In a wide-ranging interview with Industry Gamers, Bungie's Community Manager Brian Jarrard waxes poetic on such diverse topics as motion controllers and Facebook. But he also makes one thing abundantly clear: Bungie is throwing everything it has into Halo: Reach.

Whether or not Reach is Bungie's final Halo title, Jarrard said the studio is treating it like it is. "We want to go out with a bang, we want to set the bar really high, we want to know that we've made the definitive entry in this saga and that we've left our fans something super special that we can really look back on and be proud of."


Bungie is pushing hard to innovate in Reach, Jarrard said, while simultaneously drawing inspiration from all of its previous Halo titles. The studio is attempting to make the new game feel like the best parts of its predecessors while dramatically improving on the look and feel of the franchise.
"I think our team would agree that, from each title to the next, animation is the one area where we haven't really continued to improve and iterate. Not that it's bad by any means, but for Reach we've redone the whole system from scratch. We've hired a lot of great people now, we're utilizing a mo-cap facility with some hand animation on top of it, and we're really doing a lot more technical stuff to sell this goal of a more character driven story with human characters that give believable performances. Our old tech just wouldn't allow us to do that, and it's everything from our lip-synching to our facial tech – all those things that I would say historically have been one of the weaker sides of the Halo series was from the beginning something that we put a lot of investment into [for Reach]."
Asked what Bungie has in store after Reach, Jarrard said the studio has a group working on pre-production and concepts for "our next big thing." The community manager said he couldn't divulge any details, but added the studio's next project will create a "whole new universe and a whole new experience."

And it might be a title we'll see on the PS3. Bungie will be looking at all platforms for its next game, Jarrard said, and those types of decisions will be made in the near future.

Halo: Reach is scheduled to launch on the Xbox 360 this fall. The multiplayer beta opens on May 3 and can be accessed through the menu in Halo: ODST.



Sharkey says: There was something special about the original Halo when, after battling through narrow corridors in the opening levels like so many other shooters, you suddenly emerged into a vast, outdoor world. It sounds like Bungie is trying to recapture that experience, only in a far more detailed environment. Can't wait to see Reach.