The delay of Halo Infinite was quite the blow for both Microsoft and Halo fans, but there has been good news as of late about the game. Things all point to it managing to make its new fall 2021 release date and 343 Industries is even planning to share monthly updates starting next week.
But with the game still months away from release, 343 is bringing more content to Halo: The Master Chief Collection to keep fans occupied. With the entire collection of games now available on PC, 343's next goal for what is being referred to as Season 5 is to add new weapon skins, new challenges with unique rewards for clearing them, and 80 pieces of armor for Halo 3 and Halo Reach.
In a new blog post on the Halo Waypoint website, 343 outlined the different helmets players will be able to unlock and perhaps the one that stands out the most is one based on Mister Chief. For those unfamiliar, Mister Chief is something of a meme within the Halo community and is considered to be an unofficial mascot for the series.
Created in 2004 by the then community manager Frank O'Connor, Mister Chief was simply a crude drawing of Master Chief holding a lightsaber made as a joke. But, following strong fan reception, Mister Chief went on to make frequent appearances in weekly updates from Bungie and be occasionally referenced to. Microsoft even used the character to explain Halo 5: Guardians' Requisition system.
In The Master Chief Collection, the Mister Chief helmet is just a regular helmet with a goofy face drawn on it, but it's a cute nod regardless. The blog post even jokes about whether Mister Chief is a canon character or not.
343 also explains that the new customization items also originated from an old, abandoned piece of Halo media: Halo Online. Originally a free-to-play multiplayer game heavily based on Halo 3, a closed beta was held in Russia back in 2015 but it was ultimately canceled. With the inclusion of these items, this effectively brings Halo Online into the franchise's canon, with each item also getting some unique lore to accompany them.
The title of Season 5, Anvil, is even derived from Halo Online, as that game's setting was a secret UNSC space installation called Anvil, which was used to train Spartan soldiers and Sangheili (aka the Elites) for combat with simulated wargames.
The Season 5 update is scheduled to go live tomorrow on January 27, but there will be an option to toggle the new items off so players don't have to see them, even if they're equipped. This will also apply to all other cosmetic content like weapon and vehicle skins.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Halo Waypoint