RedStarRocket91

Well, Halo 5: Guardians has been out for a week now, and since the blanket ban on spoilers has now expired, let's have a discussion on defeating the newest antagonist of the series: the Warden Eternal. So, first things first. The Warden has three main attacks: a heavy melee charge, a yellow, fast-moving projectile, and a purple, slow-moving projectile. The heavy melee charge is interesting in that the blade doesn't actually have to hit you in order to inflict damage: instead, you just need to make contact with any part of the Warden's body while the animation is in progress, meaning that even trying to move to his left side doesn't guarantee your safety. However, it is possible to dodge this attack with the thruster pack, even if it does seem to be a little luck-based at times. Your best bet is to try and use the geometry of the level to your advantage, moving around an obstruction rather than just trying to evade in the open. The warden's first ranged attack can be cast even while he's moving, meaning that you won't be able to just try and run away from him if he's chasing you down with his melee. However, it only ever moves in a straight line and while the projectile moves extremely quickly it ultimately does have a travel time, meaning that with quick reflexes and a thruster pack, it's possible to dodge it. Lastly, the warden can summon a large purple orb, which he then casts at the player. Although quite slow-moving, this attack does home in on the player, and so is almost impossible to dodge conventionally: worse, it also deals a huge amount of AoE damage which, unlike most explosions, is capable of injuring players even through cover. Since the projectile always tries to move directly toward the player, regardless of sightlines, it's possible to avoid this by simply putting something solid between yourself and it and standing well back, as it will harmlessly impact the obstruction instead of trying to go around it. Next, the Warden has an extremely large pool of health, and is only susceptible to damage in certain areas - most prominently, the large glowing region on his back, as your AI teammates will be quick to let you know. What they do not let you know, however, is that the good old fashioned headshot still works! Though he cannot be instantly killed by headshots as with most enemies, shooting him in the head does deal damage (though, I believe, at a reduced amount) and can potentially stagger him, allowing you to get around to his back and attack his main weak spot directly. And yes, it is possible to assassinate the Warden with a melee, although this can only be done once he has already been seriously injured. So, with all the above in mind - what are your strategies for engaging the new Warden bosses when they appear throughout the campaign?

I literally can even.

I can't speak for Waypoint, but I can confirm that one of the most common and useful moderation tools across the internet is the IP log. Just clearing your cache or turning off cookies won't help as it's all logged server-side: you could potentially get around it by spoofing your IP or using a VPN, but even then there are plenty of other tools we can use to identify you. And just as a note - ban evasion is generally one of the worst things you can do. The majority of bans and warnings are set to expire, but attempting to evade them through multi-accounting is one of the fastest ways to make them permanent.

I definitely agree with everything that's been said here - as someone who's gotten very used to the systems in older Halos which allow you to set your own goals and work specifically toward pieces of armour that you want, and knowing exactly how to achieve those goals, having that control taken away from me is quite disappointing. It doesn't really bother me that 'noobs' have the same chance to get drops as more experienced players - especially as the game has been out six days at this point - but yes, I'm definitely disappointed that REQs are the only way to unlock new customisations. Especially since there aren't even any rewards for campaign completion, which are always nice to have. I think what really rankles me though is that you can't even buy specific armour pieces with real money - that's normally the standard in this kind of system of microtransactions, and yet here all you can do is pay for the chance to get an unlock for something you'd want. I wouldn't object to paying a little money if it meant I got to pick out a specific customisation item for my Spartan, like a helmet or visor, but I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of gambling, which is what this amounts to. Here's hoping they do something a little more player-friendly at some point!

I think the biggest issue for me as far as the motion tracker goes is that there's a difference in radius between single-player and multiplayer: as someone who always finishes the campaign before moving on to the PvP, I'd gotten very used to interacting with the motion tracker in a certain way, and started to get a feel for how far away enemies were by watching it. Unfortunately, with the current system this just doesn't translate to arena, and combined with how open the maps are and the speed at which players move, the motion tracker definitely doesn't feel as integral to play as it did in older Halos. Plus, it's really hurt stealth, as now the range of detection is so small that there isn't really much incentive to try and sneak up on people with crouch. So yeah, here's hoping that the motion tracker gets a bit of a buff soon!

The best person to contact would probably be Andy Dudynsky, who recently stated on Reddit that he'd be willing to check any bans that people feel may be unfair: you can find his Twitter account here, and his Reddit account here.

^ Account banned at member request. Please email [email protected] if you wish to reverse this decision

Actually it's (Kills+Assists-Deaths)/Total Matches, so it's a measure of your average split rather than a ratio.

Congratulations to all of those picked - and good luck for next month to all those weren't! I hope you all enjoy your new Awards

...Halo copies League? wut I can appreciate where you're coming from: I have my own set of frustrations with Halo 5, a lot of them quite major. However, while I don't necessarily like the changes that have been, I can appreciate that there has actually been an attempt made to evolve the gameplay, and to make it fresh and interesting. I thoroughly reject the argument that Halo needs to stick with the same gameplay it's always had and never try anything new or take risks: this is an argument I hear an awful lot from younger players and console-only gamers, and frankly, the fact that Halo has always been willing to try out new mechanics and explore new concepts is precisely why it's such a good series. If all Halo were to do was keep using the same old formula year-on-year without ever trying to innovate, we'd still be playing 2v2s with three-shot pistols. The history of gaming is littered with titles which got stagnant and never tried to shake things up or break new ground, and most of them are dead. If all you want is to play Halo: Combat Evolved? Go play it. The MCC (finally) has functioning matchmaking for it, there's nothing to stop you playing it as much as you want.

Unfortunately, only Microsoft themselves will be able to tell you exactly why you have been charged if you have definitely only purchased two packs, as microtransactions are handled directly through Xbox LIVE. While you can attempt to contact 343i directly through their Halo Waypoint Forums, they're quite poor when it comes to responding to individual requests for help, and so you're much more likely to resolve this issue by speaking to Microsoft Support again. Good luck!

You filthy peasant.

A big part of it is just the way the engine renders things, as items are now a lot less 'glossy' and a lot more matte - they're also textured to a higher standard but with less in the way of details, which is supposed to give them a slightly cleaner, more modern look, as opposed to things like Reach which relied on large amounts of detail to try and give the illusion of high-quality textures. In terms of aiming: it felt weird to me at first, but I got used to it very quickly. I'm not sure whether this is because of the controller, the new aiming system itself, or just lack of recent experience (prior to Halo 5 I hadn't even picked up a controller is about six months), but it does feel fairly normal to me. I am noticing that there seems to be a lot less in the way of aim assist than in previous Halos though, so perhaps that's what is throwing you?

Unfortunately, as of right now there's no known way for those who failed to redeem their codes to acquire a new one, not has there been any indication from 343 Industries that they're planning to distribute another round of codes in the future. Therefore in order to play Halo 3: ODST on the Master Chef Collection, you'll need to purchase it normally.

By most accounts, multiplayer in Halo 5: Guardians has run smoothly since it was launched, with the great majority of players able to connect to its servers easily, find matches quickly, and remain connected without issue. However, a small but notable number of people have reported serious problems with connecting to servers. The symptoms in these cases are usually the same, in that while their internet connections are working just fine and they're having no issues with other titles, Halo 5 suffers issues with lagging and disconnecting during games. As per this thread on /r/Halo, something that most of these players seem to have in common is that their ISP is Time-Warner Cable. While we normally have a thread dedicated to recording players' connection problems immediately after launch, this time I'm going to take the slightly unusual step of asking that if you're suffering from issues with Halo 5: Guardians' servers and online components, in addition to explaining what they are you also list the name of your ISP. Doing so may help establish whether there is indeed a connection or it's just a series of unlucky early coincidences: if we get enough responses to suggest the former, I'll do what I can to bring the matter to the attention of 343i and TWC in the hopes that they can resolve these problems and get our fellow Spartans back into the fight. So, with all that in mind, please submit your connectivity issues here! UPDATE, 22ND DECEMBER: Bravo has responded to a thread on Reddit confirming 343i are aware of the issue.

...what? I honestly don't understand this. How exactly is selling your Xbox, building a PC, and then needing to purchase, download and install updates for an entirely new library of games waste less time than just letting the patch download? More to the point - you are aware that it's the nature of the games industry that updates are occasionally a thing, right? PC games don't launch at version 1.0 and stay there for the rest of their lives, so if you're going there expecting never to have to update anything, you're going to be very disappointed.

There's a lot of factors at play here. The 8-9 hours estimate is, after all, just an estimate, and can be heavily affected by things such as difficulty and number of teammates: playing solo on Legendary, the game took me just under 12 hours to complete, which is about four hours more than it took me to finish Halo 4. I can only assume that you were playing on one of the lower difficulties or with friends: if so, try moving up to something harder or playing solo, and you'll find the game lasts a lot longer.

Yes, anyone who's lost something as a result of the changes is entitled to an Inheritor Award - I've just added one to your profile now.