Prepare to drop!

To think Microsoft would stop the Halo bandwagon after the phenomenal cash cow success it has been is laughable. There were always rumours about the next Halo game (even before the release of Halo 3) and what it would be, and of course the Peter Jackson Halo project, whatever that would be also.

At E3 this year it was well documented that Microsoft pulled a fast one and cancelled Bungie’s presentation that was set to take place during their press conference. With rumours circulating that with Microsoft in bullish mood over the capture of Final Fantasy XIII to the 360, they felt showcasing another huge game wasn’t necessary and basically filed it away for a rainy day.

Well recently we were shown a teaser trailer for the next Halo game developed by Bungie and now at the Tokyo Games show it’s finally been announced – Halo 3: Recon.

There’s no Chief this time around, as a new hero enters the foray in the form of an ODST who are apparently “among the fiercest UNSC soldiers, priding themselves on being the first unit deployed into hostile situations” as well as that they are apparently quite the bunch of nut cases, which would make a nice change from the ‘nothing can phase me’ Chief. I don’t want random head butting of inanimate objects, but the occasional bout of insanity can be great for the soul.

It’s Halo so we can expect the usual gameplay style we have become accustomed to but apparently we’ll also have to “employ more elements of stealth and cunning than ever before.” Now whether or not this means it’s going the way of Splinter Cell etc is still unclear but I for one would welcome the change, providing the focus doesn’t force the stealth gameplay too much.

One interesting note is that this isn’t being billed as a brand new game, but as a standalone expansion. So it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out price wise. Will it be priced as an expansion or as a full game? It seems it will tie in with the Halo 3 infrastructure such as Forge and the Online elements, so who knows?

I’m happy that I’ll soon have another Halo game expansion to sink my teeth into, but with a release date of fall 2009 it seems we still have quite a while to wait before playing it, and most definitely before we start hearing any concrete info on it.

I can just imagine the Microsoft hype machine starting up its engine. The last Halo instalment was just crazy marketing-wise, I can only imagine what it’s going to be like this time around.