Halo: The Master Chief Collection has received another patch on the Xbox One. After 343 Industries announced that it would be bringing Halo 3: ODST as a free update to thank fans for their support since launch, this latest patch brings the Spartan Ops mode to Halo 4.

This co-op mode essentially acts as a separate campaign in which friends can team up and complete different episodes amounting to 50 missions. That’s a ton of co-op content for this update.

Other additions in this patch include fixes to the matchmaking and lobby system including only starting missions when teams are even, players receiving losses if they disconnect before rounds have ended and an issue where players left matchmaking once their controllers disconnect. There’s been improvements made to Halo: CE’s hit registration and a fix to Halo 2: Anniversary to properly track Achievements during one’s Career.

Check out the full patch notes here and let us know what you think of the changes in the comments.

The five new episodes, namely 6 to 10, will start releasing on a weekly basis from January 21st till February 24th, and wrap up the first season of Spartan Ops. A ton of new content is being promised with vehicular combat, fights with Covenant and Prometheans and new settings outside of Requiem.

The first five episodes, which focused on Fireteam Crimson and their traipse around Requiem, along with the war on the Convenat separatists, are already available for all and sundry to try.

Halo 4 Spartan Ops is available to Xbox Live Gold members, and requires a minimum of 8 GB to run properly. Access to Spartan Ops ships with Halo 4 and requires no additional cost aside from membership to Live and, of course, an Xbox 360 console.

Spartan Ops is a series of multiplayer cooperative missions but set against the backdrop of a continuing storyline taking place before the events of Halo 4, with the troops aboard the UNSC Infinity carrying out various missions. A new episode is released each week, as story cutscenes fill in the gaps of what’s been happening.

And what’s going down this week? Doctor Halsey receives unusual contact, Thorne deciphers the history of the Spartan Program, and Didact’s Hand appears on Requiem looking for…something. Check it out above.

Halo 4 Spartan Ops Season One Trailer. Extend your Halo 4 campaign experience in a massive-scale adventure. Receive a weekly series of cinematic episodes on Xbox LIVE followed by new game play missions, played solo or cooperatively with up to three friends — effectively delivering two campaign experiences in one game.

The first season begins on November 16, and the game comes out on November 6, so you have plenty of time to finish the campaign.

Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Playing as your own custom Spartan soldier, you’ll be able to take part in cooperative missions with friends that have a variety of objectives. 343 Industries for their part has insured that Halo 4’s Spartan Ops is regularly updated, with cutscenes advancing the plot and new episodes furthering the storyline. Hopefully the space combat seen in the trailer is one of the few things we get to experience in cooperative play.

Things are already looking great for Halo 4, and it will be shipping exclusively for Microsoft’s XBox 360 on November 6th 2012.

The story of the UNSC Infinity intersects with the Halo 4 campaign, and then continues on in a brand-new, story-driven experience known as Spartan Ops. A first-of-its-kind, exciting new addition to the Halo franchise, Spartan Ops is an episodic adventure that blends immersive storytelling, high-quality cinematics and action-packed gameplay to deliver an unprecedented serialized experience.

Through a weekly series of cinematic episodes, Spartan Ops will tell the continuing story of the UNSC Infinity, following the events of Halo 4. These episodes will center on the UNSC Infinity leaders and crew as well as a new team of Spartans—Majestic Squad. These cinematic episodes will provide the backdrop for the weekly Spartan Ops gameplay missions.

Playable in single-player or cooperatively with up to four players, Spartan Ops lets you explore the corners of Requiem in objective-based missions and help uncover the secrets of the mysterious Forerunner world.

The game will be released on the Xbox 360 on November. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.