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!
The developers of Marathon, Myth, and Halo game series have turned 20!
Bungie Studios has had the bittersweet duty of handing over the Halo franchise officially this week to Microsoft’s internal Halo team, 343 Industries. Now is a great time to get acquainted with the team as they embark on their next big action game (which is still a total secret, but definitely coming to PS3 and XBox 360).
They’ve put together a 55 minute documentary on their history, worth a watch if you’re a fan of any of their games or you just want to see how a company can go from a few guys in an apartment to one of the biggest and most powerful in the industry.
The original Halo is a memorable game for a variety of reasons, but perhaps the best example of the game and the best introduction one could be given to the universe is the level “The Silent Cartographer.”
Master Chief John 117 and a crew of marines are dropped on to a beach with a wide variety of Covenant enemies at the ready. This level also features the music commonly thought of as the “Halo Theme”
The demo shows a talked about feature: Classic mode. Tapping the “back” button on your Xbox controller will swap the new graphics for the original 2001 graphics. Honestly, I think the game looks pretty good either way, and the classic mode really does more to show off what they could accomplish with new textures and a few layers added on to the old engine.
This demo is what was originally shown behind closed doors at E3 last month, but is being shown to everyone at San Diego ComiCon.
With a lot of developments from the video game world to cover, the Powetcast enlists returning champions Zac, aDam, and Captain Genius with the long awaited return of Sindra and guest starring Famicom Dojo’s Vinnk!
The show rolls on 55 minutes in and shifts gear to talk about X-Men: First Class with Zac, aDam, and Crazy Jaco!
This is very important, guys. Microsoft has unveiled the teaser trailer for the long awaited sequel to Halo 3. Said to be the beginning of a new trilogy, Halo 4 will see John 117 aka The Master Chief return as the hero after he is lost in space.
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…]
From our coverage of Pax East 2011, we talk to Mike McCain of Moonshot Games about the art and gameplay of their first title, Fallen Frontier.
A little background: this entire interview happened only because I was waiting a while to play this game. It wasn’t until I was reviewing this footage today that I realize the person taking so long before me was Tim Schafer.
aDam and I played for about 15 minutes and we were both really impressed. The game played smooth and the level we went through was really huge with lots of options for taking on enemies.
Split screen seemed really odd at first, but totally natural once you played it. Most games will split top/bottom or left/right for two players, but Fallen Frontier splits at an angle, and the line will move or tilt based on which way the players are heading and what they’re doing. When you rejoin, the line disappears and you share the screen again. Really cool idea.
Moonshot still has a long way to go on this title, but its clear they have some good ideas in place already. We can only hope they deliver on our expectations!
Hey, so the game has been out for 9 Months. There are still a lot of people who have not made the trip to Reach.
Microsoft has never released a demo for a Halo title (with the exception of the RTS spin-off Halo Wars), so seeing its boldest and most recent chapter suddenly get some free play is kind of unexpected!
The demo is a nice vertical slice of 3 of Reach’s game modes: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Firefight. The campaign is a portion of “Long Night Of Solace” which you saw in the E3 demo last year. Only about half the chapter is included, but thats well over a half hour of play on the ground and in space. You’ll also be able to play multiplayer on “Powerhouse” which has a wide variety of weapons on the ground and lots of high and low combat. Finally, Firefight on “Outpost” will pit you against wave after wave of aliens until the timer runs out, or you finally run out of lives.
If you like it, go ahead and buy the game. You won’t be disappointed. I purchased on day one and still managed to put another 2 hours into the game this morning. There are two downloadable map packs for sale, but I’ve seen dozens of maps made by the community and they’ve all been offered for free and included in regular online play, so even if you don’t buy the professional maps, you’ll still have something new to look at almost every time you play.
The Halo series has its share of heavy military reference material. There is perhaps none more completely mystified on the human side than the Office of Naval Intelligce, or ONI (pronounced in fiction as “Oh-nee”).
There is no in-fiction date of formation for ONI, but it is likely an extension of the current United States ONI, originally commissioned in 1882. The modern US ONI has the stated purpose of tracking enemy and friendly ships throughout the globe in order to assess threats to the homeland, and is one of the oldest branches of the US intelligence community though handled by the armed forces. [Read the rest of this entry…]
PS3
Famicom Dojo
KEEP PLAYING
KEEP PLAYING: Rewind
Powet Toys
Powetcast
Hitchhiker's Guide POWETcast
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.
, you’ll get a bonus in game, the “Grunt Funeral Skull.” What does it do? Well, here is a video…. 
