In the words of the big green guy, the "Master Chief Collection" is almost ready. Testing (pardon the pun, "flying") for "Halo 4" begins this week, and like "Halo 3" before it, 343 Industries is inviting registered "Halo" insiders.

343's first foray into the series, "Halo 4" may be the most divisive of its many entries; it won't draw the vitriolic condemnation of "Halo 5" (which will not appear at MCC), but Bungie's hand-off to Microsoft's new "Halo" team, Design values have clearly changed; doubling the armor capabilities of "Halo: Reach," adding a sprint button, and introducing a new faction that shoots down ancient aliens, "Halo 4" has its fans. But by the time it was released in 2014, I had ditched my Xbox for a desktop PC.

Thankfully, it doesn't matter which one you own for this month's test; "Halo 4" flights are coming with full cross-play between PC and Xbox One, with input-based matchmaking to make sure you don't overstep your new gamepad friends. Cross-play is available in all competitive multiplayer modes, Forge and Firefight, with the exception of the "Halo 4" campaign and "Spartan Ops" co-op missions.

The flight itself includes five campaign levels and 10 Spartan Ops levels, as well as a full range of multiplayer modes across 11 maps. 343 has also tweaked several parts of Halo 4, adding visor color customization, an improved Forge editor for the game, and a few cleaner graphics options to make the 2012 shooter look better on a rugged 2020 PC ...

Testing began last night and will run through November 3, with invitations being sent out to all Halo Insiders on a rolling basis (i.e., you may be able to participate even if you haven't signed up yet). If this flight is anything like the past few, Halo 4 will officially launch in a few weeks.

After that, it will be a long wait until the release of Halo Infinite next year.