Microsoft have decided that this week shall bring a Halo 4 scented delight each day, including a new map pack and a new ranking system.
The week of Halo festivities also offers Halo players the chance to grab a couple of exclusive Avatar Tees. Just what every Halo fan wants!
Because I know you’re just an information hungry badger, here’s what’s happening each day this week in handy, concise, bullet-pointed form.
Monday 8 April
- Castle Map Pack Released (three medium-large maps). 800 Points. GiaG review here.
- Competitive Skill Rank (CSR) launched. A new 1-50 level ranking system that measures performance to ensure fairer matchmaking. Earn rank 35 before 22 April to earn an exclusive Avatar Tee.
Tuesday 9 April
- Halo 4 Original Soundtrack Volume 2 released. 20 tracks, including Kazuma Jinnouchi’s version of Halo 3’s ‘Never Forget’.
Wednesday 10 April
- Extra XP day. 14 Daily Challenges and Six weekly challenges added, designed exclusively for Halo Week.
Thursday 11 April
- From 10am GMT on Thursday 11 players have 24 hours to complete five missions in Spartan Ops in order to receive an exclusive Avatar tee! Woo!
Friday 12 April
- Halo 4 DLC sale on everything besides the Castle map pack.
- “Halo 4” War Games Map Pass: 1600 Microsoft Points (25% saving)
- Crimson Map Pack: 600 Microsoft Points (25% saving)
- Majestic Map Pack: 600 Microsoft Points (25% saving)
Now I don’t know if you were paying attention during the early days of Halo 2 – that might have been your wild period – but I remember a 1-50 skill ranking system back then that was standard across all Xbox Live titles. It was a good system that did ensure fair matchmaking, so if this is the return of ‘Trueskill’, as it was known, then I may just have to re-evaluate Halo 4’s multiplayer.
Halo 4 is available now, exclusively for Xbox 360