I hadn't yet had an opportunity to see close-up any of the campaign yet from Reach, and having seen one part of a level, it looks like it'll be quite a ride. Since this is supposed to be an epic battle between forces, the sheer scale of the conflict adds a dramatic element to the typical Halo shoot, grenade, melee combat. Racing along in a Warthog equipped with dual rocket pods instead of a chaingun (appropriately titled a rocket hog), you can turn and peer across a vast canyon below the cliffs that stretch out to mountains in the distance. All throughout the air above and beyond the cliff circle fighters hammering away at each other in the sky as explosions silently erupt in the distance. It's quite a scene, and mixed in with the explosions of combat as enemies fire off energy weapons and detonate explosives, makes it seem easy to get wrapped up in the experience.

The goal of this particular section of mission is to help your squad of Spartans disable an anti-air battery. To do so you'll need to shoot through heavy resistance, from the standard grunts to the Revenant vehicles, which Bungie describes as a cross between Wraiths and Ghosts. If you're not all that familiar with Halo it might be a little harder to understand what most of this means since the community is accustomed to the naming conventions, and understands that if you scream 'Scarab!' someone else you're playing with is likely to curse and momentarily panic. Still, even with such a hardcore following, it's always been easy to dive into and enjoy Halo games thanks to tight controls and varied enemy AI that keep encounters interesting.

In this stage, once you reach the anti-air tower and wipe out the enemies that stream forth from it, you can run up and blow the thing to bits. With the skies overhead safe, two utterly massive frigates move into view as a formation of vanguard bombers scream across the sky and light up a number of lumbering scarabs pounding across the valley below. The next part of the mission involves clearing more air space by destroying additional anti-air guns, but that's where the demo cut off.

Large scale fights, exciting gunplay, and a huge scale of conflict seem to be in store for Halo fans when Reach is finally made available next month. With an improved Firefight mode, tweaked multiplayer, and all the other features franchise fanatics would expect, it's hard to imagine many being disappointed with this one. Of course nobody will know for sure until the final game is seen in its entirety.

It looks so epic.

Also, did I see night vision?

Whoah thanks dude, i'll take it crappy sound/video and all. :D

Man the cinematics are EPIC and the animations are great...

New gameplay video, check at 1.25 the detail on the gun and infared display is insane.

http://www.videogamer.com/videos/halo_reach_gamesc...

I'm still not sure what the craic is with the pics Jin posted?

Is one of them the PS3 version?

... What?

I'm still not sure what the craic is with the pics Jin posted?

Announcement trailer vs the most recent one. There are some minor changes in graphics (shadows did take a hit unfortunately, though not visible in those screens), but damn, watching the 10 minutes opening sequence, it's a spectacular game anyway.

Bungie Released Corvette: This map just looks so intense, Firefight is going to be a blast.

http://www.bungie.net/Projects/Reach/default.aspx

Plus a better quality video/audio of the opening 10mins :)

http://www.gamersyde.com/news_gc_halo_reach_presen...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfME5KwKLfg

New gameplay video, check at 1.25 the detail on the gun and infared display is insane.

http://www.videogamer.com/videos/halo_reach_gamesc...

I always by games that have a great live action trailer, (ODST etc.) and this one sucked, I am not getting this game no matter what