Halo 5 Dev Reveals New DLC, Responds to Aiming Concerns, Teases Xbox One Controller Options

343 Industries has provided a "sneak peek" at the new content coming to its record-setting Halo 5: Guardians and responded to concerns some players had about the shooter's new aiming mechanics.

In a blog post, 343 said the next Halo 5 "content drop" will arrive in "just over a week." Arguably its most substantial addition is 8v8 Big Team Battle for Arena multiplayer, while it also adds new REQs. Players will duke it out on four new Big Team Battle maps, some of which were designed by members of the Halo 5 community (alongside 343) using Halo 5's Forge tools. These tools arrive for everyone in December.

All of the new maps are inspired by those seen in previous games.

Deadlock - Inspired by Standoff

Basin -- Inspired by Valhalla

Guillotine -- Inspired by Headlong

Recurve -- Inspired by Longbow

More details about these maps and the people who made them will be shared in the coming week.

343 has also released a teaser image for Halo 5's new REQ content. Check it out below, but note that it's only a preview. The rest will be filled in soon.

Finally, Halo 5 designers Chris King and Scott Sims shared an update regarding the controversy surrounding the game's aiming system. Following its launch on October 27, some players reported that they were struggling with aiming despite performing well in the earlier beta, which could have a been a function of the changes 343 made. At the time, 343 said it expected players to eventually get accustomed to the new feel and setup of Halo 5's controls, something that King and Sims reiterated.

"First things first, in the grand scheme of things, this is happening to a small number of people," they said. "Most folks are having a good experience and the last thing we want to do is inject either placebo effect or confirmation bias into your gameplay feel, so bear that in mind if you're having no issues, and just enjoy the dry but interesting technical data. But this is good news for those who are suffering."

King and Sims said that when development started on Halo 5, the team had some "very specific goals" in mind when it came to aiming. "We wanted to provide a best in class 60fps shooter experience, embracing competitive play, with an increased skill gap, while still retaining the essence of Halo," they said.

Working together with 343's team of professional games, the Microsoft User Research lab, and other test teams, the studio found that players, generally, found Halo 5 to be "harder" than past games.

"But we are seeing players adjusting to the new speed and precision pretty quickly," they said.

If you're having an especially tough time getting used to Halo 5's new controls, there could be another issue going on. King and Sims said 343 is aware of an Xbox One controller hardware problem referred to as a "slow turn" bug.

"This can cause players to become unable to, or inconsistently reach what we call a 'pegged' state," they said. "The 'pegged' state is a region in the outermost range of the analog aim stick in which we blend the players turn speed to a much faster rate. This issue is compounded as the control input fluctuates depending on multiple factors--if you are applying even the slightest bit of downward pressure (clenching), moving the stick around the edges a bit (which is why it's even more problematic when aiming diagonally), or torqueing the stick on the edge a bit more than normal on some controllers."

343 is currently working on a fix for this problem and it should be delivered soon, once it clears Halo 5's testing processes. And there might be other new controller options coming as well.

"One thing that has become clear in absorbing all your feedback is that Halo players want choice when it comes to controls," King and Sims said. "And with that in mind, we are also working on another little pet project that will allow even more precise tuning. This update will offer more custom fine-tuned control over controller settings (hint: independent vertical/horizontal sensitivities, the ability to calibrate your own dead zones, more granularity in sensitivity, and more). We hope to have that out for you in December and we will follow up with more details later."

This sounds like the previously announced Xbox One button-mapping feature that is coming to all controllers down the road.

Halo 5 launched on October 27 and generated a record-setting $400 million. It was also the most-played game on Xbox Live during its launch week, a fact that Xbox boss is particularly proud of after Halo: The Master Chief Collection's issues a year ago.

For more on Halo 5, check out GameSpot's review and what other critics are saying.