Everything you've heard about Halo 5: Guardians is true, everybody. The game will, as speculated, have deserts, buildings, bridges, flags, weird alien tadpoles and, erm, concept artworks like the artwork just published by 343's franchise development director Frank O'Connor, in which there are deserts, buildings, bridges, flags and weird alien tadpoles.

The image appears in a post on Halo Waypoint. It's a very intriguing post. Put it this way - if this post were a temple, it would be a Forerunner temple, and you'd shoot Prometheans inside it.

"Last year at E3, Bonnie famously said, 'Your journey begins in 2014...'," O'Connor writes. "Wait - hang on - you thought: 'What journey is she talking about and why is Chief wearing a poncho?' Okay, some might call it a cloak, but the fact remains - you knew something more nuanced was afoot. So it's quite likely that Bonnie's 2015 release announcement today surprised no one in the Halo community. In fact, I suspect most of you who read the Halo Bulletin regularly anticipate there's even more to come.

"Well you might be right, but we'll have significantly more to say about that at E3 and beyond. Suffice it to say, another shoe has yet to drop. But getting the Halo 5: Guardians announce out of the way is a big weight off our shoulders. This audience has correctly stated and assumed that you can't necessarily squish a full Halo game into anything less than a three year development schedule - and at least up to and including Halo 5: Guardians, that's more or less true."

According to Ross, Halo will take a "giant leap" at E3. It's possible that this refers to a rumouredHalo 2 Anniversary reboot for Xbox One, which will supposedly hit shelves later this year - paving the way for the arrival of Halo 5 in autumn 2015. O'Connor's elusive wording - "necessarily", "more or less true", etc - probably won't put an end to speculation.

"We're not just making a new game in that three year span, we're also making a new engine," he continues. "During the development of Halo 4, we pushed the Xbox 360 and the engine to its limits, and we were happy with the way we were able to make the Halo universe look. The Xbox 360 still has a few tricks up its sleeve, even now. We are moving to a whole new platform with the Xbox One - a new architecture, new graphics hardware and bluntly some new ways to think about gaming, period.

"Bonnie also called out 60fps and dedicated servers last year - attractive, desirable, and possibly expected upgrades to the Halo experience. After all, we won't be the first 60fps shooter out there. That said, these must-haves are not necessarily easy to achieve.

"Previous Halo titles, Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 for example, strove to push the entire ecosystem forward - dual stick FPS with big open spaces in the case of Combat Evolved, and broadband matchmaking in Halo 2 - are just a couple of examples of the series innovating or amplifying ideas. So in building Halo 5: Guardians, we want to push the ecosystem as well as the universe. And we'll have some surprises in store for new and loyal players of the series.

"So that's it for now, but E3 is just around the corner. So if you bide your time and hold your breath, you won't have to wait too long to hear about the next steps on this Great Journey."

The mention of ecosystems smells strongly to me like a hint that Halo 5 will be an online-centric, multiplayer-driven game, similar to Fable Legends. The reveal artwork reinforces this idea: Master Chief is present, but the emphasis is on the figure of a new, anonymous Spartan - presumably one of the Guardians of the title, and possibly a multiplayer avatar. The reflection effect also calls to mind the original Fable's boxart.

It may interest you to know that in Halo tech lore, the Guardians are responsible for any player death that isn't the work of another player - this includes deaths due to a glitch, deaths due to falling objects, and deaths due to a projectile fired by another player who quit out before it reached the target. Feel free to ponder the significance of all that.

343 Industries today announced its plans to release both Xbox One game Halo 5: Guardians and the Halo TV series in 2015. But, it also hinted that fans wouldn't have to wait that long to get their next Halo fix, and that news of some "special plans" would be revealed at this year's E3.

"Many fans noted that I was very deliberate with my phrasing on stage at E3 last year," wrote 343 general manager Bonnie Ross in a post on Xbox Wire mere moments ago. "I spoke about a "journey," rather than a destination - and that journey definitely begins in 2014 with a giant leap, rather than one small step.

"We'll give you much more information about our plans for this year at the Xbox E3 2014 Media Briefing on June 9, and we're confident that Halo fans will be pretty excited the special plans we have in store.

"So until E3, I'd like to express my gratitude to our massive and varied Halo community, whose energy, enthusiasm, criticism and kindness are the driving force behind what we do and what we hope to achieve in Halo 5: Guardians."

What could it be? Aside from a new Halo game, a Halo TV series and a Halo feature film, what else has 343 got up its sleeves? Gah, the suspense...

Source: http://www.totalxbox.com/76573/expect-more-halo-in-2014-giant-leap-coming-at-e3/

Typical. You wait around all year for Halo news, and then a tonne drops all at once. Not only are we getting a new Halo game on Xbox One, Halo 5: Guardians, but we're also getting that much-talked about Halo TV series, which is being made by none other than legendary Hollywood director, Steven Spielberg.

"2015 won't simply be the year of Halo 5: Guardians," wrote 343's general manager Bonnie Ross in a post on Xbox Wire announcing the official title and release date of the new game. "it will also be a year that offers us a unique opportunity. The opportunity to invite old friends and new audiences into that universe through the Halo television series, launched as a unique collaboration with Steven Spielberg and some of the finest creative minds in the business.

"A series that will stand alone, as well as complement and enrich the game experience. We'll have more to share on the Halo television series as we near its projected fall 2015 release."

Exciting times. What are your hopes and dreams for a Halo TV series? Don't forget, there's also a Halo feature length movie in the works too, which will be made in collaboration with the otherlegendary Hollywood sci-fi director, Ridley "BladeRunner/Alien" Scott. If you can't wait for all that though, 343 also hints that it has other "special plans" for Halo this year, which will be revealed at E3 next month.

Source: http://www.totalxbox.com/76568/halo-xbox-one-tv-show-confirmed-for-2015/