Who was there: 343 Industries’ creative director Frank O’Connor was joined on stage by a host of contributors to the Halo-dedicated establishment. Among them were novelists Greg Bear and Karen Traviss, Tor Books editor Eric Raab, and famed comics writer Peter David. 343 Industries producer Alison Stroll and managing editor Kevin Grace rounded out the panel.

Halo won’t end after the fall of Reach.

What they talked about: Bungie’s Halo: Reach panel, which delved into user-generated content and new modes for the September 14 release, wasn’t the franchise’s only presence at Comic-Con 2010. Microsoft’s 343 Industries was also on hand to provide a deeper look into the developments and people behind the Halo universe, in a panel titled, aptly enough, “Halo Universe Panel.”

The session opened with a brief trailer recounting some of Halo’s non-gaming exploits, ranging from Halo novel The Fall of Reach to the Halo Legends anime. Of course, it also showed previously released footage from Halo: Reach, the final Bungie-developed installment in the franchise.

Stroll, who moderated the session, asked panelists what it was that kept them wanting to contribute to the Halo universe. Raab led off, saying that world building offers the ultimate sandbox, because it lets a writer take a universe that is self-contained, and then flesh out the limitless stories within it. David concurred, saying that the nice thing about Halo, in particular, is that all of his contributions are canonical, and its satisfying to be part of something that’s bigger than himself.

Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Bear then discussed what brought him into the fold. He said that the Halo universe offers the classic hard-boiled military sci-fi that he grew up on, and that it is entertaining for him to carry on the tradition of writing about extraordinary characters accomplishing extraordinary feats.

Traviss, who is also a primary contributor to Microsoft and Epic Games’ Gear of War story, noted that her draw to the universe is that there are very dark, disturbed characters in the Halo universe, and those are exactly the type of stories that she likes to tell. She said that she feels like a tribal storyteller, and feeds off of the way people react to her stories.

David was then asked about the process of taking the Halo universe from the realm of games and bringing it to another medium–in his case, comic books. He said that it was actually quite easy, because Halo was born as a visual experience and was geared for being conveyed in such a manner. The Halo universe is especially nice, he continued, because of the massive amount of feedback he receives from the people who created the lore.

The conversation then turned to some of the upcoming releases in the Halo universe, with Raab noting that Tor will be reissuing all of the Halo novels with bonus content, the first of which will arrive by the end of August. He also said that a new collection of short stories will arrive in November and December.

The next new novel, which is being penned by Bear and focuses on the Forerunners, is expected to arrive this holiday. Delving into what fans of the novels can expect, Bear said the story focuses on humanity’s origins in the Halo universe, as well as the construction of the massive space rings themselves. The story will be told over the course of three novels.

With Reach due on September 14, Grace said that gamers can also expect to get more information on Dr. Halsey, who created the Spartan program, with the game’s limited edition package. Included in the release will be Dr. Halsey’s journal, which will recount her experiences with creating the super-soldier program, of which the iconic Master Chief was a member.

Stroll then queued up the next animated film in the Halo franchise, which will be titled The Mona Lisa. The brief trailer showed a group of humans happening upon a pod structure near the remnants of a destroyed Halo space station. On full alert and guns raised, the soldiers pop the seal, and out bursts a humanoid figure, blood-soaked and screaming. Stroll indicated that the Flood will be central to the film.

Quote: “We would have to be the world’s biggest a******* to not follow through. You’re all applauding, but I didn’t say we weren’t the world’s biggest a*******.”–Frank O’Connor, responding to whether Master Chief’s story will continue after the cliff-hanger ending of Halo 3.

Takeaway: The Halo universe is one that offers near-limitless possibilities for those who want to play in the Bungie-created sandbox. And Microsoft has certainly tapped some of the top sci-fi writing talent around to ensure that those stories come to life. Those who want more Halo beyond just the games should have a lot to busy themselves with for some time to come.

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At the Halo panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Microsoft surprised no one when it announced a limited edition, totally rad, Halo: Reach Xbox 360.

The new system has all the bells and whistles of its newly released slimline brother (built-in Wifi, 250GB hard drive, etc.), only this one is painted silver, features Halo-themed sounds, comes with two special Xbox 360 controllers, a wired headset, a token to download an episode of Halo: Legends, limited edition Elite armor, and of course a copy of Halo: Reach.

The best part? When you open the disc tray you hear the sound of a Spartan energy shield charging up!

Want the system? It’s all yours for $399 (unboxing vid below) on September 14 alongside Halo: Reach.

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Who was there: A quartet of Bungie staffers took to the stage for a demonstration of some new multiplayer features in Halo: Reach. The panel was led by community director Brian Jarrard and also featured multiplayer designer Chad Armstrong, multiplayer producer Dave Allen, and Firefight designer Lars Bakken.

What they talked about: Skipping forward to the panel’s climactic finish, Bungie officially confirmed the special edition Halo: Reach Xbox 360 bundle that made the rounds earlier today after a report from numerous sources. Confirming prior details, the system is one of the new slimline Xbox 360 units originally unveiled at E3. It will feature a matte silver finish with artwork inspired by the ONI organization from the series’ fiction. Bundled with a pair of matching controllers and a headset, the package will also come with a copy of Halo: Reach.

From left to right: Jarrard, Bakken, Armstrong, Allen.

After teasing the audience with the mention of a possible “Oprah moment” for everyone who came to the panel, Jarrard called up a member of the crowd who had earlier been deemed the “ultimate Halo fan” by Microsoft’s Halo Waypoint community team. The fan introduced himself as Vince and was subsequently greeted with the news that the hardware bundle that was just shown to the crowd was now his to keep. Vince was nothing short of ecstatic.

Before all that happened, the Bungie staffers took the audience through a crowd-pleasing demonstration of a few new features focused on Reach’s online elements. You can read GameSpot’s recent preview of these features right here, but the basic idea is that Bungie wants to extend the lifespan of Reach far into the future by giving fans expanded customization options and creative tools. Firefight now supports a customization system akin to the user-created multiplayer variants found in Halo 3, while Forge has been overhauled to more easily create custom maps.

Armstrong wowed the audience with a helicopter tour through a map called Forge World, which is designed to serve as a blank slate for creating new maps of highly varying geography. Bungie has called Forge World its biggest map by far, and the crowd’s reaction showed that fans likely weren’t expecting to see something on this scale. They almost mentioned that a number of Bungie-created maps will be included in Reach that began as pet projects of staffers tinkering with Forge World, but impressed the team enough to add to the other original maps.

The new Reach bundle.

Quote: “24 people in this room just wet themselves,” joked Armstrong about a minor interface improvement to Forge that he expects a small but rabid number of fans to appreciate.

The Takeaway: Jarrard reiterated that this is going to be Bungie’s last game in the Halo franchise. With the studio moving onto a new project in an exclusive publishing deal with Activison, it seems Bungie wants fans to be able to continue creating new content for Halo well after the studio has wrapped up work on the series it originally created.

Who Knew?: An audience member asked Bungie about any interesting glitches in Reach that the team encountered during development. Armstrong replied with an anecdote about the new female Spartans. There was a point when anyone who lost their armor shield while playing as a female character would see their character model transform “into a dude” suddenly and without warning.

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Halo fans who haven’t switched over to the new slimline Xbox 360 will get an extra incentive to do so in September. Leaked screenshots (pictured) from retailers picked up by
Haloreachtips.net and sources speaking to
Arstechnica point to a new bundle in the works from Microsoft, makers of the 360 platform.

Halo: Reach fans will get an incentive to upgrade this September.

According to Ars’ sources and the screens, the new console will have a silver polish and come with two matching controllers, as well as a copy of Halo: Reach. The console will apparently have a special Halo-themed finish, and will retail for $400–$100 more than the now-standard version of the Xbox 360. The limited edition 360 will have the same 250GB hard drive as the current edition of the console, which is a step above the just-announced 4GB hard drive-less console which will be bundled with the Kinect motion-sensing system.

Launching on September 14 in North America, Halo: Reach is “probably” going to be Bungie’s last entry in the storied franchise. It is set before the 2001 Xbox classic Halo: Combat Evolved, the first game in the series, and tells the story of the defense of Reach by a Spartan squad. The Halo franchise has so far sold in excess of 34 million games, according to Microsoft. The game will ship in three variant editions–normal, limited, and legendary–as confirmed in April.

Bungie recently tied up a 10-year exclusivity deal with publishing behemoth Activision “to bring Bungie’s next big action game universe to market,” with future games based on a new property coming to multiple platforms.

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Yesterday was Friday, and that means one and only thing for Halo-heads: the arrival of the Bungie Weekly Update. This week’s entry was heavy on information on all sorts of Reach goodies, but what was arguably most intriguing was Bungie’s Q&A session with its beloved community.

Questions on Reach’s campaign were posed to Campaign Design Lead, Chris Opdahl, and he graciously answered every single query with great detail.

The session touches on a variety of Reach campaign specifics, including how the game will treat newbies, how past Halo entries have affected the design of Reach, how Bungie went about setting the campaign’s dark mood, and lots more.

We won’t steal Bungie’s thunder (not that we even could), so check out the Weekly Update for full, detailed answers from the game’s maker.

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The first shots of the Limited Edition for Halo: Reach have just landed. Priced at $80, this special version won’t cost as much as the $150 Legendary Edition, but still offers lots of neat extras for Halo fans. The biggest difference seems to be the absence of the 10 pound statue by McFarlane Toys, which will be included in the pricier Legendary Edition. Still, the question remains: Will you be buying it? …

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The latest Bungie Weekly Update revealed the studio’s fairly brilliant strategy for foiling the attempts of haxx0rs who planned on leaking the Achievements for Halo: Reach. All the team has to do, you see, is leak the Achievements first. Not the full, detailed list, mind you — just the icons, which are posted in the image seen above.

The game’s 49 unlockable honors are broken down into five groups, Campaign (23), Firefight (7), Multiplayer (4), Training (6) and Player Experience (9). You can find the descriptions of six of the Achievements posted after the jump. For all the rest, you’re just going to have to use your imagination. For instance, that one with the Caduceus on it? We’re pretty sure that’s the Achievement for when you put down your guns, go back to school, and become a Registered Nurse.

Continue reading Halo: Reach Achievements partially revealed

Halo: Reach Achievements partially revealed originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“Even before the idea to build a game based around Reach came about, a lot of other concepts were explored, up to and including a proper ‘Halo 4,’ where Master Chief was going to wake up from cryo-sleep and we were going to tell that story,” Jarrard said to MTV multiplayer. Spoiler warning if you never beat Halo 3, but for those whose memories are only a little hazy, the game ended with Master Chief encasing himself into cryo-sleep as he drifted aimlessly with Cortana in space on half of a destroyed frigate.

As for why they decided against another direct sequel, Jarrard said that “it just wasn’t as interesting to the team to just pick up where that left off and all the baggage that came with it.” Still, considering this will be Bungie’s last Halo (as they’re moving on to a mysterious new franchise in a publishing partnership with Activision), Jarrard also says Reach will tie into the trilogy nicely. “We don’t want to open up a whole bunch of doors that we’re not going to close,” he said. “By the end of this, it’s all going to come to a nice, neat finish, and if people want to then go play the Halo trilogy, I think they’ll have a better understanding of what’s going on, but it’s not required at all.”

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The headline says it all: there’s new footage of the Halo: Reach Firefight mode courtesy of Halo Waypoint. Keep an eye out for surprises like the return of the bubble shield. We also noticed that drop ships seem to appear on the HUD — possibly after being marked by other players a la Battlefield.

Continue reading Video: Seven minutes of Halo: Reach Firefight

Video: Seven minutes of Halo: Reach Firefight originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Marvel has just announced a graphic novel based on the novel, Halo: Fall of Reach. Titled “Halo: Fall of Reach – Boot Camp #1,” the comic will reveal Master Chief’s origin story. Check out the cover art, you can see what Master Chief looked like as a kid…
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