Over the past few years, I’ve found that seeing the calendar flip to June 1 is an immediate reminder that E3 is getting dangerously close. You also know that E3 is getting close when you find yourself eating dinner with several hundred friends each night at the studio, and battling the clock to complete a variety of things that may be revealed quite soon. The playtest labs are full nearly all day, as playtests go into the late evening each night, with a variety of capture cards hooked up to consoles, recording each and every moment in an effort to find the perfect shots to show you. With each day, E3 gets closer, and we’ll soon be talking about new experiences that await your steady hand. We've got a light blog this week, but have a few things to talk about. Let's get into it.

Last weekend, many of you suited up dropped feet first into New Mombasa during the Covenant Invasion. We watched as many of you redeemed your codes immediately and began your nighttime assault. We heard that some of you had the privilege of playing through ODST in full HD as rain came down outside, which may have added a bit more than 7.1 surround. We’d love to say this was planned, and for once we’d love to say that we wish we had rain here in Seattle, but we’re glad that many of you crash-landed into the streets of ODST…safely. Based off of the data and number of players who jumped into MCC over the weekend and this week, many of you were ready for the challenge. If you’re qualified for a free download and haven’t redeemed yet, be sure to check your Xbox Live messages, where you’ll find a fresh code waiting for you.

[tweet]<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Prepare to drop! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ODST?src=hash">#ODST</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Halo">@Halo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/405th">@405th</a> <a href="http://t.co/LaurXDHfuf">pic.twitter.com/LaurXDHfuf</a></p>— Myr (マハダ) (@MyrHerder) <a href="https://twitter.com/MyrHerder/status/604859363224723456">May 31, 2015</a></blockquote>

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Credit:Sean Bradley Studio

If you didn’t happen to catch it last week, Senior Game Designer Max Szlagor recently sat down with Joseph Staten, Halo 3: ODST’s Creative Director and Writer for a dev walkthrough of ODST. The first time I watched the rough cuts of this video, I recall getting way too excited about hearing Joseph talk about Halo development again, and based on feedback, you unsurprisingly have the same feels. To learn more about the original development of ODST, such as design goals and the precision placement of garbage and corpses, as well as how everything slots into MCC, see below, and to catch a just-released interview with Joseph, head over to this week’s Canon Fodder.

If you didn’t have a chance to play much Relic in Halo 2 Classic, and you’d like a tour of the newly released Remnant, be sure to check out the most recent episode of Breaking Down the Map here: https://youtu.be/yr7fijNeA1A, and be on the lookout for the return of the series on the Halo Channel as we get closer to the release of Halo 5: Guardians.

Lastly, we hope you’re enjoying and making use of the new ‘Find Player’ File Share search. To see a breakdown of how everything works, head over to last week’s update, and to find some new battlegrounds and game types, check out ForgeHub’s Community Favorites for the month of May, the Community Creations section on the Waypoint forums, or grab all the GrifballHub greatness by searching for the tag “Grifball Maps.”

Arby and the Chief

While many of us spent the last weekend getting back into the story of ODST, our very own bs angel took a trip to Atlanta’s own MomoCon, an all-ages convention that unites fans of games, anime, comics, and more. By more, I mean that it unites two of the greatest characters within the entire franchise for the very first time.

At the con, bs angel had the pleasure of hosting the Halo: Voice Over panel with Steve Downes, voice of the Master Chief, and Keith David, voice of the Arbiter, who had never met before in-person. Yes, it’s pretty exciting stuff, and luckily our friends at Twitch captured the goodness. I have found that VO panels are particularly special, because each time one of the actors responds to a question, it is unintentionally epic, and there’s really no other way to put it. To hear stories about their inspiration and influences, characters, their run-ins with Halo fans, and even “were it so easy….”, be sure to check out the VOD link here.

HALO CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

This weekend, ESL will be hosting Cup #5 of Season 2 and registration is still open. To grab a last minute spot, head here. As a reminder, this weekend’s tournament will feature the updated HCS Shrine variant – you can grab all of the details here.

HCS Indianapolis by PGL is just three weeks away, and we're excited to see which teams will come out on top to qualify for the Season 2 Finals. If you're looking to compete and don't have a full team yet, you can now reserve a pass for $50, only a quarter of the full price. If you've got your full roster and you're ready to compete, you can grab a full team pass for the discounted price of $200. Head here to get all the details, including getting this discount applied if you've already picked up a pass.

If you're in the Indianapolis area, swing by Indy PopCon to catch the action! Three-day Indy PopCon passes are still available, and can be purchased here for just $45. As always, you'll also be able to tune in on Twitch at Twitch.tv/Halo.

That’ll do for this week. Stay tuned next week for the latest details on what's to come.

Bravo

p.s. While we’ve seen quite a few excellent ODST screenshots, GIFs, and videos, we’ll leave you with our current favorite: https://youtu.be/9TSbEq1btEc