The Master Chief Catastrophe

If I owned an Xbox One, I’d be digging intoHalo: The Master Chief Collectionright about now. Well, attempting to, anyway: the compilation has issues with multiplayer matchmaking taking forever or otherwise not working as intended, and 343 Industries isscrambling to push out fixes.

The studio has temporarily consolidated playlists which should “allow players to get into matches faster, and improve overall match times,” and suggeststhis one weird trick(no, really!) to improve your odds. Also: “When searching, if you do not find a match within 5 minutes, please return to lobby and restart the search, as this will reset the search parameters and increase the likelihood of finding a match within the [usual 2- to 4-minute] range.”

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343 is releasing a game update today for campaign, user interface, and matchmaking party issues. Expect a “larger matchmaking performance-focused content update” to hit next week.

“I’d like to personally apologize to you all for the current situation,”wroteexecutive producer Dan Ayoub. “I can assure you we’re attacking this from all directions from 343 Industries to the Xbox platform, and we won’t rest until it’s what it should be. People are reporting improvements across the board, which is great, but we’re not backing down until we finish this fight.”

The opening area of the Whisper mission, in a small grove.

Given these widespread issues, 343 haspostponedthe first Halo Championship Series pre-season online cup from November 16 to November 23.

The Divide in the Cosmodrome, where the Guardian was resurrected.

A holofoil Ribbontail, as seen in collections.

The Phoneutria Fera hand cannon, inspired by the Season of the Haunted armor set. It has a unique, galactic glow.

Three Fuses appear in a match of Apex Legends' Wild Card mode.

Mad Maggie opens a supply bin and an item with a symbol indicating infinite ammo appears.

Legends slide through a zipline in King’s Canyon in Apex Legends.

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The Yeartide Apex tex Mechanica SMG with a Holofoil glow.