This is possible because Halo: Campaign Evolved will not feature any competitive multiplayer modes. Rather, the title will focus on its campaign, for both single-player and co-op play with up to four players, with full support for cross-platform multiplayer. Since it is also making its way to PS5—being the first Halo game to do so—it will also be an introduction to the Halo series for many gamers who only grew up with PlayStation consoles.

“We hope to bring along the series veterans who have been with us for the past 25 years and have them play with an entirely new generation,” said Conn. “There are people who have never been exposed to Halo. Maybe they’ve always been on Sony products, switched consoles at a certain point, or just missed it at the time. We want to bring players back together.”

Speaking further about a focus on community, Szlagor noted that the Halo franchise tends to be “best played” when there is a large and healthy community backing the games. “Halo is best played when we have a large, healthy community,” he said. “We see this as a way to grow, expand, and reconnect the Halo community.”

Cronn also noted that the title will serve as a way for Halo Studios to honor the franchise while bringing it to a new audience. “We want to honor the Halo legacy on PlayStation, and we’re paving the way to expand our Halo universe – that’s how we see it. And it’s not a small thing. We don’t and we won’t take it lightly. We definitely feel the weight of it,” he said.

Halo: Combat Evolved was originally released all the way back in 2001, and was a launch title for the original Xbox. It would also eventually make its way to PC. On the two platforms, the game saw quite a bit of success, and served as a foundation for an entire franchise that would go on to form a core pillar of the Xbox identity.

Halo: Campaign Evolved doesn’t yet have a release date. It is being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and Halo Studios has confirmed that it is being made using Unreal Engine 5. Alongside brand new visuals and audio, the remake will also feature three new missions that focus on events set before the game’s story is kicked off. These new missions will focus on Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson.

For more details on what sets Halo: Campaign Evolved apart from Halo: Combat Evolved, here are 10 major differences between the two. Also check out what the original veteran developer Marcus Lehto, who also worked on the original Halo and the design of Master Chief, has to say about Campaign Evolved.

“In 2008, Ensemble Studios started planning a gigantic MMO set in the Halo universe. We code-named it Titan. It was to take place tens of thousands of years ago, before the Halos were set off & destroyed all sentient life in the Galaxy,” Petersen said.

“It was all brought to naught when Don Mattrick realized that his stock bonus was based on the income MS had from games in 3 years… So by firing ALL of Ensemble, he didn’t have to pay for our expensive studio for 3 years and he didn’t care about Titan,” he added.

Petersen added that Microsoft had internally modelled $1.1 billion in revenue for Titan and that the team had mapped out quest lines and home worlds, with players aligned to factions inspired by the Forerunners and Covenant (the Flood were planned but not playable).

Ensemble was shuttered in January 2009, with work on Titan believed to have taken place between 2004–2007 before the team pivoted to Halo Wars. 

Petersen’s posts also included a blunt assessment of Mattrick’s tenure: “All he lost was a game studio who never sold less than 3 million copies of everything we made. I don’t believe he did justice to Microsoft stockholders, but hey, Don started as an EA hatchet man, so what would you expect?”

Microsoft has not commented on Petersen’s latest claims. During and after the studio’s closure, other Ensemble veterans previously attributed Titan’s cancellation to internal reorganization and cost/risk concerns around building an MMO.

“Repped for our girl, [Jen Taylor], in Chicago this past weekend,” wrote Downes. “Jen and I can’t wait to see you guys at the Halo World Championships in Seattle, October 24 & 25! PS: BIG NEWS A’COMIN!!”

Halo Studios had already confirmed that it will be celebrating the first anniversary of its rebrand from when it switched from being called 343 Industries at the upcoming event with a new announcement. The studio noted that it will be sharing more details about what it has been working on in the meantime, along with offering a “deep dive” panel.

“Back in June we let the community know that we’d be continuing the conversation from last year’s HaloWC and the ‘A New Dawn’ video and sharing more about what we’ve been working on,” wrote wrote the studio. “Like last year we’ll be on the Main Stage to talk about it but this year we’ve also got a ‘deep dive’ panel planned for the Community Stage that you won’t want to miss.”

The announcement is expected to be for a remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved, which had first come out all the way back in 2001 on PC and the original Xbox. A report from earlier this month has indicated that the remake, being co-developed by a studio under the Virtuos banner, will be similar to what we saw with The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered. This means that the remake will reportedly use a “hybrid engine”, with new visuals and gameplay elements developed in Unreal Engine 5 or another modern game engine on top of the core game that will still use its original engine under the hood.

Other rumours from earlier this year have also indicated that the remake will strictly be for the campaign itself, with competitive multiplayer being completely absent. The same reports indicated that, along with a remake of the original Halo, Halo Studios is also working on a multiplayer project dubbed Ekur, which will be a battle royale game.

While the studio might be close to unveiling its next major release, it has also been seemingly going through some internal troubles. A rumour from last week has indicated that there are leadership issues at Halo Studios, which ultimately led to the departure of art director Glenn Israel. In a post announcing his departure from the studio, Israel wrote about only being able to reveal more details about his time at the company “in its entirety when it is absolutely safe to do so next year.”

If you want some Halo in your life in the meantime, you can check out the Halo 3: ODST weapons that were added to co-op shooter Helldivers 2 as part of a crossover Legendary Warbond.

Israel having worked on various projects throughout different Halo games from all the way back in 2008, even jumping to with 343 Industries after Bungie moved on from Halo on to Destiny, has recently left Halo Studios. According to his LinkedIn profile, Israel had worked with Halo Studios since 2010, which brought his tenure up to 15 and a half years in total.

Announcing his departure from the company through a LinkedIn post, Israel has noted that he can’t reveal too many details about his reasons for leaving Halo Studios. He did note, however, that he plans on sharing the story “in its entirety when it is absolutely safe to do so next year.”

“I know that the state of our industry seems dire, but never forget that you are *free to choose*,” wrote Israel. “No illusion of security nor promise of wealth or fame or power is worth trading away your health, your dignity, your ethics or values – and no one can force you to. Stay strong, take evidence when necessary, and find where you belong.”

As for Rebs Gaming, the YouTuber has noted that while they can’t reveal any specific details about Israel’s departure from Halo Studios, they can confirm that there are some leadership-related issues at the developer. The YouTuber has said that they are essentially waiting for the go ahead from their sources before they can reveal this information.

Further in the video, Rebs Gaming also pointed out that Israel was one of nine members of the Art Team listed in the credits for Halo Infinite. More noteworthy about this is that, after the departure of Israel from the company, only a single member of that art team is still working with the studio – art director Donnie Taylor.

343 Industries and Halo Studios facing leadership issues hasn’t really been much of a secret since as far back as the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection and even Halo 5: Guardians. However, it is worth noting that, in light of Microsoft’s lay-offs across the Xbox division, tensions had been quite high at Halo Studios according to a report from back in July.

“I’m personally super pissed that Phil’s email to us bragged about how this was the most profitable year ever for Xbox in the same breath as pulling the lever” said one Halo Studios employee at the time, referring to the internal emails that had been sent out to developers under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella leading up to the lay-offs. “I wasn’t sure what part of that I was supposed to be proud about.”

Interestingly, Halo Studios is also slated to unveil its next major project during the upcoming Halo World Championship event on October 24.

“Back in June we let the community know that we’d be continuing the conversation from last year’s HaloWC and the ‘A New Dawn’ video and sharing more about what we’ve been working on,” wrote Halo Studios. “Like last year we’ll be on the Main Stage to talk about it but this year we’ve also got a “deep dive” panel planned for the Community Stage that you won’t want to miss.”

The studio also noted that the Community Stage at HaloWC will feature quite a few panels for fans of the Halo franchise, including appearances by Master Chief voice actor Steve Downes and Cortana voice actor Jen Taylor. There will also be panels celebrating the anniversaries of the release of Halo: Reach and Halo 5: Guardians.

HaloWC has been an important event for Halo Studios. The one from last year was where Halo Studios, formerly known as 343 Industries, announced its rebranding. As for this year’s event, the studio had first teased a major announcement back in July.

“Last year at HaloWC, we premiered ‘A New Dawn’ where we talked about the switch to Unreal Engine, gave you a behind the scenes look at Project Foundry, and debuted our evolution to Halo Studios as we enter a new chapter for Halo,” wrote the studio, referring to its big rebrand from 2024. “For us, ‘A New Dawn’ was just the beginning – at this year’s HaloWC, we look forward to continuing the conversation.”

The event is expected to be the official unveiling of one of the Halo projects that have been in the works at Halo Studios. The company had previously confirmed that it is working on multiple projects in the Halo franchise. Studio head Pierre Hintze spoke about the company having “recalibrated” itself, as well as its use of Unreal Engine 5.

“We had a disproportionate focus on trying to create the conditions to be successful in servicing Halo Infinite,” he said. “[But switching to Unreal] allows us to put all the focus on making multiple new experiences at the highest quality possible.”

Halo Studios COO Elizabeth van Wyck had previously also spoken about how the studio was leaving behind its proprietary game engine – Slipspace Engine – to instead work with Unreal Engine 5 for its future projects. This, she noted, came down to the support that the engine has both from its community, from developers at large, as well as from Epic Games.

“It’s not just about how long it takes to bring a game to market, but how long it takes for us to update the game, bring new content to players, adapt to what we’re seeing our players want,” she said. “Part of that is [in how we build the game], but another part is the recruiting. How long does it take to ramp somebody up to be able to actually create assets that show up in your game?”

According to Rebs Gaming, dataminer gruntdotapi revealed the discovery through a post on social media platform X, where they also noted that there is currently no sign of a Nintendo Switch 2 version of the same title. In replies to questions, gruntdotapi also noted that the Halo title in question has different title IDs – identifiers used in databases – than Halo games that are already out like Halo: The Master Chief Collection or Halo Infinite.

The dataminer also noted that, typically, a multiplayer game that has already been out making its way to PlayStation – like Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 5 and Grounded – had PlayStation or Switch compatibilities added to their retail versions shortly before they were officially announced as coming to those platforms. The Halo title, however, hasn’t been announced at all yet, which would indicate that an announcement is coming soon, and that it will get a multiplatform launch right off the bat.

Interestingly, the existence of PlayStation-compatible APIs linked to PlayFab would also indicate that the new Halo title in question will support cross-platform multiplayer across PC, Xbox and PlayStation. However, as is usually the case with rumours, it is best to take this one with a grain of salt as well. It is also worth noting that datamining can often uncover unused code or other things that might have been originally planned for a title but got ultimately cancelled.

If an announcement for a new Halo project is to happen, it might end up happening at the Halo World Championship event slated for October. Back in July, Halo Studios had teased that it would be unveiling something at the event, while also celebrating it having been a full year since the company rebranded itself from its previous name, 343 Industries.

“Last year at HaloWC, we premiered ‘A New Dawn’ where we talked about the switch to Unreal Engine, gave you a behind the scenes look at Project Foundry, and debuted our evolution to Halo Studios as we enter a new chapter for Halo,” wrote the studio, referring to its big rebrand last year. “For us, ‘A New Dawn’ was just the beginning – at this year’s HaloWC, we look forward to continuing the conversation.”

“Speculation is always fun, but if you want the official scoop on what Halo Studios has been working on, you won’t want to miss this year’s Halo World Championship. We really hope you’ll join us in Seattle this October!”

The studio had also previously confirmed that it is working on multiple projects, and that these new games are being developed using Unreal Engine 5. While details have not yet been confirmed, there have also been reports that the studio had begun playtesting its new games.

In the video, which you can check out below, sources revealed there has been no sign of multiplayer development work done for Halo: Combat Evolved. These sources also alleged that an internal multiplayer project, codenamed Project Ekur and believed to be a battle royale game, has been getting updates roughly every six hours for a few days. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any word about a possible PS5 port for Halo Infinite.

It is worth noting that, while Halo Studios has teased an announcement that will seemingly be made during Halo World Championships, unconfirmed rumours are best taken with a grain of salt. The studio had teased an announcement for October earlier this month, where it would also celebrate the first full year that has passed since it was rebranded to Halo Studios from its earlier identity, 343 Industries.

“Last year at HaloWC, we premiered ‘A New Dawn’ where we talked about the switch to Unreal Engine, gave you a behind-the-scenes look at Project Foundry, and debuted our evolution to Halo Studios as we enter a new chapter for Halo,” wrote the studio, referring to its big rebrand last year. “For us, ‘A New Dawn’ was just the beginning – at this year’s HaloWC, we look forward to continuing the conversation.”

“Speculation is always fun, but if you want the official scoop on what Halo Studios has been working on, you won’t want to miss this year’s Halo World Championship. We really hope you’ll join us in Seattle this October!”

During its rebrand, Halo Studios had also confirmed that its next projects would be developed using Unreal Engine 5. According to studio head Pierre Hintze, “[switching to Unreal] allows us to put all the focus on making multiple new experiences at the highest quality possible.”

While there has been tension at the studio owing to Microsoft letting go of more than 9,000 employees recently, tensions were reportedly quite high at Halo Studios even before that. Reports have indicated that there was quite a bit of stress faced at the studio because of work going on for multiple projects simultaneously, including developing more content for Halo Infinite.

“I don’t think anybody is really happy about the quality of the product right now,” said a developer. “There’s been a lot of tension and pep talks trying to rally folks to ship.”

In the meantime, Halo Infinite, available on PC and Xbox Series X/S, recently kicked off Operation: Reclaimer.

As per leaker Rebs Gaming, a major Halo announcement is planned for later this year at the Halo World Championships in October. Given that’s the venue where Halo Studios announced its rebrand last year, its engine switch, and the fact that it was working on multiple new Halo titles, there’s a chance that we get to see the next big game in the sci-fi shooter series gets unveiled (or at least teased) at this year’s event.

Stay tuned, and we’ll keep you posted on new information as it comes our way.

In the meantime, Halo Infinite continues to receive support and new updates. The latest added a new weapon called the Mutilator, as well as new playlists, operations, and more. Read more on that through here.

“We’re learning and growing through this process, which is giving us more confidence that we should do more,” said Spencer. “We learned from doing Halo. We learned from doing Fallout. So all of these build on themselves. And obviously we’ll have a couple that miss. But what I’d say to the Xbox community that likes this work is, ‘You’re going to see more, because we’re gaining confidence and we’re learning through this.’”

The statement from Spencer comes leading up to the theatrical release of A Minecraft Movie. The movie’s title, according to Legendary’s chairman of worldwide production Mary Parent, comes from the fact that Minecraft as a game doesn’t have a singular story to it. Rather, owing to the title’s sandbox nature, there are many possible stories that can be told through it.

“We’re calling it ‘A Minecraft Movie’ because we’re respecting the fact that there’s no one story that drives the game,” said Parent to variety.

A Minecraft Movie had been in production for quite some time. The first mentions of a movie based on the game being in production came all the way back in 2014, before Minecraft developer Mojang was even acquired by Microsoft.

As for Halo‘s adaptation, the show got two seasons before ultimately being cancelled by Paramount+. The cancellation came in light of the heavy criticism faced by the TV show. Aside from Halo, however, other adaptations of video games have been seeing quite a bit of success. Other than the massive franchise that the Sonic the Hedgehog movies have turned into, there have also been critically acclaimed TV adaptations of The Last of Us (via HBO) and Fallout (via Amazon Prime).

The success of the Fallout adaptation was notable enough that it saw many players, new and returning, play games from throughout the franchise. Fallout 76 creative director Jon Rush spoke about this recently, saying that players were going all the way back to titles like Fallout 3.

“The game continues to be a success,” said Rush about Fallout 76. “We definitely saw a lot of success last year with the release of the show and the show kind of casting a bit of a spotlight on all the Fallout IP. So, there were people hopping into Fallout 3, 4, 76. 76 is still thriving, it’s still growing. We have more ideas than we could possibly ever do and have no plans to stop. We’re going to continue supporting this game, continue supporting our players and telling the story. There’s never been a better time to adventure with your friends in the wasteland.”

The Last of Us, on the other hand, is set to premier its second season on April 13. Leading up to the first episode of its second season, a new trailer was released for the show.

1. Toilets – Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 helped revolutionize the way physics work in video games with its versatile use of the Havok engine. Filling up trash bins with cans is cool and all, but the gravity gun really took physics to the next level. Just about any physical object in the environment could be used as a projectile with the gravity gun’s pick up and punt functionality. While saws and explosive barrels prove the most deadly objects to use, we couldn’t help shooting toilets at foes. Our excuse for using a toilet was the “flushed” achievement, but the hilarity of it was often the real reason. To Judith Mossman’s disappointment, we couldn’t help but treat the gravity gun as a toy throughout Half-Life 2.

Land Shark – Armed and Dangerous

This 2003 Lucasarts third-person shooter may have been a repetitive slog at times, but it had humor by the bucketloads. The Monty Python and Star Wars parodies were great fun, but the Land Shark gun takes the cake as the game’s craziest thing. Just shoot at an enemy and a live shark tunnels through the ground, popping up below your opponent to eat them alive. Armed and Dangerous may not be remembered for its level design or anything, but the Land Shark lives on as one of the wildest things shot at an enemy in games.

Pixels – Ratchet & Clank 2016

How could a Ratchet & Clank game not make it on a list like this? While it was a given, what was difficult was deciding which weapons made earned a spot. I couldn’t resist the Pixelizer from the 2016 reboot. As the name suggests, this handy shotgun variant morphs enemies into a pile of 2D pixels. The icing on top is that they crumble apart like lego bricks when defeated by the shot.

Drill Bore – Turok 2

It’s hard to beat the Cerebral Bore when it comes to game weapon brutality. A combination of a homing device, saw, and clamp, the Cerebral Bore tracks enemy brains and latches onto them, and well, you know the rest. Turok 2 shows a surprising amount of blood and gore as the bore tunnels through enemies’ skulls. While it’s certainly a satisfying weapon to use, the Cerebral Bore is one of the game’s slower weapons due to the lock-on and scanning time.

Dubstep ‘wubs’ – Saints Row 4

“It’s a party in a gun! Make the world dance to your beat and fear the power of your wubs!” That’s the in-game description of the Dubstep Gun and it fits the bill. Not only does it look like a turntable, but it literally shoots streams of dubstep energy at opponents. What’s even more hilarious and neat is the specific music track changes depending on the outfit worn.

Argent Energy Plasma – Doom (2016)

Every Doom player knows the destructive power of the BFG. It’s the most notorious weapon in the series for good reason. And it’s handy to boot, given that it’s one of two weapons in Doom 2016 with its own dedicated button (instead of the weapon wheel). Doom 2016’s iteration of the BFG uses green plasma made from Argent Energy, dealing up to 6000 damage to an enemy. This thing can vaporize and kill any enemy in a single shot as long as it’s not one of the bosses. The splash damage is also pretty large, catching groups and stragglers in the explosion radius very easily. You know you’ve just acquired the best weapon when that BFG Division music starts playing.

Swords – Borderlands 2

Among the thousands upon thousands of gun variants available throughout the Borderlands games, the Swordsplosion!!! gun takes the cake as most ridiculous. This E-tech shotgun is only available in the Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep DLC from Borderlands 2. Not only does it shoot an exploding sword, but it spawns other smaller swords that explode, spawning even tinier swords. It’s perhaps the most bizarre take on the weapons I’ve seen and I love it.

Rainbows Farts – Red Faction: Armageddon

Instead of your conventional super weapon being rewarded upon completing the game, Red Faction: Armageddon gives players a unicorn gun that farts rainbows. It’s not just a silly novelty though, as the Mr Toots gun provides some of the most damage in the game with its long-range high-powered laser shot. Enemies having the priviledge to be destroyed by Mr Toots explode in a confetti rainbow shower to top it all off.

Skunks – Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath

I’ve always appreciated Stranger’s Wrath for its unique take on the wild west bounty hunter schtick. It really feels like playing a sort of warped Jim Henson version of a classic Western. The third-person gunplay is pretty fun, but the live ammo is particularly charming. Each area has its own ecosystem of rodents and mammals that Stranger can pick up and use as Crossbow ammo, and those adorable but smelly Stunkz are my pick due to their cuteness and application. Shooting these skunks at enemies briefly immobilizes them, causing them to vomit uncontrollably.

Needles – Halo

While the famous M16 pistol from Halo 1 is undoubtedly the most effective weapon in the game, the Needler was the most innovative and intriguing. A Covenant creation, the Needler pins enemies with a barrage of energy needles that explode after a few seconds of insertion. They’re like an arrow with a timed explosive. Just shooting a few needles at enemies does peanut damage, but spam that sucker onto your opponent and you have a chained explosion that kills them within seconds.

Water – Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

The Water Pistol is one of many guns that can be developed on the Mother Base. And it’s far from the novelty item that it initially seems. Besides its utility distracting and potentially blinding enemies with splashes of water, it can short-circuit electronic equipment. But did you know the Water Pistol can even defeat a certain boss? That’s right, the Man on Fire can be defeated by spraying a ton of water from the Water Pistol directly on him. It takes about 80 or so hits, but once you take him down, it’ll be the ultimate humiliation.

Plungers – Luigi’s Mansion 3

The original Poltergust 3000 from the first Luigi’s Mansion defined the game’s premise and concept with its Ghostbusters-like vacuum gameplay. Well, the Poltergust has gone through some impressive upgrades since Luigi’s first haunted house visit. Luigi’s Mansion 3 introduces a bunch of new abilities and features for the Poltergust G-00. The funniest happens to be the Suction Shot, which involves plunging a ghost in the face and pulling it with a rope. The traditional use of Suction Shot is to break objects apart for easier suction, but we can’t stop shooting plungers directly at the enemies.

Thunderjaw – Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Rift Apart is the second and final Ratchet & Clank game to make it on the list, and of course it’s the RYNO. The RYNO is a returning legacy weapon, but the 8th iteration goes a step further, summoning objects from various PlayStation games. To get this ultimate weapon, players must find every Spybot in the game. Your reward pays off though. I mean, who doesn’t want to smash enemies with Sully’s plane from Uncharted, Jak & Daxter, or a freaking Thunderjaw from Horizon: Zero Dawn? Okay, technically, you’re dropping these objects from a portal and not shooting them, but you’re still shooting to open the portal, so it counts.

Junk – Fallout 3

Like Half-Life 2’s Gravity Gun, the Rock-It Launcher shoots a variety of environmental objects at enemies. What makes this weapon unique is Fallout 3’s emphasis on junk items. There’s a ton of junk within the Capital Wasteland and most of it can be loaded into the Rock-It Launcher. It’s a tad disappointing that every junk item has the same damage output, but the variety of stuff you can shoot at opponents is impressive nonetheless.

Bullet Bill – Mario Kart

Bullet Bill is the oldest object on this list, with its first appearance in world 5-1 of the first Super Mario Bros. Game from 1987. It wasn’t until Mario Kart Wii (and technically Mario Kart DS) when players could finally harness the dread power of Bullet Bill on unsuspecting friends. The kart turns into a giant Bullet Bill, auto-piloting through the course at top-speed catapulting others to the back of the line – that is, until they smash you with one later in the race.