Halo 2 Anniversary – Cinematic Motion Capture BTS – SDCC 2014

343 Industries showed us a behind the scenes look of Halo 2 Anniversary’s cinematics and the motion capture work that goes into producing the final product – which is being made by Blur Studio.

Halo 2 Anniversary is only available in the Halo: The Master Chief Collection out this November 11th. Blur is handling the re-mastering of all of the Halo 2 cutscenes, terminal videos for Halo 2 Anniversary, and they’re including brand-new prologue and epilogue cutscenes that will act as bookends that will provide some details and story elements for Halo 5: Guardians.

Check out the Halo 2 Anniversary Cinematic trailer and comparison to the original Halo 2 cinematics.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection Dev Panel – SDCC 2014

The Halo: The Master Chief Collection Developer Panel from San Diego Comic-Con 2014.

Check out exclusive look at Halo: The Master Chief Collection, with a behind-the-scenes before and after video of the incredible work Blur Studio is doing to bring Halo 2: Anniversary cinematics to new life, and also learn about another map that you’ll see re-mastered and reimagined in Halo 2: Anniversary as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Get ready to spend some time this November in sandy, sunny Zanzibar!

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is available only for Xbox One this November!

Panelists:
Andy “Bravo” Dudynsky, Halo Community Manager
Dennis Ries, Senior Producer on Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Frank O’Connor, Halo Franchise Development Director
Max Hoberman, President at Certain Affinity
Franck Balson, Director at Blur Studio

The panel is one hour long but if you want a recap click here!

Also checkout the Halo: Nightfall SDCC panel

Halo: Nightfall Panel – SDCC 2014

343 shared a ton of new info in our Halo: Nightfall panel at San Diego Comic-Con this year. Geoff Knighley welcomed Executive Producer Kiki Wolfkill, Franchise Development Director Frank O’Connor, Scott Free Productions President David Zucker and two of the stars of Halo: Nightfall, Mike Colter and Christina Chong, to talk about the digital series with a packed crowd of fans.

The panel is one hour long but if you want the recap of the new information click here!

Also checkout the Halo: Master Chief Collection Dev Panel here.

Halo: 5 Guardians New Character Not Female or Cortana

Halo 5: Guardians

Frank O’Connor and Rob Semsey have both shot down two of the more popular theories/speculations in relation to the unknown Spartan-like figure in the Halo 5: Guardians teaser image.

not female

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It’s not female and is not Cortana in any shape or form. So that leaves the question what is it? Could it be a playable character just like the introduction of the Arbiter in Halo 2. Or could it be an enemy? Leave your thoughts!

Update: Josh Holmes makes it even more apparent this is a new character and a male!

https://twitter.com/JoshingtonState/status/467343003385098240

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Halo 5: Guardians Concept Art

Halo 5: Guardians Concept Art

Brand new Halo 5: Guardians Concept Art was posted by Frank O’Connor over on Halo Waypoint where also lists a few of his thoughts on the news Bonnie Ross announced today… which was Halo 5: Guardians. Click here for that article.

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Halo 5: Guardians Announced

Halo 5: Guardians

And with 23 days till E3 2014 we finally have a name. Halo 5: Guardians. Bonnie Ross, 343 Industries Studio Head has announced that the game formerly known as “Halo on Xbox One” is in fact Halo 5: Guardians. All of this at an ungodly hour in the morning… for North America at least.

Bonnie Ross wrote,

Making a “Halo” game that runs at 60 frames per second, on dedicated servers, with the scope, features and scale we’ve been dreaming of for more than a decade, is non-trivial.  It’s a task that we, at 343 Industries, are taking very seriously to ensure we deliver the “Halo” game that fans deserve, and a game that is built from the ground up for Xbox One.

Halo 5 Gaurdians is the next installment in the legendary saga of the Master Chief.  In the tradition of every “Halo” game since its debut in 2001, it is a massive and exciting project.

Halo 5: Guardians” is a bigger effort than “Halo 4.”  That applies to the content and scope of the game, as well as the technology in what’s now a brand new and more powerful engine.  Certainly there are some core elements carried over from prior games, but we’ve invested a huge effort in retooling our tech to take full advantage of the Xbox One’s hardware and ecosystem to create worlds and experiences worthy of next-gen.

It’s a game that will hopefully demonstrate the talent, learnings and abilities of the 343 Industries team. A game that will incorporate the things we learned from “Halo 4” about technology, aesthetics, performance and scale – and perhaps more importantly, understanding and embracing a community of gamers who love what lies at the heart of this game, and the limitless potential of the “Halo” universe.

And 2015 won’t simply be the year of “Halo 5: Guardians,” it will also be a year that offers us a unique opportunity. The opportunity to invite old friends and new audiences into that universe through the “Halo” television series, launched as a unique collaboration with Steven Spielberg and some of the finest creative minds in the business.  A series that will stand alone, as well as complement and enrich the game experience.  We’ll have more to share on the “Halo” television series as we near its projected fall 2015 release

H5G-3-Box-Art

To clarify, Halo 5 Guardians will be released in fall 2015 as well as Halo Television Series by Spielberg. Leaving people to question, is the highly rumored Halo 2 Anniversary still on the table for this year 2014? 2014 marks the 10 year Anniversary for Halo 2. And a popular NeoGaf leaker stated that Halo 5 would come out in 2015, another Halo Live Action series would exist aside from Spielberg’s series (Ridley’s Scotts project), and many non-Halo leaks have turned out to be true. Could we see a Halo 2 Anniversary with a Halo 5: Guardians Beta? Only time will tell…

Your Journey Begins in 2014

Many fans noted that I was very deliberate with my phrasing on stage at E3 last year. I spoke about a “journey,” rather than a destination – and that journey definitely begins in 2014 with a giant leap, rather than one small step. We’ll give you much more information about our plans for this year at the Xbox E3 2014 Media Briefing on June 9, and we’re confident that “Halo” fans will be pretty excited about the special plans we have in store.

So until E3, I’d like to express my gratitude to our massive and varied Halo community, whose energy, enthusiasm, criticism and kindness are the driving force behind what we do and what we hope to achieve in “Halo 5: Guardians.”

Souce: Xbox Wire

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Halo 2 Anniversary Confirmed 2014 by Steve Downes

GameZone released a snippet from an interviewed Steve Downes, the long-time voice of Master Chief, and he told them that we shouldn’t expect to see Halo 5 in 2014, but that the series will still see at least one release this year.

“I think you may be ahead of yourself on Halo 5,” Downes said. “I wouldn’t expect anything until 2015. What you can look forward to this year is an anniversary edition of Halo 2.”

No official statement has been made by 343 Industries or Microsoft.

Are you excited for a potential Halo 2 Anniversary?

 

New Halo 5 Location and Concept Art ?!

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Josh Holmes from 343 industries released an article on HaloWaypoint briefly outlining their plans for the new year, addresses some recent events and staff changes, and at the end he did give us a sneak peak at a brand new location.

“In closing, I will leave you with this image from Sparth – an early exploration of a new location that features prominently in a little game project we’re tinkering with….”

Could this concept art be for Halo 5? Halo for Xbox One (provided that the two may be different)? Or something else entirely?

Josh Holmes also hinted…

“2014 is here and much is afoot in the Halo universe,” he wrote. “This past year has been a time of great transition at 343 as we’ve moved our engine and team from Xbox 360 to Xbox One and begun building the next chapter in the Halo saga.

“We’re proud of what we accomplished with our first release in Halo 4 and now we’re focused on something much more transformative as we make the leap to the next generation of Xbox. We showed a hint of what we have in store at E3 last year and we’re excited to share more in the not-so-distant future. Please be patient – we can’t wait to show you what we have in store.”

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– Chief

Is Halo 4 Dead? Population Numbers Continue To Decrease

As many of you are aware, the number of players online player Halo 4 has been on the decline. A popular image has been floating around the inter-webs demonstrating that there is in fact an elephant in the room… or lack there of.

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Shown by this image, Halo Reach was pulling higher numbers this point in it’s video game life cycle than Halo 4. Which is a little disheartening and begs the question what does 343 Industries have to do for Halo 5 and beyond?

Halo 4 Population Day 1

Here’s also a screenshot of the Halo 4 playlists and numbers shortly after the midnight release November 6th PST/PDT for comparison.

Thoughts on what 343 Industries needs to do?

– Chief

Halo 4 Post-PAX East Q&A! The Halo Bulletin 3.28.13

Hi there, back again with this weeks bulletin. Sorry for the late post, Destiny news took up my time and then Forge Island came out unexpectedly earlier today so… I’ve been busy. Not much in the way of news from this weeks bulletin, as 343 just wrapped up their events at PAX East over in Boston. They have a Q&A instead of the normal bulletin format, which will return next week. The Halo Bulletin 3.28.13!

PAX East Q&A

Bulletin Divider

Are there any plans to further support Halo 4 after the next title update?
–SitriStahl

We intend to support Halo 4 through Matchmaking, events, essential fixes and playlist design for a long time to come – and while there are no announced map packs after Castle releases later this spring, we have some cool ideas about future content and support that we’re tinkering with right now.
–Frank 

Will Multi-Team be 4 teams of 3? What game types will be included in that playlist?
–DANGER B0Y

Multi-Team, which launches with the Castle Map Pack, will consist of six teams of two. A couple of the modes that you can expect at launch are Slayer and Oddball. Who knows… maybe we’ll throw SWAT in there as well.
–Quinn 

Can we expect to see some universal balance changes applied to the default game settings?
–D34D D34D D34D

Yes. You can expect to see global tweaks to the sandbox much like the adjustment of the Boltshot in the previous title update and the Warthog’s Gauss cannon in this one.
–Quinn

What weapon balancing is being considered right now?
–NinjaWuu

We’re constantly keeping an eye on the overall state of the game and its sandbox. We’ll let you know more as soon as we can.
–Quinn 

Is the TU weapon manipulation focused solely on damage and rate of fire or are there more variables that can be changed: Aim assist, bullet magnetism, bloom, spread, recoil, etc.?
–THEcareh

We have several knobs that we can use when it comes to weapon tuning, a few being auto-aim, projectile accuracy and rate of fire.
–Quinn 

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