12. Halo 5: Guardians Becomes The Xbox One's Best-Reviewed Exclusive
Surprise, surprise, Halo 5: Guardians is probably going to be an awesome game. We realise we're not stretching the capabilities of our crystal ball here, but hey, it's still possible that 343 Industries' second time to bat could disappoint or underwhelm. Props to 343 for not resting on the easy laurels of Master Chief, though: a second playable character, a Spartan called Jameson Locke, has appeared significantly in promotional material for the game, and simply, he looks like a total bada**. If the campaign fleets between Chief and Locke, it should provide a more satisfying, compartmentalised single-player experience than the ambitious-but-disappointing attempt in Halo 2. Even if the single player falls into a few of the pitfalls of the previous games (namely not being long enough, or leaving us on a devastating cliffhanger ending), it's almost dead certain that the multiplayer won't disappoint. Ever since the first Halo, this has been the series' forte, delivering mental online mayhem with vehicles, ridiculous weapons and fiendishly addictive game modes. Given how well 343 handled this with Halo 4, they would have to make a catastrophic mistake to screw this up. At present, the highest-reviewed Xbox One exclusive is Forza Motorsport 5, sitting at a relatively unambitious 79. Though there's plenty of great XBO exclusives in the pipeline, Halo 5 is the one we're putting our confidence in to snag a 90 rating or higher. Granted, Halo 4 holds 87 as of present, yet if Halo 5 can simply match that or just exceed it slightly, it still has a firm chance of being the console's best exclusive by late next year.