If there’s been one small positive about this year, it’s the reliable rollout of once console-locked Halo games on PC through Halo: The Master Chief Collection. With Halo 4 currently on the launchpad, 343 Industries have chosen to extend the game’s testing (“flighting”) period by another week, with the Insider client now testing crossplay support for Halo Reach.

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Not two weeks after Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary snuck onto PC, and we’re already talking about the sequel. Steady on, team. This week, John “Masterchief” Halo’s handlers over at 343 Industries announced plans to flight (that’s Halo-speak for “test) Halo 2‘s return to PC in The Master Chief Collection. It’ll trial alongside Forge and Theatre modes for Halo: Reach by the end of the month, with potential fixes for that game’s stubborn audio bugs.

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343 Industries have released their January development update for the Halo: Master Chief Collection and it’s a chunky one. The update goes over progress made on all of the Halo games that 343 are bringing to PC as part of the collection, from test flight plans to matchmaking playlists, and Halo Forge. I’ll stick to the last one and let you read the rest of the novel if you so choose.

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I ve been spending the past few weeks playing co-op games with my BFF. I wanted to try Sea of Thieves, because when I m not dreaming of being an astronaut, I m dreaming of being a pirate. Being Scottish, I suggested we use Game Pass, Microsoft s games subscription service, and was surprised to see that it was only 1. Then I was surprised to see that the next renewal date for my sub is April. Score!

It s a holiday discount, so you ll probably need to be super quick, and though it claims that it s your first 3 months , I had already signed up and unsubbed from Game Pass when Sea of Thieves was first released and I still got the deal. If this doesn’t work for you, you can probably sign up for a new account. Microsoft aren t shy about putting games up there. You can enjoy Halo: Reach for a paltry amount for a few months.

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Ever since the Master Chief Collection was announced for PC back in March, fans have been clamouring for the Xbox version s classic split screen local co-op to be included in the PC port. But so far, it seems they ve had no luck. In a Reddit AMA at the time, 343 Industries community director Brian ske7ch Jarrard said it was a tricky issue, and that 343 was still looking at what can be supported . Eight months later, the collection s roll-out on PC has started with Halo: Reach – but there s no split screen to be seen.

Luckily, however, I can reveal that Rock Paper Shotgun has secured answers to the local co-op question at last. Or at least, the answers to a> local Co-op question. By which I mean, I can tell you how all the main characters in the Halo series would handle a trip to the local branch of Co-op, the UK s beloved budget supermarket. I’ve got no idea about the split-screen thing. Here s the information you were almost definitely looking for:

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I’m bad at liking old shooters, because I struggle to see through the ways they’ve been surpassed. Modern games look better. They feel better. They have bumslides. They are generally obliged to develop their protagonists into something more than a number and a helmet.

These are all problems for the nine-year-old Halo: Reach, but I’ve ultimately enjoyed myself despite them. There is wisdom in the old ways, even if they no longer punch so hard. Although, in fairness, the punching itself is still solid.

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I can t help but love Halo. It s one of the few things that lodged firmly enough in my teenage heart to build itself a permanent nest there, and it still comes and goes freely, even though the iron gate of age has barred so much else from getting in. Ever since 2001, when I saved to buy an OG Xbox purely for the sake of playing Combat Evolved, I ve gotten needlessly excited about playing each new release on launch day. I was also the guy Nate wrote this article about.

Over the last eighteen years, we ve slugged through pretty much every new release in the series together, and they ve burned a string of happy little plasma scars on my brain, each one a memorial anchor for a whole period of my life. A decision to join the army in my early twenties saw me playing Halo 3 in drafty barracks in Wales, about to be sent to Afghanistan. Despite feeling incredibly removed from normal life, just a few bars of the theme, or the familiar clatter of the battle rifle, would instantly transport me back to a sort of home.

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Halo’s Master Chief Collection starts today with the release of Halo: Reach, the prequel to the rest of the sci-fi space marine stories and the first of the revamped bunch to spawn on PC. Five other Halo games will follow, ending with Halo 4 by the end of 2020.

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This is, really and truly, the last ever Steam Charts.

Which, I realise, is something I’ve said before. More than once. But this time it’s really true!

Erk, I’m not really sure how to convince anyone of this. I’m the boy who cried last ever Steam Charts.

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The revamped PC rereleases of Bungie’s classic console shooter series Halo will kick off with Halo: Reach on December 3rd, Microsoft announced today. Reach was the fifth Halo FPS to be released but will be the first to come from The Master Chief Collection cos it’s a prequel to the lot. Have a gander at the new trailer below.

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