We stopped by Microsoft's booth at Gamescom 2018 in Koln, Germany, to see what the behemoth company was pushing for its Xbox family of products - and, of course, Windows 10. However, the company's presence lacked most of its heavy-hitters - Halo was absent, Gears of War was as well. In fact, Microsoft's presence at this years' Gamescom was limited to Forza Horizon 4 and Ori and the Will of the Wisps, when it comes to in-house exclusives. Though that McLaren does look great over there, doesn't it? Oh my.

Lionel Rainaud, Executive Vice President of Creative for Ubisoft's Canadian studios, shared via a blog post an interesting, albeit not novel idea, for games. The aim is to end the disparaging of resources that is the finite game experience: as in, the game that you experience once or twice, but that once you've seen the campaign's completion and finished all the end content, goes back on the shelf never to see the light of your interest again: all the development time (measured in years) and effort (and dollars) for what amounts to an 8-hour experience (or less). The goal, then, seems to be to take online experiences to a whole new level, where a game's content can be constantly updated so as to keep the credits from rolling.

"(...) the will to not give finite experiences. The idea was that you have this conflict, and the resolution, and then it's finished - you've killed the bad guy, for instance. We build a strong nemesis, and the goal of the game is to kill him or free the country, we've done that a few times in our games. But when you succeed, you have to leave the game, because there is nothing else to do. So the goal was to break this, and say that you will be the hero of a region or population many times, not just once. And if you get rid of a dictator or an oppressor, something else is going to happen in the world, and you will have a new goal.

Phanteks today announced the availability of the new Digital RGB product line up. Featuring High Quality and High Density LED chips for the smoothest color gradiants and vibrant colors. The controller lets you choose between the many stylish color profiles with an easy to use remote. Digital RGB from Phanteks is simply plug-and-play with the highest lighting quality.

Microsoft has announced that a Windows UWP app will soon enable your PC to become a local server for your Halo 5: Guardians local LAN parties. this announcement comes ahead of its November 2nd release of the "Overtime" content and fix drop for Halo 5: Guardians that brings with it a plethora of fixes and 4K support for its latest XBOX One X console.

Dubbed the "Halo 5: Guardians Local Server" app, the piece of software will be available for download through the Windows store, turning your computer into a local server so XBOX One consoles in the same network can experience "easy, low-latency Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer matches." The app will also bring support for custom games loading on your server, including those created on your PC through Halo 5: Forge, which arrived on Windows 10 PCs last year. The Local Server app "provides a method for tournament organizers to set up their own events in a scenario that mirrors the environment used for professional matches. With these new options, you can create a local server similar to those used for the Halo Championship Series events, providing an ideal proving ground for everything from professional and amateur competitive teams to friendly tournaments."

Update October 6th: Added new content courtesy of Road to VR, where you can see the entirety of the Halo experience in action, and updated sources.

With Microsoft's push towards a Mixed Reality ecosystem in full swing and coming to the hands of consumers as soon as October 17th, Microsoft would be remiss not to include that which still is their flagship franchise. Earlier reports already mentioned a Halo push towards the VR space, and today saw it confirmed by 343 Industries' Bonnie Ross in a Windows Mixed Reality blog post.

ASUS is introducing the MX38VC and the MX32VQ, IFA 2017 product design award-winning products for their sundial-inspired aesthetic on the Qi charger stand and edge-to-edge frameless panels.with similar Qi-charging capability. The product names don't truly showcase the disparity between features in both monitors, so we'll do a rundown on both of them. The Designo Curve MX38VC is a 37.5" ultrawide, QHD+ 3840 x 1600 display with a 21:9 aspect ratio. ASUS is boasting of its SonicMaster technology on this monitor, technology which was co-developed with Harman Kardon. Display inputs on this monitor include 2x HDMI, 1x USB Type-C, and 1x PC audio input port. The MX38VC can sync with a user's smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth to play music wirelessly as well. The Qi-charger base also doubles as moody ambient lighting; the Halo Lighting base can synchronize with the audio output on the monitor's speakers.

The Designo Curve MX32VQ, on the other hand, has a smaller 31.5" WQHD 2560 x 1440 monitor with a more traditional 16:9 aspect ratio. It includes the same Harman Kardon-imbued built-in speakers, the Halo lighting base and Bluetooth integration. Ports are the same as the MX38VC, sans the USB-C port. Both the MX38VC and MX32VQ also support exclusive feature such as ASUS GamePlus and Adaptive-Sync. The 31.5-inch MX32VQ should retail in Europe for €550, while the larger and wider MX38VC will set you back some much less reasonable €1600.

In what is possibly one of the most mouth-watering Microsoft reports as of late for this particular TechPowerUp news editor, it seems that Microsoft is making all the right strides towards bringing its Mixed Reality push to mainstream, popular support. Microsoft seems to have seen the error in its ways towards their usual walled-garden approach, and has announced that their Windows Mixed Reality initiative will see its Mixed/Vitual Reality headsets supporting Steam VR games. This means third-party support for yet another VR hardware piece, and something that Microsoft sorely needed, since adoption of its still upcoming platform wasn't showing much pulse.

But most important than all that (you are allowed to disagree), is that Microsoft is seemingly tapping its first-party studios to produce VR content for its Mixed Reality platform. Case in point, 343 Industries and the Halo franchise. Whether this means VR-only experiences or actual VR-enabled full fledged, numbered Halo games remains to be seen - only Microsoft and 343 know the answer to that. Though it's also likely none of the parts knows much about that at this point in time either; as it seems, and as Microsoft said on their blog post announcing these features, "we are working with 343 Industries to bring future Halo experiences into mixed reality. We are not providing specifics right now, but it is going to be a lot of fun to work with them."

The Halo franchise may not have any (recent) ties with the PC space but that isn't stopping Microsoft from trying to sell Halo-branded peripherals to the PC crowd. One such piece of hardware is the upcoming Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 Halo Limited Edition: The Master Chief, a 1000 dpi ambidextrous mouse with 2.4 GHz wireless connectivity and support for BlueTrack technology (which improves tracking accuracy).

The Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 Halo Limited Edition: The Master Chief also features a battery life of up to 8 months, it comes bundled with an USB nano transceiver, and has a three-year warranty. The mouse costs $29.99 and is now available for pre-order with shipments expected to kick off in October.

Skullcandy, Inc., a high-growth, performance lifestyle audio brand, and its division ASTRO Gaming, creators of premium video gaming equipment, announced an exciting new multi-year partnership with Halo developer 343 Industries. As part of the agreement, Skullcandy and ASTRO Gaming will develop several new products including branded headsets, speaker tags and more in support of the latest releases within the Halo universe.

ENERMAX is pleased to launch their latest five fan models along with their new patented technology, APS (Adjustable Peak Speed) Control. As the name implies, the peak speed of these fans can be adjusted as you prefer, and the speed will be regulated automatically by pulse-width modulation (PWM) or by an integrated thermal sensor after selecting the particular RPM range.

While the current Twister Series have been introduced into the market for more than 5 years, ENERMAX decided to refresh the series by adding the new Twister Advance series offering three different RPM modes which can be selected with a small switch at the fan hub. Users can then easily adapt the ENERMAX fans for various applications. For instance, the new Cluster Advance 12cm version fan runs within the ranges of 500 to 1200, 500 to 1500 or 500 to 1800 RPM, so that users can select the best combination for their chassis. Other features such as the patented Twister Bearing, carved halo frame and batwing blades are still retained to offer users the best cooling performance.

The bets are off, there indeed is a new installment to the Halo franchise in the works, called Halo 4. Its release date was announced to be "Holiday 2012", more specifically 6 November, 2012. Microsoft and 343 Industries confirmed this date on Tuesday. "Set in the aftermath of Halo 3, Master Chief returns to confront his own destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe. Halo 4 marks the start of a new trilogy that begins with its release in 2012," an Overview page on Halo website reads.A video presentation follows.

Microsoft has revealed the top 20 most popular games played on the Xbox 360 in 2011 based on numbers of unique users logged into Xbox LIVE (Silver and Gold members). Note that this gives a different result to the total playtime for a particular game, which has not been disclosed here. Unsurprisingly, the Call of Duty series dominates the chart, but what is sure to irk CoD detractors, but make fans very happy, is that a massive five of those positions are taken up by CoD - that's 25% of the rankings. Even CoD4: Modern Warfare which was released way back in 2007 sits at a very respectable number 14. However, top games Battlefield 3 and Skyrim did very well nonetheless, sitting at five and six respectively, with only Halo beating them at number 4. Can you guess which CoD game hit the top spot before looking at the chart?

In its 25th anniversary year, Antec Inc., the global leader in high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself markets, today announced the availability in the European markets of the soundscience halo 6 LED bias lighting kit. The halo 6 LED bias lighting kit is an affordable option for outfitting PC monitors with professional-grade backlighting. This helps reduce eye fatigue and increase image clarity during long gaming sessions and similar periods of extended computer use.

The bias lighting illumination technique adds a ring of white backlight to PC monitors, reducing eyestrain caused by differences in picture brightness from scene changes in movies, TV shows and video games. The soundscience halo 6 LED bias lighting kit's USB-powered LED strip (14.6" / 370 mm in length) attaches to the back of the monitor and complements any PC monitor up to 24". The color and brightness of the LEDs are carefully calibrated and help increase a monitor's perceived contrast ratio - enhancing perceived black levels, vibrant colors and picture detail by enabling dark adapted viewing.

According to someone who works in Bungie, as of yesterday, Bungie is no longer working for or with Microsoft. Their proof of this lies within Bungie's global address book. If you ask any employee of Bungie to find any Microsoft contacts in that address book, you will find nothing. If this is true, Microsoft will post the press release on October 6th, to avoid affecting quarterly results. Microsoft is also rumored to keep the entire Halo franchise. The same Bungie employee has this to say regarding why Microsoft and Halo may have split:

Apparently MS just wants Bungie to make Halo for the rest of their natural days, and Bungie doesn't like how MS is constantly trying to "handle" everything they do; the way they market their games, the way they interact with their fans (basically the fact that they do appreciate their fans), and how stingie they are with the profits (comparable to the rest of the industry). So as of today they are their own independent entity. They'll probably make Halo 4 for Microsoft, however hey are also free to create new intellectual properties for whatever system they want. (Even though they prefer the xbox platform)

Neither company has confirmed or denied any of this. We will have to wait until October 6th to see anything official.

In what he claims was a fit of boredom, an intrepid user of 1Up stumbled upon the original script for the Halo movie. The 127 page script was drafted in 2005, and was only ditched because of studio problems with making the actual movie. Anyone who is truly obsessed with Halo and wants to read what would have been the Halo movie, please follow the source link.

We reported back in February that Marvel was going to help Bungie publish Halo graphic novels. We will start seeing these novels in early July. We also got some details on what exactly will be in these novels. The novel is staged after the painful cliffhanger at the end of Halo 2. Fortunately for Halo fans, this is quite possibly a lead-in to the events of Halo 3. Unfortunately for Halo fans, the so-called "series" has been reduced to a four-part mini-series.

Each 40 page graphic novel should cost the customer a mere $3.99 USD. A $3.99 USD well spent, if you're a fan of the Halo series (like me).

In the past, we have seen several graphics novels become great video games, as well as movies. However, it's much rarer for a great video game/movie to become a comic book. Which is why the hardcover Halo graphic novel was so surprising. It sold extremely well, and because of this, Marvel has announced they will begin making a Halo comic series. While this in itself is good news for Halo fans everywhere, there's an amazing twist: the comics will be done by Marvel legends Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev. For those of you not into the comic book world, Bendis is behind such titles as Ultimate Spider-Man, New Avengers, as well as Mighty Avengers. And when Maleev hopped onboard the Daredevil project between issues 26 and 81, sales of the Daredevil series soared. There was no word as to when we can expect to start seeing these comics.