So can you use armor abilities while carrying flags now Daravon? All over that Legendary Edition.

I hope they're going to up the score needed to win in ctf games then because stopping flag carriers with jetpacks/sprint/armour lock is going to be that much harder. A decent boost from a jetpack with the flag and even if you get sniped out of the air the momentum would likely carry the flag across the rest of most maps.

Rocket Hogs look awesome though.

The video was done in a custom game; they've been very clear that you can set up things like being able to use AA's or "flag bounce" as Custom Game options if you choose, but they will not be in matchmaking. I thought that had been posted at some point in the thread, maybe not :X

Fucking massive update, full Armory options revealed and more. I couldn't even bring myself to do this last night because it was too much and I was too tired. From yesterday's BWU:

-Audio is completely done and mastered for the game, and a large portion of the team is just doing playtesting. How long does it take two members of the team to complete the first level on Legendary with ALL the skulls turned on? Apparently over 5 hours:

http://www.bungie.net/images/News/In...kullsM10_1.jpg

-Confirmation that the Hologram AA works by pointing your reticule at a location and triggering it. The effect will last 10 seconds, or until the hologram is "killed." The Hologram will also use mancannons, which is awesome. Apparently Sage has a trick where he will trigger the Hologram at his feet so it stands still, then he runs in a straight line to fool opponents, which is awesome. In Campaign Hologram will fool Covenant; a specific example given is using it from behind a corner to distract two Hunters, then slipping behind them while they're going for your Hologram and getting their weakspots.

-Also confirmation from the Blood Gulch-remake reveal trailer that it was done through a custom game, which is the only reason why he could pick up the flag and fly. However the super stiff animation he had while carrying the flag with the Jetpack was a bug and has been fixed.

-Falcon is playable in Multiplayer (I can't remember if this had already been confirmed or not)

-Full Armory options revealed:
http://www.bungie.net/images/News/In...lineArmory.jpg

-All Armory options that will be available Day 1 that are visible immediately; What this means is that you won't be able see everything right away, presumably until you are of a high enough rank to purchase it, or at least be close to that rank. Also please note in the full image linked below the pic, there are characters and other assorted things shown; the characters are likely Firefight Voice unlocks. The weird icon things are probably Armor Effects; if I can seriously set up birthday party every time I die, that is fucking awesome.

http://www.bungie.net/images/News/In...ory_Inline.jpg

View full picture (with more pieces than shown above) HERE.

-As previously mentioned, you will be able to unlock avatar awards by playing Halo: Reach:

http://www.bungie.net/images/News/In...Noble_Team.jpg

-Noble 6 Helmet for your Avatar will be available to lucky attendees at Comic-Con, PAX, and GamesCom (LAME):

http://www.bungie.net/images/News/In...eSixHelmet.jpg

-The remaining 3 (of the 4) Multiplayer-specific Achievements detailed:
-2 more Campaign Achievements:
-Hints that next Thursday will be huge, and there will be screens and direct video next week as well.

Also confirmed you can lock in the altitude you're at by pressing RB, which is awesome.

Is that the EVA helmet? Fuck yes. I don't give a fuck if it puts me at some kind of headshot disadvantage.

Holy shit I'm glad I booked a week off work for this. Game looks more awesome with each update.

The armory picture also only shows the basic model for e.g. helmets. Just like the beta, there'll be little cameras and stuff you can buy to customize them further.

Daravon, you have a gaming PC now, right? Download Alien Swarm today.

I sincerely doubt anyone but me cares, but for some reason that defies description, Toys R Us is selling the Comic-con exclusive Noble 7 figure online if you're interested: Exclusive San Diego Comic Con 2010 Halo: Reach 5 inch Action Figure - Noble 7 - McFarlane Toys - Toys "R" Us

Came out to $23.87 shipped for me, and that's about half of what most people are already charging for them on ebay (cheapest I could find was $30 shipped, and most were $40+)

Additional Spam:
Big updates and news coming tonight; Bungie will be making a "special announcement" (which coincides with their hint last week about today being huge) at their event at Comic-con tonight that starts at 6pm PDT. G4 will be liveblogging the event here.

Additionally, Bungie will have "related media and assets" on bungie.net for whatever they're showing tonight promptly at 7pm PDT when the event is over. Media got to play the game recently, and although all of the Campaign stuff that was played is embargo'd until later next month, the embargo on the multiplayer and other stuff will be up as of this event since that's apparently what they're showing here. So there will likely be info available on this on other sites as soon as the event starts as well.

We know that the Blood Gulch remake will be there based on that reveal trailer, most speculation is that Forge 2.0 will be formally shown for the first time using that map. There is also a lot of scuttlebutt that there is some sort of new game mode they'll be unveiling that is completely new.


In related news:

-Square-Enix is doing a Halo: Reach Play-Arts line. For those not familiar, the Play-Arts series has been running for several years, and are basically very high quality large figures that sort of straddle the line between action figures and models. At the very least they're definetely more of something you would display on a shelf, and the two I have (both were gifts) are both really high quality. There will be (at least) 2 series; the first will be shipping this "Fall" around the game's release that will include Noble Six, Emile, and Jun. Series 2 will hit early 2011 and will include Carter, Kat, and Jorge. No more specifics available at this time, although if you can bear to watch it there's some footage of them here via a 343 interview with two S-E guys, but honestly they were so annoying I couldn't be bothered. To save you the trouble, this is what they look like:

http://i31.tinypic.com/23uwk13.jpg http://i25.tinypic.com/14tx5wm.jpg

-Halo: Reach 360 controller image leaked. I know, you're shocked. Apparently will carry a $59.99 price tag, which I think is $10 more than standard? It actually looks decent and I am a whore (and actually only have one controller per Xbox), so I will probably actually buy this.

http://gearmedia.ign.com/gear/image/...2104949579.jpg

-Along the same shocking lines, apparently there is also a $399 Halo: Reach Xbox 360 S(lim) coming the same day as the game. Only a tiny image where you can't see shit was leaked so I won't bother posting it, but it's worth noting that the system is silver (instead of black), and will apparently have some sort of Halo: Reach art on it. No further details leaked yet, this will probably be formally shown tonight.

-Greg Bear is apparently writing the first in a trilogy of Forerunner books, the first of which will be out this year. I'm not sure if this is confirmed or not yet.

-A follow-up (specifically said to not be a sequel) to Ghost of Onyx is coming from Karen Traviss and is due out next year.

-As previously mentioned, attendees get the Noble Six avatar helmet, as well as a limited edition poster:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ttleposter.jpg http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ttlehemlet.gif

I'll probably manage to stay up to catch the liveblog, but I'm super wiped and probably don't have it in me to update this thread tonight after the announcements, so I'll just catch everything tomorrow with the proper weekly update. Since I know everyone's deeply invested in up to the minute coverage in this thread.

...


:(

-Forge World ViDoc, grab it here: Bungie.net : Halo Reach : Multimedia . It's up on youtube as well but the quality on it's really bad for some reason.

http://www.bungie.net/images/Games/R...rldObjects.jpg
http://www.bungie.net/images/Games/R...Pinnacle06.jpg

Short version: Forge World originally started as 5 different multiplayer maps, which where then combined into one huge map. The Blood Gulch Remake (now called Hemorrhage) was one of the 5. Essentially it is one huuuuuuge world that you can Forge in. Forge itself has a bajillion more options now, as well as multiple tools to make Forging actually reasonable now, like when placing objects you can "phase" them through and basically merge them into other objects. Can also set up totally crazy shit like changing the size of teleporters so you can send vehicles through them, drop entire levels into other levels, make a Warthog the hill in a king of the hill game, etc, etc. Watch the damn video.

-Reach unboxing video, seems to be going over unboxing all the various editions, watching it now, grab it at the same link above as the ViDoc (it's the one below it). Legendary statue looks fucking awesome, way better than I thought. The console looks pretty neat, but nowhere near crazy enough for me to spend $400 on it. Something went by quickly that looks like it might come with some sort of exclusive avatar stuff (like the FFXIII console bundle did), but if that's actually true and it looks decent, I can just get that separately on ebay if need be.

-Lastly, IGN coverage of the new modes in Firefight: SDCC 10: Halo: Reach Adds Versus Firefight - Xbox 360 Preview at IGN

http://www.bungie.net/images/Games/R...Overlook06.jpg
Firefight Versus: 2 on 2. 2 players play as Spartans, the other 2 play as Elites. For Spartans it's basically normal Firefight, for the Elites the goal is only to kill the Spartans as quickly as possible. Since the Elites have infinite lives, the tradeoff is that every time you (as a Spartan) kill one of the player-controlled Elites, you get an extra life and a huge point boost.

http://www.bungie.net/images/Games/R...Overlook07.jpg
Gruntopacolypse: Firefight mode that works basically like the Bonus Round in ODST's Firefight, BUT ALL THE TIME. All Skulls turned on, and nothing but Grunts the entire time. I think I just fucking shit myself.

Score Attack: Not customizable at all, it's standard Firefight but the options and enemy waves are always identical, so it's set up specifically to get better score runs and to have actual leaderboards and whatnot.



Also for some reason I didn't see that one coming Skills, although God only knows what I didn't.

Also if you missed it, check 2 posts up with updates regarding the S-E Play Art Halo Reach Figures and other stuff that got merged into my previous post. What on earth is the time limit on this forum for post merging anyway, Jesus.

This is a good point.

Fixed board wide.

What did you do?

Also Wired just put out this tidbit regarding the Reach console which is hilarious:

Greatly reduced double post merge threshold. It will take effect going forward.

NeoGAF - View Single Post - Halo: Reach's Forge Mode Revealed

Three new multiplayer maps revealed (by accident?), including the Ivory Tower remake.

Fucking midship.

Thanks for posting that Shake, only have a few minutes this morning and likely would have completely missed that on GAF. Fuuuuuck, so many updates to do tonight, and there's the BWU and other various little tidbits not posted here yet either. God damn it.

This week's update is so fucking long I've been reading it for like 15 minutes and I'm not done. Not going to even bother trying to sum this up or update the thread tonight, will do tomorrow.

Bungie.net : Bungie Weekly Update: 07.23.10 : 7/23/2010 2:42 PM PDT

Been hating a lot on Reach but Forge World looks great. My problem with these games is all the stat tracking. I dont have a OCD or anything but when i see my kill ratio go down or my deaths go above my kills i get weirdly anxious. Might even get this shit...

Makes sense.

An arab of all people is worried about their kill death ratio. If you don't take out an average of at least 10 people when you die, Allah is not so pleased.

In before racis-oh never mind.

I'm like that to a point. I think the main thing they're doing here that I don't think has fully clicked with a lot of people yet is that your rank is universal across all modes, and is purely raised by earning Credits, and not necessarily your skill (although trueskill is still working in the background in competitive multiplayer of course). Since you can earn Credits in Campaign, Firefight and Forge as well as multiplayer, you could still reach the highest rank without ever playing multiplayer if you didn't want to. Personally I'm more concerned with rank than k/d (although I care about that to a point), so I'm super pumped by this change.

I dont even care about the rank, ranks so stupid imo, makes kids just grind it and takes the fun out.
It's that k/d son lol. Might be fun sitting with a bunch of homies just killing eachother though so I'm probably getting this.

So ranks are stupid and grindy, but k/d isn't? Okay.

no both are, what i meant is that I really dont care about the rank while the k/d bugs me. Wouldnt mind if rank disappeared and it was replaced with only this credit thing just to buy upgrades, might have a bit of the same grinding but still.. lol.

God this game looks oh so good. Last true Halo game will be the pinnacle. I am so in the mood to play halo, but I don't want to start 3 again with Reach not too far off. I WANT TO PLAY NOW!

I heard somewhere Bungie said they are going to be supporting this game like no other for a long long long long time. As its their last hurrah.