Halo 5: Guardians getting Big Team Battle (and more) next week

We already knew that much of Halo 5's DLC will be free - we just didn't know it'd be popping up quite so soon. Announced on Halo Waypoint, the Battle of Shadow and Light update is coming next week (no word on a specific day as yet), and brings with it multiplayer's much-loved missing piece, Big Team Battle mode.

The 8v8 team deathmatch is coming to Arena, and getting its own playlist, set across four new vehicle-stuffed maps: Deadlock, Basin, Guillotine, and Recurve. 343 explains that "you’ll recognize elements and aspects of the first four maps in the mix, but all four have been, in varying ways, significantly adjusted for the new mobility, weapons and features of Halo 5." One may be more recognisable than the rest: Basin is this iteration's remake of Halo's (arguably) best ever map , Blood Gulch.

As for the rest of the update, we're getting 48 new REQs, adding Legendary weapons, some snazzy armour (including the Shinobi variant above) and more. Here's the whole lot:

By the way, that new assassination lets your Spartan lobotomise opponents to death with a high knee and earning it has become my ultimate goal in life:

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Joe Skrebels
Joe first fell in love with games when a copy of The Lion King on SNES became his stepfather in 1994. When the cartridge left his mother in 2001, he turned to his priest - a limited edition crystal Xbox - for guidance. And now he's here.