New Halo game is not called Halo 5

When the new Halo game was announced at Microsoft's E3 conference it was simply titled "Halo". The trailer appeared to follow on from the events of Halo 4 so people assumed this was Halo 5. When the Xbox Twitter account called it Halo 5 that was taken to be official confirmation. However, 343industries designer, David Ellis, has suggested on Twitter that this may not be Halo 5 after all.

Intriguing... 

Could be an episodic Halo adventure, perhaps? It couldn't be a prequel or reboot.. Sounds like we'll learn more soon at any rate. 

- Cowboy Out. 

Halo 5 Announced for Xbox One

Microsoft have just announced Halo 5 for Xbox One, coming in 2014 with dedicated servers and running at 60fps.

You can watch the trailer below.

Cortana. :(

I'm calling it Halo 5, Microsoft never actually did that, simply referring to it as "Halo". I wonder if this implies a non-sequelised delivery method, maybe going episodic?

Chief looks pretty battered. Been jumping from space again, buddy?

- Cowboy Out.

Master Chief Riding Master Chief Riding Master Chief

Excited for E3? Well here's a totally non-E3 related picture of Master Chief being straddled by Master Chief being straddled by Master Chief.

- Cowboy Out.

Halo: Spartan Assault Gallery

Below is a collection of all the screenshots and concept art of the newly announced Halo: Spartan Assault.

Click to enlarge

Halo: Spartan Assault Announced for Windows Phone and Windows 8

Microsoft have just announced a new Halo game for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, titled Halo: Spartan Assault.

The game takes place between the events of Halo 3 and Halo 4 and follows the story of Sarah Palmer. The twin-stick shooter features 25 missions based around the battles which took place between the UNSC and the Covenant post- Halo 3.

Progress and achievements in the game will unlock content for your Halo 4 spartan too. There is no fixed date as yet, but it could reach PC as soon as July and is priced at $7.

You can watch the announce trailer now:

 

I guess now is as good a time as any to upgrade to Windows 8..

- Cowboy Out.

New Halo Game "Bootcamp" Coming to PC

An entry for a PC game titled Halo: Bootcamp has appeared on the Korean ratings board. And rather unexpectedly Microsoft have responded, giving this quote to Gamefront:

 “What’s Bootcamp? It is not related to our Xbox One efforts, or the Reclaimer Saga, but rather a project we’re very enthusiastic about and will have more to say about in the near future.”

The translation of the entry on the Korean ratings board reads:

Halo 3 first-person point of view of the world based on the contents of the Action Game software going to perform the mission expressed mild violence (third-person point of simple weapons, attack representation and fresh blood description) that the game industry, therefore Article 21 of the Act on the Promotion and classification hearing in accordance with paragraph 3 of Paragraph 9 2015 Rated PG 'classification as decided.

Uh-huh..

Halo Franchise director, Frank O'Connor posted on NeoGAF commenting on the official Microsoft statement:

"You should probably factor that [The fact that Microsoft responded to the rumours] into the nature, type and scale of thing it's going to be. I will say this though, and only this: it's cool and something I have always wanted to do."

So it's something small, something relatively low-key? Maybe a web game showing the Spartan IIs going through boot camp? Master Chief's origin story has always been kept out of the games, maybe this is a way to fill in that gap for those who've only played the games.

hmm...

As usual, I'll bring you more news as soon as I get it.

- Cowboy Out.

Mcrosoft Announce a Live-Action Halo TV Series in Conjunction with Steven Spielberg

At the launch event for Microsoft's new console the Xbox One, a new live-action, Halo TV series was announced in conjunction with Steven Spielberg.

This is a massive move for the franchise, taking it out of the realm of games and books and into the mainstream. No more details were revealed, but I imagine it will feature familiar faces and probably have some sort of Xbox Live exclusivity - See it first with Xbox Live Gold, that sort of thing.

I'll bring you more as soon as we get it.

- Cowboy Out.

GIVEAWAY! New Halo Game Predictathon!

Ok! So it's looking more and more likely that we're going to see a new Halo game at the Xbox event tonight.  I posted my thoughts on it yesterday, but now I want to know what you guys think is going to be announced.

I will give away a copy of the Awakening: The Art of Halo 4 to the person who gets the closest in their prediction. To enter either Tweet me @EnglishHaloBlog or leave a comment here (make sure you sign in to your Google account or it’ll post anonymously). If more than one person correctly guesses then I will do a random draw from all correct guesses.

If there’s no Halo announcement then I’ll roll this over to E3 or whenever they choose to announce the next Halo. Zero points for guesses of "There will be no Halo game announced".

I may add some T&Cs later, but just assume it’s a standard giveaway, open to everyone, I'll cover postage, my decision is final etc.

Tell your friends! 

- Cowboy Out. 

New Halo Game to be Announced Tonight?

In just a few hours time, Microsoft will be pulling back the curtain and giving us our first peek at their successor to the Xbox 360. The conference is sure to be overflowing with information on the new machine’s hardware and software features. While much of the information on games may be held back a couple of weeks for E3, Microsoft will have to show some software alongside the console. With Sony's PS4 reveal earlier in the year being so software focused it wouldn't look good for Microsoft to put their full focus on the non-gaming features. With so much to speculate on, I could easily fill an article on with ideas of what they may add to the controller, or Kinect, or system software, but you’re not here for that. Let’s talk about Halo.

It seems odd to talk about a new Halo game so soon after the release of Halo 4, but following Phil Spencer’s assertion that Halo should be an annual franchise and then seeing yearly releases since 2009, it seems almost certain we will see a Halo game this year. Add to that 343i staff Tweeting about checking out the event location and the pieces start to fall into place.

We know very little (well, we actually know nothing at all) about what that game could be, or even who may develop it. Halo has seen four developers in the last four years - Ensemble, Bungie, Saber and 343industries - so it’s totally conceivable that someone other than 343i could be producing the next game.

Halo 2 Anniversary/HD Remix

There’s been a lot of talk about this one, and in some ways it does fit nicely. It’s been two years since Halo: CE Anniversary, enough time for Saber to get to work on the upscaling job. There’s clearly a huge demand for it among the sections of the Halo community hungry for a more traditional multiplayer experience and it already has online support so wouldn’t necessarily need to piggy-back on Halo 4’s multiplayer. There's also the idea that all the content Bungie had to cut to get the game out on time could be finished up and released, somewhat akin to a Director's Cut.

Whenever rumours have circulated about a Halo 2 remake, franchise director, Frank O’Connor has been quick to assert that no such thing is happening. There’s also the rather confusing corporate message of announcing their new hyper-powerful console and then unveiling a game they first released 9 years ago. So as much as I’d love to see a Halo 2 remake, I don’t think it’ll be happening this year. 

Probability: ★★★★★

New Halo Comic Series Incoming from Dark Horse

After 5 years of Halo comics from Marvel the franchise has been moved over to Dark Horse, who amongst many others produce all the Star Wars comics. So they certainly have a pedigree in shaping large sci-fi universes to fit into comics.

The series will be written by Brian Reed, who rewrote the Fall of Reach story to be released as a comic alongside Halo: Reach in 2010, before joining the writing team on Halo 4.

The series will fill in the back story of Commander Sarah Palmer from ODST to commander of the Spartan IV programme.

Judging by the Elite's armour in this shot, he's one of Jul's followers so the story must come right up-to-date with the events of Halo 4.

Judging by this sample it looks to follow on with the visual and narrative style established in the Marvel comics.

The comic is due to release on August 14th, I'll remind you closer to the time when it's available to order. 

- Cowboy Out.