Here are the First Six Halo Reach Achievements
Bungie has started leaking details about the achievements for Halo Reach. The first reveal is the image you see for this article (full version after the break), which shows the icon of each Halo Reach achievement. The second reveal is the breakdown of categories for the achievements, or more specifically that 23 of them will be attainable in campaign mode, 7 in firefight mode, 4 in multiplayer, 6 in training, and 9 in player experience.
Lastly, they've gone ahead and actually told us what the first six achievements will be, which you can find after the break. Beware though, some of them sound pretty tough.
Get Exclusive Armor, Helmet, and 20 Bucks By Preordering Halo Reach at Gamestop
Do you want to be the envy of your buddies, donning Halo Reach armor that they can only dream of getting their hands on? Then you'll have to preorder Halo Reach at Gamestop.
With a preorder, Gamestop is offering two exclusive in-game bonus items. The first is Multi-Threat Mjolnir Mark V(B) Armor, with the second being a Spartan Recon helmet with the visor/blast shield. Yes, that's right, you can haz recon, all you have to do is preorder at Gamestop with this link.
Along with the two bonus in-game items, Gamestop is also offering $20 towards the purchase of a future Gamestop title, much like Amazon is doing with their $20 credit.
Blood Gulch is Back....and Bigger
Were you just thinking to yourself that Bungie should add Blood Gulch to Halo Reach, make it bigger and better, and introduce it in a hilarious video? That's kind of freaky, because that's exactly what happened today.
That's right folks, after a long wait and several knock-offs, good old fashioned Blood Gulch is back, and will be included in Halo Reach when it releases this September. But not only that, the map will now let you wander outside the canyon, opening up all new areas.
Check out the hilarious Red vs. Blue video after the break to catch some glimpses of what the map will now look like.
See Halo Reach Space Combat in Action
So that little glimpse we got of space combat in Halo Reach at E3 was pretty cool, right? But that was just a tease, we want some real footage dammit.
Don't worry folks, we've got the hook-up for you. Engrained after the break are several glorious minutes of nothing but Halo Reach space combat footage.
The Next Halo Game (after Reach) is Under Way
We all knew that Halo Reach was likely Bungie's last Halo game. But that doesn't mean it's the last Halo game in general.
New Halo IP holders 343 Industries, partnered with Microsoft, are now hiring people to work on the next Halo game after Halo Reach.
Right now they're hiring concept, effects, environment, 3D, character artists, sound designers, audio producers, animations, mission designers, system designers, and software development engineers. If you work in any of those fields, GET THE HECK OFF THIS BLOG AND GO APPLY FOR A JOB WORKING ON HALO!!!
Halo Reach was almost Halo 4 instead
Finish the Fight? Just kidding!
Bungie's Brian Jarrard, who seems to be the big media guy at Bungie nowadays, recently confirmed in an mtv interview that Halo 4 was discussed as one of the ideas for the next Halo game after Halo 3.
The game would once again have starred Master Chief, who presumably would have started out by waking up from his cryo-sleep on whatever strange planet we saw him marooned on at the end of Halo 3.
Jarrard says the idea never made it out of preproduction, and they instead decided to go the prequel route with Halo Reach. Personally, I'm glad they went with Reach as the main Master Chief story has run its course, and the Fall of Reach book has a great story that should adapt well to videogame form. Especially since it involved lots of big explosions.
What do you think? Would you have preferred Halo 4, rather than the Halo Reach prequel?
Halo Reach Campaign Mixes Epic Halo Soundtrack with...Techno?
The Halo series is well known for its history of epic scores, and Marty O'Donnell is a name that most Halo fans know well. Whether it be the goosebump inducing Halo theme, or the dreary sad music in some of the more dramatic scenes, "Halo" and "Epic music" go hand in hand.
That's why it struck us as more than a little bit odd when, 67 seconds into the E3 live gameplay footage of Halo Reach, techno music started playing alongside our Spartan's valiant fight. At the time we just shrugged it off as something that some execs probably forced on the game for e3. But Kotaku recently brought up the question to Bungie, and was told that the music was actually a part of the game's soundtrack, and was composed by O'Donnell himself.
So what do you think, is there room for a techno-vibe in Halo Reach or would you prefer they just stuck to the epic orchestral scores?
Halo Reach Co-op Difficulty Will Scale, Still no Drop-in/Drop-out
Kotaku recently got some hands on time with the Halo Reach campaign, and had Bungie dev Brian Jarrard on hand to answer questions through their session.
Co-op became a central part of the discussion, with Jarrard noting that unlike previous Halo games, the difficulty during co-op will scale to the number of players in the game. In past Halo games you pretty much had to set the game to Legendary when playing co-op or things would be way too easy, but that is no longer the case. He also confirms that enemies in co-op Legendary mode will be the most difficult Halo enemies ever, both in statistics and in enemy AI.
He also details when drop-in/drop-out co-op will work, and when it won't. Hit the jump for the full article for these details.
Halo Reach Comic Will Detail Master Chief's Rise to Power
Alongside the release of Halo Reach this September will be some more Halo fanfare, this time in comic book form. Marvel will be releasing a Halo Reach based comic book that will detail the backstory of John 117 in his journey to become Master Chief.
Halo: Fall of Reach "Boot Camp #1" will release this September. If you aren't to busy actually playing the game all month (just 3 more months to go!!!), it will probably make for a good read.
The Newest Halo Reach Multiplayer Map is Beachfront
The news from E3 just keeps pooring in, even after the event is over. In a recent video from IGN, we can see one of Halo Reach's new maps, titled Beachfront.
Apparently, Reach wasn't just a Spartan training planet, but also housed some pretty nice resorts. We get a nice, bright beach with sparkling white sand and some nice looking water, and on the other side some futuristic looking condo skyscrapers, reminiscent of those near Miami.
A video of some gameplay taking place on the map is embedded after the break.