"Cortana all I need to know is did we lose them. I think we both know the answer to that." That's the opening dialog to Halo Combat Evolved. The game that would spark a revolution for console shooters, and give birth to one of gaming's largest franchises. Despite strong competition from Call of Duty and Gears of War, Halo is still the most popular game on Xbox Live and looks set to continue to hold a position in the top ten for years to come.
After Years of absence from the Microsoft Press Conference, at this year's E3 Bungie finally put boots on the ground again for the first time since the infamous Halo 2 multiplayer demonstration, to show off their latest title Halo 3 ODST. Still referred to as an expansion by Bungie it finally gives fans a campaign set entirely on earth with the players taking control of an orbital drop shock trooper. The game boasts a number of new features including an all new ODST interface, open world gameplay, fire fight mode (horde like co-op mode) and perhaps most important off all a story set on earth told though exploration and flashbacks.
No matter your opinion on ODST it's still a 3.5 if you will, a dam fine one and total fan service for people like me who can't count the number of times they have read each of the Halo novels, but not the next big jump for the Halo series. Instead that looks to be the job of Halo Reach a game based on some of the events from the Novel Halo Fall of Reach and at last will feature more than one Spartan. As many as twenty or more in fact. Apart from a very short in engine teaser from the looks of it, that shows Reach being glassed by the Covenant and a logo with a squad of Spartans we know very little about the title but surprisingly it is being developed by Bungie, who had hinted they where moving on from Halo after finishing number three.
This along with the fact that there is a multiplayer beta indicates to me at least that Halo Reach while still being a first person shooter will be very different to the Halo we know at the moment. Given Bungie has worked on more or less the same style of game for over seven years it's likely they will be trying something very new. Taking into account the scale of the battle for reach and the number of Spartans involved a squad based Quake Wars, Battlefield scale game is a safe bet as to how it will play.
But perhaps still most interesting of all is the Halo project people like Ryan Paton (MGS4 Producer) and top people from ID Software moved to Microsoft to work on. I think at this stage it's safe to assume that this project and Peter Jacksons "halo project" are one in the same. Since its announcement at X06 little, to nothing has been said about it. With Jackson working on District 9 with Neill Blomkamp the once director of the Halo movie that was never to be, it looks like his role in the project is over and its now in the hands of a team at Microsoft.
Say what you will about the series, over hyped or not it's loved by millions around the world and has spawned several books and comic spins off combined with the games to create one of the most interesting SI-FI universes to date. As long as Microsoft likes money and the right people are in the right positions the Halo franchise will continue to a high standard. "Wake me when you need me" That's the opening to a brave new world for the Halo.
