EL33TONLINE: News tag archive: bungie
To mark Bungie’s twenty year anniversary, the Halo franchise creator has put together a mammoth hour-long documentary that takes a look at the legendary developer’s history, from the very beginning, through the Halo years, and into present day, with lots of thoughts on the future, too.
The video just been released, but what we’ve watched so far looks epically interesting, with appearances by studio head and co-founder Jason Jones, as well as another co-founder (and ex-Bungie developer) Alex Seropian.
On Tuesday Microsoft released a long overdue demo for Halo: Reach, exclusive to Xbox LIVE Gold members. Thankfully the demo is now open to everyone on LIVE, although the online multiplayer components of the sample are naturally locked for Free members.
As Halo players already know, Halo: Reach is one of the most complete first-person shooters ever created and includes an amazing singleplayer campaign and a multiplayer experience crammed to the gills (the gills!) with features that make other offerings from similar games seem shallow in comparison. Not to mention it’s great fun!
With the release of the second multiplayer map pack for Halo: Reach, Defiant, Microsoft has extended the range of online playgrounds available to multiplayer gamers with three new arenas – two for competitive play and one for the round-based, enemy-wave-destroying Firefight mode.
Not only is the Defiant map pack important for Halo fans in order to freshen up gameplay a bit and provide new levels to sink their teeth into, but it’s also a significant piece of content because it is, in effect, a ‘passing of the torch’ from previous franchise stewards Bungie to the new Halo custodians, 343 Industries, as well as that company’s development partner, Certain Affinity.
While Certain Affinity has played in this sandbox before with the creation of sets of Halo remake maps for Halo 2 (and the fact that the team comprises former members of Bungie), this is the first time (to my knowledge) that an original piece of playable Halo content has been created by anyone other than Bungie.
Continue reading El33tonline’s review of the Halo: Reach Defiant Map Pack.
The good Major Nelson has let everybody know that the very first piece of downloadable content available for Halo: Reach is now up and available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, ready for you to seize with extreme haste.
Entitled the Noble Map Pack, this content features the addition of three new multiplayer maps, all playable in a variety of game modes. You can see these maps in action with developer Bungie’s video previews over here, or head on down below to find out more:
The first map pack for Bungie’s Halo: Reach, Noble Map Pack, was announced near the end of October with an impressive debut trailer, and now that the downloadable content is due for release very shortly, the developer has taken the time to introduce you to the three new maps included in the pack.
You can watch three videos compiled by Bungie team members, and listen to their commentary as they take you on a tour of the gorgeous new maps available in the Noble Map Pack, including Breakpoint, Tempest and Anchor 9.
Hilarity ensues!
On November 30th, Halo: Reach fans will be able to purchase the game’s first ever map pack for 800 MS Points, which will net you three more multiplayer maps to play in.
For your space bucks, you’ll get play spaces called Tempest, Anchor 9 and Breakpoint, details of which you can find over here.
If you’d like a more visual tour of this map pack for “the best game of 2010,” you can watch the just-released trailer featuring looks at all of the new areas included in the Noble Map Pack:
Bungie has gone and let everyone know that all Halo: Reach players are now able to play through the game’s singleplayer campaign online with friends (and enemies) thanks to the addition of a Campaign Matchmaking update to this portion of the game.
The team warns you, however:
“If you haven’t completed the campaign yet, we’re no longer going to hold your hand and shield your eyes from the sights and sounds of our furiously kick ass campaign. It’s been long enough.
“Be warned: if you jump into Campaign Matchmaking, you’re liable to play the last mission first. If that doesn’t bother you at all, go nuts. If it does, it’s time to get crackin’ on your campaign progress.”
A number of changes and additions to Halo: Reach’s set of multiplayer playlist offerings will also go live tomorrow, October 19th, a list of which you can peruse below:
Microsoft has announced that Halo: Reach will get its first map pack next month.
The Noble Map Pack will introduce three new “explosive” environments into the online multiplayer battlefield, “each designed to reinforce all of Halo: Reach’s vital warfronts, from small scale engagements to massive Invasion battlegrounds.”
Do you remember when Xbox frontman Major Nelson posted up the latest Xbox LIVE Activity Ranking, revealing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to be the most played game on the service yet again, followed by Halo 3 in second and Halo: Reach in third?
Yeah. That was funny.
[Note: Major Nelson has since updated the listing, revealing Halo: Reach to be the No. 2 game on the service for the time period specified, but for the past seven days, the game has indeed been No. 1 on Xbox LIVE.]
Due to what developer Bungie is calling a “manual reporting error,” the latest activity ranking posted on Major Nelson’s blog is apparently false and “well off the mark.”
Bungie itself records all kinds of crazy data and events going on in its own games, Halo: Reach and Halo 3 included, and taking into consideration the fact that Halo 3 appeared ahead of Halo: Reach in Major Nelson’s latest chart, and Modern Warfare 2 appeared ahead of both of them, we can go into Bungie’s findings and latest statistics with a clearer picture:
Leading up to the release of Halo: Reach on September 14th, Microsoft executives began talking up the launch of the title saying that not is Halo the biggest game series of all time, but that the fifth entry to this legendary franchise would outsell Activision’s forthcoming blockbuster game, Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Following the release of Halo: Reach, Microsoft released official day one sales figures for the game, announcing during Tokyo Game Show 2010 that it had managed to generate $200 million in sales during its first 24 hours of availability - highly impressive, especially considering the game only released on one platform, and according to Microsoft, Halo: Reach represents the most successful launch of an entertainment product this year.
What’s more, Halo: Reach broke the record for the most simultaneous Xbox LIVE users on day one. Microsoft and Bungie must be smiling.
During Microsoft’s Tokyo Game Show press event, the publisher announced that its recently released Halo: Reach managed to accrue $200 million in worldwide sales during its first day of availability.
The Xbox 360-exclusive first-person shooter launched around the world on September 14th (and 15th in Japan), and apparently, somebody actually bought the game!
Halo: Reach has finally been unleashed.
After a good three years of anticipation for the next big Halo game from Bungie, lots of hype and promises, tons of released screenshots, videos, and morsels of information, all followed by torrents of detailed data, the game, Halo: Reach, has finally been unleashed.
Two titans of the videogame industry are set to go head-to-head this year as they both clamour for the cash of gaming enthusiasts worldwide, both battling for sales supremacy and ultimate domination in the realm of online multiplayer.
On September 14th, Halo: Reach from Bungie and Microsoft will be unleashed unto the world on a single console, the Xbox 360, and then on November 9th, Treyarch and Activision will launch Call of Duty: Black Ops on three platforms - the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
Which game will outsell the other at launch?
A fantastically comical video has recently been released featuring two of Bungie’s ‘audio gurus’ (Marty O’Donnell and Jay Weinland) playing cooperatively through a campaign in Halo: Reach called ‘Tip of the Spear.’
What’s notable about the video (other than showcasing an entire Halo: Reach mission as played by two Bungie developers) is the excellent commentary provided by the pair – if you’re a Halo fan, you’re bound to get at least a chuckle or two from their verbal antics.
Also, the video ‘reveals’ that Halo: Reach sure looks like a Halo game. Your fears have now been allayed:
The time is nearly upon us. The launch of Halo: Reach around the world is imminent. What better way is there to get excited for the game’s release than by watching a new extended version of a live-action trailer that was pretty darn awesome to begin with.
Microsoft has released a longer cut of the Halo: Reach ‘Deliver Hope’ trailer, complete with extra shots and extended sequences of the action, making for an even more explosive experience than before:
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