Whether you knew it or not, Ammy is rather fond of kibbles, bits, and video games. She keeps tabs on all three and wants you to be informed too.

Bark! Hey, friends. First some bad news. From Software’s Dark Souls has been delayed. But only by a week! You can now expect to die again and again, and again on September 22nd.

Woof! Not to get your spirits down even more, but Eat Sleep Play’s Twisted Metal reboot has been delayed as well. Instead of October 4th, all you ragin’ vehicle operators will have to wait until sometime in early 2012 to hurt innocent, well-meaning clowns.

Ruff! But it’s not all bad! According to a job listing (that has since been altered), Epic is working on “a new unannounced IP.” We all love Gears of War here at InsaneBear, but it’s always good to know that studios are branching out with new things!

Roo roo roo! Lastly, there’s not a whole lot to report on here, but we may have our first screen-shot of Bungie’s secret new game, code-named “Tiger.” Gotta give the pups something to chew on, right?

Well, I certainly appreciated Amaterasu’s unique brand of reporting and I hope you did too. Now why don’t you go enjoy some more adorable pictures of our favorite sun goddess/wolf. The third one is especially great.

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Specifically a thing that four of the dudes who were instrumental in developing the Halo franchise are making. Fallen Frontier, as you can see, is a sci-fi Side-Scrolling Shooter from Moonshot Games, a small indie studio founded by former Bungie employees. Personally, it doesn’t look like my cup of tea, but there are certainly some talented people working on it and I’d imagine fans of this genre are very excited.

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Kotaku used this as their story's image, but there's no indication that this is a screen of Destiny. Then again, there's no indication that it's not...I'm at a loss!

If an anonymous source speaking to Kotaku Australia is to be believed, then Bungie’s new, Activision-published IP is a sci-fi FPS-MMO code-named “Tiger,” officially named Destiny (terrible name). Those details fall in line with previous rumors about the game, so it’s nothing too far-fetched. But I have to question the legitimacy of the source considering the very specific claims he makes about being one of nearly 30 part-time employees terminated by Bungie, and Bungie’s outright denial of the firings. Go ahead and check out the link above for the extensive claims offered by the source and Bungie’s official rebuttal.

The whole thing stinks, and I don’t like it. Something’s fishy here and I won’t stop until another reporter gets to the bottom of it! The rumor could very well turn out to be true, but somebody’s lying here and it would seem that the anonymous ex-employee gains a lot more credibility from his lie than Bungie, who would in fact lose quite a bit of respect from gamers and industry vets alike were this denial revealed to be false. I suppose the specific wording of “Bungie has never been asked to lay off any employees or contract employees by our publisher, Activision-Blizzard, for any reason” leaves the studio’s response open to some interpretation, but as I said above, this sort of shady truth-doctoring would put them in a pretty negative light.

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Coming as a surprise to absolutely nobody, Microsoft has revealed a second downloadable map-pack for its wildly popular Halo: Reach. According to GameSpot:

The Defiant Map Pack adds three new levels to Reach’s multiplayer mode: Condemned, Highlands, and Unearthed. Condemned is a space station level supporting 6 to 12 players, while Highlands takes the fight outside for 8- to 16-player battles in the wilderness of Reach. Finally, Unearthed is set in one of the planet’s mining operations and supports up to four players in the Firefight mode.

This very fine package of content goes on sale this March for 800 Microsoft Points ($10) and adds 150 achievement points. But the real value comes in how many hours of mind-numbing comfort it will surely afford.

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They certainly look like good maps, I just hope Bungie doesn’t do what they did with Halo 3 and require them to play most game-types. On another note, I WANTZ TO LAN DIS GAME!

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Me want to play Halo now.

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"Breakpoint."

Well, we knew it wouldn’t take long, and Microsoft has officially pulled the wraps off of the “Noble Map Pack,” which will offer three new match-making maps on November 30th for the standard price of 800 Microsoft Points ($10).

According to GameSpot, “The Noble Map Pack will contain three new maps and give gamers the opportunity to add a further 250 points to their gamerscore. The three new maps are Tempest, an eight- to 16-player map featuring an abandoned shoreline fortress; Anchor 9, a two- to eight-player orbital dockyard ship repair facility; and Breakpoint, an eight- to 16-player map consisting of an archaeological dig set atop an icy precipice.”

Hopefully Bungie doesn’t split the community by blocking access to entire game types for non-adopters, you know, like they did in Halo 3. Reach was good while it lasted, I suppose.

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Few franchises have had such an irrefutable impact on gaming as Microsoft’s flagship Halo series has. Ever since Halo: Combat Evolved set the benchmark for console FPSs back in 2001, each entry in the series has been hyped to epic proportions. Unsurprisingly, Bungie’s latest addition to the franchise has put fans the world over in a frenzy. It certainly doesn’t hurt that this is the revered developer’s last labor of love in the Halo universe. So does Reach live up to the hype of being the swan song to one of the industry’s most recognizable franchises? For the most part, yes. Just don’t go in expecting it to evolve the genre the same way its forerunner did nine years ago.

Halo: Reach‘s greatest departure from previous entries in the series (and perhaps its greatest downfall) is in the setting and cast of characters. Rather than controlling the one-cyborg-army Master Chief and warping around space in an epic quest of universe-saving, we take the reigns of Noble Six, the newest member of a squad of Spartan soldiers pre-dating the Chief’s Grunt-destroying adventures. And if you have any knowledge of the Halo universe’s back story, then you probably know the unsavory fate the planet Reach meets (read: it gets “glassed,” or in layman’s terms, blown the F up). But the fact that we know the ending doesn’t spoil the potential for an interesting story.

The different protagonist and setting don’t mean that everything’s different, though; Reach retains the same visually gratifying palate of bright reds, blues, oranges, greens, purples, and so on that are so severely lacking in most other Shooters. The structures of the world preserve that signature Halo architecture that we’ve come to love, and friends and enemies alike are brought to life by superb art design and animation. But Reach ups the graphical ante even further with the most breath-taking backgrounds a Halo game has ever seen. Essentially every level is graced with distant mosaics of graceful beauty or terrifying destruction. The levels themselves all take place in satisfyingly varied environments. Reach is without a doubt the most visually spectacular game in the series, mostly as a result of fantastic and striking art direction.

Just as the graphics rise to the lofty standard of the series, the audio department is a valiant success too. Every weapon fires with unique and believable cracks, pops, blasts, and whatever noises the alien guns make (pew, pew?). The aural aspect of combat is totally immersive. The voice acting is generally excellent as well, even if the members of Noble Team can’t muster half the personality of just about any other character in the Halo universe ever. The one thing that is slightly disappointing is the score; it’s certainly good and charges the action with the expected emotion and energy, but it’s missing the signature Halo symphonies that we’ve come to know and love.

Where Reach sees the most change from the traditional Halo formula is actually in the gameplay. Now, that’s not to say that this game doesn’t feel almost exactly the same as other entries in the series, because it does, but subtle changes do give the core action a bit more depth. Most notably, the introduction of armor abilities–jet-packs, sprint, and invisibility just to name a few–gives combat another strategic layer which allows for some choice in how to approach any given situation. The campaign does a good job of slowly doling out new abilities and usually gives the player a little bit of choice in what he or she wants to suit up with. These new abilities become an integral part of gameplay with smarter and tougher enemies that provide more challenge than any others in the series. It’s handled quite well and makes for some really satisfying encounters.

Going a long way towards keeping those encounters satisfying are the varied levels that never seem to repeat a scenario. Each mission has us approaching objectives in a unique way that puts the familiar corridor crawls of previous entries to shame. There are sniper sections, vehicle sections, low-gravity sections, and more. The variety’s really quite nice–although it would have been nice to have seen that variety applied to some more memorable set-pieces–but it also manages to rob the game of some enjoyment. There simply isn’t enough time spent in the Scorpions and Warthogs that everybody loves so dearly. Most upsetting is the inexcusable absence of the series’ signature Warthog escape climax. In all honesty, Reach‘s conclusion is painfully anti-climatic. There’s even an after-the-credits segment that could have redeemed it, but it’s poorly mishandled.

Still, the latest Halo‘s gameplay manages to maintain the core elements of the franchise while sprinkling in meaningful improvements. The changes aren’t as radical as many had hoped (what’s the point of Noble Team if there are no squad-based elements?), but there are enough to keep things interesting and fun.

Armor Lock, the most useful armor ability.

All of that dovetails into a narrative that is regrettably forgettable in comparison to the core Halo trilogy. One reason for that misfortune is that the characters of Noble Team simply aren’t interesting. They’re not as interesting as the Spartans detailed in the novel the game takes its name from, they’re not as interesting as the personable yahoos in ODST, and they’re certainly not as interesting as the Chief, Cortana, and Sgt. Johnson. They just lack the heart and personality that gave so much dramatic gravity and refreshing humor to the Master Chief’s story. Their mission also pales in comparison to the epicness of the Chief’s exploits on the Halo rings. Most of the time new objectives just seem like an excuse to travel to a different environment and do something new. There’s no rising sense of action in a cohesive story; it’s just going from place to place, doing stuff. It might be unfair to compare Reach‘s story to the trilogy’s arc, but it’s not unfair to expect something as good as, if not better than ODST‘s narrative.

Luckily, the best part of Halo: Reach isn’t its eight hour campaign but its endlessly replayable multiplayer offerings. The standard suite of Slayer, Capture the Flag, Assault, Territories, and so on returns, but with addictive additions like Invasion, Headhunter, Stockpile, and more. Invasion is the best of the new modes, pitting two teams against each other in a tiered objective game where one team tries to defend various marks while the other unlocks larger chunks of the level with each objective they take. Each new phase of the game also introduces more classes to choose from.

Those classes are a big part of the new multiplayer environment. Most matches will give players five class choices at the beginning of a round and every time they die. The classes are based on the unique armor abilities Reach introduces, which easily accommodate for a vast range of play-styles. On a map that that favors vertical mobility? Strap on a jet-pack. In close quarters with some teammates? Equip the armor-lock shield to buy an extra few seconds of survival while you hope your allies come to the rescue. The armor abilities really do alter the combat in a profound, yet comfortable way that makes this game more than a rehash of Halo 3.

In fact, Reach‘s multiplayer is vastly superior to Halo 3‘s. The 13 maps it ships with are probably the best collection since Halo 2‘s (there’s even a remake of Ivory Tower!), the variety of game-types cycled through match-making is better (if Infection and Rocket Race are your cup of tea, you are covered), and the stat tracking is better. There’s even a league mode that requires players to keep up with a certain number of games a month in order to become ranked within divisions that the competitive crowd is sure to love. Even if you’re just playing for fun, the new experience system that rewards players with credits which can be used to purchase cosmetic customizations makes it easy to get sucked into online play.

But competitive matches aren’t for everyone. That’s why the Firefight mode introduced in Halo 3: ODST is such a welcome addition here. Now players can take the fight online with total strangers so finding three other players is never an issue, and Bungie has made some great variations on the standard mode such as “Gruntapocalypse.” The cooperative action is more fun than ever with some great levels and customization options.

And that’s really the best part about all of the multiplayer options; it’s all ridiculously customizable. A supremely designed interface makes navigating dozens of variant options such a breeze that anybody could set up a completely original, crazy, and unique gametype in under a minute. Want to play a game of low-grav Juggernaut where the Jug can only get kills with head-shots but the other players move super fast and have gravity hammers? Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy. To say this game has the potential to be the greatest LAN experience to date would probably be an understatement.

Oh, and if all that actual gameplay isn’t enough then there’s the level-creating Forge Mode and the Machinama-friendly Theater options. Forge is still painfully inaccessible and unintuitive, but considering the complexity it offers, it’s probably a fair trade-off for the people who are really interested in building levels. Teleporters, gravity lifts, vehicles, and all manner of structures spell fun, especially when the Forger is manipulating the world as other players in his party play a game in that world. The Theater records every match you play and allows you to take screen shots or save the video to upload to your PC and do whatever you want with it.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the four-player co-op available in the campaign. Turn competitive score-keeping on, juice the difficulty up with some gameplay-altering skulls, and let the good times ensue.

Forge Mode. Maybe bringing a buddy along for advice wouldn't hurt.

So unfortunately Halo: Reach isn’t the classic that the first Halo is, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a damn good game. The campaign is still fun and challenging despite its lack of heart and epic set-pieces, and the multiplayer is something worth gloating over. Bungie even threw in addictive meta-games in the form of daily and weekly challenges that aim to keep this game in your disc tray for a very long time. Given its certifiably insane amount of quality, customizable content, most people won’t have an issue with that. Whether you’re a loner, a cooperative type, a competitive gamer, or someone who wants to exercise your creative talent, Halo: Reach has something to offer you. Don’t pass it up.

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The extend of the rumor is essentially the above image from the latest Bungie Weekly Update. No mention of DLC is made, but there are most certainly more achievement points listed than that the game shipped with. Bets on how long it takes to make it to market?

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This game is going to be so fun.

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