halo

We'll see how things pan out now that these two slayers have a whoppin' million dollars between the two of them.

<br>The 'Doom' franchise has long been hailed as the acclaimed forefather of the first person shooter. For quite some time games as established as 'Halo' were coined mere 'doom clones.' But after enough first person shooter gaming, the various communities deemed 'Doom' for what it's always been: the perfect final product of the FPS as a gaming category.</br>

<img src="https://media.giphy.com/media/h7K7eZyJLmOQ/giphy.gif">


<br>Or that this modernized rendition of 'Doom' (with the multiplayer option) is the undeniable, amped up badass older brother of 'Halo.' There's no getting around the fact that this trailer pushes the boundaries of screaming bloody madness.</br>

<img src="https://media.giphy.com/media/JjhPXpLGNbLLG/giphy.gif">


<br>As far as the cream of the multiplayer mode crop, 'freeze tag' stands out amongst the rest the pack. A mode of play, which involves two teams squared off in 'team deathmatch' like fashion, where every time anyone gets shot, they're essentially frozen thereafter. Only way a player can regain movement is to have a teammate post up next to them for a measured duration of time. Winning team simply enough is the team that freezes the entire other team.</br>

From the video description:

Join a global celebration on October 26th as we kick off the highly anticipated launch of Halo 5: Guardians with Halo 5: LIVE, a 6-hour live broadcast streaming exclusively on YouTube. The broadcast is jam-packed with exclusive gameplay reveals, celebrity appearances, live interviews with 343 Industries, special tune-ins from around the world, and much more. Halo 5: LIVE begins at 6PM EDT on Oct. 26 and culminates at midnight when Halo 5: Guardians goes on sale in North America (show time is 3PM - 9PM PDT)

So, if whatever store you're waiting in line at has free wifi, maybe you can watch this on your phone instead of talking to your neighbor. 

Microsoft seems ready to commit to its past as it continued reviving old franchises during Gamescom 2015 Aug. 4.

After presenters gave plenty of space to a new Forza game, a new Rainbow Six game and a new Crackdown game at the Xbox One press conference, Xbox head Phil Spencer gave a 'one more thing' to the audience in the form of announcing a sequel to 2009's Halo Wars.

If you don't remember Halo Wars, we'll forgive you. It was an odd duck of a real-time strategy game, a la StarCraft or Age of Empires. In fact, the original game was developed by Ensemble Studios, creator of the Age of Empires series.

The original Halo Wars was a cult fan favorite and remains highly regarded in certain circles, though it never reached the sales numbers of traditional FPS Halo games.

Ensemble will not develop this sequel, instead it's being handled by 343 Industries, who took over the Halo franchise after creator studio Bungie ended their exclusivity deal with Microsoft, and British game devleloper Creative Assembly, responsible for the very many Total War games.

Now with Nathan Fillion!

Bungie released a new tumblr, Hunt the Truth to showcase the ongoing investigation into Master Chief's life.

Halo Online is a new free to play Halo game for PC that's launching a closed beta this spring in Russa.  It's likely to be full of microtransactions and possibly be terrible, but the game is said to be launching in Russia in an effort to combat the rampant piracy there.  Can't steal a game that's already free!  There are no current plans to expand the game outside of Russia, but "theoretically, any expansion...would have to go through region-specific changes to address player expectations."

Get it on November 11, 2014.

Er, Spartan Strike, same thing. Spartan Strike is a touch based, top-down shooter for Windows Phone, Windows 8, and Steam. Check out its announcement trailer above.

Nightfall will tell the story of events leading up to the upcoming Halo 5: Guardians. Check out the first look trailer above.

After being terminated without cause from Bungie in April, Halo composer Marty O'Donnell filed suit against his former employer, seeking unpaid wages, benefits and damages. Bungie has now settled with O'Donnell and are paying him $95,019.13.

Such multiplayer! Many cheevos. Much Master Chief!