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Season 3 of Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be a very big deal for Halo 3 in particular. Design director Max Szlagor said in a new blog post that Season 3 will contain many more customization options across the board, including brand-new content for Halo 3.

Season 3 will add new weapon skins, new visors, and “other content” for Halo 3, Szlagor said. This is a big deal because Halo 3 has never had weapon skins. “This marks the first step in our expansion of Halo 3 customization,” Szlagor said.

Before this, 343 added weapon and vehicle skins to Halo: Combat Evolved, marking a first in the game’s 19-year history.

One image in the blog post shows a custom-skin weapon strapped to a soldier’s back. For Halo: CE, players can select whether or not they want to see the new skins, but the blog post regarding Halo 3’s new skins doesn’t mention this.

The same image also seems to suggest that Halo 3 is also adding weapons never seen before in Halo 3. In the image, we see a solider wielding the Socom Magnum pistol, while another image shows the Silenced SMG. This is also a big deal, as these weapons are from Halo 3: ODST and have never been available in Halo 3 multiplayer.

Season 3 begins with the launch of Halo 3: ODST on PC. The first beta test for that is scheduled to begin in mid-August, with the full release coming sometime after.

The new cosmetic content can be unlocked by completing challenges in MCC. These include all manner of things like racking up kills with power weapons, getting head shots, and earning double kills, among many other things.

In other MCC news, the game is adding a long list of exciting new features in 2020, including crossplay, a custom game browser, keyboard and mouse support on Xbox One, and more.

All of this is happening alongside the development of Halo Infinite, which is being made by a separate team inside 343 Industries.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is still getting major new updates and ongoing support, even with the attention on the Halo series turning toward Halo Infinite.

In a new blog post, 343 outlined some of the new features planned for MCC–and it’s a lot. In 2020, the studio plans to introduce cross-play between Xbox One and PC along with input-based matchmaking so people can decide who they want to play against. Additionally, 343 will add a custom game browser and give people the ability to choose their server region.

Additionally, mouse and keyboard support for Xbox One is coming, while players will also be able tailor the graphics and audio experiences for each game within MCC.

You can see all of the planned features below.

FEATURES PLANNED FOR RELEASE IN 2020

• Crossplay
• Input Based MM
• Sever Region Selection
• Custom Game Browser
• Per Game Graphics Options
• Per Game Audio Options
• M&K Support for Xbox
• PC Fileshare
• Double Keybinds for all games
• Viewmodel adjustments for all games
• In game FPS Cap/Adjustments
• Steam Account Linking
  • Planned to release together: Crossplay, Input Based MM, and Server Region Selection.
  • Planned to release together: Custom Game Browser, Per Game Graphics Options, and M&K Support for Xbox

343 added that it still plans to release Halo 3: ODST and Halo 4 on PC in 2020, while Halo 3: ODST Firefight is still planned for this year on Xbox One and PC.

The studio went on to address the issue of mod support for MCC. The developer still hopes to one day bring mod support to MCC, but it won’t happen soon.

“Our goal is still to support modding, but due to shift in development priorities that tends to happen over the course of a project, modding has continued to get pushed back over the past 6 or so months,” 343 said. “The good news here is that we have reached a point where we are now able to spend some cycles to get the conversations, design, and planning going again.”

One of the sticking points is that 343 needs to update the EULA for MCC to add language specific to modding and player-generated content. 343’s lawyers must approve the new language, and 343 said this process has been moving along.

“I understand this will be disappointing news to many of you, but the silver lining here is the EULA is in late stages,” 343 said.” Once it is ready, we will re-assess what we can accomplish in the short, mid, and long-term timelines.”

Finally, 343 also listed off some of the new features that are currently on the “backlog.” These features are “pending further discussions,” so they might not arrive anytime soon. They include things like split-screen and HDC support on PC, along with the ability to turn off the text chat system. You can see the full list below.

IN BACKLOG PENDING FURTHER DISCUSSIONS

• Text chat on/off Option
• Idle System Improvements 
• Bringing PC Features to Console (Like FOV Sliders)
• Additional Accessibility Support
• Split Screen on PC
• HDR Support on PC

The ongoing development of MCC is not coming at the expense of Halo Infinite, as 343 has separate teams inside the studio working on each title.

Halo Infinite is a launch title for the Xbox Series X. We just recently learned that the multiplayer element of the game will be free-to-play.

Tekken 7 will continue to expand, as Season Pass 4 has been announced. The new DLC will add some extra characters the game’s ever-expanding roster, as well as some general improvements to online play and extra fighting moves.

The trailer, below, celebrates the game’s community and hints at the difficulties of 2020–and how Tekken 7 can help to allievate some of them. It also hints at one of the new characters being added, without revealing them directly.

You can watch the Tekken 7 Season Pass 4 trailer below.

We don’t know who the first new character being teased is, but many fans are speculating that it’s Jun Kazama, who has only appeared in a single mainline Tekken game in the past–1995’s Tekken 2. For our money, though, it looks like Kunimitsu, another character we haven’t seen in a while.

Additionally, every fighter in the game will receive new moves as of this update, and online play will be enhanced. The new “Tekken Prowess” metric will track your performance, and you’ll be given more details about your opponent’s connection and drop-out rate ahead of fighting them.

Past DLC characters for Tekken 7 have included some wild picks, like Noctis from Final Fantasy XV and Negan from The Walking Dead. It’s unknown how many new or returning characters Season Pass 4 will introduce.

Season Pass 4 is due in Fall 2020.

Wide Ocean Big Jacket has released a new content update, adding a few extra chapters to the extremely likable indie narrative game. The Meryl and Alan chapters, which were previously released as a demo during LudoNarraCon 2020, are now available in the full game.

These chapters focus on two characters who appear as side-figures during the main game, and you’ll now be able to play as them and experience their story. As the original game was all of 90 minutes long, this extra content is most welcome.

The full game follows Cloanne and Brad, who have taken their young niece Mord and her boyfriend Brad on a camping trip. It’s not a game that’s particularly rich with incident–the characters hang out, tell spooky stories, enjoy nature, and have tough conversations. It’s beautiful.

It’s worth reading David Wildgoose’s impressions of the game, where he called it “the getaway we could all use right now.”

If you picked up that huge Itch bundle earlier this year, you have Wide Ocean Big Jacket, and now it’s slightly bigger than it was before. The game, and the update, are also available on Steam and Switch Eshop.

The Halo Infinite gameplay reveal showed off many aspects of the Xbox Series X launch title, including its large world, grapple hook, and back-to-basics combat design. But it also showed off a visual engine that a lot of fans were not impressed by, which has been exemplified by “Craig“, the Brute whose deadpan expression has become a gaming meme for the ages.

Now, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has given his thoughts on the meme, and he seems to see the funny side of it. Asked by a fan for his take, Spencer called Craig “our new official Xbox mascot.”

Continuing on, Spencer cited Craig as a great example of the creativity of the Xbox community. You can view the tweet below.

Considering all of this, we expect Craig will be somehow canonized in the final release–be on the look out for the inevitable Easter egg in the final release.

Halo Infinite will be the platform for Halo going forward, developer 343 Industries has said. Details about the game’s multiplayer have started to emerge too, and it turns out it’ll be fully free-to-play.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the battle royale game Warzone are set for a big week, as the much-anticipated Season 5 update is due to arrive very soon.

Writing on Twitter, production director Paul Haile has now warned fans to expect yet another “big” update in terms of the file size. As with previous updates, the file size will be large, but the patch also contains back-end configurations that actually decrease the overall file size of the game. This happens through “optimization” of the game’s asset packs, Hiele said.

“This means the download will be big, but the overall size of the game will actually shrink on your consoles after you download the patch, even though we’re adding a bunch of new content for the season,” he said.

Hiele went on to say that it remains a “priority” for Infinity Ward to reduce the overall size of Modern Warfare and Warzone. However, this is a tricky task, Hiele said.

“We’ll continue to work on this and keep pushing space reductions out with future updates,” he explained.

There is no word yet on the specific file size for the Season 5 update. For comparison, the Season 4 update was between 32 GB and 45 GB depending on your platform.

There is no exact launch date yet for Season 5, but it is confirmed to release sometime this week. It will introduce a new Operator, Battle Pass, and more–the full contents of the patch will be announced soon.