show isn't going so well (which I doubt), they'll be able to end it soon as well.
• Master Chief will be "a lead character": "a", so he may not be the only primary focus, but it's likely he will be. There were many theories before about what this could be about. Harvest, Reach, post-Human-Covenant War. Now we have a better idea of who will be involved, with John-117 taking centre stage.

We'll have a few other big names working on the series, such as writers Rupert Wyatt and Kyle Killen. One of the best parts is that Showtime's CEO David Nevins has said the series is "futuristic, space-based science-fiction, it's not fantasy". I feel that they're working hard to make sure this series sticks to Halo's roots.

Are you all looking forward to the Halo TV Series? Share your thoughts down below.

Sources: http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/08/06/showtime-halo-tv-series-master-chief-lead-character

https://screenrant.com/halo-tv-show-story-games-premiere-date-2020/

Joseph Staten's return to the Halo universe, Halo: Shadow of Intent, has had some new plot details revealed as well as a sleek cover photo.

A plethora of Halo novels were announced earlier this year, one of those being Shadow of Intent, written by former Bungie writer Joseph Staten. As revealed on HaloWaypoint.com, the book will center around Rtas 'Vadum, best known as Halfjaw and the Shipmaster. A prophet prelate threatens the existence of the sangheili race and it's up to Rtas to protect the entire race. Though that is the extent of the plot details, the cover shows Halo 2-era Rtas and a mysterious new female character side-by-side with energy swords (and staffs) in hand. The novel will release this December 7th, 2015 and you can pre-order it now.

View attachment: shadowofintentcvrm-b0e2e04ec97f42ceaf13b11e97cfe63f.jpg

All images and information provided by 343 Industries.

ForgeHub is the center for all things Forge-related in the Halo Community. From map design to scripting, ForgeHub has a tutorial and/or several individuals who can help at any time. ForgeHub is home to several well-known Forgers and community members including WARHOLIC, Chronmeister, Commander Colson, and xdemption just to name some. Above you can see an image of their homepage which is updated frequently with news and tutorials (look at that awesome screenshot they got there!). Speaking of front page articles, this one is one of my favorite recurring articles on the site:

"...Forge-Cast is an article idea that i came up with that comes out every Monday. It gives a little recap of the previous week but mainly lists and talks about upcoming lobbies and article that are happening through out the week. This way people who visit the site can click on the front page article and be taken to a list of lobbies and what time they start, as well as a link to the lobby's thread.

Getting a lobby into the Forge-Cast is easy, all you need is to be a member of the site, post in the forums that you are starting a lobby, and list the times and other details about the lobby. I then see the lobby and put it into the article." - Sir Iron Wolf.

The Forge-Cast is also the number 1 source of our Community Calendar's content and we have Sir Iron Wolf to thank for that.

The Forums page hosts the Shoutbox which stays active at almost all hours of the day. ForgeHub doesn't have a lot of different forums as you can see so that keeps things easy and less cluttered. Being a Forge-based community, they don't need many other forums. This tab is also the place to find the most recent threads and see who's online.

The Map Database is separate from the Maps tab and is found in the forums. It's a catalog of different maps and discussions from each Halo game era. This keeps their Maps page and forums clean and up to date. Thousands of threads kept for accessing old files and proof of ForgeHub's transcendence through the different ages of Halo.

The Map library on ForgeHub is rivaled by none even today. Above are the 2000+ maps submitted to ForgeHub in only Halo 5: Guardians. Adding a map starts with a click of a button but then requires a description, player count, supported gametypes, images, and more. Not actually a difficult process. At the top you'll spot featured maps which include Sikamikanico's Fever Pitch, SaltyKoala's Port 66, and WyvernZu's Infinity Siege. You can't go wrong looking for a map on ForgeHub. And if you're a Forger yourself, then this is also a great place to get your map tested.

Lastly, here's a view of the current staff on ForgeHub minus a couple (sorry AlexVan and Doju). This is also not counting cartographers and 343 employees that frequent the site like WARHOLIC, AnonFriction, NOKYARD, and Godly Perfection.

So whether it's a place to show off your latest project, get it tested, or even get ideas or inspiration for future projects, I'd say ForgeHub is your destination. And then Twam said 'let all the Halo niche sites work together in piece and reunite the Halo Community.' Don't forget to follow ForgeHub on Twitter for updates like their interview with the Tom French and Nahil Sharkasi of 343 Industries. While you're at it, read me and ForgeHub admin Sir Iron Wolf's latest interview. And finally look to their YouTube for map features and tutorials. The end.

The Halo Archive. The center for Halo Universe and lore discussion new and old. The Staff on the Halo Archive are the most knowledgeable individuals on the Haloverse outside of the team at 343 Industries themselves. Not only does it have homegrown well-informed members but it also contains Halo theorists and admins from Halopedia. The Halo Archive is where you want to be to discuss the upcoming Mythos or any novel or game on an in-game universe level.

The Halo Archive is not only a forum. The Halo Archive is quite literally what its name implies. It's a catalog of Halo blogs by some of the best authors like DilDev, Anton, and Chronarch, news, information, and posts. Above you can see the directory of the site on the home page.

There are no ranks on the Halo Archive but rather member rates. The rates are equal but members are assigned to them based on whether they spend more time talking in on-topic Halo threads or off-topic. Outside of Staff positions there are 4 main rates: Lifeworkers, Warriors, Builders, and Miners. Builders have more of a presence in Halo-related discussions. Lifeworkers can take part in on-topic discussions but tend to participate more outside of them. Warriors have more of an online presence, and I have no idea how Miners get their rate honestly but they're gold and it's cool. Your rate actually determines how your page looks on the Archive which I thought was really cool. As you can see, I used to be a Lifeworker and my version of the site appears green whereas Builders would have purple highlights and Warriors have orange.

The Archive Beacon is a tri-weekly state of the site address composed mainly by one appointed Staff member and added on by several other Staffers. It points out hot threads on and off the topic of Halo, new and upcoming site additions or changes, and, my favorite, Staff comments. Check out the latest Archive Beacon here.

The Halo Archive has a good list of affiliates. "

• Podcast Evolved (From Rated M Gaming Network dedicated to covering the latest Halo news, events, and more.)
  
• Halo Fan For Life (Exactly what the title says, A blog from one of Halos biggest fans)
  
• Haruspis Blog (A knowledgeable Halo fan whom writes deep analysis on Halo lore and more.
  
• Halo Canon (Halo fan whom creates lore videos, unboxings, and more all related around the Halo universe)
  
• Halo.fr (French platform of Halo fan news and their own wiki)
  
• Halo Swallower (The Onion style news soruce. Your 1th Halo News Source)
  
• Hidden Xperia (Halo fan whom creates lore videos and knowledgable theories for future events in Halo)
  
• Halopedia (The #1 source for all Halo Universe information. The Halo Wiki)
  
• and last, but not least you guys! 343iCF!" - Jones.
  

Find out more about our Archive Staff Stars in the latest interview. Make sure to follow them on Twitter, like em on Facebook, and catch their streams on twitch! Of course visit our friends here at haloarchive.com. And with that we say HAIL thanks all.

Zandril is a Forger, HaloTuber, and active Halo Community member on a number of different sites. He started Forging in Halo: Reach and has created many many maps since. Now he focuses more on his YouTube channel but he still has the skills to put together a functional and good-looking map. He's currently working alongside HaloCustoms, ourselves, BTBnet, and other popular Halo channels on closing up the Meet Your Maker BTB Forge Contest among his map features and custom game night highlights.

Zandril is on our Staff team here at 343 Industries Community Forum as part of our Forge Group but he is also an independent entity running his own YouTube channel and as such, he has his own submission forums here for Forgers from around the community to easily submit maps to him. Above is a screenshot of his minigame submissions forum where he pins maps that earn a feature on his channel. He's got plenty of submission forums and plenty of submissions that he tests and provides feedback for.

Zandril is frequently hosting custom games lobbies, although a bit less frequent now that he's back at school, but at least once a week. His Tippy-Top Testing lobbies are where he tests his map submissions. You can keep up with his lobbies by following his Custom Game Nights thread.

Boarding Pass is Zandril's latest Infection map. His map gets its name from its subway theme. "Boarding Pass is a map I originally made in Halo 4. I made it again in Halo 2 Anniversary with a couple changes and improvements. And now, I've brought it to Halo 5 and it's bigger and better than it has ever been." - Zandril. Check out the submission here.

Above is my favorite video by Zandril so far. It's called Forge YouTubers and I was laughing out loud at it. He basically hosts a roast for HaloTubers that each have something about them that is funny and makes them all apparent. Zandril has near 5,000 subscribers to his channel and gets hundreds of likes per video. You can subscribe to Zan on YouTube here.

Zan is an awesome Halo Community member and can be found on most niche sites including ours of course, HaloCustoms, ForgeHub, and Forge.World. He's hilarious, friendly, and talented. You can read a little more about him in our latest interview. Catch Zan on Twitter here. Thanks for reading guys and hail .

What started as a small group of friends who would get online at the same time to play Halo, turned into a group of Halo and gaming enthusiasts looking to make a name for themselves in the larger community. Halo Team Assemble is a rising group of gamers that's main goal is to band the Halo Community together again through playing and interaction as it once was. Fishy, Yoshi, and VinWarrior are three of the founders of HTA and each do their own part in achieving their ambitious dream.

HTA's stomping grounds. We're all aware of our home forum but did you know that Halo Team Assemble started here in our Shoutbox? You can find threads related to HTA in the Contests & Events and Game Invitations forums where you can chat about HTA and see information about upcoming game nights and streams.

HTA has grown by almost 200 followers just this summer on Twitter where it does most of its interactions. Their most popular tweet got 273 likes and 106 retweets as seen above. They have interactions with HaloTubers like ToaFreak and Greenskull and higher presences like GrimBrother One from 343 Industries occasionally.

Lost: A Halo Machinima is Halo Team Assemble's latest project on their YouTube channel. So far it's received 700+ views and pretty good feedback just from the first episode (which features Wangtime from Ultimate Halo!). Episode 2 is currently in progress and they've been recruiting voice actors and editors (including our own D-38 Boss) to make this episode even better than the first. "There will be plenty of new characters, and the story is going in a direction I think everyone will be intrigued by," says Halo Team Assemble's VinWarrior.

Check out the latest interview this week starring these 3 to see more about what they have to say about upcoming projects, current works, and their goals in the community.Follow the Halo Team Assemble guys on Twitter, tune in to their streams, and subscribe to their YouTube channel. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for another Community Spotlight next week.

Hello wonderful members of 343i.org, I come with news from our friends at BTB.net. For those who don't recall who they are, we are currently holding the Meet Your Maker Forge Contest in unison with them and HaloCustoms.

We're pleased to announce that BTBnet will be hosting a tournament this summer and we WILL be putting a team together for it to support Matclan and BTBnet. There are some good prizes to be won and we may just get some depending on how many teams register!

Date and Time: Saturday July 30th, 2016 @ 12PM PST (3PM EST, 8PM GMT, 2PM CST, 1AM Lewis Time, 3AM JL Time)

Format:

• 
  Single elimination bracket
  
• 
  Best of 5 for regular series matches
  
• 
  Best of 7 for the finals
  

Maps and Gametypes: All maps and gametypes can be found in Matclan's bookmarks.

• 
  Artemis (CTF, Slayer) - Ad Arcanum, Psychoduck, help from Matclan
  
• 
  Fracture (CTF) - Squally DaBeanz
  
• 
  Guillotine (Strongholds, Slayer) - Psychoduck, 343
  
• 
  Scavenger (Strongholds, Slayer) - CommanderColson
  
• 
  BTB Torque (CTF) - 343, modified by Matclan
  

Prizes:

• 
  1st Place - Jinx HCS T-shirt of the player's choice (T-shirt 1) (T-shirt 2) & Jinx HCS Cap
  
• 
  2nd Place - Jinx HCS T-shirt of the player's choice from the above
  
• 
  3rd Place - Halo themed keychain
  

MVP:

• 
  The top 4 teams will get to vote on an MVP. Those 4 individuals will then be put to a community vote for a grand MVP who will win a special unrevealed prize.
  

There will be 10 players per team (8 main and 2 subs). Do NOT sign up below unless you are sure you'll be able to make it. Read the rest of the rules and see the full announcement on BTB.net.

The compilation offers the complete BioShock trilogy as well as additional content...

• BioShock, BioShock 2, BioShock Infinite, and ALL their respective single-player DLC & expansions except BioShock 2 Multiplayer.
  
• The entire collection has been remastered in 1080p except the PC version of BioShock Infinite, which is stated to already meet the standards of the PC platform.
  
• Imagining BioShock, a video series hosted by BioShock & BioShock Infinite creative director Ken Levine as well as animation lead of BioShock & animation director of BioShock Infinite Shawn Robertson.
  

The more in-depth list of content including summaries is on 2K's official blog here. Lastly, the official announcement trailer is below for your viewing pleasure:

BioShock: The Collection will release physically & digitally for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on September 13th in North America, the 15th in Australia, and the 16th internationally.

However it's only possible to pre-order for Xbox One & PlayStation 4 on the 2K Store at this time.

Thanks for reading!

This update will also bring back a long gone campaign score attack so you can compete with your friends or to try and get a combined record by working together. Taking down enemies with style will fetch you more points than the regular headshot or melee and dying will cost you dearly.

Next up we have some new maps to play on. Since we didn't really get much with the Hog Wild update map wise we get 2 Warzone maps, 1 Arena map, and a Forge canvas this time around.

The first Warzone map we'll be taking a look at is the brand new Attack on Sanctum!

This map is themed around the Sangheili homeworld and will most likely feature a few of the new bosses instead of your usual legendary vehicle enemy and Warden. I don't know about you but the image above gives me a kind of Blood Gulch feeling.

The second Warzone map is the Warzone Assault version of Attack on Darkstar and is called Prospect.

Although it being a remix, I really don't see the original back in here apart from the theme. This remix is also made with Warzone Firefight in mind so this will probaby be the map to play on.

The Arena map is also a remix and is a version of The Rig. This map is called Molten!

This is the only image of the map I could find at the moment so I can't really tell how the map will play out. I guess we'll have to look forward to the mandotory update livestream prior to release.

Last up we have the Forge canvas called Tidal

Tidal is pretty much a giant rock in the middle of the water with some nooks and cranny's for you to build some smaller maps as well as some large open water for you to build the larger maps. again this is the only image available right now so we'll have to wait and see how it will turn out.

Now here come the REQs, and there are some cool ones!

First up we have the Temple style Covenenant vehicles. They sport a golden/green-ish colour and from the rarity colours might be a step up from the already present ultra variant vehicles. We'll most likely see their effects in the livestream.

Next up we have the Halo 2 Beam rifle (from which many found death in the Halo 2 Legendary runs...) along with an Alpha and Delta variant. What the effects and deifferences will be from the already available Beam Rifles remains to be seen.

Another big one is the Wasp UNSC air vehicle. Yes, we finally have an UNSC flying vehicle! From the little footage that is out there on the interwebz we can tell that it'll be a VTOL kind of plane and it will feature a chaingun and rockets to rain death from above. The Pheaton has finally found its match.

Last up we get our usual fix of Armors, emblems, an armor mod and some weapon variants of the Brute Plasma Rifle. I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that the Patrol case armor mod will let you have some more ammo capacity out of spawn.

That's about it for this update! What do you think about Warzone Firefight and the new maps and REQs?

Let us know down below!

Thank you for reading!

Source:

Xbox Wire

Based on what was shown, the Beta will run from June 13th to June 20th. The full list of info gleaned is below:

• "Be among the first to experience the explosive return of real-time strategy to the Halo universe in the Halo Wars 2 Multiplayer Beta for Xbox One", the opening paragraph reads.
  
• Will run from June 13th, 2016 - the day of the Microsoft Press Conference, but not confirmed at what time - to June 20th, 2016 specifically for Xbox One. Windows 10 was not mentioned.
  
• Requires an Xbox Live Gold Membership to participate.
  
• The Beta will be 13GBs in size.
  
• Number of players capable of playing the Beta on one console is restricted to just 1 while it's up to 6 online.
  
• The Beta is 100% open, and can be accessed by anyone on it's launch date.
  

As an indirect response to the leak the official Halo Youtube channel has begun uploading intriguing yet haunting '101s' regarding the events of the first Halo Wars. What this means not only for the sequel but for the original is yet to be determined. The canonically-first episode of the series can be seen

Halo Wars 2 is a real-time strategy game slated for release sometime in late 2016 for both Xbox One and Windows 10 - developed in partnership between SEGA's Creative Assembly of Total War fame and 343 Industries. The game will be shown at the Microsoft E3 conference starting at 9:30 AM PT on June 13th.

Thanks for reading!

This week, fans will be happy to know it has returned, playable on the new maps and with items from the latest update. Along with the mode, 343 has released two new REQ packs available in the store, for the purpose of beefing up your collection. One of these is a "Mythic Warzone Pack" which will grant players 10 single-use weapons of the highest tier and one new certification to get more of a weapon, if available. The other is a "Mechanized Vehicle Pack" which will grant players a ton of vehicular items to slaughter the competition. Both can be purchased with $10 USD or 80,000 REQ points, and are available for as long as "Warzone Turbo" is here.

With E3 on the horizon, 343 Industries is preparing to put on a show with their highly anticipated Halo Wars 2, as well as some hidden surprises. We're excited and can't wait to share the news with you! Are you purchasing either of the above packs? Let us know!

The first Meet Your Maker Contest, the brainchild of previous Site Moderator Absolute Dog with the previous THFE, was a 4v4 core/competitive Infinity Slayer Forge competition hosted by ourselves in alliance with many big name Forgers such as Psychoduck, SaltyKoala, WARHOLIC, undr zid, and Spades N AZ. This ended in Redemption1272 (XDemption)'s victory with his map, Edifice. Creator of Fracture in BTB, Squally DaBeanz came in second place with his map that has transcended across almost all Halo games to date: Stigma. Our second runner up was made by one of our Community Cartographers formerly known as The Fated Fire- now Fated Fireman- called Black Site.

The second Meet Your Maker Forge Contest was a Dominion-based competition that brought out the best of the Dominion Forgers. Not as many submissions but this was a very successful competition nonetheless. PA1NTS took first place with his map Monsoon. First runner up went to Xinshu's Sticky Fingers and second runner up was Typhoon by DUN3Z.

Upon his departure from 343 Industries Community Forum, Absolute Dog handed the rights of the Meet Your Maker contest to trusted Forger and Community Cartographer Psychoduck. Psychoduck created the third Meet Your Maker in conjunction with ForgeHub which took place on MCC's Halo 2: Anniversary.

Now we have more presences involved in this year's contest than ever before. Hosted by HaloCustoms in association with us here at 343i.org and BTB.net with the support of well known YouTubers like UnsortedGaming, Ultimate Halo, Vetoed, and Zandril.

Prizes

This year we're taking thet top 3 maps as winners for this competition.

Each of the three winners will receive the following prizes.

• Video and written features from various partners associated with the contest
  
• A Halo 5 poster, signed by the team at 343 Industries
  
• An in-game Arena REQ Bundle
  

Settings and Modes

Maps should be designed for one or more of the following modes.

• Big Team Assault (Magnums)
  
• Big Team CTF (Magnums)
  
• Big Team Slayer (Magnums)
  
• Big Team Strongholds (Magnums)
  

Deadlines and Details

• Maps must be created in Halo 5: Guardians' forge mode
  
• Maps already integrated into Halo 5: Guradians' matchmaking playlists are not eligible
  
• Maps created by staff members of HaloCustoms, 343Industries Community Forum, BigTeamBattle.net, and other associated partners are not eligible
  
• Maps must be posted in the map submission thread and follow all submission guidelines
  
• Maps must be submitted before 11:59 PM EST on July 16, 2016
  
• Co-forging is allowed, but collaborators will need to select one person to receive any and all physical prizes
  
• Multiple submissions per person are allowed
  
• Maps submitted early may be edited and re-submitted prior to the submission deadline
  

Judging

• Maps will be judged by a panel consisting of staff members of HaloCustoms, 343Industries Community Forum, BigTeamBattle.net, and associated partners
  
• The panel will include experienced forgers and level designers, big team battle experts, and professional players
  
• Judging will continue for a number of weeks following the submission deadline
  
• Maps will be judged on how well they support their primarygametype at the 8v8 player count
  
• Criteria include originality, replayability, performance, and level of depth and enjoyment of gameplay experience as determined by the panel of judges
  

FAQ and Resources

Q. Which groups are involved in hosting this event?

A. HaloCustoms, BigTeamBattle.net, 343industries.org, Vetoed, ZannyVids, Unsorted Gaming, and Ultimate Halo.​

Q. Why Magnum starts?

A.

Q. What elements should my map contain to be deemed 'finished'?

A.

Q. Where can I go to get feedback on my map during the contest?

A. What Are You Working On? thread​

Q. Where can I go to test my map during the contest?

A. HaloCustoms featured lobbies​

Anyway, here's the list:

Turns out all the speculation surrounding the Legendary weapon was true. Jorge's HMG is making its return to Halo! If you get your hands on it you'll find that you walk a lil' faster and can take more of a punch. Also, your bullets explode in impact. I don't remeber it doing that in Reach but... I'll take it.

The REQ with the mysterious ONI symbol plastered over it turned out to be a Pheaton variant. We were all hoping for the Falcon, but maybe this Pheaton won't explode from peashooter fire.

Next we have all of the (predicted) Noble team armors. Keep in mind that they're not supposed to be exactly like the armors you saw in Reach (e.g "Emile's" knife is not on the shoulder armor). Wanted to clarify this since I've seen people literally going crazy over this.

We also get a little armor mod that's going to help you be the designated driver.

Finally we have the weapon attatchment of which I'm still not sure what they do exactly. I believe Fishy said on my last post that it was a marker/spotter of sorts.

Moving on we have images of UI improvements. We finally get post game medals and extended stats in the carnage report for bragging rights and showing off. Extended stats include:

• All Medals earned from the match, including quantity, medal rarity, and description
  
• Tool of Destruction
  
• Killed Most (see who each player killed most, and how many times)
  
• Killed By (see who each player fell victim to the most, and how many times)
  
• Press LB or RB to view Commendations or Progress from your Recap
  
• Press LT or RT to view Recaps of other players from the match.
  

And here's how it's going to look like:

Fancy stuffs.

Alongside the improved carnage report is a search preference tool that'll help you find a game your way. It's not exactly server region selection, but it's a step in the right way. With the tool we're getting we can choose between:

• Balanced (default): Search for a match based on your fireteam's skill and network connection quality.
  
• Expanded: Widen search parameters to find the first available match with reasonable skill matching and network connection quality.
  
• Focused: Narrow search to find the best match based on your fireteam's skill and connection. Search times may be longer than normal.
  

Don't forget to leave your thoughts on Waypoint when it drops so 343i knows right from wrong!

Additionally we get an explaination and criteria for the Infection medals we were shown in the preview.

I'll post the list down here:

Zombie Hunter - "Kill 5 Zombies without dying"

Zombie Slayer - "Kill 10 Zombies without dying"

Hell’s Janitor - "Kill 15 Zombies without dying"

Hell Jumper - "Kill 20 Zombies without dying"

Zombicide - "Kill 25 Zombies without dying"

The Cure - "Kill 30 Zombies without dying"

Infector - "Infect 2 Survivors without dying"

Carrier - "Infect 3 Survivors without dying"

Ravager - "Infect 4 Survivors without dying"

Plague Bearer - "Infect 5 Survivors without dying"

Lord of the Flies - "Infect 6 Survivors without dying"

Last Man Standing - "Be the last man standing in a game of Infection"

Infected - "Infect a survivor"

Ancient One - "Survive an entire round as a Zombie and convert at least one Survivor"

Survived - "Live through the Zombie Apocolypse"

Resourceful - "Kill a Zombie when all of your weapons are empty"

Stalker - "Assassinate a Zombie”

Flatline - "Kill the last man standing in a game of Infection"

Finally we get some additional tweaks for the Halo 5 sandbox in a little message from the Halo 5 multiplayer team.

For Memories of Reach, we’ve fixed a bug where Spartan Charge would not properly target enemies at the edges of a red reticle on the horizontal plane (you can still get red reticle and miss vertically). Fear not, though – players who skillfully evade a Spartan-Charging player with Thrust will still escape without taking damage. Additionally, Spartan Charge with Speed Boost will no longer be a one-hit kill, and Spartan Charge with the Gravity Hammer will no longer be a one-hit kill.

The last item is a slight increase to movement speed while crouching. This has been increased to allow for crouching to be a more viable choice for players to flank and attack. The speed isn’t drastic, but after months of testing we’ve found it to be the sweet spot.

So, this is what you can expect when the update drops.

Leave your thoughts and comments down below!

Thank you for reading!

Source:

Halowaypoint

Forge Team get on it

The standard settings of the Infection playlist you'll come across online have also been shown and I'll paste them down here:

• Total player count: 12
  
• Number of rounds: 4
  
• Round time limit: 3 minutes each
  
• New Custom Game option: “Last Squad Standing”
  
• Spartans have all Spartan abilities (naturally!)
  
• Infected have Thrust, Smart Scope, Stabilize
  
• New medals
  

Speculate below what you'll think the medal requirements will be

As with every content update, we also get another load of REQs. And also as always, some of them are blurred out. What's interesting is that this time one of the legendary REQs hasn't just been blurred, it has been completely blacked out and has an ONI symbol on it.

Check it out:

As you can see the Weapons skins that were earlier available in the Spartan REQ pack are now available in regular REQs (aside from de 343i skins). The Brute Plasma Rifle also makes its return to Halo!

Speculation on the blurred REQs has already gone wild across other media. Rumor has it that the blacked out 'ONI' REQ is the Falcon, but I'm still hoping for the legendary Reach Forklift. Wouldn't that be something?

In any case the Mythic blurred weapon appears to be Jorge's HMG. A thought that is supported by the fact that the Legendary stance appears to be your Spartan holding something rather big and heavy.

The blurred Mythic armors and Helmets are all of the Noble teams gear which were shown briefly in the infection

The blurred assassination leaves everything to your imagination. I for one have no idea what it will look like.

The blurred weapon at the bottom appears to be the DMR with the same attatchment as all other loadout weapons shown on the list. Which got me thinking... why blur it when you can clearly see it's the DMR with the same attatchment as all other weapons shown?

In any case post your own thoughts on the blurred REQs down below!

Moving on we have a weapon balance coming. More specificly, a REQ weapon update. 343i has researched and noticed that some of the Power weapons in Warzone were underperforming. So here's a list of weapon tweaks that will come with the update in the following weeks:

Plasma Caster: Default

• Reduced non-charged timer from 0.5 to 0.3 (less overshooting of enemies)
  
• Sticky grenade has less arc (to be able to place it on the map more reliably)
  
• Sticky grenade detonation is now more damaging vs. vehicles, but less damaging vs bipeds (will still kill bipeds in one shot when stuck)
  
• Increased sticky grenade submunition damage values from 43 to 75 (indirect fire from a sticky shot can now actually kill!)
  
• Sticky submunition grenade inner AOE increased from 0.65 to 1.0
  

Plasma Caster: White Scar

• Needles have improved aim toward nearby targets
  

Plasma Caster: Scourge of Fire

• Sticky shot now has 7 submunitions instead of 5
  

Hydra Launcher: Default

• Reduced recoil in hip
  
• Increased inner AOE radius from 0.4 to 0.8
  
• Increased impact damage to make it more effective against vehicles (still two rockets to kill Spartan)
  

Hydra Launcher: Typhon

• Enabled multi lock on for up to 3 targets
  
• Increased impact damage (still two rockets to kill Spartan)
  

Scattershot: Loathsome Thing

• Increased number of hardlight projectiles to be same as normal scattershot (5 ->
  

Rocket Launcher: High Five

• Increased AOE radius on cluster rockets
  

Binary Rifle: Twin Jewels of Maethrillian

• Reduced recoil
  
• Placed twin projectiles a bit closer together for easier biped targeting
  

Covenant Carbine: Rain of Oblivion

• Reduced recoil
  
• Increased zoom magnification a bit (closer to default Carbine)
  

Incineration Cannon: River of Light

• Added slight homing to charge shot to hit multiple bipeds easier
  

Incineration Cannon: Heartseeker

• Added proximity detonation to charge shot (like the normal Inc. Cannon has) to make it more effective against airborne targets or targets behind cover
  

Fuel Rod Cannon: Pool of Radiance

• Fixed a damage bug (was not causing AOE damage on initial explosion)
  
• Made projectile thicker
  

Needler: Talon of the Lost

• Reduced supercombine count to be same as normal Needler
  
• Needles have longer lifetime to more easily supercombines against difficult to hit targets (8s instead of 4s)
  

Spartan Laser: Selene’s Lance

• Reduced recoil
  
• Made beam thicker
  

That's all for this update preview. Don't forget to leave your thoughts and speculations down below!

Thank you all for reading!

Source:

Halowaypoint