Halo

One of the improvements Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary will have is AI marine allies to aid lone players in Firefight. The news was announced during HaloFest before PAX and revolves around the horde-style gameplay mode first introduced in Halo ODST with allows gamers and their friends to play together to fight off swarms of enemies including Grunts, Brutes and Elites. With Halo: CE Anniversary, gamers who don't feel like playing with other people will have a fighting chance thanks to the addition of AI marines. These soldiers will have your back as you take on the enemy as featured in the Firefall map, Installation 04 within Halo Anniversary.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary will be released on November 15, 2011 for the Xbox 360.

Players will be able to get their first in-depth look at the iconic Halo 4 Warthog as, surprisingly, it will be featured in Forza Motorsport 4's breathtaking new Autovista experience. Autovista is pretty incredible. It lets players interact, walk around, and learn about some of the world's most high class vehicles in a way no other game has been able to before. In Autovista, you can get inside of vehicles, turn them on, look at the dashboard, under the hood, and more.

The one downer: You won't be able to drive the Warthog in Forza. The gun-turrets might be a little unfair to the other cars, after all.

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Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary sure is pretty. That's the first thing you'll notice when you sit down to play. The updated visuals and new 16:9 aspect ratio look great. You can switch between the old and new versions instantaneously by pressing the Back button, but most will probably replay Master Chief's inaugural adventure soaking in the high-def scenery.

The technological feat of quick-swapping between the two graphics modes without a break in play can be credited to the two engines tasked with powering the experience. "There are two engines running simultaneously," 343 Industries' Frank O'Connor told G4 at a recent Microsoft holiday preview event in New York City. Read on to see what else he had to tell us about the updated HD love sonnet to the original Halo, and you can catch his video where he sheds more light on the game with us as well.

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Master Chief is back with Halo 4 and revisiting his roots in Halo Anniversary. With the Bungie team handing off the series to 343 Industries, tons of questions are sure to be bubbling up like the Flood from from infested bodies of Covenant Elites. Man, if only there was some sort of comic convention, a Comic-Con if you will, where guests from 343 Industries could talk about the 10 years of Halo and the next iterations of the iconic FPS franchise. What? There is?? And it starts at 11:30 a.m.?

Well then check out the Halo panel at Comic-Con live blog here!

X-Play is celebrating Bungie Day on the house that Halo built's 20th birthday in this video, hosted by the ever-lovable Morgan Webb. Watch the evolution of Bungie as a company as well as the "giant, ravenous fanbase" that has supported them throughout the years below. Also: Flaming blue helmets, as modeled in the video by none other than yours truly.

Sadly Bungie Day has come and gone, taking the ability to procure blue flames and steaks with it, but Bungie's legacy as a community-focused development studio will soldier on. So pour yourself a toast, pick up a controller, and let's get to it.

Halo fans know that July 7 is Bungie Day, a time when gamers come together to celebrate all things Bungie- and number 7-related. Many have hopes that the studio will finally lift the veil on whatever new IP its been working on, but first you'll have to come to terms with the fact that Bungie's seminal first-person shooter Marathon is now available for free on your iPad.

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Microsoft and 343 Industries dropped the latest E3 2011 trailer for Halo 4 and Master Chief is back in all his legendary glory! Check out this breath-taking cinematic as you prepare for your next mission in this iconic first person-shooter! You might want to wipe that drool off with your sleeve. You got a little bit...yeah...right there. Awesome.

A Halo: Reach demo featuring the campaign mission "Long Night of Solace" and multiplayer modes of Free For All Slayer and Headhunter on the map Powerhouse is up for grabs today on Xbox Live. The demo coincides with the exclusive May 24 through May 30 'Games on Demand' sale of the full Halo: Reach game for $39.99 available on Xbox Live as well.

Halo: Reach received critical acclaim and sold $200 million worth of units on its release date. Mayhaps this demo will boost those numbers a little higher? Are you going to check out the Halo: Reach demo?

Major League Gaming has released the full tournament recap videos from their first Pro Circuit event of 2011 in Dallas. Not only has MLG posted all of the commentated recap videos, but G4 also featured a whole slew of content from the event as well. We've counted down our five favorite moments from the whole tournament and have also created video wrap ups from all of the featured Pro Circuit games: StarCraft 2, Halo: Reach, and Call of Duty: Black Ops.

• Complete StarCraft 2 Rebroadcast and Individual Games
• Complete Halo: Reach Rebroadcast and Individual Games
• Complete Call of Duty: Black Ops Rebroadcast and Individual Games

To check out our wrap up videos from all of the featured tournaments, check after the break.

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As if to remind you that Halo is still awesome, a slew of new Halo content is coming your way, via the Halo Waypoint. Waypoint, described as "your source for Halo news, community content and insight into the Halo universe," is adding some new features, including making your Halo: Reach service record accessible from Waypoint, as well as a new "compare with friends" features and two new Waypoint career levels.

The update also adds the ability to launch the Games on Demand version of Halo: Reach straight from Waypoint, and introduces a new video player which features the “Instant On” streaming used by Zune, making the viewing of “Halo” fiction and community videos on Waypoint over Xbox LIVE faster and easier.

• NEWS: Halo Waypoint Actually Part Of The Halo Story... But It's A Secret

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Halo: Reach is getting its second add-on with the upcoming Defiant Map Pack in a couple of weeks, and with it Bungie prepares to finally say goodbye to their child. Although that child is now an adolescent, and they're graduating from their parent developer over to 343 Industries. This pack was developed by Certain Affinity, and if you're wondering how it stacks up, check out our own Jake Gaskill's Defiant Map Pack hands-on preview.

According to game blog Joystiq, a reboot of seminal FPS Halo: Combat Evolved is expected to come out on November 15, 2011. The game is not officially in development, but there are a ton of supposed details on what we can expect.

Halo: Combat Evolved is being developed by Saber Interactive, and will feature a full visual overhaul as opposed to just being an HD version of the original, which means new art assets instead of bumped up versions of the original art.

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Awesome internet mythbusters Defend The House are back with another amazing myth-busting video. This one is part five of their ongoing examination of Halo: Reach. Among other questions, DTH determines whether or not...

• Will Armor-Lock's EMP destroy holograms?
• Can a gravity hammer protect you from fall damage?
• Can a drop shield protect you from the assault bomb's explosion?

See the answers to these and more questions in the video below:

Congratulations to the Ginder Crew, who smashed Fallout 3 into Halo: Reach and created a fully realized Invasion of Megaton map for Halo: Reach. Watch the video. Then download the map.

Have you been waiting to pick up Halo: Reach? Well, your patience may have just paid off. You can now pick up, for a limited time, the Legendary Edition of the game at Amazon for only $69.99. That's ten bucks more than the price of the plain vanilla game! It comes with a ton of extra content, including some storyline elements that come in a cool ONI container, and of course that commemorative statue of Noble Team. 

And while we're on the subject, if your gameplaying runs in the PS3 direction, then you'll be happy to hear that you can pick up Demon's Souls for only $15.99. or if you shell out four additional bucks, you can get the same game in the Greatest Hits edition that comes with an art book and a soundtrack CD. It's a good day for misers to finally cave in.