Bungie closed out the day in Room 6BCF at San Diego Comic-Con with a panel for Halo: Reach, releasing September 14th. While they only showed off the improvements in Firefight and Forge modes, this is not too disappointing – what they showed off was very impressive.
First, they showed the bevy of new modifications to Firefight mode. You can customize a ton of settings, to the point where all the game modes in Firefight have been created with these rules, such as Gruntpocalypse, which is all grunts, all the time, and Generator Defense, which has you defending specific objects on the map. There is a new Versus mode, which still works in Firefight rules and parameters, but has both teams alternating between playing as Covenant and Spartan sides, with the Covenant side fighting with AI allies. Also, Firefight is now completely matchmaking compatible, so you can easily lay variants with random people online.
Bungie then showed off the new improvements to Forge on a new Blood Gulch variant called Hemorrhage. There are a bevy of new options, such as custom kill barriers that allow you to set limits that you can’t go past, specific item manipulation rules, and new toy objects like the Kill Ball, which kills anyone on touch. But it was when they flew past Hemorrhage’s canyon, and we learned that Hemorrhage was only a tiny oiece of a bigger map, called Forge World.
Forge World needs to be seen to be believed, as it is massive, and expansive, with segments inspired by other maps, but it is so huge that you can rope off certain sections for your own map, so two maps could be completely different while both were made in Forge in Forge World. One Bungie-made variation (created in Forge) is called The Cage, and is reminiscent of maps like Lockout and Ascension. But what is so special about it is that is is made completely suspended in midair over the ocean with Forge objects. Words don’t do justice how impressive this whole mode and mall are, and it needs to be seen to be believed, as it is shown off in the VidDoc on bungie.net going up tonight.
As well, there’s a Halo: Reach 360 Slim, which comes with a matte silver finish, a copy of Halo: Reach and 2 matching wireless controllers, available September 14th for the 360. While only a small slice of the game was shown off, Halo: Reach should promise to make Halo fans very happy this September, as even tiny features netted huge rounds of applause from the crowd.
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