Having previously examined the possibly meanings that can be drawn from logical exploration, in the form of resource cycles in BioShock and Beyond Good & Evil, I’ve decided to take a step back and look more closely at the concept of exploration in a territorial sense. What meaning can form of exploration impart? I have already examined one way in which games define territory, this second method should serve as a complement, not a replacement to the first. The original breakdown of territory into Logical and Functional is one that is defined  statically, spaces that are Logical rarely change to Functional and vice verse. This time I’m interested in how the nature of territory changes dynamically.

To that end I’ve chosen to look at two games which handle the concept of territory in different but, I believe, equally meaningful ways.

The makeup of the physical territory in Halo: Combat Evolved (And other games in the series) is essentially binary. For a given location, the player is either not in combat or in combat, the space they inhabit is either Safe or Hostile. Within this Hostile space it’s possible to further sum divide the space once more, into locations in which the player is under fire and those in which they are in cover. In the former space the immediate priorities are those of direct combat and with tactics and planning taking a backseat. In the latter space the player’s shields (Or stamina in the case of Halo 3: ODST) are able to recharge and the immediate priorities switch to tactics and planning. When all enemies in a location area have been neutralised the entire location switches from Hostile to Safe.

The overall aim of any location is to convert all Hostile locations into Safe ones. The tools provided to the player, are all geared toward the accomplishment of this goal. Weapons allow the player to directly engage enemy characters and neutralise them; items and vehicles serve as second order modifiers and power-ups, providing either additional weaponry or modifying the nature of the current Hostile space to improve the ability of the player to convert that location from Hostile to Safe; shields that create temporary in cover locations, cloaking devices allow safe movement through Hostile territory for a brief period.

Every tool available to the player is one that is used to either directly or indirectly change the state of the space form Hostile to Safe. The underlying meaning of Halo seems to be that of safety through superior firepower.

The second game I want to look at is, unsurprisingly for me, Thief: The Dark Project. On the surface the makeup of territory in Thief also comes down to Safe and Hostile space, however one of the major differences between Thief and Halo is that the definition of safety in Thief is far more granular. Instead of a strictly binary divide between Safe and Hostile locations there exists a scale of safety in Thief. At one end of which are locations which are unlit, with soft surfaces for floors, and empty of non-player characters. Such locations are the Safest a Thief level gets. At the other end of the scale are locations which are well-lit, have hard floors, and are patrolled by non-player characters, these are the truly Hostile locations in Thief.

Any location within a Thief level can be placed somewhere on this scale, with most locations falling between the mid-point and the upper limit of hostility. Few locations in Thief are Safe, at least to begin with.

Any area that is well-lit is one that is Hostile to the player, it might not contain any non-player characters at the moment but that can easily change. One of the most important tools for the player are water arrows which can be used to douse torches, extinguishing light sources and significantly altering that location’s relative safety. Intelligent use of water arrows can very quickly change a Hostile location into a Safe one.

However despite the variety of tools available to mitigate the hostility of the current location, it’s difficult to make any areas completely Safe and impossible to make the entire level Safe. The majority of every Thief level is composed of Hostile territory. Regardless of how much time and effort the player may put into changing the exact breakdown of Hostile and Safe locations within the level there will always remain some Hostile locations; the player cannot ever be entire Safe within any location.

Playing Thief the underlying meaning becomes apparent: you are a rogue element within an overwhelmingly Hostile location and no matter how hard you try you can never hope to be entirely Safe. You do not belong.

NOTE:

Any such analysis of Thief: The Dark Project and it’s sequels comes up against a problem, which is that much like Halo spaces are mechanically only Hostile to the player when some non-player character is present to provide a direct threat. It is possible for a Thief player to incapacitate or otherwise neutralise every non-player character in the level, thus greatly affecting the Hostility of the level. However such action is difficult, and time consuming, additional several levels include locations where the player is still at risk from traps and other environmental elements. Finally spend some time inside Thief: Deadly Shadow’s Shalebridge Cradle and you’ll understand exactly how Hostile a location can be even when apparently devoid of any non-player characters.

I know, I know, you are super-pumped about the next Halo game and can hardly wait to play Halo: Reach.  Me too.  Hopefully this new trailer will help tide you over.

From/De: Dorling Kindersley (DK)

HALO Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Halo Universe

Foreword by Frank O’Connor

‘I can still remember the first time I really experienced Halo…it was stepping out of the crashed escape pod and into a world that would consume my professional and creative life for the next seven years. In the following pages, you’ll find a great deal of depth and drama and data – some familiar, some new. It’s fiction, of course, but we only ever want it to feel real. Because it’s real to us. These are places and times that we want to share with you.’ Frank O’ Connor – foreword

Widely described as Microsoft’s ‘Killer App’ the Halo franchise is one of the biggest entertainment properties in history and one of the fastest selling video games ever. With over 1 billion Halo games played worldwide, the fans known as ‘Halo Nation’ are hungry for insight and information about the world of Halo.

Created in full collaboration with Microsoft Game Studios and guardians of all things Halo, 343 Industries, the Halo Encyclopedia is the first official reference book to give fans a comprehensive guide to the Halo Universe. From the characters to the history, the weapons to the locations, Halo Encyclopedia reveals everything you need to know from Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo: Wars and the latest instalment Halo 3: ODST.

With brand new artworks for the cover and Frank O’Connor’s foreword, this 352 page guide covers the following key chapters:

o Timeline
o Humans
o Spartans
o The Covenant
o The Flood
o The Forerunners
o The Human-Covenant War
o Science and Technology
o Transport
o Locations
o Weapons

Halo Encyclopedia is published on 2nd November 2009, priced £30.

===

For US: According to Amazon, the book will be released on October 19, 2009. Source: http://www.amazon.com/Halo-Encyclopedia-DK-Publishing/dp/0756655498].

At any moment during a game players are liable to be thinking about events in multiple timeframes at once. Performing tasks that are over in seconds, in order to achieve goals that are over in minutes as a means of completing missions that may take hours.

The lowest level of actions occur on the Immediate layer, these are the second to second decisions made in the heat of combat, during a conversation, or while climbing a wall. When and where to shoot, which dialogue line to select, which handhold to reach for. These events are the Encounters, over in seconds and repeated dozens of times during the course of the game. The narrative strength of actions in this layer is best served through directly embedded content. Animation cycles, dialogue lines, and the options available to the player all serves as vectors for narrative meaning.

Above this there is the Tactical layer, the longer term minute to minute decisions made in the execution of plans. Which particular enemies to engage, which NPCs to talk to, which wall to scale. These are the Objectives, and can be defined either explicitly by the game, or implicitly by the players themselves. Variation in these Objectives and the levels in which they take place can be used to provide narrative.

Operating above both of these there is often, but not always,  a Strategic layer, actions on this layer occur over a much longer term, possibly hours. They include, which missions to accept, which character upgrades to select, which tools to equip. They can be either explicitly defined as Quests chains, or often they are not defined at all the goal of the Strategic layer simply being to reach the end of the game. This layer is best used to define the narrative context for actions that occur on the lower layers.

• The Immediate layer is Reactive.
• The Strategic layer is Proactive.
• The Tactical layer is both.

Though some traits can be associated with each layer,  the boundaries between them are fairly permeable. The goals of the Immediate and Tactical layer are often elements of those defined on the Strategic layer. Strategic goals lead to the creation of multiple Tactical goals, and multiple Immediate goals will be needed to fulfil a specific Tactical goal.

If the Strategic goal is to get to a specific location, it might require engaging in combat with several groups of enemies. This leads to the creation of Tactical goals concerned with how to deal with each enemy group and in what order. These Tactical goals in turn lead to the creation of Immediate goals, when to shoot, where to move. Successful completion of the Strategic goal requires successful completion of the Tactical and Immediate goals that stem from it.

In this way it can be seen that actions on the Strategic layer directly influence those on the lower layers.

Plans trickle down from higher layers to lower ones. Immediate actions are defined, their scope is limited by decisions made on the Tactical layer. Where you are and which tools you have at your disposal are based on decisions made at the Tactical layer, which in turn are influenced by decisions made on the Strategic layer. If a particular character upgrade has not been obtained on it will not be available.

This flow of influence does not only occur in one directions. Actions and their consequences trickle upwards. Events that occur in the Immediate layer change the Tactical status of the world, new routes are located, items are found. Events on the Tactical layer in turn affect the options available in the Strategic layer. Meaningful actions are ones that send ripples out beyond the layer in which they occur and affect decisions made on all layers: actions on the Immediate layer that leads to consequences on the Tactical and Strategic layers.

In ludic terms each layer has some degree of repetition, as there are only so many valid actions that can be performed at any given time. The repetition is mitigated most on the Strategic layer because the goals are long term, any repetition that does exist occurs over the course of several hours making it difficult to ascertain any patterns in the type of actions being performed.

On the Immediate layer the sense of repetition can be the strongest, as often the core mechanics of a game only allow for a few options. However at this layer the direct connection between action and outcome serves to lesson the impact of the repetition, as the consequences of actions on this layer are often the most directly stimulating, the blood spurts of a successful headshot, the ding of a loot pickup, the fluid animation of a character clambering over a ledge. Each one a little endorphin kick that keeps us engaged; if anybody is in doubt I point you to the immediate feedback presented in a game like Diablo.

The biggest problem with repetition comes on the Tactical layer. Action games suffer the most on this layer. Consider Far Cry 2, the actual combat mechanics and the options available to players in combat can be quite engaging (The Immediate layer is well designed). The ability to select which missions to attempt and in which order lessens the restrictive sense of repetition on the Strategic layer. However regardless of which mission the player selects and for whom, the short term goals required to complete each are usually very similar, if not identical: go here kill, these people\find this item, get back to here. The execution of these individual Tactical goals on the Immediate layer might be entertaining but that does little to cover up the fact that players are basically doing exactly the same thing during each mission. This is not helped by a lack of narrative feedback regarding the overarching consequences of actions. Assassinating a Police chief might be contextualised differently to the assassination of a Warlord but the narrative feedback from each event is not differentiated enough to mask the underlying repetition.

Because Tactical goals can take minutes to an hour to complete they occur over too short a timeframe for their patterns to be lost in the noise of all the other decisions, yet at too long a timeframe for that endorphin kick to keep players engaged. It’s here that a strong narrative context can keep players engaged in performing what are mechanic very similar actions.

Halo: Combat Evolved is another prime example of a game that suffers on the Immediate layer. Those “thirty seconds of fun”are, at least for me, some of the most pleasurable in gaming, but there can be no denying that on the Tactical layer the game is little more than a sequence of goals of the form: “Kill these hostiles.”

With their focus on Immediate and Tactical actions, action games are geared to a shorter play session, that serves to mitigate their repetitive nature. Plans are often completed within seconds or minutes, so players are given more points at which they are “free” to quit because they have no plans remaining to complete. Under these circumstances it’s little surprise that action game stories are fairly perfunctory, serving only to cover up the core mechanical repetition and provide a loose context for who, where and why.

I can’t wait for Halo 3: ODST, a new add on to Halo 3, to be released on September 22nd. I have already pre-ordered it and because of it I will get SGT. Johnson to play in the games new Firefight mode. A mode much like Nazi Zombies or Horde, waves of Covenant come at you and you have to fight them off in a four player co-op game. I also get an invite to a Halo Reach multiplayer beta. I don’t really much about that or how it will work but it sounds interesting. There is also a video going around the internet with a list of the new achievments. I don’t know if this is real or not but if it is real, then if your trying to get Recon Armor than it will be hard. The first vidmaster challenge (Deja Vu) of the 3 is one much like Vidmaster Challenge: Annual; Complete Highway on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and no ‘Hog or Scorpion. Sounds do- able. The second one (Endure) is probably the easiest of the 3; On Firefight, on any mission, pass the 4th set on 4-player Heroic LIVE co-op. The last and hardest Vidmaster Achievement (Classic) will probably stop many from getting Recon; Finish any level solo on Legendary, on LIVE, with no shots fired or grenades thrown. Overall, like Bungie said last week, Recon is not going to be on everyone during matchmaking. Firefight is said to be very entertaining. Like I said before, it is much like Nazi Zombies and Horde, so for most people, it will be a quite familiar feeling. In Campaign you unlock characters and maps to play on Firefight so If you are only buying ODST for Firefight, guess what buddy, it’s not all that easy. I can’t wait for the game and much like many of my friends, I will be addicted to it will Christmas. This is Jack – Goodbye.

So it’s finally September! You know what that means! It’s 22 days until the release of Halo 3: ODST and it’s Halo Month! As I said, I was going to review each of the Halo games, so without further adeu, here’s my review of the first game in the series, Halo: Combat Evolved. You can watch it in the embedded player below or you can watch it directly on YouTube here.

I only just noticed this, though I have a feeling that I might be a little late to the party here. Take a look at the Virgin Media advertisement above (You can watch the video here). Look at the markings of the screen, and then compare it to the Heads Up Display (HUD) from Halo: Combat Evolved:

I don’t know if it was deliberate or not, but I thought it was pretty cool.

The Halo franchise spans several games, Halo 1, Halo 2, Halo 3, as well as a few others like Halo Wars and the upcoming Halo 3: ODST and Halo Reach. But what moments in these games are the greatest? Well, here’s my Top 5 list, with some worthy mentions at the bottom for good measure.

5- Giving the Covenant back their bomb

While this wasn’t particularly story changing, it was still pretty cool. In the first level of Halo 2 the Covenant have invaded your ship and plan to blow you the hell up. What does Master Chief do? He returns the favour, of course. What would have usually taken a handful of ships to destroy, was actually taken down by a man in a suit of armour. Can you say badass?

4- The ending to Halo 3 [Spoilers in this section]

The final cutscenes to Halo 3 weren’t particularly exciting, but they were a suitable closing to the Halo trilogy. The Covenant & The Flood have been destroyed. There’s nothing out there that’s going to activate the Halo Rings, so what exactly can the Chief do? His job is done, and by the end of Halo 3, it’s time for a well earned rest.

3- The Covenant Civil War

This was a pretty major turning point in the Human – Covenant war. The Elites had failed to protect the Prophet of Regret – who was assassinated by the Master Chief. The result of this? The Elites get kicked out of The Covenant and so a war started with the Elites vs The rest of the Covenant, which were now being led by the Brutes.

This eventually led to the Elites forming an alliance with the humans, which greatly added to their available fleets. The Covenant Civil War ultimately resulted in the collapse of the Covenant.

2- The revelation of what the Halo Rings really do

Up to this point in Halo 1, we simply thought that the Halo Rings were a super weapon to counter The Flood. Well, they are, but not in the way that you thought…

1- The revelation of The Flood in Halo 1

I had to play this level a few days ago to obtain the gameplay footage that you see in the above video and god damnit the level 343 Guilty Spark still gives me the creeps. Bungie set this up absolutely perfectly. You land in a murky swamp with no idea about what’s going on. Then you walk in to a strange looking building. There’s blood all over the walls and you’re thinking “Man, there was some serious arse kickery going on here”.

Then you get to a ramp with dead humans and blood all over the place. You keep walking down, enter a room, and a dead marine falls in to your hands.

Cue, the creepiest cutscene you’ve ever seen. And suddenly, you find yourself being attacked from all sides by an enemy you’ve only known about for 5 seconds. You have no idea what’s going on. You’re confused, and the enemy you’re now fighting is scaring the crap out of you.

Eventually you get out of the structure, and you’re praying that maybe the new found foe is trapped in there. Not so, as soon as you get out of the building you’re ambushed, and you know that the entire story of the game has changed.

Worthy mentions

The cutscene “Monsters” in Halo Wars

Simply put, probably the best action cutscene in the Halo games. I mean look at them, those Spartans kicked some arse.

The orbital Drop in Halo 3: ODST

Okay, the game isn’t out yet, but still, this cutscene is just about everything I wanted it to be. First person orbital drop? Check. Messed up human ship? Check. Something goes wrong for the team on the way down? Check.

The large battle at the end of “Two Betrayals”

We had some large-ish battles in Halo 3, but none of them seemed to compare to this one. I guess that the key difference in this battle is that you’re on your own, whereas in Halo 3, you were almost always with allies.

I think the thing that also makes this harder is that you can’t hijack vehicles like you can in Halo 2 or 3. You had to find a way of destroying the vehicle, rather than just getting up close and boarding it.

Fighting two Scarabs at once on the level “The Covenant”

For me, this wasn’t as cool as the battle at the end of Two Betrayals, but it was still pretty awesome nonetheless. Though considering that this was supposed to have been the Covenants Last Stand, I kind of expected more.

I think i’ll leave it at that for now. What about you guys? What are your favourite moments in the Halo games?

]]> http://eriksmind.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/halo-legends-trailer/ Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:03:01 +0000 kamanashi http://eriksmind.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/halo-legends-trailer/ http://eriksmind.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/halo-anime-coming/ Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:02:33 +0000 kamanashi http://eriksmind.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/halo-anime-coming/ http://pixelsandgrids.com/2009/06/26/png-bro-down-episode-20-the-activision-mafia/ Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:16:15 +0000 Jim Bradford http://pixelsandgrids.com/2009/06/26/png-bro-down-episode-20-the-activision-mafia/

PNG Bro-down Episode 20 – The Activision Mafia

It’s that time again, PNG Fans!  Time for you weekly dose of extreme Bro-downocity!™  On this week’s PNG Bro-down, it’s a family affair with talks of Fable II, Halo, Prototype, Academy Games’ Conflict of Heroes, Origins gaming convention, moderately racist football games, and Activision’s offer which Sony really can’t refuse.  We hope everyone has as good a time as we did, and also hope that no one ends up with the decapitated head of a horse in their bed.  And don’t miss our guest appearance by none other than Smeagol himself!  Happy weekend!

Tonight, I decided to take 20 minutes and play some of the original Halo: Combat Evolved. Those 20 minutes soon turned into 40, and I was left with a fairly heavy impression: this game has aged beautifully. I have dozens of newer, shinier FPSes at my disposal, and tonight I was marveling at how smooth and complete this 8-year old game feels.

I’m not sure how much it costs to buy right now on Xbox Live as a download (since Xbox Live isn’t, um, “live” right now) but if it’s less than $15 it’s worth it. I know you can get it on half.com right now for a few dollars, but the downloadable Xbox Originals version loads super quickly compared to the disc version. I’m talking 5 seconds vs 2 minutes.

Okay, enough gushing.

A classic first person shooter released in 2003, Halo : Combat Evolved was one of the most successful games for the PC ever released.

Being a game released in 2003, the graphics aren’t so impressive. But don’t let that turn your spirits down, cause it’s still a good game to play.

The Master-Chief is a fun character to play. He is a symbol of those ‘tuff-guys’ and he is usually popular among gamers.

The campaign is long and action-packed. You’ll find many moments similar to Half Life where thriller and horror are combined to make a nerve-etching gaming experience. However, even at normal difficult setting, you might find that you die quite often.

Sometimes in the campaign you have to rely on NPC’s to do a job for you, for example driving the Hog. You’ll often find that they screw up. Enemies might act weird sometimes too, rarely tho.

The overall campaign feel is very dynamic and refreshing. You won’t always have to fight : you’ll have to go on errands and find different things in order to get to a new level, you’ll have to solve puzzles etc.

You basically have to fight aliens at first. You have a lot of weapons available in the game. You can take control of human and alien weapons, but the alien ones are cooler, doh. During the end of the game  you’ll find that a disease has struck both aliens and humans, and now you have to fight hordes of mutated flesh-like monsters. In the end, you prevail of course, but it isn’t over yet. It leaves you wanting more, triggering questions about the sequel etc.

The multiplayer, however, is the heart of the game (similar to Counter-Strike or Half Life). Here you see a classic lobby, where you can filter what type of game you want, what map etc.

There are a lot of maps to choose from. Some weapons you used for a limited amount of time in the campaign are available to you here. Lots of vehicles, weapons and game modes to try.

Overall, Halo is a good game to play. The graphics and sound effects don’t have that ‘Oomph !’ feeling, but what do you expect out of a classic game such as this ?

At a low enough level all game mechanics are the same, we press a button, move a stick, and something happens. Action and Outcome. Process and Result. Context is what allows us to determine if we are moving a ship through space or a counter across a board Context is provided by the narrative of the game.

If a plot is conceptually a “to do list” of events, then the rules of a game define the games systemic plot, what actions are possible and when. Using this metaphor game mechanics are the constituent, atomic, elements of a game plot, so what are the constituent elements of a narrative plot? Sentences? Dialogue? Games are often compared to film, and a line of dialogue, an individual frame, these are potentially the atomic elements of film?

As a method of conveying meaning, what is the role of any line of dialogue, any scene?

1. To move the story forward.
2. To provide information.
3. To characterise.

Nothing is wasted. Everything that is present should be important, and everything important should be present. If a character walks a certain way, it should provide information, characterise and move the story forward, or at least two of three. Shouldn’t the same hold for any game mechanic? How do we define a specific game mechanic precisely enough to determine if it meets any of these three criteria?

“Shoot this Grunt” is that the mechanic? Or is the mechanic: “Move yourself in the world so that you are Aiming at this character and press the Fire button”?

If an individual mechanic is to be an atomic element then surely the latter is too complex? It is several discrete actions: Move, Aim and Fire. In Halo: Combat Evolved it requires moving two sticks independently then pulling a trigger. It also has to occur at the correct, optimal, time. But then so does a line of dialogue, a particular scene. If they occur at the wrong time they make no sense.

Events in the wrong context hold incorrect meaning.

Is it actually sensible to try and examine game mechanics devoid of context? Should a game mechanic be considered an action within a context? Not: “Press this button to increase this number”, which increases some arbitrary number in the underlying simulation of the game but: “Increasing my Strength”? Should it be even more high level, an abstract: “Improve\Change my Character”?

If game mechanics should carry meaning at which level should that meaning exist? Or does it exist at each level? Is meaning implicit in action or is it, as I’ve discussed previously, tied to context? Context might inform whether we are moving a ship through space or a counter across a board, but does the action itself hold meaning free of this context?

Is it the responsible of the narrative context, to move the story forward, provide information and characterise or is it possible for mechanics to do that separate from their context?

We all remember the glory that was Halo: Combat Evolved and then came Halo Custom Edition introducing the multiplayer that has yet to be surpassed by anyone in my opinion. Heres a little blast from the past and some of the best video editing I have ever seen. Thanks Bungie

I was tidying my room a few weeks ago and realized I had loads of this stuff, so I decided to use a spare shelf to make it look nice. Nothing wrong with that, right?

I’m not really going to bother defending myself as to why I have a collection of Halo stuff. I’m not that much of a geek! Honest!

I was reading a review at Eurogamer and one particular paragraph stuck out:

For the most part, they attack in squads. They’ll flank you. They’ll use grenades to flush you out. They’ll take it in turns to keep you busy with suppressing fire, then wait for you to reload and rush your position. Die, restart and take a different approach, try a different angle of attack, and you’ll see the enemy reacting to your actions rather than simply popping out of the same cover spots like sideshow ducks. The landscape may not change as often as some would like, you’re battling the same enemies from the start of the game through to the end, and there are few obvious set-piece moments, but that’s because the gameplay itself is the set-piece.

The moment I read that I had a mental image of a very specific game, a console exclusive shooter with a wealth of hype behind it. Yes, that game plays exactly like that…

… If you play it on Legendary of course.

This category basically allows me to write down my thoughts after finishing watching a video game walkthrough. I usually watch them on nextgenwalkthrough and some other similar sites. Now for the first post, I finished Halo Combat Evolved. It’s a pretty good game. I actually bought a copy two years ago. The graphics is pretty good at that time. The battle is not epic but still very intense.But again Halo is not really about a war. One thing I don’t like about this game is that it makes you go through a lot of tunnels and hallways with exactly the same design. This can get boring at times, which is one of the reasons I stopped playing it after Level 5 or 6. It’s less boring watching the walkthrough though. What else? O the story is well written. I especially like how they incorporated two alien races in the story, the Covenant and the Flood. It’s funny to see these two fighting each other. Overall a good FPS game to play. I didn’t enjoy playing it but watching the walkthrough is fun.

Hello all, and welcome to yet another WRA games preview. This is ReFleX here, bringing you some info on the new games in one of the most popular franchises of all time – Halo. This post is basically going to be 2 mini-previews piled into one post. (theres not too much info on either game). To get things started in this preview post, we are going to take a very quick look at the better known game, Halo 3: ODST. After that we will talk about the new, just announced game at E3 game, Halo: Reach. Well, you know what this post is all about, so lets get this shit started with, shall we??

Halo 3: ODST

*Note – ODST = Orbital Drop Shock Troopers*

We start this preview post out with Halo 3: ODST, originally titled Halo 3: recon (that name sounds better in my opinion). Over the last few months, we have been gradually fed new information on this game by Bungie, and now we have a pretty good clue whats going on. In this game dont play as Master Chief, or any other spartan. You play as a UNSC marine, more specifically a Shock Trooper or “Hell Jumper” who goes on various recon and support missions. The actual story for this game is being kept on rails right now, but Bungie has assured us that it will tie into the Halo 3 storyline somehow. However, storyline isnt all there is to a game, and we know several other details about this expansion game of sorts. Before we discuss those though, lets look at a few vids on the game from Bungie.

Official Halo 3: ODST Trailer

Halo 3: ODST E3 Interview with Brian Jarrard from Bungie

The second video gives us several details about ODST. The game’s campaign will support 4-player co-op, just like Halo 3. You will also have several new attachments like supressors added to your gun, as well as teammates and allies you have to rely on to get through the game. The reason for this is simple and is explained in the vid. Since you aren’t a Spartan, you dont have the insanely quick reflexes and jumping ability of the Spartans, so you have to take advantage of other things. Basically, it is a slower, more tactical approach to Halo gameplay. Unfortunately since it is an expansion of Halo 3 we won’t be seeing any online play like this (it would be a nice change of pace though). Instead, you get a separate disc with regular Halo 3 online multiplayer (for those who didnt get Halo 3??) as well as all current DLC + 3 brand new, ODST exclusive maps. While this may seem like kind of a downer, most Halo  3 multiplayer fans shouldn’t be too disappointed, especially considering the multiplayer beta that will be included for the next game…..

Halo: Reach

At E3 this year, Bungie showed us a very vague trailer of a new game entitled ‘Halo: Reach’. (seen below) While some people immediately started claiming that this was “Halo 4″, and that it continued from where the story left off at the end of the credits in Halo 3, most people with half a brain realized that this game was a prelude to the original game, Halo: Combat Evolved. The major clue for this comes from the title of the game. In the Halo book series the very first book was entitled “Halo: The Fall of Reach“. The events from this book directly lead up to the events of Combat Evolved. Another clue comes from the first few seconds of the trailer where it says, “From the Beginning, You know the end.” This statement implies that ‘Reach’ will be starting at the very beginning of the known Halo world, just like the book, ‘The Fall of Reach’ does…..

Below is the teaser trailer for Halo: Reach. Below that is a brief summary of the storyline from ‘Halo: The Fall of Reach’. Right now this all we really know about this game other than the fact that it will be released next year, and that a multiplayer beta for the game will be released in 2010 for people who purchased ODST.

**Note – Watch the version on youtube if possible… it looks waaay cooler**

Summary – For full summary view the, ‘The Fall of Reach’ wiki.
This book is the prelude to the game Halo: Combat Evolved. It tells the story of how the spartans were trained, and how the war with the Covenant was started. It also gives us some more info into the mysterious Covenant artifacts. The main focus of the book comes in the last section of it – The fall of the planet ‘Reach’. Reach is one of the main human bases in the battle against the Covenant. It’s defenses are said to be unbreakable, and it is widely believed that the Covenant couldn’t even get through them. (that’s why the people in the video are so surprised) It’s location is also un-known to the Covenant throughout most of the book till Captain Jacob Keyes, commander of the ship Iroquois and a major character in “Combat Evolved” unwittingly travels to the planet with a Covenant tracking device from a previous battle aboard his ship. To put things short, the Covenant, much to the surprise of Reach’s inhabitants, manages to overwhelm the defenses and “glass” or “vitrify” the planet. Master Chief is the only original spartan who manages to live, and escapes aboard the ship “The Pillar of Autumn” with its new commander – Captain Keyes. (yes – him again ) This leads us straight into the events of the original game, ‘Combat Evolved’.

Curse you Bungie and your badass logos!!!

Unfortunately, that’s all we really know about this game now. The teaser was very vague so all I had to go on was the book that I read several years ago, and wikipedia. I hope you guys enjoyed these “mini-previews” and are looking forard to these Halo games as much as I am. If your not a Halo fan or don’t have an X-box, I really feel sorry for you. Well, that’s about it for me. Try not to talk too much trash if your a Halo hater…. ReFleX, signing out again people!!

Peace