Halo Channel, Guardians Beta Date Announced at Gamescom

[Blackwell Stith]

Halo Channel, Guardians Beta Date Announced at Gamescom


New trailers for Halo 5: Guardians beta and the newly announced Halo Channel were premiered during Microsoft's Gamescom conference.

Several juicy tidbits of new Halo news were dropped today during Microsoft's pre-Gamescom media briefing, including the announcement of a new Halo-focused media application and the release date for Halo 5: Guardians [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/preview/134549-Halo-5-Guardians-Coming-for-Xbox-One-in-Fall-2015-Update]' beta.

Simply called "The Halo Channel", Microsoft described it as an "interactive digital network that provides unprecedented, personalized access to the Halo Universe." A trailer was released today that showcased a dashboard-like interface, with new footage of Halo 2: Anniversary [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/conferences/sdcc2014/11965-Ridley-Scott-s-Halo-Nightfall-Leads-Directly-Into-Halo-5-Guardia][/I], behind-the-scenes footage, and community features all accessible from the channel. The video's YouTube description reads, "The Halo Channel enables you to seamlessly transition between Halo games and other Halo experiences. Featuring full Twitch integration, broadcast your gameplay or watch feeds from the Halo community - from competitive multiplayer matches and campaign walkthroughs to speed runs. This is your home for Halo." The Halo Channel will be launching on Xbox One and PC at a later yet-to-be-announced date.

It is unknown what role Halo Waypoint, the games official website, will play when The Halo Channel goes live.

It was also revealed that the beta for Halo 5 would launch on December 29th and run all the way to January 18th, 2015. The beta's gameplay will focus on 4v4 arena battles over seven different maps, and gameplay will supposedly run at 60 frames per second. Players will also be able to unlock special in-game items that will transfer over to the final game build. Access to the beta will be exclusive to those who purchase Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which will be available on November 11th.




Source: Metro [http://metro.co.uk/2014/08/12/halo-5-guardians-beta-starts-december-29-4830199/]

Share your thoughts in the comments, and stay tuned to The Escapist for more Halo [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/halo?from_search=1]-related news!

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[Irridium]

Wait, Halo Channel is coming to PC?

...

So... Master Chief collection on PC maybe please?

 

[laggyteabag]

Wait, Halo Channel is coming to PC?

...

So... Master Chief collection on PC maybe please?

I believe that the Halo Channel was announced for Windows 8, and no other OS, so whilst it might be coming out for PC, Microsoft are going to make damn well sure that you use Windows 8 to use it. So if Halo: MCC does come to PC, you had better pray that it gets ported to Win 7 like Spartan Assault. (Provided that you use Win 7, of course)

 

[Gali]

This is really good stuff. The more important headline for me is the fact that 343 detailed their vision of H5 MP. Finally someone is developing a Halo MP with the right mindset. No innovation for innovations sake, no taking of features from other games that are the opposite of Halo, no focus on Big Team Battle which is a gametype that works better in other games aaaand finally no Beta in a timeframe that does not allow the dev team to actually work with the feedback.
Just pure competititve team-based Arena FPS fun.

I love Bungie for creating H1 and H2. But later they ruined the franchise MP-wise and shit on the entire competitive community (aka the people that actually stay online in the game for years) that raised their concerns about H3 and Reach. Now aspects of criticism that got people banned (!) on Bungie.net is actually used by 343i. I mean yeah, H4 was shit too but 343i finally got it. Sorry Bungie, you failed. GL with Destiny.

Edit: About that Halo Channel being on PC thing... How can this raise your hopes for a PC version of the MCC? It is bascially an app to watch stuff, nothing more. It will take some years till they port the MCC to PC, if ever. Makes no sense for MS to do that soon because a shit ton of people want to buy an Xbox One just for that compilation.

 

[laggyteabag]

This is really good stuff. The more important headline for me is the fact that 343 detailed their vision of H5 MP. Finally someone is developing a Halo MP with the right mindset. No innovation for innovations sake, no taking of features from other games that are the opposite of Halo, no focus on Big Team Battle which is a gametype that works better in other games aaaand finally no Beta in a timeframe that does not allow the dev team to actually work with the feedback.
Just pure competititve team-based Arena FPS fun.

I have to agree with you. Sure, cruising around in a Warthog, mowing down enemies with the the mounted machine gun is a great experience, but nothing beats the basic 4v4 experience on a small map. It seems that any game that doesn't have the large scale experience of something like Battlefield or Planetside gets frowned upon (Titanfall), but the focused feel of an arena shooter is always the best experience in my book. That way there is less unavoidable deaths by things such as tanks or some guy on the other side of the map with a sniper rifle. I for one am really excited for Halo: MCC and Halo 5, and I really appreciate that 343i seem to understand what Halo fans want now.

 

[synobal]

So microsoft went to gamescom to announce a tv channel?

 

[Asclepion]

Edit: About that Halo Channel being on PC thing... How can this raise your hopes for a PC version of the MCC? It is bascially an app to watch stuff, nothing more. It will take some years till they port the MCC to PC, if ever. Makes no sense for MS to do that soon because a shit ton of people want to buy an Xbox One just for that compilation.

Steam users outnumber Xbone owners 12 times over (as of this writing). And though many would buy an Xbone soley for exclusives, there are also many who are unwilling to buy a $400 machine just to play Halo, especially when the last great one was Halo 2, and it's obvious that the story ended with Halo 3.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Isn't this like those Wii channels that Nintendo launched to advertise a game and only the fans looking forward to it actually downloaded the channel? I know I was one of the maybe 3,000 people in North America that downloaded the Metroid Prime 3 channel.

Wait, Halo Channel is coming to PC?

...

So... Master Chief collection on PC maybe please?

Maybe in a year or two the collection will be on PC, but I'm sure right now MS just wants to hammer PC users with slight interest in Halo until they buy an xbox.

So microsoft went to gamescom to announce a tv channel?

It's looks like one of the idiots that allowed all that TV talk back during the xbone reveal has escaped. Phil Spencer and his crack commando team are currently hunting them down.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

Like that 343 is getting back to the original arena style gameplay for halo 5. That's how halo became so big, not adding stuff from other games that don't belong. Can't wait for the beta now.

It's looks like one of the idiots that allowed all that TV talk back during the xbone reveal has escaped. Phil Spencer and his crack commando team are currently hunting them down.

Phil spencer is on the job.

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