The latest weekly update from Bungie gives the scoop on where Reach is at in development. Designers Derek Carroll and Lars Bakken and Engineer Luke Timmins turnout a great interview, talking about the importance of multiplayer playtests and the difference from playing in a lab and playing at home. The update also mentions new unlockables via Halo 3: ODST and Halo Waypoint, which is due to launch Nov. 5th. Also included are a slew of hilarious Bungie employees decked out in full Halloween costumes.
Halo 3: ODST Unlockables
- Tourist – Black ODST T-shirt
- Dark Times – ODST Hoodie
- Campaign Complete (Normal) – Rookie’s Helmet
- Good Samaritan – ODST Body Armor
- Vidmaster Challenge: Endure – Dare Recon Helmet (Female), Recon Helmet (Male)
Happy Halloween from HRI, stay safe and save some chocolate for us!
Edge Magazine recently teased readers with an image from their January issue, which hits store shelves November 24th.
Could this be Halo: Reach? Dust 514? Only time will tell. via couchcampus
This week’s Bungie Weekly Update briefly talks about Halo: Reach. While not a whole lot of information was given, we might as well inform you anyways:
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- Most environments are architecting complete, some have seen substantial finishing -Many environments are out of the phase where core, structural geometry is being moved around and into the phase where everything is being made to look sweet.
- Many encounters have received substantial polish
- Cinematic script has been recorded
- Performances are up and running in-game
They’ve also asked the entire studio to play through the latest build. Full update can be found here.
Halo Waypoint is due to launch for free on November 5th to all Xbox Live members and shortly after, to gold members only. Waypoint is a xbox 360 dashboard hub that aims to aggregate data across all Xbox 360 Halo games in an effort to bring more interactivity to the table. Developed by Microsoft’s Halo group, 343 Industries, in conjunction with game development studio Certain Affinity, Halo Waypoint will include Community screenshots, gametypes, awards, Halo lore, Halo player spotlights and more. Jason Pace tells Kotaku that Halo Waypoint intends to event or bring forth a certain content type for each day of the weak, ensuring that Halo fans always have something new to do. …
Someone over at the Bungie.net forums posted what appears to be concept art for Halo: Reach, or so he claims. While we can’t confirm the authenticity of them, they’re interesting nonetheless. Also, the original post has been edited by Bungie and no longer contains the links to said pictures.
Also, keep an eye out for the return of EGM in December. It’ll include a preview of Halo: Reach.
If you haven’t read the latest Bungie Weekly Update, I’d recommend doing so. Even if they don’t give out a ton of new information, they’re still fun to read. The latest update has a few pictures of fan-made Halo cars in Forza 3. There’s an ODST themed car, as well as a Halo: Reach car.
Even though it was already fairly safe to assume that Halo: Reach would be a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, it was never actually confirmed until now. Frank O’Connor was recently interviewed by USA Today, and revealed that it is indeed a prequel to Halo 1:
“It’s a prequel to Halo 1,” says Frank O’Connor, creative director for 343 Industries, a division of Microsoft that handles all things Halo.
A first-person shooter with an additional multiplayer mode, Halo: Reach “is a chronological prequel but it is not a prequel in the directions the Star Wars prequels were to the (original) movies,” says O’Connor, a co-writer on 2007’s Halo 3. says. “It will cover events in and around the planet Reach,” where the invading Covenant first attacked humankind in the Halo story line.
He also briefly talks about the Halo movie, and that they’re waiting for the right time and partner(perhaps it isn’t dead afterall?). You can read the entire interview here.
Just as the title says, you can listen to someone read the entire book online over at YouTube. So far he’s at chapter 28. Give it a listen.
“Former Bungie man and now Microsoft’s Creative Director of 343 Industries (its dedicated Halo division), Frank O’Connor has stated that there is a six-year plan in place for the future of the Halo franchise that will see thegame series’ canon branch out across action figures, books, videos, and comics.
“We do have a plan that goes out at least six years,” O’Connor told USA Today. “Eventually, it will become very apparent that there is a plan for the way the canon all ties together and the way the comic books and the novels all tie together.”
While O’Connor would only mention next year’s Halo: Reach project – a prequel to the original Halo – as an example of the videogames that are part of this plan, he did nonetheless hint that we haven’t yet seen the last of the Master Chief.”
More at totalvideogames.com
Once in a while someone will pitch something, new or old, in order to spark interest and conversation. sarcasticgamer’s Lono recently wrote up a little article speculating That Halo: Reach may have class-based multiplayer. This isn’t a new theory, in fact, most theories were all mentioned days after the Halo: Reach e3 Trailer was announced. You may recall my own theory that Halo: Reach may be squad-based. Squad-based gameplay and class-based gameplay are admittedly different but they fall into the same area on the multiplayer spectrum.
Lono writes: Is it all coming together in your head yet? Why is Halo Reach having a multiplayer beta? ODST didn’t have one. Why, because they’re using the same engine and gameplay in ODST. Reach will obviously have a new engine and a whole new style of multiplayer. What “style” do you ask? It’s simple …
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