Halo: Reach Message Board older than one year ago

Bungie is preparing the hype train.

From the initial talk of a lower price to a renaming, Bungie's ever-changing plans for Halo 3: ODST left a lot of people confused as to what the final product would be. "I'm no PR expert, but it's pretty obvious the game had a series of stumbles; from the naming, to the initial E3 2008 countdown reveal failure, and finally pricing ... it would definitely be nice to have a do-over for the game introduction," senior designer Lars Bakken told G4TV in a recent interview. "The big takeaway for us is just to never comment on matters that are outside of our control," added community manager Brian Jarrard. The subject of ODST becoming an "expansion pack," however, was never an arguable point to executive producer Curtis Creamer. "Though ODST was built from the Halo 3 engine, there were enough changes made to the engine that we could not have released it as an expansion in the way that you might equate with a PC game expansion pack ... the ODST executable is not compatible with Halo 3." The crew of Bungie devs also reconfirmed that "there are currently no plans for any ODST DLC," with all of the studio's resources tied up with Halo: Reach. Hopefully, our thirst for more Firefight maps will be quenched by the inclusion of the mode in future Halo games -- a prospect to which the developers responded, "Only time will tell." Do it for us, Bungie! Please?

Could any other game compete?

To clear up any misconceptions with "the kids on Twitter," Spike Video Game Awards host Geoff Keighley took to Major Nelson's podcast this weekend and explained that the Halo: Reach trailer on next week's show will be "actual gameplay." That's right, folks: none of that live-action or CG mumbo jumbo. "You'll get a first glimpse at the world of Reach," Keighley told the Major during this week's show. "I think it's going to be the biggest game next year by far." When addressing the contents of the trailer -- something Keighley claimed to have not seen just yet -- he noted that he thinks people will be shocked by the direction than Bungie is taking, calling it a "huge leap forward." So, Mr. Keighley, it could be said that the studio is reaching new ground then? ... Hello? Where are you going?!

First look at Bungie's latest title coming real soon.

Spike TV's Geoff Keighley has tweeted that Halo: Reach will make its video debut at the 2009 Video Game Awards on December 12. It's probably no stretch to think that this WORLD EXCLUSIVE will extend the audience of the awards show, who will thrust their DVRs into action to obtain the trailer. ... or, you know, they can just come around the internet ten minutes later. Whatever, their choice.

MLG forum user (and MS Paint fanatic) ToM MoReLLo claims to have played Halo: Reach, and was somehow able to nab multiple blurry screenshots of the game as evidence. Now, when we say blurry we mean blurry. In fact, the classic images of Bigfoot were of higher quality than some of these screens. Perhaps our natural skepticism is taking over, but we're taking these images with a rather large grain of salt. As for details, the forum post claims Reach will feature squad-based combat and perks, similar to that of Modern Warfare. Squad based mechanics certainly make sense, considering former Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter creative director Christian Allen joined Bungie in 2007. But again, grain of salt. Halo: Reach -- Bungie's final title in the Halo universe -- is expected to ship in 2010. Microsoft has yet to reply to our request for a comment on the images. [Via Shacknews & NeoGAF]

Something totally new?

After yesterday's full-fledged assault on mainstream gaming news coverage, we were refreshed to read this great USA Today report on the current state of the Halo franchise. Sure, it further promotes the tired opinion that Bungie's ever-popular shooter is set to overtake the Star Wars franchise in the cultural marketplace. However, it backs up that assertion with startling figures: According to the report, Halo 3: ODST has sold 2.5 million units in the past two weeks, bringing the total sales for the entire franchise up to a cool 27 million. Additionally, USA Today further supports its thesis by compiling a list of the future franchise spin-offs, including -- *deep breath* -- Halo: Reach, the Halo: Blood Line comic series, Halo Legends, Halo Waypoint, the Halo: Evolutions novel (and another heretofore unnamed book trilogy), and more McFarlane toys. Some may accuse this franchise of succumbing to oversaturation -- we think it crossed that bridge around the time it got its own Mountain Dew.

While entirely devoid of ill-fitting iconic helmets, one of Microsoft's new Xbox 360 Elite bundles -- designated for European markets, judging by the rating information on the box -- offers everything you need to stride 'n' strafe into the Halo universe. It's no "Super Elite," but the 120GB package offers a fair amount of elites to shoot at in the included Halo 3, its upcoming expansion, Halo 3: ODST, and (consequently) the beta for next year's Halo game, Reach. As usual, Microsoft has thrown in a one-month Xbox Live Gold membership, which is just long enough for you to realize that you can never ever beat the internet at Halo. Prices are sure to vary from region to region (fun fact: it goes for roughly $580 in South Africa), so have a look on your shelves at the start of October, which is when retailers expect the bundle to drop in.