Bounty from the Beta

Not long ago thousands of players stormed Xbox Live to do one thing: Beta test Halo: Reach. We'd been teased with information about the game, learning that the characters are largely Spartan-IIIs a group relatively unknown compared to Master Chief's Spartan-IIs. We've seen a new vehicle type, a stack of new weapons, but for the first time players got to get inside the game, testing out the multiplayer modes for the new game.

Due to a catastrophic Xbox failure I couldn't do much and only had a few days to play. While I was out enjoying the fun I was also eagle eyed and tried to spot any story content, particularly while playing Invasion a 6v6 mission.














The Spartan-IIIs on the planet Reach defend a key target...














...from the deadly Sangheili (Elites) who attack using deadly weapons such as the Needle Rifle shown here.













Their battlefield is a decommissioned UNSC Frigate, which is being scrapped...














...along with a number of other UNSC vessels to damaged or old to be of service.














The frigate is the UNSC Commonwealth, a frigate that once carried John-117 through a battle in his early days as a Spartan soldier against the Covenant.













And inside is something both sides will fight to the death for - the frigate's navigation core, containing co-ordinates to Earth.

And that's all I managed to nab, though it looks like there's plenty of fun to be had with headhunter, a similar 'defend the generator' game and many more - but what I really can't wait for is to delve once more into the Halo universe and the tragic story of Reach.