Halo 4: Infinity + Reclaimer

I'm persisting in continuing my playthrough of Halo 4 long after I finished the campaign. There seem to be rumours/news that the 'Halo' shown at E3 isn't actually Halo 5 but another installment in a larger saga. We'll see how that turns out, but it'll depend opn when I eventually get my grubby mits on an Xbox One.

Infinity

As implied in the title, this mission is about John and Cortana going after the UNSC Infinity which has crashed on Requiem. As usual I'll slot in my updates here. 

New Characters

Didact

   










Otherwise known as Ur-Didact or 'Shadow-of-Sundered-Star' this figure was the leader of the Prometheans, a key element of the Forerunner military. The Didact was first mentioned in the terminals in Halo 3 and has his backstory further delved into in the Greg Bear novels, of which I've only read the first. Hidden in the bowels of Reqiuem this opponent of the Flood and the ancient humans has tricked John into resurrecting him from his Cryptum and has taken command of the Promethean Knights to take his revenge on his ancient enemy.

Thomas Lasky

 








Lasky first appeared as a cadet in the live-action series 'Forward Unto Dawn' which I posted on my blog and is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD. Now having risen through the ranks he is second-in-command of the Infinity and running ground operations on Requiem. He is pleased to see that the Chief has survived and to have an opporunity to meet him again.

New Vehicles

Cryptum

 







A Cryptum is a place of solitude where a disgraced Warrior of the Forerunners will spend an extended length of time, even centuries, in hibernation. When Didact was awoken from his Cryptum he was able to use it as a ship to travel around Requiem, it had powerful scanners and incredible speed, though it was vulnerable to heavy weapons fire such as a MAC blast.

UNSC Infinity

This massive vessel is over five and a half thousand metres long and bristling with experimental engines, weapons and even carrying it's own escort fleet of frigates into battle. As well as a warship it is designed for scientific exploration with the latest equipment and teams of highly trained researchers to investigate the wealth of technological resources uncovered by the war.

Mantis

A new addition to the UNSC's arsenal of ground vehicles the Mantis is an exoskeleton capable of being operated by a single occupant to devstating effect. Equipped with a chain gun and a missile launcher. The vehicle can also launch physical attacks on any ground forces unfortunate enough to approach it.

New Weapons

Scattershot

  






A Promethean shotgun-type weapon. I have to say this was my least-favourite weapon because it looked and functioned exactly like a shotgun, particularly when reloading it. I know it has to be balanced because of multiplayer etc. but I thought for an alien weapon it was just a bit too human.

Railgun

Another addition to the UNSC's store of weapons the railgun accelerates a projectile to devastating speed. While requiring a short time to charge it is deadly against infantry and light vehicles when fired.

Scythe Anti-Aircraft Gun

Placed on the outside of the Infinity's hull this weapon could function both in atmosphere and space firing at a rapid rate to drive away enemies. John activated these weapons to repel Covenant forces from the downed Infinity.

Lance Guided Missile Launcher

Used to defend various facilities and warships, these missiles when activated by John repelled incoming Phantoms approaching the Infinity. There was also an Onager MAC turret mounted on the hull, which was used to repel the Didact's Cryptum.

Story

Following the Didact across Requiem, John and Cortana find forces from the Infinity who are being overrun by pursuing Covenant and the native Prometheans, who have begun acting as allies against humanity. Eventually Chief meets up with Lasky and a detachment of Marines and Spartan-IVs who are pinned down on the surface. Fighting their way back to the Infinity Chief takes a Mantis to the hull and reactivates the defenses, repelling the invaders andf giving the UNSC Crew a chance to regroup and escape the surface.


Reclaimer

As the Infinity lifts off, a company of it's forces are commited to taking out the powerful Forerunner cannons preventing their movement.


New Characters

Andrew Del Rio

Commanding officer of the Infinity, he has a reputation for ensuring that hjis ships come back from battle in one piece. Tasked with leading the converted warship on a science expedition to locate the remaining Halo rings and study them to ensure they will no longer activate he and his crew were lead to Requiem.

Sarah Palmer

Sarah Palmer is commanding officer of all the Spartans aboard Infinity deploying Fireteams to key situations across Requiem. She is a skilled combatant able to work independently as well as lead her force of super-soldiers

SPARTAN-IVs

The new generation of Spartans, enhahnced from adult volunteers instead of 'conscripted' children are the powerhouse of Infinity's forces. Chief assisted a force of Spartans in his mission. One gripe I did have was that all Spartas wore 'Recruit' armour, which made the look like ODSTs rather than something more definitive like the 'Warrior' armour seen above.

Librarian

 







Wife of the Didact and in the end opposer of his plans to bring harm to humanity she was able to leave something of her essence behind on Requiem, this part of her recognized John as a reclaimer and aided him, also revealing the full extend of Didact's plan.

New Vehicles

Mammoth

 









A suitable massive vehicle, eclipsing even the Elephant vehicle of Halo 3. A mobile command centre able to transport a whole company of soldiers around the battlefield and able to deploy support vehicles from it's lower deck. The vehicle even has it's own mini-MAC cannon capable of delivering massive damage.

Lich

A heavier Covenant dropship with powerful armaments and capable of travelling in space. Equipped with a powerful plasma beam, similar to that of a Scarab this larger vehicle could deploy a significant force quickly into a warzone and support them with heavy firepower.

New Weapons

Particle Cannon

  







Powerful Forerunner weapons, capable of doing immense damage even to starships, only heavy weapons fire could incapacitate them.

Story

Chief, Cortana and Del Rio butt heads about what to do, with Del Rio arguing that they should leave Requiem, and Chief arguing that they should press their advantage against Didact. John joins Gypsy company and they head out and combat Covenant forces and Prometheans on the way to the particle cannons. Entering a Forerunner structure the Librarian informs John of the Composer a weapon used to turn humans into digital form, making them Promethean Knights. She also informed him of her plan to accelerate the evolution of humanity and triggered changes in John, including immunity to the composer. Returning to the ship, with the gravity well disabled, Del Rio makes ready to leave but Cortana shows her rampancy. Refusing to hand her over for examination Chief leaves the ship, opting to stay behind on the planet and stop Didact.

More Halo soon!

Halo 4: Requiem + Forerunner

OK so finally continuing with my progress in Halo 4, I have now completed all Spartan Ops chapters so have 'fully' completed the game. I've been meaning to continue posting for a while, but what with E3 the blog has been somewhat saturated with Halo content recently so I thought I'd give this post a bit of breathing room.

As in the title this post covers the second and third playable missions of the game.

Requiem

After the planet opens following the mysterious scan the wreckage of Forward Unto Dawn is sucked into the void along with several of the Storm Covenant fleet unlucky enough to be in it's gravitational field. John fails to reach an escape pod in time and falls through the portal into the planet's interior. Requiem is a Dyson Sphere with an hollow core and a planetary surface on the inside of the crust.

New Enemies

Sangheili Zealot

OK so not a new type at all, but the redesign of the Zealot, especially with the 'eyes' on top of the helmet is pretty darn cool!!

New Weapons

SAW

 







AKA M739 Light Machine Gun this is a nifty new addition to the UNSC's arsenal a drum-magazine fe machine gun with a rapid fire-rate and a huge ammo reserve capable of taking down powerful enemies with sustained fire.

Shade Turret

The Typew-55 Anti-Infantry Stationary Gun is the lastest incarnation of the Covenant turrets seen throughout the Halo series.

Story

After recovering from their fall Chief and Cortana battle their way through the wreckage of several ships to try and find a Cartographer to explain where they are and if there is another way off the planet. Cortana tells Chief that she is nearing Rampancy, having been in service far longer than the expected 7 years of an AI. Chief plans to steal a ship and get back to Dr. Halsey who may be able to help Cortana. As they explore the Forerunner structures they find a reference to 'reclaimers' following the information they deduce that UNSC 'Infinity' has also found Requiem. Thye try to track down it's signal but are suddenly attacked by strange beings.

Forerunner

Chief jumps into a portal opened by Cortana and resumes his search for Infinity and a way off the planet.

New Enemies

Promethean Knight

 










Seemingly powerful Forerunner AI constructs similar to Sentinels, they have a far darker history to be revealed. They carry powerful weapons and have the ability to teleport at will and deploy Watchers from their backs for defense and support. They are dangerous alone and deadly in a group.

Promethan Crawler

Dog-like Forerunner AIs these foes carry Forerunner weaponry in their 'mouths' and are capable of scaling walls and leaping to great heights to swarm a foe from all sides. They always deploy in packs using different tactics to wear down an enemy.

Promethean Watcher

Flying Forerunner AIs these enemies can swarm an opponent but typically they are deployed to support Knights, with Knights able to carry them within their armour. As support they are most deadly, able to project hard light shields over Knights, catch and return thrown grenades and even resurrect fallen Knights.

New Weapons

Pulse Grenade

 






I wasn't overly impressed with these weapons, sticky grenades and even frags are more effective weapons, while the pulse it emits is deadly it isn't too hard to avoid, even when launched from Promethean weapons. The grenade emits a powerful area of effect which weakens enemies and then detonates, sometimes incinerating it's victims.

Boltshot

This weapon is typically carried by Watchers and sometimes by Crawlers, in human hands it can function as a rapid-fire pistol, shooting bolts of hard-light (the standard Promethean amunition) at an enemy. It is a multifunction weapon and can also fire a spread of bolts in one, creating a shotgun effect.

Suppressor

This weapon is typically carried by Crawlers and sometimes by Knights. It is essentially an Assault Rifle with a large clip and a rapid rate of fire. It's pretty cool how Forerunner weapons assemble themselves out of components in your hand as you pick them up.

Lightrifle

A long range weapon carried by Knights, able to fire bolts in a three shot spread or, when focused, a single more powerful bolt of hard light, functioning as a mix of the UNSC's DMR and Battle Rifle.

There were other Forerunner weapons in this level, but I'll save them for a later post.

Story

Master Chief  and Cortana venture deeper into the planet Requiem, making brief contact with the UNSC Infinity. All along they are forced to battle the Promethean forces that have designated them a threat and Storm forces that have followed them through. Cortana directs the Chief to a set of pylons which appear to be able to establish firm contact with the UNSC vessel, which they need to do urgently as the vessel risks being puled into the portal they fell through. Chief makes it to the terminal in time - but it is not what he expected...

More Halo  soon!!

Halo: Spartan Assault

Yes, this is the one game I missed out - technically it was released before E3 so doesn't come under their umbrella and thus was worth mentioning on it's own.

The story takes place between Halo 3 and Halo 4 and features Sarah Palmer (a minor player in 4's campaign, but a major player in 'Spartan Ops') as well as a mysterious 'Spartan Davis' as playable characters.

The game is a top down shooter for Windows phones tablets and devices running Windows 8. I still run Windows 7 so unless there's a port for iOS sometime in the future you won't be hearing much about it from me for a while. Nonetheless it's exciting to see 343 branch out to more media, also announced is a new comic series 'Initiation' featuring characters from this game.

That's about it - I'll leave you with the trailer which features gameplay and samples of cinematics, done in the same style as Halo 4's terminals.

Next Up: Movies

E3 2013: New Titles

Well E3 has come and gone and as usual I'm playing catchup, but I had a monster of a comic book post to do and wanted to finish that first and hey, a week later isn't too bad anyway!!

I'm going to split my coverage of E3 into two parts, this first post will look at debut announcements made at the conference, while the next post will look at the new information given for already announced games. With the new consoles out of the bag there were plenty of new games - here are some of the Sci-Fi ones that caught my eye.

First up this one that I saw as I sat down to watch the live feed, it quickly got me out of my seat with excitement!!

I hadn't seen this coming - I knew a Halo announcement was possible, but I'd expected it for the Xbox One announcement event and it hadn't arrived so I figured we maybe had another year to wait. The trailer caught me by surprise looking like a completely new IP. Looks like John is having to cope on his own while going up against a pretty monstrous Forerunner (Precursor?) enemy. It's due in 2014 but of course requires shelling out for the new Xbox One so it may be a while before you read about it on this blog - but nothing new there!

Titanfall

At first it looks like a standard mech-warrior game, but Titanfall does seem to have some depth and variety to it. One interesting comment made was that testsers spent most of their time playing as pilots, not as mechs. The technology allowing for boosts, double jumps and smoothe wallrunning looks like it'll make the game more dynamic than others that have gone before, and let's face it mechs are always fun right?!!

Mirror's Edge 2

While Halo usually steals the show for my excitement, this came a pretty close second!! A lot of us thought the franchise was dead and there had been no word on a sequel to the ground-breaking game for some time so I'd given up hope. But (presumably on the new consoles) Faith is back to her free-running, rifle stealing self! With other games (including Titanfall) including free-running elements in their gameplay it'll be interesting to see if this franchise can still hold it's ground - I , for one, am hopeful.

Star Wars: Battlefront

Oh yeah! a tiny teaser for the first Star Wars game since the closure of Lucasarts. Not owning a PlayStation I've never played the franchise so far, but it's one fans have been calling for and it was good news to see that Star Wars still has a future in gaming. Obviously the teaser is set on Hoth, recreating the battle in Empire but hopefully we'll see some new storyline in there too.

Mad Max 

Another entry for the new consoles, not much revealed on this one, set in the world of the classic post-apocalyptic films.


OK, that's all I can think of - I'm sure I've missed one or two - post a comment to let me know!!
 

Halo 4: Dawn

It's finally time!! I've finished writing about Mass Effect and now I'm on to Halo!! To be fair it wasn't all my fault - I've been meaning to blog about it for a while, but the recent Xbox One announcement threw my planned blogging pattern out of synch a little bit!

So yes my plan is to blog through Halo 4, each post will cover two missions unless I find I can cram more in as I go on. I will discuss any new enemies, weapons and vehicles that we come across (and there are plenty!!) as well as giving an overview of the storyline as I'm fairly sure any Halo fans will have played the game so won't need to worry about spoilers at this stage. As for my current progress I'm nearly finished playing 'Spartan Ops' a multiplayer campaign (though I've largely played it solo) set after the events of the single player story. The missions are simpler and shorter but have a decent story to them too.

I will try to be as throrough as I can, but one major downside to the new game is the lack of 'Theatre' mode. This was helpful in Halo: Reach as I was able to take snapshots of various thigs I couldn't find pictures of online, so apologies if there is anything missing here.

Prologue

The first 'mission' is actually a cinematic, rendered in amazing lifelike CG - it pretty much speaks for itself so I'll just post it here.

Dawn

The first level of the Campaign finds John still adrift on the Forward Unto Dawn nearly five years after destroying Instalation 00 and the Flood as well as the remains of the loyalist Covenant fleet. Detecting threats Cortana wakes John to find the ship not-so-abandoned.

New Enemies

Storm Covenant

The old Covenant is dead, most of the Prophets died aboard High Charity and the Brute loyalists were defeated by the Arbiter's forces which allied with humanity. But lacking a purpose a new rebel 'covenant' was formed, following the old ways and seeking Forerunner technology and rejecting the Arbiter's leadership. While generally less equipped then their predecessors, higher ranking Storm members have access to advanced technologies. Member species still include Unggoy (grunts) Kig-Yar (jackals) and Mgalekgolo (hunters) but Jiralhanae (brutes) Yanme'e (drones) and Huragok (engineers) are no longer present.

Covenant Rangers

Rangers, equipped for extra-vehicular activity, have long been part of the Covenant forces, but this is the first time Unggoy and Kig-Yar rangers have been encountered in-game.

Kig-Yar Heavy

Just to note that it seems a new species of Kig-Ya is in this game, being more reptilian than bird-like or maybe it is an overall redesign. These Jackal heavies have stronger shields and body armour than the rank and file.

New Weapons

Storm Rifle

 






A modified version of the standard plasma rifle issued to Covenant forces, this is the Standard weapon carried by Sangheili loyal to the new Covenant.

Hyperion Missile

Part of the armament of Forward Unto Dawn, this is a powerful ship-to-ship weapon capable of destroying a small cruiser.

New vehicles

CRS-Class Cruiser

Essentially a much smaller version of the standard CCS-Cruiser used by the Covenant, a large force of these smaller vessels, supporting some Assault Carriers and larger craft are the bulk of the Storm's fleet.

Story

Awoken from cryo-sleep Chief is pushed into action by Cortana, who detects a presence nearby. As they expore the ruined ship they are scanned by an unknown force. John runs into a Covenant, surprised at their hostility, looking for more information they head to the observation deack to see a host of cruisers flocking around the wreck. Covenant forces board and John fights through them to the outer hull of the ship where he manually launches a missile at an approaching cruiser unfortunate enough to have it's shields down. But after this action John is sucked into the Forerunner planet Requiem by an unknown entity...but I'll get to that!!

More Halo soon! Next up Dawn of the Jedi!

Halo: The Television Series

Before going back to my usual run of well out-of-date game and comic book reviews there's one more piece of news from the Xbox One event - a Halo TV series, directed by none other than Steven Spielberg himself!! No news on the story yet but if Forward Unto Dawn is anything to go by, this should be awesome.

It will be airing on Xbox One's new TV service so I don't know when I'll be able to get my hands on it but it's very exciting news nonetheless.

Watch the announcement video below for a bit more info.

Blogga's Wall - November/December 2012

A Happy New Year to you all - I hope you have a wonderful 2013 with good times as well as cool movies, games and comic on the horizon!

Here's what went up on my wall in the last few weeks of 2012

1) Red Dwarf X

 Thanks to  the mostly re-run based channel 'Dave' we now have a brand new series of Red Dwarf. The long running BBC series came to an end a while ago much to the dismay of fans of the classic space comedy. Dave experimented with a min-series 'Back to Earth' a while ago which was quite fun but it was really exzciting to hear of a full series and it really hasn't missed a beat - there are some great moments, such as Rimmer meeting his brother and Lister dealing with parenting when his son is actuaslly himself!!!

2) The Assassin's Creed Encyclopedia

I was really excited to get my hands on this, ordered from UbiWorkshop earlier in the year the re-print of their exclusive encyclopedia details all the characters, events and locations of the exciting franchise including Assassin's Creed III. As I've yet to play the latest game it's a book full of spoilers but there are plenty of 'safe' articles I've enjoyed reading.

3) Halo 4

 










You'll be hearing plenty about this in the near future - a Christmas present I've thoroughly enjoyed starting this game. The campaign feels very true to the original games and while I do miss Firefight the co-op missions in Spartan Ops are well worth playing, though be warned it is set a few months after the campaign so you may be due some spoilers. When I eventually catch up on Mass Effect 3 you'll be hearing more about this game!!

Halo: Forward Unto Dawn

Halo 4 has been out nearly two months but you may not be aware of this awesome web series, which follows cadets through their training at the cusp of the war with humanity - with all their training based around fighting human insurrectionists these young trainees have little hope of battling the new foe unless humanity has some sort of secret weapon up their sleeves...

The whole series is on Halo Waypoint and Machinima and uploaded here courtesy of YouTube

Enjoy the action, there will be some Halo posting in the new year - once I've caught up on Mass Effect!!

Blogga's Wall catchup

So a bit of a catchup here, covering the latter half of the summer to a very cold British winter here in November. i must admit my new job hasn't left me weith much time to dedicate to this blog or to enjoy as much sci-fi as I usually like to so even with the backlog this won't be a big post.

First of all a massive thanks to all you who read this as Blogga the Hutt has now reached 100,000 pageviews!!! I never would have dreamed it!! Thanks for your interest and your patience with my scattered and random postings.

1) Star Wars: Red Harvest

A prequel to the author's previous Star Wars horror 'Deathtroopers' this novel was set in the era of the videogame The Old Repoublic based on a Sith Academy where the leader Darth Scabrous creates a formula aimed at guaranteeing immortality, but instead unleashes an army of undead Sith students across the frozen planet. Equally as creepy as the first installment it had the advantage of not having characters who we knew would live such as Han Solo who featured in the first book.

2) Star Wars The Old Republic: Revan

Not nearly good enough for missing out on Knights of the Old Republic III for the MMO but it was still exciting to find out what happened next to the hero of the awesome Bioware game. Revan takes a journey deep into Sith space to take on the dreaded Sith Emperor who had ruled for centuries and will give everything to stop him from reaching the Republic. A very exciting read for fans of the game.

3) Halo: Glasslands

I'm actually still reading this one even thoiugh I put it on the wall in October, like I said my time for enjoying Sci-Fi is more limited than it once was. Sort of carrying on from 'Ghosts of Onyx' the story takes us into post-war Halo, with the Sangheili struggling to find a purpose without the Prophet's rule and ONI taking steps to divide the splintering ranks among their former enemies even at the risk of destabilizing the peace talks between Admiral Hood and the Arbiter. With trouble brewing with insurrectionist colonies peace may not be all it's cracked up to be...

That's it - I was going to do a movies post, but there's nothing Sci-Fi in November by the looks of it so it'll be another Mass Effect post next!!

Video Game Diary - 28/6/12

Another post in Video Form - I hope you enjoy!!

 

More soon!

E3: Halo Stuff

Last year saw the announcement of the return of Master Chief in Halo 4, well this year we're getting swome serious info on his journey and what he'll be facing, glimpses of new enemies, new locations and one of the driving factors behind Chief's emotional as well as physical journey in this new trilogy.

It all started with Microsofts press briefing which launched with THIS epic video clip.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Halo 4 - E3 2012: Debut Gameplay, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

The first part is either a brand new trailer or, I'm guessing, a part of the new 'Forward Unto Dawn' web series. We see the starship Infinity which clearly has a critical role to play in the game as well as some other new ship types that we'll hopefully get more info on soon or at least when the game comes out!!! There is also a new vehicle, the large one which is about the size of an Elephant but no names or info on that yet either.

Next we see Chief and Cortana battling through the jungle against some terrifying new foes, which I do have some info on.

Crawler

Crawlers are a type of Forerunner AI programme that attack in packs - they seem a bit easy to kill for Forerunner tech, but then again Sentinels aren't that hard to kill I suppose and these would likely be cannon fodder used against the Flood or other opponents.

Promethean Knight

These guys are pretty terrifying, especially which their holographic skull effect thingy. My initial reaction was that they looked like something out of Bionicle (don't get me wrong I LOVE Bionicle!!) and seemes a b it strange but the more I think of the Forerunner warriors using these guys in battle the cooler they seem to me. They also carry cool Forerunner weapons which we saw disintegrate a poorly armoured Elite in one shot. Thier ability to teleport should make them interesting combatants too.

Watcher

These nifty foes are deployed by the Knights but can also summon Crawlers. Their ability to catch grenades and fling them back at their owner should also make them a fun challenge.





 Unidentified Object

I have no idea what this massive thing is other than it is clearly an oponent for the Chief, by the looks of things it's what caused the Infinity to crash and from the orange glow I'd say it's what's controlling the Prometheans too - can't wait to take the fight to this guy!!

Well that's about as much as I can say for the game - don't know more than what's in the video really.

We've also had more infor on the multiplayer aspect and how it works and...well this trailer basically says it all!

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Halo 4 - E3 2012: Infinity Multiplayer Trailer, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Well that's it for Halo but there might be a few more E3 goodies yet to come out - stay tuned, I know I'm going to!!