‘Halo 5: Guardians’ Devs Tease New DLC, Discuss Aiming Concerns

Love it or hate it, Halo 5: Guardians from 343 Industries and publisher Microsoft has been a smashing success so far. In spite of a lackluster marketing campaign that drew criticism from reviewers and early complaints about Halo‘s new aiming system, the game has done pretty well for itself, marking the biggest Halo launch yet, not to mention the fastest-selling Xbox One exclusive, as previously reported by the Inquisitr. In the first week of release, it passed $400 million in sales, and 21 million hours played.

Men shooted the alienn
There were laser
Splosion
Helmet man growled
Robot lady
Ya https://t.co/Yxt6mOkhsu

— Tauriq Moosa (@tauriqmoosa) October 20, 2015

Not everything Halo 5 is coming up roses, though. As Gamespot reported, Halo 5‘s aiming system was changed significantly between the beta test and the final release; one of the professional gamers working for 343 Industries, Eric “GH057ayame” Hewitt, wrote a lengthy post on the Team Beyond forums discussing the aiming system changes, and the reasoning behind them, indicating that long-range gameplay “felt flat-out squirrelly.”

“So, our Pro Team went through numerous tests over the course of a few months with our lead sandbox designer, Chris King, and the rest of his team in regards to how our how aim felt leading up to the release. There were some days where our entire team despised it, other days where our team had a split-decision, and finally one day where we all felt extremely comfortable with it.”

The new system prompted some backlash from the portion of the community who had played the beta test as they found themselves not performing up to the standards they’d set during the beta. Since then, as Gamespot again reports, Halo 5 developers Chris King and Scott Sims have stepped up to share an update on the aiming concerns.

“First things first, in the grand scheme of things, this is happening to a small number of people. Most folks are having a good experience and the last thing we want to do is inject either placebo effect or confirmation bias into your gameplay feel, so bear that in mind if you’re having no issues, and just enjoy the dry but interesting technical data. But this is good news for those who are suffering.”

They went on to indicate that while most players struggling were likely just adapting to the changes, some Halo 5 players may be suffering from an Xbox One controller hardware bug known as a “slow turn” bug, causing some players to only inconsistently be able to turn at the intended speed when the analog stick is extended to its outermost range. The developer is currently working on a fix for this issue and has promised to deliver it soon; the fix is apparently in testing now.

Meanwhile, 343i took the opportunity to tease Halo 5‘s new REQ content and new maps. Although not much information on the REQ content is available, 343i released a teaser image from which some information can be inferred.

Also included in the upcoming DLC will be several new maps, inspired by favorites from previous games; Deadlock, inspired by Halo: Combat Evolved‘s Standoff; Basin, inspired by Halo 3‘s Valhalla map; Guillotine, which is inspired by Halo 2‘s Headlong; and Recurve, inspired by Halo 4‘s Longbow.

Finally, the 343i developers indicated that there may be other options coming for Halo 5 controls; one thing that they had noticed, said King and Sims, is that throughout the testing and subsequent feedback, they’ve found that players want choice in how they control the game. As such, they are working on a “little pet project” to make more fine-tuning available to Halo 5 players, something that could have interesting implications for professional players.

[Image via 343 Industries]