Halo Reach: Updates, Maps, Weapons, Reviews, And Pre-Orders

Halo Reach Is No Halo 3

2010-11-08T15:17:00.000-08:00

Halo Reach couldn’t have picked a better time to come out. After the Summer doldrums, where the only big games included StarCraft 2, Mafia II, and maybe even NHL 11, Halo Reach hits at the peak of summer/fall boredom just before the Christmas season storm.

But will it sell more than Halo 3? I initially said no… Am I wrong? Read on.

Halo 3 was a monster, selling over 11 million units through today’s date. It did most of its damage during the first four weeks out, selling more than 5.5 million units. It was a phenomenon.

Do Do, DoDoDo. Do, DoDoDo…

Phenomenon.

At the time of Halo 3′s launch, gamers were clamoring for the first new Halo on the next-gen system. There were Mountain Dew promotions, Master Chief was everywhere. I don’t feel that same vibe this time around. Sure, there’s a lot of Halo Reach commercials, but where are the Burger King tie ins? The Mountain Dew flavors? (the current promotion is very understated.) The prime time news stories?

It seems that this time around, things are different. Halo Reach seems much less marketable. There’s no Master Chief. Without the titular character from three of the previous games, people may not immediately identify with the new “Halo Game”. Furthermore, it’s a prequel to one of the most convoluted universes in gaming.

Reach is more Empire Strikes Back than Return of the Jedi. Kind of a downer in tone… Plus, it has to fight the brand fatigue of three Halo games in almost 4 years.

These are the reasons why I don’t think it will sell as well as Halo 3. On the other hand, Halo Reach couldn’t have come out at a better time. There’s really nothing to play right now. Mafia II didn’t live up to the hype and StarCraft 2 is for PC gamers… Sure Civ 5 comes out soon, but it’s more likely to cannibalize the SC2 players than the Halo Reach players. So, in the midst of essentially a quiet period of gaming, Halo Reach came out and BAM! Everybody is on it.

Another factor, in favor of Halo Reach selling more than Halo 3, is the simple fact that there’s a much larger install base of Xbox 360 owners. Plain and simple, there’s just more people to buy the product. Maybe because of that you don’t need the huge media blitz to sell consoles. I dunno, but it’s a powerful fact on the side of those that think Reach will sell more copies.

Of course what I’m saying is based on generalities. Anecdotal evidence. I’m not really basing it on anything real, other than a gut feelings…But…

First day Reach sales reported by Microsoft appear to be less than the sales for Halo 3. Read all about it.

My gut tells me that Reach won’t sell more than Halo 3. My head tells me that my heart is wrong. I just don’t see that Reach is as easily marketable, compelling or as well known of a story to drive 11 million people to purchase the game.

Halo Reach Preluding Lower Sales For Black Ops

2010-11-07T05:05:00.000-08:00

So now it’s official: Microsoft's first-person behemoth Halo: Reach is the year’s biggest entertainment event, generating $200 million in sales in just 24 hours in the United States alone.

That’s two-thirds of what Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 took in from the North American and U.K. markets in its first day last year, but it’s still a number that’s nothing to sneeze at. The one-day take already eclipses the three-day opening weekends of “Iron Man 2,” “Toy Story 3” and “Alice in Wonderland.”

While Microsoft is doing cartwheels, though, the rest of the gaming industry is nervously shuffling its feet. Despite a number of high profile releases, it hasn’t exactly been a banner year for game sales -- and the success of Reach might not help things.

The slump is due, in part, to the ongoing recession. But also deserving some of the credit is the lingering effect of Modern Warfare 2 – a game whose multiplayer component was so deep and so rich that it kept players hooked, reducing their need and desire to buy other titles.

Fatigue is finally starting to gradually set in for that game, but Halo: Reach may well pick up that mantle.

As much praise as the game’s single-player campaign is getting, it’s the rich multi-player mode that really has players excited. New armor abilities, new game modes and an impressive suite of creation tools have overwhelmed the Xbox Live user base with joy. And the game’s matchmaking service is working like a charm so far.

That’s a lot of reasons to play -- and could give buyers plenty of excuses to put off other purchases in the coming months.

“There’s always a worry that a game like that can take share and cannibalize other games,” says Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets.

To add to worries, Call of Duty: Black Ops will be hitting shelves in less than two months – a one-two punch to other game developers. That could put a number of seemingly big titles on the bubble, their sales in jeopardy.

None seems in a more perilous position than EA’s Medal of Honor. The battle that was shaping up between the rebooted military shooter and Call of Duty was already a tough one, but with Halo: Reach potentially impacting people’s buying decisions, the game could face an even tougher challenge. (The game's controversial decision to allow players to fight as Taliban forces in multiplayer might not help, either.)

Medal of Honor is actually scheduled to hit shelves well before Black Ops, but it has been three years since the last version – and Call of Duty has become the industry’s biggest seller in that time. The hope, in part, was that the Call of Duty fan base would buy Medal of Honor as a placeholder while waiting for the release of Black Ops – but they could be too busy with Reach to do so.

Meanwhile other titles like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Tron: Evolution, which all would normally appeal to the same general demographic, might be overlooked entirely.

“I see Halo: Reach creating a vacuum in multiplayer,” says Billy Pigeon of M2 Research. “I expect it will have an effect similar to ‘Modern Warfare 2’. People will be playing online and may not buy other games.”

Remember Halo: Reach

2010-11-06T18:15:00.001-07:00

Contrarian Corner is a feature meant to take a critical look at some recently-released games, a place for a more holistic discussion of titles which have been the recipient of either an abundance of single-minded praise, or an undue amount of criticism. Our intent is not to contradict or undercut our own reviews, but rather to expand the spectrum of discussion on some of the most important games of each year. If you're interested in joining that discussion, keep reading.

Make sure to read Erik Brudvig's Halo: Reach review for IGN's official thoughts on the game. And be forewarned -- if you haven't finished the game, massive spoilers will be discussed below.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I didn't play Halo in full until 2006. I'd just come back to Los Angeles after two years in Madagascar. I'd moved into a spare bedroom a friend from college had at his apartment in Hollywood. I'd just quit a job at a small movie company after three days because I realized my boss was full of shit, though well-intentioned shit. I was out of money and totally unsure of what I was supposed to do next. I had slowly depleted my savings with the occasional relief of working as an extra and reading scripts for IFC. I had downloaded the Halo demo on the used iMac I'd bought to send resumes and search for job listings. After playing through the demo three times I finally decided to get a full version to catch up with the game that had so dramatically moved shooters forward.

Halo reminded me of the The Wizard of Oz. I'd shot through the feco-viscera of Quake, DOOM, Hexen, and Heretic in college, but I wasn't expecting to start a first person shooter whose main enemy was a furry midget with a conch on it's head. I thought a musical sequence might be about to come to life the first time I heard one of these grunts put his hands up and wobble away from me screaming, "He's a monster!" It was a lovely compliment to the snortling baritone of the Elites' surprised exclamations, "What, what, whaaaaat?!" With a few coordinated pirouettes the game could just as naturally become The Wiz in Space. The sense of exaggeration extended to the gameplay, requiring a literal hosing of bullets to short an enemy's shield before you could do any bodily damage. Levels were built around arenas in which you'd go from hosing to hosing rather than headshot to headshot.

It's been nine years since Bungie released the first game, and in the interim they've worked on nothing else, refining this absurd world of munchkins, purple armor, and elastic bullet streams. Halo: Reach is the end of all that. The neon theatricality has become a memento mori set against a perpetual sunset lowering itself over hardscrabble mountains. There are still moments of wonder, like the sense of scale in the launch sequence preceding the space combat mission, or the moments of jet pack platforming around the white towers of New Alexandria. But the pleasures are put in the uncomfortably tight spaces between the colony's collapsing architecture. Most of the story missions pivot on a point of failure. The fighting in New Alexandria isn't to turn back the invaders, but stall them long enough to evacuate the innocents. Likewise, the extreme gamble of going into space and docking on a Covenant ship is a strategic hail mary that succeeds but the scale of its success is quickly put into minuscule context when a new armada of Covenant ships subsequently come into orbit.

Reach likewise plays a game of Six Little Spartans with Noble Team, fingering each squad member for death as the story sinks downward. You don't play as Master Chief, but you might as well be. Noble Six isn't quite as dexterous as Johnny Halo, but the differences are marginal. You might be able to absorb one less bullet or not jump quite as high, but you've still basically wearing a super hero armor suit. Six isn't outspoken either, which is a vapid choice for the story being told. Gordon Freeman can get away with not talking because he's surrounded with spastics who react to him in such identifiable ways that you can at least begin to read personality traits into him. When Master Chief played the strong and quiet type it felt like a tactical dodge, not wanting to tempt audience disbelief by giving him the wrong voice.

Reach is specifically focused on squad personality, and appropriately so. Killing off six main characters is an utter waste if there aren't any personality traits through which their losses can be measured. Lose the funny guy and suddenly the group doesn't laugh so much any more. Lose the fearless leader and everyone squabbles about what to do next. The gang in Noble Team isn't as dramatically fanned out as that, they're more variations on the self-assured alpha gunner. And at their center is another mute. In the real world stoicism is a bad sign. Sociability is a sign of self-confidence and recognition of how vital close friendships can be. The quiet ones are, we fear, the sociopaths. The brooding poops who one day snap and go on a stabbing spree when someone says "margarine" one time too many. I suppose it's apt that you play a silent lurker given the volume of killing you'll have to do, but it still feels unnecessarily dull. Bungie had the courage to introduce lustrous purples and greens into the video game color palate, I don't understand why giving a character a powerful voice both in and out of combat remains such a risk.

It's especially conspicuous after ODST so effectively used its colorful characterizations and coupled with subtle links to gameplay. Gone is the labored wheeze that signaled damage in ODST. I'd think a subtle reinforcement of genuine pain running beneath the gunfights would enhance the power of the story and its myriad sacrifices. After a decade working on the same essential game concept, Bungie might have done more to intensify its themes in gameplay, rather than leaving them marooned to the cutscenes and the smoky orange sadness of the skybox.

There are a lot of fantastically dramatic moments in the story. Scenes of someone realizing hope is lost but deciding to stay behind and die so the group can continue a little further occur again and again. The ending scene after the credits is great as far as it goes, the game finally leaves players in an arena they won't be able to get out of. The Pillar of Autumn has Cortana's AI kernel safely cruising towards Halo and Noble Six is now officially expendable. You get control of her for another few minutes as waves of Covenant come for you. There's only enough ammo and health to prolong death, but not prevent it. Before you're completely overrun the game shows your visor cracked permanently, giving you a literally shattered view of the world as you scramble for just another few minutes.

A few missions earlier, one of your squadmates dies in a nearly identical scenario on a covenant ship. Later another character takes a plane on a suicide run into a Scarab to create a small opening. One teammate is sniped just at the moment where everything seemed like it might have been okay. If you're interested in emotional gameplay these scenarios are over-ripe. And in Reach they're all cutscenes. The lone example of theme and feeling trumping competitive interest happens after the end credits have finished. The only way this could have been a bigger cop out is if they'd reserved that five minute section for DLC. If a game is supposed to be about tragedy and loss, it ought to be about that in the moment to moment gameplay. Reach should have been built around 30 seconds of failure and pain instead of 30 seconds of fun. It's still the same 30 seconds of fun but the art team has been given a huskier color palate, which is somehow intended to transform the system into something it's not.

Reach is the most feature-rich and varied Halo game, but it's hard not to wonder if the difference between it and the original is enough to merit a decade of tinkering. There's Forge, Firefight, 4 person co-op, a leveling system that ties to character customization, and a big array of multiplayer maps and options. It makes the small list of bullet points from the first game seem tragically incomplete. Reach is as much a perpetual environment as it is an individual experience. It's not an escapist story, but an escapist world that aims to be habitable in perpetuity. It's a magical fishbowl that's always rearranging itself, rewarding loyal players with a simultaneous sense of familiarity and newness.

I finished Reach in two sittings, led from one compulsive pleasure-puzzle to the next. There were no easy places to step away, each lull put some suggestive variation of shooting just over the next ridge. When I thought about starting the game again the next day, trying a harder difficulty of dipping into one of the other modes I couldn't imagine what else there would be to get from the game. I've circle-straffed, tossed grenades and rushed enemies for a finishing melee attack, hidden nervously behind boxes waiting for my shields to regenerate. Thinking of doing it all again, in a slightly different order, and with slightly different objectives and rewards didn't seem like much of an escape. It was starting to feel constrictive, discovery was becoming repetition. Experimentation with new ideas was instead becoming confirmation that most of the old ideas still work.

More Halo: Reach Opinions

Optimism is at the heart of escapism. All great works of escapism are about self-affirmation, which is central to Halo and the idea of Master Chief. It's a big, gaudy, interactive "Yes we can." This was hypnotic when I was broke, out of work, and had no idea what I would do next in my life. It was an irresistible experience, being cut off on a strange planet, with its indifferent sprawl and inscrutable alien architecture, fighting against enemies who seemed genuinely alive and unpredictable. I knew I'd win in the end, but I didn't know how. So I kept coming back, chipping away at the story, learning a new tactic with each arena and its different arrangement of enemies, weapons, and vehicles.

I often think about what I get in return for my time with video games. I've found the most compulsively playable games are also the ones that leave me feeling the most used and hollow afterward. When I think back on what I did in Reach, it's hard to know why I did any of it. Nothing connects, the patterns that emerge from one arena to the next don't build towards a grand confrontation. Nor do they truthfully connect to an emotional idea other than the laughing gas giggle of winning at something for 30 seconds and then repeating it again in a slightly different context. The alien wonder and elastic heroism of the original have become rote, a formula of Greek symbols without a hypothesis to prove.

I hate playing games with other people. Board games, card games, word games--they all seem like a waste of time, an exploitation of our competitive distractibility. It's built into the names we have for them, they're pastimes categorized by their efficiency in distracting us. When this ethos comes in video game form, built as a persistent playroom that continually refreshes itself, it feels uncomfortably like jumping into oblivion. There's something sinister about Reach and its repetition of the now wheezing theme of heroism and self-sacrifice. It's become an elaborate delusion that makes it possible for an excitable and creative group of millions to yoke themselves into a virtual community for the primary purpose of accelerating the passage of time. It's a neon prison so perfectly constructed its prisoners come to their cells with pleasure and don't need to be locked in. And make no mistake, this prison is getting hungrier. It wants you too. One more round. One more mission. One more imperative to play the hero in a fishbowl, so you won't think about how much oxygen is left in the water. They might change the water and add a castle, but you'll eventually notice you're still swimming in circles.

Halo Reach Sales Top Out At 358 Million

2010-11-03T06:20:00.000-07:00

Sales of console up 38 percent year-over-year, cited as a factor in company's record first fiscal quarter performance; Entertainment and Devices Division sales tally $1.8 billion.

Microsoft has been banking on the motion-sensing Kinect peripheral to boost sales of the Xbox 360 this holiday season, but it turns out the system has had no trouble selling in advance of the camera system's November 4 launch. The company today announced a record performance for its first fiscal quarter (the three months ended September 30), with Xbox 360 sales up 38 percent year-over-year.

Microsoft's revenues Reach-ed for the stars.

The Entertainment and Devices division, which handles Microsoft's gaming business, as well as projects like the Zune and ill-fated Kin phone, posted nearly $1.8 billion in sales. Microsoft claims that number is up 27 percent year-over-year, but only since it has "recast" previous results "to conform to the way [Microsoft] internally managed and monitored segment performance during the current fiscal year." In last year's first fiscal quarter results, Microsoft reported Entertainment and Devices division revenues of nearly $1.9 billion, essentially flat from the prior year.

The Xbox division's operating profits were also affected by the aforementioned recasting. For the recently concluded quarter, Microsoft posted a divisional operating profit of $382 million, claiming that was up from the previous year's $260 million operating profit. The original number Microsoft reported for its first quarter last year was $312 million.

Companywide, Microsoft touted its all-time best first fiscal quarter performance. Every business unit in the company showed sales growth, and revenues for the three months ended September 30 totaled $16.2 billion, up 25 percent from the prior year. Net income surged even more, jumping 51 percent to $5.41 billion.

Microsoft cited strong consumer demand for the Xbox 360 and its games, as well as Office 2010 and Windows 7, as contributing factors to the growth. While Microsoft didn't break down the numbers, it bears noting that the quarter saw the debut of Halo: Reach, which was credited with bringing in $200 million in sales in its first day on sale. According to the industry-tracking NPD Group, Halo: Reach was also the top game for the month of September, selling 3.3 million units at US retailers.

[UPDATE]: In a post-earnings conference call, Microsoft revealed that Halo: Reach had totaled approximately $350 million in revenues to date and helped drive strong growth in the Xbox Live service.

The company expects to retain its momentum with the help of Kinect. Microsoft is projecting roughly 30 percent year-over-year revenue growth for the current quarter, with a jump of about 20 percent for the full year ending June 30, 2011.

Over 70 Million Halo: Reach Games Played

2010-11-02T06:35:00.000-07:00

Bungie's released updated stats for Halo: Reach's launch week, confirming the prequel has already clocked up more than 70 million games played.

Everything about the game is tracked, right down to shots fired.

- On Tuesday, September 14 at approximately 1:30pm PST, just a few hours after launch, Halo: Reach's online unique user count had already completely eclipsed Halo 3's total tally for the entirety of the week (09/13 through 09/20).

- To account for the same number of online players found in Halo: Reach during that same window (just six days), we had to run the numbers for Halo 3 going all the way back to 8/6/2010, encompassing a full 45 days of Halo 3 play!

- Ultimately, Halo: Reach's online population for the first week dwarfed Halo 3's by comparison, snagging four times the number of total unique users and decimating Halo 3's all time high of concurrent users by more than 65 per cent.

And a few more stats:

- 70 Million+ Games have been played

- 235 Million+ Player-Games have been played

- 2 Million+ Files have been uploaded to File Shares

- 5,901 man-years have been spent in online Reach games

- 20 Million Daily challenges have been completed

- 709,840 Weekly challenges have been completed

- 165 Billion Credits have been earned

New Halo Reach Achievements Revealed

2010-11-01T05:25:00.000-07:00

Halo Insider here, writing for Halo Reach Game News to provide you with the latest info and news about Reach, Bungie's progress, trivia, vidocs, speculation, what the fans are up to and 'The tr7th about how The Fight Began!' in Full Halo Glory (TM).

There will be spoilers! If you don't want to know NE thing about Halo: Reach, slowly back away from the internet now - though, from the beginning, you know the end....

Friday, October 29Noble Map Pack Achievements Revealed

Urk tells all in the Bungie update about Noble Maps Pack Achievements:

Dave Candland tells me that some of you were asking about DLC achievements this week. In an act of selfless generosity, he sent the latest artwork my way so you could thoroughly ogle it.

Totally Worth It

50 Points

Earn a Double Kill from the Grave in multiplayer Matchmaking.

Both Barrels

50 Points

Earn a Double Kill with the shotgun in multiplayer Matchmaking.

Cross-Mappin'

50 Points

Kill a player at long range with the DMR in a matchmade Slayer game.

You Ate All the Chips

42 Points

Collect all of the flags in a matchmade Stockpile game.

You Blew It Up!

13 Points

Blow up the research facility in a matchmade Invasion game on Breakpoint.

Poppin' & Lockin'

25 Points

Destroy a vehicle using Armor Lock in a matchmade game.

Offensive Driver

20 Points

Earn a kill in a matchmade Rocket Race game.

Halo: Reach Noble Map Pack releases November 30

2010-10-30T06:04:00.000-07:00

Halo Reach The Best Game of 2010

A new map pack for Halo: Reach deploys November 30. The Halo: Reach Noble Map Pack releases on Xbox Live and at retail outlets nationwide featuring new multiplayer locations for various modes such as Free for All, Team Slayer, Team Objective and Big Team Battle.

The pack contains three new maps: Tempest, Anchor 9, and Breakpoint.

Tempest offers players an abandoned shoreline facility divided between two symmetrical bases and an open sky above. Each base contains a makeshift shelter and access to strategic routes for small and large-scale skirmishes. Tempest supports 8 – 16 players and game modes such as Free for All, Team Slayer, Team Objective, and Big Team Battle. Tempest also contains a Forge palette for creating new custom maps.

Anchor 9 is set in orbital dockyards with mirrored interior hallways and an open central hangar bay. The map features close quarters combat for 2 - 8 players, and supports Free for All, Team Slayer, and Team Objective multiplayer modes.

Breakpoint is set in modular archaeological labs designed for air and ground combat. Breakpoint offers multiplayer for 8-16 players, and supports the Invasion and Big Team Battle game modes.

Developed by Bungie, the Noble Map Pack includes new Achievements worth a total of 250 Gamerscore points. It will be available for purchase for 800 Microsoft Points ($10) directly from Xbox Live or with a Microsoft Points card sold at retail locations worldwide.

2010-10-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

There Are many lelemts about Halo Reach that I give a thumbs up to and a lot of elents that have been added that degrade the gamers enjoyability and increases your gaming anguish!! Here's A Little of Both.....:

My Pros:

1) Voting sytem - This is my favorite addition. The Veto system in 3 was so awful. None of the above will become very awesome when the full game is out.

2) Weapon Diversity - Is it completely even? No. But it is already a lot better than 3 and keep in mind this is what the beta is for. You see everyone using a cluster*expletive deleted* of weapons. A good example was my first beta game when I went +23 using Plasma Rifle for most of my kills. Its no longer BR or bust.

3) Classes - Definitely adds spice to the game. The fact that you can switch with each respawn is great. Sprinting up to someone with a Hammer, turning invis with a Sniper, and Armor Lock when Rockets come after you, make me happy.

4) Maps - The fight seems to be everywhere. One thing I haven't seen, is someone always camping one spot. This game seems to promote staying on the move. No one spot is completely easy to hold down.

5) Active Roster - Just a fun little tweek to make it easy to get a group together.

6) Playlists - They added some new challenges to the game. Headhunter can piss you off sometimes. I tend to die before I get to the goal even though I've done most of the killing. Invasion and Generator Defense are the 2 I play the most, though.

My Cons:

1) Grenades - My biggest aggravation with the game. They are completely overpowered. Something needs to be turned down. Either the radius or damage. If you see a grenade fly ANYWHERE near you, go ahead and be ready to respawn. If they want to make grenades realisitic, then guns need to be also.

2) Pistol - They paraded this as the CE pistol. Its not. Its rate of fire is great, but the damage seems to be toned down a little too much. I don't want a 2-shot, but I can unload a full clip without killing them.

3) Jetpack - Its a fun class, but it doesn't tie in with Halo at all. Where was Master Chief's jetpack? Did they forget how to build them during the times of Halo 1-3?

4) Invisibility - I don't like how it scrambles the radars of you and your teammates.

5) Voting - Reward the people that take the time to vote. If you don't vote, you don't get counted as voting option 1. If NO ONE votes, then go ahead and let it do option 1.

6) Divisions - Way too easy to get into the high ones. I'm pretty good, but I'm nowhere near pro. I made Onyx for some reason. I thought that class was supposed to be the unicorn of slayer? And you very rarely see someone in the lower 2 ranks, even when doing the other playlists.

Halo Reach Launches Three New Maps

2010-10-27T06:20:00.000-07:00

.Want to see more of the new maps in the first DLC pack for Halo: Reach? Look no further, as Bungie has just released a new teaser for the Noble Map Pack, which takes you on a whirlwind tour through the three new multiplayer maps that will be included in the pack.

Above: A teaser for the Halo: Reach Noble Map Pack

Here are the official descriptions and multiplayer details for each map from Bungie:

Tempest – “Though we may never fully understand these devices, it is not our nature to leave ancient stones unturned.” This abandoned shoreline facility bends both sea and sky to an unnatural purpose, but the ground itself has quickly become another all too familiar battlefield. Though the two opposing symmetrical bases may never reveal their ancient purpose, both now offer makeshift shelter and access to strategic routes perfectly suited for small and large scale skirmishes alike. Tempest supports 8 – 16 players and offers a variety of modes including Free for All, Team Slayer, Team Objective and Big Team Battle. Tempest also provides players with a huge Forge palette, allowing them to create new custom map variants that can be shared with the community-at-large.

Anchor 9 – “Orbital dockyards provide rapid refuelling and repairs for a variety of UNSC vessels.” Within the confines of this low orbit dry-dock, UNSC craft undergo rapid repair and rearmament in support of the enduring war effort. But for the small squads of infantry who now fight over the mirrored interior hallways and open central hangar bay, this platform no longer provides any safe harbour – whether the close quarters combat is occurring inside or out of its artificial gravitational field. Anchor 9 allows 2-8 players to face off in game variants including Free for All, Team Slayer and Team Objective.

Breakpoint – “ONI officials believe the data buried within this artefact is key to our survival.” Atop this icy precipice, the Invasion continues. These modular archaeological labs were never intended to withstand such a large scale onslaught of Covenant military power, but the information being extracted here may prove vital to humanity’s survival. In response to the imminent Covenant threat, UNSC ground and air assets have been deployed to bolster entrenched Spartan countermeasures. This dig site must yield salvation, or it will become a grave. Breakpoint offers multiplayer mayhem for 8-16 players, and supports the Invasion and Big Team Battle game variants.

The Noble Map Pack, which will include Tempest, Anchor 9, and Breakpoint, is scheduled to release on November 30 for 800 Microsoft Points on XBLA. However, the new multiplayer content will also be sold at retail outlets.

New Maps And Playlists Coming Out For Halo Reach

2010-10-26T05:41:00.000-07:00

New Maps And Playlists Will Be Available For Play On November 12, 2010

As multiplayer-gamers look toward the impending release of Call of Duty: Black Ops, it’s easy to imagine that millions of Halo: Reach players on Xbox Live could become bored with Bungie’s offering. In a time of the year where triple A titles are released every other week it’s best to keep your multiplayer experience feeling as fresh as possible.

That’s why Bungie has dropped a new update to the Halo: Reach playlists that address a few balance issues, move some game variants into their own playlists, and even adds two new ForgeWorld created maps.

"Undead Nighmare" PackNew DLC for Red Dead Redemption. The Zombie Apocalypse is Here!

RockstarGames.com/RedDeadRedemptionAds by Google

Read on for the complete run down.

Playlists

New Playlist: Team Snipers

New Playlist: Living Dead

Rumble Pit

•Lineup rebalanced to offer more kill, less frill.

•Removed Infection, Safe Havens, Race, Rally, Headhunter Pro

•Removed “Classic” gametypes

Team Slayer

•Removed all Snipers gametypes

Team Objective

•Removed 1 Flag Classic

•Removed Headhunter Pro

•Removed the following gametypes from Hemorrhage due to the size of the map with only 8 players: Multiflag Classic, 1 Flag CTF, 1 Flag Pro, 1 Bomb Assault

•Removed Oddball and Hot Potato from Boardwalk

Multi Team

•Removed SWAT

•Removed Classic gametypes

•Removed The Cage

•Changed wighting for Rocket Race so it does not have a 100% chance to appear in Slot 3

Big Team Battle

•Removed Multiflag from Boneyard and Spire

Invasion

•This playlist now offers 3 voting options

Firefight

•Updated Firefight playlist gametypes to be a full set instead of 1 round. Adjusted skull progression.

•Removed Friendly Fire

Score Attack

•Removed Crash Site

•Added Mythic Score Attack

•You can no longer pickup other weapons in Sniper Attack

Maps

Zealot/Arena Zealot

•Arena Zealot is now used for all Slayer gametypes

•Players can no longer stand on the edge of the generators in space and crouch to shoot below the shield

Asylum

•Softkill zones added to the tops of the Sniper buildings

Boneyard

•Modified respawn zones for Slayer gametypes

Hemorrhage

•Modified respawn zones for both bases

•Respawn timers for all Warthogs on Hemorrhage should now be 120 seconds

Gametypes

CTF

•All CTF gametypes should now have a player respawn of 10 seconds

•All Classic CTF gametypes now feature Flag At Home To Score and Touch Return

•Flag At Home To Score disabled for non-Classic CTF gametypes

•Modified Flag Return and Flag Reset times: 1 Flag on Small maps use 10 second return and 30 second reset. All other gametypes use 30 second return and 45 second reset.

Assault

•Assault gametypes now have a player respawn time of 10 or 15 seconds depending on the map.

In addition to the Playlist changes, we’re also introducing two new Forge Map Variants with this update, Cliffhanger and Atom. Atom will be on display in the Team Slayer, Team Snipers, Team Objective, Multi Team, and Big Team Battle Playlists. Cliffhanger will be found in Rumble Pit, Team Slayer, Team SWAT, and Team Objective.

The two standouts for me are the removal of Team Snipers from the Team Slayer playlist (Finally!) for its own dedicated playlist and the new infection-only playlist entitled “Living Dead,” seems very appropriate with Halloween just around the corner. Obviously the element most players will be interested in are the two new maps. They might not have as much depth as what we are getting with the Noble Map Pack, but who doesn’t appreciate a change of scenery every now and again.

Bungie has been very diligent about providing content to their fan base – by way of these monthly or bi-monthly updates. The developer has acknowledged that, while they will be trying to stay active in the community, there will come a time when these updates will be fewer and far between. The hope is that by this time, they will have done enough to make the multiplayer a solid and long lasting experience.

What do you think of this newest Halo: Reach update? What are the particular standout changes made to your favorite playlists?

Halo: Reach is out now for the Xbox 360.

Halo: Reach level cap going up

2010-10-25T05:29:00.000-07:00

Halo: Reach is all set to get a level cap increase, Bungie has announced.

The developer will lift the limit above its current Lt Colonel Grade Three high-point once 117 million daily and weekly million challenges have been completed.

Bungie reckons that should be some time in November.

The post on Bungie.net read, "When you do cross the 117 Million mark, we'll celebrate by blowing the lid off the level cap! In the immediate aftermath, new ranks and armor will be made magically available for you inside The Armory, provided you have the rank and credits required. Time to get to work!"

"Oh, and no, we won't be counting boosted challenges," the post added.

The update also announced that 16,445 years of play had been logged so far, constituting 784 million player-games. In summary, it's quite popular.

Last week Bungie announced that new DLC - the Noble Map Pack - will be out on 30th November

.Second Halo Reach Playlist Update is Live

2010-10-24T12:41:00.000-07:00

As we mentioned recently, a second playlist update would be coming to Halo Reach in October. That playlist update is now live, including many playlist changes, the most notable of which are a new Team Snipers playlist and a couple new Forge map variants.

Here is the full list of updates.

Playlist Changes

•Team Snipers playlist added

•Living Dead (Infection) playlist added

•Infection, Safe Havens, Race, Rally, Headhunter Pro, and all Classic gametypes removed from Rumble Pit playlist

•All Snipers gametypes removed from Team Slayer playlist

•1 Flag Classic and Headhunter Pro removed from Team Objective playlist

•Multiflag Classic, 1 Flag CTF, 1 Flag Pro, and 1 Bomb Assault will no longer be playable on Hemorrhage in the 8 player Team Objective playlists due to the size of the map.

•Oddball and Hot Potato will no longer be played on Boardwalk in Team Objective playlist

•SWAT, all classic gametypes, and The Cage map will no longer appear in Multi Team playlist

•Rocket Race will no longer appear only in slot 3 of map voting

•Multiflag removed from Boneyard and Spire in Big Team Battle playlist

•Invasion playlist now has 3 voting options

•Friendly Fire removed from Firefight

•Firefight playlist gametypes will be a full set rather than just 1 round.

•Crash Site removed from Score Attack

•Mythic Score Attack added

•Other weapons can no longer be picked up in Sniper Attack

Map Changes

•Glitch on Zealot that would allow you to shoot from space and back down into the map has been fixed

•Softkill zones added to top of sniper buildings on Asylum

•Respawn zones reworked for slayer on Boneyard

•Respawn zones reworked on Hemorrhage

•Warthog respawn timer changed to 120 seconds on Hemorrhage

Gametype Changes

•Respawn timer in CTF is now 10 seconds

•Classic CTF gametypes now require the flag at base to score, and flag returns happen with just a touch

•Flag no longer required to be at base to score in non-classic CTF gametypes

•Flag return time changed to 10 seconds (with 30 second reset) on small maps for 1 Flag gametypes

•Flag return time changed to 30 seconds (with 45 second reset) on all other CTF gametypes

•Respawn timer in Assault is now 10 or 15 seconds depending on the size of the map

2010-10-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

This is one of those weeks. We're not exactly dark, but we're definitely more dimly lit than you’ve become accustomed to. I'm sure you understand.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t plenty of coal being shoveled into the studio engine this week. The Noble Map Pack has been powering through the requisite polish and bug fixing phases and the team is ultra close to sealing the deal and shipping the new maps out the door. Right now, we’re prepping a trailer and small batch of multimedia aimed at getting you acclimated to the new spaces before you're forced to fight for purchase. The trailer is scheduled to arrive early next week. (Like really early next week if all goes to plan.)

Outside of the sweet visuals the Noble Map Pack puts on display, the trailer also contains a unique piece of music that seamlessly blends tracks from Halo: CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo: Reach into one beautifully orchestrated score. Marty, Jay, and C Paul have been hinting that they’d like to make it available as a standalone download soon after the trailer drops. Keep your fingers crossed for a Friday deployment next week.

No promises.

Take a Synthy Tour of Tempest!

Okay, so maybe I was totally wrong about this week's update. Bam! Hopefully, this Photosynth of Tempest ties you over until next week. Now, let's get some housekeeping out of the way.

Arena Alterations

On the playlist front, we’re currently testing out some totally radar-less Arena action. Aside from the obvious impact this will have on the playlist as a whole, it will also sound the death knell for the Active Camo Armor Ability in this particular playlist format, as there’s literally no downside to getting your cloak on when radar isn’t in play.

If all goes to plan, expect to see this change hit the Arena at the beginning of next month, just in time for Season Numero 3. We’ll supply you with some more fleshed out bullet points as the November playlist update becomes more and more solidified in the days ahead. As with all early news, details are always subject to change.

Forging Ahead

This week we’re also neck deep in Forge Map Variant submissions for our official Forgetacular contest. Though DLC testing has slowed the pace of our official evaluation process, it moves ever onward, and even outside of the auspices of Forgetacular’s winning entries, we’re still looking to deploy more community variants into matchmaking.

More Like Forgecrapular!

To aid you in your quest, Carney tells me he’s nearly finished hammering out the curriculum for the first semester of his official Design 101 correspondence course. Personally, I’ve been hammering through some of the hundreds of Forgetacular submissions we’ve already been blessed with, and I have some words of wisdom I’d love to hammer home myself. While we wait for Carney to deliver the real goods, check out my crash course!

Mo Money, Mo Problems

First things first, you are not required to utilize the entire budget when you set out to build your sweet new map. This is not how you win Forge. In fact, if you’ve whittled down all the credits in your Forge wallet to make an amazing Race map, and you don’t have enough bucks left to splurge on a single solitary Mongoose, you just might have yourself a little bit of a problem. If I can’t race on your race map, you lose! You should resolve this minor error before you submit your map, speed racer.

Objectify My Love

On a related note, you should also be paying close attention to “object density” as you build your masterpiece. Though the Forge will allow you to phase several objects into one another, it is not recommended that you stack as many objects as possible into a small amount of real estate simply for aesthetic effect. You can and will go overboard.

In these shots, there are 100 blocks piled into one single floating heap. Players tend to phase a lot of objects together in order to create fine details not possible with the available set of Forge pieces. I’ve seen a player merge more than a dozen objects into a single light to create a rather ornate and spectacular chandelier. While it may look visually impressive, functionally it operates more like a Forge black hole, requiring players to render an absurd amount of objects for what amounts to a small piece of visual flair. When I removed all of the superfluous pieces from the beautiful fixture in question, the base map was left largely unchanged and the overall performance increased dramatically.

Eye of the Beholder

Of course, that doesn’t mean you should pay no mind to how your map looks, especially when thinking about how players will orient themselves. It’s a good idea to use existing visual cues to allow players to ground themselves quickly on your map. Atom is a great example. Each side features distinct “Team” colors, both red and blue, to help your eye pick up on your spawning location instantly. It also uses colors in other key spaces to highlight areas of interest to great and inexpensive effect. The map itself is nestled in the Quarry, giving Atom a rock face on three sides and a distinct open view on the fourth.

None of these design cues required any additional objects. And it’s a certified fact that each and every one of you loves Atom.

And the Sky is Grey

One sure fire way to keep your players dazed and confused is to stuff them inside a giant grey box that offers little in the way of visual distinction.

The walls are in my face.

While the Forge palette relies heavily on the metallic Forerunner aesthetic, Forge World itself offers plenty of scenery that stands in stark contrast. Utilize it free of charge.

…performance is not a concern and you should feel free to place objects wherever you damn well please.

Nobody Puts Baby in a Box!

But maybe you should. The Coliseum might seem small, but trust me, it’s really big! And the walls each feature distinct elements that make them stand out from one another.

It also gives you six planes to work from right from the start. While it might not make for a great Big Team Battle space unless you extend the playable space out over the water, it’s easily big enough to contain some expertly crafted Slayer and Objective spaces, especially if you build in layers.

Spartometer Challenge Tracker

And we’re off! As of right now, the front page has been updated to display your current community Challenge progress. Keep on keepin’ on and the carnage will automatically update until we blow the top off, unlocking access to new ranks and armor.

It's gonna be a blood bath!

Oh, and nope, we're not at zero. The circular reservoir at the bottom of the thermometer represents the millions of challenges you've already completed.

Pimp My Spartan…Now!

Of course, we’re aware that the Bungie.net version of your Spartan armor isn’t currently updating. We don’t have an ETA for a resolution, but rest assured that we’ll deploy the fix as soon as we can. The backend systems that power your Spartan’s online presentation are linked to other critical systems related to our online and matchmaking experiences, and we are, as you would expect, incredibly thorough with any testing and deployments that could impact those systems.

Crying Face

We’ll update you when we’re ready for you to ogle your online persona again. Until then, you’ll have to make do with your in game model. Please pardon our dust.

Blame Stosh

Stosh spent a good amount of time this week building the aforementioned Spartometer to track your challenges, but he also dedicated some spare cycles to dig up this sweet clip.

When good Rod goes wrong.

And that’s a wrap for this week. Stop back next week. We'll make it worth your while.

Beyond the Ring: Bungie's Renegade Development of Halo's Fiction

2010-10-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

An auditorium full of people sit at the Microsoft E3 press conference in 2006, all waiting for the same thing. It's just seven months since the Xbox 360 successfully launched, but Microsoft's big gun has yet to show for the new system. The audience expects that to change, and they're right. The giant screen goes white, and a single piano note signals the debut of Halo 3. As the camera pans across a blasted desert road, the AI Cortana speaks.

"I am your shield. I am your sword."

While everyone else is hanging on the edge of their seat to see what happens next, some hardcore fans of the Halo series hear something familiar in Cortana's cryptic message.

"I know you. Your past. Your future."

"This is the way the world ends."

The audience applauds and gaming sites report on the expected release date, but elsewhere, on forums, Bungie devotees are buzzing about something else. Conversations spring up about a series of letters seven years old, letters largely forgotten from a time before the 24-hour gaming news cycle. Why? Because by now, Halo fans know that they're as likely to learn about Halo's sweeping fiction outside of the game as they are in it. After a number of New York Times bestselling novels and arguably the first massive, mainstream Alternate Reality Game in the form of the "I <3 bees" campaign they're well trained.

Over the course of its 10-year lifespan, Halo has managed to build up a wealth of story spanning hundreds of thousands of years and numerous star systems, a story of politics and civil unrest in addition to a genocidal war waged by an interstellar religious armada against the human race. Halo's fiction is arguably among the most expansive that gaming has ever seen -- impressive, given the perceived limitations of first-person shooters.

Where shooters like Half-Life 2 have found success through an incidental, found story peppered throughout their world as well as direct narrative, Bungie has taken a different path, going outside of their games in ways both traditional and radically different. In the process, Bungie and their now former partners at Microsoft created a uniquely successful combination of merchandising, marketing, and storytelling to explore the world of Halo in a deeper way than they originally thought possible.

Campaign Matchmaking goes live, level cap being raised next month.

2010-10-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

Halo: Reach's multiplayer is getting another fresh lick of paint as campaign matchmaking finally goes live and Bungie announces the level cap is to be raised in November.

Alongside the launch of campaign matchmaking Bungie announced (via its comprehensive weekly update) a slew of tweaks in its weekly update with Team Snipers and Living Dead being added to the playlists while Rumble Pit has been streamlined.

The long-awaited raising of the level cap was also given a date of sorts, and it's due to be unlocked once the community has completed 117 million daily and weekly challenges – a feat that's due to be achieved sometime in November according to Bungie's estimates.

Halo: Reach has proved quite popular since its September release – we certainly liked it, and so it seems did some 3.3 million people in the US at last count.

Halo: Reach gets campaign matchmaking

2010-10-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

Bungie adding series-first online ability next week; service lets players enlist help of random strangers in the fight against Covenant; MLG, Grifball playlists coming by the holidays.

The Halo series has had cooperative campaign play from the start, but it's only allowed gamers to play with friends (either offline or online). That's going to change later this month.

Bungie announced in its latest Bungie Weekly Update that a campaign matchmaking playlist--a series first--will be added to Halo: Reach on October 19 (pending final testing and review). That falls in line with what the developer announced last week when it said the online ability would be added on Oct. 12 or Oct. 19.

Halo: Reach's online capabilities grow next week.

Campaign matchmaking will afford players the luxury of being able to play through the campaign with Xbox Live users who aren't on their friends lists.

Bungie also dished details on standard matchmaking in this week's update. The developer said it plans to add MLG (Major League Gaming) and Grifball playlists in the coming months. Bungie doesn't foresee these playlists arriving by November, but said they will likely be added to the mix in time for the holidays.

Halo: Reach Tops 3 Million in Sales

2010-10-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

According to the latest data provided by market research group NPD, sales for Halo: Reach it its launch month hit 3.3 million copies sold in the United States.

Halo: Reach was first released on September 14 in North America. The game generated over $200 million in sales in the U.S. and Europe combined in the first two days of release alone.

It's just the third game this generation to sell over three million copies in its launch month. Halo 3 was the first title to do so back in 2007. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was second in 2009.

Bungie announced this morning the Noble Map Pack, which includes three new multiplayer maps, Anchor 9, Tempest, and Breakpoint. The pack is set for release on November 30 for 800 Microsoft points.

Microsoft also said pre-orders for its Kinect motion camera coming November 4 are "selling out" at retailers nationwide. The company did not provide specific pre-order numbers.

Halo: Reach Review – “It’s Time To ‘Reach’ Reach”

2010-10-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

I’ve played Halo for years and I can safely say that the series has had a huge effect on my life. I’ll never forget the LAN parties me and my friends had on half days in high school – these were truly awesome times. When I think back about Halo 2 and 3 I wonder if I was caught up in Microsoft’s hype machine. I’m not saying they we’re bad games, they we’re actually great games but like I’ve said before I feel like that with each subsequent Halo release Bungie slowly took away what made the franchise so special – Simplicity.

With Reach Bungie has changed all this, they’ve removed most of the features that over complicated the series and added new features that make the tried and true Halo formula feel fresh. Halo: Reach is the result of Bungie spending ten years perfecting the Halo franchise.

The single player campaign’s plot line is very simple, you follow Noble Team as they deal with the Covenant assault on one of the UNSC’s most important outposts, the planet Reach. The story is engaging and it is caped off by one of the best endings I have ever experienced in a video game – the final chapter is a truly moving experience and I’m very pleased that Bungie chose to keep it in the game. I’ve read interviews where Bungie’s creative director, Marcus Lehto, explained how including the ending was a subject of debate among the development team. I’m glad it wasn’t left on the cutting room floor.

The more linear plot line keeps the game focused and moving a long at a break neck pace. Every single player level is engaging and exciting, none of them cause the game to drag or get boring unlike other iterations in the Halo franchise. One particular level and my personal favorite Halo level ever, The Long Night Of Solace, is perhaps the single best level I have ever played in a first person shooter. I was quick to criticize the space combat Bungie showed off at this years E3 but it was great and definitely didn’t feel tacked on at all. Bungie managed to integrate this mini-game like feature in such a seamless fashion that it fit perfectly into the games overall feel. The anti-gravity space portion of the levels were also ridiculously fun and fresh.

The campaign is dark, realistic, fresh and most importantly a whole lot of fun – it’s an experience no Halo fan or gamer for that matter should miss.

Bungie made the right decision by creating an entirely new graphics engine for Reach, Halo 3′s was starting to look seriously dated. The result is possibly one of the best looking games on the Xbox 360. Reach does lag occasional when there are multiple enemies and vehicles on the screen, especially when your playing with multiple people on one Xbox. This is disappointing but it doesn’t really damage the game’s overall experience and it doesn’t occur that often. It would have been nice if Bungie spent a few more months polishing the game off but I imagine that’s difficult when Microsoft is probably breathing down your neck to get the game out the door. Overall the graphics have a much more realistic feel when compared to Halo 3 and this perfectly compliments the game’s darker tone.

The inclusion of new vehicles that are actually fun to drive, the Falcon, Sabre, and Revenant are also welcome additions to the franchise. Unlike past new weapons each new inclusion fits perfectly into the Halo universe and is expertly balanced.

The new armor abilities also simplify Halo 3′s item system and make the game generally much more balanced than past Halo games. The hologram ability, the only ability not included in the Reach Beta, seems rather stupid at first but it is extremely useful in sniper matches. Even though I’m a seasoned Halo veteran I often fall for this silly ploy – sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s the actual player and who’s the hologram. Fall damage has also been drastically toned down from the beta, it was difficult to avoid killing your self when jet packing across maps – I died numerous times because of this.

I’m also a fan of the new health pack system, maybe it’s just nostalgia speaking but it reminds me of Halo: CE and ads a sense of urgency to the single player. I don’t bother rushing in to a swarm of elites because I know that my health won’t fully regenerate unless I find a health kit. Martin O’Donnell’s music is once again amazing, he manages to capture the monk like Halo theme of older games but also still gives Reach’s music a fresh and engaging sound. The title music is particularly breath taking.

One of my main complaints about Reach’s multiplayer mode is the lack of map variety. A few of the multiplayer maps are remakes from Halo 3 and Halo 2 which is great for gamers looking to replay them but it’s also lazy on Bungie’s part. I would have liked to see these remakes included in the game but also a lot more new maps. A few of the remakes from matchmaking are Forge World maps so they all look very similar, this is also somewhat disappointing. I’m sure Bungie will release multiple map packs during the games life span and I can almost guarantee that one will appear on the Xbox Live marketplace very soon.

Another complaint I have about multiplayer is the game’s matchmaking mode. The removal a visible ranking system and social playlists irks me quite a bit. Rankings gave me something to work towards every time I played Halo 3 and social playlists we’re perfect for when I wanted to play games with my girlfriend who isn’t that great at Halo. I realize why bungie did this, to try to keep the community in one single playlist and decrease the amount of time it takes to find games, but that doesn’t mean I really like it. The new arena is Bungie’s new playlist for competitive ranked gaming but it’s a somewhat confusing method and is rather time consuming. Apparently you need to play three games a day for six days until you are assigned a division. Then after that you play other gamers in your division and are given the opportunity to move to a higher level. It sounds cool and gives you something to work towards on a monthly basis because it resets every season.

The inclusion of Halo: ODST’s firefight mode is also great, there’s nothing like jumping into a game with a few friends and blindly blasting away at the Covenant. The fact that it supports matchmaking now to is also great, if your down one friend you can still create a four person team. I still wish Bungie included a server list in Reach, Forge World is an amazing tool and the ability to share maps with other users is a great feature but without a server or game list you can only play your creations with people on your friends list. With all the content included in Reach I find it strange that Bungie still didn’t add this feature in their swan song to the Halo franchise.

As soon as you start playing it’s very easy to tell that Halo: Reach is culmination of 10 years of game design. As someone who’s been playing Halo since the franchise began I can safely say that this is by far the best game in the series. It even surpassed Halo: Combat evolved – for a nostalgic person like my self this is not an easy feat for a game developer to accomplish.

Game Judgment’s Christopher Goodchild will also be reviewing Reach so be on the look out for his opinion on Bungie’s latest epic over the next few days.

Pros

-Great single player experience

-Possibly one of the most content rich games ever released on the Xbox

-Great multiplayer experience

Cons

-The game lags when there are too many enemies on the screen

-Lack of multiplayer map variety

- No game or server list for custom games

Overall Rating 9.5/10

Reccomendation: Buy it!

Halo: Reach Noble Map Pack Announced

2010-10-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

Microsoft announced the Noble Map Pack will arrive on Xbox Live starting November 30, 2010. The pack includes three all-new multiplayer maps, Anchor 9, Tempest, and Breakpoint. Additional achievements totaling 250 gamerscore points are also being added.

The pack will cost 800 Microsoft Points ($10).

Here's a detailed list of the maps per Microsoft:

Tempest – "Though we may never fully understand these devices, it is not our nature to leave ancient stones unturned." This abandoned shoreline facility bends both sea and sky to an unnatural purpose, but the ground itself has quickly become another all too familiar battlefield. Though the two opposing symmetrical bases may never reveal their ancient purpose, both now offer makeshift shelter and access to strategic routes perfectly suited for small and large scale skirmishes alike. Tempest supports 8 – 16 players and offers a variety of modes including Free for All, Team Slayer, Team Objective and Big Team Battle. Tempest also provides players with a huge Forge palette, allowing them to create new custom map variants that can be shared with the community-at-large.

Tempest

Anchor 9 – "Orbital dockyards provide rapid refueling and repairs for a variety of UNSC vessels." Within the confines of this low orbit dry-dock, UNSC craft undergo rapid repair and rearmament in support of the enduring war effort. But for the small squads of infantry who now fight over the mirrored interior hallways and open central hangar bay, this platform no longer provides any safe harbor – whether the close quarters combat is occurring inside or out of its artificial gravitational field. Anchor 9 allows 2-8 players to face off in game variants including Free for All, Team Slayer and Team Objective.

Anchor 9

Breakpoint – "ONI officials believe the data buried within this artifact is key to our survival." Atop this icy precipice, the Invasion continues. These modular archaeological labs were never intended to withstand such a large scale onslaught of Covenant military power, but the information being extracted here may prove vital to humanity's survival. In response to the imminent Covenant threat, UNSC ground and air assets have been deployed to bolster entrenched Spartan countermeasures. This dig site must yield salvation, or it will become a grave. Breakpoint offers multiplayer mayhem for 8-16 players, and supports the Invasion and Big Team Battle game variants.

Breakpoint

Halo Reach Ten Times Better Than Black Ops

2010-10-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

October 12, 2010 - This game is probably the best game i've ever played. Bungie does an excellent job with this game, they add so much, constantly update to meet most players needs, add new features, and my favorite, has probably the best anti-hack system for xbox360. A week or two ago, they reset 15,000 people's ranks and credits because they would have evrything bought and already the credit limit, and if you've played before, you know how impossible this is. The new ranking system is 10x better then Halo 3, you can now matchmake campaign on the 15th of October this update will happen, single player is probably the best campaign i've ever played, matchmaking gets better every day, and ranking up has a point to unlock new items and buy them too. This game is extraordinarily good, in a month or two, all the good custom games will come out and thus the halo experience will be complete. The graphics are phenominal for a Halo game, the sound is better then ever with the music and sound effects, Single Player is one of the best, Multiplayer makes the wrap itself up in a snuggie it's so good, Firefight Forge and Custom Games could be improved slightly but most fun custom games havent come out yet.

Reach Campaign Matchmaking Incoming

2010-10-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

Campaign Matchmaking is scheduled to arrive in Halo: Reach in an update that's due next week, and it's due to come with a slew of new tweaks too.

The update – pencilled in for a release on October 19 – will finally allow players to tackle the campaign with strangers online, and it will also bring with it dedicated Snipers and Infection playlists. It's the second major update for Halo: Reach, which launched to wide acclaim last month.

News comes via Bungie's weekly update, which also includes some other interesting morsels – including the revelation that although less than 1% of players have reached the level cap Bungie is looking to increase it soon.

Halo: Reach Will Be Biggest Game Of 2010, Microsoft Says

2010-10-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

"I feel confident that there's nothing that will compare in size," says Aaron Greenberg.

With 2009 nearly finished and a huge year for gaming on the horizon, it should perhaps come as no surprise that Microsoft product management director Aaron Greenberg is staking his claim early. Speaking with Gamasutra, he said Halo Reach will be "the biggest game of 2010."

Greenberg began by wondering aloud whether Gran Turismo 5 has a chance of launching in 2010, "Is it launching next year? I've seen years and years of minigames, but I haven't seen that the game's done. They just released the PSP version -- maybe that's what they've been working on."

He continued, "I feel confident that there's nothing that will compare in size. Halo Reach will be the biggest game of 2010."

The Game Certainly Has The Explive elements to be Game of 2010

Assuming it does arrive in 2010, Halo Reach will indeed be a huge release for Microsoft. However, it faces major competition, including StarCraft II, God of War III, and Final Fantasy XIII. All three are highly-anticipated releases, with Final Fantasy XIII being a multi-platform release.

Halo Reach isn't due for almost a year yet, but it's never too early to start speculating. Do you think Reach will make good on Greenberg's prediction?

A Decade of Writing Halo

2010-10-10T05:56:00.000-07:00

Halo Reach Has Energized The Gaming Community For Over 15 years.

Bungie knew they were on the right track with Halo when, in developing the original game, a tester looked at art of the ringworld arcing over a lush jungle scene and told the developer: "I don't know what this game is about, but I want to be there right now." This is because Bungie realized early on that narrative success hinged on the creation of place, not plot. That was one of the many points made this morning at "Writing the Whirlwind," a discussion of ten years crafting the Halo narrative by Joseph Staten, writer and design director at Bungie.

What Staten means by valuing place over plot, is that Bungie understood that if you create a proper playground, you can get any number of stories out of it. You can see the success of that in the simple fact that the Halo universe has been a decade-long phenomenon that spans multiple games, from the original Halo to the ODST side story to Bungie's final Halo adventure, Reach. If Bungie had sat down to create the exact narrative of Halo, they may have very easily painted themselves into a corner.

The second part of the equation is giving the player an accessible window into that place. That window is the Master Chief. When crafting the Master Chief, Staten made sure to set up the iconic hero as the ultimate "straight man." If you think about it, can you really describe the Master Chief in more than a sentence or two? No, unless you do something Bungie is quite happy about – you start filling in the blanks with your own interpretation of the Master Chief. That hooks you right into the soul of the narrative. Yes, there is a story. Yes, there are key events. But do you care more about those things, or do you care about a great way to experience the Halo universe?

Halo in Five Minutes

But lest folks think that Bungie deals wholly in high-minded discussions of narrative, Staten said that Bungie understood the core of Halo is, as he put it, "shooting stuff." And he knew that as he was writing the Halo universe. Staten understood that – and this was his estimation – 95-percent of Halo players don't care about much of the narrative. They don't explore it at all. And the best game writers understand that.

But it sounds like Staten understands Bungie itself forgot it when they built Halo 2. Staten said despite its success, Halo 2 was indeed Bungie's "dreaded sophomore slump." He recognized that Bungie never should have ended that game on a cliffhanger because it put narrative over the base desire to get in, shoot stuff, and have a great time.

According to Staten, Halo 2 also suffered from a "technical overreach" that also hampered the delivery of a good story. He likened it to "watching a cathedral self-assemble in a hurricane." Amazing how success loosens the tongue (after all, Halo 2 is a few games back and if I recall, didn't do too shabby at retail), but it is always refreshing to see even a giant like Bungie admit failings.

But things got better as Bungie swung toward Halo 3 and the later Halo projects. Staten credits Halo's flirtation with Hollywood as a major positive because it exposed the team to different talents and storytelling techniques. Was it frustrating to have the movie and the Peter Jackson Halo projects fall apart? Sure, but without that experience, Staten says ODST and Reach would have not been written so well. However, Staten didn't move on from his brief discussion of Halo and Hollywood without taking a swipe at the studios. "I dunno if games will crush movies in ten years, but g-----n we're throwing some punches," said Staten with a smile. (And speaking of the Halo movie, the latest rumor is that Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks are hungry for Halo.)

Ranking the Best Halo Campaigns

As everybody knows, Reach was Bungie's last Halo. Staten says that Bungie is at peace with the decision to move on to its new game – which Bungie loosely teased during the session. When crafting Reach, Bungie returned to its original thrust: place over plot. "Planet Reach was a strong compelling place," said Staten. It was a place where Bungie could close the circle of the Halo canon, which was very important to them. And if you have questions over various parts of the canon after Reach, well, that was intended. Instead of just leaving strings dangling, Bungie cut them. Staten says the decision not to go overboard and tie up every loose thread of the Halo story should be emulated by more writers. That kind of obsession over the plot can get in the way of creating a good video game experience.

Staten's discussion wound down with a series of questions from the audience, which touched on things like how Bungie kept the canon straight while expanding the Halo universe over ten years and what inspired Cortana ("Smart women are extremely sexy," said Staten). But one thing stuck with me as I left the room and walked to my next panel. According to Staten, Bungie "wrote Halo as if it would be the only game they ever made." Obviously, that didn't happen. But by not treating the first Halo as a commodity that it could hopefully spin into a mega-franchise, Bungie created not just a great one-time video game, but also a seed of a place that gamers forced open into a universe they wanted to experience again and again in different ways.

And it will be exciting to see if Bungie can do it again.

Halo: Reach's Commendations, Credits & Your Concerns Explained

2010-10-09T03:57:00.000-07:00

Credits=Cool Armor

Bungie is mixing up Halo: Reach multiplayer with all new rules, adding the concepts of Credits, Rank, and Commendations; it's all part of the Xbox 360 game's new "Player Investment" system, which sounds way more exciting than the name implies.

In Halo: Reach, Bungie is throwing out much of the old way of doing things, revamping the game's ranking system that's now based on the accumulation of Credits. And how does one acquire Credits? By completing daily and weekly Challenges—tasks like killing a set number of opponents in a matchmaking game, for the basic stuff—and racking up Commendations, smaller accomplishments like accumulating headshots.

Halo: Reach players will also score Credits by winning and finishing games in matchmaking. That's right, finishing. The majority of these changes look to address the persistent problems with leveling up in multiplayer games, like the mad rush to unlock virtual crap in the name of scoring more Credits.

The whole system, which Bungie notes is divorced from the actual Trueskill ranking that evens out matchmaking, looks pretty smart.

Oh, and what do you do with all these credits? Buy stuff, of course. New armor, new helmets, total Spartan customization. It's "purely cosmetic," Bungie says, keeping the playfield level. Extra details at Bungie.net.

Bungie Drops Hint at Post-Halo Game

2010-10-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

There was no way around it. Sometime at Joseph Staten's talk this morning at GDC Online, titled "Writing the Whirlwind," somebody would ask a question about Bungie's next project. Bungie's writer and design director knew it was coming, too, and had already warned the audience at the beginning of the session that he wouldn't say word one about the developer's plans for its first post-Halo game.

But Staten just couldn't help himself.

After lamenting that Bungie spent ten years creating a mega-universe that players only experienced for six to eight hours at a time (he's only talking about the single-player campaign here, of course), he dropped this wonderfully cryptic springboard for debate: "Wouldn't it be great if we could make a world that was always there for you?"

So, what does that mean? It sounds like Bungie wants to make sure that after it does the heavy lifting with world building, the player then gets the keys to the proverbial kingdom. Could this be a persistent universe without a set beginning and end, where players control the course of the narrative rather than following a set story with a three act structure? Staten offered nothing else, but it was enough to set the speculation machine in motion.

Matchmaking Gets Tweaked And Adds A Few Gametypes

2010-10-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

Halo: Reach, Bungie’s final Halo effort, hit shelves almost a month ago. The title won rapt reviews across the board and did over $200 million in sales in its first 24 hours of availability. While the developer is currently working on a new universe with Activision, next on the docket for the studio is continuing to support Reach's matchmaking mode.

The first Halo: Reach matchmaking update has been sent to Xbox Live. The playlist update addresses a plethora of multiplayer issues, tweaks some core game types, and is just the first step in what Bungie is calling a continuing effort to support Reach.

Playlist update addresses numerous issues, tweaks some core game types; second update, which adds matchmaking for the game's campaign, coming Oct. 12 or 19.

Halo: Reach's multiplayer component just got overhauled.

Specifically, Team SWAT--a game mode where players have no shields or sensor, and headshots reign supreme--now has a dedicated playlist like it did in Halo 3. Previously, Team SWAT appeared as just one of many game types in the Team Slayer playlist.

For a full rundown of the tweaks now live in Halo: Reach, check out the playlist update page at Bungie.net.

Bungie also said it will release the next update for Reach on October 12 or 19. That update will bring matchmaking support to the game's campaign, which is a first for the series. With campaign matchmaking, players won't ever have to fight alone, as they will be able to enlist the help of another through Xbox Live.

Halo Reach's Next Weekly Challenge

2010-10-05T05:09:00.000-07:00

Continuing a trend that started last week for the weekly challenge in Halo Reach, Bungie has put forth another co-op friendly way of increasing your credits this time in the game's Firefight mode.

To earn yourself a cool 3000 credits all you need to do is complete 50 rounds of Firefight in matchmaking. Remember that each Firefight match in matchmaking is potentially 5 rounds, so completing this only requires 10 separate matches. After testing it looks like each MATCH is one ROUND. So that's potentially a LOT of Firefight. As always if you don't feel like taking your chances with the general Halo public you can give the Co-Optimus forums a try to find your Halo soulmate.

Halo Reachs' Ranking System

2010-10-04T12:07:00.000-07:00

The ever popular theme here at Loot Ninja is us playing the shit out of Halo: Reach and bringing you guys some good info on all the ins, outs, and what-have-you’s. One of my gripes with the new Halo: Reach stat page is that the rankings are not there. Before in Halo 3, it was clearly visible to what the requirements were for each rank as well as Skill. Now that Skill has been dropped and they have adapted the aggregate point total for rankings, after the jump is every point requirement for every rank up to Colonel. We will bring you the higher ranks as they are made available.

Recruit – 0 cR

Private – 7,500 cR

Corporal – 10,000 cR (+2,500 cR)

Corporal Grade 1 – 15,000 cR (+5,000 cR)

Sergeant – 20,000 cR (+5,000 cR)

Sergeant Grade 1 – 26,250 cR (+6,250 cR)

Sergeant Grade 2 – 32,500 cR (+6,250 cR)

Warrant Officer – 45,000 cR (+12,500 cR)

Warrant Officer Grade 1 – 78,000 cR (+33,000 cR)

Warrant Officer Grade 2 – 111,000 cR (+33,000 cR)

Warrant Officer Grade 3 – 144,000 cR (+33000 cR)

Captain – 210,000 cR (+66,000 cR)

Captain Grade 1 – 233,000 cR (+23,000 cR)

Captain Grade 2 – 256,000 cR (+23,000 cR)

Captain Grade 3 – 279,000 cR (+23,000 cR)

Major – 325,000 cR (+46,000 cR)

Major Grade 1 – 350,000 cR (+25,000 cR)

Major Grade 2 – 375,000 cR (+25,000 cR)

Major Grade 3 – 400,000 cR (+25,000 cR)

Lt. Colonel – 450,000 cR (+50,000 cR)

Lt. Colonel Grade 1 – 480,000 cR (+30,000 cR)

Lt. Colonel Grade 2 – 510,000 cR (+30,000 cR)

Lt. Colonel Grade 3 – 540,000 cR (+30,000 cR)

Commander – 600,000 cR (+60,000 cR)

Commander Grade 1 –650,000 cR (+50,000 cR)

Commander Grade 2 – 700,000 cR (+50,000 cR)

Commander Grade 3 – 750,000 (+50,000 cR)

Colonel – 850,000 cR (+100,000 cR)

Colonel Grade 1 – 960,000 cR (+110,000 cR)

Colonel Grade 2 – 1,070,000 cR (+110,000 cR)

Colonel Grade 3 – 1,180,000 cR (+110,000 cR)

Brigadier – 1,400,000 cR (+220,000 cR)

Brigadier Grade 1 – 1,520,000 cR (+120,000 cR)

Brigadier Grade 2 – 1,640,000 cR (+120,000 cR)

Brigadier Grade 3 – 1,760,000 cR (+120,000 cR)

General – 2,000,000 cR (+240,000 cR)

General Grade 1 – 2,200,000 cR (+200,000 cR)

General Grade 2 – 2,350,000 cR (+150,000 cR)

General Grade 3 – 2,500,000 cR (+150,000 cR)

General Grade 4 – 2,650,000 cR (+150,000 cR)

Field Marshall – 3,000,000 cR (+350,000 cR)

Hero – 3,700,000 cR (+700,000 cR)

Legend – 4,600,000 cR (+900,000 cR)

Mythic – 5,650,000 cR (+1,050,000 cR)

Noble – 7,000,000 cR (+1,350,000 cR)

Eclipse – 8,500,000 cR (+1,500,000 cR)

Nova – 11,000,000 cR (+2,500,000 cR)

Forerunner – 13,000,000 cR (+2,000,000 cR)

Reclaimer – 16,500,000 cR (+3,500,000 cR)

Inheritor – 20,000,000 cR (+3,500,000 cR)

Bungie Speaks About October Playlist

2010-10-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to the inaugural edition of the October Bungie Weekly Update! Let’s skip the formalities and dig right in.

October Playlist Update, Inbound Imminent

We’ve already promised a big mid-month Matchmaking deployment, but Jeremiah and the core team responsible for Reach’s playlist management have decided to fast track some of the “easier” implementations and break October’s update into two distinct and meaty halves. The first round of playlist updates, barring any unforeseen shenanigans, will go live on Tuesday of next week.

Spaaaaaaaaace!

Here’s what you can expect when we pull the trigger:

Team Slayer

SWAT is taking one in the face (being removed) and the weighting for all other gametypes will be adjusted to fall in line with voting data. Expect – surprise, surprise – more traditional Slayer offerings to appear.

Team SWAT

SWAT gametypes that are removed from other playlists are being incorporated into their own, unique playlist with adjustments made to modes and maps based on voting data (farewell SWAT on Hemorrhage, you sucked and everybody hated you).

Team Objective

Powerhouse will now feature several more gametypes, including 1 Flag and Stockpile. Because Powerhouse is awesome and we don’t get to play it enough.

Multi Team

Rocket Race is being added. You win by staying on the Mongoose and racing to the checkpoints. (Oh, who am I kidding, you’re just going to hop off and try to assassinate people, aren’t you?)

Big Team Battle

SWAT and Classic are being removed and the frequency of Snipers is being reduced based on – you guessed it – voting data.

Arena Doubles

Boardwalk and “Pro” options are both being removed. Default Zealot is being replaced with Arena Zealot, a map variant which features modified initial player spawns and a soft-kill zone in spaaaaaace.

Team Arena

“Pro” options are being removed. Arena Zealot (details above), is being added.

Score Attack

Credit earn rates for Gruntpocalypse are being reduced to fall more in line with other modes.

General Matchmaking

Alongside the major alterations listed above, a myriad of much needed fixes and tweaks to the experience will also go into effect on Tuesday, including a metric ton of small, but annoying bugs and gameplay issues that we’ve identified and earmarked for eradication. As these updates go live, Jeremiah will publish the full details to our Optimatch forum so you can pore over the subtle nuances of each individual change.

Make sure to pop in and tell him that you agree with every single decision we’ve made! We prepped a pile of official discussion threads and bucketed them by playlist to facilitate polite and mature discussion. You can weigh in here.

Loud and Clear

The second salvo for October will include the fix to the current betrayal booting system, bringing it back in line with Halo 3 (three strikes and you’re out), and it will also introduce some significant changes to the Firefight experience, including the removal of friendly fire. Also on the way, a proper Team Snipers playlist, the possibility of a radar-less “Pro” experience in Season 3 of Arena, and more love spread out over all of our offerings, with a strong focus on Rumble Pit and Multi Team (all barring any unforeseen issues).

Already mentioned and still planned is the introduction of Campaign Matchmaking and some substantially awesome changes to the Firefight Matchmaking experience, the latter by way of cooperative multiplayer maestro, Larzy B. We’ll talk more about these updates next week.

Long story short, we’re evaluating all of our playlists and we’re acting fast to make sure feedback from voting data and the community-at-large is being evaluated and implemented.

Firefight Matchmaking 101

While we’re on the Firefight tip, we should talk a little Matchmaking Best Practices. As more and more players roll through Firefight Matchmaking, the network experience should continue to improve. We’re able to record your proximity to other players on the network and link you up with low latency players.

That said, the networking model used for Firefight (and soon enough, Campaign Matchmaking) is different than the multiplayer model and by default, the effects of latency are experienced a little bit differently as well. One sure fire way to ensure that your experience is impacted dramatically is to party up with other players thousands of miles across the globe from you (or with players who have demonstrably poor connections). While Matchmaking can and will make great connections, if you’re forcing a poor match-up through a party, there’s literally nothing our algorithm can do to lessen the impact of a bad connection.

It should go without saying that in every multiplayer mode you play, you should turn off torrents, stop streaming music, and make sure your network is running at optimal conditions. If you’re on a shared network, check to see that someone else isn’t killing your throughput. Every last megabit is precious.

For a more in depth look at how you can improve or troubleshoot your network, check into our Networking 101 article, previously posted to our Project Page.

Also on the playlist front, we’ve begun the monumental task of evaluating the early crop of user submitted map variants. For now, it’s a piecemeal affair, with several of us tasked with exploring File Shares and community hot-spots in search of well-made community maps. I still plan on detailing the process in a much more transparent fashion, but my own amateur offering, Riptide (formerly known as Jurkout), has yet to be put through the official paces. When we do run it through the grinder, I’ll resurrect the Incompetent Cartographer series so you can see exactly what we’re looking for.

It's a World...for Forging!

It’s a huge undertaking. Even while Halo: Reach was still on hot approach, we were still receiving nearly 100,000 unique Halo 3 map variants each and every month. Obviously, downloading and playtesting each and every offering would require a level of manpower and patience far beyond our limits and capabilities.

That said, we’ve got several us-yet-unveiled programs in the works to aid us in our quest and we’ll be making a lot of noise about all of them soon. We’ve already pushed one community map variant through several phases of our internal gut checks and test passes, and it looks like you’ll actually be playing on some sweet community maps before the year is out. Maybe even as soon as next month. (No promises.) One in particular has been a blast to play in both Big Team Battle and 4v4 Stockpile. Hopefully, you'll get a chance to play it soon yourself.

In addition, Sketch has been hard at work to bring a massive community Forge competition to fruition, where we'll pit our finest Forgers against one another in one of several broad map categories for fame, glory, and some truly fabulous prizes. Of course, the ultimate prize will be getting your map into matchmaking where we can all partake in your design genius, so if you want to get an early jump on the competition you should start thinking about building maps that would fit into the existing Halo: Reach ecosystem. Team Slayer is a great place to start, but we’ll also be looking at maps well suited for Invasion, Big Team Battle, Team Objective, Race, and several other playlist options we already have on offer.

More on this front soon, including map design primers and Forge tutorials. Stay Tuned™.

The online team is still hard at work to bring Bungie.net up to full strength in the immediate aftermath of launch. One of the hot discussion items that continues to pop up in our forums is the player model featured in every player’s Service Record (or rather, the lack thereof). Rest assured your cries are being heard and the team is steadily working towards a solution. Keep your fingers crossed and we’ll keep you update.

If you’ve devised an ingeniously elaborate method to circumvent our credit cap or exploit our challenge system, all of your “hard work” is soon to be for naught. While we understand the compulsion to race to the top and earn all the good gear before any of your friends do, network manipulation and other easily detectable workarounds that fall well outside of standard gameplay will result in a credit reset and several other punitive measures designed to knock you back down to a level playing field with all the rest of us who are playing the game without having to resort to exploits. We're watching you.

Without calling attention to specific methods, here are a couple of examples to help you wrap your mind around what we consider acceptable behavior and what we consider the machinations of people with way too much time on their hands:

Example 1: Laziness is Next to Godliness

You’ve commissioned your little brother to play through the same section of ONI: Sword Base over and over again, wielding the Target Locator like a barbarian’s cudgel in a quest to hit your daily credit cap without ever having to lay a finger on the controller.

This is a little bit sad, but it is not an offense we’re going to punish. *You* are playing the game. Keep your credits (but please go easy on your little brother).

Example Deuce: Communication Breakdown

You’ve written a crafty piece of code in your spare time that plays the same section of ONI: Sword Base over and over, wielding the Target Locator like a mechanical death ray in a sad, robotic quest to hit your daily credit cap while you’re busy doing something that isn’t playing the game.

This is really sad and you can expect to have your credits wiped and your armor items reset (and you can possibly expect to be banned, depending on the severity of the manipulation). We’ve already got a sizable list of offenders gathered up and the Banhammer is being heaved high into the air as soon as this afternoon. Make your peace. You get no warning. We’ll see you on the forums real soon!

Halo Reach:Second Thoughts

2010-10-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

A Quick Tip For Earning Credits.....

After playing Reach for almost 9 days straight now, I think I’m ready to give a full review of it.

There is so much to cover in this review that I might be sitting here for an hour getting everything written. Firstly, the basics.

Halo: Reach is the prequel to Halo 1 (not the sequel to Halo 3, kids) and the best in the series in my opinion. The controls are great and the game runs very smoothly, and I’ve found no bugs or glitches in my time of playing. I expected nothing less than this when I heard of the game for the first time.

This game has the hardest campaign in Halo history, and I’m not just saying that. Grunts, Jackals, and Brutes are pretty similar to their Halo 2 (not 3, I really think they got dumbed down in that one) counterparts, but Elites are freakin’ HARD. Most are like Halo 1 Zealots, without the swords (most of the time). While it is hard, the storytelling is excellent, the best in the series. I think it’s the best campaign in the series for it’s difficulty and story.

Forge was introduced in Halo 3, and while clunky, was revolutionary for it’s time. Reach keeps the same ideas from 3′s forge, and improves on almost everything. Instead of tediously rotating and spinning blocks, Reach introduces rotation snaps, precision editing, and even COORDINATE EDITING. Instead of constantly dealing with the laws of physics, Reach lets you put objects in midair and even lets objects phase through walls. Reach’s forge is AWESOME. Custom games return, but, require a bit more work to execute than 3′s. I don’t want to explain it, but, there is a wonderful thread on bungie.net detailing how to do it. Theater mode remains relativity unchanged.

Most people know to buy Halo for it’s multiplayer, and I can’t agree more. You don’t have to play the already excellent campaign to love this game to death. Matchmaking is greatly improved, instead of individual rankings per playlist, you retain one rank for the whole game, which I like better because you can’t get matched with Captains all the time on Team Slayer. It even lets you choose whether to play with loud, quiet, rude, polite, lone wolves, or team players, but, it doesn’t always work like it should. It also introduces co-op matchmaking, which I really like. Firefight is now a gametype and not a mode, allowing for custom games to play with your friends. Cool.

Returning from Halo 3 is the File Share. File Share sounds like what it is, it lets you share gametypes, forge maps, and films with your friends. However, to keep more than six files in your share, you need to subscribe to Bungie Pro, which (I think) is ten greenbacks a months to share a ton of files at a time.

Reach is a wonderful game, and makes my #3 favorite game of all time. Problems, while there, are very sparse.

2010-09-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

Halo: Reach launched exclusively for the Xbox 360 on September 14, and before the week was out, Microsoft and Bungie already had a significant win to tout. During its first 24 hours on the market, Halo: Reach logged sales to the tune of $200 million in the US and Europe alone. That figure easily bested Halo 3's $170 million day-one sales, though it also came up well shy of the $310 million high-water mark set by the multiplatform Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Today, Bungie has returned to offer a more granular look at the performance of its final entrant in the Halo franchise before shifting focus to its Activision project. Though Bungie didn't offer a specific player count, the Washington-based developer said that Reach's number of online unique users during the first week of availability was equivalent to that of Halo 3's unique online users over the past 45 days.

Halo: Reach's opening week figures easily bested Halo 3's.

As far as concurrent users go, Halo: Reach's first-week numbers surpassed Halo 3's all-time high by more than 65 percent, Bungie said. The studio went on to note that more than 70 million games were played from September 13-20, with more than 2 million files uploaded to the File Shares server. In terms of playtime, gamers have spent more than 5,901 years combined in online games.

Despite the solid performance, Halo: Reach was not the top Xbox Live title for the week of September 13 in terms of unique users. After some confusion, Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 retained its seat atop the play chart, still going strong since its November 2009 launch. Bungie noted today, though, that its "sources" indicate that Halo: Reach has managed to unseat Modern Warfare 2 into week two.

Above: Halo Reach! Finish the fight! Oh… wait a minute…

In case you missed the marketing blurb posted up by every single gaming publication on the planet, Halo: Reach introduces a brand new mechanic into the series with armor abilities. Each of these perks adds quite a bit more bang to your run-of-the-mill Halo multiplayer match. While advanced strategies regarding each armor ability are still in their fledgling stages, online play has already demonstrated quite a few “do’s” and “don’ts.”

Sprint

Above: Haul ass in Halo: Reach

What is it?

The Sprint armor ability is exactly as it sounds: you run faster when it’s activated. Halo fans have been begging for a sprint feature since Halo: Combat Evolved. Well, it only took around 9 years to get the coding right, but Bungie has finally delivered.

Do’s

Me First! Me First!!

Sprint affords you a much higher mobility than anyone else on the battlefield (you know; assuming that they aren’t also using Sprint). Take advantage of that to snatch up your favorite startup weapons and vehicles.

Sure, your team of Major League Gaming hopefuls will probably be bitching the entire match about how you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. F#$@ those guys. You’re the one who gets to drive the Scorpion Tank while equipped with the rocket launcher and sniper rifle; not them.

Peace Out

Above: RUN!!!

While fighting to your last breath over and over again is all heroic and whatnot, living looks much better on the scoreboards. Should an enemy get the drop on you and take out half your shields before you even know what’s going on, don’t turn to face your assailant. Show everybody what a skittish little bunny rabbit you are by hauling ass out of there. Seriously. Leg it to somewhere safe to recover and counterattack.

Melee Marathon Man

The Sprint armor ability is a godsend for all of you plasma sword-wielding sociopaths. The technique is simple enough. Run like Hell towards the person you want to plasma shank. Make sure to stop sprinting once you are within close proximity of your prey, as you cannot attack while sprinting.

Don’ts

The One-Man Army

Being the first one to get a kill is awesome; rushing ahead of your team to engage the enemy is not. You’re fast, not invincible. There’s nothing special about being the first to get a bunch of enemy ordinance lodged in your teeth.

Stick with your team, chief.

Above: Halo Reach! Finish the fight! Oh… wait a minute…

In case you missed the marketing blurb posted up by every single gaming publication on the planet, Halo: Reach introduces a brand new mechanic into the series with armor abilities. Each of these perks adds quite a bit more bang to your run-of-the-mill Halo multiplayer match. While advanced strategies regarding each armor ability are still in their fledgling stages, online play has already demonstrated quite a few “do’s” and “don’ts.”

Sprint

Above: Haul ass in Halo: Reach

What is it?

The Sprint armor ability is exactly as it sounds: you run faster when it’s activated. Halo fans have been begging for a sprint feature since Halo: Combat Evolved. Well, it only took around 9 years to get the coding right, but Bungie has finally delivered.

Do’s

Me First! Me First!!

Sprint affords you a much higher mobility than anyone else on the battlefield (you know; assuming that they aren’t also using Sprint). Take advantage of that to snatch up your favorite startup weapons and vehicles.

Sure, your team of Major League Gaming hopefuls will probably be bitching the entire match about how you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. F#$@ those guys. You’re the one who gets to drive the Scorpion Tank while equipped with the rocket launcher and sniper rifle; not them.

Peace Out

Above: RUN!!!

While fighting to your last breath over and over again is all heroic and whatnot, living looks much better on the scoreboards. Should an enemy get the drop on you and take out half your shields before you even know what’s going on, don’t turn to face your assailant. Show everybody what a skittish little bunny rabbit you are by hauling ass out of there. Seriously. Leg it to somewhere safe to recover and counterattack.

Melee Marathon Man

The Sprint armor ability is a godsend for all of you plasma sword-wielding sociopaths. The technique is simple enough. Run like Hell towards the person you want to plasma shank. Make sure to stop sprinting once you are within close proximity of your prey, as you cannot attack while sprinting.

Don’ts

The One-Man Army

Being the first one to get a kill is awesome; rushing ahead of your team to engage the enemy is not. You’re fast, not invincible. There’s nothing special about being the first to get a bunch of enemy ordinance lodged in your teeth.

Stick with your team, chief.

The do's and don'ts of Halo: Reach's armor abilities

An online idiot's guide to how not to get murdered in multiplayer with Reach's snazzy new armor abilities

Words: Jordan Baughman, GamesRadar US

34 CommentsEmail1diggdiggShare / Save Share / Save this ArticleClose

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Digg.com Del.icio.us Reddit.com Facebook Slashdot.org Google Bookmarks N4G Stumbleupon.com GamerBlips

Email this ArticleClose

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: Invalid EmailFrom: Invalid EmailComment:

Above: Halo Reach! Finish the fight! Oh… wait a minute…

In case you missed the marketing blurb posted up by every single gaming publication on the planet, Halo: Reach introduces a brand new mechanic into the series with armor abilities. Each of these perks adds quite a bit more bang to your run-of-the-mill Halo multiplayer match. While advanced strategies regarding each armor ability are still in their fledgling stages, online play has already demonstrated quite a few “do’s” and “don’ts.”

Sprint

Above: Haul ass in Halo: Reach

What is it?

The Sprint armor ability is exactly as it sounds: you run faster when it’s activated. Halo fans have been begging for a sprint feature since Halo: Combat Evolved. Well, it only took around 9 years to get the coding right, but Bungie has finally delivered.

Do’s

Me First! Me First!!

Sprint affords you a much higher mobility than anyone else on the battlefield (you know; assuming that they aren’t also using Sprint). Take advantage of that to snatch up your favorite startup weapons and vehicles.

Sure, your team of Major League Gaming hopefuls will probably be bitching the entire match about how you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. F#$@ those guys. You’re the one who gets to drive the Scorpion Tank while equipped with the rocket launcher and sniper rifle; not them.

Peace Out

Above: RUN!!!

While fighting to your last breath over and over again is all heroic and whatnot, living looks much better on the scoreboards. Should an enemy get the drop on you and take out half your shields before you even know what’s going on, don’t turn to face your assailant. Show everybody what a skittish little bunny rabbit you are by hauling ass out of there. Seriously. Leg it to somewhere safe to recover and counterattack.

Melee Marathon Man

The Sprint armor ability is a godsend for all of you plasma sword-wielding sociopaths. The technique is simple enough. Run like Hell towards the person you want to plasma shank. Make sure to stop sprinting once you are within close proximity of your prey, as you cannot attack while sprinting.

Don’ts

The One-Man Army

Being the first one to get a kill is awesome; rushing ahead of your team to engage the enemy is not. You’re fast, not invincible. There’s nothing special about being the first to get a bunch of enemy ordinance lodged in your teeth.

Stick with your team, chief.

Above: Mr. Blue Guy thought he was a badass. Now look at him. LOOK AT HIM!

Another do of JetPack, hijacking an air vehicle, especially an UNSC helicopter and dropping it off a cliff then jetpacking away, but not after hovering away from the battlefield with two helpless enemy Spartans onboard.

I alo have to say that active camo is my fav.... another do is sorta camping but its fun for awhile in the beginning, rush a power weapon and leave it there, go camo and just wait, when u get ur first bite kill that sucka

The Don't for the Drop Shield reminds me of a team who was seriously overusing the thing, so I charged into the shield they were hiding in a fired a rocket inside it. Sure, it was a suicide, but I got an Overkill out of it.

Halo Reach is awesome in every way and we all know it!! If you haven't witnessed the best game of 2010 Halo Reach yet, buy it below for only $50.00 Dollars:

Halo Reach Price Reduced

2010-09-29T07:34:00.000-07:00

In the game, you meet Noble Team and for the first time, players will fight alongside a squad of iconic Spartan soldiers. Each one with deadly talents as unique as their individual personalities and customized gear. It is an intense campaign that lets you live the events that set the stage for the Halo trilogy as the UNSC and Covenant clash at the height of their military power. Halo Reach takes a massive leap forward through all-new engine technology designed to take full advantage of next-generation graphics, audio, special effects, AI and animation. This game is the definitive multiplayer experience. It builds on the success of its predecessors, setting a new standard for competitive gameplay, customization, variety, and community integration. There is no question this is a great game. The only question left is why you have not bought it yet. It would make a great gift also.

I4U News brings you daily shopping tips on new releases, pre-orders, hot deals, sales events and unique gadgets. Read the latest Shopping Tips now.

Halo: Reach Makes You A Better Employee, A Better Person

2010-09-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

This Guy Has Taken Halo Reach Too Seriously!

September 15, 2010, 07:40 AM — Today's post is for all the Xbox gamers out there. How are you feeling this morning? A little blurry-eyed? Did that alarm seem to go off an hour too soon? Are you regretting staying up for one last match (several times in a row)? Yeah, a new Halo game will do that to you.

Yesterday's release of Halo: Reach was something of a momentous occasion. After all, it's the last (well, for now; these decisions have a way of reversing themselves) Halo game from Bungie. Plus it felt like the start of the holiday gaming season for this year. And running up to the release we all read the early reviews, most of which were quite favorable (and rightly so, in my opinion). The die-hard fans hit a Midnight Launch party Monday night, of course (by the time I woke up Tuesday morning I saw at least one person claiming to have finished the campaign already) but most of us had to wait until we got home from work yesterday to immerse ourselves into the Halo universe once again.

So we stayed up much too late, and some of us might be feeling a little guilty about that. But don't! You weren't up late playing a video game. No sir! You were up honing your decision making skills. Trust me on this, it's a scientific fact! A post over at Gamasutra yesterday detailed a study that demonstrated that people who played a first person shooter completed tasks more quickly, and just as accurately, as a control group who played some boring Sims 2 game. So if the boss comments on your haggard look this morning, just tell him you were training to be a better employee.

And tonight, remember that science is on your side. You owe it to your employer, to your friends and family, and to yourself, to play more Halo: Reach. You never know when that extra speed in coming to a decision will mean the difference between life and death! Or at least help snag a big sales contract or troubleshoot a systems problem more quickly. Heck, all things considered, it'd be irresponsible for you not to play tonight!

And if you're thinking this blog post seems pretty light on content, and that maybe this blogger was also up too late playing, well, guilty as charged. The adventures of Noble Team and number 6 had me glued to the Xbox. So I want to leave you with something a bit meatier to sink your teeth into over your morning coffee. Let's head back to Gamasutra again for a great piece on the Halo: Reach launch event that was held Monday night in New York City. It's a nice 'feel good' piece for fans of Halo. Enjoy!

Halo: Reach And Modern Warfare 2 Vie For Most Online Play

2010-09-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

Halo Reach Gets Beat Out By MW2 In 1st Week

According to statistics released yesterday by Microsoft's Major Nelson, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 , but the statistics only cover the dates between September 13 and 19. Reach came out on September 14, so next week will be the true test of whether MW2 will be toppled from its spot on the top of the "charts" it's held for nearly a year.

Interestingly, online platform Raptr has released its own statistics that show that Halo: Reach has beaten MW 2, and that Modern Warfare 2's playtime has dropped by 50 percent since Reach was released. Raptr's numbers reflect Raptr users as opposed to the general population of Live users, though.

Anyway, the weekly top online titles from Major Nelson are below:

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles

1 Modern Warfare 2

2 Halo: Reach

3 Halo 3

4 Call of Duty: WaW

5 FIFA Soccer 11 Dem

6 FIFA 10

7 Call of Duty 4 (Purchase the full game for direct download)

8 Madden NFL 11

9 GTA IV (Purchase the full game for direct download)

10 Battlefield Bad Co. 2

11 Gears of War 2

12 Red Dead Redemption

13 Halo 3: ODST

14 Forza Motorsport 3 (Download the demo)

15 Left 4 Dead 2

16 NBA 2K11 Demo

17 NHL 11

18 NCAA Football 11

19 Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 Demo

20 Madden NFL 10

So, what do you guys think? Is next week going to be the first in which Halo: Reach is in the top Live spot?

Get Your Halo Gaming Gear Below:

Halo Reach Out-Sells COD Modern Warfare

2010-09-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

Halo Reach Surpasses Sales Of COD In Fist Two Weeks

A promotional shot from the Xbox 360 video game ‘Halo: Reach.’ The game went on sale Tuesday September 14, and has already sold $10000 million worth of copies.

The Halo series has seen a lot of ups and downs.

The original "Halo" was a bland first-person-shooter that was saved by its multiplayer mode.

"Halo 2" was given a fantastic redesign and was one of the most beautiful games to come out on the original Xbox, and, even though the ending was non-existent, the story until that point was top notch, especially with the introduction of the alien Brutes.

Its online playability brought opponents together online in a way that had been unheard of on consoles at the time.

While "Halo 3" didn't lose any of the excellence from its predecessor, it didn't really add anything to the series, and things started to go downhill there, with the less than stellar reception of "Halo Wars" and the criticism aimed at "Halo 3: ODST's" short story mode and lack of real multiplayer update.

I am proud to say that "Halo: Reach" is the best entry in the series yet.

The game tells the story of Reach, the colony previously featured in the book "Halo: Fall of Reach," a bastion of humanity in a universe where the religious Covenant have wiped out almost all Earth colonies.

Anyone who has read the book knows it doesn't end too well for humanity, and the events of Reach will lead directly into the tail-whooping that the Covenant will receive from Master Chief in the original "Halo."

Unlike the book though, "Halo: Reach" follows the story of six new characters, Noble Team, a group of super-soldiers who, when sent to quell what is thought to be a rebellion, instead first encounter the alien enemy.

Each member of Noble Team is an unique individual with a fully fleshed-out personality, which is interesting in a FPS where typically all characters are pretty gung ho about shooting things in the face.

My personal favorite is the tranquil giant Jorge, but there are also skull-emblazoned, tough guy Emile, leader Carter, tech-savy tough girl Kat, talkative sniper Jun and the player's character.

What's nice is that the player can fully design their in-game avatar, choosing from sets of various armors, emblems and colors.

As players earn points in multiplayer and go up in rank, more armor types become available to them to create a truly unique character.

Unique character voices can also be purchased using the collectibles points, featuring the game's original characters and series favorites like Sgt. Johnson, Gunnery Sergeant Buck and Master Chief himself.

It is the little things that make the game go a long way.

While the story mode is fantastic, and by the end you will care for your teammates, it is the multiplayer that makes this game worth it.

It allows players to play just about any mode featured in a previous Halo.

For those who didn't care for the new abilities granted in "Halo: Reach's" beta earlier this year, more classic game modes are accessible as well.

The matchmaking is great too, with players offered a vote before each match as to what level they will be fighting on, using what game mode and what kind of abilities players will have access to.

My personal favorite is Swat Mode on Team Slayer, where players are only given a rifle and a pistol and they have no shields.

Every head shot is an instant kill and it is glorious.

However, my favorite addition to the game comes in the form of a so called "psychiatric analysis."

It is the online settings the player would like to use, whether or not they want to play for fun or to win or with a mature or childish crowd.

It is this addition that may diminish the stigma with playing video games on Xbox Live.

Those with an Xbox 360 should already have this game, but, for those who think they're too cool or don't want to be disappointed again, trust me on this and go out and buy it.

Halo Reach Leaves Some Fans Hanging

2010-09-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

Halo had a great series, but is Halo Reach the end to the series? Many people say no, that some other game studio will pick up the Halo series again. Bungie has set up for a game studio to make Halo 4, the end cut scene for Halo 3 (Only Legendary ending) showed the ship Master Chief and Cortana on, flew though another Halo ring. One question is, will the game be good, if Bungie is not making it? That is a good question, but Ensemble Studios made Halo Wars, and that was an OK game. There are rumors going around already about another Halo game being in production. Some rumors are that the next Halo game will be called Halo Forerunner. Those rumors are just rumors so anything can happen. This is the last game for Bungie, but is it the last game for the Halo Series?

Halo Reach Disappoints Some Halo Fans

And so it comes to this. Bungie has left the Microsoft stable and joined up with Activision to start an entirely new franchise. After the success of Halo, you can bet on Bungie coming up with a formidable title for Activision to add to its stable. However, before then we need to finish the Halo story.

Halo: Reach is a love letter from Bungie to the fans; this much is clear. It takes everything learned over the past 10 years since Halo 1 and puts it into one of the most value packed games around. Halo was getting a bit old and stale, especially with ODST, but Reach reminds us of just why Halo is as big as it is.

In what is becoming a popular trend with video game sequels, Halo: Reach is a prequel to the original game. That’s right, no master chief and no guilty spark to tear your hair out over. Instead, the game feels like a reboot of the franchise. By doing this, Bungie has been able to experiment with the series and it has paid off in spades. Halo: Reach includes some of the best gameplay you are likely to encounter this year and takes the series to the next level.

Reach is the home planet of the UNSC. Reach must be defended. With that in mind, you begin the campaign in a squadron tasked with defending Reach from the rapidly advancing enemy. The defence of Reach is where the game revolves, but as you would expect, the storyline contains many twists and turns before the absolute epic conclusion that is fitting for such a popular series. Halo: Reach will have you begging Bungie for more. They say that going out on top is the best way to go when you are popular, and this is exactly what Bungie has managed with this title.

The Halo gameplay itself remains much the same, so if you haven’t liked Halo in the past, it is unlikely that you will warm to Reach. It still remains a case of moving from A to B while taking down a few enemies. There are no puzzles in the game with the action purely focused on the combat. Considering the advancements in technology and gameplay we have seen in the past decade, it is somewhat surprising that Halo can remain so compelling, but it does and you will find it very hard to put the controller down before finishing the game.

One thing that is clear during the campaign, however, is that the war in Halo has changed. No longer are you in small battles; sometimes lots of enemies are present on screen which brings home the epic nature of each battle. The cut scenes have also taken this to the next level with five or ten pelicans being displayed rather than just one. This goes hand in hand with Bungies new engine that has allowed them to make the biggest maps ever seen in a Halo game, and just increases the vast feel of the campaign mode.

If we had to offer one knock against the campaign, it would have to be the length. It is quite short and sweet, but from minute one to the end you are enthralled. ‘Just one more mission’ you will be uttering as the clock strikes three in the morning. The campaign also wraps up the series properly. Many times we see franchises end with lots of cliffhangers that are never solved and people argue on internet forums for no good reason about them. Halo: Reach does not do this.

Some Complaints and criticism has been planted on Bungies New Launch Of Halo Reach because of the dramatic changes that we ere made form Halo 3. These changes were made to acclimate the mass of gamers, taking out the opinions and wishes of some hardcore Halo 3 fans. In my opinion, Halo Reach was mass- marketed for all gamers not just the Halo fans which has left some legends in Halo 3 relinquished form playing Halo Reach. I talked to Social BTB great Crazycrackhead, and he told me, "This game is now for nubs, the game has become too strategic and not enough about skill." I agree on his behalf in part, because the sprint and sword combination is mega cheap and the maps don't have a surplus of mid-range and long-range weapons making close-combat the norm. So, this leaves me to say, did Bungie go too far in creating Halo Reach? Or Is The new versatility and flexibility for other gamers good for the franchise? In all honest, I believe that the fundamentals of Halo Was too recklessly stripped and not enough to allow for Halo Reach to be better Than Halo 3 or 2. When we see that a new game in a series is coming out we are expecting better game play but with the same basic components only ostracized to acclimate a better game. In Halo Reach' case, the game was changed too dramatically causing Halo 3 Fans to fall of the bandwagon for the Halo series. So, sorry those of you who feel that Halo Reach pails in comparison to the previous halos but until Halo 4 [expected in 2011] than you have to play Halo Reach or venture off into RPG's/ COD. Halo Reach has drastically changed the main components but have added in many new elements that make the game a whole lot fairer, intense, fast-paced, and attractive to all gamers.

Many things within the actual gameplay have been improved. There are new weapons on offer and not being Master Chief means that you are more vulnerable on the battlefield. Recharging health is gone with health packs littered throughout the world, and the shields are not as powerful as the green Spartans. You still can just run up to enemies and shoot them rather than take cover and hide, but nowhere near as much as you would with Chief.

Some of the new weapons are not used enough in our opinion, such as the option to call in airstrikes. It is clear that Bungie has looked at another of the most popular franchises around; Modern Warfare, and built what makes that game so good into its own megastar engine. Epic cut scenes, huge explosions, emotional stories and fast, quick gunplay is the order of the day in Halo: Reach and you will definitely want more than one helping.

However, perhaps the biggest improvement you will notice to Halo straight up is the graphics engine. Rebuilt from scratch, the engine allows the battles to seem more epic and a lot more graphic fidelity. In a word for Halo players, Reach is gorgeous. Gone are the blocky style textures that have no place in today's High Definition world. They have been replaced with crisp, improved textures and weapons models. The world just feels bigger and better and the graphics engine has a lot to do with this. Another key point is that Bungie has mixed up the gameplay this time around with space combat and flying levels. To take a risk with the last game they will produce in a series is a risk, especially with so many fans, but this risk has paid off.

Once you move past the campaign mode, the rest of the game is also just as jam packed. Firefight returns from ODST with more weapons and maps than ever before. Firefight is a survival mode where wave after wave of enemies are thrown at you individually or in a group and until you succumb to the forces, you fight for survival. This is one of the more popular game modes on Xbox Live due to the fast paced nature of the format.

Aside from Firefight, the game modes previously seen in Halo 3 make a welcome return. Bungies award winning party system has been retained as well, allowing you to pair up quickly for games, and it still remains the standard in the industry for how multiplayer gaming on Xbox Live should be done. You can play capture the flag, death match, slayer etc. just like the previous games and of course with modifiers that allow you to customise the games even further.

Halo has always been known for its multiplayer and this is no exception. Reach also heralds the return of the Forge game mode. Forge for those who didn’t play Halo 3, allows you to build your own levels and then play those maps amongst friends. The feature has been refined even further allowing you to build bigger and better maps in Bungies new Halo engine.

Halo: Reach is a game that any Xbox 360 owner really needs to own. It represents one of the best value titles to be released in 2010 with the content available and takes Halo to a status where as a gaming franchise it will probably not be forgotten. Bungie has managed something that few entertainment artists manage to do. They have gone out on a high and delivered what amounts to be the best game in the franchise to date. There will be more Halo games no doubt, but it won’t be the same. Bungie had the magic touch on this franchise and like Call of Duty, when built by someone else it most likely won’t feel the same. Goodbye (Bungie) Halo, we’ll miss you, but at least you went out on top.

Reach For The Halo Newbie

2010-09-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

Halo Reach' Campaign Rocked But Was Too Short

Halo Reach Campaign Was Too Easy For Most Gamers

The Sniper Rifle Brings Head-Shot Haven In Halo Reach

Halo's online community is a phenomenon, breaking gameplay records with every new release.

With the enjoyable but problematic Halo: Reach single player campaign behind me, I decided I was ready for Halo’s main event: online multiplayer.

The entire Halo franchise has been responsible for selling millions of Xbox Live gold memberships, as legions of wannabe Spartans swarm online to blow each other away in a variety of game modes. Reach has been no exception, with Halo developer Bungie’s playing statistics for the title including some staggering numbers.

In a news update last Friday, Bungie unveiled such figures as 31 million games played, tallying up to 953 years of automatic matchmaking games if they were played end-to-end. The peak on launch day was 700,000 players logged in and playing Reach simultaneously. Even more incredible is that these figures were released before the game’s first weekend, only three days after its Tuesday release.

Halo: Reach was played by a huge number of fans in its first days of release.

Clearly, this is one seriously popular game online, so I had to get into it.

My first step was to play through part of the story co-operatively with some friends, in this case my GameTaco co-conspirators Smoolander, Wall, and Mr Ak. Despite my lack of confidence, we kicked off in the second-highest difficulty mode, “Heroic”.

Immediately, the game was vastly improved. On higher difficulty and with four human players, the game throws far more enemies at your team, making the battlefield feel far more dynamic and chaotic. We blasted through the first few levels, taking turns driving the Warthog jeeps and operating turrets (except for Smoolander, who walked the whole way in order to get an Xbox achievement).

The cooperative campaign provides some of the chaotic intensity missing from the single-player experience.

We crashed through those levels so quickly that some in the group suggested we crank the difficulty to maximum, the dreaded “Legendary”. Sadly, this was where some very simplistic game design became glaringly obvious. On this difficulty level, rather than becoming smarter or more accurate with their weapons, the alien enemies simply became nearly impervious to damage. While the added challenge was enjoyable, there is something very unsatisfying about sniping a Elite warrior with eight headshots, only to have him shrug off every one of them and kill you with a single returned shot.

This was nothing, though, compared to the experience we had trying to fly helicopters through a city skyline, dogfighting with enemy craft and landing on rooftops to launch raids against hostile infantry. This section was, in a word, broken. Despite the game assuring us that certain checkpoints had been recorded, after our frequent deaths we found ourselves respawning in apparently random positions on the very large map. Far too often one or two players would be stranded at the start of the level with no helicopter to carry them to the action, and at least once a player respawned without having died first. It was extremely frustrating, and cast a momentary dark cloud over our otherwise fun gaming session.

Of course, the Halo experience cannot be considered complete without engaging in some random matchmaking battles with strangers on Xbox Live, so that was to be the final stage in my Halo baptism. Online Halo players have something of a reputation in the wider gaming community, being notorious for obscene trash-talking and poor sportsmanship. I braced myself for sharp questions about my sexual orientation and baseless claims about my mother’s sexual proclivities and logged in.

Sadly, Halo: Reach's customisable matchmaking doesn't always provide the desired results.

As it happened, my worry was groundless. Despite my preconceived notions, I never received a single word of abuse. I was never even called a “noob” (even though that is what I undoubtedly was). In those initial deathmatch rounds, the worst thing that was done to me was to kill me, over and over again. It was humiliating.

To me, this highlighted one of the issues with an entrenched gaming community like the one that has formed around Halo. Many of these players have been Halo fans for years, some of them going right back to the inaugural Halo: Combat Evolved, released on the original Xbox in 2001. When a large core of the playing community is extremely good at the online game, newcomers can feel locked out, because they keep dying before they can learn anything. How can you develop skills and learn the map layouts when you’re always being killed within seconds of spawning?

Thankfully, Bungie took that into account, building a “similar skill level” filter into Reach’s matchmaking. I switched it on and set the game looking for someone for me to play against. It timed out, returning no matches. Oh well, I thought, the game has only been out for a bit over a week, so there must be some other newbies online. I told the game to search again, and a minute or so later I got the same result: no matches.

As a beginning player wanting to learn the ropes of the competitive online game modes, this frustrated the hell out of me. I know there must be other new players out there, but for some reason the game could not find any of them for me, at least on that occasion.

Disillusioned by deathmatch, I decided to try some random matchmaking on a cooperative game mode. Reach’s Firefight mode is similar to Gears of War’s Horde mode, with wave after wave of increasingly tough enemies mobbing the players’ defensive position. The difference in Firefight is that you can win: only a particular number of enemies will attack, and killing all of them within the time limit will win the game for the human team and award a score bonus.

It was in Firefight that I found my online Halo home. I was lucky enough to be matched with some pleasant and cooperative fellow players who were happy to chat with me as we fought, giving me pointers and sympathising with my many deaths. Perhaps I am just not psychological made up for deathmatch, as I found playing the campaign with my friends or engaging in co-op firefights with random strangers on Xbox Live far more enjoyable.

That was my epic Halo: Reach experience. I still prefer my keyboard and mouse, with the twin analogue sticks being most irritating to me when trying to use a zoomed-in sniper rifle, but I got reasonably good with the controls eventually and had quite a lot of fun.

Even so, my overall goal was to try to find out what all the fuss is about. Halo: Reach had one of the biggest launches in entertainment history, earning $us200 million in its first day of sales, three times the first day box office of cinematic record-holder The Dark Knight. Bungie must be doing something right to capture and retain such a massive audience.

Halo: Reach, online and off, struck me as a good shooter with some clever design features, but never outstanding in any way. Perhaps I am just too much of an outsider to understand its enduing appeal; maybe I am just a noob after all.

With Latest Launch, Halo Could Reach New Heights

2010-09-23T07:03:00.000-07:00

This special Halo: Reach kit consists of a metal briefcase that opens to revel a series of Halo-related items.

(Credit: Matt Fitzgerald/CNET) There's probably no better way to determine who's a hard-core Xbox player and who's not than this: do they play Halo?

On November 15, 2001, the then relatively low-profile video game development studio Bungie, which at the time was owned by Microsoft, released what would become one of the most significant game titles ever--Halo: Combat Evolved.

No one knew it at the time, but this storyline, spelled out in the game's manual--for Microsoft's original Xbox, not the Xbox 360--ushered in what is now nine years and the six titles of what is easily one of the most successful franchises in entertainment:

The year is 2552. Planet Earth still exists, but overpopulation has forced many of her former residents to colonize other worlds. Faster-than-light travel is now a reality, and Earth's unified government, through the United Nations Space Command, has put its full weight behind the colonization effort. Millions of humans now live on habitable planets in other solar systems. A keystone of humanity's colonization efforts is the planet Reach, an interstellar naval yard that builds colony ships for civilians and warships for the UNSC's armed forces. Conveniently close to Earth, Reach is also a hub of scientific and military activity.

Thirty-two years ago, contact with the outer colony Harvest was lost. A battlegroup sent to investigate was almost completely destroyed; only one badly damaged ship returned to Reach. Its crew told of a seemingly unstoppable alien warship that had effortlessly annihilated their forces.

This was humankind's first encounter with a group of aliens they eventually came to know as the Covenant, a collective of alien races united in their fanatical religious devotion. Covenant religious elders declared humanity an affront to the gods, and the Covenant warrior caste waged a holy war upon humanity with gruesome diligence. After a series of crushing defeats and obliterated colonies, UNSC Admiral Preston Cole established the Cole Protocol: no vessel may inadvertently lead the Covenant to Earth. When forced to withdraw, ships must avoid Earth-bound vectors--even if that means jumping without proper navigational calculations. Vessels in danger of capture must self-destruct.

On Reach, a secret military project to create cyborg super-soldiers takes on newfound importance. The soldiers of the Spartan-II project rack up an impressive record against the Covenant in test deployments, but there are too few of them to turn the tide of the war.

Existing Spartan-II soldiers are recalled to Reach for further augmentation. The plan: board a Covenant vessel with the improved Spartan-IIs and learn the location of the Covenant home world. Two days before the mission begins, Covenant forces strike Reach and annihilate the colony. The Covenant are now on Earth's doorstep. One ship, the Pillar of Autumn, escapes with the last Spartan-II and makes a blind jump into deep space, hoping to lead the Covenant away from Earth.

In the worlds of video games, there are many developers and publishers that herald their franchises as among the most successful of all time. Of course, it can be hard to measure which are actually the most successful of all time, since there are many different metrics--unit sales, revenues, number of users, hours of play, and so on. But there is no doubt that Halo counts among the top tier, joining the likes of Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, The Sims, and so on. According to VGChartz, which tracks sales, the five existing Halo titles--Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Wars, and Halo 3: ODST--have sold a total of 33.5 million units for the Xbox, and that doesn't include additional versions of some of those titles that were released for Windows and other platforms.

Of course, among console players, no one has played any Halo title on any of Sony's PlayStations, or Nintendo's Wii, given that the franchise has always been an Xbox exclusive. And while Bungie developed four of the five existing titles, there was a brief moment in 2009 (Halo Wars) when Ensemble Studios took over for Bungie, which had severed official ties with Microsoft in 2007. But with Halo 3: ODST and now, Halo: Reach, he now independent Bungie stepped right back into the breach and took back the Halo reins--and returned it to the top of the charts after Halo Wars' less than stellar sales performance.

And while it's been years since Microsoft released its Xbox 360 and moved the Halo franchise onto that platform with the massively successful Halo 3, it was only recently that the very last players were forced to step away from playing Halo 2 on Xbox Live via their original Xboxes.

Over the years, Halo has become such a cultural touchstone that not only is there a movie version in the works--it is scheduled for a 2012 release--but "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson is on board as its executive producer, and actor Kevin James is said to be slated to play Master Chief.

Now, with Halo: Reach finally in stores--and likely on millions of players' Xboxes--the franchise has taken its next step. Last February, Bungie let the cat out of the bag, revealing that the game is a standalone prequel to the franchise, offering fans a fully original story and a number of new characters, as well as a scale beyond what the developer has done with any previous Halo title. At the time the company said that the new game will have a much darker story line than its predecessors and is centered around "a key turning point in the Human-Covenant War," said Bungie creative director Marcus Lehto.

In the game, which takes place in 2552, the planet Reach is mankind's final line of defense against the Covenant, as well as home to the human military, the Spartan program. Halo: Reach focuses on the Noble Team, a single group of Spartans, led by a character called Carter 259.

But, if you're reading this, you're no doubt one of the hard core. And you already knew all this.

.The following products are available:

The Best And Worst Of THe Halo Maps

2010-09-22T06:28:00.000-07:00

We all know that maps make the multiplayer experience and most Halo fans would concur with me that Halo 2 had the best multiplayer experience because of the quality maps available for gameplay. If you have great maps in a game, then everything is more enjoyable and the action is non-stop!! We all remember Headlong, Valhalla, And Sanctuary and the awesome moments that we shared with our friends on those maps. Then we frown at the maps Epitaph, Snowbound, And Backwash because of their cheap design or outlandish design. So , what makes a good map. A good map has to have two bases; one for each team, it has to have strategic weapon spawns that bring out the battle from the beginning, and they have to evoke open, combative game play that has certain characteristics fitting for team play. Well, for starters I give you the worst maps of Halo Through Halo 3 and then move on to categorizing the new maps of Halo Reach.

Hemmorhage

Swordbase

Worst maps in Halo series:

Backwash

Elongation

Epitaph [Worst]

Isolation

Powerhouse

Snowbound

Guardian

Assembly

Foundry

Rat's Nest

Reflection

Gemini

Boneyard

Desolation

Spire

Chiron TL34

Sandtrap

Paradiso

Best maps in Halo series:

Beaver Creek

Hang em' high

Midship

Zealot

Burial Mounds

Lockout

Coagulation

Warlock

Pinnacle

Ascension

Sanctuary

Sidewinder

Ivory Tower

Relic

The Cage

Containment

Halo Reach Maps

The Good:

Boneyard

Paradiso

Asylum

Countdown

Boardwalk

Hemorrage

The Cage

Pinnacle

Swordbase

Powerhouse

The Bad

Boardwalk

Countdown

Asylum

Zealot

Spire

Reflection

Halo Reach Gaming Gear Below!!! Sale!!

Hemmorhage

'Halo: Reach' To Add Campaign Matchmaking

2010-09-21T06:16:00.000-07:00

Those Elites Are Tricky In The Campign

Halo Reach Wil Include The Optin For Campign In Matchmaking

Halo Reach Sniping Level

Halo Reach Has Interesting Shades For The Campaign

You won't Get Tired Of THis Installment

Bungie's community content writer Eric Osborne said that the feature was held back so that players would not spoil the story by playing missions out of order.

"The main reason for its omission is simple: we don't want your very first experience in campaign to occur on the very last level," he said.

"Like all our matchmaking playlists, Campaign Matchmaking will offer all players in the party a vote as to which mission they'll end up tackling together.

"Democracy is totally sweet, but in this case, the majority might overrule your No Spoilers Doctrine."

The October update will also add bug fixes, balance issues, new game types and additional Forge maps.

Halo: Reach was released last week for Xbox 360.

IN OTHER NEWS......

Halo: Reach has topped the Xbox 360 chart.

It is followed by Mafia II and Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands in second and third.

Elsewhere, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions slips to ninth while Need For Speed: Shift climbs to fifth.

The top ten in full:

1. (-) Halo: Reach (Microsoft Game Studios)

2. (1) Mafia II (2K Games)

3. (6) Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Ubisoft)

4. (4) Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts)

5. (8) Need For Speed: Shift (Electronic Arts)

6. (3) Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (Square Enix)

7. (9) Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar)

8. (5) Sniper: Ghost Warrior (City Interactive)

9. (7) Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (Activision)

The Vehicle Level In The Campaign Takes The Cake

It Gets Enjoyably Dark In The Campaign

Halo Reach Looks To Be The Best Game Of 2010

Ten Reasons Why Halo: Reach Is The Best Halo Ever

2010-09-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

Nowe, after five days of gameplay [noncontinuous thankfully] I have pulled out the top ten reasons why Halo Reach is awesome. These are opiniated and I didn't include some of the obvious reason like the weapons, maps, and stellar pics but looked to what stood out form the previous halo games.

Prior to playing Halo: Reach, I wasn’t a huge Halo fan. I was probably somewhere in the ten-thousands on the consummate Halo fanboy leaderboard, having merely “liked” Combat evolved, not played much multiplayer and only thought about Master Chief once before I went to sleep in the run-up to the Reach review event. But having completed Bungie’s Halo swan song, I deem it to be the best Halo game ever – and here are ten reasons why:

1. Because it’s Bungie’s Last Halo

You can imagine the insane brainstorm session Bungie had at the start of Reach’s development, with orders from top Bungie brass for the Halo team to do whatever they like, just raise the bar so impossibly high that 343 Industries will have to “crunch” for three years solid just to create game fit to walk in Reach’s shadow.

2. Because Derek Carroll Says It Is

Halo multiplayer designer Derek Carroll is an honest man. He eats fish on Fridays, considers television to be a vice and doesn’t even tell white lies to save people’s feelings. This is why we believe him when he told us “We set the bar really high. We don’t know what the next Halo game will be but, Halo: Reach is the best Halo”.

3. Because It Has A Jet Pack

Bungie takes a great campaign game with sprawling, tiered map design and then gives Noble 6 a limited amount of three-dimensional movement with a jet pack, opening up the boundaries of experimental shooting and hinting at the emergent potential of Reach’s multiplayer online gaming.

4. Because It's Truly Legendary

Bungie knows how to spin a good yarn. You know the feeling that you’ve just played a role in small but epic piece of fictional history? Combat Evolved players will know what I’m talking about: that yawning sense of gravity imbued in your every decision. Every level of Reach has that in spades and Noble 6 is the very definition of a legend.

5. Because SPARTANS Never Die

Okay I’m chomping at the bit here… I want to give you some details of Reach’s final level so badly, but the merest mention will spoil it for true Halo fans that have saved themselves for the official launch. All I will say is, it’s one of the best-conceived, most ingenious series sign-off’s I’ve ever played.

6. Because Map-Making Rocks

Halo 3’s Forge World was fairly inaccessible to all but the most dedicated cartographers, and even then some sterling maps emerged from it anyway. Bungie has made Forge World a lot easier to use for all while giving top-end map makers even more control over their creatons.

7. Because Firefight Has Evolved

Bungie has applied the same treatment to Firefight 2.0 that it has to Forge World. Creating new multiplayer modes has expanded to give mode-makers the option to fine tune enemy types and how they appear, manipulating skulls and uploading maps for community perusal and play. It gives life to Reach way beyond what you get in the box.

8. Because Your Gran Can Play Too

Yup, you heard it right. Reach’s Trueskill means players will be rated within around ten games or so according to their skill levelm then matched to the appropriate online games. Players of all levels can muck in with team and multiplayer games without having to worry about beating their two-second average life span or finding a decent challenge.

9. Because It’s The King Of Vehicle Combat

It’s a testament to the overall quality of Halo that it can feature the most diverse and exciting vehicle combat in the genre, yet not be known as the shooter with the cool cars. From the mundane Warthogs to Ghosts, Banshees, an entire level devoted to space flight in the Sabre and the awesome Scorpion, we haven’t enjoyed vehicle combat this much since we first played Destruction Derby.

10. Because It Will Last Until Oblivion

When Microsoft wanted to turn the last servers of the original XBox Live off, a hardcore contingent of Halo players kept them going for weeks by refusing to log off. Halo fans will be playing Reach well past its “sell-by” date and undoubtedly well into the life span of the next generation of Microsoft console. And they’ll still be playing when those servers are inevitably switched off, too.

Which Halo Campaign Toughest

2010-09-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

Halo Reach Had Some Interesting Foes

Halo Reach Didn't Have Much Of A Plot For Their Campaign

There Was Some Overpowered Lasers In The Campaign

The Campaign Was Not Even Close To The Difficulty Of Halo 2's

With Halo: Reach being Bungie's swan song for the series, it seemed the right time for a group of Halo experts to figure out which Halo game is the hardest. Among the committee that spent dozens of hours debating (and by hours, I mean minutes) are Halo aficionados Hilary Goldstein (that's me!), Will Tuttle, David Clayman, Erik Brudvig, Arthur Gies, and Nate Ahearn.

We judged the overall campaign difficulty for each game, considering both the single-player experience and the co-op experience. And always with a mind on the Legendary difficulty, since that's the true measure of each Halo experience. Co-op difficulty was a major influencing factor in the overall rankings, since many of the single-player experiences are fairly comparable for most of the games in the series.

Here are our picks from easiest to hardest.

Halo: Combat Evolved

Difficulty:
Scared Little Grunt It might have seemed tough nine years ago, but give Halo: CE a try now and you'll likely find yourself giggling at how easy it is to take down the Covenant. Despite the lack of cool moves like vehicle jacking, the weapons hold a ton of ammo, you can stock up on grenades, and the assault rifle is a beast. All the years of playing Halo make the original a cake walk. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The series should continually get tougher.

Halo 3
Difficulty:Really Hard
Non-Sniping Jackal Even Bungie admits that Master Chief had turned into a super hero by Halo 3. Though the single-player may be comparable in difficulty to some of the other games (Flood snipers, really?!), the challenge is negated the minute your friends join in. Halo 3's co-op campaign doesn't scale. That means the challenge is three times less when you have three friends playing with you. Not an exaggeration: We beat Halo 3 on Legendary with four players in just a couple of hours at the review event.

Halo 3: ODST
Difficulty:Normal
Angry Brute Putting you in the shoes of an ODST meant your character's abilities had to be stifled. No more super-human Master Chief stuff. You get one weapon to wield and, in the spirit of the first Halo, you have health that doesn't automatically regenerate but requires health packs. ODST is actually toughest at the outset, because it's hard to accept that, as a lone wolf ODST, you just shouldn't try and stand toe-to-toe with every enemy you encounter. It takes some time to acclimate, and once you do, caution is often the smarter choice over the usual Halo bravado.

Halo 2
Difficulty:Almost Too Hard
Sword-Wielding Elite Those God damned Jackal snipers, am I right? Anyone who played Halo 2 on Legendary can attest to how incredibly annoying those snipers could be. They could snipe the pixel off a gnat. But where Halo 2 gets really tough is when you play co-op. When one person dies, you're both sent back to the last checkpoint. When you have some truly tough (and unfairly accurate enemies) this can make progression through the campaign with a buddy close to impossible at times.

Halo: Reach
Difficulty:Easy
Many, Many Hunters Bungie promised that Halo: Reach was the hardest Halo game and that was no lie, due to scaling cooperative play. The campaign has some tough difficulty spikes towards the end, but nothing a seasoned vet can't fight their way through. It's hard, don't get me wrong, but it's not impossible on your own. However, the difficulty scales in co-op, meaning that if you have three friends in tow, the game is basically three times as hard. Considering that Halo: Reach is already a pretty hard game to beat, upping the difficulty provides, well, a legendary challenge that only the best group of Halo players can hope to overcome. Halo Reach had a very good campaign but I put all of the skulls on and beat it with a bud in just one night [my night being 18 hours]!! This is astonishing compared to Halo 3 which took atleast three days on legendary. I think all of the weapons and the fact that by now Halo fans have become consummate at the halo campaigns are contributing factors to why it seemed so easy to beat Halo Reach campaign even on the toughest of difficulty settings. Halo Reach indeed has a few more challenges to come just not with the easy campaign. Overall, my opinion is that Halo 2 had the hardest campaign because they were parts with overpowered elites and vehicles with no effective artillery to combat them. Of course maybe the real fact is disappointment in Halo Reach Campiogn because the ending with the covenant ships attacking the tower and you having to destroy the halo or whatever that red thing was, was not too impressive of a bang to go out on. The previous halos had a special combo of bosses or left the toughest part for last, but in this campaign in Reach; I didn't die once barely on the last level [well, maybe twice to the spikers]. Point being that Halo Reach has it all when it comes to matchmaking but maybe one year is not enough time to create a challenging enough campaign.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Which Halo game did you think was the toughest? Give us your thoughts in the comment section below.

Second Opinions On Halo Reach

2010-09-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

Remember Reach

Halo: Reach is Bungie's final Halo game. And judging by the reviews from all three IGN regions (US, UK, and Australia), it's a worthy sendoff. But why trust the opinion of three of IGN's most notable editors? We've got plenty of other editors who have played Reach and are ready to offer their thoughts. You want multiple opinions? Oh, you're gonna get 'em.

Halo Reach ?Has The Best Gametypes Of Any Online Game

It's the ending that won me over. Oh, I had some great fun with Halo: Reach, which builds to its finish better than any previous Halo game, but it wasn't the conclusion that put this over the top. This is my favorite Halo campaign.

The bonus level that comes after the lengthy credits perfectly closes out Reach and emphasizes the hopelessness of the situation. Coming into this, Bungie's last Halo title, it was already known that Reach was doomed. Being witness to the planet's demise is a bittersweet reward for nearly a decade of loyalty to the franchise. I've got to admit, the minute Reach ended, I popped in the original Halo and started playing it again. I couldn't help myself.

Multiplayer maps

Some of my favorite Halo missions are in Reach. Including a mission, "Long Night of Solace," which introduces space combat into the series. And while battling above Reach is awesome, the best part comes afterwards, when you board a Covenant Corvette and experience some low-G combat. The sound alone makes this level worth playing.

Then, of course, there's the multiplayer, which is the real bread and butter of Halo. Bungie has been tweaking Halo multiplayer over the years and this seems like the best balance to appease the broadest number of fans. Firefight, for me, is where it's at, and the ability to fully customize this mode is going to have me playing Halo: Reach for months.

I'm a Halo fan. I've loved every game. So it's probably not a shock that I love Halo: Reach. I won't apologize for digging another Halo game. Bungie knows how to make a great first-person shooter. It's a fitting finale for Bungie and hopefully the start of something new and exciting as the series continues under 343 Industries' stewardship.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with the Halo franchise. The universe is extensive and the storytelling is fantastic, but the gameplay is also extremely linear and the graphics always seem behind the curve. Still, I've picked up every Halo game on launch day and played the hell out of it in the months to follow. For me, it's about the experience Bungie works so diligently to create, the epic nature of the story, and the hype and fan culture surrounding Halo games. Halo games are an event, and Halo: Reach has been the greatest thus far.

As I write this, I'm sitting at my desk, and at the back of my mind I'm thinking about how I want to get home as quickly as possible to finish the campaign and see how the story ends. I spent hour after hour last night trying to fight my way to the finish, but before I knew it, it was 1 a.m. and I realized my eyes could no longer bear to gaze upon the screen. So, I reluctantly retired despite being right on the cusp of the crescendo of the story.

Halo in Five Minutes

Few games ever have this type of effect. Usually it's because I can't get invested in the story, but I'm rarely up into all hours of the night playing a game feverishly. But for me, Halo: Reach is all about the story. I love how references and characters of the previous games are interwoven, and how well Bungie has created the drama of a planet under attack. In the Halo universe, the fall of Reach is huge, and Bungie has told the story exceptionally well.

Still, I also found plenty of issues with Halo: Reach. The updated engine looks good, but I wouldn't say it is a staggering improvement over Halo 3, nor does it really hold up against other recent titles, like Uncharted 2. The frame rate drops are also an issue, and they took me out of the experience at times. I also appreciate that Bungie wanted to make Reach a bit more challenging than the previous games, but the relentless waves of foes can be a bit of an annoyance.

But at the end of the day, I'm loving Halo: Reach. Bungie is sending themselves out in style, and there is no question that this is their greatest effort yet. I'm sad to see the end of Bungie's Halo, but I'm sure Microsoft will leave the universe in able hands.

While I could probably gush about Halo: Reach for a few pages, I'd like to instead focus on one of its missions, "Long Night of Solace," which is my favorite mission in the Halo series. This is the space dogfight mission that was revealed at E3 2010, but it doesn't start in space. You begin this mission pushing through waves of Covenant forces on a beach with a full complement of Spartans that can essentially clear the way for you if you just sit back -- although I prefer to sprint ahead and jack a Wraith to flank the enemy. All standard Halo fare. But at the end of the beach, a launch pad awaits, and, as you hop into the Sabre and launch into space, the battlefields of Reach fade as you slip silently into the upper atmosphere.

In space you assume control of the agile Sabre fighter. As different Covenant ships jump into view, the gun batteries of Anchor 9 space station begin to blaze and sounds of radio chatter and dull explosions fill the cockpit, you realize you aren't really playing Halo anymore, but the best Battlestar Galactica episode ever. Few games have tackled space combat as well as Bungie in this brief interlude in Reach -- although Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II for Gamecube immediately springs to mind. It's a game-within-a-game, but it's executed so well that a standalone space shooter from Bungie is now higher than an HD Zelda on my fantasy game list.

Eventually you must disable a large Covenant ship by swooping in and taking shots at its massive engines. This concludes the dogfight, but not the mission. You then land on the disabled ship where you are tasked with clearing out the Covenant forces in low gravity. Space jumps and dull, zero atmosphere sound effects make this battle unique -- and difficult. Halo: Reach has a few more surprises in store after this mission, but I feel like this campaign is both the height of the game and of the series since it highlights many of the series best qualities: scale, variety and, of course, combat (evolved).

Halo Reach Gameplay Review

2010-09-17T09:47:00.000-07:00

"Remember Reach." This is the tag line for Halo: Reach, the direct prequel to the Halo trilogy about a team of Spartans and their presumed fate -- a last stand against the Covenant invasion of the human-colonized Planet Reach. Did I say, "Halo trilogy?"

Elites Are Back And Dangerous

Here's a better tag line: "Forget ODST." Last year's Halo game, Halo 3: ODST, was conceived as an expansion but clumsily formed into a full-priced retail release. It was not a bad game, but it was a lesser Halo game -- by design. Worst case scenario: You started to think Halo, and Bungie's interest in the franchise, was on the decline.

So, forget ODST. Reach is Bungie's final Halo game. Let's not sour this seriously sweet farewell.

Halo: Reach (Campaign)

So, hello! And welcome to Halo: Reach.

Titular Planet Reach

You are Noble Six. You are not -- anti-spoiler alert! -- Master Chief in disguise. Release those fears of a terrible plot twist right now. Aren't you ready to be your own Spartan? The customization options are limited to start (gender, paint job and some starting credits for a small accessory), but when Noble Six, your Noble Six, enters the opening cinematic, you're invited to drop the observer role and become a character in the Halo universe. And once you're finished with the Campaign, you keep on being your Noble Six across all game modes. It's a simple, but effective touch.

Campaign

The Campaign is easily the series' best. The classic "against all odds" survival mission works to keep the pace mostly racing and brings you closer to the other Noble Team members, a cast of conventional heroes that fight alongside you: the Captain America leader, his badass right-hand woman, the "thoughtful" sniper (Asian, of course), the skull-faced cool guy (voiced by Jamie Hector; Marlo in HBO's The Wire) and the heavy weapons jock. Reach, being Bungie's last Halo game, is a setup for heavy-handed melodrama, but the plot is never that distracting. It's not much more sophisticated than a decent Saturday morning cartoon, but it fills out the framework of an excellent game and satisfies the broader franchise story arc. If you've been following closely, you're definitely in for some "Aha!" and "Haha" moments.

Jetpacking Is Awesome In Campaign

I actually zoned out for several of the cutscenes, simply because I needed a rest. The gameplay is that engaging. Bungie has built downright nasty AI that will, on the Heroic and Legendary difficulty settings, challenge and surprise in constant dances to the death. When a half-dozen jet-pack Elites descended onto my position, I ran! This was not "skipping" past the game -- it's no glitch -- it was surviving. The fact that this "fight-or-flight response" is a working game mechanic is an exceptional design achievement. And how about Bungie sticking with the throwback health pack? If you thought this was a mechanic that never should have been pulled out of the has-bin, Reach seriously challenges that notion. The necessity of health packs and their sparing placement keeps you exploring and moving through the game areas -- and not camping behind decent cover.

Bungie has overcome the pacing flaws of past Halo games by not dragging out the familiar on-foot and vehicle shootouts. You never crawl through corridors; you fight through battles, and when you come out on the other side, there's often a rewarding "mini-event" to play. About two-thirds through the Campaign, strapped with a jet pack, I came up on one side of a cargo port -- a man-made chasm with precariously placed platforms suspended across it. "Really," I thought, "Bungie's trying to do jet-pack platforming?" Yes, yes they are. And, as just a segment, it's a brief, exhilarating departure from the core gameplay.

The Campaign is easily the series' best.

Where the campaign does fall short is in its effort to portray ambient life on Planet Reach. The sporadic signs of wildlife are hardly indicative of a "living" gameworld and consistently come off as randomly placed objects -- like the forklifts you happen across or a duffle bag left in the streets of New Alexandria. Encounters with small bands of civilians (some of them militarized) are equally detached from any sense that Reach is (was?) populated by millions of people. In one part, you've been waiting forever for a cursed elevator, pushed together, backs against the wall, with a handful of Marines and civilians. Cue a pack of Brutes rushing the lobby. It's a little chaotic, sure, but multiply those civilians by fourfold, turn up the screaming and Bungie might have convinced me there's something worth saving more than my own damn hide.

It's a shame too, because Reach's improved technology and detail introduce a new high for Halo's typically okay looks. It's still no "10" in the graphics department, but if that's where you're looking to rate Reach, you're looking in the wrong place. There's a point where you're high atop a needle-shaped Covenant tower. You're on an outer, ringed platform near the tip of this structure. You could look out, evaluate the draw distance, note the quality of light bloom, but you're being charged by an Elite with his Energy Sword aimed at your gut. This is your dance with death. Me? I activated my jet pack and shot right up over him. Him? He went toppling over the edge in an entirely unscripted event. This was a top-ten highlight from my Campaign.

Multiplayer / Forge / Firefight

Call it a ballpark estimate, but I'm gonna say that of the total amount of time the average Reach player spends with the game, less than a quarter of it's going to be with the superb campaign. And for many of you, that percentage is going to shrink to a figure around, what, 5 percent? 1 percent?

"Halo," as in the basic multiplayer game, is a well established pastime, and Bungie hasn't messed with it much. Simple Red Team vs. Blue has been refreshed with new maps, weapons, vehicles and the Armor Abilities, in addition to the tiered objective-based Invasion mode. What will stand out, even during your playthrough of the Campaign, is the bank of credits you steadily accumulate as you play more Halo. Like the build-a-Spartan creation element, the credit system isn't novel, but it is instinctively addictive. So what if you can only spend it on your looks? It just feels good to earn credits.

If your Noble Six is the needle, the credit system is the thread stringing together the disparate modes of play. You earn credits for anything, seriously. I popped into the Forge World (an intimidating, ginormous empty map in which you create your own variations of the game) and lay down a Falcon with ease -- the editing controls are straightforward, despite the toolbox being a bit overwhelming. I switched to "play" mode and hopped into the helicopter, flew around the still empty map for a minute, and then quit out. To my surprise, I earned a little pocket change. Awesome!

The credit system is what's going to encourage you to explore and even contribute to this exceptionally deep game. From standard multiplayer playlists (my vote's for SWAT -- love that Designated Marksman Rifle!) to absurd custom game-types; to the sandbox imaginarium of Forge; to Firefight, there's so much to play with, and it's all rewarding, literally, on a very base level. And oh that Firefight! I urged you to forget ODST, but I never meant to imply that you let go of Firefight.

The Firefight you know was a demo. The Firefight you're going to know is a fully blossomed mode -- with complete customization options and Matchmaking support -- which reminds us how much fun Halo can be when played together against the best AI in the business (though you can play against other humans now, too). I've never enjoyed chaotic "all rocket launchers" multiplayer matches -- in any game. But add a jet pack to that format and waves of Covenant? Say it with me this time: Awesome.

Bungie has left us with a shit-ton to enjoy; not to mention the developer's planned, ongoing daily and weekly challenges to earn extra credit. There's more than enough content on the disc and tools to tweak that content in subtle and unexpected ways for the community to thrive without its maker. Rest assured, with this fourth [wink] Halo game now ours, we should let Bungie leave the franchise in peace.

There's an art to iteration. ODST could have been a clever little shimmy, but it came out a misstep. Reach brings us right back into the dance that hooked us nine years ago, introduces some cool new steps, and leaves us twirling in enchantment as Bungie graciously bows out. Just keep twirling, Spartan.

.

Description

Halo: Reach, developed exclusively for Xbox 360 by acclaimed developer Bungie, is the blockbuster prequel to the best-selling Xbox franchise of all time. It represents the culmination of Bungie's 10 years of experience crafting groundbreaking Halo games that have raised expectations for what can be achieved in a video game. In Halo: Reach, players experience the fateful moments that forged the Halo legend. It's the story of Noble Team, a squad of heroic Spartan soldiers, and their final stand on planet Reach, humanity's last line of defense between the terrifying Covenant and Earth. This darker story is echoed by grittier visuals amid a backdrop of massive, awe-inspiring environments. Characters, enemies and environments are rendered in amazing detail by an all-new engine designed to deliver epic-scale encounters against the cunning and ruthless Covenant. Once the campaign is over, the battle continues online with an unparalleled multiplayer experience that expands on the award-winning suite of features that helped define the Xbox LIVE
module of Halo Reach. Matchmaking is nothing short of awesome, in my opinion, because there is so much versatility and new and exciting gametypes. Slayer has become a lot more fast-paced and explosive, due to the loadouts] and has become one of my earliest favorites. It's early in the game, but I predict that Bungie's Halo Reach will outsell Halo 3 in total sales and be relevant for the next five years in the Gaming community.As for the gametypes that Bungie came up with, nice job. Firefight is so fun to play and earns you dome nice credit while you're bashing Elites and racking up the BMR kills. This is going ot be a fan favorite in the Halo universe.because every gamer likes offense defense and having the opportunity to be an elite with an energy sword and camo, then a spartan with armor lock and a DMR. This gametype has great acoustics as well that really enhances the gameplay and intensity. Overall, Firefight will always be fun gametype to play. As For Team Arena and solo arena this is a great sector of gaming that Bungie added to Halo Reach for CTF and slayer to display your true skill, while the other gametypes are more like special gametypes where the pressure is off. Another great gametype is headhunter which is the most strategically enhanced gametype which requires you to go big or go home. The people that have the largest bounty often do get headhunted but a loadout can change all of that in a hurry. Just turn on your power guard and keep a shotgun, energy sword, or some other kick-ass weapon handy and you got yourself a walking convoy. This gametype takes a while to truly start to get good at but once you get your gamer hyper focus zoned in, you'll do just fine.Finally, as for stockpile , invasion, and team attack [assault gameplay].Stockpile a bit too jumpy for me and the loadouts don't help the overall experience but it is so action-packed and you have to split up into offense defense groups to truly be successful. Your loadouts are your best weapon in this gametype where you're either trying to sneak stealthily into an enemies flag base with stalker, or sprint to try and intercept the opposing flag carrier from scoring, or deploying a drop shield for your teammate with their flag to make it back to your base safely. Invasion definitely is a favorite of mine because of the awards that you receive when you do start to get on a killing spree or near the end when the opposing team has the objective close to their base and you get handed a sniper rifle.Invasion definitely is the most enjoyable objective gametype because of all of the weapons and vehicles that are available. Team attack is pretty cool as well and definitely is fun to experiment with all of the different loadouts and playing as An Elite Then Spartan. So far, I do believe that Spartans have the advantage in battle because of their superior health and better player control. When I played as an Elite, it didn't seem right except if I had a energy sword. I had trouble finishing off enemies and I died more often. Overall, the gametypes in Halo Reach has it all and if haven't tried firefight yet, please do so now.Halo Reach The Best Game Of All-Time And Definitely The Icon For hardcore gamers everywhere.

.

Halo Reach Sales Surpass Predecessor Halo 3

2010-09-16T06:21:00.000-07:00

Here's How Halo Reach Fans Look After The !st Week Of Halo Reach Release

Here's How We Will Look After The Winter!!

Fans Waiting In Line For Halo Reach At Gamestop

A scene from 'Halo: Reach.'

Bungie's final Halo title appears is off to a blazing start at retail. Publisher Microsoft announced the first-person shooter Halo: Reach generated $200 million in sales in the U.S. and Europe in the first 24 hours of release."Every major installment has grown in scope and popularity, firmly cementing the Halo franchise as one of the most popular entertainment properties in the world over the past decade," said Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, in a statement.
According to Microsoft, Halo: Reach is the biggest entertainment launch this year based on U.S. sales figures, outperforming the openings of films Iron Man 2, Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story 3.
The swan song from studio Bungie tells the story of Noble Team, an elite group of Spartans who must defend the human planet Reach from an invasion by aliens called the Covenant.

‘Halo: Reach’ Videogame’s First-Day Sales Cross $200 Million

Image via Wikipedia

Microsoft on Thursday announced that its new videogame Halo: Reach garnered more than $200 million in sales in the U.S. and Europe in the first 24 hours of its release. The company and industry analysts had expected the title to do well, and Reach did not fail to deliver.
In comparison, the previous installment Halo 3 racked up $170 million in its first 24 hours in the U.S. alone in 2007. In November 2009, Activision’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 took in $310 million during its first 24 hours on sale in the U.S. and the U.K., becoming the biggest launch ever across all forms of entertainment, including movies. Reach’s $200 million places it not at the very top, but up there among the heavy hitters of first-day sales.
Microsoft also said that based on U.S. sales alone, which it did not break out, Reach was the biggest entertainment launch of the year, ahead of the three-day opening weekends of Hollywood blockbusters like Iron Man 2 ($133.6 million in North America) and Toy Story 3 ($109 million in North America). So we can guess that Reach’s U.S. sales were anywhere from $135 million to $200 million, probably making up the majority of first-day sales.
It’s hard to guess how many units Reach sold, since there are different versions of the game. The basic version costs $60, while special editions cost $80 and $250. Also, Reach is bundled into a special Xbox console for $400 (depending on the version, an Xbox will cost $200 to $300). But it’s probably at least more than a million units.
The Halo series has sold more than 34 million units in its nine-year run, grossing nearly $2 billion in lifetime sales. But analysts are divided over whether this will help kick-start spending into the holiday season or detract from it. This is also the last game that Bungie, the series creator, will develop. Microsoft will still own the rights to produce more games, though it will have big shoes to fill in the eyes of gamers.

s expected, Halo: Reach had an impressive 24-hour debut.

Microsoft's biggest title this year generated $200 million in sales, up from the company's previous record holder, Halo 3, which raked in $170 million in its first day back in September 2007.

"That's more than any game, movie or entertainment launch in 2010," said Phil Spencer, vice president of Microsoft Game Studios during the company's keynote event at the Tokyo Game Show.

To date, the franchise has sold over 34 million units since the release of Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001 for the original Xbox.

For comparison, Halo: Reach fell short of the all-time, day-one record holder Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a multi-platform title, which generated a massive $310 million in sales, making it the biggest entertainment launch ever.

Activision is set to launch Call of Duty: Black Ops this coming November. The publisher is expecting the title to perform even better than Modern Warfare 2 by backing it with the biggest marketing campaign in the company's history.

Here Is My Personal Halo Reach Review From he First Three Days Of Play:

Halo Reach: First look review

It’s fragging excellent

THREE YEARS after Halo 3 was released, and a decade after combat evolved was thrust upon us, and a few months after the beta ended Halo Reach is here and it was well worth the wait.

The game was launched with a fanfare this morning, and many, many events were hosted in towns across the country. We like this one, which was held in Seattle, and included amongst other things, a man in a costume, a smattering of pasty men, and at least one girl.
Elsewhere people ordered the game online, like us, and got their copy as early as Saturday morning, not like us.
We realise now that ordering online is a good idea, not because we hate to be surrounded by people like us, but because it saves the embarrassment of being spied by early morning walkers and work colleagues surprised that we have apparently caught ‘the flu’ while standing on a high street wearing paper mache armour.

Halo Reach is essentially Halo 4, but it is actually a prequel, so sadly there is no room for Master Chief, the fragger we have come to know and love. Instead we welcome Noble 6 into our hands as we make our way through the war-torn Halo universe.
Although we jumped straight to the multiplayer option, campaign does deserve its own share of the attention, and, as is the norm with Halo games, we get a decent story line to follow, interesting characters, and the desire to play through to the end.
The cut scenes are very cinematic, the game play is excellent, the opposition hard - and intelligent - and the design, scope and scale of the maps is overwhelming. Halo Reach in campaign mode is a treat and no mistake.
It's not just a straight first person shooter either, and while in one level you are running and leaping about on foot, another will place you in the seat of a jeep, or in another exciting level, flying through space, which is a new and fresh addition.
You can also work through the game with up to four of your friends, or cyber-friends, making even the apparent one-player option a very social experience.
But that's the campaign. The real meat of the Halo experience comes from the online play, and specifically its multiplayer options that pitch players against their peers and charges them to do things like fill them full of spikes, or nail their domes with a sniper shot.
With a weapons tweak, and the new features, such as the hover pack, invisibility, a speed boost, or the ability to send a hologram forward to confuse the opposition, this multiplayer option has had more than a polish - it has had a complete overhaul. Slightly different controls might mean you make fewer kills than you were used to, but that won't last long. Fingers crossed anyway.
Multiplayer lets you choose between the usual suspects, such as Rumble Pit and Team Slayer, in teams up two of four, and although some of the maps are as old as Halo 2, they look fantastic and create a feeling of familiarity, as well as joyful memories of lives had and lost, and players powned and shamed in days of yore.
Fast-paced, and at times confusing and beguiling, multiplayer Halo Reach is first and foremost fun, and will take up many hours of gamer time for weeks, months and possibly years to come. It has barely stopped spinning in The INQUIRER's Xbox since it turned up, and is likely to remain in residency despite what else gets released later in the year.
The more you play the more you are rewarded, too, and after each game points are tallied up and awarded. These credits can then be used to tweak your helmet and armour, letting the user treat their avatar as a continually evolving project. Checking out your medal haul, as well as your kills versus death ratio after each game is also good for obsessive comparatives, and as we have already discovered there are a fantastic array of achievements to unlock.
The ability to save games, clips and individual kills is always fun, and as per usual Bungie lets you share these with friends and conquests.

Halo Reach Gaming Gear

2010-09-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

GN's Guide to Halo Gear

We cover all the gadgets and toys you need to show your Halo pride.

September 14, 2010

by Jesse Schedeen

LATEST IMAGES

View all 19 images »

For the gaming industry, this week is easily one of the biggest of 2010. Halo: Reach, Bungie's long-awaited final chapter in the sci-fi shooter franchise, finally hits stores today. Gamers are turning out in droves to snatch up Reach and resume the fight against the Covenant one more time.

But for some Halo-philes, a simple videogame might not be enough to quench their thirst. If you live, breathe, and eat Halo, there are many more ways to spend your hard-earned cash. In this gear guide, we showcase the most interesting and unusual Halo merchandise on the marketplace. Whether you're looking for practical items like clothing or new consoles, or just want to drop a few hundred dollars on gorgeous statues, this guide has it all.

Halo: Reach Xbox 360 Bundle
Manufacturer: Microsoft
Price: $399.99
Availability: Amazon, most electronics stores

If you're completely new to the Xbox gaming scene, Microsoft has a nice starter bundle available. For $400, this bundle provides a console, a copy of Halo: Reach, and two wireless controllers. This bundle features the new Xbox 360 Slim, which has the benefit of a sleeker design, integrated wireless, and 250 GB hdd. Even gamers who already own an Xbox might be tempted by the exclusive silver color.

Gamers who don't care about owning the newest Xbox model can also hunt down the previous Halo console bundle. That bundles includes a copy of Halo 3 and a 20 GB Pro console with a green and orange color scheme inspired by Master Chief's armor.

Halo Legends
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Price: $14.98 (DVD), $24.98 (Blu-ray)
Availability: Major video stores

Halo fans have been waiting years for the Halo movie to hit theaters, and it seems they'll be waiting at least a few more. For the time being, Halo Legends is the closest gamers can come to experiencing the Halo universe through film. Like The Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight, Halo Legends offers a collection of short movies created by various Japanese animation houses. Each segment focuses on a different section of the mythology and sports its own unique style of animation. The approach pretty much guarantees there will be something to appeal to any type of Halo fan. And if the ending is to be believed, Microsoft may eventually deliver a sequel collection.

Replica Weapons
Manufacturer: Master Replicas
Price: $30 (scaled replicas), $200 (full-size replicas)
Availability: Online collectibles stores, Amazon

If you're the type that enjoys a little real-life role-playing outside digital gaming, Master Replicas has a line of weapons just for you. Their Halo 3 prop weapons offer full-size renditions of popular Covenant weaponry like plasma rifles and energy swords. They even feature lights and sound effects. And given that Covenant warriors tend to be larger than the average ground trooper, these weapons are surprisingly large and hefty.

For those that prefer a slightly more laid back approach to stocking their armory, Master Replicas also offers a series of scale model weapons and helmets that can be displayed on the shelf. Everyone could use a few UNSC Battle Rifles to offset that lightsaber collection.

Master Chief Costume
Manufacturer: Rubie's
Price: $999.99
Availability: Official site

A quick Internet search will yield plenty of amateur and unofficial Master Chief costumes. Only one company's wares are good enough to actually be featured on Microsoft's Halo Waypoint website. Rubie's produces a high-end Mjolnir armor replica that looks plenty convincing on the party circuit. It probably won't deflect bullets, but it will impress the hardcore gamer crowd at your next Halloween party. Rubie's also has some cheaper options for sale, but we say – if you're going to suit up, you might as well go all the way.

Flash Drives
Manufacturer: Mimobot
Price: $7-31 (depending on capacity)
Availability: Official site

Flash drives are incredibly commonplace these days, and most of them are just so boring. Liven up your workspace with the cutest rendition of Master Chief you're likely to find. Mimobot has added Halo to their list of USB flash drive franchises alongside the likes of Hello Kitty and Star Wars. Gamers can grab the traditional Master Chief or blue or red Spartan variants. Capacities range from 2 to 16 GB, so even hardcore computer users should have plenty of storage to work with. Why not plug one into the Xbox to take advantage of the new USB storage support? It's certainly cheaper than buying Microsoft's official drive.

IGN's Guide to Halo Gear

by Jesse Schedeen

LATEST IMAGES

View all 19 images »

ArtFX Statues
Manufacturer: Kotobukiya
Price: $50-100
Availability: Official site, Amazon, Specialty retailers

Kotobukiya is one of two companies that produced high-end statues to coincide with the release of Halo 3. Kotobukiya's pieces are focused on Master Chief himself, depicting the Spartan warrior running in the heat of battle or deploying a bubble shield. Several variants of the second statue were also produced, with Master Chief substituted by Red, Blue, and Steel Spartans. We're crossing our fingers Kotobukiya will eventually get around to tackling the Spartans of Reach too.

WETA Statues
Manufacturer: WETA
Price: $150-200
Availability: Official site

WETA also produced a line of high-end statues for Halo 3. Whereas Kotobukiya focused entirely on Master Chief, WETA expanded a bit to include other major Halo characters like The Arbiter and Cortana. These statues were also followed up with a set of scale model Spartan helmet replicas. These pieces are pretty pricey, running upwards of $200, but they're definitely worth it for discerning collectors. Given that these statues are several years old, availability isn't what it once was. Interested buyers might be best served by heading to secondary retailers like eBay.

Halo: Reach Play Arts Kai Figures
Manufacturer: Square-Enix
Price: $44.99
Availability: Official site

Square-Enix recently gained the rights to produce Halo figures. Metal Gear Solid lovers who purchased the recent Solid Snake know what to expect from this line in terms of quality and articulation. Square's Play-Arts figures pack plenty of accessories and can handle just about any pose you can conjure. The figures are pretty pricey, but this is a case where consumers definitely get what they pay for. The first series covers the characters Noble Six, Emile, and Jun. Based on Square's other Play Arts lines, fans can probably expect more waves to follow.

Halo 3 Action Figures
Manufacturer: McFarlane Toys
Price: $14.99 and up
Availability: Official site, Toys R' Us

McFarlane Toys has been producing Halo figures since the days of Halo 3, and the line is still growing strong three years later. The series has shifted focus from Master Chief to the boys of the ODST and now to the heroes and villains of Halo: Reach. McFarlane Toys has single packs, multi-packs, and vehicles from the new game. Fans of the usual McFarlane Toys crop may be surprised to find that these figures are smaller and more articulated than the norm.

McFarlane also designed the statue that comes included with the Halo: Reach. For the time being, it doesn't appear as if that statue will be sold separately.

Halo Mega Bloks
Manufacturer: Mega Brands
Price: Variable
Availability: Official site, Amazon, Toys R' Us

It doesn't matter how old you are; Legos will always be fun to play with. Sadly, Halo is a bit too adult-oriented for Lego's target audience, but there are other avenues. Mega Bloks offers cute, blocky renditions of Master Chief and friends. These aren't just figures, either. Halo fans can painstakingly assemble blocky versions of Warthogs, Banshees, and other signature Halo vehicles.

GN's Guide to Halo Gear

by Jesse Schedeen

LATEST IMAGES

Remote Control Vehicles
Manufacturer: NKOK Racing
Price: $29.99 each
Availability: Official site, Amazon

Remote control cars may be a dying breed now that Radio Shack has become a glorified cell phone store, but NKOK is keeping the fires burning with its line of Halo RC vehicles. This RC line covers many of the familiar UNSC vehicles from the games, including the Warthog and Mongoose. The toys are surprisingly accurate to the games thanks to NKOK's use of actual 3D models from the games. Most vehicles feature multiple figures and firing weapons in addition to the standard RC controls.

Halo Novels
Manufacturer: Tor Books
Price: $7.99-14.99
Availability: Major bookstores

When the original Halo: Combat Evolved was new on the gaming scene, it was Tor Books' novels that offered the first glimpses into the wider mythology of the franchise. Half a dozen volumes later, Tor's Halo books remain popular with fans. Some books, such as Halo: The Flood, summarize the events of the games. Most, like Halo: The Fall of Reach, explore the history of the conflict between humanity and the Covenant. Interested readers should check out The Fall of Reach first, which has just been revised and reprinted to coincide with the release of Halo: Reach.

Halo Comics
Manufacturer: Marvel Comics
Price: $24.99 each
Availability: Major bookstores & comic shops

In recent years, comics have been as instrumental in fleshing out the Halo universe as the novels. Since gaining the Halo license, Marvel has published three mini-series, with a fourth to debut this week. Like the novels, the comics cover various points of the war against the Covenant. For instance, Halo: Uprising stars Master Chief and is set between Halo 2 and Halo 3. Halo: Helljumper features members of the ODST, and Halo: Blood Line stars a team of Spartans in the days before the destruction of Reach. The current series, Halo: the Fall of Reach – Boot Camp, is the first of three books that will adapt Eric Nylund's novel The Fall of Reach.

Master Chief Hoodie
Manufacturer: Ecko Unlimited
Price: $39.99
Availability: Various online clothing retailers

If the previously featured $1000 Master Chief costume is a bit out of your price range, consider this piece of clothing as a viable alternative. Ecko Unlimited is known for its pricey and swanky menswear. But at $39.99, this Master Chief hoodie won't break the bank. A quick zip of the hood and you'll be every bit as mysterious and imposing as Master Chief himself. That's what you can tell yourself, at least. The more recent ODST hoodie is a bit less ostentatious and more widely available.

Halo T-Shirts
Manufacturer: Various
Price: Varies
Availability: Walmart, Target, Hot Topic, various online retailers

T-shirts remain one of the cheapest and easiest methods of broadcasting your love for a piece of pop culture. Gamers certainly have no shortage of options when it comes to Halo-branded shirts. A jaunt into major stores like Walmart and Target should yield several choices. Stores like Hot Topic may offer even more options. And if none of the official tees strike your fancy, many more shirts are available online. These often celebrate the more quirky and humorous qualities of the franchise, such as this one featuring a red Spartan tea-bagging his mortal foe. It would be offensive if it wasn't so adorable.

Get your copy of Halo Reach Below With Free Shipping
And Great Deals!!