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Halo Online: Launch Trailer Screenshots

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BBKDragoon an awesome YouTuber, and all around good dude, took these screenshots from the trailer. As you can see a ton of information to take in.

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Tons of cool stuff to look at and dig deeper in. Again, this would be really interesting to play and experience. A PC Halo could open the way to mods and a customizable experience for each different audience. Many props to BBKDragoon for capturing these!

Source: Imgur Gallery

BBKDragoon: YouTube, Twitter

Halo Online: Free to Play PC Experience

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Update: Confirmed by 343i on Waypoint

In a recent press conference for a Russian developer “Innova” it is launching, in partnership with 343i, Saber Interactive, and Microsoft, Halo Online. HO will be a free to play multiplayer shooter for the PC, exclusively in Russia for the time being.

Above is what appears to be an early build of the interface. Which is reportedly being run off the H3 engine. Where as the source says it’s a multiplayer experience, it also states that the events of the story take place in the time period between H3 and H4. Visually running off the H3 engine, the interface seems very H4-esque.

According to a NeoGAF thread the specifics are as follows:

4-16 players
Graphics on par with Halo 4 based on Halo 3 engine
Power-ups and weapons pick-ups on the battlefield
Rich visual and gameplay customization of weapons and armor
There will be vehicles.
f2p is about weapons, armor and power-ups
Right now developers said nothing about story mode and there is likely the game will be MP-PVP only.

Nothing is laid out in the article, and as far as I can tell there hasn’t been any confirmation from Microsoft or 343i. This is really interesting as 343i has said that they had no plans to port a title over, but a new title with development from another studio was never implicitly stated as false. Hopefully this will eventually make it to the US, but I’m glad that Halo will possibly be back on the PC. Being on two different platforms in this setting would be awesome for the overall growth of the franchise.

More updates to come…

Sources – NeoGAF, Kanobu

343i “ODST HD Was Never Planned”

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With the release of the Master Chief Collection brought on unsuspecting issues with Microsoft servers and the game stability itself. From finding matches, staying connected, and staying with people in your party the issues were varied. As compensation 343 Industries announced that they would be releasing ODST HD to those who played the game from launch to Dec 19th 2014. However this was never in the pipeline.

Bonnie Ross, head of 343i in a recent Gamer Girls Gone Wild Podcast stated “We did not plan on putting ODST out. I mean, I love ODST. But we did not plan on putting it out. We were pretty deliberate on Master Chief’s journey leading up to Halo 5 as being The Master Chief Collection.” When asked why they did it she responded “It’s what fans wanted.”

She then went on to say “Obviously when we had the stumble, I think when we looked at what people were asking for, before the stumble and after, what they would love have,” she said. “ODST was on the top of the list. So that’s why we did it. But we had no plans to do it prior to that.”

In addition to this Microsoft has already given players a free month of XBL Gold and are also releasing the remastered map, Relic available for free with this package.

I think this is a great compensatory package for the issues that have plagued MCC since the start. It is going to be awesome to play through ODST as a part of the saga in remastered 1080p HD at 60fps. I’m really hoping that down the road they will sell this as DLC for those who have not yet purchased the collection.

Source

Reading Between the Lines

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As most of you know, you’ve seen the Hunt The Truth trailer, if not I’ve included it below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9D2HzbT9Pc

If you look very closely you can see several things written on the bullet as it travels along before finally reaching Master Chief’s visor. Reddit user /u/TuckingFypoz over at reddit.com/r/halo has broken down the video frame by frame to revel what’s written along the bullet.

01 - 2Ka3NMm

02 - snELFaD

03 - fMzKUrz

04 - 56433w7

05 - M3z3Yn8

06 - Ovf0sbZ

07 - 5DShfby

08 - esDKYEH

09 - fvUFPrL

10 - JMtmVLN

11 - zXE8o7o

As you can see; Traitor, Savior, Son, Abductee, Victim, Hero, Ally, Warrior, Soldier, Recruit, Orphan. As you can see it appears that Halo 5 or the Hunt The Truth series is going to go through Master Chief’s beginnings, and potentially labeling him as a traitor. More to come.

Full gallery

30 Years of Halo

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Yes you read that correctly. 30 YEARS OF HALO. At least this is what 343i’s Studio Head Bonnie Ross wants to see. She noted in a recent quote to Gamespot that:

“I wanted to make sure we were able to go another three decades.”

Gamespot did confirm that she meant this in relation to 343i and the Halo Franchise itself. This is very much in line with what Microsoft has wanted to pursue since taking over and creating Halo 4. Instead of a trilogy, the are dubbing it as the Reclaimer Saga. Ross also noted that she and the studio want to get away from the numbered releases and do more spin-off series, which I would imagine would be something similar to ODST.

This is very interesting as it seems that 343 is diving as far away from core Halo into a new interpretation. I for one would love to see more and more Halo, but I personally do not think that the franchise can stay relevant in it’s current identity crisis. It’s clear to me that 343i is going to continue on with their interpretation of Halo and the long time fans who may enjoy the classic experience are left behind.

I myself as a fan knew one day that the Halo series would end. This would have ultimately been a sad day, but I always envisioned it going out with a bang with one of the best games to date. I myself will leave all final judgments until I actually play the beta and experience it first hand. However, from what I have seen I am not all too enthusiastic. Don’t get me wrong here, the visuals are stunning, and things seem to flow really well. It’s the mechanics and gameplay that I’m concerned about.

Leave a comment below on your thoughts, or tweet me @thehaloarray

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