Thoughts on the Halo Reach Title Update and Halo Anniversary September 27, 2011

At PAX’s HaloFest, 343 announced they were going to be doing a major title update to Halo Reach.  Their goal, was to bring Halo Reach as close to the feel of Halo: Combat Evolved as possible, and they believed their work on Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (which is coming in November) was instrumental in helping them capture that feel.

From what I read, the title update is going to COMPLETELY revamp the whole game.  This means that there will be more than just bloom tweaking options (although that is coming), the gameplay is going to be altered.  Most of the stuff I’ve read involved tweaking to armor lock, but 343 did say that they were also making the pistol more in line with Halo 1’s (something that Halo developers have been saying they wanted to bring back since Halo 3: ODST).

I really don’t know how I feel about it.  I do think it’s a little unnecessary to do a title update THIS drastic to gameplay a little over a year after the game released (especially since the game has had no problem selling since it released).

Another cool announcement about Halo Anniversary is the game will feature firefight, and since the game is running it’s gameplay almost entirely on Halo 1 code, it will capture the Halo 1 feel exactly.  In my experience, having firefight in Halo 1 is a very smart move.  If there was one map that Halo 1 fans would want firefight on, it would be the entire Silent Cartographer level.  When Bungie did their hour-long documentary, hearing Bungie and press talk about the early test version of that level brought a lot of people to ask if it could become a firefight arena.

Me?  I’m just happy that developers answered my request to take some of my beloved games from the previous console generation and update them to run on modern widescreen HDTVs.

Also, there was something else to come out recently, and that is the first look at the new Warthog.  No longer the M12-LRV, this is a beast that has been upgraded with all new futuristic technology for the next generation of Halo.  I’m a huge fan of Top Gear, and for a car this awesome, the host of Top Gear just had to break it down.

It kinda looks like a puma.  The new Warthog is going to be first seen in the game Forza Motorsport 4.

Halo Reach is out now exclusive to the Xbox 360.  The title update is probably out by the time you read this.  Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is coming in November, 2011, also exclusive to the Xbox 360.

RAGE Console Installation Information September 27, 2011

id Software has officially announced what it will take to install the beast known as RAGE onto your console.

The final game has been confirmed to be on three Xbox 360 discs, making it’s installation footprint for all three discs over 20GB.  This is a pretty hefty amount, but id assures everyone that you can get away with just installing one disc at a time as you play.  When you make it to the next disc you can delete the previous installation and just install the next.  Still, people without hard drives might be in some serious pain over this one.

The PS3 version of the game will require an 8GB installation.  I haven’t seen an installation that big since Metal Gear Solid 4, and that was only after downloading and updating all the optional files and Metal Gear Online updates!  This is a required installation, so it sounds like you better start clearing up some hard drive space for this one, or consider installing a bigger drive..

RAGE is coming in October, 2011 for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.

The Darkness II What is The Darkness Trailer September 27, 2011

2K has done it again, and released a very stylish new trailer for the upcoming game, The Darkness II.  This trailer is comprised of more than just prerendered or in-game graphics, it features a good look at their actor capture technology as we see just how someone with this technology can narrate the story of the very first game.

The narrator’s fear and paranoia while telling the story really impresses me a lot, and it looks extremely natural, as if the actor’s performance was translated perfectly to the game character.  I also really liked the comic style panels that flashed scenes from the first game, I wonder if the final version of the game is going to use them.

The Darkness II was recently delayed and is now coming Feb 7th, 2012 to PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.