Halo 4

Halo 4 is the recently announced seventh installment in the best-selling Halo franchise.[1] The game right|400px|The teaser shown at E3 2011was first revealed on Microsoft's homepage, hours before the start of their E3 press conference, due to a mistake in the editing department, which revealed Halo 4 and ''Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. ''The game was officially announced at the end of Microsoft's E3 2011 press conference. It is said to be the start of "a new trilogy of Xbox 360 games", produced by 343 Industries, an independent company of former Bungie employees; suggesting that Halo 5 and Halo 6 are expected to be released over the next few years.

It is unsure at this point much more about the game except that it will continue where Halo 3 left off. In the trailer John-117 awakens to a frightened Cortana pleading him to leave the cryo-tube. He runs out and attempts to calm her by pushing the tube's door open. Taking Cortana with him, he escapes through a burning tunnel of the, with the aid of a thruster pack and what seems to be a pistol that fires off a single-use explosive projectile (similar to an RPG-7), instead of his Assault Rifle which he left in the end of the Legendary Ending. He arrives at the back of the ripped off ship, and looks out into abyss of space, while the Dawn approaches a mysterious planet/ unknown construct, with a portal/tunnel on it. It has been said by Frank O'Connor that the planet is the Legendary planet seen in Halo 3, during the Legendary ending cutscene. Also, if you look closely, Master Chief's armor has changed once again. The details on his armour have been increased and the look and feel has changed, but with close similarities to the Halo 3 Mark VI Armour, because they didn't want to stray to far off from the original. The armor is the same armor Chief used in Halo 3, as the scratch on the chestpiece that he got when he fell from the Forerunner dreadnought is still visible.

There is also rumors on there being a new voice actor for Cortana, because during the trailer, Cortana's voice is distinctly different from the voice actor, Jen Taylor, in Halo CE, 2, and 3, but they may have just used a replacement for trailer purposes only and Jen Taylor may be voice acting for Cortana in the actual game, or it was because when her voice was heard, the video was panning 'inside' Master Chief's body, and therefore muffled her voice.

If one has read the Halo book "Ghosts of Onyx", one may believe that it is Onyx, and the portal is opening to release what is left of the Spartans-III's and Kurt, and the rest of Blue team, but this is based on speculation and may not come to be. However this is unlikely primarily because Onyx's planetary shell was destroyed by the trillions of Onyx Sentinels that comprised the superstructure of the construct leaving only the slipspace rift. The game is currently expected to be released in "Holiday 2012", following the release of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary on November 15th, 2011. Side Note: Xbox E3 official website states that "Master Chief returns to confront his own destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe, and a new trilogy begins." This ancient evil could be the Precursors, the Forerunners, the Flood (again), even remnants of the Covenant Loyalists, or something entirely new, but there is a very high chance of the enemy being the flood because the whereabouts of the Flood is still unknown and still poses a potential threat to the universe. The Forerunners wouldn't be considered a threat since they tried to kill the Flood.