Halo

Prepare thyself: Halo: Reach is set to spin itself into 360s on Tuesday, September 14th. Will you be one of the teeming masses waiting to snag one on launch day, or are you on the fence about finishing the fight? 

Either way, you're going to want to read our Halo: Reach review that is set to go live tomorrow (Saturday night/Sunday Morning) at 12:01 AM EST.

Gamers tend to be night owls, so I'm sure the late hour won't mean you'll be sleeping. I mean, you're staying up until launch like the rest of us, right? Look, you're going to need some time to say goodbye to Halo 3 and get your thumbs in shape for the hours of Reach multiplayer you're going to throw the rest of your life away to participate in during the coming weeks.

Just remember to take a break from your training to read our Halo: Reach review on Saturday night: 12:01am Eastern/9:01pm Pacific!

Just a few days stand between Halo fans and Bungie’s wildly anticipated Halo: Reach. And just to make the wait as excruciating as possible, Bungie has gone ahead and released an extended version of the “Deliver Hope” live-action short that came out a few weeks back. There are plenty of great little moments in the video, so I suggest watching it a couple of times to catch them all. One of the standout shots: that poor bastard being upended by that mean green explosion. So wicked. Check it out:

Ever wonder about the sound work that goes into a video game? Soundworks Collection profiles the masters of sound from movies and video games, and this time they've produced a mini-documentary about everything that went into creating the sound for Halo: Reach. They profile the audio team, including Marty O'Donnell, and it's worth both a watch and a listen. Step inside and learn how games are crafted for your ears, not just your eyes.

In the past, Halo lobby nameplates haven't told you much other than a person's name, rank, and if they'd connected their gamertag with Bungie.net or not. Halo: Reach expands your options tenfold by giving you different choices for that nameplate. The catch? You have to have the game data to back up your choice.

Register your gamertag on Bungie.net, and you'll be able to change these at will. Read on for a full list of nameplates, and the requirements to display them.

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It's raining Halo, more specifically Halo: Reach, as we get closer and closer to launch day. The latest videos from the front are this pair of videos from X-Play, showcasing the revamped Forge mode and the Multiplayer game inside Halo: Reach. Bungie's creative director, Marcus Lehto, gives us a full tour of what to expect. Amazing how far this franchise has come; give the video a peek and I'm sure you'll agree:

And for X-Play's look at Halo: Reach multiplayer, we've got you covered inside as well.

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Continue what you learned in Part One of our insider look at Halo: Reach with Bungie developer Marcus Lehto. Last time they talked about the campaign side of things, and this time the focus is on the multiplayer experience. Which is the main reason many of you are planning on picking this up. Got a Halo itch to scratch? This is exactly what you need.

Halo: Reach, you're prepared for it ... right? If not, then you need to settle back and watch the first half of our developer preview with the game. Adam Sessler and Marcus Lehto sit down and delve deep inside, plumbing the depths of Reach for everything you need to know about Bungie's upcoming swan song to the world of Spartans vs. The Covenant.

Yesterday you listened to me blather on about the Halo: Reach campaign, and you were probably asking out loud, "Well, Kevin, that's all fine and dandy. But what about the multiplayer? I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE MULTIPLAYER! It feeds my veins like blood and sustains me! Where are those details, you idiot?!" Actually, that might just be the imaginary commenter that lives in my brain, but I can appreciate his sentiment.

Now, you can check out out multiplayer preview, which includes Firefight and Forge World goodies as well. I promise not to inspire an uprising of Metroid: Other M proportions, even though they made Master Chief look like a complete milquetoast in this. Wait, what? He's not in the game? Well then, that explains a lot. That wimp was ... me. Anyhow, I digress. In this particular preview, you can look forward to such quotes from myself as:

"Forge World is a massive world that contains several different play "areas": a hangar in the side of a vast mountain, islands, hidden tunnels, plateaus, small, flat areas, and so on. They exist as part of Forge World, and several players can gather together in here and construct things at the same time. Cue the A-Team montage music."

If one of you makes a Forge World video when this game is out with A-Team music in it, I will love you forever. In the meantime, check out our Halo: Reach Multiplayer and Forge World preview!

We already know that Halo: Reach will allow players to customize their armor in multiplayer. For me, that's going to mean slapping on a coat of neon pink paint and hitting start, but others are going to be way into making their Spartan look amazing. Today, we learned about some of the most interesting, hardcore "special effects" that can be added to armor... If you're willing to put in the time to earn them.

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This Samsung ad looks a lot like a certain first-person-shooter starring Master Chief... If only he left his helmet on.  If you were wondering what a big budget Halo movie might look like, though, the commercial below gives you a pretty good idea.

Our own Kevin Kelly has beaten Halo: Reach. I know. What a jerk. But before you track him down and attempt to beat details out of him with a wet noodle, you should know that he can’t officially talk about the game in its entirety until his review. However, he was kind enough to put together a little campaign preview of two missions from somewhere around the midpoint of the game. Here’s a snippet of what Kevin had to say about "Nightfall" and "Tip of the Spear":

“You'll notice a more than coincidental similarity between this level and the 'Truth and Reconciliation' level in the original Halo, which was an intentional decision on behalf of the design team. However, what that original level didn't have were enormous, tusked beasts indigenous to Reach roaming around. These are Gueta, and they are nasty. While not the smartest creatures, they'll charge you and do significant damage if you get too close. Of course, like nearly everything else in the game, they can be killed ... or you can try your luck at sneaking past them.”

So put down the pitchforks and read Kevin’s full Halo: Reach campaign preview here.
 

Our comment of the day belongs to lBloodstormI, who posted the following in response to the Halo: Reach live action short you see above. BloodstormI says:

Now that is the kind of trailer I'd expect from Bungie after Halo 3 and ODST trailers.

Where is my Halo movie?!?

A question to which I respond: Be careful what you wish for. Did you walk out of Inception and ask "Where's my Inception game?" Probably not.

Halo is perfectly suited to the video game world, and the shorts are cool, but maybe it wouldn't work as a feature film. My evidence: Twenty-five years worth of failed video game movie adaptations. Also: We never see Master Chief's face. It works in a game, but really think about how that would play onscreen. A main character we can't actually see...

What do you guys think?

There's only one thing we look forward to more than the actual release of a new Halo title, and that's the live action promos of what a Halo movie could have been. In the latest for Halo: Reach, "Deliver Hope," a young Spartan races through a war-torn battlefield with a package that needs to be handed over personally. I won't spoil what happens next, but September 14th can't come soon enough!

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As you may have heard, the source code to Halo: Reach has leaked to the less savory neighborhoods of the internet. The ending can be viewed on video sites as well, but, according to Bungie's Marcus Lehto, the creative director on Reach, you could choose not to pay attention to the leaks, but even if you seek them out, they won't ruin the game. 

When asked how his team reacted to the leaks, Lehto said, "Officially we're not talking about any of that stuff, but personally, when it comes to the game, and the way fans are going to experience it-- I think fans across the world, if they don't want to know it, if they don't want to see it, that's their choice not to pay attention to any of the leaks."

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Do you like college football, or at least tailgating at college football games? How about playing some of the biggest video games of the season while you're there? That's exactly what you'll be able to do, when TV's most popular videogame show teams up with XBOX to hit the road on the Tailgate Tour 2010.

At each stop on the tour, there will be opportunities to play games head-to-head with other fans and win prizes. So, go, enjoy the game, tailgate your tail off, play some of the hottest video games on Earth, and join X-Play in our Tour Challenge. You never know what you might see!

UPDATE: For the remaining tour stops, you'll have an opportunity to win a 250GB Xbox 360 and a copy of Halo: Reach!

For sweepstakes rules, click here.

For the tour stops as they stand, hit the jump.

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