What to Play in November and December: 12 Notable Upcoming Games

FPS
Out December 8 for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One

Well, it certainly wasn't an Xbox Series X launch title as originally expected. But at least the highly anticipated and long-delayed Halo: Infinite is sticking to its revised 2021 launch window—barely—capping the franchise's 20th anniversary.

The sixth main entry in Microsoft's best-known game series arrives a full six years after Halo 5: Guardians and comes, like all recent Halo games, from Microsoft's own 343 Industries, joined by original Halo trilogy writer/director Joseph Staten, who was brought on last year to get the waylaid project back on track. As always, there's both a single-player campaign and multiplayer; intriguingly, the latter will be free to play, in a major departure from past Halo releases. (It will even support cross-platform play and progression across all three platforms.) Set on Zeta Halo, which looks a bit like the Pacific Northwest, the open-world game introduces a new "Grappleshot" grappling hook mechanic and aims to recapture the feel of playing the earliest Halo games, albeit with cutting-edge graphics (though you won't see ray tracing until next year at the earliest). Don't expect loot boxes or battle royale in multiplayer, but do expect larger team battles (now 12v12) in addition to classic 4v4 arena battles. Multiplayer will also get numerous future content updates in the form of "seasons" as has become customary in competing titles like Call of Duty: Warzone and Fortnite.