Between E3 and SDCC 2015, there’s been a lot of news around the upcoming Halo 5: Guardians, some of which has generated discussion amongst the Halo community.  We tackle some of those issues in tonight’s episode with our thoughts on no split screen, no local/offline play, the no disc limited collector’s edition (which now has a trade in option), and the requisition system on if it’s too much like pay to win for Warzone.  We would love to hear your thoughts on these issues and you can do so by posting in our forums or sending us a submission.

When we were first introduced to Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck in Halo 3: ODST, we learned about his personality as an ODST and how good Nathan Fillion is at acting.  In New Blood, we learn of Buck’s origin story: how he became an ODST, how he met up with Veronica Dare and how he eventually got recruited and joined the Spartan IV program.  This all leads up to his role in the upcoming Halo 5: Guardians and there’s a lot of details in this novella.  If you’ve read (or listened the) the book, you may have found yourself having to go through it multiple times.  As we discuss the book, we try to demystify the bouncing around as much as possible and hit all the high points you’ll want to know before this October.

Halo brought Breakout to life in a real life scenario of the new game mode in Halo 5: Guardians. In conjunction with BoomCo and Stony Props, 343 brought the Spartan training simulation to life at SDCC.  We had the opportunity to talk to some of the folks from Stony Props who made the Spartan training armor for the experience, which included a helmet and upper body armor pieces for both teams. We got to talk to Walter and Steve about the entire process of making the armor from when 343 Industries approached them to getting them made for game day.

San Diego Comic Con is one of the largest fan-focused conventions in the United States and this year we were able to attend and see what the fuss was all about. We had the opportunity to play real life Breakout, see the Mega Bloks build of Apex, learn about the story supplementing Halo 5: Guardians from the novels and Hunt the Truth podcast, be surrounded by Halo cosplayers and snag some con exclusive swag. We managed to pick up interviews with Stony Props on their Spartan training armor and Matt Forbeck on New Blood that will be releasing later in the week.  Huge thanks to Laird for giving us the opportunity to attend and for being our guest for this episode.