On top of announcing an earlier than expected playlist update (coming this Tuesday), Bungie revealed last night that it has reset the credits and ranks of "approximately" 15,000 Halo: Reach accounts. The studio also applied a one day credit earning ban on affected players, less for punishment than to "ensure that recipients receive an in-game notification of the action taken."
The resets were handled last evening and specifically targeted folks who employed "an exploit that allowed players to complete a Challenge 20+ times via itentional network manipulation (i.e., disconnects.)." Bungie will also be completing a "more comprehensive pass" later this week, after the studio is confident enough in its automated banning system. We're taking this move as further proof of the age old adage -- cheaters never win.
#haloreach
Slowly but surely the Halo: Reach community has been filling in the ranks and credit requirements in the game's single- and multiplayer progessions. They've all been uncovered now. More »
#screengrab
Reader Dan S. noticed that the MacFarlane Toys' Halo: Reach Warthog perfectly matched the chassis of one of his R/C vehicles. "The wheels started turning in my head," Dan says, "pardon the pun." More »
If you've held off on purchasing Halo: Reach alongside all your friends because you knew that it would get a decent discount within a few weeks, your prediction's paid off: GoGamer's got the shooter on sale for $45.
#clips
This guy says he's found a wash-rinse-repeat way to rack up 20,000 credits in Halo: Reach inside of 10 minutes. I promise, I promise, I promise Naughty Bear is not going to jump out and say boo. More »
#clips
This guy says he's found a wash-rinse-repeat way to rack up 20,000 credits in Halo: Reach inside of 10 minutes. I promise, I promise, I promise Naughty Bear is not going to jump out and say boo. More »
#dlc
The achievement set for Halo: Reach lists 49 achievements for a total Gamerscore of 1,000. That there screen, in the latest Bungie Weekly Update, adds 10 cheevs and 250 Gamerscore. DLC inbound? More »
This week's Bungie.net news update brought with it more than just info about Halo: Reach's Xbox Live stats -- it also featured a couple of screens showing an extra 10 Achievements and 250 Gamerscore for the just released title. In a segment explaining how to install the game to the 360's hard drive, two screens can be clearly seen with the adjusted Gamerscore and 'Cheevo count (1250 up from 1000 Gamerscore and 59 up from 49 Achievements).
Bungie doesn't directly address the changes in its update, instead hinting at "some new stuff" being added in a "potential second October update." Unfortunately, this hint is dropped right after talk of the regular housekeeping performed on Halo multiplayer, so it's unclear what's being hinted at directly. Halo 3 was eventually lavished with an astonishing 1750 Gamerscore when all was said and done, so the idea of an extra 250 doesn't seem like much of a reach if you ask us.
It should come as no surprise that we possess a strong affinity for Halo's official multiplayer minigame, Grifball. Though we never thought the time-tested formula of beating the snot out of bomb carriers with gigantic hammers could be improved upon, the new mechanics introduced in Halo: Reach have officially been introduced into the sport's ruleset, giving the proceedings a certain ... je ne saisquoi. Which we believe is French for "jetpacks."
Check out a video of the recently evolved sport after the jump, or keep an eye on the official Grifball forums for your opportunity to get in on a game.
This is not the line for Halo: Reach's Japanese launch. In fact, it's just a minuscule sampling of the reported 2.6-million-and-then-some strong who picked up Pokémon Black and White in Japan last weekend. Reach debuted several days before, on September 15, selling a respectable 44,413 units through Sunday, which ranked fourth on the weekly Japanese sales chart, according to Media Create.
While Reach is hardly Japan's "Cabela of the Week," it would seem that a new Pokémon diverted some sales away from Bungie's encore effort. Recall that in September 2007, Halo 3 launched in the #1 spot in Japan, recording about 59,000 units sold in its first week (though combined sales of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Toki and Yami reached 101,000 units that week, the games' third week at retail). Still, Reach's Japanese launch week sales easily trumped those of ODST (about 30,000 units), which was -- this is getting predictable! -- buried under sustained sales of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver a year ago.
#soundtracks
Per its name, The Billboard 200 is a weekly list of the 200 highest-selling albums in the U.S. The official soundtrack for Halo: Reach debuted at No. 157 for the past week, the best mark ever for the franchise. More »
#numbers
It wouldn't be a big surprise if Halo: Reach was the No. 1 title on Xbox Live during its launch week. It's a big ass game after all. But that was not the case, as some corrected numbers show. More »
"I will say I think one Halo game every three years -- which was kind of our old cadence -- is probably not frequent enough," Microsoft VP Phil Spencer told IGN. For Spencer, it's a matter of keeping players "engaged" and "not going dark for two years" at a time, akin to what Activision has done for Call of Duty.
"I used to look at annual releases of non-sports games as people just trying to milk me," Spencer said. "I figured nobody had enough time to do a good job, and all of the negatives that we would associate with those kinds of scenarios. Kudos to Activision because they've done a good job building a good game, continuing to release each year and I think the fans feel like it's a good thing that they do that." He added that, "watching them and seeing what they do -- we take inspiration from a lot of places -- but obviously they're a big success."
For Microsoft, the hurdle is now going to be a change in developer -- Bungie's leaving some big shoes to fill.
#xbox360
Microsoft wants key entries in the Halo series to make their way to your Xbox 360 a little faster, increasing the frequency of the standard three year cycle developer Bungie was known for. But just how frequent? More »
#clips
Looking for a new way to spice up your Halo: Reach multiplayer experience? Already? Well, how about a lil' Warthog racing, a hidden mini-game dubbed "Reach Racer" for some high speed thrills? More »
Already tired of the mundane "shoot aliens" game in Halo: Reach? Thanks to this video from Achievement Hunter, you can move onto "Reach Racer," a two-Warthog racing game buried in Reach. Accessing it is as simple as getting two players to certain spots in ONI: Sword Base. Find out exactly how it works after the break.
#haloreach
Those who preordered Halo: Reach from GameStop got a code for a nifty suit of armor. This code was, technically, free. Some guy's been selling them on eBay, for close to and even more than the game's retail price. More »
Having unlocked and equipped one of the various Halo: Reach bonus Avatar helmets, you may have found your plainclothes Xbox Live persona looking rather uncoordinated. You can now complete the Noble look by purchasing any of the six armor outfits for $5. So much for all those Reach credits!
#gameface
New York Jets center Nick Mangold on the edge of his seat during a Halo: Reach event at the Jets' training facility earlier this month. More »
A famous person playing a video game? Surely you jest.
#contests
Weta Workship, the New Zealand studio that specializes in fantastical concept design and manufacturing, the team responsible for making a drivable Halo Warthog, is making more Halo vehicles. Exactly two Mongoose-style ATVs to be exact. And you can win one. More »
According to GfK Chart-Track, Halo: Reach delivered a Spartan-sized punch in the arm to Xbox 360 console sales. GfK director Dorian Bloch told Eurogamer that Halo: Reach drove a 99 percent increase in console sales during its launch week, which ended September 18. Eurogamer reports that sales of the limited edition Halo: Reach console, sold through retailer Game in the UK, played a significant role in the overall boost.
Oh, and in case you hadn't heard, the game is selling pretty well too.
Having a tough time designing Halo: Reach Invasion variants in the game's expanded Forge utility? Yeah, us too -- that is, until we read Bungie's handy little guide for budding modders, which breaks down the process of creating an Invasion map from start to finish.
The guide provides the know-how for setting up CTF and Assault-based objectives (and a host of other options), in addition to the 4-1-1 on creating multiple objectives in each phase of your custom Invasion game. If knowledge is power, then this guide is the equivalent of hooking up your brain to a car battery.
Bungie's first Weekly Update since the launch of Halo: Reach included some startling statistics regarding the amount of time we've already thrown at the game's armor-clad feet. As of last Friday, over 31 million matchmaking games had already been played, over 78 billion credits had been earned and over 953 and 1,365 years had been poured into the game's matchmaking and campaign modes, respectively. We shudder to think how those figures expanded over the weekend.
Bungie also included some info on an update which will be applied to the game next month, saying, "the first matchmaking update for Reach will occur in early October and consist primarily of fixes for bugs and balance issues." The update will also add new game types and Forge maps to the Matchmaking playlists, and will enable co-op Campaign Matchmaking as well. Bungie also reports that it's considering changing its quick-to-boot betrayal system, but in the mean time, provides this clever workaround: "Stop shooting your teammates." Helpful!
#xbox360
Halo: Reach will support co-operative campaign matchmaking, you just haven't seen the feature yet because Bungie doesn't want people getting the story spoiled on the first mission they play. More »
