Last month at E3 there was no announcement of any kind about "Halo 6," but that does not mean that Microsoft had nothing planned for its premiere franchise this year. This February saw the release of "Halo Wars 2" and now developer 343 Industries has announced that all remaining Halo games will become backwards compatible. In other gaming news, "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor" has received a new update and a hefty discount in the lead up to the sequel.
Backwards compatible Halo with free DLC
Prior to this announcement only three Halo games, "Halo: Reach," "Halo: Wars" and "Halo: Spartan Assault" were backwards compatible.
Now all of the games in the series will join the Xbox One backwards compatibility, as "Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary," "Halo 3," "Halo 3: ODST" and "Halo 4" will all be joining the program before the end of 2017. This means that every Halo game will now be playable on the Xbox One.
However, 343 Industries did not stop there as they also confirmed today that "Halo 5: Guardians" will be receiving a 4K update with the release of the Xbox One X in November. The company also stated that "every Xbox 360 Halo add-on map pack in the Xbox Store" would now be free.
LAN play on the Xbox One and between players on the One and 360 will also be supported.
Lastly, the company stated that there will be special playlists in "Halo 5" later this year to celebrate the 10th anniversary of "Halo 3."
Shadow of Mordor receives deep discount and update
With "Middle-Earth: Shadow of War" set to come out on October 10, 2017, publisher Warner Bros clearly wanted to give people the chance to play its predecessor if they have already not.
The Game of the Year Edition of "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor" is currently 80% off at the Xbox Store, PlayStation Store, and on Steam for only $4 dollars. This sale runs through July 10 on Steam, July 17 on Xbox and July 19 on PlayStation. If that is not enough to entice gamers, then they can try a free timed trial of the game until July 9 via Xbox Free Play Days promotion or on Steam.
"Shadow of Mordor" also received a free update called "Nemesis Forge" which will let players of the game identify their biggest rival and ally via the games praised Nemesis System. The chosen rival and ally will then appear in the sequel "Shadow of War." This update will only further expand the system with the carryover into the next game. There was also a trailer released to showcase this new update.
