[Flawless]

Some more beta details:

IGN

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Bungie gave out a few new details during the course of this demo. The beta will include a couple of maps and a couple of game modes, including one that is brand new. Several of the armor abilities will be on display for you to play around with, but a few will be held back until the game releases. One of the maps that will be included in the beta is called Powerhouse, and Bungie closed the demo with a quick run-through of the map. It's a large, asymmetrical space centered on a hydroelectric power station. This, like all of the Halo: Reach multiplayer maps, is pulled from a campaign area. The twist, it seems, is that the campaign section will likely take place during the night while the multiplayer map is set during the day. During the fly-through I got to see the interior of the power station, filled with corridors and lit walls (which can be shot and destroyed). The exterior is fairly wide open, with a brown, shrub covered ring encircling the large cement structure. I would venture a guess and say that standing around out in the open wouldn't be a very good idea, though there were plenty of structures to duck behind.

Joystiq: X10 Preview

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Lehto talked about the team's desire to "throw new things at the player," building on the hallmark underpinnings of previous Halos, even changing some things to suit the new game's more serious tone, but says Bungie won't "be pushing it." Another key goal with Reach, according to Lehto, is to "reintroduce the Covenant," by both making them look different -- more alien, more savage -- and giving established enemies new behaviors. It was also mentioned that, to keep with the more realistic tone of Reach, players won't be able to understand what the Covenant are saying.

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Specifically, its goal is to make the world more expansive, put a lot more on-screen and introduce much more detailed character, environment and weapon models. Addressing the former, Bungie showed a test animation of a battle between Noble Squad, eight marines and 30 Covenant -- it was even more impressive looking than it sounds. We got zoomed-in looks at things like rifle scopes, which are detailed down to small writing and screws The game is pushing about four million polygons more than Halo 3 overall, we're told, with a completely re-written animation system and A.I. The result, Bungie hopes, will be a much more realistic world to look at and be involved with. From the stills and footage we saw, it's on track to deliver -- the game looks phenomenal. It promises to sound great, too, as every sound effect has been re-recorded. Lehto told us the revamped game engine and A.I. will allow Reach to adopt a more "sandbox" style within its levels. They're going to be much less linear, he said, and much less scripted. This will, Bungie hopes, give players more freedom to approach combat in their own way. One thing we saw along these lines: Special kills, which cause the camera to pull out to a third-person perspective in order to show off their intricate animations. According to Bungie, Halo: Reach is currently in alpha. What it showed today definitely got us excited about the much larger, more detailed world and overall heightened realism. And, we'll say it again, the game looks amazing in motion. Now we just need to get our hands on it. E3, anyone?