Up until now, we’ve heard almost nothing about Halo: Reach other than the fact that Halo 3: ODST owners would get access to the game’s multiplayer beta. However, today we bring you screen shots of the game taken from, well, a screen.

They aren’t exactly high quality but they definitely give us a glimpse of what the graphics are to look like in the new title and I must say they definitely look on par with recent titles.

When exactly will Halo: Reach hit store shelves? Your guess is as good as ours.

Of course, I don’t think Bungie would appreciate us hosting the images so you’re going to have to head here to check them out.

VGChartz

However, you have to make note that ODST was released on a Tuesday while Gears of War 2 was released on a Friday, giving ODST 5 days in their first week of sales while Gears 2 only had 2. So, literally, it’s the 4th fastest selling Xbox 360 game but technically. it’s the third. Get it?

Anyways, sales were right around 1.8 million with 1.7 million of those copies being taken off store shelves in North America, 230,000 in the UK, 50,000 in France and about 20,000 in Japan.

So, it’s official, put Halo on anything and it’ll sell like hot cakes!

If you thought that the Halo franchise was no longer popular, you’d be wrong and we have proof! In just 24 hours since Halo 3: ODST has been on store shelves close to 1 million players have logged onto the game. Furthermore, more than 6 million games have been logged in this same time period ensuring ODST’s popularity.

To put this into comparison, Halo 3 itself logged around 1.5 million players and around the same number of games during the same time slot. Now we’ll just have to wait a few days and see how these numbers fluctuate before we pass judgment but as of now Halo 3: ODST seems to be a hit.

If you want to see these numbers for yourself head over to Bungie.net where they have a widget proudly displaying said numbers.

Unfortunately, there will be no ODST brandings on the console itself but it will include Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and the Halo: Reach beta in addition to a Xbox Live 1-month membership card.

There’s no word if us Americans will ever be seeing this SKU but European gamers can expect it to hit store shelves sometime in early October.

Halo

The 2-disc Halo 3: ODST sound track will feature sounds from Marty O’Donnel and Michael Salvatori and is said to showcase the series’ new direction with ODST. Marty O’Donnell comments:

“I’m happy to be able to share all new compositions and recordings created for Halo 3: ODST. The music reflects the new mood, new heroes, and new story of the game. I worked with the Northwest Sinfonia for the orchestral recordings and also added some nice alto sax solos and some new guitar solos. The piano sneaks back in again a few times too, but I can’t seem to help that.”

To snag the soundtrack, just head over to www.sumthingdigital.com or grab it off iTunes on September 22nd.

via kotaku

Instead, Halo Waypoint is a service to be offered over Xbox Live to will include everything to do with the Halo universe; think podcasts, trailers, interviews and more. Additionally, Halo Waypoint will serve as the mode of delivery for the Halo Legends anime mini series that we heard about back in June.

Excited? No? Me neither.

Bungie has recently been kind enough to release a video documentary featuring none other than Halo 3: ODST.

While there are several cips of actual gameplay featured in the video, the purpose it serves is to give us a closer look at the characters the game is based around. Add to that a full break down of a few of the game’s weapons and other in-game technology and you have yourself a very intersting video.

Halo 3: ODST will be out exclusively for the Xbox 360 on September 22nd, 2009.

Yesterday Microsoft let us know that there would be an anime miniseries inspiried by their flagship franchise, Halo entitled Halo Legends.

Today, the internets are a buzz over the miniseries’ debut trailer, included above. As you can see, there are segments produced by all 5 Japanese studios that are signed onto the project.

But wait, during Casio Entertainment’s segment there are the beginnings of a CG swordfight. I don’t remember Master Chief moving so nimbly in the video games. Oh well, let’s hope Halo Legends does the franchise justice and isn’t just an attempt by Microsoft to milk the franchise.

Now, you can’t really get on Bungie’s case about this as ODST is essentially just an add-on for Halo 3 which means it’s running on the exact same engine. But for those of you who think the improved graphics of the ODST mean enhanced technology, think again.

Bungie elaborates on the subject:

“Everything that existed in Halo 3’s engine was there from the beginning. So the graphical differences that you’re seeing in ODST is really testament to the artists, because they were able to just take the tools that we had from the beginning, and just make awesome looking stuff.”

Halo 3: ODST will hit store shelves exclusivly for the Xbox 360 on September 22nd, 2009.

Read (GamesWire)

The third Title Update for Halo Wars is due to be released in the next few weeks, and Bungie has released patch notes for the update. Some of the main issues fixed include balance changes and general bug fixes. The full list follows:

Balance Changes:

• UNSC Warthogs Gauss cannon damage against tanks and other heavily armored vehicles reduced by 25%
• UNSC Warthogs build time increased by 3 seconds to 25 seconds
• Anders research time bonus decreased to 25% from 50%. Her Research cost bonus remains unchanged at 50%
• Covenant and UNSC turrets have 5% increased health and 5% increased damage
• UNSC Elephants have a 20% more health
• Grenade damage type now has 25% additonal damage against Warthogs and other medium armor ground vehicles.
• Recycle basic cost return fixed to be 50% for constructed buildings.
• Locked down bases when unlocked will now release units inside very quickly, which means that when under attack a player can now build a fighting force while locked down and then release them much more quickly than before
• UNSC Leader powers disabled at the start of Reinforcement Matches
• Players no longer receive points for team killing.
• Self Destructing/Recycling buildings now gives points to opponents

Bug Fixes:

• Players should now find it much easier to play System Link games
• Fixed Covenant Shield Generator Exploit
• Invisible Units should now have invisible health bars
• Players will no longer be able to scout opposing bases by using the area-select tool

Read (Official Halo Wars Community Site)

We’ve been hinted at these for some time now but finally Bungie has taken the veil off of the 3 all new multiplayer maps that will be included with Halo 3: ODST.

Halo 2 players will recognize the above map as it is a remake of the extremely popular Midship and is now entitled Heretic. The two other maps to be included are Citadel and Longshore and are sure to renew your Halo 3 vibes.

Halo 3: ODST will be on store shelves on September 22nd of this year.

To peep picks of both Citadel and Longshore, head here.

It seems that Bungie has followed Treyarch and Epic’s examples with Double XP weekends for Gears of War 2 and CoD: WaW, respectively, and announced the same for Halo 3.

This event begins today and runs until 2AM Monday and will require the Heroic, Legendary and Mythic map packs to participate.

Common developers, now’s your chance, anymore Double XP weekends we need to hear about?

Read (Bungie)

The device could be used in cooperation with a controller or on its own for certain portions, though to play the game entirely through gestures isn’t likely. To bank the potential success of an upcoming Halo game on the install base of an as-yet unreleased peripheral would be a huge risk, though the potential for interesting control scheme combinations does make this possibility quite interesting. Imagine controlling a vehicle by leaning side to side while controlling the turrets and assorted weaponry using the controller.

Sure, it’s no Modern Warfare 2 but Halo 3: ODST has a good slice of hype surrounding it and the above video from E3 showcasing gameplay footage will only add to that.

ODST is looking good so far, if I do say so myself, and the robust campaign mode will be a nice break from the normal Master Chief story. Then again, what’s Halo without the Chief?

Halo 3: ODST will hit shelves for the Xbox 360 on September 22nd and will ship with access to the multiplayer beta of Halo: Reach.

Bungie has recently announced on their website that their Render-to-Video service has entered a public beta. If you don’t know what this service is, it lets users converted saved ingame clips into actual video. This is a much needed feature for those who like to compile Halo 3 montages or other machinima.

Don’t throw away your capture card yet as this service will cost you Bungie Points. What are Bungie Points? Bungies answer to Microsoft Points, I guess. Honestly though, you’ll be able to exchange 1 Bungie Point for 1 minute of standard definition video or 5 points for 1 minute of high definition video.

Bungie says the beta will run until July with the actual service going live sometime around Bungie Day (July 7th).

Microsoft is seeking to keep people on their toes and interested in the console RTS Halo Wars. They’ve just announced a new Xbox 360 exclusive downloadable content pack called “Strategic Options”. It adds three new multiplayer modes to the mix. The first is ‘Keepaway Mode’ which is inspire by classic capture the flag gameplay. Players seek to capture free-roaming Forerunner sentinels, the first to capture three wins. ‘Tug of War Mode’ is a little more straightforward with the decimation of your opponent’s army being the ultimate goal but in the end your remaining units, resources and buildings will all be considered in whether or not you’ve succeeded.

Finally ‘Reinforcement Mode’ provides you with active battle units in successive waves, forcing you to alter your tactics to fit the newest wave of units that have come your way. Thus far there’s no pricing or release date, but it says it’ll be out in the ‘next few weeks’ and for just a few extra gameplay modes and a handful of achievements I certainly hope they won’t try to charge more than $5.

Halo 3-heads better boot up their Xbox 360 because it was recently announced that the Mythic Map Pack has officially hit Xbox Live for all to download.

Clocking in at 328.15MB the Mythic Map Pack will net you 3 new map back including Assembly, Orbital, and the all new Forge oriented map, Sandbox for just 800 Microsoft Points.

The official description of the pack, thanks to Major Nelson, is as follows:

The long-awaited Mythic Map Pack drops into Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Investigate Orbital’s abandoned hallways – before it was evacuated, the Quito Space Tether was heralded as the “Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium.” Witness Assembly, where Scarab hulls loom overhead, being decontaminated in preparation for the city-sized Lekgolo colonies that will breathe life into the massive metal husks. An excavation site surrounded by deadly Forerunner defenses, the mysteries of Sandbox are hidden high above, deep below, and right before your eyes. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

And if you’re wondering why some people got the chance to play this before its Xbox Live street date, it’s because these same maps were included with Halo Wars.

The game was released less than a month ago but the amount of time gamers have put into it is quite impressive. Over one hundred and eighteen years of gameplay have occurred over 2.6 million multiplayer matches. An average of about 200,000 gamers have taken part in online skirmishes every day.

The success of Halo Wars proves that RTS games are a viable option for consoles and probably means we’ll be seeing more of them in the future, especially since the ending of the Legendary difficulty mode hints at the possibility of a sequel, which seems all but inevitable now.

No, not really, sorry to get you excited. But it is a possiblity that Bungie will release another game starring the Chief, let me tell you why.

Frank O’Connor recently spoke with USA Today about the upcoming Halo 3: ODST, but the key phrase that came out of his mouth was ”I doubt we have seen the last of Master Chief.” Sounds pretty sneaky to slip that in right at the end of the interview. Let the rumors fly boys.

Other than that, O’Connor commented on ODST, saying it:

“is significantly more than an add-on. It’s a lot of game. You play the game through the point of view of an ODST. They are dropped into combat from orbit. They have a rivalry with the Spartans that is well known to the fans of the fiction. We finally let you into their boots as it were. …It’s kind of a detective story in a way. But it is much more action-packed than that.”

Read (USA Today)

If you didn’t already know, the late Ensemble Studios’ Halo Wars has hit North American shelves everywhere.

Don’t know what Halo Wars is? Have you been living under a rock? Only kidding, Halo Wars is the first official real time strategy (think Command & Conquer) title based in Bungie’s hugely popular Halo universe. Better yet, if you got the Limited Edition version, you now have access to Halo 3’s Mythic Map Pack.

Oh yeah, it’s an Xbox 360 exclusive, but did I really have to say that?