It's Bungie's 20th anniversary! "We really couldn't have done it without you" urk wrote to their loyal fan-base in an official blog post, a precursor to a bundle of information and goodies from the developer. Of note is the forthcoming release of Marathon on Apple iOS devices, and the mysterious Bungie Aerospace, which we really know nothing about quite yet. Oh, and there's this awesome Red vs. Blue video as well.



Burn Bright. Burn Blue. [Bungie.net]...

So, Halo: Reach is here. This latest entry to the acclaimed franchise currently sports a 92/100 review average, encompassing over 60 reviews. Impressively, it made $US200 million in sales in the United States and Europe in the first 24 hours of its release. Oh, and within 24 hours of release the highest number of concurrent Halo 3 players was surpassed. Want more numbers? Here's how things panned out 5 days after it hit store shelves:
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It seems that developers are starting to get serious about making sure that the online experience they deliver is fun, and remains fun. We know EA Sports has some anti-rage-quit measures in mind for FIFA 2011, and now Bungie's Brian Jarrard has come out and let their intentions be known on the topic: "people who do this habitually will actually be penalised."
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Halo Reach is merely months away, with "Noble Team's epic, planetary battle" beginning on September 14th, in fact. Bungie has just let-loose the final trailer for the highly anticipated Xbox 360 shooter, which serves as a campaign trailer for you all to whet your appetite with. ...

Turn on your 360, throw in your Halo 3: ODST campaign disc and strap on your jetpack. Mepm dropped us a reminder on the forum that as of about 6 hours ago, while most of us were sleeping, the Halo: Reach beta went live! It only runs until May 19, so if you're a fan, don't waste anytime. Bungie sent a word of caution that "the download process may be subject to extended wait times. Server load is expected to be extremely high, especially during the first few hours and days of Beta availability. Please bear with us and stay tuned to Bungie.net for news and information."...

Live action trailers are all the rave right now. Microsoft have jumped on the band-wagon with this trailer for the fast approaching Halo Reach Beta. Apparently it's a short of the short, with the longer version making its way online during America's April 29th....

Some Halo Reach beta footage has made its way onto the net thanks to Taiwan's Game News Network. I'm not a Halo fan, or a console FPS player, but it does look cool - it even has jet-packs...

Microsoft sends word from the X10 event underway in San Francisco that we can expect the beta test to officially begin on May 3. The catch is, which most of you Halo fans would be aware of, is that you'll need a copy of Halo 3: ODST - the beta will be accessed via that game disc...

Update: GU forum member, Joshuay, has let us know that an Xbox spokesperson via Shacknews has discredited this video. Unfortunately, there will be no 'Murder Mode'....

US magazine, Game Informer, has the exclusive scoop on a lot of what we can expect from Halo Reach. It appears as though you're going to be dropped back into the world of the original, with a focus on Team Noble. You can view the page-scans here, or hit the jump for a summary......