Halo Legends Bluray Box

Halo Legends, Microsoft’s collaboration with some of the biggest productions house of the anime industry, has a Japanese release date. The film will be released February 16, 2010 on DVD, Blu-ray and digital platforms. Check out the screenshots after the jump.

The ¥5,980 Blu-ray version is a two-disc set, while the ¥4,980 DVD version comes on 3 discs.

Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Studio4 C, and Toei Animation are each creating shorts for Halo Legends.

Production I.G.’s Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) is serving as creative director of the project, while Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed) will be directing Production I.G.’s Halo Legends episodes.

Now, according to a Microsoft spokesperson, this is not final Halo Legends box art, but it looks good just the same.

Bungie's Halo: Reach

It has been announced that the world premier for Halo: Reach will be aired during the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards 2009.

After voting for Spike’s 2009 VGAs, with 28 categories awaiting this year’s winners, we all know that us Halo fans are already winners. The latest installment in the Halo saga, Halo: Reach, will be premiering during the show, giving fans their first look at the game since the rather vague E3 2009 teaser video.

The 2009 Spike VGAs will air live on December 12th at 8PM. I’m sure I will again completely forget about them, kicking myself about it the next day.

It’s Halo, through the Great Architect – Eiji Aonuma – believes it.
Watch this video of Halo & Ocarina of Time beautifully done.

The current cap on your Xbox Live friends list has always been set to 100, a pathetic amount for some Live social butterflies. The reason that number hasn’t budged in 4 years is reportedly due to only 1 game.

According to G4, that game is Halo 2, built on the old Xbox Live architecture and a game that Microsoft still supports. Wisely supports, that is, as the original Xbox game still regularly sits atop the weekly “Original Xbox Top Live Titles.” But it’s supposedly the title that’s hampering your ability to enjoy a wider circle of e-friends.

G4 cites a “high-level Microsoft source” in discussing Halo 2’s effect on the bigger Xbox Live picture, which, while unconfirmed officially, makes a hell of a lot of sense. The kids love the Halo. He’s a pretty cool guy.

Not a problem for me, as I only have two Xbox Live friends: Crecente and my mom. She always lets me win.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft in an attempt to get official confirmation of the limits on Live.

The Real Reason You Can’t Have More Than 100 Xbox Live Friends — Halo 2 [G4's The Feed]

Halo 3 ODST Firefight Rally Point

The almost pit-like Rally Point map of Halo 3: ODST’s firefight mode fills the smallish level with a never-ending stream of enemies and at least one Wraith tank.

ODST’s firefight mode is Bungie’s answer to Gears of War 2’s horde mode, throwing never-ending waves of enemies at the four Orbital Drop Shock Troopers controlled by players.

As with the 3 other firefight maps already shown off in ODST, Rally Point is drawn from an area in the single-player campaign. Because the maps have the potential to weaken the single-player experience if seen early, Bungie has been very tight-lipped about how many there are in total.

Rally Point is set in sector 10 of New Mombasa. This piece of the city forms a natural crossroads, making certain parts of the relatively small map killing zones. The spawn point for players is in a bunker of sorts that opens up onto the map near a series of plateaus leading down to the ground. There are also some rooms higher up on the map where covenant troops can spawn and flank what initially appears to be a relatively defendable position.

The bunker spawn point has areas for grabbing extra ammo and grenades. There are also mounted weapons that can be manned or pulled off to help mow down incoming troops.

The initial wave of enemies come from drop ships, but as the level progresses enemies begin to spawn in those rooms at the top of the map, forcing the four players to move back and forth between the high and low ends of the map to prevent getting flanked.

It’s a map perfectly suited for the four-player coop mode, providing enough cover and enough enemy access points to create a difficult, but not impossible challenge.

The key to survival, as with any map in this mode, is to remember to stick together, something that becomes increasingly difficult as enemies begin to spawn at different ends of the map.

I’ve only played two of the Firefight maps so far, but this was my favorite because it felt a bit more like an arena than a big rectangle with a monster closet on one end.

Check out our Bungie-guided tour of the three other maps if you’re interested in the coop that ODST has to offer when it hits the Xbox 360 in September.

We’ve noticed there are a lot of people who seem to be sick of Halo. While it surely is the game that does not die, sometimes you have to applaud the efforts of a game that, two years on from release, is still so bloody popular.

How popular? According to Bungie, on average, every single day, there are over 1,000,000 unique Halo 3 users. Over one million. Every. Day.
Amazing isn’t it? Over 1 Million Xbox players are still loading up Halo 3 and proving their mettle in the online arena that is Halo 3.
Halo 3 Still Popular

In this first video documentary for Halo 3: ODST Gunnery Sgt. Eddie Buck introduces his team to you for the upcoming Bungie-developed shooter.

The video also walks us through the mission giving us a look at the new tech built into the game’s characters, from weapons to electronics. We also get a taste of some of the personalities driving these new characters and plenty of in-game footage.

I hear that we can expect more of this “video documentaries” in the coming weeks leading up to the Sept. 22 launch of the Xbox 360 game.

Feast your eyes on the new Halo Legends anime. Microsoft is teaming with five production houses for a series of 7 separate short films called Halo Legends.

The creative director overseeing the production is Shinji Aramaki, director of Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina. The shorts will be available on DVD and via digital media next year, but will preview on Xbox LIVE this fall on the Halo Waypoint. Waypoint will also feature content including podcasts, trailers and screen shots, some of it exclusive to the “experience.” Microsoft will also offer fans a “career system” and player rankings tied to “in-game and out-of-game accomplishments.”

While its not quite the Halo Movie we’re all hoping and waiting for, this at least gets Halo onto the screen and gives those marketing gurus some data to mull over and decide if a Halo movie will be as profitable as we all expect.

Halo Waypoint

Microsoft has more than just Halo 3 ODST to whip the Halo fanbase into a lather this fall. It’s also launching the Halo Waypoint on Xbox Live, a “destination” for fans of Bungie’s space marine creation.

Halo Waypoint will give fans their first peek at the Halo Legends anime series of shorts, with “select” episodes debuting on Live. Halo Legends won’t hit DVD and other digital formats until next year, courtesy of Warner Bros.

Waypoint will also feature content including podcasts, trailers and screen shots, some of it exclusive to the “experience.” Microsoft will also offer fans a “career system” and player rankings tied to “in-game and out-of-game accomplishments.”

Considering the Halo series’ previous out-of-game hype building tactics, we’d imagine Microsoft and the newly christened 343 Industries have something fans will lap up.

Halo 3: ODST’s amazing live action trailer didn’t just put itself together. No, it took teams of people working hundreds of man hours and a nice sprinkling of movie magic to create.
Hit the jump to find out how.

This behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the Halo 3: ODST spot offers more than just a peek at how Brute’s are made into living, breathing, tiny motor-driven things. There’s also a brief live action sequence from the spot left on the cutting room floor, one that Halo fans will probably want to watch frame by frame.