https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/halo-5-guardians/brrc2bp0g9p0

$20 with XBL Gold. That's a ton of content for 20 bucks and I'm pretty sure that's the cheapest I've seen the game. I've been spending a lot of time in the custom games browser recently, playing the highest rated maps and modes made by the community and it (among other things) has definitely rekindled my interest in the game. You can also currently play Forge and custom games on PC for free, but as of now there's no crossplay with Xbox.

I'm thinking of hosting some game nights similar to what the Forza folks do here every Thursday with GB Race Night. Probably will post an LFG in the Unofficial GB club until we work out the best day/time to play. Now I wish every game had the happy hour feature from Titanfall 2.

Anyway, gifting a copy to a friend and thought I'd pass this on.

This became my favorite multiplayer in the series, so yes, people should buy it.

Pretty rad deal honestly

I went from a "343 has no idea what they're doing" mindset with Halo 4 to "this is arguably the best multiplayer in the series" with Halo 5 ever since they fixed the aiming issues in the latest patch. The movement, shooting and general fluidity between all the mechanics has become my new benchmark when judging an FPS.

This video can do a better job than I ever could demonstrating why Forge is awesome:

It's almost unfathomable how anyone who owns an Xbox One wouldn't own this game as well. Even with the major gripes about lack of split-screen, messy storytelling and a few bad levels, it's a great Halo game.

Got it from Red Box around the end of October for $6. So cheap that I haven't felt compelled to justify my purchase by playing it... heh. Probably time to give it a spin.

I've honestly spent zero time with Forge, so my love of MP just comes down to the feel of the movement and shooting. With Slayer, BTB, Warzone, and Firefight being where I spend my time. But it's nice to see that Forge is god damn bonkers.

Warzone Firefight is just an amazing horde mode type experience. I haven't touched the singleplayer in this (because I've been going through the Halo series in co-op with a friend and we haven't reached it yet) but I still managed to put 60 hours into this game, mostly in Warzone (though Arena is definitely very good) and then Warzone Firefight, which is my JAM. Honestly I just wish it was even bigger and crazier with more enemy vehicles instead of just enemy bosses with high health, but as a free expansion it has been pretty incredible, and I would have been satisfied if I'd paid $20 for it as an expansion.

Now is a great time to get into multiplayer 2 because the Warzone card packs are given much more freely than they were at launch and there are still plenty of people playing.

Though it's far and away my least favorite core Halo entry, it is absolutely worth $20.

@inevpatoria: Just curious - do you come to Halo for the multiplayer and if so when's the last time you fired it up? I ask because I used to feel similarly toward H5, but my opinion has drastically turned around ever since they added a ton of missing stuff and made significant fixes. The campaign is still pretty dull to me and unfortunately isn't something that can be "fixed" with mere patches.

It's totally worth asking.

And also, my answer to that question has changed quite a lot since Halo 2, which was the last of the Halo games whose multiplayer I really, truly obsessed over. I think the realization I come to is that I'm not really looking to Halo for that token competitve multiplayer experience. I've always skewed for singleplayer offerings. But even considering multiplayer shooters, which I for a long time thought I'd largely grown out of, it's just the case that other shooters provide the more positively-reinforced experience that I think I've always been looking for. In fact, Overwatch represents pretty much the first time I've felt really, really good playing a multiplayer shooter since . . . heck, I don't know. Maybe all the way back to Halo 2.

Back to Halo 5, and particularly Halo 5's multiplayer--I never came to grips with that game mechanically. Specifically, there is a reduction in aim assistance and general aiming tightness that had otherwise been present in previous Halo games, making the fundamental action of placing a reticle on another player feel much slipperier than what I'm used to or even looking for. The Halo Waypoint boards and subreddit went on this long crusade to identify it as something amiss with the deadzones or the aim acceleration, when really the difference between how Halo feels now versus how Halo felt then is the product of something way simpler. But, of course, "aim assist" is almost a dirty word, an admission of weakness. With the existence of The Master Chief Collection, I can time-travel back to those halcyon days and, immediately, I can feel the difference. It's a very, very noticeable change.

I think some players gravitated toward the new loose feel because it engenders this idea of a "skill gap" existing within the multiplayer meta. That, itself, speaks to a greater disconnect I have to the broader direction Halo has taken. In my experience, Halo is at its most fun when it is at its most accessible. A tight, supremely executed toybox anyone can step into. The early Halo games did this well, and a competitive scene rose naturally from that foundation. These later Halo games, especially 5, have gone in the opposite direction, hoping to curry the favor of an eSports demographic and building the game's feel and flow to suit that given end.

I guess in Halospeak I'm saying I'm too casual for Halo 5. And that I recognized that fact from the outset. And that it did very, very little to try and win me back.

Warzone Firefight is a supremely cool mode, and gives even a player like me the chance to tool around with some of the custom weaponry only usable in the Warzone gametypes. It's the sort of thing I go back to a couple games a weekend here and there. But I want almost nothing to do with any of the PvP content. And I think the singleplayer campaign was easily, without any question, the weakest of the series.

Despite all that, I think it's worth getting for $20.

@inevpatoria: Yeah, I can totally see where you're coming from as far as the balancing act of competitive vs. casual - something Halo developers have always had to deal with. 343 clearly leaned in hard with the esports focus in Halo 5, though I'm not sure how well it has paid off for them in the grand scheme of things. I think H5 in its current state has achieved a solid balance in appeasing the different communities of players. Warzone Firefight like you mentioned as well as the return of unranked social playlists and a custom games browser have given me hours of Halo goodness for those times when playing a team of 4 who grind the game all day and call out every enemy target doesn't sound appealing.

I also had issues with H5's aiming early on in the game's life - at first I thought my skills on the sticks were just slipping with age, but with the recent patch they must have done something to tweak the aiming because now I'm able to hit my shots way more consistently than before.

I'll check it out again on your recommendation. Didn't know they'd added a customs search feature. That's a first, I think, for the series.

What an incredible deal, every Xbox One owner should have this game.