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Halo 4 lead designer joins Visceral
Halo 4's lead designer Scott Warner has joined Visceral Games. Warner announced the career change via Twitter, and will be a design director with Visceral. Visceral, a subsidiary of EA, is the developer of the Dead Space series. Visceral Games is currently working on a project outside the horror franchise, and a Star Wars game for next-gen consoles.
PSA: Halo 4 World Championship finals streaming live this weekend
The world's top Spartans will finish the fight for a grand prize of $200,000 this weekend at PAX Prime in the Halo 4 Global Championship Finals, Microsoft announced today. If you're at PAX Prime, Microsoft is hosting the event in Benaroya Hall from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST until Sunday. If you're unable to attend, the rounds leading up to the finals will be streamed on TwitchTV today from 11:30 to 4pm PST. Spectators eager for the the final rounds can watch tensions mount via a livestream on Xbox Live and HaloWaypoint.com starting at 4 p.m. PST. The stream will be hosted by Major Nelson, Blair Herter and Jessica Chobot.
Halo: Spartan Assault expansion bringing Xbox 360 controller support this week
Halo: Spartan Assault, 343 Industries' top-down mobile shooter, will receive an expansion on Thursday called "Operation: Hydra." The expansion adds five new missions and more achievements on Xbox Live, and includes support for wired Xbox 360 controllers. Operation: Hydra has players investigating an intercepted alien signal on the planet Draetheus V's moon. Halo: Spartan Assault is available now for Windows 8 PCs and tablets for $6.99.
Halo 4 'Game of the Year' edition drops in October
Microsoft has confirmed a Halo 4 Game of the Year Edition is slated to arrive in October. A spokesperson said the package will include additional DLC , and that more details will be announced "during the live stream of the 'Halo' Global Championship Finals this Sunday." According to information provided to IGN by a tipster, this new version of Halo 4 will cost $50 and include the base game, the first season of Spartan Ops content, a War Games pass, the Champions DLC bundle and content that was exclusive to pre-orders and limited editions.
Halo 4 'Champions Bundle' DLC goes for gold on Xbox Live tomorrow
Spartans will find some additional items in their wardrobe today, as 343 Industries has issued the "Champions Bundle" DLC pack in Halo 4. For 800 MS Points ($10) you'll get: the "Bullseye" pack, which includes two new multiplayer maps, a new "Ricochet" game mode and some sports-themed armor; the "Infinity Armor Pack," a collection of new armor items modeled after past Halo games; and the "Steel Gun Pack," which coats your weapons in some shiny new metals. 343 Industries is also offering these three DLC packs piecemeal, though purchasing the full bundle guarantees 18 additional exclusive in-game items and one cheaper price tag.
Halo 4 update adds new Support Upgrades, Spartan Ops to matchmaking
343 Industries will push out a title update for Halo 4 this Monday, August 19, ahead of the launch of the game's Champions Bundle DLC, which is scheduled for the next day. The patch, in addition to ending the current Global Championship online qualifier, also adds two new Support Upgrades: Recharge, which reduces the amount of time it takes for your shields to recharge, and Survivor, which automatically ejects the player from any vehicle on the verge of exploding. The update also adds Spartan Ops levels to matchmaking, specifically two chapters from Episode 1 (The Challenge, Sacred), one chapter from Episode 2 (Gagarin) and two chapters from Episode 5 (Spartan Miller, Nothing Can Go Wrong). Meanwhile, the game's Crimson Map Pack will be removed in preparation for the arrival of the Champions Bundle.
Halo: Spartan Assault out now for Windows 8 devices
Heads up, soldier. Halo: Spartan Assault, the omnidirectional shooter spinoff set in the Halo universe, is now available on Windows 8 devices. That means Windows 8 PCs and tablets, including Surface. You can also nab the game on Windows 8 phones – so long as Verizon is your carrier, that is. If you prefer your spinoffs with a little more context, Microsoft and Dark Horse have also produced a prequel comic series, Halo: Initiation. You can find a preview of the first issue on the Dark Horse website.
Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn earns Emmy nomination
Halo 4 live-action web-series Forward Unto Dawn is up for an Emmy - no, not a tech Emmy, the real primetime deal. It's going up against the likes of HBO's The Newsroom and CBS' Elementary for this year's Main Title Design honor. The Main Title Design category rewards work that goes into title sequences, so we should doff our cap towards German 3D animator Polynoid, who collaborated with Halo 4 dev 343 industries on the intros for the five Forward Unto Dawn episodes. Machinima and Microsoft first released the series on YouTube last year, leading into the launch of Halo 4, before bringing it to Blu-ray and Netflix. If you've not seen it and you've got 90 or so minutes to spare, we'd say it's worth the watch, and not just for the titles. As for the Emmy, the winner will be revealed at this year's ceremony on September 22.
Halo 4 'Champions Bundle' DLC announced
Three new DLC packs are headed to Halo 4 on August 20, available separately or in one big blob of stuff called a "Champions Bundle." Purchasing the DLC in bundle-form sweetens the pot through the addition of 18 in-game items "only available for a limited time exclusively through the bundle," according to the announcement. The three new DLC packs include the "Bullseye Pack," which features two multiplayer maps, "sports-themed" armor and a new "Ricochet" game mode. The "Infinity Armor Pack" delivers "impressive and legendary new armor" of some sort while the "Steel Skin Pack" throws some "steampunk" all up on your weapons. Though, based on the trailer above, we're not sure if 343 Industries' definition of steampunk is quite the same as our own. The entire bundle will be available for 800 MS Points, whereas the Bullseye Pack will run a la carte at 480 MS Points – the Infinity Armor/Steel Skin Packs will cost 240 MS Points when purchased separately. %Gallery-193233%
Halo 4 is Microsoft Studios' best seller so far
Halo 4 is the "best-selling Microsoft Studios title ever in the U.S. market,*" performing better than Halo 3 did during its fiscal launch year, according to ol' Microsoft. That all-important asterisk denotes that claim as being "according to Microsoft retail sales sell-through data for each respective fiscal year." Presumably, this means that Halo 4 has also outperformed other Microsoft Studios launches, such as Fable 3 or Forza Motorsport 4. It's no wonder, then, that Microsoft has decided to expand the Halo series' current "Reclaimer" trilogy into a "saga," a term that translates to "as many games as we feel like" or "why on Earth would we ever stop," depending on the dictionary you're using.
Halo Warthog gets rainbow colors in Seattle Pride parade
Halo's indispensable military buggy sided with Team Blue, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green and Violet at the Seattle Pride parade held on Sunday, June 30th.
Microsoft patent: Remakes running concurrent engines for old, new visuals
Microsoft has filed an interesting patent for a video game "having a plurality of game engines" running concurrently. The patent was filed in December of 2011, right after the launch of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary – a game allowing players to switch between the updated visuals and the original Xbox game's graphics on the fly. The Halo Anniversary example seems to be the best illustration of what this patent is aiming for. Further down, the patent specifically calls out "remakes" of games, where the original graphics are described as "leveraging" player emotions tied to the original experience. "However, this may be lost as modern graphics may cause the gamers to lose that feeling of nostalgia," the patent reads. So having that ability to switch between an original experience and enhanced visuals seems like a good middle ground this patent is trying to lock up. A trio of 343 Industries employees, including executive producer Daniel Ayoub, are listed in the patent filing.
Current Halo trilogy is now a 'saga'
The Halo series' current Reclaimer Trilogy is now a "saga," a Microsoft representative confirmed with GameSpot during E3. "While we originally said trilogy, we've actually expanded this to more of a saga, so we don't want to limit the Reclaimer story within a trilogy," the representative explained. The Reclaimer Trilogy was originally set to span from 2012's Halo 4 through the eventual Halo 6. Xbox head Don Mattrick recently referred to the franchise's E3 showing as "Halo 5." Speaking with GameSpot, Microsoft Game Studios corporate VP Phil Spencer declined to say whether the next Halo game will be a fully fledged sequel or a spinoff in the vein of Halo: Reach. "It is the next Halo game that we are working on," Spencer told GameSpot. "We will talk more about actually the story arc in the game and how it plays out; we've got more time to talk about that." Whether the next game is Halo 5 or something else, Spencer did note that it will be "a legitimate version of Halo."
Halo coming to the Xbox One in 2014 [Update: trailer!]
Master Chief will make the transition to the next generation with a new game in the series for the Xbox One slated to arrive in 2014. Bonnie Ross at 343 Industries referred to the title simply as a "Halo FPS," noting the game would run on dedicated servers, use Microsoft's cloud computing infrastructure and run at 60 frames per second.%Gallery-191153%
Halo: Spartan Assault breaks off peace for Windows 8 PCs, tablets and phones
Microsoft has announced the impending arrival of Halo: Spartan Assault, an omni-directional top-down shooter for Windows 8 devices. Set between Halos 3 and 4, the space-hoop stopgap will be available this July for an "estimated retail price" of $6.99, though the Windows 8 version (supporting PCs and tablets) will be sold separately from the game made for Windows Phone 8. As with other twin-stick shooters, Halo: Spartan Assault hinges on maneuvering your character out of harm's way while aiming and firing back in 360 degrees. The game retains controllable vehicles, established franchise weapons (see: canon canons) and covenant enemies, but moves the perspective to high above the battlefield and replaces the controls with a touch-screen interface. It's obviously more simplistic than Halo proper, and certainly more likely to be mentioned in an article with Microsoft's range of Surface tablets. Halo: Spartan Assault is developed by 343 Industries and Vanguard Games (Greed Corp, Gatling Gears), and comes complete with leaderboards, weekly challenges, and connectivity rewards for Halo 4, firstly in the form of new Spartan emblems. It will also be accompanied by a three-part prequel comic series called "Halo: Initiation." If dragging thumbs across a capacitive screen isn't ideal, you can play the Windows 8 version of Spartan Assault with a mouse and keyboard. According to Microsoft, "Halo: Spartan Assault will add support for the Wired Xbox 360 controller for Windows on Windows 8 PCs, tablets and Surface devices shortly after launch, via a title update."%Gallery-190251%
Halo 4 multiplayer gains more powerful guns, quicker Spartans
Wonder where that extra oomph in your Carbine came from today? 343 Industries has issued sweeping tweaks to all multiplayer weaponry in Halo 4. A lot of weapons have had their damage increased - for example, the Battle Rifle is now capable of killing in four bursts instead of five. Automatic weapons (Assault Rifle, Storm Rifle and Suppressor) all have had their damage increased slightly and will kill in three fewer shots now. Finally, chain guns on the Mantis and Warthog have had their damage output increased by 35 percent. A lot of the update seems to be geared around increasing weapon damage, but sticky aiming and range on many of these weapons have also been adjusted and player movement speed has been upped by ten percent. For the full breakdown of Halo 4's massive multiplayer update, check out 343's Halo Waypoint blog.
Halo 4 for $18 at Best Buy today
If you've yet to experience John 117's latest adventure, you should know that Halo 4 is a mere $18 at Best Buy today. That deal is valid only for today, by the way, giving you a great excuse Forerunning to the nearest store. [Thanks, Hank!]
Microsoft, Steven Spielberg working on Halo: The Television Series
Microsoft has announced that it will be producing a live action television series based on the Halo franchise, shown exclusively via the new Xbox One console. 343 Industries will oversee the show, and Stephen Spielberg will play a part as well (though his full role wasn't yet revealed). Spielberg appeared in a short video at today's announcement, where he said he was excited to be involved with "the heroes, worlds, and wonders that Halo will take us to."
Neill Blomkamp would still like to do that Halo movie
Even though Neill Blomkamp already put five months of work into the stalled Halo film project, he's not bitter. In fact, he's still down to work on the film – that is, if he's in control."I still really love the world and the universe and the mythology of Halo. If I was given control, I would really like to do that film," Blomkamp told IGN. "But that's the problem. When something pre-exists, there's this idea of my own interpretation versus 150 other people involved with the film's interpretation of the same intellectual property. Then the entire filmgoing audience has their interpretation. You can really live up to or fail in their eyes. That part isn't appealing to me, but the original pieces are appealing."Blomkamp went on record back in 2009 to say that he wouldn't do the Halo film, even if it was offered to him. Blomkamp drew attention for his trio of Halo 3 short films, eventually all collected in Halo 3: Landfall. The Halo movie was officially postponed in late 2006 after Fox and Universal both pulled out of the project.
PSA: Halo 4 'Castle Map Pack' available now
Halo 4's final piece of DLC included in the War Games Map Pass, the Castle Map Pack, is available now on the Xbox Marketplace. For those without the pass, the map pack is $10.The pack adds three multiplayer maps (Daybreak, Outcast and Perdition), with Outcast featuring "frequent Mantis vs. Wraith battles." The maps were designed for objectives and vehicles.%Gallery-181272%
