M icrosoft’s flagship franchise was supposed to kickstart a new hardware generation for Xbox, before being postponed after its debut footage left fans distinctly underwhelmed. With director Chris Lee also departing, Microsoft has brought back veteran writer Joseph Staten to bolster the game’s single-player campaign, which takes place in a sprawling open world rather than the selfcontained environments of previous entries. Concerning stuff, though it’s good the publisher realises grand-scale space operas aren’t built in a day.