Grifball Returns in Halo Reach
When Grifball launched as a custom gametype in Halo 3, it gained instant popularity to the point where Bungie actually made it a playlist at certain times. Are you a Grifball lover who was missing your Grifball fix in Halo Reach?
Fear not, fellow Grifball lover, for not only will Grifball be returning in Halo Reach, but it will be even better. Grifballhub, the official website of the Grifball creators, has launched a trailer for what they are calling "Grifball Evolved", which will be the Halo Reach version of Grifball and will include Halo Reach's armor abilities.
Check out the trailer after the break.
Reach Racer Mini-Game Hidden in Halo Reach Campaign
Bungie loves slipping Easter Eggs into their Halo games, and the first one for Halo Reach has been discovered. Hidden in the ONI: Sword Base campaign mission is a secret race mode that will pit two warthogs (with gunners) against each other in a race to the finish line.
To start the race you need two people to stand on two hidden locations on opposite sides of the map. Achievement Hunter has a video detailing how to get things started, which we've embedded after the break.
Halo Reach Weapons
By now, you've all played a lot of Halo Reach, and probably used all of the Halo Reach Weapons. But that's not going to stop us from listing them all out for you so you have something to refer to. So after the break we've got a list of all the Halo Reach weapons, how they work, and some other little tips that you may not have known about them (for instance, did you know that keeping your reticle on the target with the needler even after you've fired helps your bullets home better?). This is stuff you'll need to know if you're going to make it all the way through all of the Halo Reach ranks.
I've also ranked them in order of how effective I think all of them are (I left the campaign/firefight only weapons at the bottom). Check it out after the break and tell me how you agree or disagree with my rankings of the Halo Reach weapons.
Halo Reach Ranks - Full List Up to Inheritor
There are few things more satisfying in Halo Reach than watching our rank go up at the end of the match when we hit a new credits milestone. But how many ranks are there? How many credits do we need to get them all? What do the icons look like.
Fret not, for these are the answers that we bring you today. All the ranks, the credits that are required to attain them, and the icons that go with them are listed after the break. Check it out.
Halo Reach Update
You've just made one of the best games of all-time. It's selling like hotcakes. What do you do next? Take a relaxing vacation? Swim in pools of money? If you work for Bungie, then the answer is to keep working, and get the first update ready.
That's exactly what we'll have next month, as Bungie has announced that the first matchmaking update for Halo Reach will be coming in early October, and will consist mostly of bug fixes and balance issues.
Beyond that, we can also expect to see new Halo Reach playlists, new forge maps, and for some of you the best thing of all, matchmaking for co-op games.
Halo Reach Stats
Newsflash: Lots of people are playing Halo Reach. I know, shocking, isn't it? Bungie just let loose some figures to back this up, and show us just how many people are playing this awesome game.
As of the end of last week, when the game had been out only four days, already 31 million matchmaking games had taken place. On top of that, the total time played added up to 2,300 years and 78 billion credits had been earned.
No word on how those numbers changed over the weekend, but we're guessing they've at least doubled since then, which is just downright scary. Kudos to Xbox Live for being able to handle all that without a hitch.
In more "Halo Reach is kicking ass" news, we've also learned that, unsurprisingly, Halo Reach was the top selling game in the UK last week. It also brought with it the 5th largest launch week ever, trailing only Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360 and PS3 versions), GTA4, and GTA San Andreas.
You go, girl.
Halo Reach Disc Read Errors, Are You Affected?
It's the end of the world for some people. After all the waiting and yearning for Halo Reach, some people are now reporting disc errors when trying to play Halo Reach on their console.
Microsoft has acknowledged the issue for a small number of users and assures us that they are working to resolve the issue. In the meantime, if you're experiencing the issue call 1-800-4MY-XBOX to report the issue.
Is anyone around here having this problem?
Halo Reach Makes $200 Million on First Day Alone
The numbers are in, and to no one's surprise, Halo Reach is a huge hit. Microsoft's Phil Spencer announced that Halo Reach brought in $200 million in sales on September 14th alone. Given that pretty much nowhere was selling Halo Reach below retail price, $200 million in sales calculates out to about 3.3 million units.
The $200 million in first day sales is the highest ever for a Halo game, eclipsing Halo 3, which brought in $170 million on its first day.
That's a pretty beefy mark for Call of Duty Black Ops to live up to, at least on the 360.
To Install or not to Install? Yes, Install.
If you'll recall, Halo 3 did not really benefit from a hard drive install of your game disc. Halo Reach is a different story however.
According to the Examiner, you will see a big difference in load times if you install the game to your hard drive. Single player missions drop in loading time from 21 seconds to 8 seconds, firefight loads drop from 45.1 seconds to 21.6 seconds, and custom game loads drop from 29 seconds to 10 seconds.
Of course, this is all for single player. If you're jumping online and someone in the game doesn't have it installed to their hard drive, it will slow everyone down. So get that game installed people!
[Update] No Halo Reach Co-op Without Hard Drive
Some disturbing news has cropped up today with regard to Halo Reach online co-op and Firefight. It seems in researching some errors that some folks have been getting when trying to play Halo Reach's co-op mode, it has been discovered that Halo Reach online co-op and Firefight will not work unless you have a hard drive in your 360.
I you have an old system with a 20gb, 60gb, 120gb, or 250gb hard drive you are fine. However if you have an arcade model, whether it be the old version with no storage or the new version with 4gb of built-in storage, you will not be able to play co-op in Halo Reach, even with an external flash drive, unless you buy a hard drive for your 360.
We understand the technical reasoning for it. It is likely that co-op uses a ton of hard drive caching so both players can be far apart in the same level. However, the somewhat disturbing part is that players were not warned of this ahead of time. So, does this affect you or are all you guys out there donning hard drives?
Update: It looks like Microsoft is now saying this is a temporary issue, and will be resolved in the future.