If you're looking for an excuse to dive back into The Master Chief Collection, you'll be pleased to hear that the Season 6 update has now arrived. It brings with it the usual assortment of themed weapon, armor and vehicle skins, alongside some pretty exciting gameplay additions.

First and foremost, Halo 3 players have just received a brand new map to mess around with - Waterfall. That said, calling it brand new is a bit disingenuous given that Waterfall was originally designed for the now-canceled Halo Online, and was merely reworked to fit in with Halo 3. But whatever the case may be, it's still an interesting (and entirely free) new location to fight in!

Given the popularity of gun-game style game mode, it should also come as little surprise that The Master Chief Collection has now added its very own variant. In Escalation Slayer you will get a new weapon with each kill, with the round ending in your victory once you manage to get a kill with the final weapon.

As an added little bonus, you can also downgrade opponents to the previous weapon by assassinating them or sticking them with a plasma grenade! This alone should make things rather interesting as the gun-game mode is usually very snowbally since the leader is basically impossible to stop. Whether this downgrade system will actually be practical though, that still remains to be seen. Either way, Escalation Slayer is now ready to play in Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo: Reach and Halo 4.

The Season 6 update has also brought in some additional timed challenges, improved accessibility options, and naturally, fixed a whole bunch of bugs. You can read more about it all over at the Halo website.

And just for good measure, I'll leave you with the brief trailer highlighting some of the new cosmetics. Have fun!