Halo: Reach

[Sandman42]

Re: Halo: Reach

I almost forgot about voice masking. So glad they got rid of that for the 360.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo: Reach

1UP details some of the new modes.

Headhunter

The official Bungie description is, "a new 'party' game [...] where the goal is to collect and capture the most skulls." Basically, players drop a skull upon death, and you just want to scoop that skull and carry it to a designated skull deposit zone (that actually moves around the map). You can carry multiple skulls, but here's a warning: if you're killed before scoring, then you drop all the skulls you had. In fact, Carroll points out, "you have a nice navpoint over your head showing everyone in the game how many skulls you are carrying. When you have ten, then that actually shows up as a flashing star or VIP waypoint, to let everybody know you're the one guy to go after."

Though, unlike carrying the flag, Carroll points out, "there are no downsides to skull carrying other than the danger of dying and turning over your hard-earned loot to the enemy." In fact, you have full access to weapons and abilities while skull-slinging. Community Director Brian Jarrard provides a pro-tip with, "Sprint is super-useful for Headhunter -- it helps close that distance between your foot in the zone and scoring, versus dying just short of the goal and losing all of your skulls."

By default, Headhunter is a free-for-all affair, though Carroll says, "There is [also] a team version of Headhunter that allows for a bit more specialization: one guy can snipe and suppress, while his teammate scoops up skulls and sprints to the score zone."

Stockpile

This is, "another 'party' gametype that is sort of like Territories meets with Capture the Flag." That is, both teams are racing to capture four neutral flags that spawn on the map and successfully return them to their respective (and active) capture points. Carroll elaborates, "Stockpile flags appear randomly throughout the map at pre-set flag-spawn points. Experienced players will learn the ten or so spots they can appear in the Beta maps, but they won't be able to predict which ones will be used at any given time."

It's worth noting that points aren't scored instantly once you drop a flag down. You actually have to have the flag at your capture point once a timed countdown has passed. Carroll notes, "Every 60 seconds, any flag inside the capture point will be scored for that team -- even ones being carried by enemies!" He further describes the time breakdown as, "The clock is always running, so in a ten minute game, it scores ten times. So it's the bottom of every minute. [...] There's definitely an ebb-and-flow, and a real spike in intensity and an, 'oh my God get the flag over there' type of feeling." Bakken further points out the time pressure by noting, "If you see the other team holding three flags and there's 30 seconds left, you better start sending a couple dudes over to at least get them out of the capture point when the time runs out."

Generator Defense

This is where Halo Reach feels more distinct and objective-driven. In Bungie's words, this mode, "pits three Spartans against three Elites. The Elites are trying to destroy three generators before time runs out while the Spartans are trying to defend." When I point out that Elites are fast and tall foes with superior healing, Bakken replies, "Elites may be faster, bigger, and 'healthier' to use your words, but they are also easier to hit, and Spartans have the advantage of being in a pretty well defended position." He further points out that Generator Defense (or as Bungie calls it, "Network Test 1") always plays as, "two rounds of five minutes apiece," with teams switching from Spartans to Elites and vice-versus per round (so players can experience both perspectives). Of course, if the Elites destroy the generators in just three minutes, then the round ends.

Bakken continues, "This [mode] takes place exclusively on Overlook in the Beta. Defenders have the superior position at the top of a hill, with Attackers trying to claw their way up it." He then describes what happens when a match begins: "We call in a weapon drop where a Longsword flies over and drops off three random power weapons in different random locations on the map. Each weapon pod has a random chance of being a Spartan Laser, a Sniper rifle, or a Rocket Launcher. And those are evenly distributed around the map so that both Spartans and Elites have an equal access to them. So in the beginning, not only are the Spartans running to generators, but people are just running to get the power weapons." On the topic of what gear players will have, he further notes, "In general, the Loadouts are designed to be shared across multiple modes, but you'll definitely see some surprises in this [mode]. They are more in line with the final stage of an Invasion game, which means it's pretty crazy from the beginning. Add in the [aforementioned] dynamic Weapon Drop, and you get some nice variety."

Besides the natural layout and whatever weapons get scrounged up, the Spartans on defense have an additional mechanic: the ability to lock down a generator. Bakken explains, "the act of locking down a generator is simple, because we wanted people to pick it up quickly. You walk up to an unlocked generator as a Spartan and press 'X' to lock it down (Elites obviously can't lock them down). The invulnerability lasts for approximately 30 seconds. It sounds like a long time, but when you have three different gennies on the map, and only five minutes to defend all of them... it gets intense. There's also a brief cool-down period when the lock expires before you can re-lock again, which creates some additional tension during that window of vulnerability."

Invasion

This is the fourth and final game mode in the beta, and also the one that Bungie is still being tight-lipped about until we're a little closer to launch. Carroll's one-line quip is, "It's a vehicle-full frenzy!" In fact, this mode and its accompanying map (Boneyard) is the only map in the beta that features vehicles. "[It's] packed to the gills with vehicle combat," says Carroll, who continues with, "It's really big -- nice and spacious to drive around in. A little bit bigger than Sandtrap even." Other scant details about Invasion are that it's a six-versus-six match, and as mentioned earlier while describing the Loadouts for Generator Defense, it seems to be a multi-stage affair that will utilize some heavy firearms during the end.

And there you have it: the new multiplayer modes for Halo Reach that you can play for yourself during the beta. For you traditionalists, there are modes and variants such as Slayer, King of the Hill, one-flag CTF, and three-plot Territories (a purposeful return to Halo 2-style Territories). Heck, there's even a Slayer Pro variant, where your only ability is Sprint, you don't have a motion tracker, and you start with either a Designated Marksman Rifle or a Needle Rifle.

As my time with Bungie winds down, I ask Jarrard how players will actually be seeing and jumping into these modes, and he answers, "There will be five different playlists active at different points during the public beta -- so not everything will be available day one. But as the beta progresses, more playlists will come online. You'll have Arena stuff, you'll have Free-for-All, you'll have Grab Bag which is a mix of different game types, and you'll have the Invasion and Network Test 1 playlists."

Screens

[Flawless]

Re: Halo: Reach

Reach dev blog update

This week, we solved some big E3 plans that have been cooking for a while now. It wasn’t easy at all. I had some different ideas as to what I wanted to show, but our marketing folks did a great job of pulling me up off the ground – far enough away from the project that I could see what they thought would be the best thing for us to present. Damn, I can’t wait for you all to tune in for what we have to show.

I just got done playing one of our final Beta take-home tests. The test team does an amazing job of burning through build after build of the game, finding all the tough to find bugs and whacking us over the heads until we fix them all. Then, they coordinate these massive tests on custom dev kits for us to take home and play during the night hours. Holy Crap, tonight was fun. Many uncontrolled outbursts of hilarity amongst our team.

One Final Effort

Earlier this week, we asked the team to take some time out to send along their thoughts on Halo 2’s development process. You’ll find a selection of their unfiltered memories below – some good and some bad.

The Final Analysis

• Unique Players (not including guests): 6,603,900
• Kills: 36,784,837,266 (Or something like 5.5 times the current population of the earth)
• Assists: 10,422,552,715

• Seconds in Matchmatchmade games: 1,798,459,752,186
• Minutes in Matchmatchmade games: 29,974,329,203
• Hours in Matchmatchmade games: 499,572,153
• Days in Matchmatchmade games: 20,815,506
• Years in Matchmatchmade games: 56,991 (So since around 54,981 BC, about the time Europe was thought to have started being inhabited by Neanderthals)

• Seconds playing campaign on live: 850,462,468,852
• Minutes playing campaign on live: 14,174,374,480
• Hours playing campaign on live: 236,239,574
• Days playing campaign on live: 9,843,315
• Years playing campaign on live: 26,950 (Or about 1.7 billion dollars at a minimum wage of 7.25)

• Total Clans: 8,653,124
• Clans with 8+ members: 68,868
• Clans with 16+ members: 16,752

• Times the Halo 2 Banhammer has swung: 548,479 (Slightly more than the population of Wyoming) (includes multiple bans on the same players)

[Steel5]

Re: Halo: Reach

They linked a youtube channel with some cool videos about the production of halo 2.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Bungie#g/c/B54E5AAB92043FDE

[Flawless]

Re: Halo: Reach

Bungie Weekly Update

And since we’re still all kinds of work in progress, it also means that in the most recent batch of screenshots, and in the Public Beta, you might come across a few rough edges here and there. For example, in current builds there’s a subtle application of Ambient Occlusion being layered into the scene that adds a nice touch of depth into each map’s nooks and crannies, but it’s not something that made the grade in time for the Beta or for our recent batch of screenshots.

Matchmaking makes the grade, obviously. And sure, if you have some guests over at your place and you want to rock some split screen action, we’re more than happy to oblige. Four players per box over Xbox LIVE, just like in Halo 3, except for Generator Defense, which is confined to two players on one system for reasons we’ll discuss in detail below.

And, of course, once you’ve capped off your first few games, you should feel free to head into the Theater to save off your favorite Saved Films and Screenshots. We’ll have some space reserved for you in your Bungie.net profile so you can show them off. And, as we’ve already noted, you won’t even have to fire up your web browser to tag your content and search for the sweet Beta stuff other players submit. It’s now all implemented right into the game’s menus.

Speaking of nuance, flag juggling didn’t make the cut. Now, while you’re snagging a flag, you’re base player traits will actually stick, for lack of a better term, for a brief moment just after you let loose. So, drop it like it’s hot, but don’t expect to get a speed boost for your efforts

And if you were worried about players flying with the flag via Jet Pack, I can assuage those fears. Won’t happen. If you have hold of the flag, using an Armor Ability will cause you to drop it instantly. Pick it back up, and the effects from your Armor Ability will vanish. Same goes for any multiplayer specific object you can hold in your hot little hands.

And then there’s Generator Defense. Three Spartans defend three generators from an all out assault launched by three Elites.

Why only three per team? We’re testing out some pretty specific stuff on the networking side of things. In fact, the entire concept of Generator Defense was created simply to support what’s actually called Network Test 1.
...

If you like what you play, let us hear about it. Maybe Generator Defense is something we’ll ship in the retail game this fall. Who knows?

Invasion is definitely in, but you’ll have to wait a little bit longer to check it out. We thought mere words weren’t enough to do it justice. Tune into GTTV later tonight for the first ever detailed footage.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo: Reach

Air to Air action

There’s almost nothing better than jetpacking up in the air and landing a sweet assasintation on another high flyer. It’s so sweet we made a cool little turnaround for you all! Enjoy!

http://downloads.bungie.net/videos/onthewingsoflove.mov

Brian Jarrard:

I did sneak a few new screenshots to Urk for the BWU though - along with 1.1GB of assets for next week's media embargo lifting.

Next week should be pretty crazy... a multimedia blow-out.

[Steel5]

Re: Halo: Reach

Looking forward to the footage tonight. Family and Friends beta starts in less than 2 weeks.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo: Reach

Multiplayer footage on GTTV was awesome. Everything looked so smooth. The animation is fantastic, it's a generational leap over previous Halo games. So glad Bungie invested in new animation tech. It makes such huge difference to the overall look. I think you all will agree when you see the footage too.

This Elite assassination on a downed Spartan was sick.



The show didn't really do a great job of detailing Invasion. It sounded a bit like Halo meets Battlefield.

Other things:

• Loved the grenade trail effect.
• Didn't look disorienting when you evade as an Elite, since the camera is stationary.
• Halo 1 shotgun melee animation.
• Elite jumping animation looks really cool.
• Proportions are much different since the Elites are over foot taller. A Spartan looked small while driving a Ghost. You couldn't even see the back of the head from behind.

There was a ton of stuff, so I know I missed a lot. Show should be up on Gametrailers within a couple of hours.

[Steel5]

Re: Halo: Reach

The footage looked incredible.

[frostbyte06]

Re: Halo: Reach

Wow....that animation was nice, I caught the last few minutes of the episode and the game just looked "smoother", hard to explain...heading to gametrailers right now to watch the episode.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo: Reach

The quality of the stream on GTTV isn't very good - a lot compression and artifacting.

Stream: http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/...p=89&ch=1&sd=0

Download is a little better: http://flvseek.gametrailers.com/gt_v...9_pqktr_hd.flv

...

The show didn't do a great job of explaining Invasion, but here's a great writeup. Sounds awesome. Final game will allow 8v8.

http://forwarduntodawn.com/post-invasion-debut-speculation/

I love the look of the EMP effect from the Armor Lock ability:

[goh]

Re: Halo: Reach

You can trade 2 games and get this for $10 at Blockbuster. I don't know the catch/what the minimal worth is.

[frostbyte06]

Re: Halo: Reach

Ok Flawless you need a blog or something, lol, it would save me the trouble of going to different sites and you always get the info!

[Flawless]

Re: Halo: Reach

Here's the Halo CE shotgun animation:

http://i41.tinypic.com/11ih3qf.jpg

Grenade trail effect, Elite evade, AR action, and sweet new particle effects:

http://i43.tinypic.com/vpgivl.jpg

...

Sniper comparison:

[Cyros]

Re: Halo: Reach

New sniper rifle looks downright nasty.