The video starts with the closing cinematic from Halo 3, so spoilers beware if you managed to not complete that game since the last time Earth had a leap day.

The designers and producers at 343 Industries walk through some of the changes to the Spartan armor and do reveal that multiplayer features the next generation Spartan IV equipment. Master Chief himself was (or is?) a Spartan II, and much of the Noble team from Reach were Spartan IIIs. 343 were not kind enough to talk about armor abilities, but it does seem that dual wielding is gone for good.

Only a small fragment of campaign footage appears, and they’re not revealing the enemies just yet. We’ll probably have to wait until E3 in June for more answers.

Franchise director Frank O’Conner says every comic, book, and additional content released around Halo over the last 4 years has been building up to this.

“Reclaimer” is a term used by 343 Guily Spark in the original game, “Halo: Combat Evolved.” Master Chief John 117 was charged with activating the Halo super weapon, but its vague use in the series may imply John specifically or any human or Forerunner who manipulated a Halo, The Ark, or a Shield World. This might sound all like gibberish to anyone who didn’t play Halo, and I can assure you its almost gibberish to me, and I’ve played all the games multiple times.

In any case, the concepts seen in the teaser seem to imply a lot more Forerunner structures and new planets will be explored in the new trilogy. Hopefully we’ve seen the last of the Flood, though. And the last of the Brutes. I could do without Skirmishers as well. You know what, lets just halo Halo 4 with all Hunters and Grunts! Yeah!

Below, hear some of the creators at 343 Industries talk about taking Halo into future. [Read the rest of this entry…]

The trailer is pure excitement and features the return of Jen Taylor as Cortana and Steve Downes as Master Chief. Chief is awakened in a panic while in cryonic sleep to see the already ravaged UNSC ship Forward Unto Dawn being torn apart. As he jets to where the bridge of the ship once stood, Chief looks out into the maw of the monster planet Unicron.

Unicron first appeared in the 1986 Transformers The Movie and has reappeared in several TV series and comic spinoffs of that franchise. What business the Chaos Bringer has with a Spartan from Reach is of complete mystery, but I’m sure if Cortana can help Master Chief open the Matrix, everything will be all right.

Halo 4 launches on XBox 360 in late 2012. The Unicron action figure will be available as an Amazon exclusive later this year. [Read the rest of this entry…]