Halo: Reach gameplay premieres with multiple Spartans (and some ladies!) [update: now with hi-res]

by Ben Gilbert on Dec 12th 2009 10:06PM

Update: Microsoft sent over a hi-res version of the trailer (seen above) as well as the screenshot in the gallery below. According to the publisher, Halo: Reach will follow the story of "Noble Team in their heroic stand to defend the planet Reach." The company also noted that a "multiplayer beta is coming [in] Spring 2010." Hooray!

As promised, Spike's 2009 Video Game Awards delivered the first footage (in-game, 'natch) of Halo: Reach to the masses. More Spartans? Check! Female Spartans? Check check! A skullfaced Spartan? Wait ... what?! Since the show just aired, we've got a low-res version of the trailer for you after the break and will have a prettied up version as soon as it's available.

Halo Reach (VGA 2009)

Tags: 343-industries, bungie, bungie-studios, halo, halo-reach, microsoft, premiere, spike-vga, spike-vga-2009, trailer, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (210)

looks cool, wish they would have showed more though

Does it? Seems like a pretty normal, non-exciting cut scene.

How will this game end well? We already know the Spartans get wiped, right?

What did you expect... they used all the funds they made off ODST to make the trailer.

@ Glorious Indifference:

Read the novels, specifically First Strike and Ghosts of Onyx. There are several a handful, even after Halo 3 ends. A mix of Spartan II's and some Spartan III's.

Does that image say Falls 2010? Are there multiple Falls now? How many summers do we have?

@sorensilk: I wish I could downvote you more than once for being twice an idiot.

@sorensilk: That's funny but I think it say Falls 2010 because Reach falls and it's coming out in Fall, so it's a play on words, but I don't know.

anyone else notice they said "the six of us"?

i;m hoping they're making a six player co-op campaign. that would be pretty sweet.

Yeah photo realism does look pretty cool... but didn't people say Halo had a special style and that's why Halo 3 wasn't photo realistic?

did anyone notice the Halo 1 pistol being revealed? Its at the 0:44 sec mark on the hip of the Spartan getting out of the Warthog.

That looks pretty much how Halo has always looked. Your milage will vary: some will think "that looked pretty cool," while I thought it looked pedestrian and mundane. I just can't get in to Halo anymore. And that music was *isht* too. Join us in the 2000s, Bungie. Create a new IP if you have it in you.

Except it's not gameplay....

I would hope not though. It looked like that footage was done using the outdated Halo 3 engine.

Color me unimpressed for a title that's scheduled to arrive in less than a year.

If you were watching through a live stream, of course it's going to look bad. Watch it in 1080p when it hits XBLM tonight, then say that again.

To clarify, Reach is an ALL NEW engine (unlike a certain other title beginning with Modern and ending with 2).

Yeah, I wanted to see what they were doing when it came to GAMEPLAY.

Most of the trailers for the VGAs sucked anyways.

Watched it in 1080p on TV. Still not impressed. Not saying it's bad though. Still, I was expecting some gameplay so I'm in a bad mood to begin with. It almost seems like Bungie thinks people will still get excited just based off someone saying "New halo game". I'm passed that, sorry. I want some gameplay.

Dropship dude asks, "What can we expect to see in this preview on the 12th?"
A video from Halo: Reach's opening cinematic.

That's from the 12.04.09 Weekly Update. it's been out there a while now.

Bungie doesn't show gameplay, I suspect mainly because of the Halo 2 fiasco.

what fiasco? The E3 03 level that was scrapped for a new one?

Yeah, not so much a fiasco, but there was a lot of bitching because that was cut from the final game (along with Forerunner Tank, Covenant Ship, and two other levels, if I remember right.)

Funny that the best level in Halo 2, was never released.

(Yes, I know they remade it and took any atmosphere that the Halo 2 E3 Trailer had)

@Darth

The only thing is this "new" engine for Reach still won't be as good looking as the "old" engine for MW. Maybe Reach will actually be in 720p? I'm not holding my breath for 60 fps though..

Halo 3 is 60 FPS...and unlike the IW engine, has a record draw-distance, uses dual frame-buffers, and has a much better lighting engine.

Halo 3 runs at 30 fps, and still didn't look as good as COD4.

CoD4 looked like shit, to be honest. It only looked semi-decent in 1080P. SD looked terrible.

I do give IW props for making MW2 look a hell of a lot better than MW 1. Not Uncharted or Killzone (or, evidentally Reach) quality, but pretty damn good.

I remember in 2007, the general consensus was COD4 looked much better than Halo 3.

And it is using an outdated engine, and Halo 3 was using a new engine.... funny how that works.

What ever makes you have a nerdgasm, I suppose. Hope IW pays you well.

I hope Bungie pays you well since you are going around saying that the Halo story is better than Half life.

that's cute, a Bungie fanboy VS an Infinity Ward fanboy

This should be on ppv.

Nope, I hate Infinity Ward, but I love their games.

But Brad's debate skills are at a 3rd grade level, so he automatically goes into labeling mode.

I haven't laughed this hard in minutes.

Coming from the idiot who claims he has 'stalkers'?

You're such an arrogant jackass.

You continue to make these assumptions about me?

You have the debating skills of Bill O'reilly (YOU liberal, communisty, blah blah, you said this, you said that, etc...)

How about we focus on the topic for a change? Oh, you know you are wrong so you need to change the argument.

Half-life's story is a convoluted mess. The delivery was beautifully executed though.

I still love Halo's extended universe as much as SW

HEY HEY! No arguing on my comment guys. You're killing my inbox. =P

@SpaceFox
We are killing your what??? What are you trying to say?

@mr french

"The only thing is this "new" engine for Reach still won't be as good looking as the "old" engine for MW. Maybe Reach will actually be in 720p? I'm not holding my breath for 60 fps though.."

Alright, if you're going to say the MW engine is good and the Halo one is bad, don't bring up resolution. MW2 still only runs at 1024 x 600. Meanwhile Halo 3 runs at 1152x640, which still isn't 720p, but a helluv a lot more pixels.

"Gameplay" in this (and many other) cases is a pretty universal lose term for saying that it's in-game graphics, realtime during gameplay, irregardless that it's a cutscene. I'm surprised a bunch of commenters on a gaming blog aren't privy to that by now.

it looked awesome. i was hoping for some gameplay footage but it doesn't really matter.

Does it? I don't have a 360--you may think that makes me anti-360, and maybe you're right--but what it also does, is it makes me jealous of good games that I can't play...and I will tell you right now that the DLC for GTA4 looked more compelling than this trailer.

I mean, a shot of some choppers and a couple Spartans mostly standing around suffices as amazing these days? And THAT is a female? You are trying to tell me that Orlando Bloom on helium with black hair dye is a woman?

What exactly was awesome about that?

A couple dudes walking around and talking up the Spartans. Then they fly away. That's like an intro video to an early level.

Color me not impressed.

@jynxycat

You underestimate how many Halo fanboys there are. Bungie could shit on them, and they would consider it impressive.

Demonam:

Looking through the comments, I can't understand why you are here. You obviously aren't a fan of Halo and you're complaining about Halo fans commenting in a Halo thread. Then just GTFO.

This is par for the course with Bungie. The first trailer has always been a cinematic designed to get you interested in the game and give you a vague idea about the story. Gameplay stuff comes later.

I give this trailer a 4/10

dont you know that ratings dont matter?

I give you're rating a 7/10

Yay......

Not. Just another crappy Halo game. These SAME games can only be played so many times.

Then why are you commenting in this thread?

"These SAME games"
What is that supposed to mean? Either that's terrible grammar or a terrible insult

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Halo: Reach gameplay premieres with multiple Spartans (and some ladies!) [update: now with hi-res]

Halo Reach (VGA 2009)

Reader Comments (210)

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