Gamer's Outpost LLC

by Dave Thier

Halo 5 will be released on October 27th, Microsoft and 343 industries announced today with a new live action TV ad.

The trailer features newcomer Locke exploring some sort of smoldering ruins in the shadow of a giant monument to Master Chief, apparently canonized for his regular universe saving. But all is not well! The real Master Chief is lying wounded at the base of the statue, and Locke seems to feel that he’s done something to deserve lying there. Master Chief is a traitor, apparently, responsible for the aforementioned ruins. My guess is that’s the end of the story: cut and dry, no surprise twists of any kind. That guy always seemed shifty, anyway. I like the notion of a story a little more rooted in human politics: the endlessly absurd mythology that attempted to drive the story in Halo 4 was getting a little tiresome.

Halo 5 is by far the most powerful Microsoft and the Xbox One has in their arsenal, so it will be interesting to see what happens with the console war come October. It was originally slated to go up against Sony’s powerhouse Uncharted 4, but that’s been delayed until the spring. The PS4 continues to dominate the Xbox One internationally, but a strong exclusive lineup never hurts a console — with Halo coming out in October, I imagine we’ll be seeing Rise of The Tomb Raider in November.

We first saw Halo 5 two E3s ago, with a trailer featuring Master chief hiking through a snowy landscape, clutching a rag to provide some heat beyond his Mjolnir Assault Armor. What was he after out there? Did it have something to do with his theoretical betrayal? Let’s just hope that the multiplayer component works a little bit better than the Master Chief Collection when release day rolls around.