Game: Halo: Reach

Developer: Bungie

Release date: September 22, 2010

OK, so if you’re reading this I’m sure you know all about the next game in the coveted Halo franchise.  Halo: Reach is a prequel that tells the story of the fall of planet Reach and it takes place before Halo: Combat Evolved and before the life and times of Master Chief.  You play as Noble Team and your enemy, as usual, is the devout alien tribe known as The Covenant.  Reach was not available to play at the Microsoft booth, however there were private screenings of live demonstrations of the single and multiplayer gameplay.  Not only did I attend one of these live demonstrations, I managed to record the entire live demo!

In Part 1 (see above), a Reach producer plays through a mission called “The Long Night of Solace” and it takes place about half-way through the game.  Watch as Noble Team kicks some Covenant ass.  Part 2 (look after the break) takes you deep into space for some combat in the sky, spaceship-style.  Part 3 (also after the break) features Firefight mode gameplay.  Three people in the crowd were asked to join the Bungie reps to help show how this multiplayer mode works in Reach.  Firefight mode is simple co-op fun; it’s just you and up to three other players joining forces to fight off Covenant attack.  And now this mode supports match-making; so if your friends are not available to play with you the game will find others with similar skill level to help you beat up some Covenant, no problem.  You will also be able to highly customize the gameplay in this mode.  For example, you can control the number of rounds, where enemies show up, how they are killed (head-shots only, for example), and what happens when they killed (they can explode into confetti!).  You can even save and upload your customized game rules to the Bungie servers so other Reach players can jump into your creation.  Lastly, another addition to Reach multiplayer is the ability to rack up credits and use them to purchase upgrades in the armory; these are used to customize your own Spartan avatar.

So what are you waiting for?  Watch the splitscreen mayhem unfold in the video embedded after the break!