I personally don't need all of this, but here it is.

The Reach Limited Edition Package

Custom case modeled after a recovered ONI data module
In-game Elite armor set for multiplayer
Artifact bag, which contains the personal notes and documents of the creator of the Spartan program: Dr. Catherine Halsey
Dr. Halsey's ONI security badge
An embroidered Spartan II patch

I got 2 copies of Reach at NewEgg for $100 with free shipping. Would have cost $136 if bought local, so I saved $36.

The media preview visit was a full day with hands on across two campaign missions, forge, firefight and competitive multiplayer. There will be a ton of screenshots including direct feed video of parts of the day (mp related only). Some content Is allowed to be released next Thursday, the rest (campaign+) is embargoed until early August. Muliple U.S. and Int'l magazines and websites participated.

Perhaps tempering my own hype train is a good idea - Im referring to the breadth of coverage and new content and juicy campaign coverage, not an announcement of three extra bonus discs including HD remakes of the Halo trilogy and a suit of wearable MJOLNIR armor

Some of these mysteries will have to stay as such until Comic-con next week but I can shed some light on a few of the more pressing questions.

First let’s talk hologram. It’s simple to use – point your reticule where you’d like your holo-self to run and then press the left bumper to activate it. A spitting image of yourself, sporting the exact same armor, colors and weapon, will emerge and run directly to that point and persist for about 10 seconds or until killed. Your hologram can also do fun things like take a man cannon which can result in some crazy shenanigans. Holograms can be used in multiplayer, which has become one of my recent favorite things to do, in addition to tricking the AI in campaign or Firefight. The other day we played a game where pretty much everyone used holograms and it feels awesome to trick someone else but damn does it feel stupid when you fall for one yourself. I hear one of Sage’s tricks is to point straight down so his hologram stands perfectly still but then HE runs in a perfectly straight line to dupe his opponent.

Media Madness

This week we hosted a slew of worldwide media folks for a big hands-on preview with a huge chunk of Reach. During their stay our guests got to play two and a half campaign missions, several new MP maps, a new game mode and Forge. The bad news is that most of the fruits of that visit, including all of the campaign coverage, won’t be surfacing until the first week of August. The good news is that some of what we showed will actually be coming out next week including a boat load of new screenshots and even some direct feed video. Did I already mention that next Thursday was shaping up to be HUGE?!

It was really fun to have "civilians" in to play parts of Reach for the first time. It’s often hard to really gauge their reactions but members of our team quietly hovered in the background watching the likes of OXM, IGN and Gamepro get their first taste of the Reach campaign. At one point Joe Tung leans over to me and points out "hey look, all four of those guys are on the same part of the mission and each is using totally different armor abilities. That’s just awesome." Yeah, it sure was.

In fact, one of our guests from Europe was not a games reporter at all and had very little familiarity playing these types of games. At one point I noticed he was having a particularly hard time dispatching a Hunter pair near the end of the game’s third mission. After a few failed attempts I intervened to offer a suggestion. "Here, let me show you something different to try," I said. He handed me the controller and I quickly ran up the stairs where a stash of weapons, healthpacks and a few armor abilities were conveniently placed by the mission designer. I ditched Sprint and picked up Hologram. The Hunter pair arrived in their drop ship and immediately turned to engage me as I ran behind a large rock. I deployed my Hologram off to the left and as the Hunters gave chase, I flanked around the right and unloaded my shotgun in their vulnerable back-sides. Rinse and repeat.

The highlight of the visit for me though was the occasional chance to jump in as a seat-filler for multiplayer when a journalist had to step away to conduct an interview. I realized it was actually my first time ever flying the Falcon in multiplayer and man was it awesome. This particular map is huge and centered around an enormous spire that stretches up into the heavens. My battlebro spawned in one of the gunner seats and we began to climb. I hit "RB" to lock altitude and then we circled the tower, raining death and destruction on anyone foolish enough to step out onto the balcony. Finally our teammate yells "I’ve got the core, I need a pick-up!" Rather than wait for me to actually land, he jumps onto the top of our Falcon and proceeds to surf his way to victory. Great stuff.

It was also the first time I’ve really gotten to play some large action-packed games on that Blood Gulch remake you saw in last week’s video. And let me tell you – this was hands-down the most fun I’ve had with Reach multiplayer to date and dare I say even more fun than I remember having back in the glory days of the original Gulch. We played an 8 vs. 8 big team slayer game and I immediately commandeered the Scorpion parked behind our base. Dan "Shoe" (from Bitmob) hopped in the turret seat and together we went on a 35-0 streak and shut down the poor blues. Probably not the gracious host thing to do but damn was it fun. Earlier in the day Ryan from OXM had missed our first play on this map and was dying to fly the Falcon so we dropped in two Falcons and ran it back again. After all the build-up I felt a little bad seeing Ryan and his two teammates flying into view as I turned to get them in the sights of my Scorpion. No sooner had they lifted off than they were annihilated in a spectacular triple kill fireball. Welcome to Reach.

To me, those types of over-the-top yell-out-loud "OH -blam!-!" moments is pure Gulch play at its finest and damn was it fun.
I also got to play my first real game of “Race” in Reach and it’s just as sweet and fun as Eric has previously described. The version I played was actually a special variant Derek created called "Grand Tour" that truly lived up to its name and spanned the largest expanse of multiplayer ground ever to be covered in a Halo game.

"Bluerunner" asks: What are your favorite missions from each Halo game? Is there a level in Reach that you think will be an instant fan favorite?

Chris: Let's see, favorite levels from the previous Halo games: Halo 1 - Silent Cartographer, Truth and Reconciliation, Attack on the Control Room :: Halo 2 - Outskirts, Delta Halo :: Halo 3 - The Ark, The Covenant :: ODST Uplift Reserve.

One of the most exciting parts of Reach is that so many of the missions vary things up. This means that a bunch of them will be different people's favorites, based on their tastes. We have infantry missions, vehicle missions, exploration missions, slow burn missions, crazy action missions, and (if you watched the E3 presentation) there is a mission that takes you places you have never been in a Halo game. I expect there to be a lot of online discussions with greater than and less than carrots (< >) discussing Reach Missions. That said, here are some of the acronyms that are likely to show up in a lot of people's favorites:: TotS, LNoS, Ex, NA, LW (and another that would give away too much if I acronym-ized the title).

Chris: Hey Ghaleon, from what I’ve read on NeoGAF about your feelings regarding what works for a Halo game, I think you and I are on a very similar page. Looking forward to seeing how Reach treats you.

Keeping the story on one planet (Reach) goes a long way towards solving this issue. By keeping it about one planet and one conflict we are able to spend less time telling the player where they are, and more time with the characters in the story. Not having to explain where the player is and why they are there before every mission helps to allow every line of dialog to be about the who, and not the where or the why. Add to that mix some really talented writers and story tellers in our writing group, you get the chance to make every moment count.

"yakaman" asks: How did advances in programming efficiency, resource use, etc, affect campaign scope? Did the resource people inform the campaign people "you have X processing budget, use it wisely" or was it more like "we campaign people want to do X, Y, and Z, so give us everything you've got?

Chris: We absolutely could not have made Reach without all of the Engineering magic that went on. The sheer volume of code changes and how much more we can do because of them is staggering. We have imposters, AI LOD, a new memory management system, networking (both synchronous and asynchronous), neuticle system, Big Battle flocks, new flying vehicle behaviors, stimulus system, new damage model, physics updates and improvements, perception models, lighting model upgrades… And that is just the few things off the top of my head. All of those together allow us to make moments that we have never been able to do in a Halo game. We are also able to achieve a visual fidelity for those moments (at the scale of a Halo encounter that you have come to expect) well beyond what anyone has done before on a console.

The process is a little bit of both. We start by planning out what we were thinking for the game, at which point we start to bring in all the people who have to sweat and bleed to make it happen, and have them pass along a sanity check. Is this possible to accomplish? What sorts of sacrifices will need to be made to achieve this? What sort of Engineering and Art resources will need to be dedicated to this moment? Is that moment worth those resources? We then answer those questions and begin to flesh everything out. Along the way we always course correct as elements get out of scope or the design changes or the initial idea needs to be fleshed out further. We are constantly evaluating and reevaluating what we are making over the course of the project. Then we get to the end and we make the hard calls (which often means cutting) to get everything working and under budget, and what needs to get cut or changed to make that particular moment (or the entire game) work.

http://www.vg247.com/2010/07/21/next-halo-novels-to-be-written-by-gears-3-head-writer/#more-108468

Optimus will cry tears of joy. A sequel to Ghost of Onyx will be written by Karren Traviss (Gears of War 3 writer, apparently has some Star Wars novels in portfolio as well). I can't believe they are finally pushing the universe forward. Will these novels be a bridge to Halo 4?

I don't suppose they have a custom games browser? No, they wouldn't do that, would they? :/

Still awesome. Could be awesomer if you could search for custom games.

I present you....

Spire, an Invasion map.

http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz22/MendicantB...


Reflection aka Ivory Tower from Halo 2.

http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz22/MendicantB...


Zealot, Midship themed.

http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz22/MendicantB...

Wow, first Ascention, now Ivory Tower? its great to see all the best maps from Halo 2 are finally returning :D

Oh and Zealot is Derelict from Halo CE :D:D:D

Now all i need is Damnation and The Pit to really make this a perfect game.