At exactly 1230 pm, Eastern Standard Time, the E3 Xbox Conference Event streamed live onto our television sets and onto G4TV's website. As I sat through the 90 minute presentation of excellent and impressive Xbox titles and demonstrations via the Kinect, I was rewarded additionally by some of the biggest news that will come out of E3 all week...
HALO Combat Evolved Anniversary
Announced not even 30 minutes into the event, a short and nonchalant presentation for the remastered Halo Combat Evolved trailer dawned upon the stage. From the actual in-game footage of this "new" title, we can see that EVERY aspect of the campaign has been redone to show off the upgraded graphics of more recent time, as well as 7 of the most popular multiplayer maps have been brought back for those of us who have been here through it all. It was incredibly fascinating to see the difference in how Halo was made 10 years ago, when Combat Evolved first came out, and now, with Reach only 9 months old...
Those who were watching closely saw that this upgraded remake is not just the old game with a new suit on, it has in fact had a decent amount of effort put upon it to give it the same depth of combat Reach enables. We can see that assassination kills have been imported as well as some Reach weaponry, such as the assault rifle (which makes sense if you think about how Reach ends SECONDS before Halo 1 starts).
Of course after seeing this inside look at Combat Evolved Anniversary, and realizing we only have to wait until the end of the year, I anticipated a Halo 4 announcement to follow closely after... Within the last minutes of the Xbox conference, everyone's questions were answered...
Halo 4- A new Trilogy
Though the question will there be more Halo games? was answered, MANY more rose to take its place. From the trailer, we see Master Chief and Cortana's ship has either been damaged accidentally or purposefully by an unknown attacker. After waking from stasis, Chief grabs Cortana and proceeds off the currently incapacitated and half destroyed ship (with an upgraded pistol that apparently can now have attachments, such as allowing exploding ammo to be fired at debris to unblock a pathway). After reaching the edge of the ship with the help of his jetpack, Chief and Cortana lay their eyes on what may be their attackers, which happens to be another space craft the size of a small planet. While investigating who these beings may be, I took a closer look at their ship... The design and color do NOT match that of any ship in the Covenant fleet, but it DOES resemble the look of Forerunner technology. The ending cinematic of Halo 3 shows Chief and Cortana headed toward a planet that seemed to be covered from metal/ technologically advanced structured, thought to be the Forerunner's home planet (for those who have forgotten, the Forerunners built the Halo rings). Is this our enemy in Halo 4?
With the game play aside, some people may be thinking, "Hey wait, didn;t Bungie say they were done making Halo games???" Yes, they did, and they were not lying. 343 Industries was created in 2007 to oversee everything Halo related, meaning books, comics, toys, animated series, and of course, the games. Because Bungie has washed their hands of Halo, and Microsoft does not want their biggest and most successful franchise to die with them, they have allocated the job of making the next 3 installments of the Halo series to their own developer. The good part is to this is playing these games wont be completely foreign to those how have played all the Bungie titles, but also, I believe this is a move on Microsoft's part to not necessarily keep gamers happy, but more so to make their bottom line have more "0"s... I think its for the money. Not that Halo 4, 5, and 6 wont be amazing titles, they just may lack the luster the previous games shined with.
HALO Combat Evolved Anniversary
Announced not even 30 minutes into the event, a short and nonchalant presentation for the remastered Halo Combat Evolved trailer dawned upon the stage. From the actual in-game footage of this "new" title, we can see that EVERY aspect of the campaign has been redone to show off the upgraded graphics of more recent time, as well as 7 of the most popular multiplayer maps have been brought back for those of us who have been here through it all. It was incredibly fascinating to see the difference in how Halo was made 10 years ago, when Combat Evolved first came out, and now, with Reach only 9 months old...
Those who were watching closely saw that this upgraded remake is not just the old game with a new suit on, it has in fact had a decent amount of effort put upon it to give it the same depth of combat Reach enables. We can see that assassination kills have been imported as well as some Reach weaponry, such as the assault rifle (which makes sense if you think about how Reach ends SECONDS before Halo 1 starts).
Of course after seeing this inside look at Combat Evolved Anniversary, and realizing we only have to wait until the end of the year, I anticipated a Halo 4 announcement to follow closely after... Within the last minutes of the Xbox conference, everyone's questions were answered...
Halo 4- A new Trilogy
Though the question will there be more Halo games? was answered, MANY more rose to take its place. From the trailer, we see Master Chief and Cortana's ship has either been damaged accidentally or purposefully by an unknown attacker. After waking from stasis, Chief grabs Cortana and proceeds off the currently incapacitated and half destroyed ship (with an upgraded pistol that apparently can now have attachments, such as allowing exploding ammo to be fired at debris to unblock a pathway). After reaching the edge of the ship with the help of his jetpack, Chief and Cortana lay their eyes on what may be their attackers, which happens to be another space craft the size of a small planet. While investigating who these beings may be, I took a closer look at their ship... The design and color do NOT match that of any ship in the Covenant fleet, but it DOES resemble the look of Forerunner technology. The ending cinematic of Halo 3 shows Chief and Cortana headed toward a planet that seemed to be covered from metal/ technologically advanced structured, thought to be the Forerunner's home planet (for those who have forgotten, the Forerunners built the Halo rings). Is this our enemy in Halo 4?
With the game play aside, some people may be thinking, "Hey wait, didn;t Bungie say they were done making Halo games???" Yes, they did, and they were not lying. 343 Industries was created in 2007 to oversee everything Halo related, meaning books, comics, toys, animated series, and of course, the games. Because Bungie has washed their hands of Halo, and Microsoft does not want their biggest and most successful franchise to die with them, they have allocated the job of making the next 3 installments of the Halo series to their own developer. The good part is to this is playing these games wont be completely foreign to those how have played all the Bungie titles, but also, I believe this is a move on Microsoft's part to not necessarily keep gamers happy, but more so to make their bottom line have more "0"s... I think its for the money. Not that Halo 4, 5, and 6 wont be amazing titles, they just may lack the luster the previous games shined with.
See the whole conference and more screenshots here:
And now, presenting Halo 4...
