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Wow, this console is sliiiiiiiiick. Revealed at San Diego’s Comic-Con today, the Halo: Reach Xbox 360 S bundle is a beaut. Made available on September 14th, just as Reach debuts, the limited edition system will come with all of the specs of the 250 GB Xbox 360 S, with some additional Halo: Reach flair. The silver console will come with two limited edition wireless controllers and a copy of Halo: Reach. At $399, if you’ve got the new system there’s no real need to upgrade. If you HAVEN’T made the S jump just yet…that’s a purty box.

Here’s a shot of the controller, which will be available for just shy of $60 at release.

The Covenant’s getting a little smarter.  Instead of using the same broad difficulty no matter how many human players are on the field, the AI will ramp up with higher damage resistance and better tactics as more players join the fight.  This…makes sense.

At E3 we saw an outer space flight level, one that I wasn’t too pleased about. Granted, I’ve not played much Halo, but I felt that the stage didn’t mesh well with my memories of the more enjoyable moments in the franchise’s campaign.

Finally, Kotaku pulled another of Bungie’s teeth in its last new detail. For the first time in campaign mode, players will be able to choose the gender of the protagonist. The ol’ Samus switcheroo all over again!

“The beta kicks off with three playlists featuring the all-new, highly competitive Arena mode (4v4 ranked Team Slayer games) as well as “Free-for-All” and “Grab Bag” playlists, which include a mix of classic and brand new game types. Beginning May 7, the new large-scale Spartan vs. Elite “Invasion” playlist will be added to the beta. Finally, beginning May 14 the “Generator Defense” game type will become available.”

So thanks to a friendly Microsoft representative in Gretna, LA, I was invited to visit MS’s retail training site to take a brief ODST quiz that would unlock an early access Reach beta code. True to her word, the card that the rep issued me actually delivered on its promise, which is more than I can say for all the scams/trials/tribulations that rabid Halo fans are currently undergoing on Facebook and Twitter simply for a chance to get some pre-May Spartan time.
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Veteran Spartans will pick up where they left off in franchise-favorite Slayer, Capture the Flag, and King of the Hill modes, but Halo’s latest chapter will add a little bit of peppa to the otherwise bland recipe of multiplayer options.
Headhunter conjures images of the American Gladiators’ Powerball event, as Spartans retrieve the skulls of their fallen foes and dash to deposit them for points.  If the collector is shot down during this process, however, other players can swoop in like a vulture and make off with the goods themselves.  Harsh!

Stockpile is a team versus team format in which each side dashes out to retrieve four flags dispersed randomly around the level.  After the successful snatch, the flags are then brought back to be defended at the team’s base.

Generator Defense is a three-on-three fight between a team of Spartans and a triad of Elites.  The aggressive Elites are hell-bent on taking out the aforementioned generators, which subsequently means that the Spartans have to protect the valuable devices.  After the five-minute round, players switch sides.

Invasion mode does away with triads, doubling each team for a much more diverse six versus six skirmish.  Vehicles are the feature of this final mode that is hosted at the Boneyard, as players frantically speed towards the multiple objectives.  Spartans may not be too familiar with this event; it’s more the domain of Bad Company 2 Rush mode vets. Per the 1up review, this is the only mode in the beta to support vehicles. The map itself is bigger than Sandtrap.

The beta will occur in phases, each point designating a certain “playlist” of games. Certain segments will open up Arena games, while others will sponsor Free-for-All events, etc. Look for the beta to kick off on May 3rd.

Bungie has just released the first video for the Reach Multiplayer Beta. Have a look!

HERE

Awsome!

Game on!

Alright, so I have to be honest with you. I wasn’t too stoked about Halo: Waypoint, because I’m really not that big a fan of the franchise. Sure, the little I know of the mythos is pretty cool and I am decent with old school sticky grenade tagging, but I definitely don’t count myself one of the diehards. This is probably why I opted to sleep before scoping out the new Halo Waypoint channel that just went live for the Preview folks.

I woke after a small portion of sweet sleep that followed hours of SMG hunting in Borderlands, hygiened up, pet the dog and the girlfriend, started the last load of laundry, and plopped down in front of the Xbox. Still eager to patch Borderlands before anything else (Lilith needs love!), I bit the bullet and downloaded the Waypoint channel.

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Some Halo news of impart to you Spartan wannabes out there. Xbox.com’s Halo Waypoint is getting really shiny as of late. At the front page you can find a synopsis mentioning the various elements that will be at your fingertips this November. News, trailers, screenshots, and video are to be expected. What’s unique, however, is what is touted on the site as a “career system tied to in-game accomplishments across multiple Halo games.” A brief video about the career system and more can be seen here.

Roving goblin reporter Iggypu is back again (too soon?) with another batch of goings-on in the world of XBox 360. Stop by our forums to let us know which games you’re waiting for out of the upcoming hits such as Dragon Age, Borderlands, and so on. By the way, it’s getting close to JollyBuccaneer’s free Fallout 3 Premium Theme Giveaway…

“AvatArcade”
Resulting from a recent survey administered by Microsoft, rumors have been circulating that Xbox 360 might see a Playstation Home-like arcade in its future. Proposed names include AvatArcade, Classics, Classics LIVE, Game Gallery, Game Preserve, Game Room, RetroCade, RetroGame, Tower of Game(s), and Tower of ROM. Atari and Intellivision titles have appearances in this retro-themed arcade, and it is currently uncertain whether this service will come at a fee. Source

Dragon Age Receiving DLC at Launch
On November 3rd, BioWare’s Dragon Age will take flight. What you might not know is that it won’t be alone. The Warden’s Keep add-on will be released on day one, for a comparably affordable 560 MS Points ($7). Grabbing this content will unlock a dungeon delve as well as six new abilities, new items, and a trading post of sorts. But wait! There’s more! The Stone Prisoner, at a price of 1200 MS Points (or free as a packaged accompaniment to new copies of the game) will add a stone golem character to your starting party. Another bonus for those who buy new copies will be the Blood Armor, which will also be wearable in Mass Effect 2. Talk about making a statement, eh? Source

Forza 3 Promotes Sale of New Copies
Hand-in-hand as far as the new-copy matter goes is Forza 3, set for an October 27th launch. While this game already has a wealth of 400+ cars and 100+ tracks, new packages will also have inserts in the form of 16-digit content codes that will unlock two new tracks and 10 exclusive cars.

Halo to Infinity (or 2015) and Beyond
343 Industries’ Frank O’Connor spilled the beans on a plan to string along Halo canon for the next six years or so. What does this mean, you ask? Well… :inhales:
Next month Tor Books’ Halo: Evolutions will be published. In the upcoming year, Greg Bear’s Halo Trilogy, set in the Forerunner segment of canon, will hit shelves. This set details an ancient civilization behind the artifacts pop up in Halo mythos. On the comics front, Marvel Comics’ Halo: Helljumper is midway through its five-issue span; a new series entitled Halo: Blood Line is due on December 23rd. The Halo Waypoint channel debuts on Xbox Live in 2010, featuring video, audio, podcasts, and screenshots. Halo Legends, a set of seven anime shorts, will grace the video category. And for games, Halo’s prequel Reach is set for next year. Whew!

Left 4 Dead 2 “Scavenge” Mode
Hungry for more zombie news? In a recent article on L4D2′s multiplayer the Scavenge mode was revealed. In this format the survivor team must gather up to 16 gas containers to fuel a generator (and their score), while Team Infected tries to stop Team Mouthbreather from gathering these gas canisters in time. Each retrieved container extends the initial 2 minute timer by 20 seconds, akin to passing checkpoints in many popular racing games. As time runs out or the objective is completed, the teams swap. The best team in two out of three rounds wins.

Trailer for New Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny Due in November
Watching a video of the upcoming Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny here rekindled old memories of liquor-induced sparring in the back yard, striking each other with wooden swords in order to neutralize limbs or finish off our opponents. What…don’t tell me I’m the only one?

Odd Microsoft Open House Statistics
Finally, a little trivia from the recent Open House held by Microsoft. Apparently there have been 150,000,000+ Avatar clothing changes…this means that an average XBL user changes his or her Avatar’s clothes seven times. Hm. I’m pretty sure if it were up to Jolly, he’d wear a pirate hat and nothing else. Good thing there are rules against that! Have you been playing 1 vs. 100? You’re one of the many. Apparently 200,000+ games of 1 vs. 100 are played each weekend. I know I’d contributed a few points to that total back when beta first started. Finally, XBL has 20,000,000+ users. Considering all the usual and upcoming perks you get for going Gold, I’d imagine we’ll see the Silvers slimming out a bit.

Introduction

Prepare to drop! Halo 3:ODST is a title that has a lot of people guessing. Is it worth my $60? What is new? What is the same? While Halo is not a title to need an introduction the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers bring a whole different aspect to the game. No longer are we the super human spartan Sierra 117. We are Hell Jumpers and Halo 3:ODST is our story!

Gameplay

Bungie has once again delivered a rock solid game to its consumers. So far they have hit a gold mine with the award winning game franchise Halo and ODST is no different. But that seems to be the problem. ODST really did not do much different. Some would ask the question ‘Is this really a bad thing?’ and the answer from many would be no. The story missions are very well done with awesome music, cut scenes and casting. They manage to deliver a great feel but sadly there is nothing new here mechanic wise. Instead of shields you have stamina and the health bar makes a return as well. You are unable to do several things that the Spartans can do which was expected but what was hoped for was something to take its place. Perhaps a little bit of focus on stealth instead of just making it more of the same.

Halo 3 ODST really does not introduce any new gameplay but you can still enhance it with the use of any of the Halo 3 skulls that you might have found.

Presentation

Bungie always does an outstanding job with the way they present their story. The use of sound and cinematography to convey an emotion has always been a strong point for them and once again they deliver with ODST. With composition done by Martin O’Donnell the mood is set as soon as you exit your drop pod.

The voice acting is well done with hidden comedy all over the place. The inclusion of stars such as Nathan Fillion who were willing to include their likeness in this game lends more character depth than would be expected. Well, except for the fact that the character you play, the rookie, is unfortunately the silent type.

Extras

Multiplayer! It is what Halo has been about since it changed the genre back 2001. Not to disappoint but Firefight does not introduce anything in the way of conventional multiplayer. Though it does come packaged with a disk that includes Halo 3′s multiplayer along with all of the map packs released to date plus 3 new maps that are only available on this disk. What is new in ODST is a co-operative multiplayer mode called fire fight. This is how it works.

You and up to 3 of your friends, I say friends because there is no match making for fire fight mode, start in one of two spawn rooms with the silenced SMG and new pistol. There is spare ammunition for those guns here along with health packs to help you preserve your precious lives; your team has 7 to share at the start of the game. You fight off waves of enemies from the campaign that get progressively tougher via the skulls from Halo 3. Progress is tracked via Waves, Rounds and Sets. There are 6 waves in a round and at the end of each round there is a weapon drop. The weapon drop replenishes all the ammo and weapon spawns on the ground. At the end of each round, the skulls that are active change out to make it progressively harder on you and your friends as well as to provide you with bonus lives. An additonal way to earn bonus lives is in the bonus round which occurs at the end of each Set. In the bonus round all skulls are active, respawning is disabled and the team tries to get a certain score to earn the bonus lives.

Rants and Raves

Rant

The length of the campaign leaves much to be desired. As a pair of moderately skilled first person shooter gamers we were able to finish the co-op campaign on legendary difficulty in roughly six hours. With only eight missions this falls short of what we have come to expect from Bungie.

The lack of a match making system for fire fight makes it hard to get a game if you do not have any friends that have ODST. That said it is a bit of a mixed point because having some random player in the game could really mess over your attempt by either killing you and your team or just quitting, because quitting ends the fire fight for all players.

If any one of the four players in fire fight mode leaves the game for any reason the game ends for everyone. If they get disconnected, have a power flicker or just plain quit the match is terminated. I’m not sure if this is for balance purposes or what but it is extremely frustrating.

Raves

The storytelling, use of music and all around cinematography for the campaign is fantastic. This aspect of the game lives up to the standards that Bungie has set for itself.

Fire fight is a very addictive game mode. It is so much fun that we have found ourselves attempting to perform our day jobs with very little sleep since 9/22.

Conclusion

Halo 3 ODST is a solid game in the end. Excellent presentation combined with tried and true gameplay can cause players to waste away hours of their life with their friends slaying the Covenant masses. If you are a fan of the franchise then this game is for you. Unfortunately it is unlikely to win over any new fans. That did not seem to be Bungie’s goal, however, as they stated ‘Halo 3 ODST is our gift to the fans.’

Score: 7.5

*Readers, this is the first time we are trying out a method where two reviewers play the game and review it together. Please let us know what you think about it here.