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

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 Ten Times Better Than Black Ops

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The Best And Worst Of THe Halo Maps

 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



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

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



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.

Halo Reach Sales Surpass Predecessor Halo 3

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.

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‘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.