Turn down your speakers before getting too far into this video, but heartily enjoy the feast for the eyes. Halo 2’s best map, Zanzibar, is back as “Last Resort”

The inside of the base is completely different, but before long the player is looking around the outside and you see how far this has come. You’ll also get a taste of the Spartan Laser and the ATV.

I can’t wait to play Assault here.

If you haven’t seen this yet, prepare to be blown away at one man’s dedication to making great CG action and trying to show what might happen in a fight between Samus Aran and a USNC Spartan like Master Chief. Fight choreography is top. Give this man a job now.

The first issue of the ongoing comic book based on the Halo universe is coming in July. Marvel.com has a page up previewing the story and this image, which may be the first cover.

The Eisner Award-winning team of superscribe Brian Michael Bendis and artist extraordinaire Alex Maleev unleash an epic story of mankind’s struggle against the alien threat of the Covenant. Picking up from the conclusion of blockbuster video game Halo 2, the must-read issue reveals how the Master Chief, while onboard a hostile ship headed towards Earth, is battling against Covenant forces! Intertwined with Master Chief’s interstellar one-man-war is the saga of a great American city’s rebellion and downfall, two disparate lives’ collision and shared fate, and the Convenant’s hunt for an ancient relic of untold power and value. With hope dwindling and the fate of humanity hanging by a thread, is there any chance for a future? Read this debut issue to start the journey into the Halo universe!

All this can be yours for only $3.99! Seriously, it’ll be nice to get some more story in before Halo 3 launches, though with any expanded universe stuff, I doubt too much of it will effect the game itself. Theres been lots of Spartan action all over the books and in the graphic novel last year, but Chief is still the only one in the game. Still, with Bendis on board they’re not exactly turning this over to a fanfic writer, so we may get some good stories.

Just my quick kneejerk reactions to the newly released maps to Halo 2. They went up for purchase in the content downloader this morning for $4. Note this is the Halo 2 content downloader, not Xbox Live Marketplace.

This first thing that strikes me about these maps is some of the weapon choices. Tombstone’s default start is the Battle Rifle, and with good reason as its too big to use SMG or Plasma weapons to start. The Sentinel Beam also makes a return appearance in Desolation. 2 Halo mainstays are completely missing from the weapon set: Plasma pistol and Sniper Rifle. This can be changed easily in a custom game, and I’m sure Tombstone will become a popular sniper map, but its kinda odd for them to be missing. Neither map supports vehicles or turrets from what I can tell, which further narrows the gameplay. I think the designers were trying really hard to bring orignal Halo multiplayer into Halo 2

Also, neither map feels like Halo 2. While any of the original maps felt like they were plucked from the single player campaign, these look more like arena maps more common to Quake. Tombstone in particular has lots of hallways and ramps everywhere, and it doesn’t have the organic feel of Halo 2. It is a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved’s “Hang ‘Em High” map, and its still really fun to play capture the flah, oddball, and King Of The Hill, but the geometric nature and screwy structure choices seperate it from a map like “Turf” where the art style kept you within the Halo universe even in the free for all multiplayer games.

Ultimately the maps appear well worth the money as they will add some new life to the game and its been a good 2 years since I’ve grabbed a flag and had no idea where to take it and thats a fun feeling. Just don’t expect a new classic like Lockout, Terminal, or Relic. The best way to play these maps will be with friends, so send a friend request on Xbox Live to me, and we’ll get in some games in the upcoming Powet.TV Game Night for Halo 2 on April 28-29!

So what do you think of the new maps? Was a throwback to Halo: CE welcome in the last days of Halo 2? Leave a comment below!

This is the first official video of Halo 3 multiplayer. You can either watch this embedded version, download it from Bungie, or grab it from Xbox Live Marketplace. As with the previous looks at the Halo 3 Trailer and the Brute video, this one goes about 7 minutes and if you aren’t paying close attention, you’re going to miss a dozen cool things. Also, we’re looking at Alpha build gameplay, which isn’t going to be the same level that will be available in the Beta, which also will be less polished than the final game.

Oh yeah, about that Beta test. It starts May 16th at midnight and will run through June 6th at midnight. Thats 3 short weeks, but more than enough to get a taste of the game. There will be 2 new guns, 3 new maps, and lots of new features. Watch the video for more. If 3 weeks isn’t a long time, keep in mind that this is only a beta test so that Bungie can try putting the game dynamics and the online functionality on a more diverse testing group, its not supposed to be a demo of the game.

In a post thanking fans for supporting 4 years of groundbreaking machinima, Rooster Teeth’s Burnie Burns has announced that Red vs Blue: Blood Gulch Chronicles will be complete at the end of season 5 with the 100th episode.

Before we all start gnashing our teeth at the loss of the series that invented “shisno” as a racial epithet, Burnie specifically mentioned that this would only be the last episode of “Blood Gulch Chronicles” and not the last RvB ever. I can’t imagine them throwing away the series completely unless it was demanded by Microsoft or Bungie, who own the Halo franchise their series uses as backdrop. Its possible they’re merely finishing up in preparation of a new series using Halo 3…

Halo 3 may be mere months away. Halo 3’s beta may open very soon. But for only $4 on April 17th you can add 2 maps to Halo 2! These were announced a while ago, but held under wraps until today. Both are remakes of popular maps from the original Halo: Combat Evolved. Desolation is the new Derelict and Tombstone is the new Hang ‘Em High.
Some are griping that charging for content on a game that sold as well as it has is cheap, but the simple fact is that both of these maps were developed by Certain Affinity, a group of ex-Bungie staffers, so they had to get paid somehow.

Read up on the new maps, and maybe enjoy some Master Chief-flavored Mountain Dew.

Day 2 of the New York Comic-Con isn’t quite over yet, but a lot’s happened already. All that, and there’s a couple tidbits leftover from yesterday that happened a little later in the day. Want to know more about the Avengers/Transformers book? How about the future of producing and selling comics digitally? Or maybe who’s working on the new Halo ongoing? It’s a bit less concise than yesterday, so read on for more!
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