Halo Reach Is No Halo 3

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

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.”

New Halo Reach Achievements Revealed

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 Launches Three New Maps

.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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Halo Reach's Next Weekly Challenge

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: Reach Makes You A Better Employee, A Better Person

  

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!

Reach For The Halo Newbie

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.

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.























.



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.





.