AnnARK6

Speaking of Covenant forces, Reach may be a UNSC military stronghold, but the Covenant war machine is at the height of its military power. The Needle Rifle is one of the more fearsome and unique weapons in their invasion force’s arsenal and a fitting counter to the Designated Marksman Rifle. It’s also one of the weapons we’ve revealed that seems to be surrounded with the most ambiguity. Let’s clear some stuff up. “The Needle Rifle is one of my personal favorites,” Josh notes. “While it is very similar to the Carbine in several ways, including its ability to headshot (Unicorn!), it’s still 100% Needler and comes stock with the ability to super-combine when it comes in contact with your enemies and spread them like jam across a warm piece of toast. Unlike the Needler, the rounds don’t track your target…because that would just be ridiculous.” Sage offers up his own additional details. “The Needle Rifle is the Covenant’s answer to the DMR. It’s a medium-to-long range weapon with powerful anti-shield damage. It’s faster and more accurate than the DMR, but doesn’t have the same stopping power. It’s a Blamite! super-combining weapon (three shots to an unshielded body) that can also score headshots.” By Design It should be noted here that all of these details are subject to change. Sage, Josh, and the rest of the team continue to put this trio of weapons, along with all of the other sandbox toys to the test time and time again, ensuring that the end product delivered in the fall will be as fair as it is fun. Seems it’s even become a mantra with Josh. How do they make sure everything is tuned just right? “Testing! Testing! Testing!” But it ain’t all about the aftermath. Sage and Josh are on their toes anticipating where new systems like Armor Abilities could turn delightful multiplayer fun into an exploitable and unfair set of game busting superpowers. “We’ve built the systems with some minor drawbacks that are there to make sure you’re not a God… an invisible, sneaky, evil God to be exact.” “Balancing a game is not an exact science,” Sage adds, “because we don’t always want total equality. Some weapons and abilities are intentionally designed to be more or less powerful. That said the best way to balance a game after looking over the raw numbers is to play test it as much as possible. Sometimes we also reduce the number of variables and run specific tests to see if the results fall within our desired outcome. Like DMR vs. Needle Rifle tests.” Punching it UpMore or less powerful, eh? For a while now, we’ve been talking about the added “punch” the weapons found in Halo: Reach will put on display. While tweaking the various knobs and levers is always an option, Sage and Josh understand that a weapon’s overall “feel” isn’t owed exclusively to the amount of damage it can deal. “We could tune weapons to do more damage all day long, even going so far as to make them all one hit kills, but that’s not where a weapons punch comes from,” Josh notes, dropping some carefully considered clarification to boot: “For the record, all of Reach’s weapons are not one hit kills.” “Ultimately the punch comes from a several pieces of awesome stacked on top of each. It starts with the improved art that instantly make you think a gun is sweet from the moment you see it and hold it. On top of that, we apply a creamy layer of rumble and camera shake to really sell it and let you feel the weapon’s power. After that, we apply a few slices of sweet effects that blast from the gun as you fire it and again at the point of impact. The final ingredient is our not so secret sauce of sweet, sweet audio that let you hear (and feel depending on the size of your sub and the relationship with your neighbors/parents/roommates/pets) how freaking sweet the weapons really is! And that my friend is how you make a big ol’ Bungie Punchy Weapon Sandwich™.” Sage agrees with this delicious metaphor, noting that “punch refers more to the ‘feel’ of the weapon as opposed to directly translating to more damage.” “We use all the tools at our disposal to make the weapons feel powerful. These include but are not limited to sound, FX, feedack (rumble, screen shake, screen effects), and finally sweet, sweet game models. Audio is the most effective tool. I have seen weapons go from “this weapon sucks!” to “OMG, this weapon is so powerful I think we may need to nerf it” after an audio only change. No actual damage or weapon changes were made. Go audio! It really is half the game.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And this is only half of the interview with Sage. In addition to the article above, he also weighed in on Halo: Reach’s weapon sandbox on our latest podcast. And hey, wouldn’t you know it, we’ve got it prepped and ready to go! Click the link below or head on over to iTunes to go even more in depth. Big thanks to Sage and Josh for taking a few minutes out of their unbelievably busy schedules to spend some time with us. Make sure you pay them back in kind when you run into them in the multiplayer beta this spring. The Bungie Beardtacular Podcast“Executive Producer Joseph Tung and Sandbox Specialist Sage Merrill step into the recording booth to sound off on Halo: Reach's development process, weapon loadout, and gameplay sandbox. Also up for discussion: blazers, beards, and Luke's busy weekends.” The Bungie Podcast - January 2010 [55] Be on the lookout for even more media assets covering Halo: Reach’s weapons, enemies, vehicles, and more coming to Bungie.net over the next couple of days. If you’ve missed out on any of the high resolution concept art, screenshots, or 3D renders, you can find them in all their glory inside our Halo: Reach Project Page.

“The DMR, or Designated Marksman Rifle,” Sage notes, “is a medium-to-long range support weapon. In range and play style it fits between the Assault Rifle and Sniper Rifle in the Human sandbox. Powerful in skilled hands, its rewards the ‘gunfighter’ – the calm, accurate player, who like to be in the fight. Its primary role is to suppress snipers and soften opposition before the shock troops close.” When you do find yourself in the fight, shock troops rushing your position, Josh has some slightly less merciful tips to help keep you alive when you have the DMR in your hot little hands. “The DMR is deadly accurate if you breathe through the shots and get into the rhythm of firing it, but it quickly falls apart if you freak out and really start slamming the trigger. A player with surgeon’s hands will be able to use it anywhere, anytime. Players that struggle with their composure in a heated fight however will find it better suited to working guys from a distance, picking off the sick and weak from the herd.” And for those looking for that elegant weapon for a more civilized age, it looks like the DMR might be the implement of war you’re looking for. “Personally, I’ve found that I always like to have a DMR in my back pocket in the way that I would have kept around the pistol in Halo: Combat Evolved,” Josh says. “Either way, the big news with the DMR is that it’s particularly good at shooting Covenant in the face.”

NOBLE PERFORMANCE REPORTS :: [COL. HOLLAND, URBAN] NOBLE 1 EYES ONLY NAME (G): XXX, CARTER (M) RANK: CDR SERVICE #: S-259 BIRTH DATE: 27/08/2520 BIRTHPLACE: DURBAN, BIKO (P)MOS: 180A PERFORMANCE: Born leader; inspires confidence in those under his command. Cool under pressure. Has laser-like focus—even while maintaining flexibility/adaptability. Charismatic and reassuring; capable of interacting with non-Spartans effectively and efficiently (low/no stress issues) COMMENTS: Minor trust issues; not severe enough to warrant psychiatric reevaluation, but enough to be noted << stems from operator [s-293] under his command being KIA 22/04/2552. He attributes S-293’s death to his own “inadequate team preparation”—not to enemy action or S-293’s own lapse in situational awareness. Whether this is the source of his hesitation to commit to one of the replacements is unconfirmed at this time. NOTE: Perhaps replacing S-293 with the *1T271 from XXX group will get him back on track—he’s always at his best while building a team. NOBLE 5 EYES ONLY NAME (G): XXX, JORGE (M) RANK: CWO SERVICE #: S-052 BIRTH DATE: 05/03/2511 BIRTHPLACE: PÁLHÁZA, REACH (P)MOS: SO PERFORMANCE: Career soldier—but then all the Spartans are, aren’t they; inspires confidence in those around him—he is a combat multiplier! Rock solid; almost thirty years in the saddle and shows no signs of breaking or slowing; easygoing for someone from the class of ’25; need to keep an eye on him around XXX as he tends to be pretty free with his opinions. COMMENTS: Vocal in his support of provincial self-rule; just as vocal in his condemnation of the separatist and insurrectionist movements. Only member of the team that has seen as much action, if not more, against human militants as Covenant forces. Very difficult to read. ((NOTE: never play cards with JORGE.)) NOBLE 3 EYES ONLY NAME (G): XXX, JUN (M) RANK: WO SERVICE #: S-266 BIRTH DATE: 28/02/2524 BIRTHPLACE: TYUMEN, NEW HARMONY (P)MOS: 180B PERFORMANCE: Rock solid under pressure. Better than he has any right to be, but at least he isn’t cocky—which is a good thing because he’s chatty. This does tend to put him at odds with noise discipline protocols—his behavior in this regard is often overlooked by the other operators in the field because of the informational bent of his chatter. COMMENTS: During mandatory psychiatric evaluation [15/12/2549] it was noted by XXX that S-266 had “an unhealthy emotional detachment in regards to the consequences of his actions” – I can only suggest that this was done without any metric by which to measure said detachment. By my estimation Jun is a rationalist. He is also a Spartan. NOTE: Although it is noted in his medical records that he has exhibited symptoms of PTSD in the past there have been no indications of a relapse post-therapy [05/01/2550]. NOBLE 4 EYES ONLY NAME (G): XXX, EMILE (M) RANK: WO SERVICE #: S-239 BIRTH DATE: 11/03/2523 BIRTHPLACE: LUXOR, ERIDANUS II (P)MOS: 18B PERFORMANCE: Respected by his peers; detail oriented; unbreakable. There’s not a whole lot more to mention; he is an effective member of the unit while in the field and maintains strict discipline off the field. It does seem that he tends to have more difficulty interacting with non-Spartans than others within NOBLE, however. COMMENTS: I wish he would reel his audacity in the field back about 24%. His behavior makes it difficult to field him against insurrectionists; it’s hard enough dealing with the stories of UNSC excess manufactured by the civilian media without S-239 providing them with hard evidence of said excess. That being said: It’s an odd feeling to be relieved that you are sending your people out against hostile aliens. NOTE: I may have to consider rotating S-344 into his spot if another IN/OP comes up before S-239’s next mandatory psychiatric reevaluation [REF]. S-239’s collection of alien contraband is truly impressive. However, the existence of said collection is in direct violation of NAVCOM General Order 098831A-1/Sub_7. Good thing we’re ARMY. NOBLE 2 EYES ONLY NAME (G): XXX, CATHERINE (F) RANK: LCDR SERVICE #: S-320 BIRTH DATE: 30/01/2530 BIRTHPLACE: MONASTIR, NEW HARMONY (P)MOS: 18E PERFORMANCE: Exemplary combatant; brilliant cryptanalyst—there hasn’t been a system yet she hasn’t been able to crack. However, she does tend to dig a little deeper than mission parameters require on occasion—and there have been times when NOBLE’s proximity to classified matériel has made me rather nervous. COMMENTS: S-320 is an inspired tactician; this is certainly related to her ability to acquire and digest information. There are times when S-320’s ability to read a situation—even with what many would consider cripplingly limited INTEL—could be described as supernatural. Unfortunately even having MAGICAL INTEL can’t protect you against a fatal lapse of situational awareness. To wit: S-293 was KIA during an OP that S-320 had put together [22/04/2552]; S-320 is now convinced that S-293’s death rests solely on her own shoulders (S-259 is likewise convinced that he is solely responsible for S-293’s death). Eventually I hope to be able to get it through their thick Spartan skulls that Thom is dead because he chose to pursue a group of enemy combatants ON HIS OWN rather than wait for backup. NOTE: S-320’s refusal to resubmit her certification for the P_A®/NCSI-AMA is more than a little frustrating. She says she submitted her certification papers on 04/08/2551 and refuses to budge. My records show that she qualified expert level with the P_A®/NCSI-AMA [04/07/2551], but LOGistics/Matériel Command claim they never received said notification and state that unless they receive said certification in a timely manner the P_A®/NCSI-AMA needs to be returned immediately. In the meantime there is no way for me to stop getting spammed from LOG/MC with reminders. This has been going on entirely too long. NOBLE 6 EYES ONLY NAME (G): XXX, XXX (X) RANK: LT SERVICE #: S-312 BIRTH DATE: XXX/XXX/XXX BIRTHPLACE: XXX, XXX (P)MOS: 158A PERFORMANCE: N/A COMMENTS: What little information I have been able to glean from around all of the redaction [note—I was quite literally expecting the ONI to start redacting page numbers] gives the impression that S-312 is more akin to a hyper-lethal vector than a soldier. A lone-wolf assassin that has broken organizations and made entire militia groups disappear. At first glance S-312 doesn’t sound like the best fit for a team environment like NOBLE. However, we’ve been down a soldier for over a month—and frankly there are hidden benefits to a XXX like S-312. Call it the luck of the draw. S-293’s 1156 has been filed since 22/04/2552, every active duty Spartan-II is on XXX for special training, and it seems that XXX wasn’t able to keep his own private grim reaper out of the pool—only time will tell if this luck is of the good or bad variety. By now you've no doubt succumbed to the onslaught of new Halo: Reach information and imagery that's sweeping across the internet and newsstands. The first screenshots from our next game, generated from a pre-alpha build last November, have garnered a lot of attention, buzz and in some cases, furious debate. I tend to agree that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," with each of us forming our own personal opinions of what is and isn't visually pleasing. However, regardless of your personal artistic preferences between the new direction of Reach compared to that of our prior Halo games, there's no denying that with a powerful new technical foundation, our incredibly talented art team is pulling out all the stops and pushing our content to brand new heights. At this stage in development, the most obvious and striking examples of the asset evolution can be found in Reach's sandbox. Thanks to some handy comparison imagery and insights provided by 3D Art Lead Scott Shepherd we can get a better sense of exactly how much improvement is in store for Reach. What's Old is NewFrom the beginning, the Bungie team had the goal of really raising the bar and building the defining game in our Halo series, improving and evolving literally every system and asset from our decade's worth of development. The Halo series has spawned a number of iconic sandbox elements and many of them will be making a return in Reach, albeit with brand new visual fidelity. To save time in production the original plan for the team was to carry over the existing assets from Halo 3 and add a few new polygons here and there and rework some textures to bring them up to the Reach bar. That didn't last long. As Scott explains, "the more we started looking into this, the more we found that realistically we could rebuild each asset from scratch with a huge increase in quality without significantly investing more time." As new technical systems came online, the Bungie 3D Art team began to rebuild these timeless assets with impressive results. "In some cases we were able to quadruple the budgets of the original Halo 3 assets, really creating an aesthetic that fits perfectly in the Halo Universe but is 100% unique to Reach and and clearly demonstrates what Bungie is capable of," says Scott. The image below shows the Assault Rifle as it first appeared in Halo: Combat Evolved then in Halo 3 and finally the new hotness that's coming to Reach. For perspective, the texture resolution is double and the number of polygons is over four times the last incarnation. The AR in Reach actually has more polygons than an entire Marine character did in Halo 3. But how does the art team harness this new horsepower and create something new without losing ties to the original? As Scott puts it, "it's definitely a balancing act to make something fresh and new but still remain faithful to the parts of it that people love." "The Assault Rifle is a great example of this where at the start we nearly completely redesigned it. After we put it in the game we got a lot of feedback that while it looked really cool, it just didn't really feel like the AR that people knew and loved. So we actually ended up dialing it back and re-introducing some of the things that made the AR so iconic." This same process has been followed for all of the "returning" staples. "The rule we've put in place is to always remain faithful to the spirit of the original asset, if not to the letter." Scott continues, "this allows for a high degree of artist creativity and some surprises while still carrying the impact and history of something people have grown attached to over the last decade." It wouldn't be a Halo game without the Warthog and the new Hog carries forward a tradition upgrades spanning every one of Bungie's titles. (from left: Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo: Reach). Click the image above to see the larger resolution to really appreciate the attention to detail that's going into the Reach Warthog. A Grunt Ten Years in the MakingWorking on a prequel to the existing Halo saga has provided some new and exciting challenges and opportunities for our entire team. On the art side, it means going back and having some fun visualizing enemies and weapons that predate the later models seen in the more recent games. In the case of the newly designed Grunt, inspiration came from a logical place - the early Shiek Wang concept sketches created over ten years ago as Halo: Combat Evolved was taking shape inside a Chicago office building. Scott explains it further, "We really wanted to push the visual distinction of variants in Reach. One day Eric, one of our artists, and I were flipping through one of the old Art of Halo books and saw a sketch for a Grunt concept that really liked." That Grunt variant, on the far right in the image below, is internally referred to as the "pony keg" Grunt. "Just goes to show you that good design can really be timeless," notes Scott. I asked Scott which of the returning, newly improved assets has seen the most significant overhaul and it wasn't something he could easily answer. "This is tough to answer as I feel everything has gotten a pretty significant overhaul. Some of the most obvious are of course the Spartans and Elites. Being the two primary focal points for this story, we really wanted to show off these characters in the best possible light," explains Scott. The Return of the EliteFrom a gameplay perspective it seems safe to say that both internally and externally, everyone is excited about fighting Elites again. These agile, cunning foes really came to define Halo combat and our designers are already hard at work making sure they are every bit as formidable and fun as you remember (and more so). On the art side, the Elites were treated differently than some of the other returning 3D assets. According to Scott, "we really wanted the Elites to feel more menacing physically." This began with a major re-design starting from a brand new skeleton and new proportions. "The new Elites got significantly larger, with a greater sense of weight and are much more 'animalistic'," explains Scott. "A lot of this was driven by the animation team and their vision for how the Elite should move." You can see the result below and the progress that's been made to the model in each game since it originally debuted in Halo: CE. While the new Elite and Spartan models do indeed kick much ass, and are clearly the star players in Reach, it was the progression of the troopers that were most striking to me, personally. I certainly didn't recall ole Captain Keyes being so simple and blocky back in the day but it seems like just yesterday we were all sitting around our desks marveling at the new and improved Marine in Halo 3. And now looking back they all pale in comparison to the level of fidelity and detail the Reach team is bringing to the game. It's unknown yet if we'll have the pleasure of seeing a newly realized , higher resolution Robt McLees or Marcus Lehto trooper, first made famous back in Halo: CE when their real faces were mapped onto soldiers. (Also resulting in some highly collectible action figures.) Team EvolvedWith such a big technical leap forward in terms of the game engine and our own tools, the assets appearing in Reach are definitely going to look better than every before but the tech is only part of the equation. It's the twelve full-time and up to a dozen more contract personnel who wield these tools and this power that are ultimately responsible for the outcome. As Scott explains, "the tools and tech have grown significantly, in some cases up to four times as many polygons and double the texture resolution, but I really feel the strength of our team has grown just as much." By infusing talented new hires and improving upon existing infrastructure the art team is "more comfortable with our tools, our hardware and our abilities to make really incredible art," says Scott. Looking ForwardOf course there's a lot more to Halo: Reach than just much prettier looking versions of existing 3D assets. There's new stuff in store, too. So far you've already seen glimpses of new weapons like the DMR and Needle Rifle as well as the new "Warthog of the sky," the Falcon. Each new item is built with the same painstaking attention to detail as the re-imagined originals, while staying true to the design team's goals and vision for gameplay. In the weeks ahead we'll be looking closer at these new sandbox additions as well as the major advancements and investments being made in animation and how the team will be bringing these characters, weapons and vehicles to life like never before. Stay tuned to Bungie.net and the Halo: Reach project page for the latest intel.