The warthog sounds like a weed eater.

Wait. What's the Chief really up to? Is there a Halo story refresher? I forgot everything that happened in Halo 3 and 4.

Halo 3:

Chief saved the world, got dumped into space somewhere, went into cryo

Halo 4:

MC wakes up 4 years later to a huge forerunner sphere opening up. There's still some covenant that didn't split in the civil war.

MC crashes on planet and wrecks shop

The warthog sounds like a weed eater.

UNSC Infinity shows up (picked up Cortana's distress beacon from 4 years ago).

MC wakes up some pissed off forerunner guy

MC runs off to another Halo, but only a UNSC research facility in orbit

MC finds out that the forerunner guy is heading to earth to turn all the people into Forerunner AI's or some shit.

Captain of the UNSC infinity tells chief to stand down, b/c reasons.

Chief says "fuck off buddy, i have to save the world again" or something like that. MC commits Mutiny

MC saves the world again, kills forerunner guy. Cortana kills herself to save the MC from a nuke.

Captain of the infinity is court Marshalled for being a dumbass that almost wiped out humanity. younger guy that the MC saved on Reach during the "Forward unto dawn" series becomes commander

Halo 5:

apparently chief has gone AWOL, and Buck the ODST is a spartan now.

The arbiter has a big ass fancy helmet.

Wait. What's the Chief really up to? Is there a Halo story refresher? I forgot everything that happened in Halo 3 and 4.

http://www.gamesradar.com/halo-story-so-far/

Did you say if you liked Reach more or less? Being a big fan of Reach, I'm hoping it hits that same balance for me.

Tough to say. Reach holds a very special place in my heart. I loved the art-direction and mood of the entire game. Plus I think it has the best encounter design of any shooter I've ever played. On top of that, Forge World was something really special to me.

So I'm hesitant to compare Halo 5 directly to Reach on any level, especially while it's so new. I guess the one thing I can say is that to me, Halo 5 feels like a logical and exciting evolution of the franchise, just like Reach did. It feels new, but still like "Halo", if that makes sense.

Some background: I love Halo CE - Reach, not crazy about Halo 4. I like a challenge, so I play almost exclusively on Heroic or Legendary. I play an even mix of Campaign and Multiplayer. I don't really have a favorite Halo game; there are aspects of each that stand out to me. But if I had to pick one, I think Reach offered the best "total package".

This is very similar to how I feel, though I definitely play Halo games for the story first and foremost.

I was reading some reviews earlier today that had me worried about the story. Perhaps you can answer this: Is it true that you play as Locke for 80% of the campaign? Is that as disappointing as it sounds?

Yes, it's true you play as Locke most of the game, but I didn't mind it at all because it means your fighting along side Buck for most of the game. I don't really care which Spartan I'm playing as most of the time :-/

Some background: I love Halo CE - Reach, not crazy about Halo 4. I like a challenge, so I play almost exclusively on Heroic or Legendary. I play an even mix of Campaign and Multiplayer. I don't really have a favorite Halo game; there are aspects of each that stand out to me. But if I had to pick one, I think Reach offered the best "total package".

This is very similar to how I feel, though I definitely play Halo games for the story first and foremost.

I was reading some reviews earlier today that had me worried about the story. Perhaps you can answer this: Is it true that you play as Locke for 80% of the campaign? Is that as disappointing as it sounds?

Now that you mention that it feels like Reach, that makes me feel much better about it because I loved reach.

Just to be clear, I don't think I said it feels like reach. The only time I mentioned reach was to point out that I thought Legendary was a lot more balanced in Reach than it is in Halo 5. I think H5 is great, but I wouldn't say it is particularly close to reach in terms of overall feel.

I always planned on getting the basic digital version, and your thoughts put my mind at ease about that. Thanks!

I'm going to guess you played the Beta?

A few matches. My impression of the 4v4 mode was the same then as it is now; I'm not crazy about it. Just hasn't clicked with me so far.

I've been playing Halo 5 for almost 2 weeks now. For anyone interested, here are my early impressions (spoiler-free, of course)

It's really freaking good.

Some background: I love Halo CE - Reach, not crazy about Halo 4. I like a challenge, so I play almost exclusively on Heroic or Legendary. I play an even mix of Campaign and Multiplayer. I don't really have a favorite Halo game; there are aspects of each that stand out to me. But if I had to pick one, I think Reach offered the best "total package".

My opinion, too. Excited about Halo 5. Thanks for the write-up.

New Halo looks nice, I just hope they have a way to keep it fresh throughout the next year, not just an initial spark followed by dull multiplayer DLC.

One thing worth mentioning; Halo 5's DLC will all be free. They're including cosmetic microtransactions to fund the DLC.

Seems to be a bit of that going around these days ;)