A Decade of Writing Halo

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.

With Latest Launch, Halo Could Reach New Heights

   
     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.



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Halo Reach Gameplay Review

"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.























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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.





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Halo: Reach Review

Halo Reach Launches In 1 Day At The Stroke Of Midnight

   Halo means so much to so many people. This is not extraordinary in the culture of video games. What's exceptional is how many different things it means to those players. For me Halo has always been a social experience, with lifelong friendships forged over a shared love of the game. Some hop online to randomly test their merit in competitive matches. Others find themselves lost in the fiction, playing through the campaign alone and then poring over the extended story in books and anime. Still others look to Halo for a creative outlet as level forgers or machinima producers. This range in how we play Halo is a testament to how feature-rich development studio Bungie has made the franchise, and Halo: Reach is the ultimate punctuation on a decade's work.

This is the end of the Halo road for Bungie -- the group is set to move on to a new original game next while Microsoft takes over responsibility for the franchise's future -- and that sense of this being a finale is in Halo: Reach. It shows clear reference to past games, refines well-established game mechanics, adds a few exciting twists, and polishes the rest to a glossy finish. The result is one of the most complete, fully-featured packages you'll find in gaming.

Little here will surprise the hardcore Halo fan, especially if they were among the millions that took part in the multiplayer beta earlier this year. The approach to making a first-person shooter remains the same as it has in the past for Halo. There's a co-op friendly campaign filled with the dreaded Covenant aliens, sparkling online competitive multiplayer, the four-player Firefight mode, and lots of flexibility to allow everyone to tweak settings to their liking. If you've played a Halo game in the past, you'll feel instantly at home.

That's not to say this is just another rehash. There's plenty of new and exciting content in Halo: Reach and it begins with the main character. Master Chief is out. This time you'll step into the shoes of Noble 6, a nameless hero for players to project themselves onto. Noble 6 doesn't even have a defined gender. Thanks to a deep new customization system, you're free to fit Noble 6's look to your personality.

A dark tale of destruction awaits you.

Noble 6's tale begins with an introduction to Planet Reach. This colony is the center of humanity's military might, and home to the Spartan program that produced Master Chief himself. The events of Halo: Reach take place as a prequel to the main Halo trilogy and -- though they take small liberties with the established fiction -- help to tell the story of the events that lead up to events of Halos 1 through 3. The war with the Covenant is already raging, and things don't look good for us humans.

Noble 6 is the rookie member of Noble Team, a squad of Spartans stationed on Reach. You'll get to know each of the other team members through the course of Halo: Reach as you work with them to complete various missions, but the action always follows Noble 6's adventure.

The whole shebang will last you about nine or ten hours on your first play through on the Heroic difficulty (less if you're real good and more if you aren't). During that time you'll find a lot of tried and true mainstays of the Halo formula. That means plenty of big battlefields, crazy vehicles, lots of aliens to fight, and tons of weapons to help make the Covenant pay. Though past Halo games were filled with repetitive landscapes and circuitous, difficult to follow plots, Halo: Reach does not suffer from these problems.

This is the most straightforward and enjoyable tale of destruction the franchise has yet to produce. And don't worry if you haven't played the other Halo games yet – though Reach will feel a lot deeper and more compelling to longtime Halo fans, it can stand on its own as a self-contained story. The tale starts out simple enough, but it quickly escalates to stunning set pieces before pulling out all the stops. The last third of the game is just one big thrill ride, and the revelations that occur during that part of the game are sure to make any Halo buff go ballistic. The ending in particular left a huge impression on me. I don't want to spoil anything, but just know that the space combat Bungie used to tease Halo: Reach is only the beginning.

Now, though the Halo formula is intact and there are plenty of wink-and-a-nod references to past games, Reach is a big step forward. Little successful elements of old Halo games are sprinkled here or there while a new found sensibility in level design and pacing is wrapped around the core. The action is always moving through one combat scenario to the next, with plenty of gameplay and scenario twists to keep things fresh.

Halo Personality Quiz -- Find out which Spartan you are.

The best new addition? Armor abilities. These are an evolution of the equipment found in Halo 3 and drastically change the way you play in their updated form. These temporary but reusable extra abilities add things like sprinting, jet packs, and invincible armor to the franchise for the first time. The result is a faster, more acrobatic game that affords the player more flexibility in how they'd like to approach each fight. Also, jet packs are awesome. How did we go without them this long?

That sense of immersion is helped along quite a bit by the amazing audio work and the new graphics engine built for Halo: Reach. Marty O'Donnell, the lead sound guy at Bungie, has once again delivered an epic soundtrack that is so good that it elevates the entire game. That's no small feat.

While that music pummels your ear drums, your eyes get to feast on one gorgeous looking game. The alien vistas and color palette are striking, and the sense of scale is oftentimes off the charts. You're fighting amidst a war that rages across an entire planet, and Bungie doesn't let you forget it. Even so, there are times when the epic battles don't quite feel so incredible thanks to a lack of detail or the occasional frame rate stutter while the engine can't keep up with what's happening.

It's difficult to separate out the core components of Halo: Reach because they all sort of blend together into one massive experience. The campaign can be played alone or with up to four-players on a split-screen or online. Likewise, you can play the Firefight mode, a single map test of skill and endurance against waves of Covenant enemies, with a few friends cooperatively. All of those great additions that made it into the campaign? Well they're here too. This mode was introduced in Halo 3: ODST, but has finally met its promise thanks to online matchmaking and a more robust set of options. One of which is a competitive versus mode where you can compete for points while one or more players take up the side of the Covenant.

Or you can just go all out in a fight against other players by joining the competitive online multiplayer game. Like Firefight, the core concept remains the same as past Halo games while new features, weapons and modes have been added. Armor abilities and tweaked physics make the game that millions have poured hours and hours into feel fresh once again. It doesn't hurt that the new modes like Headhunter and Invasion are a ton of fun. The format is warmly familiar, but it all feels so new after digging into the competitive game and learning new tricks and skills.

Wrapped around all of this is an addition that Bungie calls player investment. Everything you do -- be it play the campaign or complete an online match -- earns you credits. Rack up enough and you can unlock customization features to make your Noble 6 look elite, and that look carries through all modes in the game -- even cut scenes. Don't be surprised if you find a goofy, pink-and-blue Noble 6 invading your game like IGN editor-in-chief Hilary Goldstein did. If you make your character look dumb, it's your own fault.

Firefight has met its promise.

Likewise, Xbox Live members can take part in daily or weekly challenges created by Bungie with an eye towards compelling players to come back again and again to prove their skills. This, for me, is the kicker. I don't think I'm going to be able to stop logging on every few days for a new challenge, followed by a little message to a friend taunting them about how I did it faster.

The one aspect of Halo: Reach I found lacking was in the multiplayer map selection. There are 13 total for competitive games, but four of those are either direct copies or retreads of maps from past Halo games. Everything plays quite differently with all of the gameplay tweaks, but I can already see myself looking forward to the first map pack. It's tough to complain about a lack of content in such a feature rich game, but I was left hoping for more.

IGN's History of Halo

That issue is mitigated to some extent by the incredible amount of flexibility built into Halo: Reach. The Forge, where players can lightly edit the competitive maps, is back and now much more user friendly. Most won't take advantage of that tool, but they will benefit from the new map and game variants that the hardcore create and share with the community.

It's also incredibly simple to just hop in and edit the rules of the game, both for Firefight and in normal multiplayer games. You can tweak everything from which enemies you face in Firefight to how much damage weapons do, and a whole lot more. Think of a crazy game variant -- even one that doesn't have anything to do with shooting -- and you can probably make it and share it with your friends in Halo: Reach. The whole system is incredibly powerful and equally impressive. The only downer is that there is no way to search for a custom game. If a game type isn't in the predetermined matchmaking hoppers and you don't have friends online, you're out of luck.

Yeah, you can play as the Elites online.

All told, the multiplayer suite is one of the best ever. The Halo multiplayer game has been expanding since the early days of the original Xbox, and now it's hit a point where the amount of , flexibility, number of modes, and potential for fun is just out of this world. Very few other games can compete with this level of polish, presentation, and attention to detail. And just when you think you've seen it all, don't forget to hop on to bungie.net to find extra stats, shared in-game screenshots and movies, and a vibrant community ready to help you extend the life of your game for months and months.

Closing Comments

Halo: Reach is a fantastic package, with several core components that on their own can outclass many other games. The campaign is excellent, backed by solid storytelling and a powerful audio-visual experience. The competitive multiplayer is familiar, yet brand new with a lot more options and a faster pacing. And the cooperative Firefight arcade mode has finally met its potential. Whether you like playing with friends like me or you're more of a lone wolf, Halo: Reach has evolved to the point where it'll make everyone happy. It's a fitting end to Bungie's involvement with the franchise, one that both references the past and injects new life into a tried and true formula. Newcomers and Halo fans alike will find plenty to love in Halo: Reach. Even if you've grown tired of the Halo formula through the years, I'd still recommend this game to you. It's just that good.

Or you can just go all out in a fight against other players by joining the competitive online multiplayer game. Like Firefight, the core concept remains the same as past Halo games while new features, weapons and modes have been added. Armor abilities and tweaked physics make the game that millions have poured hours and hours into feel fresh once again. It doesn't hurt that the new modes like Headhunter and Invasion are a ton of fun. The format is warmly familiar, but it all feels so new after digging into the competitive game and learning new tricks and skills.

Wrapped around all of this is an addition that Bungie calls player investment. Everything you do -- be it play the campaign or complete an online match -- earns you credits. Rack up enough and you can unlock customization features to make your Noble 6 look elite, and that look carries through all modes in the game -- even cut scenes. Don't be surprised if you find a goofy, pink-and-blue Noble 6 invading your game like IGN editor-in-chief Hilary Goldstein did. If you make your character look dumb, it's your own fault.

Firefight has met its promise.

Likewise, Xbox Live members can take part in daily or weekly challenges created by Bungie with an eye towards compelling players to come back again and again to prove their skills. This, for me, is the kicker. I don't think I'm going to be able to stop logging on every few days for a new challenge, followed by a little message to a friend taunting them about how I did it faster.

The one aspect of Halo: Reach I found lacking was in the multiplayer map selection. There are 13 total for competitive games, but four of those are either direct copies or retreads of maps from past Halo games. Everything plays quite differently with all of the gameplay tweaks, but I can already see myself looking forward to the first map pack. It's tough to complain about a lack of content in such a feature rich game, but I was left hoping for more.

IGN's History of Halo

That issue is mitigated to some extent by the incredible amount of flexibility built into Halo: Reach. The Forge, where players can lightly edit the competitive maps, is back and now much more user friendly. Most won't take advantage of that tool, but they will benefit from the new map and game variants that the hardcore create and share with the community.

It's also incredibly simple to just hop in and edit the rules of the game, both for Firefight and in normal multiplayer games. You can tweak everything from which enemies you face in Firefight to how much damage weapons do, and a whole lot more. Think of a crazy game variant -- even one that doesn't have anything to do with shooting -- and you can probably make it and share it with your friends in Halo: Reach. The whole system is incredibly powerful and equally impressive. The only downer is that there is no way to search for a custom game. If a game type isn't in the predetermined matchmaking hoppers and you don't have friends online, you're out of luck.

Yeah, you can play as the Elites online.

All told, the multiplayer suite is one of the best ever. The Halo multiplayer game has been expanding since the early days of the original Xbox, and now it's hit a point where the amount of , flexibility, number of modes, and potential for fun is just out of this world. Very few other games can compete with this level of polish, presentation, and attention to detail. And just when you think you've seen it all, don't forget to hop on to bungie.net to find extra stats, shared in-game screenshots and movies, and a vibrant community ready to help you extend the life of your game for months and months.

Closing Comments

Halo: Reach is a fantastic package, with several core components that on their own can outclass many other games. The campaign is excellent, backed by solid storytelling and a powerful audio-visual experience. The competitive multiplayer is familiar, yet brand new with a lot more options and a faster pacing. And the cooperative Firefight arcade mode has finally met its potential. Whether you like playing with friends like me or you're more of a lone wolf, Halo: Reach has evolved to the point where it'll make everyone happy. It's a fitting end to Bungie's involvement with the franchise, one that both references the past and injects new life into a tried and true formula. Newcomers and Halo fans alike will find plenty to love in Halo: Reach. Even if you've grown tired of the Halo formula through the years, I'd still recommend this game to you. It's just that good.

 IGN Ratings for Halo: Reach (X360)

Rating	Description
10	Presentation A package that all other developers can look to as the definition of complete.
9.5	Graphics A few stutters here or there can't stop this from being an incredible looking game.
10	Sound Once again, a masterful soundtrack.
9.5	Gameplay Familiar, and yet brand new. These are some of the best first-person shooting mechanics around.
9.5	Lasting Appeal Little things like more maps or a better way to hop into custom games could extend the long life even further. Even so, there's a ton of content here.
9.5 OVERALL	Incredible (out of 10)

 If You Haven't preordered your copy of Halo Reach and still would like to indulge in the free $20.00 gift cards and exclusive multi-threat armor offers from retailers, then I suggest you do so NOW! Below are the best preorder deals on Halo Reach.
  Bungie’s latest entry in the Halo universe, Halo: Reach, is closing in on its release date (September 14th). If you’re an Xbox 360 owner and you haven’t pre-ordered the game yet (really?), here is your chance. We’ve taken a look at the best Halo: Reach pre-order deals for both US and UK, and we’re here to give you a heads up.The Most Popular of the 2 million ordered Halo Reach Copies Are Amazon; for the fast free shipping and $20.00 Amazon gift card, Buy.com; for the lowest price on the web, and Wal-Mart For it's low prices and efficiency. Here Are The Top Halo Reach Preorder Deals On The Web.

Halo: Reach Last Minute Pre-order Deals (US and UK)

Halo: Reach US pre-order deals

1. Amazon is offering a $20 Video Games Credit for those who pre-order the Standard, Limited or Legendary editions of Halo: Reach. You’ll also receive access to an in-game exclusive Spartan Recon helmet.


2.  Gamestop: If you pre-order Halo: Reach from Gamestop (Standard or Legendary Edition) you will receive an exclusive in-game UA Multi-Threat Mjolnir Mark V(B) Armor, designed to provide Spartans with “the most impact across all combat secenarios“. You’ll also get a token to download the in-game Spartan Recon helmet with the Visor/Blast shield and a chance to win a life-sized Halo: Reach Spartan Soldier.

3. Best Buy: offers those who pre-order Halo: Reach (Standard, Limited or Legendary) a free $20 gift card. If you are a member of the Reward Zone Gamers Club you’ll also receive 500 Bonus Points. The same offers applies also to those who pre-order The Xbox 360 250GB Limited Edition Halo: Reach Bundle.

Halo Reach Available For Pre-order At Best Buy

4. Buy.com offers slightly reduced prices (Standard Edition – $56.99, Limited Edition – $74.99, Legendary Edition – $139.99, Xbox 360 Halo: Reach Bundle – $399.99) and Free Shipping for those who pre-order Halo: Reach. The standard version comes with the Recon helmet with the Visor/Blast Shield.

Lowest Prices And Fast Shipping on Halo Reach

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 . 5. Dell.com offers Halo: Reach Standard Edition at $49.99 and the Halo: Reach Limited Edition Xbox 360 Bundle with a 1-Year Xbox Live Subscription for just $399.99 (you save $50). Unfortunately the Halo: Reach Limited and Legendary editions are sold-out at Dell.


6. Wallmart: If you pre-order the Standard, Limited or Legendary editions of Halo: Reach at WallMart you will receive a $20 Wallmart eGift Card. The offer also includes the downloadable Spartan Recon helmet.

Halo Reach Available Here

7. Toys R Us offers free shipping and the Spartan Recon Helmet with the Visor/Blast Shield if you pre-order the Standard, Limited or Legendary Editions of the game.

8. Microsoft Store- Preorder Halo Reach from the Microsoft Store And Receive Halo Reach On Release Day, September 14! Yes, this is the fastest shipping on the web  for Halo reach,  so get yours before anybody else.

Halo Reach Launches In Just Two Days!!

Halo: Reach UK pre-order deals

1. You can pre-order Halo: Reach at Amazon.co.uk at reduced prices (Standard – £36.99, Limited – £49.70 and Legendary – £169.99) and you’ll also receive the downloadable Spartan Recon Helmet.
2. Zavvi offers Halo: Reach at the following prices: Standard Ed – £35.95, Limited Ed – £49.70 and Legendary Ed – £98.95 (Sold Out for now). Halo: reach Standard Edition comes with the Bonus Spartan Recon Helmet while the Limited Edition brings the multiplayer only Bonus Elite Armour Set. Zavvi offers free UK delivery on all orders.
3. Game has slashed the prices for Halo: Reach Standard Edition (£39.99) and the Limited one (£54.99). All pre-orders will come with the downloadable Spartan Recon Helmet and the UA Multi-Threat Mjolnir Mark V(B) Armor.
4. HMV.com offers free delivery and 800 Microsoft Xbox Live Points if you pre-order Halo: Reach Standard Edition (£37.99) or the Limited Edition (£54.99). Those free Microsoft points will sure come handy when Bungie will start releasing Halo: Reach DLCs.
If we happen to stumble on another pre-order deal worth mentioning we will update this article.
After you’ve placed your order you might want to check the Extended version of the Halo: Reach – Deliver Hope Trailer, a leaked Halo: Reach Campaign Gameplay Video, the Noble Team in Action or the A Spartan Will Rise Trailer.

Halo: Reach Campaign Hands-On

Halo: Reach Campaign Hands-On

After playing through three of Reach's campaign missions, we walk away with a different picture than what we've seen before.

So much of the discussion around Halo: Reach has been focused on the darkness of the game. We've seen trailers depicting weary-eyed Spartans amidst a muted gray color palette. We've pulled off bloody stealth executions in the multiplayer beta. Go on and take your pick--there's no shortage of indications that Reach will be a grimmer experience than previous Halos. But if there's one thing we came away with after a recent hands-on outing with a few of the game's early campaign missions, it's that Reach--while certainly dark in many respects--isn't all doom and gloom.

   Consider a few scenes from our play-through. In one tense shoot-out, we popped out from behind cover in a last-ditch effort to kill a group of Elites that had drained nearly all of our health. Only, the first thing we saw was a comically adorable ostrich native to the planet Reach staring blankly back at us. There's nothing like the sudden appearance of a bird resembling Kevin from Up to break the tension. In another big battle, we tried desperately to flee from a pair of hunters when it became clear there was no option left but to resupply and recharge our health. So naturally, we hastily jumped into the first vehicle we spotted. What we didn't notice until too late was that we hopped into a forklift, of all things. Not a space-age, 26th-century UNSC infantry transport; just a hilariously slow-moving forklift that puttered along at speeds that would make a golf cart seem exotic. We could practically hear the hunter growl, "Are you kidding?" as he smashed us to death.
Yes, Halo: Reach is darker than previous games. But every so often, you'll find a reason to crack a smile, giggle to yourself, and remember that Bungie is a developer that knows how to have fun. (We're talking about the studio that brought us Rocket Race, after all.) The result, it seems, is a game of contrasts. Halo: Reach does more to mix things up--and buck labels--than previous games in the series, which is a trait that includes environments, pacing, and mood. The two new campaign missions we played were a prime example of this contrast. Nightfall, the campaign's third mission, took us on a nighttime, rain-soaked hike through Reach's rugged geography of mountain ridges and dry river beds. This mission was all about making stealthy approaches, using sniper rifles, and trying to get a jump on the Covenant forces we encountered along the way. Then, there was Tip of the Spear, the game's fourth mission, which turned the lights back on and painted the screen with the glowing orange hues of distant suns and purple/pink alien foliage. But beyond the more saturated colors, Tip of the Spear also ratcheted up the scale exponentially, with big set piece battles and long vehicle sequences.
Nightfall is definitely one of the more subdued Halo missions we've played. At least, that's how it starts. The mission kicks off with a select few members of Noble Team--the game's central cast of Spartans to which you belong--prowling through the darkness exchanging communications chatter along the way. You mainly play alongside Jun, a soft-spoken sharpshooter who seems to prefer methodical approaches over going in guns blazing. With Reach being the first Halo game to show Spartans minus helmets, there's clearly an effort on Bungie's part to build and explore these Noble Team personalities.

    A tip of the hat to Bungie's environment artists. The titular planet Reach is like a character unto itself.

The basic gameplay in Nightfall was familiar Halo, with a few notable exceptions. In our experience, the biggest change came from the ability to use the armor abilities we saw in the multiplayer beta. (Remember jetpacks? Sprinting? Those abilities.) However, one of the new ones we didn't see in the beta was hologram. With this one, hitting the left bumper on the controller sends out a hologram version of yourself running in a straight line, directly where your crosshair is aimed. It's fantastic for drawing the attention of enemies. Imagine being pinned behind a rock with jackal snipers and grunts on turrets eager to put a few dozen holes in you and then tricking them by sending a flickering hologram of yourself running off to the right while you take the left path and sneak up behind them. Hologram was far and away our favorite new gameplay feature in this mission, adding some mental gamesmanship to Halo's familiar brand of straightforward shooting action.
As stated earlier, Tip of the Spear took that somber nighttime expedition and turned it on its ear. This mission was a bright, colorful series of vehicle chases and large-scale shoot-outs. We bounced among gunning from the back of a speeding Warthog, cruising around in the new Revenant (a two-seater version of the Ghost), and launching grenades from on high while in a UNSC Pelican. But what really grabbed us about Tip of the Spear was the sense of scale. You'll be driving near a mountain cliffside, and off in the distance, a swarm of Covenant and UNSC airships will be doing battle, somehow looking like flies compared to the gigantic UNSC ship that flies overhead and practically blocks out the sky. Later in the mission, you're tasked with destroying a towering spire powering the electromagnetic shield around a Covenant base. To give you an idea of how big it is, this base is used in a Reach multiplayer map, and according to Bungie, it's the tallest vertical play space it has done in a traditional map.

We weren't kidding about that forklift.

  
   After all this, we had the opportunity to go hands-on with the E3 demo, which, if you'll recall, ends with a flight combat sequence in which you're piloting a ship called the Sabre in outer space. (Click here to see the video from our E3 stage show.) This seemed an appropriate way to cap off the demo. The two missions preceding it did a good job of taking familiar Halo gameplay and mixing up the pacing enough to make it feel fresh--why not finish off with a glimpse of something entirely new? That was our hands-on time in a nutshell: the contrast between the grim and the lighthearted, the new and old, the stealthy and the bombastic. We'll see if the entire game maintains such variety when Halo: Reach is released on September 14, only 12 days away! Get Yours below at Amazon where you will receive 20 dollars Amazon credit redeemable toward any other purchase on Amazon,