I resent the power that the Halo series has over me. Not the games themselves, mind you; just the way they can get me to drop everything I’m doing and to go check them out whenever a new one comes around. At this moment in 2015, I’m living happily free of the current console generation, choosing instead to dust off my DS and slave away at a series of long forgotten JRPGs in which you can summon a goddess from the heavens and have her throw enemies into the sun on your behalf.

It’s bizarrely fulfilling.

But alas, here is the latest cinematic from the forthcoming Halo 5: Guardians. For the second time in my life, I will probably go out and buy an Xbox just to pick this up. Seriously, I’m not sure why this series hasn’t been re-christened The Only Reason to Buy an Xbox: The Game. I guess it doesn’t roll off the tongue as gracefully.

In this shiny, pretty looking cinematic, an admirably diverse squad of Spartan Whatevers (one of whom is Nathan Fillion, reprising both the voice and mocapped face of Halo 3: ODST’s Gunnery Sgt. Ed Buck) receive a mission briefing (“Covenant bad; go kill”) and then make an airborne drop sans parachutes into a massive battle, bobbing and weaving between exploding ships before landing on a snow capped peak. They proceed to rocket down the mountain, blowing up many Covenant aliens and few of those cool Forerunner baddies from the last game and also causing an avalanche in the process. It’s a blast of a trailer, boldly declaring “We’re back! Prepare to lose hours of sleep and flunk your Spanish final!”

Or maybe that’s just what I hear; Spring Semester 2009 was a dark time.

We’ve seen a new Halo every year from 2007 (Halo 3) to 2012 (Halo 4), so I think I’ve had a long enough break from the franchise to renew my interest. I was pleasantly satisfied with 4, so this will probably be fun. On a minor note: I would once again like to point out that the Elites appear to be villains. I thought they became allies of humanity in 3, but I guess that isn’t the case anymore. Looking over 4‘s IMDB page, Keith David is reprising his voice over role as the Arbiter, so maybe there are still some friendly Elites out there. A fan can hope.

Halo 5: Guardians will be out on Oct 27 exclusively for (What else?) the Xbone Xbox One.