If you’re like me, you’re highly anticipating the Halo 5 Guardians Beta. The beta will bring us 7 maps in 3 game modes. Not all maps will be available at all times. These will be rolled out over the 3-week run. The beta starts December 29, 2014 and runs until January 19, 2015. Many fans, including myself hope that the beta will run longer. This as part of the promise from 343 to make up for the HMCC’s launch issues.

We’ll be able to vote for a weapon to use and later a map from the 7 to be put into rotation.

Spectator mode is something I expect a lot of people to use. I know I will. I’ve got a few Halo Pros either on my friends list or I’m following. So yeah, I’ll be dropping into spectator mode to watch them. There is a delay BTW folks, if you hadn’t heard. In order to prevent cheating, spectator mode will run slightly behind the actual game being played. In this way, anyone watching can’t make callouts to the team as they will likely become ineffectual by the time the team gets the callouts form the spectator.

HMCC woes aside, the Halo 5 Guardians Beta promises to bring we fans some refreshing new Halo experiences. Presumably, it will not run off of the HMCC engine, but will be something else entirely.

This could be good or bad. Good of course if everything works as intended. Bad if it doesn’t. And I don’t think 343 needs another bad thing, am I right?

Don’t forget that we unlock armor through the beta that will be available to use when the full game comes out next year.

What are you most looking forward to with the beta?

-Sal