Halo: Reach

[Candyman5]

Re: Halo: Reach

Seems like they are trying to slow down Multiplayer, which IS NOT a bad thing. Game sounds like the dark Halo game I have been wanting since Halo 1, still have a horrid taste in my mouth from Halo 2 and Halo 3.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo: Reach

Some more bits:

• Human weapons now hit more or less instantly after pulling the trigger. They will feel more powerful and precise.
• "Halo Reach is probably the most powerful title we've built to date with regards to story, to character, new gameplay features we're throwing at the player, new experiences overall."
• There will be various dramatic weather effects.
• Making environments bigger than you've ever seen in a Halo game. Harkening back to Halo: Combat Evolved - the wide open vistas, the big pipe where the player can choose to go any number of directions, and really rewarding players for exploring.
• On top of being able to double the size of encounters (up to 40 AI and 20 vehicles active on screen), the new tech can depict battles far away with automated "flocks" which convert into higher resolution models as you near, flipping into scripted behaviour, then full AI as you get up close. Really makes you feel you're apart of the battle and this world is on fire.
• Story in the trenches and want it to feel very real. Stylistic choice of scenes depicted as if they were shot with handheld camera.
• As seen in the trailer, helmets will come off. You will see Spartans faces.
• "We're definitely bending the Xbox as far as it will bend. It's getting a wider breadth of characters, vehicles, weapons, all effects and vistas and the environment. We don't shortchange the environments. We don't limit the player to an isolated area, and everything outside that is totally faked." EDGE wonders though whether a world which has eagerly lapped up the highly scripted rollercoaster rides of Modern Warfare 2 and Uncharted 2 care about what Lehto calls the 'evolved gameplay experience' which Combat Evolved introduced all those years ago.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo: Reach

Over $100,000 generated for Haiti relief efforts.

Bungie Weekly Update

We were overwhelmed this week by the quick response and turnout offered by our community for our “Be a Hero” charity campaign. You guys and gals are mobilized, ready, and totally heroic. It’s always cool to see a lot of people playing the games we make, but there’s a whole new level of pride involved when you know that there’s some meritorious meaning behind the matchmaking.

While we didn’t quite reach the lofty goal we set for ourselves, we’re still gonna kick in the maximum amount and as of right now, between our “Be a Hero” Halo matchmaking and Bungie Store campaigns, together we’ve generated, drumroll…

…over $100,000.

If you participated, stop for a second and think about that number. You guys and girls got heart. Thanks so much for playing. If you’ve yet to pick up your Be a Hero t-shirt, we’re still committed to donating all of our share of the Bungie Store profit to Haiti relief for a spell. You still have time to help out.

If tee shirts aren’t your thing, you can always donate directly through one of many online charities of your choosing.

The good news is that there’s much more on the way and as soon as we can, say early next week, we’ll play host to some of the freshly dropped assets in high resolution glory right here on Bungie.net. We might even be able to offer up a wee bit of perspective for some of the more curious elements you’ve been eyeballing as you turn the pages. Because you’re a certified subscriber and you clearly haven’t been gazing at crappy scans online. Right?

Right. Let’s talk a little Halo: Reach.

Builds are coming in at a blistering pace as the team continues to drive hard and fast towards the ever looming Alpha branch. The process is so break neck at times that it’s hard for us poor dudes over in the community pod to keep track and chronicle the goings on for you in any meaningful way. For example, the build that brought you the latest batch of media assets was already weeks old when we scrubbed it for screenshots. Pre-Thanksgiving, in fact. The nature of the development process is such that stability can often become a concern when the various disciplines are routinely plugging in their new pieces of technical and artistical hotness, so when it came time to show it off to our media friends, we decided to dust off one of the older, notably stable builds. Game tends to show better when it’s in rock solid working order.

We’ve made no secret that most of the sound FX featured in Halo: Reach have seen significant upgrades. Everything seems to have been beefed up. That’s not to say that the sounds effects don’t sound realistic – they absolutely do. What it means is that when you accidentally lob a grenade at your own two feet, as this MLG Pro playa has been known to do on alarmingly frequent and awkward occasions, the resulting concussion sounds like it might do permanent brain damage. There’s just much more oomph and impact in the mix.
...

I asked him and Jay if they could put together a reel so I can show off some of the new sounds sometime soon and they tell me they think they can hook us up. Maybe next week. No promises.

[Miles_Yuhas]

Re: Halo: Reach

Interesting to see that they are still pre-alpha. That probably means that the public beta will not be launching in March like some people have guessed/hoped. I would assume we are looking at a beta around May like the Halo 3 beta.

Oh, and while we’re on the subject of UI, the HUD isn’t yellow anymore. It’s blue.

Also cool to hear, I wasn't a big fan of the yellow HUD

[Cyros]

Re: Halo: Reach

Seems like they are trying to slow down Multiplayer, which IS NOT a bad thing. Game sounds like the dark Halo game I have been wanting since Halo 1, still have a horrid taste in my mouth from Halo 2 and Halo 3.

There is a picture out there that says otherwise.

[jmood88]

Re: Halo: Reach

There is a picture out there that says otherwise.

[Candyman5]

Re: Halo: Reach

There is a picture out there that says otherwise.

lmao

[Rassklot]

Re: Halo: Reach

Guessing its coming out around september like the other halos.. def grabbing this

[Flawless]

Re: Halo: Reach

• We saw a sequence with a whole horde Warthog who pulled out with the Hornets and met with an equally huge army of Covenant vehicles (think huge Halo Wars conflicts).
• Warthog has real independent suspensions now.
• Falcon is meant to be like a Warthog in the air, much more fun to use. Tripod mounted turret on side.
• Lots more "rubbish" thrown up from grenade explosions. Gone are the china Puffs, now it feels like uber bombs that really rips the ground in pieces.
• Sprinting is very fast.
• Sparks when heavy machine guns shoot at concrete.
• Skirmishers are faster and stronger than Jackals.

Some pre-alpha screens:










Art:

[frostbyte06]

Re: Halo: Reach

Game Informer Dev Commentary:

or the last month, we've given you the details on the team at Bungie, their thoughts on ODST, the new team at 343 Industries, and details on Halo's fiction and composer. By now you've got the skinny on the Halo universe and franchise, so it's time for creative director Marcus Lehto to go into detail about Reach's gameplay, characters, and weaponry. Take a look at the video below to hear what he has to say over never-before-seen artwork from the game.

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[Candyman5]

Re: Halo: Reach

It looks like one of the weapons out of Halo 2-3 Concept art. It shot out spikes like a needler BUT they were much bigger and stronger than the needle shards. From what I read on Bungie.net from devs and looking at concept art it may be one of 2 new alien weapons that did not make the final build for Halo 2-3.

The first being a Needler based Mortar/Rocket Launcher. It shot out one large Needle Crystal that explodes. Mainly a Anti Vehicle type weapon. It sticks in it the detonate into more Needle Crystals. It can also be used against Infrantry but supposely is hard to aim and does damage splash similiar to a Brute Spike grenade.

The second being a Super Needler Carbine. It shoots like the regular Combine being as it has zoom capability but shoots out Needle Shards similiar to the battle rifle.


There have been 2 maps that have been getting talked about alot now and may be new muliplayer Maps. Devs have came into this thread about them saying they will try to incorperate it into a Multiplayer/Campaign based maps.

The first one is rumors of an Forerunner based Muliplayer lvl that has setinals repairing objects that actually effect the battle field. Like there may be a place that will get repaired by the setinals that you can get to later in the match. Also damage you do to the lvl will be repaired by them also. Sounds Interesting.

The second has you on the Planet Reach in the Shield base(Book readers know what I am talking about) and it has Alien Cruisers bombarding the base, eventially the shield gives in and destroys everything including you and ends the match. Seems to be pretty cool idea maybe for Campaign or CTF based gametypes.


The ideas above are strickly off of Concept Art images I have seen and other sources of info I have found. NONE OF IT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED!

Just to share.

You know what, that info I posted a while back (^) that had the Needler Rifle in it, that is actually in the game I wonder how much of the other stuff is going to be incorperated?

Technically didnt destructable environments get confirmed also?

[Miles_Yuhas]

Re: Halo: Reach

You know what, that info I posted a while back (^) that had the Needler Rifle in it, that is actually in the game I wonder how much of the other stuff is going to be incorperated?

Technically didnt destructable environments get confirmed also?

The Needle rifle is real. It is basically a combo of a carbine and a needler. When you hit an emeny with 3 needles, they combust.

No word on destructable environments, or anything else in your previous post though.

[Candyman5]

Re: Halo: Reach

The Needle rifle is real. It is basically a combo of a carbine and a needler. When you hit an emeny with 3 needles, they combust.

No word on destructable environments, or anything else in your previous post though.

Yeah, the only I heard so far was grenades actually blowing chunks of the ground up and explosions throwing shrapnel.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo: Reach

Game Informer Dev Commentary:



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So awesome.

Very unlikely there will be destructible environments - certainly nowhere near like in Bad Company, and at most, maybe somethings will chip and break away.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo: Reach

Emile profile says pistol to feel very much like the Halo CE one.



...


Halo: Reach - 3D Art Evolved

The image below shows the Assault Rifle as it first appeared in Halo: Combat Evolved then in Halo 3 and finally the new hotness that's coming to Reach. For perspective, the texture resolution is double and the number of polygons is over four times the last incarnation. The AR in Reach actually has more polygons than an entire Marine character did in Halo 3.

"The Assault Rifle is a great example of this where at the start we nearly completely redesigned it. After we put it in the game we got a lot of feedback that while it looked really cool, it just didn't really feel like the AR that people knew and loved. So we actually ended up dialing it back and re-introducing some of the things that made the AR so iconic."

It wouldn't be a Halo game without the Warthog and the new Hog carries forward a tradition upgrades spanning every one of Bungie's titles. (from left: Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo: Reach).

...

Of course there's a lot more to Halo: Reach than just much prettier looking versions of existing 3D assets. There's new stuff in store, too. So far you've already seen glimpses of new weapons like the DMR and Needle Rifle as well as the new "Warthog of the sky," the Falcon. Each new item is built with the same painstaking attention to detail as the re-imagined originals, while staying true to the design team's goals and vision for gameplay.

In the weeks ahead we'll be looking closer at these new sandbox additions as well as the major advancements and investments being made in animation and how the team will be bringing these characters, weapons and vehicles to life like never before.