Operation: Trebuchet, a Halo mod for Arma 3, is taking the Halo universe back in time. Set during the titular conflict between the UNSC and insurrectionists, before the arrival of the Covenant, it focuses on regular soldiers and rebels rather than the superhuman Spartans and aliens we're used to. Like Arma 3, it looks a lot more grounded than a typical Halo romp, but judging by the impressive new trailer, there's still plenty of sizzle. Check it out above. 

We've not seen much of upcoming official game yet—you can read everything we know about Halo: Infinite, so far—but I confess that I'm more intrigued by delving into Halo’s past from the perspective of a regular person. Well, a regular person who still has access to futuristic weaponry and fancy, heavily-armed vehicles. 

The team has been working on the mod for a couple of years now, and while it's still in alpha, you can download it now and take it for a spin. 

At the moment, it adds Halo-themed gear and vehicles, among other things, into Arma 3, but if you want to use them in missions, you'll need to make your own or hunt down some mission mods. 

You can grab it on the Steam Workshop.

A free update to the first-person military shooter Arma 3 has added a new large-scale competitive multiplayer mode called Warlords. First and foremost, it is not a battle royale: Instead, it puts NATO and CSAT teams in bases on opposite sides of the map, from where they must conquer AI-controlled sectors, chain them together into a route across the island, and then launch an assault on the enemy base. 

Players who do well in battle will be rewarded with Command Points, which can be used to call in vehicles, AI-controlled reinforcements, better weapons and gear, or for "strategic advantages" like fast travel or sector scans. Command Points are earned by killing enemies and taking control of sectors, and sectors will also generate points for whichever team controls them. The new mode is clearly focused on competitive multiplayer combat, but players can also opt to team up on one side to do battle with the AI, and it can be played solo as well, with AI handling friendly and enemy forces alike. 

Senior scripter and designer Josef Zemánek explained in a November update that Warlords is rooted in "Capture the Island," a scenario released in 2003 for Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, the game that would spawn the long-running Arma series. But Warlords foregoes some familiar elements of CTI, including base building and player progression, both of which he felt would get in the way of his vision for the mode. 

"The reasoning behind these decisions is simple: you join the game, you know what to do, where to go, and who to attack in order to push towards the enemy base," he wrote. "You know where to go and defend to prevent the enemy from getting to your base. And how well you perform depends only on your skill and not your rank." 

Warlords has been added to Arma 3 as part of the 1.86 update, which also includes integration of the ADR-97 Weapon Pack into the vanilla game, improved multiplayer security, five new playable characters "with heads of notable Bohemia developers," and an array of fixes and tweaks. The full patch notes are yours to enjoy at arma3.com.