Halo 2 PC beta test invites are going out to members of the Halo Insider program starting today.
The beta will include playable versions of both the popular 2004 first-person shooter and its visually updated remaster, Halo 2: Anniversary. Both games are part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
“PSA: All Ring 3 blockers have been resolved at this time for Halo 2 and Halo 2: Anniversary flighting to begin on Friday, [April 17],” developer 343 Industries’ community coordinator Tyler Davis revealed on Twitter. “We will let folks know when buttons are being pressed for invites to roll out. Stay tuned to get tactical Marines!”
Ring 3 refers to members of the Halo Insider program as each test is internally tested before going out to players. Those that sign up for the program will have a chance at an invite for the PC test, but not all members will receive one. Instead, 343 Industries sends invites based upon performance indicators ranging from the user’s location to their hardware setup.
Halo 2 and Halo 2: Anniversary are set to be the next games added to the PC version of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The heavily requested port arrived in March 2019, although only Halo: Reach was initially available. Since then, the studio has added in the original Halo and its remaster. 343 Industries expects the rest of the games in the series to launch later this year.
As detailed in the March development update on Halo’s official site, the Halo 2 PC beta will feature campaign and multiplayer content. Six of the single-player missions will be in the test: Cairo Station, Metropolis, The Oracle, Delta Halo, Quarantine Zone, and Gravemind. Players can test these levels on any difficulty and even online with a friend cooperatively.
As for the multiplayer side, both games will support a wide array of options. Social games will be available in two-on-two, four-on-four, and eight-on-eight varieties, while competitive play will focus on team hardcore matches. The default Halo 2 will feature 10 maps (Lockout, Midship, Beaver Creek, Burial Mounds, Coagulation, Headlong, Waterworks, Containment, Sanctuary, and Turf), but Halo 2: Anniversary will only have Lockdown, Zenith, Stonetown, Bloodline, and Shrine.
New features in the PC test build include a challenge system that will task players with completing multiplayer goals. Extra customization options will also be added and the theater mode will be available complete with mouse and keyboard support.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.