Defend the Generators or die trying!

3v3 Generator Defense. Spartans vs Elites.

Elites, destroy the Generators. Spartans, get up close and lock them down by holding X. No matter which team you're on, make sure you're using the d-pad during respawn to choose your location.

From the beginning...

Super serious music, a good blend of gameplay, and some super slow motion (for me) make for an interesting mix. Check out a three minute montage from some guy who probably really isn't Snip3down.

Marksmanship takes a backseat to fast driving.

Get to the destinations to win!

Category: Double EXP Weekend
Team Size: 2
Max Party Size: 8
Heroic and Legendary Map Packs Required

Gametypes

• Rocket Race (100%) - A variant of VIP. Teams of 2 race to reach destination points. First team to 10 points wins. Player traits: Invincible. Rocket Launcher primary spawns with no secondary weapons. No Friendly Fire. Map Traits: No weapons or grenades on map, mongooses only. 10 minute match time limit.

Maps

• Isolation Speed (Isolation) - Isolation variant designed for Rocket Race. Skipped after Veto.
• Valhalla Speed (Valhalla) - Valhalla variant designed for Rocket Race.
• Sandtrap Speed (Sandtrap) - Sandtrap variant designed for Rocket Race.
• Rat's Nest Speed (Rat's Nest) - Rat's Nest variant designed for Rocket Race. Part of the Heroic Map Pack (REQUIRED).
• Standoff Speed (Standoff) - Standoff variant designed for Rocket Race. Part of the Heroic Map Pack (REQUIRED).
• Avalanche Speed (Avalanche) - Avalanche variant designed for Rocket Race. Part of the Legendary Map Pack (REQUIRED).

Scooped!

Looks like IGN was digging around in the same place I was yesterday. One, two, three...not it! But where we only put three clips on display, they came away with ten. Check 'em out.

A new gametype goes live alongside some fancy new updates.

Embrace change! We've just made some adjustments to the Halo: Reach Beta and introduced a new flavor of Slayer inside the Grab Bag playlist. Along with a host of under-the-hood technical type stuff that you don't need to be too concerned about, here's the list of alterations you'll definitely wanna know about:

• Grab Bag’s “SvE Slayer” pits Spartans vs. Elites
• Spartan DMR Loadout removed from Invasion Phase 1
• CTF Flag return proximity slightly increased
• Headhunter skull pickup radius increased
• Same team Stockpile flag removal and re-scoring resolved

It's all live right now. Fire up the Beta and check it out!

Sweet clips, bro.

Banshee. With seven of your buddies. The Banshee. It's awesome. I love it. Ah!



Get Piped



Armor Lock Beats Banshee



Flipped Off

We wanna see more of your sweet stuff! Make sure you're uploading and tagging your clips from the in game menu or on Bungie.net. If you want to render them up so other people can play 'em back from the comfort of their own computer, use Bungie Pro to get the job done. If you already have, make sure you're saving your clips to your local hard drive for posterity.

Eight minutes chock full of Halo goodness.

Whoa, that was fast. Adam Susskind and Chris Neir only just teased their newest series the other day and they're already prepared to bring it to the masses. Hit the jump below to check it out.

Once More, With Feeling

Calm Before the Storm.

Steve is in the dark, but this week's comic promises some short term exposure. No, not that kind of exposure. Hit the jump.

Chronicles of ODS Steve: Calm Before the Storm (#70)

Grip it and rip it.

KnightxofxLight is pretty handy with the hand cannon. Check out his five shot skills.

Registrations open now!

Bungie Central is hosting an online Halo: Reach Beta Tourney is support of the charity of your choosing. That is, if you win. More details inline below.

"Thousands of players will be playing the Halo: Reach Beta for the next two weeks. We thought this would be a great opportunity to raise money for charity and award some participants with Bungie swag, Halo: Reach Legendary Edition pre-orders, Microsoft Points, and much more. In order to make this happen, we're asking you to donate at least $5 to participate via PayPal.

There will be no more than four rounds in the tournament. Once you've registered, you're all set. Check the Bungie Central forum to make sure you're on the tournament bracket. The schedule for what date and time you'll be playing will be posted there on May 11th, if not sooner. If you can't make it, you may be able to be re-scheduled. If not, you'll be added to first priority on the substitutes list."

Halo: Reach Beta FFA Tournament

Instruments of destruction.

War. It never changes. Or maybe it changes everything. While you're busy pondering platitudes, use your mouse wheel to peruse these sweet screenshots I discovered while sifting through the Invasion aftermath.

Halo: Reach Beta File Search

There's still hope!

Hope Unto Dawn wants to help you get access to the Halo: Reach Beta. Better late than never. For full rules and submission steps, hit the jump below.

Late Halo: Reach Beta Access!

Before the Fall.

HBO's BlueNinja got his boots in the mud and came back with some still images. Check out some cool screenshots from the Halo: Reach Beta.

Views from the Edge: Before the Fall

Charge!

Grin + Bear It goes unusually safe for work this morning and takes a brief look at the economy of war in Halo: Reach. Hit the link to check it out.

Grin + Bear It: Credit Card

Form a fireteam and fall in line.

If you've called in sick to play some Halo: Reach Beta, it's time to throw-down therapeutically. Invasion in live. If you need a quick primer, check out the Invasion exploration in our Beta Guide, otherwise, get in there and get tactical!

Get your Brawl on!

Fight your way to the top in this Big FFA playlist, featuring Heroic and Legendary DLC

Category: Double EXP Weekend
12 Player Free For All
Max Party Size: 1
Halo 3: Mythic disk required
Updated 9/28/2009

Gametypes

• Brawl Slayer (54%) - 25 kills to win. Battle Rifle starts with Assault Rifle secondary. 12 minute match time limit.
• Shotty Snipers (7%, Skipped after veto) - 20 kills to win. Sniper Rifle spawns with Shotgun secondary weapon. Infinite ammo enabled. Map traits: No weapons, Mongooses only. 12 minute match time limit.
• Brawl Rockets (13%) - 20 kills to win. Rocket Launcher primaries. Infinite ammo enabled. Map traits: No weapons, Mongooses only. 12 minute match time limit.
• Brawl Mosh Pit (9%) - King of the Hill, 150 points to win. Assault Rifle starts. Hill Traits: Random movement every minute, players in hill have 2x Overshields and 200% Shield Recharge Rate. 12 minute match time limit.
• Brawl Laser Tag (11%) - 15 kills to win. Spartan Laser starts with Sniper Rifle secondary. 12 minute match time limit.
• Brawl Snipers (6%) - 15 kills to win. Sniper Rifle starts with Magnum secondary. 12 minute match time limit.

Maps

• Sandtrap (FFA) - Tweaked for FFA play.
• Rat's Nest (Default) - REQUIRED. Part of the Heroic Map Pack.
• Standoff (Default) -  REQUIRED. Part of the Heroic Map Pack.
• Ghost Town (Default) - REQUIRED. Part of the Legendary Map Pack.
• Avalanche (Default) - REQUIRED. Part of the Legendary Map Pack.
• Assembly (Default) - REQUIRED. Part of the Mythic Map Pack.
• Orbital (Default) - REQUIRED. Part of the Mythic Map Pack.
• Sandbox (Default) - REQUIRED. Part of the Mythic Map Pack.
• Longshore (Default) - REQUIRED. Available on Halo 3:  Mythic.

Taking fire!

Part four of Reclaimer's Stone Epitaph is up and online. You've been following along, right?

Reclaimer 253 - Stone Epitaph, Part Four

Turns out the old saying "take a picture, it'll last longer" applies to the Reach beta, too.

Playing the beta this past week has been a blast but the fun doesn't have to end when the game does. With Saved Films you can re-live your amazing (and embarassing) moments and capture them forever as a screenshot or a film clip.  But of course you know all of that, right?

And you also know that you can browse through all the screens and films created by the community directly within the game, right?

You do already know that we've had over a million people experience the Reach: Beta this week. But what  you don't know is that over 375,000 screenshots have already been taken and uploaded to Bungie.net.  Yes, that's right, THREE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND screenshots. Add in saved films and all told we've had just over a half million user created files uploaded to Bungie.net in just the first three days of the Reach Beta.  Wow, you all have been busy.

There's no shortage of truly epic and awesome screenshots to be found out there but I'm here today to show you MY screenshots. I'm certainly not claiming that these are the best around, in fact, probably far from it. Rather I just wanted to share my own personal scrap book from the first few days of online beta adventures. Perhaps this will inspire you to do the same.


Sketch's Halo: Reach Beta Week One Photo Album

 *CLINK* Never before has that sound struck such fear into the hearts of men. And yeah, I'm that guy that tosses nades whenever I get the opportunity.




The only thing more fun than crushing someone with a Hammer is being on the receiving end and popping Armor Lock, meleeing them to the head and stealing their mallet. 


 

Bip. Bap. Bam.





What can I say, I'm a sucker for FX. And this just looks badass.





Poor red dude is between an (armor) Lock and a hard place.





 Monkey in the Middle. 





 Mmmmm dust and debris... My one and only game of Juggernaut so far. Why won't more of you vote for it? /cry




Noble Sketch, reporting for duty. (Not pictured: My recently acquired helmet optics package)





We'd love to see your screenshots so keep taking 'em and keep tagging 'em and maybe we'll show off your goods in the next installment of "Tag and Release."  With Invasion releasing tomorrow and all the Spartan vs. Elite and vehicular mayhem that comes with it, we should be in store for some truly epic screenshots in the days ahead.

Two Battle Bros enter...

...and they both leave. Because they are kind and gentle souls. Click the video below to see what these two soul-mates think about their fabulous new Armor Abilities.

Folks need gyros.

Greek sounds good for lunch. Stole that joke from Shishka. Shameless, ain't I?

Where were we? Oh, yes. Hawty McBloggy posted up a poster-ized take on Halo's "Heroes and Villains" straight from the mind of Halcylon. If you need a new wallpaper, this could be a contender. Check it out.

Halo’s Heroes and Villains Wallpaper

Sup, Johnny Shakyhands.

IGN's Alec Meer loves us so much he penned a love note. Love you too, Alec. Love you, too.

Why Reach is Halo Multiplayer's Salvation

HELLO, TRAVELER. MOMBASA WELCOMES YOU!

HBO's Captain Spanish thought Sadie's Story, the tale told through Halo 3: ODST's ringing telephones and originally penned by Fourth Wall Studios and our very own Joseph Staten, deserved a second look. We couldn't agree more. Produced by community stalwart and purveyor of all things Halo fan-focused, Louis Wu, and graced with imagery straight from our own archives, Sadie's Story is now online-enabled.

More multimedia madness!

Yup, we found some more sweet files for you. We do so love you. Check out four sweet film clips our Bungie Pro Video rendering service turned into amazing YouTube clips!









If want to make you own and share them with the world, make sure you're using the Theater provided in the Beta to show off your in game carnage. If you want to make it even easier to share, make sure you check out Bungie Pro. If you just want to find other people's uploaded stuff, snag them straight from the menu in the Beta, or if you're away from your rig, get 'em right here at Bungie.net. Bam!