Halo 3: ODST

Welcome to GamesRadar’s weekend giveaway. This week, we have some extra pretty dollies for you. Find out how you can win all three inside…

So, with its work on Halo finally done after ten long years, Bungie has commemorated this year's Bungie Day by bidding a fond and emotional farewell to the franchise that made its name, passing on earnest good wishes both to its fans, and to the new Microsoft team taking over the series.

In a blog post on Bungie.net, the studio has related not feelings of sadness, but of hope, both for the future of Halo and for the future of Bungie's upcoming works as it begins its new life after the Chief. It's all rather heartfelt, but being Bungie, slightly overblown in the gravitas stakes too. So while I have no doubt that the post was written with tongue placed somewhat within cheek, I felt that mere written text could not do Bungie's sentiments justice. Bungie's final words to the Halo community deserved something more. A more significant delivery. So I decided that a dramatic reading was necessary.

I called Simon Callow, but he was busy, so I made it myself. I have a beard so I think I'm pretty well qualified.

If shitty daytime soap operas have taught us anything (other than comas are never permanent and don’t trust evil identical twins with moustaches), it’s that flashbacks rule. The same logic also rings true in games. Some of the best levels we’ve ever played occurred as memories from our playable character’s past. And whether it’s having blocky PS1 nightmares or having a budding bromance in Chernobyl, the following flashbacks totally bested anything from that show with the polar bears and smoke monsters.

If there were a list of Rules for Videogames, the #1 rule would have to be, “Always make cutscenes skippable.” But the number two rule may very well be, “Don't play games based on movies.” It's a truth that's been self-evident rarely without exception ever since ET stunk up the Atari 2600.

But Rule #2's been in for some revision lately, as GoldenEye-shaped aberrations and Butcher Bay-escaping anomalies defy the “movie games are crap” truism. Maybe the way to make a non-terrible adaptation is to hold off until you're sure you have a classic property on your hands. Given movie games’ review history, the simple act of getting them to a stage where people say they’re “well-executed” or “worth the price” is a pretty big step...

In the red corner, we’ve got the toughest, seminally stoic space men in the galaxy. In the blue corner, there’s the owner of the finest digital face fur in the history of humanity. Only one title can win the Golden Joystick Shooter of the Year award. So if you think Halo deserves it over Infinity Ward’s megaton shooter, you should head inside to vote. That, or you could totally cast a sympathy vote for AVP. C’mon, someone’s got to give the Rastafarian space beastie some love.

Halo wasn't the first shooter. Halo wasn't the first to introduce online multiplayer. Halo wasn't even the first Bungie game to feature an armored peacekeeper and sexy female AI battling aliens in outer space. Halo, in many ways, is unoriginal.

Yet no other series – with the possible exception of Grand Theft Auto – has had such a clear, obvious and indisputable impact on the videogame industry over the past decade. To welcome the release of Halo: Reach tomorrow, which also marks the end of Bungie's involvement with their best-selling creation, here are seven of the franchise's biggest influences...

It's nearly been a year since ODST landed as a holiday Halo holdover, meant to tide the rabid fanbase over for the next "real" sequel. Heavily hyped and promoted with a trailer that no game could ever live up to, ODST's impact was large, but not memorable - save for the music, that is, which sold the experience far better than the game.

Two songs inside!

The purpose of any good trailer is to sex up the thing it's selling. That or give you informative warnings about head lice prevention. So we get that games sometimes appear more exciting than they actually are when they're compressed down into 90 second chunks, with ninja editing skills and a rousing soundtrack.

But bugger us if watching the Halo: Reach trailer then seeing the playable footage from Microsoft's E3 conference isn't the equivalent of Songs of Praise being advertised with a Debby Does Dallas trailer. Take a gander inside to see what we're talking about.

Welcome to Bungie, where you're more likely to catch a guy walking down the hall swinging a Gravity Hammer than a guy walking down the hall in a necktie. Last week, I visited Halo HQ for five hours of hands-on with Reach's multiplayer and, while there, snapped some photos of the lobby, hallways and game demo rooms to share the experience with you, my jealous readers.

After all, why should I be the only one who gets to stand next to a life-size Master Chief? Enjoy the tour, and let us know if these "behind the scenes" peeks are something you'd like to see more of in the future...

Bungie has been teasing us again with a picture via Twitter, along with the tweet 'Just got this mysterious image and word that something big is dropping this week?!'

It shows a Spartan helmet with lights on the side, with the reflection of some Halo 3-style flooring in it. What can this mean? Well, as we see it there are five clear possibilities.