343 Industries announced yesterday via Twitter that they would release a new 12 minute long ViDoc for Halo 5: Guardians on IGN as part of San Diego Comic Con. This ViDoc, “A Hero Reborn”, gives us a look behind-the-scenes at Halo 5: Guardians and the development process as 343 Industries looks and plans to tell the biggest Master Chief story yet.
Today is the first day of SDCC and with it a new Warzone map was revealed by 343 Industries and Mega Bloks. Yup that’s right, Mega Bloks. The map is called “Raid on Apex 7” and it’s the biggest Warzone map revealed so far… which is interesting… since we’ve only seen one before. Regardless, judging from the size and scale of the mega bloks set, it does look massive.
They spent 16 weeks building the map; it’s made up of roughly more than 89,000 blocks and weighs half a ton.
The map, Raid on Apex 7, is a based off the Halo: Combat Evolve campaign mission “The Silent Cartographer”. This is the second of the six Warzone maps that will be available at launch; the map revealed at E3 was called Escape from ARC. There will be an additional six Warzone maps released for free between launch and June 2016. Here’s the official description for the map.
“Clearing out the initial Covenant threats and controlling the Forerunner Spire in the center of the island is paramount to a team’s success and provides a central base of operations. If your team loses the Spire, don’t despair; players can use a system of caves or take to the beach to flank the base. Beware of the Covenant though, for they will not let you take this island so easily. They will counterattack and fight to retake their territory. Continue the push for control of the island and take out the opposition’s core… before you awaken something much worse.”
Check out the Mega bloks set over on Gamespot
With the launch of the Halo Channel App for iOS and Android devices today 343 Industries told us how to get a FREE promotional REQ pack, which is guaranteed to contain a special emblem, for Halo 5: Guardians!
For those who don’t know, REQ packs contain Requisitions that are used primarily in Halo 5’s new Warzone multiplayer. They can contain weapons, weapon skins, weapon variants, vehicle skins, vehicle variants, assassination animations, stances, armor pieces, armor skins, emblems, and the list goes on.
Now 343 Industries just announced that the Halo Channel app is now available for iOS and Android devices. 343 told us via Twitter that “A Windows Phone version of the Halo Channel app is in the works and will be available at the launch of Windows 10 Mobile.”
The Halo Channel was previously only accessible to those who owned an Xbox One console. Now to get the promotional REQ pack which will contain a special emblem for Halo 5: Guardians all you have to do is download the Halo Channel app on your platform of choice and watch any video. When you first download and open the app you’ll be prompted to sign in, be sure to sign in with your account that’s tied to your Xbox gamertag.
Now if you’ve already been watching the Halo channel on your Xbox One you’re already on the list to receive the Promotional REQ pack for Halo 5. Of course, you’ll have to wait until Halo 5: Guardians releases on October 27th to receive the Promotional REQ pack.
The parasitic enemies in the Halo universe known as The Flood, or simply Flood, will not make an appearance in 343 Industries latest installment Halo 5: Guardians.
In a recent Q&A conducted by Gamer Informer with Josh Holmes, Studio Head for Halo 5: Guardians, and Tim Longo, Creative Director at 343 Industries, Longo announced that the Flood would not be returning in Halo 5. However Longo did say that they have quote “other surprises in store.”
The Flood did not appear in Halo 4’s campaign, however they appeared in a new take of the popular Infection multiplayer game type. With the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection the Infection game type for Halo 2 Anniversary was also updated with new Flood like characters.
Another Halo game, and another installment without the beloved characters that go “wort wort”. It has now been said many times since E3, however the question is still asked anytime there’s an opportunity. Halo 5: Guardians will not have playable Elites. Spartans are the focus for this installment.
This is likely due to a major balancing issue that many veteran Halo fans will know. Elites and Spartans are very different characters. They have different sizes, posture, and hit boxes. This poses a problem in creating even play. Anyone who played the gametype SWAT knows how much more difficult it was to land a shot on a head of an Elite – let alone how impossible it was to do that when the Elite player had their back to you.
This news comes from multiple sources. Josh Holmes answered some Warzone related questions over on HaloWaypoint
“Q: Will you be able to play as any type of character (ex: Elite, Forerunner, ext…)
A: Everyone plays as a Spartan in Halo 5 multiplayer. This includes both Warzone and Arena.”
This heartbreaking news for some was also heard during an E3 livestream with Funhaus/RoosterTeeth and most recently during an Q&A session with Game Informer on their podcast.
In a Twitter response Josh Holmes, Studio Head for Halo 5: Guardians, confirmed that Halo 5 will not feature split-screen for co-op campaign or multiplayer (Arena or Warzone).
https://twitter.com/JoshingtonState/status/615282749436358656
This comes after the news from Game Informer earlier this month that Halo 5’s campaign would not support split-screen (local) co-op. This was due to the goal of ensuring top framerate and graphical performance at all times.
Frank O’Connor went on to explain further on NeoGaf around the same time, “that 60 fps had to take precedence. It’s not just aesthetics – the entire simulation is built on that frame rate.”
Pre-Order bonuses are starting to pop-up at different retailers. Here’s the list so far. Keep checking back as this article will be updated as more Halo 5: Guardians pre-order bonuses surface.
https://twitter.com/JoshingtonState/status/613463164445814784
As predicted, Josh Holmes ( Studio Head for Halo 5: Guardians) confirmed via Twitter that Pre-Order Bonus weapons, skins, etc… for Halo 5: Guardians can be earned through regular gameplay. Pre-order just guarantees access to them day 1.
Xbox Daily’s segment on Halo 5: Guardians with 343 Industries about Warzone, REQ Packs, REQ Cards, and Q&A at E3 2015
Xbox Daily’s segment on Halo 5: Guardians HoloLens Experience at E3 2015
Breakdown of the Halo 5: Guardians E3 2015 Campaign Gameplay.
Check out the other Halo 5: Guardians E3 2015 revels here
Watch the original BATTLE OF SUNAION Campaign E3 2015 Demo
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