"Didn't think anyone survived Pegasi, Sir."

In the Halo Reach Trailer one of the Spartans recognises an MIA Spartan, whom we'll call the Lone Wolf and says, "Didn't think anyone survived Pegasi, Sir."


What is this Pegasi reference?

51 Pegasi is a system approximately 50.1 lightyears away from Earth, in the constellation Pegasus. The stars planetary system was controlled by the Covenant during 2545, and was home to 51 Pegasi B and Pegasi Delta, used by the Covenant in mining deuterium and tritium in the planetoid's rich oceans.

That's the boring crap, what about the Lone Wolf Spartan? What happened on Pegasi?

Oh yeah, him! The Lone Wolf might have been involved in a mission known as Operation Torpedo:

Most of the following information is gleaned from the Halo novel, The Ghosts of Onyx which was written by Eric Nylund.

The aim of Operation: Torpedo was to destroy a Covenant deuterium/tritium refinery. These chemicals were used in the Covenant's plasma reactors, therefore making this refinery an excellent refueling plant for Covenant ships, right on the edge of UNSC space. The destruction of this supply point would triple the length of Covenant resupply time frames and buy the UNSC some valuable time to recover from the ravages of the war it had found itself in. 

A tactic of using long range nuclear bombardments was met with complete failure as the Covenant ships shot the weapons out of the sky. The operation was then assigned to the newly commissioned Spartan-III Beta Company, attached to the UNSC All Under Heaven.

The outcome was a Beta Company victory, but at great cost. All Spartan IIIs, with the exception Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091 were killed. However, all Covenant forces groundside as well as several Covenant ships were also eliminated.

-

That last line is telling - the Lone Wolf might thus be one of those Spartans - or it could be a totally new character unheard of in the Halo story before.....it could be you.....

Most the info for this page was borrowed from Halo Wikia

Meet Reach's Noble Team Members

So who is this Noble Team? They are the Spartan soldiers who were introduced to the Halo Universe with the first official Halo Reach Trailer in mid December 2009.

The Noble team were first featured with the release of the Halo Reach Logo (see top of this page for an

example) Spartans where silouetted against the yellow / orange planet (Reach). With the release of the trailer, Bungie have update the image to include more detailed spartans, including a bit of colour to help identify the team.

The Halo Noble Team features spartans:

• Carter-259
• Jorge-052
• Kat-320
• Grenadier- Emile 239
• Unidentified Lieutenant (Lone Wolf)
• Sniper -Jun 266

Carter 259 and Kat 320 are the only members of their original squad, the rest are obviously replacements.

Halo Fans who are way more onto it than me, have reasoned that Noble Team is one of the first Halo canon appearances, along with Yasmine Zaman, of the SPARTAN-II Program's Class-II, or perhaps of the SPARTAN-III Program.

The Lieutenant is fast becoming known as the Lone Wolf, because in the trailer for the VGA awards, the Commander Carter tells him that he doesn't want any lone wolf business. Indeed, in the trailer, a Spartan says "Didn't think anyone survived Pegasi, sir." 

He says this after noticing "Lone-Wolf". Commander Carter-259 seems to confirm this by telling Jorge-052, "Spartans never die, Jorge. They're just missing in action."

Either way, in the weeks coming before the release of Halo Reach we are sure to learn more about the Spartans of the Noble Team!

As I've noted elsewhere in this blog, the fact were are being shown these particular Spartans strongly hints that the Spartans featured in the novel The Fall of Reach are not going to be the heroes of the Reach game and that Noble Team will be. Update: Correct according to the leak

As for game play, many fans are talking/speculating about a 'classed based' style approach to the Campaign of the Reach game. E.g. You can play as the Snpier or Jorge etc... I'm wondering if you play as the Lone Wolf while the others run around as part of the AI ala Arbiter in Halo 3. I'm also picking you get separated from Team Noble as well.....

Who's your favourite Noble team member so far? I'm picking Emile, it's him right?

Military Power: Reach (excerpt from CAA FACTBOOK [l.update 1.5.2550])

Military Power: Reach (excerpt from CAA FACTBOOK [l.update 1.5.2550])

• Total Available Military Manpower: 385,421,100
• Total Land Assets: 58,430
• Total Naval Assets: 1,209 (T); 75 (X)
• Total Air Assets: 11,050
• Serviceable Airports: 1,246
• Defense Budget: cR. 38,287,000,000 [2548]

While Earth is rightly seen as the UNSC's commercial, political, and cultural center; Reach is undeniably the hub of its military power.

The ε Eridani fleet is a full strength Carrier Group with the supercarrier UNSC Trafalgar at its core. The planet itself has a semi-mobile array of 20 Orbital Defense Platforms, and they are in turn defended by multiple wings of single ships and tactical multi-role craft.

The Spartan Project: (excerpt from CAA FACTBOOK [l.update. 5.21.2547])

The Spartan Project: (excerpt from CAA FACTBOOK [l.update. 5.21.2547])

The members of the Spartan Program are elite military operators recruited from all corners of UNSC governed space. Each of them is a highly decorated veteran with literal decades of combat experience and an unwavering commitment to the defense of mankind. In order to aid them in their goal, they are armed with the absolute bleeding edge in military technology--the Mjolnir powered assault armor.

More to the point, the Spartan super-soldiers are the only men and women alive with the extensive training and physical wherewithal necessary to harness the full potential of this highly specialized equipment.

Sauce: Bungie

Bungie Deconstructs Construct

The Lads at Bungie have put together the following commentary about what went into the Halo mulitplayer map, Construct. The discussion about its origins is most interesting - they once thought about it being open aired until they remebered how one could use a Banshee to totally dominate the Ascension map!



Construct: to build or form by putting together parts.

The small snippet of narrative attributed to Halo 3’s multiplayer map Construct informs players that “vast quantities of water and other raw materials are consumed in creating even the smallest orbital installations." Like most constructs of Forerunner origin, there's just not that much to go on. But hidden beneath the alien-alloyed surface and silently lurking behind every blind corner lives the narrative of Construct’s creation – the iterative process that turned vast quantities of time, raw conceptualization, and play testing into the finished multiplayer map millions of Spartans and Elites have waged war on.

And while Bungie multiplayer designers Chris Carney and Tyson Green might not be willing to dig too deeply into the fictional aspects surrounding Construct's Forerunner origins, they were both instrumental in guiding the multiplayer arena from original vision to its final, finished state. We asked them to deconstruct the iterative process...to take an honest look at how the map began, reveal what changes it underwent throughout its development, and discuss whether or not they're satisfied with it in its current form. And what do you know, even though they’re both hard at work on something new, they obliged.

In the beginning, Construct was slated to become a massive "Stratosentinel" perched high above a severely damaged, and of course, mysteriously unexplained Forerunner structure. If you’re the type that operates in the comparative space, the design documents inform you to think of  the multiplayer map Ascension with a floating repair station looming overhead and a series of cannons and lifts to whisk players between both levels at breakneck speed. Oh, and early on, the designers planned on having another curiosity occupy Construct's airspace.

Multiplayer designer Tyson Green kicks things off.

"The earliest iteration of Construct was very vertical, with layers that had enough space between them to fly a Banshee. There was also a visual concept taken from a different map of a looming Forerunner element in the sky above, which was eventually adopted for this map.

Originally, it was more of a visual concept map with more vertical gameplay and support for flying vehicles. As other maps evolved or were cut, we saw a need for more maps on the smaller end of the spectrum, and Construct was redesigned a few times to fit into that role. It never quite got small enough to be a contemporary of Guardian or Lockout, but it plays well with smaller groups of players, so it got close to filling that hole.”

Some players may lament the loss of the aerial combat on Construct (though they may not have known it was ever missing until now), but the designers had good reason to keep the combat grounded.

“As we learned with Ascension in Halo 2,” recalls Carney, “the Banshee can be very brutal, so we tried to think of better ways for infantry cover, quick vertical movement, and easier moments for sweet, sweet Banshee boarding. This was the original intention, but of course we ended up with something different.”

The brutality Carney refers to concerns the Banshee’s all but unstoppable reign on a map that otherwise focused on cat and mouse infantry play and long range duels. After shipping Ascension for Halo 2 and realizing the players were finding it frustrating to deal with the Banshee in the smaller space, the multiplayer team decided to remove it from the version of the map featured in online play. Obviously, the same fate befell the craft in the context of Construct.

It wasn’t the only idea that failed to make the grade.

“Well the Banshee became a completely different animal during Production,” Carney, reiterates, “so that was cut from the map. Then we tried to work with the Hornet. However, the final version of that vehicle came on rather late, so most Construct games ended up being a vehicle-less experience. But in my opinion, it still plays fine.

In addition, the initial visual direction of Justin’s (Hayward) was that of a massive, floating construction Sentinel hovering over a mobile construction deck on Waypoint. But that too changed as we got into the visual details, and we ended up moving it to another Waypoint location. Initially we also had two arms, one with a Shotgun and the other a Sniper Rifle that stretched out into space beyond the orange lift, similar to a twin pair of diving boards, but those too ended up cut (but were still amusing at the time).”

Green muses over some of Construct's additional conceptual design changes.

“The very large vertical separation was greatly compressed to bring the layers into greater interaction with one another, and to allow more routes between them than just the grav lifts, and the overall size of the map also came down quite a bit, in terms of square footage and complexity.”

Though the visual concept and overall complexity of Construct was ultimately altered to suit the removal of the Banshee and accommodate the changes in the map's scale, the designers still wanted to adhere to their original vision where they could.

“The upper level remained fairly constant,” says Green, “a ring connecting the lifts. The lower level changed a lot, though, becoming simpler with every iteration until it became less of a combat space and more of a respawn zone and transportation hub. So there was ultimately not much desire to draw players back down into that space—the upper ring plays well, and the lower level is kept clear as a safe place to respawn and regroup.”

Carney agrees and explains why he thinks the upper ring is the most compelling of the three combat spaces.

“In my opinion, players always want to stay high on a map because it simply provides the best view and works with Halo’s lower aiming camera. When playing Prisoner in Halo: Combat Evolved, I always loved quickly moving to the upper levels so that I could see what was going on beneath and not worry about fools jumping down on me.

With Construct we tried to make the lifts fast, so that players on the upper levels had to worry about all three entries in addition to the ramps. However, they also had to worry about the Banshee. With its disappearance, the upper floor became very dominant.

If we redid the layout of the map, maybe we would place the majority of weapons on the first two levels and make players earn their perch on level three. But we would definitely need to play it a ton to see what worked.”

“The layers were preserved through the many iterations made, along with the middle ‘deck’ layer being a relatively open and inhospitable place,” Green adds. “The grav lifts were also carried across from the earliest iterations, though the orange lift changed many, many times.”

Those layers go deep. Construct is not a remake, but the design team didn’t shy away from using their past experiences to guide them along as Construct began to take shape. Of course, that didn’t mean they weren’t willing to stretch their boundaries.

“Some of the core ideas were designed to explore the things that worked well on Ivory Tower such as scale, vertical combat, and local asymmetry," Carney notes. "In addition, we wanted to see if we could stretch the combat even further in the Z direction. We even talked about it in completely crazy terms such as ‘what if we hovered Lockout over Ascension?’

Mainly, we were trying to think of ways to have several plains of horizontal combat and then connect these somehow with fast vertical elements. This definitely is still visible in the environment’s shipping state.”

Ah, the shipping state. Now that the map is out the door, our pair of designers can take a good look back and make some honest assessments about how they ultimately feel about their baby, both good and bad.

“The best part of Construct is the upper level,” says Green, accentuating the positive, “it has a nice mix of open views, flanking possibilities, and some blind corners. It’s also asymmetric, so it’s relatively easy to orient yourself. The lower level of the map isn’t nearly as good as this upper level, with relatively poor orientation and flow.”

“In hindsight, we probably could have benefited from some better landmarks between all of those metal plates,” notes Carney.

“Construct is a Forerunner environment which means that its visual language will always be a bit rough to define due to their complex structural syst ems. However, the two purple lifts and orange lift work well for navigation, as does the center diving board that holds the Sniper Rifle. The thought was that the local bits of asymmetry might also help to define parts of the map better (the lower ramp and ramps around the orange lift).

MikeyB (Mike Buelterman) finished Construct and did an amazing job with all of the Forerunner texture detail. I personally think his blue data wall on the upper floor is one of the best ways for player orientation on the top part of the map.”



Green agrees, but offers up some final thoughts.

“The upper level works well, and the clear choke points at the tops of the lifts give teams a focus (whether defending or storming.)

In the end, I still would have liked to compress and integrate the layers further, to make the ramps and catwalks between them into less of an afterthought, but eventually we had to run with what we had.”

Carney has his own closing thoughts.

“Construct feels good and was actually the last map we finished for ship,” says Carney, “We were just cranked that we got it out the door!”

Planet: Reach (excerpt from CAA FACTBOOK [l.update 12.7.2535])

Planet: Reach (excerpt from CAA FACTBOOK [l.update 12.7.2535])

• Length of day: 27 hours
• Length of year: 390 days (local)
• Gravity: ~1.08 g
• Natural satellites: [2] Csodaszarvas, Turul

Reach is the 4th largest planet in the Epsilon Eridani [K2 Orange-red dwarf] system, second closest to ε Eridani. Stable for planet of its age [<1B years]. First planetary confirmations were in early 21st century.



Reach is the location of the UNSC's largest and most active shipyard. It is also where the UNSC's most elite troops, the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, are trained. Reach is also the largest non-automated exporter of titanium. ε Eridani's superior interstellar jump point has been the most active S-F space transfer zone (arrivals and departures) for over thirty years, with ε Eridani's inferior IJP and Sol's superior IJP regularly trading second and third place spots.

• Population: 703,341,500
• Largest Cities: Manassas, Quezon, Ezhtergom

Sauce: Bungie

Sotaro Tojima, a new Halo fan.

Microsoft’s Halo team, 343 Industries, has taken on board a new member. Sotaro Tojima, formerly of Kojima Productions has signed his soul up to work on Halo games.

The official Halo Waypoint Twitter account brought us word of Tojima’s new job.

So who is Sotaro?

He makes music for computer games. Given Marty O'Donnel is heavily invested in Bungie, 343 needs a new maestro to write the chord changes for the future games and Sotaro has been deemed the man to pull this off. He has received plaudits for his work on Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

So why would 343 make a point of announcing his hire?

Cos he's awesome and by attracting a quality player to the Halo development team it sends a message to the people who are worried about 343 taking over the lead and determination of the Halo franchise from Bungie, that they have the finger on the pulse and are attracting the necessary talent to pull off Halo 4* - this helps build confidence and keeps the 'vocal' fans happy.... etc et..

*or what ever it's going to be called. Does Reach count as Halo 4? What say you Spartan?

Note - this is probably old news, I've just delayed the post being published so you have something to read while I'm on holiday ;)

Analysis of the Halo Reach VGA Trailer

So, here's an analysis of the Halo Reach Trailer...

The view is from the first person perspective through the eyes of a Spartan as he (or she? ;)) puts on a spartan helmet, almost in a contemplative fashion

The perspective then pulls out to show a Warthog and a few transport helicopters (early Hornets?) moving across a field towards a camp at the bottom of some hills. This first character introduced is referenced as having a "lone wolf" past and never speaks through the trailer, possibly indicating him as the main protagonist.

No Master Chief here folks, but the holstered gun on the characters leg looks like a Halo CE pistol....

As the Lone Wolf seeks out his new unit, the entire Noble Team, numbering six Spartans, loads up and heads out, ready for combat.

Note the fella I call "Skull Face" - he's got some ammo strapped to his front that suggests some kind of weapon like the Brute Shot might be used in game - not that Brutes will feature in the game as the Fall of Reach is all about the Elite section of the Covenant making an attack - so these bullets / grenades suggest a  new, human based weapon.

The Commander, who refers to the supposed main character as a lieutenant, tells him that he has read his file and that he can "leave that lone wolf stuff behind," shortly before another Spartan asks if he is the "new #6." The Commander has the call sign 'Carter-259'. He is shown with a wrist panel computer - this could be a feature in the Reach game somehow?

The basic plot that this Halo trailer is trying to covey is dead simple. The "lone wolf" character has been sent to the military base and to be the sixth member of Noble Team, one of who of whom are surprised to see that he survived a past battle. The Commander perhaps dryly notes that Spartans are never listed as KIA but MIA. A spartan soldier would already know this so the line is simply for effect, especially as it's obvious Nobel team is missing a member and this point of difference would have been surely discussed in a prior conversation.

The Lone Wolf was expected to turn up by the Commander as he notes he has already read the his Oni file and conceys his will that the Spartan do his assigned task as part of the team, and not a lone wolf.

A voice over the radio says that "winter contingency has been declared" which is a neat steal of the line from the original Halo: Reach announcement trailer some 10 years ago and from the first Halo novel, The Fall of Reach.

A Covenant battle cruiser can be seen through the clouds at the end of the trailer, suggesting that the battle for the planet Reach is already going on.

Download the Lone Wolf score from the Halo: Reach trailer

I'm back from vacation and have found a trove of Halo Reach news. I know yesterday's news is today's fish and chips wrapping paper but I'm gonna post it all regardless.

So first up an easy one. You've probably seen the much anticipated Halo Reach Trailer from the recent VGA awards. While you were checking out old Skull Face and One Arm, you may have noticed the music.

It's not immediately recognizable as Halo music but it's sure epic!

Bungie have given this taste of the score away for free, and you can down load, the 'Lone Wolf' music in MP3 format here from Bungie's website.

Cheers Marty!

Is Halo Reach a chance to bring new fans to the Halo Franchise?

So is Halo Reach  really a chance to bring new fans to the Halo Franchise?

It certainly is - but how is this going to happen, doesn't everyone who's anyone already play Halo?

Halo is all encompassing these days, with books, and graphic novels, encyclopaedia's, Halo Wars  - Real Time Strategy game and the recent ODST and its cute Engineers etc filling the seemingly endless demand for Halo product.

There is however  a new breed of gamer who has not yet been exposed to the Halo franchise, this would be the 12 - 15 year age group of new xboxers that are coming through. Let's get real here, the first Combat Evolved game was 8 years ago, many newbies to the system will still have no partaken in the glory that is Halo FPS. Many of them are dining out the newer versions of Call of Duty and Gears of War, oblivious to the Halo series.

Some Xbox players prefer spiders to The Flood for some reason. 

Halo: Reach will thus be their first chance to get into the Halo Universe, should they look up from World at War. It's probable the might look up as the marketing campaign will not doubt be bigger than it was for Halo 3. The new player will also be able to start their story at the start of the story as well - how many people bought Halo 3 having never played Combat Evolved? Answer: A covenant load. How many of those players were a little confused as to the story? Half a covenant load at least.

The newbies and those who have never fired a Spartan Laser will be able to get in on the action without any fear about not understanding the story as what happened before now actually happens after Halo Reach - it's a prequel baby! Hence the tag line for the game: from the beginning, you know the end...

Is this the end, my friend?

There is thus the potential for those who've been a little shy of dropping their toes in the Halo universe, because they've heard it has a complicated story, to no longer need be shy. Hey, they might love Reach and go on to play the other games in the Halo series. And no doubt buy the multiplayer maps that will be trickle fed through the Xbox Live Dashboard.

In summary, it's really a clever ploy for Microsoft to allow Bungie's final Halo game to be the prequel because fans will buy it regardless and, as noted above, it also gives new, interested players a chance to jump in.

At the same time Bungie is coding Reach, Microsoft's 343 Industry Studios are beavering away at an as yet announced annouced Halo title (and probably more than one) so once fans are sated with Reach, everybody can move on to the new Microsoft product.

What will this new Microsoft game be about?  If you played Halo 3 on legendary mode and watched the end credits you will recall the scene where the Chief's ship strays into the view of a planet. This scene has driven the fan boys nuts with wild and loose speculation but the general consensus is that it appears to be a planet associated with the Forerunners - it would seem natural for Microsoft and 343 to continue the Halo series at this point.... thus again beginning the chance to bring even more xbox players into the Halo realm.

What do you think? How many new fans will Halo: Reach drawn in?

Halo Reach Game News Round Up: 2 Months In

I've been doing this Halo Reach blog for a couple of months now and having been trying to pump out the posts so when the Halo Reach game launches in 2010 there's a solid base of news on the game and the Halo universe for people to look at.

News in my definition includes all sorts of things including discussions of Halo lore and exploring back stories and ... whatever I want, which kinda explains why this blog goes all ove the place sometimes...

Here's some posts that I've found pleasing to write (it's surprising waht you learn as you do them) and some posts that I think will be helpful to the average Halo fan...

• A Brief History Of the Halo Universe
• The Fall of Reach story plot
• Frankie talks about Halo: Legends
• Would you buy a Halo game for the Play Station?
• Movie references to Halo
• The Duel story line
• Beginners Guide to Halo: Reach
• Why there's no Halo movie
• Halo Reach Trailer from the Video Game Awards

Do you have anything in the Halo verse you wish to share? Leave a link in the comments section. Top one's get updated into this post!

How to get the 'No shots fired or grenades thrown' Achievement for ODST

Yeah, avoid this kind of confrontation, arguing with your mother in law is easier

The goal: achieve the "Finished any level solo on Legendary, on LIVE, with no shots fired or grenades thrown"

There's probably a million ways to get the 'No shots fired or grenades thrown' for Halo ODST's Xbox points achievement. I'm just going to share how I decided to do it - and did it on the first attempt (I'm not braggin, it's easy, like your momma*).

First, select to play the level Uplift Reserve. Have your game skill level set to legendary - it's a requirement of the achievement. Heck, it would be too easy on any thing below!

I chose Uplift Reserve because it's vehicle based and you can zoom to the moon through it. None of this stealth B.S.

Here's my strategy:

Get yourself a Warthog jeep at the start of the level. Try and get a soldier to man the cannon. If you like, feel free to kill enemies in your way. Dodge the Wraiths if you can, other wise destroy them with the cannon man.

I managed to swap my Spartan laser with a soldier's rifle and got them to get in the side of the Warthog. They duly took out the first Wraith for me...

Speed thru with your A - Team, trying to get to the check points. You will die trying believe me. Sometimes it was handy to hold your ground and take a few grunts and brutes out with the soldier using the cannon before running a Covenant Gauntlet. 

Never honk your horn or doing any trigger pulling on the controller - the game will think this is a grenade or gun firing shot and not award you the achievement! (Well, I think I read that on Bungie.net some where). You can still melee if you need - but hey! get back in your jeep!

This achievement is part of the Vid Master Challenge, so if you want Recon armour, you gotta do it! 

As I said, this is the way I did the Halo achievement, there's many levels on Halo: ODST, like Fleetwood Mac, you can go your own way if you want! You won't run into any Engineers on this level so.. um yeah, carry on my wayward son. 

* I hear this on xbox live all the time so it must be true. And let's face it, she was gagging for it.

Is ODST Buck in Reach? Find out here

GV TV managed to get a sweet interview with some of Bungie’s key staff who have worked their asses off this year to bring us Halo 3: ODST. The interview is mostly a reflection on the successes and failures of the game itself and the way it was produced and communicated to the fans.


Here’s the interviewees:

• Joseph Staten, Writer & Creative Director

• Lars Bakken, Design Lead

• Curtis Creamer, Executive Producer

• Brian Jarrard, Community Director


The interview is notable for two references to Halo Reach which I'll focus on. If you want the ODST stuff, go read here.

G4: Are there any hidden Easter eggs that readers still haven't found that you want to spoil here -- or at least point everyone in the right direction?

JS: Players recently found the last big one -- and egg that changes a certain piece of music our Composer, Marty O’Donnell, likes to hide in every Halo game into something much more…danceable. But there are always smaller treats to find. Folks looking forward to Halo: Reach would be wise to pay particular attention to the license plates on New Mombasa’s “Genet” coupes…

The lads over at Halo Bungie are way ahead of the game here and began a list of the license plates in early October. “KRL 104F” for example, seems to refer to Spartan Fred who might be in the Reach Game as he is in The Fall of Reach.

G4: Have we seen the last of the ODSTs?

JS: I can’t comment on any future plans for our ODSTs. But it would be a shame if we made a game about the planet Reach -- a place where Buck, the ODST’s squad leader, was known to be -- and not have him appear in some way shape

There’s a pretty big hint that Buck will feature in some shape or form in Halo: Reach. Playable character? Who knows. From memory, I think in game during Halo 3: ODST Buck refers to the fact he was at Reach at some stage?

What do you think Buck will get up to in the Reach game?

The biggest game of next year by far*

This guy and I clearly have a difference of opinion over what CG means, regardless, he's in the know about what the Halo Reach trailer contains. Here's a snippet of what he said to Xbox Live's Major Nelson:

“At the VGAs, we actually go down on to the Planet Reach and see this game for the first time. It’s all going to be in-game stuff. This is not CG. This is not live-action like all the kids on twitter are speculating. You will get a first glimpse at the world of Reach, which is phenomenal. I think it’s going to be the biggest game of next year by far. Folks love ODST and though it was great but when people see the huge leap forward Bungie is taking with Reach, I don’t know if you seen it yet, but everyone that I talked to that’s been on the team and seen it is incredibly excited about that time.”

So, he actually said nothing other than Reach is going to be awesome. Like, duh.

Bungie recently let a tweet out that the trailer is actually the opening cinematic of the game itself  i.e. the in game engine and is therefore CG - computer generated or computer graphics!

I duno why I'm going on about this, probably there's no no real Reach news until next week!

*No shit, Sherlock

Halo Reach Trailer will be in game engine...

"@DarkWaterClone our cinematics run real time in our game engine, they're not outsourced CG"
The Bungie tweet say's it all really, the Halo Reach trailer will use the in game resources of the game itself, just like the reveal for Halo 3 did.

Which means this dude was wrong about the trailer not being CG. I dunno what you might be calling the opening cinematic of Halo Reach rendered by in the in game engine, but I'd call it CG - i.e. computer generated. What else has he been wrong about?

How bad are you looking forward to the trailer!!!

What does VGA really remind you of?

The weekly update from Bungie doesn't give too much away on Halo: Reach details but does give a few glimpses that might interest keen Halo fans.

The update has a long series of questions from fans to Urk. I 've culled the one's seemlingly related to Halo: Reach

Old Papa Rich asks, "When does Halo: Reach Beta start?" In 2010. You’ll need your Halo 3: ODST disc and an Xbox LIVE Gold account. Sorry for the indefinite answer right out of the gate, but it’s the only one I got for you today.

Spartan_008 asks, "How long is the Halo: Reach screening for the VGA's? "About two and a half minutes.

Dropship dude asks, "What can we expect to see in this preview on the 12th?" A video from Halo: Reach's opening cinematic.

Goheels619 asks, "Will Halo: Reach still have 4-play split-screen? "What do you mean “still?”

Obi Wan Stevobi asks, "Will we be getting some sample audio like we did for ODST?" Dunno. I’d have to ask Jay and he’s busy working on a multitude of tasks you don’t want him to stop working on. Like keeping Marty sane.

UPDATE!: One of those tasks just so happens to be mixing the VGA video's Foley and score so they both play beautifully off of one other. And it just so happens that not more than fifteen minutes ago Jay treated Robt, Carney, and myself to a sneak preview of the trailer in all it's majesticness and splendiferous glory. The visuals, orchestration, dialog, and sound effects were all in perfect harmony, damn near erupting out of Jay's surround sound speakers.

I'd already seen the work in progress way more than my fair share of times with the visuals and score both running in pretty polished and synchronized states, but this was the first time I had the pleasure of seeing it from start to finish with the complete audio package in place. I don't want to go too far off the deep end here -- there's something to be said for letting you keep your expectations in check -- but let's just say that Marty and Jay are bringing the thunder on the audio side. At one point it felt like the whole room was gonna shatter (and my nipples were gonna tear straight through my shirt).

Good news, my shirt is intact, I've got a massive grin plastered over my stupid chip-eating face, and you've only got eight more days until you get to see and hear it with your own eyes and ears.

Sketch asks, "Why won’t you tell or show us anything about Reach?" Hmm ok, Sketch is asking me a question that he’ll provide the answer to? The short answer is that it’s… complicated. We’d love to pull back the curtain and share the love but the reality is that we’ve got to juggle a complex world-wide network of PR & Marketing plans laid forth by our publisher that are built with a specific pace and focus to maximize awareness and hype. That said, when the flood gates open, we will have you covered and we’ll find ways to sneak in some special treats for our Bungie.net audience along the way. Stay tuned.

End of Reach  Questions.

Stay Tuned indeed, 8 days until the Reach Video Drops at the VGA.

The Package Plot Halo: Legends

This week's Halo: Legend's anime film on Halo Waypoint via the Xbox Dash is the first of two parts called The Package. 

The Package's plot follows the hero from the xbox games, the, er.. legendary Master Chief and four specially chosen Spartans as they launch out on a stealth cruiser into the heart of a massive Covenant fleet in a bid to recover a valuable intelligence asset.

This anime proves that Spartans are adept at fighting in zero-gravity and  are adept at piloting never-before-seen light attack vehicles. The  Spartans' target is a Covenant CCS-class Battlecruiser using the Booster Frames ships.  

Once Master Chief locates the target he and the Spartans blast their way on board the ship, where the action gets hand-to-hand as they fight through an army of Covenant troops in order to recover the most important Human intelligence resource there is....

Frankie's interview with Activeanime on Halo: Legends

Fans of Halo Waypoint will probably have noticed that every second Saturday at the moment heralds an anime film that shows a new element of the Halo Universe. So far, we've had The Babysitter and The Duel. Next up is The Package, a story featuring the Master Chief himself.

These anime films, collectively known as Halo: Legends are going to be released for sale on 16 February 2010 for the punters to lap up. they'll be keen as too, considering the live action Halo movie got canceled.

One of the key players behind this initiative is the Halo Franchise Director, Frank O'Connor, known to millions of Halo fans simply as Frankie.

Activeanime.com has scored an interview with Frankie to discuss the production of Halo: Legends. Here's a selection of the Q&A with some a lil cheeky commentary from yours truly.

Active Anime: Halo Legends not only shifts from interactive game to animated film, but also to a variety of anime styles. Was there any worry that going anime would make the production unrecognizable as a Halo brand?

Frankie: The Halo brand is strong enough to survive and even thrive through interpretation. Halo iconography is recognizable in virtually any form. When you look at a Warthog that’s drawn by a Japanese artist or a Spartan that’s animated in a way you’ve never seen it before, it’s still intrinsically Halo. The brand really lends itself to comics and animation beautifully. It withstands all sorts of interpretation and is still recognizable Halo, rather than just diluting and becoming generic sci-fi.

Jimmy Jangles: Translation: Yeah, we're gonna flog this cash horse for all its worth and hey, anime is cool. Halo is cool, put the two together and it's ..well, legend.  And shit man, everyone knows Halo!

What's the DIRT on Tobias S. Buckell?

Tobias S. Buckell is best known to Halo fans for writing the sixth novel in the Halo series, The Cole Protocol. He is often presented / pitched as a writer from the Caribeann but now lives in Ohio, in the United States.  



Buckell’s first novel, Crystal Rain, was published in February 2006 by Tor Books. His follow up, Ragamuffin was published in 2007. Sly Mongoose, his third novel, was released in August 2008. These were based on his own imagination unlike Halo where the Cole Protocole and other Halo cannon was already established, obviously Buckell gets to have a lot of his own input into the actual story!


Here’s a blurb for Buckell’s ‘The Cole Protocol’ – it’s not the plot but it gives context:

In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC has enacted the Cole Protocol to safeguard Earth and its Inner Colonies from discovery by a merciless alien foe. Many are called upon to rid the universe of lingering navigation data that would reveal the location of Earth. Among them is Navy Lieutenant Jacob Keyes. Thrust back into action after being sidelined, Keyes is saddled with a top secret mission by ONI. One that will take him deep behind enemy lines, to a corner of the universe where nothing is as it seems.

Out beyond the Outer Colonies lies the planet Hesiod, a gas giant surrounded by a vast asteroid belt. As the Covenant continues to glass the human occupied planets near Hesiod, many of the survivors, helped by a stronghold of human Insurrectionists, are fleeing to the asteroid belt for refuge. They have transformed the tumbling satellites into a tenuous, yet ingenious, settlement known as The Rubble–and have come face-to-face with a Covenant settlement of Kig-Yar...yet somehow survived.

News of this unlikely treaty has spread to the warring sides. Luckily for the UNSC, this uneasy alliance is in the path of the SPARTAN Gray Team, a three man renegade squad whose simple task is to wreak havoc from behind enemy lines in any way they see fit. But the Prophets have also sent their best, most ambitious and ruthless Elite, whose quest for nobility and rank is matched only by his brutality...and who will do anything to secure his Ascendancy and walk the Path.

An explanation of the novel's plot is here at Halopedia, as well as a description of the actual Cole Protocol here.


Buckell recently had a chance to return to writing for the Halo universe with his contribution to Halo: Evolutions’ set of short stories. His contribution was ‘The Dirt’.

Speaking on Dirt Buckell said "The novella I wrote, Dirt, was something I threw myself into earlier this summer, and I hope everyone enjoys it. It was one of three ideas I gave to my higher ups on the project, and the one they were most psyched about."

The Higher Ups more than likely  being Microsoft and Frank O'Conner (who incidentally also wrote a story for Evolutions, Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian...).
Follow Tobias on Twitter.

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What's is the plot of Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian?

What is the plot of Halo: Evolutions' 'Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian' short story?

Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian is a short story from the collection of Halo short stories titled 'Evolutions'.  This story intermediately will attract the keen Halo fans because the author is Frank O'Connor who is affectionately known by the gaming community as 'Frankie'.


Frankie had a large involvement in the development of the story line Halo 2 and 3 stories and is currently completely in charge of  plotting the direction of the Halo franchise as part of his role as Franchise Development Director of Microsoft's 343 Industries.


While Frankie was written for the Halo series before as noted above,  Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian is his first Halo based story to be published. Before we discuss it's plot, a bit of back ground is perhaps necessary.

The title of the story is not original to the story and was probably inspired by some history close to Frankie's Scottish heritage,  having being raised in Edinburgh. Sir Walter Scott originally published a novel in 1818 called 'The Heart of Midlothian' which focussed on a woman who travelled all the way to London by foot power, in order to receive a Royal Pardon for her sister, who was unjustly charged with infanticide. The title itself refers to an old prison. The Heart of Midlothian can also refer to an actual heart in the middle of a street in Edinburgh, or the city's soccer team. 

Presumably these elements of Scottish history served as Frank's inspiration for his short story.


In short, the plot of Midlothian centers around a brave ODST soldier who finds himself alone on a captured Human ship and  he must find some way to destroy it before the Covenant can determine Earth's location from it's data cores....

The story starts with the ODST having been put under for surgery to remove a tumor and when he awakes, he's the only human left alive on the spaceship. Living on borrowed time, he has to stop the Covenant from capturing the shipboard AI and learning the location of Earth.

The story has been turned into a 4 part anime - watch it any time on your Xbox 360 via the Halo Waypoint.