Halo 5 concept artwork released by 343 Industries.

It’s been fair while since the new Halo game teaser was released to eager fans and now Josh Holmes has finally given us a bone, here is some concept artwork of “ an early exploration of a new location that features prominently in a little game project we’re tinkering with…. “. Which obviously means Halo 5. Not that Halo 5 is actually called Halo 5 yet.



The artwork is by “Sparth” who has done a fair bit of design work for Halo as Lead Concept Artist. Josh announced that Sparth is now Art Director for 343 Industries which means Sparth's Halo vision will be an even more strong influence on the franchise.

I’m guessing but this appears to be some kind of ‘ship yard' or a hangar port. What do you think?

Return of the Forerunners Vidoc for Halo 4

Return of the Forerunners Vidoc for Halo 4



Here's a 10 minute vidoc from 343 Industries that delves a little bit deeper into the Foreunner mythology  and class of Foreunner known as the Prometheans that will be the antagonists of the Halo 4 game.

Featuring usual suspects like Kiki Wolfkill, Josh Holmes, Brian Reed and of course Frankie, the vidoc explains about Foreunner design considerations and the challenge of making the presence of Forerunners fit as being active participators in a Halo campaign.

The vidoc also shows some of the flash new Forerunner weapons in action - the bolt pistol looks pretty cool!

As I hadn't noticed it before (despite the above picture!) the vidoc points out how the Prometheans have parts that appear to be floating, rather than attached to their giant frames.

This video leaves me in no doubt that Halo 4 is going to be the best game of the series. Some of the game play and vistas shown is totally amazing. The campaign has a high quality look about it.

I wonder if there will be a 'Bob' class of Forerunner and if so what should his name be? I propose Jack.

Josh Holmes chats about why he's doing Halo 4

Cortana needs to wake the chief up

Check out Josh Holmes, who you perhaps recognise creative director of Halo 4 talkng about how he first played Halo and why he joined 343 Industries to make his own Halo game.  


Watch the video here

Halo 4 designers talk Halo 4

Here's a sweet video from Game Informer which is an interview with 343 Industries' studio creative director Josh Holmes and Halo 4 executive producer Kiki Wolfkill as they share a few internally approved thoughts on the development of the new Halo trilogy and what may be on the gaming horizon.

It's a 20 odd minute interview - here's a couple of notes from it:

A new trilogy means there can be new freedoms in Halo 4's plot but it has to be grounded in the original trilogy's plot foundations.

Music- there will be new themes (and I guess motifs) to represent the new journey. I'm sure there will be the odd nod to the O'Donnell riffs but it sounds like it's gonna be all new.

Regarding the story of the Master Chief - Halo 4 is a deliberate attempt to show a more of the man - The issue the game designers face is to make it so the player always feel like they are playing the Chief they always know and not to detract from the prior experience (and I presume for first timers as well) of the Halo games. The solution is to give 'Le Chief 117' some extremely tough choices to make and the solutions will not be obvious. No indication of course if the actual player makes the choices for the Chief or if it's simply plot driven.

The Halo 4 game engine - is a different engine from Halo: Anniversary (like dur!) but is based on past halo tech that's been optimised into something new and thus is effectively completely internal tech.

The interviewer did his best to get some real details from Wolfkill and Holmes but they were both up to the task and indeed expressed their frustration that they could not share any real new Halo 4 news.

The gray scale framed pictures in the back ground look interesting..... did NE 1 glean any details?