Clips of Halo Chatter from around the traps

Here's some clips from some of the chatter that has been going round the internet following the release of the Game Informer news about Halo: Reach.

“Bungie Studios discusses some of the new tech behind Halo: Reach.Halo has always been a ground-breaking series in terms of gameplay. It was one of the first dual analog console shooters and it has always been in the forefront of online multiplayer. However, Bungie Studios have been criticized in the past for placing these gameplay advancements ahead of the technical and visual fidelity of their Halo games. For example, Halo 3 (one of the flagship games of Microsoft’s Xbox 360) only rendered a screen resolution of 1152×640, not the requisite 1280×720 to be considered HD.” Refer

Oh yeah, the fan boys sure got their knickers-in-a-twist about that. Halo Reach is produced using a new game engine so hopefully this issue is resolved.

“There's a new weather system, and Bungie has made the sky into a real object that ships can descend out of and onto the planet from.” Refer

“Perhaps the most exciting note in this article is that Bungie have outsourced their more detail oriented necessities to Image Metrics. This means that visual details like facial animations will not be overlooked in this Halo installment.” Refer

This is great news as I felt Halo have never got human faces quite right. Considering how great the vista of Halo 3 looked – the faces were down right crude. Johnson anyone?

“First of all, we'll get five extra Spartans on the field, so the campaign should prove to be a bulldozer-run through enemy forces. There's talk about battles on an epic scale, as these will be the title's main feature, with up to 40 AI enemies on the field. The game will be a more serious approach to the Halo franchise, with up-close, war-journalism-like camera movement designed cinematics, meant only to further deliver the state of siege Reach is under.” Refer

Close up journalism? Apocalypse Now? Saving Private Ryan? Forrest Gump? What?
“As for the actual gameplay, the plasma pistol, sword and needler return, as well as the frag and plasma grenades, the equipment is replaced by armor abilities and the health bar begins to drop once the shield is drained, just like in Halo 1. Reach will also feature a four-player campaign, two player co-op split-screen, save films and 16-player deathmatches” Refer

Great. Health Bars. Does Bungie think I’m getting fat or something?

Weapons, old and new: “On the Covenant side there's a Needle Rifle, described as a mid-range headshot weapon, that blows enemies up after three successful hits. The Covenant's Plasma Pistols, Swords and Needlers return.”

“Bungie's introducing stealth kills to Halo: Reach, which are context sensitive and performed by holding down a button when reaching an enemy undetected.” Oh that’s so Apocalypse now innit?
“Halo 3's equipment power-ups been scrapped and swapped with new armour abilities, and these can be altered for the task at hand. The player swapped from a sprint ability to an active camouflage ability in the preview”. (forgot the link)

Awesome, no stupid flares any more.

Supossedly we are getting bigger badder battles in Reach. This will delight many a fan who felt they were mislead by some of the Halo 3 advertising – especially me with the Believe add where it showed the bloodiest battlefield … but it didn’t show in the game…

“Bungie says to expect big set pieces--significantly larger than those in previous iterations of the series.”  Refer

“Reach will increase the scale of combat. Previously, only 20 AI characters could be on the screen at a time, but with the new engine, over 40 AI and 20 vehicles can be present! Cut-scenes have been improved as well, and are going to be more cinematic.” Refer

“I’ve always thought that if there are vehicles in a game, you should be able to drive them, no matter what. It seems Bungie felt the same way. We will be able to drive civilian vehicles, alongside the more common warthog. A new helicopter transport, the Falcon, has also been introduced.

Covenent Spirits (the dropships in Halo:CE) return alongside the more powerful Phantoms, which now have a search light.” Refer

I don’t think one can drive the Falcon however…

Oh c’mon Bungie, hurry up and release the Reach Multiplayer Beta Test…..