Bungie Squashes Halo: Reach Natal Rumors

The folks at Bungie hear the running riot of speculation surrounding Halo: Reach, and the developers have decided to dispatch some of the most popular rumors with "extreme prejudice."

The team working on Reach, including sandbox designer Sage Merrill, addressed the most prominent "myths" in a recent post on Bungie.net. Here's a selection of the more interesting "myths" and debunkings:

Myth: Reach is being built for Natal.

Reach is NOT a Natal title and is being developed expressly with the traditional Xbox 360 controller in mind.

Myth: The crosshairs in Reach are off-center.

Sorry folks, you won't be perpetually leaning to the left nor will you be navigating multiple cross-hairs for various purposes.

Myth: Every weapon in Reach will be "hit scan."

Here's the real scoop, straight from Sage Merrill, sandbox Design Lead for Reach: "Most of the primary human weapons were moved to hit scan while the Covenant weapons remain as various speed projectiles."

Currently the Magnum, DMR, Assault Rifle and Sniper Rifle are all hit scan, but other weapons such as the Shotgun and Rocket Launcher are, for obvious reasons, not. When the beta hits this spring you'll be able to get up close and personal and see for yourself.

Myth: The HUD in Reach is yellow.

The same pre-alpha build that didn't feature final textures, geometry or decorators also included one of many earlier iterations of the HUD (which even today is still getting tweaked and refined). As of now it's no longer yellow and sources say it won't be returning, either.

Myth: The Assault Rifle has a 600-round capacity, and the Magnum tops out at 50.

That's what it shows in the screenshots, but you should always take that stuff with a grain of salt. Not only are all of those parameters in flux as the team continues to test and tweak, but when us community dudes get into a build, we're often turning on all kinds of freaky cheats to make sure we can get the right shots in time to deliver. If that means we want to rip through a sequence without having to scrub for ammo, we might flip some dials of our own.

Myth: Players will be able to pilot the game's newest aerial vehicle, the Falcon, in campaign and multiplayer.

Yup.

You can find a few more myth debunkings in Bungie's post.




Sharkey says: Reach may not be a Natal game, but Microsoft has gone on record stating that the motion capture controller will be launched with a major title. My best guess is that it'll be a racing game; it'll probably take some time to effectively tweak the nuances of FPS control on Natal. If not Reach, what major titles do you think are being developed for Natal?