Halo Escalation 9.

Hi guys, its that awesome time of the month again when Escalation comes out, and boy is it a good one! So if you remember last time we left off with a cliff hanger, Blue team (John -aka- master chief, Fred, Linda and Kelly) found the Didact still alive on a Forerunner planet. This issue starts a little differently.

We start on the previous day, right after John causes the Didact to fall through the portal on Mantles approach. We see him slip to Gamma Halo, where Black is located. We see Black locate the Didacts armour, not knowing what it is, then the Didact awakens, and continues to slaughter Black team. 

After this the Didact finds the monitor of the composers forge, 859 Static Carillon, wandering Gamma, trying to find Gamma Halo’s monitor. The Didact promptly orders the monitor to take him to the Composers forge. After we cut back to Blue, who are on the unknown Forerunner installation (the composers forge). They come across 6 composers, which is when the Didact finds them. He appears with his Promethean army, newly composed from the residents of New Phoenix, interestingly he also holds Gamma Halo’s activation index.

The Promethean engage Blue, meanwhile the Didact and the monitor discuss his plans, we see in the sky Gamma Halo appear out of slipspace. The Didact makes ready to repair it with the composers, and quickly leaves for it. However Static Carillon disagrees with the Didacts use of the new Prometheans from Phoenix, as they bring, terror, rage, fear and confusion to the Promethean ranks.

 

This breaks the Monitors agreement with the Didact thus, the Monitor helps Blue escape from the Forge, and to Gamma Halo. As they arrive the Didact engages Blue once again, poised to kill Kelly Master Chief sneaks up behind him, stabbing a knife into his right eye. The comic ends with the Didact grabbing Chief’s helmet, and crushing it with his hand, thus the broken visor in the Halo 5 trailer.

This was awesome, it was nice to see how Black died, even if it was a little bitter sweet. We also see Blue team kicking Promethean ass! And using the new weapons. And that cliff hanger, obviously Chief never makes it back to the UNSC, but why, and will Blue be with him? We know Fred will be in Halo 5 from the trailer, but will Kelly and Linda make it? We find out next issue, as that marks the end of the story arc. 

Thanks for reading guys, its PAX in a week or so, so there will be more Halo news then, and I’ll keep you posted right here! Thanks guys, see ya!

Halo Escalation 8, Best comic yet!

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD HALO ESCALATION 8 WAS AWESOME!!!!

ok, after 10 minutes and a chill pill I’m ready to write the article. So for those who don’t know the next 3 escalation comics ollow directly on from Halo 4.

Escalation 8 starts the day after the events of Halo 4, with Master Chief been de-briefed by Naval brass. After telling them that he did not confirm the kill on the Didact, they decide to cover up the new phoenix and blame it on the covenant.

After the de-briefing Chief and Lord Hood talk about Gamma Halo, the Halo ring in Halo 4. A group of scientists went missing, along with Spartan team Black (One of my favourite Spartan II teams from the expanded universe) So Chief decides to accompany a Spartan team who are sent to investigate, and who is this Spartan team? ITS MOTHER F’IN BLUE TEAM! YEAHHHH!

After a reunion Chief, Fred, Kelly and Linda head down to Gamma Halo, where they discover the corpses of Black team (damn you 343, you bring back some of the best characters only to kill them, damn you to hell :3) Blue team is then suddenly attacked by Prometheans. They track down the activity to the location where the Composer used to be kept, where they find an under ground tunnel system, and eventually follow it to the composers abyss. Which is horrifying may I add.

 

We then are taken to an unknown Forerunner world, where a monitor, possibly 343 guilty Spark (he was found alive at the end of the Forerunner books)  or maybe just another monitor, is seen speak to the Didact, who is alive and well, and waiting to ambush the Chief.

Well that was eventful, certainly better than last months, this was freaking awesome as hell! Please share this article around guys, drop a link here and there, and thanks for reading!

well done 343, this was great, see ya next time guys, tomorrow I’ll make an article about how this could factor into Halo 5, but I’m so tired right now from pulling what was basically an all nighter on Destiny. See ya!

Halo: Escalation cover 11 revealed

So the cover and description of Halo Escalation 11 have been released, 

cool huh? So this looks like Throne jumping at a Jackal the description reads:

”Exposure” part 1-Spartans Ray and Thorne set out on a secret mission to uncover the origin of a monstrous new bioweapon . . . but is it too late to prevent total catastrophe? Halo lead writers team up to present one of the most dangerous Spartan ops yet!”

So this confirms that the Master Chief ark will only run three issues, from 8-10. I’m a little sad about that, but this story seems cool, (I have a feeling it could be an ONI weapon as we saw them developing bio weapons to combat the Elites in the Thursday war novel) Could this be ONI’s start to evil as many suspect? we will have to see. Although its probably the New Colonial Alliance, they are getting pretty popular recently. 

Anyway, the Master chief story ark 72 hours starts in a week, so check back here to find out what happened to chief after Halo 4! I’ll be covering it in full! See ya!

Master Chief official Motorcycle helmet.

Hi guys, a super awesome piece of news today!

Over on the NECA website an article has gone live detailing a real, official D.O.T approved Master Chief Motorcycle helmet!

Here are the mock ups:

 

 

 

These are beautiful, I’ve always wanted one, but never suspected one would actually surface. Super excited and I am definitely getting one!

See ya tomorrow!

New Halo 2 tweets by Xbox

So the Mexican Xbox account just tweeted about Halo 2 at E3 2003 and 2004.

Roughly translated it reads: “This Tuesday we remember the Halo for Xbox at E3 of 2003 and 2004 where we met the legendary Halo 2” with this coming from this official source, it is looking more and more likely we will be seeing a Halo 2 anniversary at this years E3. The tweet was accompanied with this picture:

This shows the campaign reveal of 2003 and the multiplayer show at 2004’s E3. So what could we see this year? Well if we do see a anniversary edition we most definitely will be seeing a campaign trailer. But what about multiplayer? If it comes out on Xbox One then it cannot be included with Halo 4, like Halo CE anniversary’s was with reach, so they would have to create a completely new multiplayer system. Which is very doable. Alternately they could make it only on 360, and integrate the multiplayer into Halo 4. 

Whatever the case, we are only 6 days from finding out! See ya next time!

Spartan Assault free with games for gold

Hi guys not a long article right now, I’m very tired after 4 hours sleep and an exam. It was a thing. So I’ll just leave a quick update.

This month you can get Spartan Assault free on xbox: One with games for gold. No dates yet, but I’ll update you when they are announced.

 

Tomorrow I have no exams, so I will be able to write a more substantial update on my loose ends series, and may be another article as this one looks like it will be 8 lines long. Just a quick mention, microsoft has officially told us about the Ridley Scott feature now, which, again is dropping this year. And more Halo 2 anniversary rumors are popping up from more credible sources, note that it is not the rumoured Master Chief edition, but a propper Halo 2 anniversary. Guess we will find out at E3, watch 343 throw a curve ball and announce neither

Thanks for reading guys, a longer post will be up tomorrow, see ya!

What we will (HOPEFULLY) see at E3

So after a while of trying to think of another article to write I settled on the idea of discussing what we will hopefully see at E3. Now 343 has already stated that there will be Halo news all three days of E3

So firstly I will say what I believe are the most probable things we will see at E3. Firstly a new teaser for a new mini game (ODST style) or a Anniversary game. In my last article I stated that I think the master chief edition rumours are improbable, so I’m gonna stick with just Halo: 2 Anniversary. Second I  believe we will get a new teaser or pre rendered trailer for Halo 5. I don’t think 343 would announce it ahead of time without anything to show at E3, otherwise they would have just announced it at E3 (I would have thought.) And lastly I think we will finally get a trailer for Ridley Scotts digital Halo feature. They have already started to announce the cast, with Mike Colter staring in the show. So that is my realistic prediction as to what we will get at E3 this year. Guess we will have to check back to see if I was correct.

 

Mike Colter, star of Ridley Scotts digital feature, playing a Spartan called Marlowe.

Now lets move onto what I would love to see at E3. Obviously I am very excited about all of the above, but here is what I would love to see. For starters more information on Halo 5, including some base mechanics and a gameplay trailer, maybe a Viddoc showing the state of the universe, with some story information.

Next I would love to see a new book announcement. We know that there is a bright future for Halo novels, with 343 signing a deal with Gallery Books back in February. I would imagine that they will release the first book in their partnership in spring of 2015, but of course that is purely speculation. I would also love to see a trailer for Steven Spielburg’s new live action Halo TV series. I thought Forward Unto Dawn was fantastic and I cannot wait for a full TV show, however Steven Spielburg’s show started filming about a month ago, so it is unlikely we will be getting a trailer for that any time soon.

I would also love 343 to announce a Halo:ODST 2. Now although I had some problems with ODST, such as the city just looking the same everywhere you went, I thought it had massive potential, and also, who doesn’t love that squad. I would love to see what happened to them, did they become Spartan IV’s? in Reach on Bucks firefight voice pack it states that:

“Truly, if he was any better, he’d be a Spartan.”

So I’d love to see the squad return as Spartan IV’s (They would need to rename the game though) and maybe set it at the same time as Spartan Ops, and give us a chunk of Requiem to free roam around in. That would be awesome.

 

The main characters of Halo: ODST.

Another thing I would love to see would be Halo: Wars 2, with better base building and graphics, and more AI difficulty levels, in custom matches the AI were either too easy, or started off just insanely difficult, but once you survived the first 20 minutes became easy again! I also did not like the base building much, and would love a more free formed system, such as command and conquer. Although Halo Wars was more about the armies fighting than the base building I guess.

And finally I would love a surprise. Something totally unexpected, hopefully 343 will be able to do that but I would love to just be completely shocked, I still remember when I saw the halo 4 reveal, caught me completely off guard and it was great. Anyway that’s all for today guys, because this is short I also released another article today about the rumoured master chief edition, so please check that out below or on the archives page! See ya tomorrow with another article!

RUMOUR: Master Chief edition.

Hi guys, I’m back for another post. Firstly I want to mention a mistake I made yesterday, I said I would be writing about the Halo: Escalation comic today, but its not out until Wednesday. My bad, apparently they changed the release date somewhere along the line. Anyway today I would like to discuss the Halo Master Chief edition RUMOUR.

So to those who don’t know earlier in the year fans started to speculate about a possible Halo: 2 anniversary coming out this year, and with the news that Halo 5 does not come out until 2015 this seemed all the more probable, as it is the path 343 went with Halo: CE Anniversary and Halo 4. However recently these rumours have diminished, and a Halo Master Chief edition rumour has surfaced in place of these. Now what is Halo Master Chief edition? well it is meant to be Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 4 all remastered for the Xbox: One in one shiny package. But why would 343 do this, if they didn’t they could stretch the anniversary editions out longer and make more money from them, and why would Halo 4 even need a graphical update?

Well number one, it would promote Xbox: One. So far I have continued to play my 360 more than my Xbox: One, why? Halo. The only Halo game on Xbox One is Spartan assault, and lets face it, its a very different experience. So if the console had a good back catalogue of Halo games to play, and in better Graphics with online support it would give Halo fans a reason to buy the Xbox: One.

Number two, it would help promote Halo 5. If they made this game a bundle with the Kinectless Xbox: One or even just sold it, due to the lack of games on the next gen system people would pick it up, even people who are not Halo fans. This would give these people an over arching view of the story of Halo, and get these people interested in Halo 5. It would also catch existing fans up with the story, and allow them to include supplemental material, such as terminals as seen in Halo: CE Anniversary. This would give fans a small tease of the story, and certainly make me exited for Halo 5.

Number three, there will be more people buying the Xbox: One who have not owned an Xbox previously, Microsoft may want to introduce these new players to their flagship product in style, without the need for them to go back and buy a 360 to play the games, while they still hold Reach, Wars and ODST back on the 360 to try and sell additional units. Over all however I think the main reason why they would want to do this is that they need to push the Xbox: One forwards, with a lack of new Halo games this year, they need to keep Halo relevant with the people who don’t read the books and look at waypoint.

Halo CE Anniversary remastered map, Ridgeline.

However there are also reasons why this is improbable, the main reason is simply the amount of work they would have to put into making this thing. Even though they would probably hire Saber Interactive again to remaster the assets (as they did with CE anniversary) they would have to pay a lot, and it would be three times the work that they put into CE Anniversary. All this for what would probably be a $60 price tag seems unreasonable.

Number two, the multiplayer. I just can’t see how they would get the multiplayer working, outside of having many playlists for each game, splitting the community between titles, and maybe taking a portion of the Halo: 5 player base away. Alternatively they could rotate the game the multiplayer was based on weekly, like the Bungie weekend playlists in Halo 3, but that seems highly unlikely. Either way, there would not be a prefect system for this. One way it could work is if they only remastered campaigns, although Xbox head Phil Spencer, said this when questioned about a possible Halo 2 anniversary:

“All the things that you and I know about the evolution of the franchise, if you’re going to say one thing about Halo 2, you’re going to talk about real multiplayer. I think you just have to nail that in just such a fundamentally core way. Frankly [we’d have to do it] probably better than we did with Halo 1 Anniversary. I thought the multiplayer in Halo 1 Anniversary was good, but Halo 1 never had multiplayer in the truest sense, so it always was going to be something different. If there were something called Halo 2 Anniversary, I think the multiplayer would have to be fantastic.”

So it seems unlikely, after him saying this that they would cut multiplayer content. Either that or they just remaster a load of maps and put them into Halo 4’s multiplayer.

So I think it is highly unlikely we will be getting this Master Chief edition, and I’m just going to chalk it up to people speculating. However one things for certain 343 has a surprise in store for E3 with Frank O’connor, Franchise Development Director at 343 saying:

“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.”

well, I’m very curious as to what shoe this will be, whether it be a Halo: 2 anniversary or a Halo: Master chief edition or something else completely, ODST 2 anyone? or maybe a Halo Wars 2? guess we will find out at E3. Since this was a fairly short post I’ll make another one later today, so check back soon! Thanks for reading, and remember to follow me on twitter to hear when Halo news, and when I post new articles!

Halo:Escalation and how it fits into the Halo 5 story.

Hi guys, today I thought I would go over some additional story information from the comic Halo: Escalation and how it fits in with Halo 5. So for those of you who don’t know Halo: Escalation is the comic series that 343 and Dark Horse started to publish in December of 2013 after the comic Halo initiation, which saw Palmers route from ODST to Spartan IV. The comic starts a month after the events of spartan ops, so 7 months after the end of Halo 4. Now so far in this series we have not heard about the master Chief at all, but more in that later as some new info has been shown.

The Arbiter in his new armour.

Issue 1 starts with the infinity been assigned escort duty for a diplomatic missions between the Arbiter and the brutes. Infinity arrives at Ealen IV a previously covenant controlled world. Here the Arbiter meets with Lord Hood, and a Brute chieftain Lydus. Lasky, Palmer, DeMarco and a couple of squads of Spartan IV’s (Fireteams Bailey and Jackknife) join the group on world to act as over watch. However in the heat of the peace talks a Covenant mercenary party attacks the delegates. All off world communication is cut off, leaving the party stranded without reinforcements. Issue 2 opens with Lasky ordering Plamer to escort Hood, Lydus and the Arbiter to a redoubt as a means of escape, Lasky and one of the Spartan IV’s from Bailey, Called Spartan Ray choose to head to a comms tower, where they could try to re-establish communication with the fleet off world. It is here we learn that the mercenary forces are lead by an Elite called ‘Gajat and are been paid by a mysterious Human figure, and we also learn that one of the people who were present at the peace talks is also working with them, telling the mercenary the delegations location. We are also introduced to a new Spartan IV called Scruggs who is with Fireteam Jackknife. Jackknife is tasked by Palmer to move ahead of the delegation and clear a path to the redoubt. Lord hood searches a dead elite and discovers a data pad, containing information on the peace talk. He deduces that someone is leaking information. Scruggs notifies Palmer that the redoubt is secure, unbeknownst to the rest of the group, Scruggs has killed the rest of firerteam Jackknife and is waiting at the redoubt.

Issue 3 Opens with Lasky and Ray attacking covie signal jammers and destroying them. Mean while Lydus and the Arbiter continue to argue over peace talks as they reach the redoubt. Scruggs ambushes them and holds Hood at gun point. Lasky finally sends a signal to the Human, Elite and Brute fleets in orbit, which are too busy fighting amongst themselves (each of them think it is the other who are attacking their leader)  to stop and help. We also learn that ‘Gajat has nothing to do with Jul ‘Mdama. Meanwhile Scuggs indicated he knows some of ONI’s secrets while still hold Hood hostage, including information on Master chiefs disappearance (first time we’ve heard about it too) Palmer then shoots Hood in the leg, causing Scruggs to drop him, giving Palmer a second to tackle Scruggs out a window. Yup totally badass. After a brief fight Palmer stabbed Scruggs through the neck with a combat knife. The covenant now surround them with a huge force, the group, along with Lasky and Ray find a craft they can evacuate in, DeMarco and fireteam Bailey stay behind to cover them, destroying a covie AA gun and are killed as it is destroyed.

DeMarco’s last action, saving the delegation party.

As the party arrive back at the infinity ‘Gajat’s fleet retreats. One week later Lasky and Hood discuss that someone higher in rank than Scruggs leaked the peace talk location to ‘Gajat and his human employer, and decide to find out who this leak is.

Issue 4 opens with Infinity under attack by a unknown UNSC space craft. The story then cuts back, 72 hours earlier, where Lasky suggests that he and Hood inlist help from an outside source on finding the leak. Lasky and Spartan Ray (acting as his escout) leave infinity to meet Laskys help, while Hood takes command of infinity in his absence. Fireteam Majestic is told about DeMarco’s death, with Thorne taking command of the team. On the bridge on infinity an old distress signal is picked up, using only UNSC frequency’s. Infinity leaves the system to investigate. Meanwhile Lasky arrives at Escala III and meets with his contact, Petra Janecek (Those familiar with the Halo lore may recognise this name). The story jumps back to Infinity, which discovers an old damaged freighter called the Pilgrims Pride. The Pilgrims Pride is brought abroad Infinity, where automated aircraft attack the Infinity, including Hawks, Vultures and other old ships, infinity dispatches Broad swords to combat them, and Fireteam Majestic enters the freighter, where they are attacked by automated turrets. The freighter is set to self destruct, however Majestic pull the core from the ship and send it into space where it harmlessly explodes. Meanwhile Lasky asks Petra, a well known reporter to help him find the UNSC mole, Petra agrees, but has heard rumours of the Master Chiefs return, and she demands the truth of his whereabouts for a news story. Lasky agrees to the terms. Infinity runs a I.D check on the freighter, and links it back to the UNSC Spirit of Fire. The same ship from  Halo Wars, and which was captained by Captain Cutter. Hood reveals he is the reason why the Spirit of Fire went missing.

Issue 5 begins with Lasky, Ray and Petra arriving on a mixed colony, home to Humans and Covenant species. Petra meets with one of her informants, an Elite called Zef and he reveals to Lasky that ‘Gajat was the one who attacked the peace talks, and that he used to work for Jul ‘Mdama. Then Zef reveals the identity of the UNSC mole, Captain Daniel Clayton, who Lasky realises is Captain Cutters son. Meanwhile on Infinity Hood explains to Roland, Plamer and other officers how he was involved with Fire’s disappearance. 30 years ago, when Fire followed the Covenant out of system from Arcadia they dropped a beacon, with the co-ordinates of where they were headed. Hood was a Captain at the time, and was charged with collecting this beacon. However instead of collecting this Beacon, he elected to instead fight the covenant, and he was forced to pull his ship out of the system without the Beacon, meaning the UNSC never learned where the Spirit of Fire went too. Roland manages to extract information off the frigate with a location. Hoping the Spirit of Fire will be there Hood sends Palmer and Fireteam Majestic out on Booster frames to recon the location. They discover a covenant space station, owned by ‘Gajat. On the station Clayton talks to ‘Gajat about his father revealing that he is an illegitimate son. Soon after Infinity jumps in system, he contacts Infinity, and reveals that Hood helped him get into his position of command, as Hood felt guilt for loosing his father. Clayton reveals he feels like he has achieved nothing in his career and that it is Hoods fault. He then orders ‘Gajat to fire the stations glassing cannon, which pieces all the way through the side of Infinity.

And that’s all we have so far. Wow that took a while. So now how does this link in with Halo 5, well for starters we are just beginning to see the effects of insurrectionist activity against the UNSC once again starting to build. We are also seeing major characters been introduced, such as the Arbiter and Lydus. However the most starling thing that has been revealed has not actually happened yet. Issue 8, set to release in July see’s the return of Master chief. The description reads:

“The Master Chief returns in “The Next 72 Hours: Part 1”! After defeating the Didact, John-117 joined the crew of Infinity… but why did he leave? The mystery begins here”

So we are finally going to see why Master Chief left Infinity, and what he is doing in the events leading up to Halo 5. This is obviously very important, and will probably be the first real hint of the Halo 5 story, will Chief go rogue, or will he stay in the UNSC? Hopefully we will finally get an answer, However we now also have the cover for Issue 9, which is even more important:

 

BOOM! Didact is back! Or is he? throughout Halo:Escalation the covers have all been to do with the issues, but do not actually cover events shown in the book literally, this COULD be the return of the Didact, or it could be a metaphorical look at his fight with the Chief and what he took away from the Chief (Cortana) It could also shown how Chiefs visor is broken in the screen shot and trailer for Halo 5, as the right side of his helmet is obscured. This is a beautiful cover and I cannot wait to see what happens in this comic. It is set to be released in August, so expect a lot of Halo 5 news then, shortly followed by Ridley Scotts digital feature! I may elaborate on this in my next article, after all I haven’t actually talked about theory’s about it, just outlined events of Escalation. Any way see you guys tomorrow!

Halo 5 guardians, Theories and speculation

Hi all, I’m finally getting around to my Theories and speculation post. Yesterday you may have seen I made the HaloCatalog website, go check it out if you haven’t, it’s cool.

Now on to Halo 5 Guardians stuff. So to start with I will start off with this image,

There has been a lot of speculation about where this picture actually is. Note the three suns, the flying space squid and what seems to be a statue in the back right. The current prevailing theory about where this is, just based off the art itself is Sanghelios, more specificity the Arbiters keep. This has been a popular theory around many forums, and to me seems the most likely. Now why do we think this? well for starters Sanghelios (Home of the Elites if you aren’t familiar) has three suns, Now if you look very closely on the left of the smaller sun you can just see another one behind the rock formation, just a tiny bit. Coincidence, I think not! It also matches the climate we are familiar with on Sanghelios, although the climate there has large variations depending on where you are.

Now why do we think it is the Arbiter keep. Well one of my personal points is the statue I previously pointed out. To me it looks like the Arbiter, certainly an Elite at least holding an energy sword. Number 2, the setting matches a description of the Arbiter keep,

“Vadam Keep is built high into Kolaar Mountain in the mountainous, seaside province of Yermo. A river runs from the mountains down to the sea, directly beneath the Keep, providing a source of fresh water and power. The interior is chiseled into the stone of the mountain, with some rooms such as the stone hall also being supported by large wood beams, possibly of kafel wood. Portions of the Keep, like the kaidon’s quarters, have windows looking out toward Vadam Harbor. Away from Kolaar Mountain the jurisdiction of the Keep extends over several surrounding square kilometers, being one of the larger and more prominent keeps on Sanghelios”

Now much of this description we do not see, however we do have a settlement chiselled into a mountain with what looks like an Elite statue. However we have no mention of red flags, which is a prominent part of the image, so what are they? Well they could just hold the motif of the Vadam keep (The Arbiters keep). Or it could be added post war to symbolise their leadership of Vadam keep over the rest of the keeps (I believe this is true but don’t quote me, I’ll have to re-read the books) Alternatively the flags could just be decoration and we could be looking too in-depth.

Some other theories are that it is in fact a Brute statue and will take place on a brute world, Another is that it may be an insurrectionist camp.

But how does this fit into game play, if this is Vadam keep, why are we here, why is the Master chief here, well he might not be. If we do play as both the Master Chief and the new Spartan, and IF the new Spartan is searching for Chief (Alot of If’s here, but stick with me) then it is possible that he would travel to Vadam keep to ask the Arbiter if he knows Chief’s location, them becoming close comrades in Halo 3 and all. Or the Master Chief could be hiding there, or even sent there by the UNSC, he may not have gone rogue at all.

Anyway that’s all for that piece of art now, lets move on to the next piece,

Now here is the main image we have received. Now we actually have some info on this from tweets and posts on forums by developers, Frank O’connor and Josh Holmes, Now Josh Holmes tweeted the info

“For everyone speculating about the mysterious Spartan in Halo 5: Guardians, he’s not Palmer (or Cortana!). He’s a NEW character. :)”

So we know that it is a NEW MALE character. interesting, many people on the forum were saying that 343 should be focusing on characters already established in the lore, and that we do not have time to establish a new character, however we still have a year until Halo 5, and at the end of this year there is a new digital feature from Ridley Scott, about a new Spartan named, Marlowe. Now I pointed this out on Waypoint almost as soon as it was announced, and I have to say the theory has become very popular, with multiple other people coming to the same conclusion. We don’t know much about Marlowe, only that he is

“a rising star in a futuristic army with reservations about those in command”

Now my theory is, that Marlowe will be kicked out of the Spartan IV program for disobeying orders, or starting a fight with someone in command, or something similar. Now ONI has never been something to waste an opportunity, or money. A Spartan is a huge investment, and you don’t want them running all over, Now on the Spartans armour we can clearly see an ONI symbol on the left of his chest (his left) So my theory is when Marlowe is kicked out of the Spartan IV program ONI will recruit him for a special operations solder, like the Spartan III “Head hunter” project. Now what Marlowe’s role in Halo 5 Guardians is anybody’s guess, although I would like to see him hunting chief, but he take the protagonist role, and Chief take the role of the antagonist. I think that would put an interesting twist on the story.

Now moving forwards, this new Spartan is on top of the poster, pointing to him having a very important role in the game, with Master Chief situated below, still with his cracked visor from the 2013 E3 presentation. And with his beat up armour Halo 3. You would have thought he would have traded that out, maybe he keeps it as it was the last thing Cortana gave him really, she rewrote the suits firmware in between halo 3 and 4. Or maybe he has been out of the UNSC since the end of Halo 4. Now there is some evidence of where the cracked visor has come from, but I will cover that another day.

So we have two weapons confirmed the Assault rifle and the Battle rifle, no surprise there really, the Assault rifle looks the same as the Halo 4 model, however look at the BR sight. This is also something I reported on the Halo Waypoint forums as soon as I saw the image. Is that a red dot sight? Now compare these images

The Halo 4 Battle rifle, all normal here.

That looks like a red dot scope to me. Now what if it is, this could mean 343 are bringing weapon attachments to halo 5. I think that would be good, in fact I’d love to customise my weapons, however if they do I would also like a competitive multiplayer mode with them not in. However as long as weapon attachments do not have damage modifiers or only very slight ones, I don’t see a huge deal and I actually really like the Battle rifle with the red dot scope, I think it looks great!

Now obviously we don’t know where they are at the moment, it looks to be the same place as the E3 trailer, which I think is the Ark, and I think the forerunner bird thing is Mendicant Bias, if you listened to the short audio book by greg bear theres just so much simularity there to me, I cant see otherwise right now, however whether this is the ark we are seeing now, I dont know. Maybe? hopefully we will find out at E3

Now obviously I haven’t covered everything, only a fraction of the theories out there. I’ll try to bring more in the days leading up to E3. Its very close now, only 20 days! and rest assured we are going to get tons of Halo news there, there might be another article today, I’m not sure, this took me much longer to write than I expected, and I didn’t have to look anything up (which is why some facts may be off a little, although I normally have a good memory for Halo information) so for the next one I want to have some more research done so I can bring you some more opinions and theories. Thanks fore reading guys, see ya next time!