Halo 3 Planet

It’s kind of been an inside joke for some time here at the Halo 3 Planet Forums about how outdated our forum ranking system was.  We’ve always modeled it after the Halo 3 ranking system, but it was largely incomplete, and pretty awful looking.

Well, we’ve actually done something about it.  No really – - we’re not kidding, or joking about updating it this time.  We REALLY, LEGITIMATELY, updated the ranking system with brand new shiny badges.  I for one think you’ll love the new ranks, and hey, now a bunch of you senior forum members have some new heights to strive for!

We’d like to throw a big thanks out to Beorn for making all of the Halo 3 Ranks available for everyone to use in vector format.  Without his help in the Halo community, you’d all be stuck with… you know… the old system still.

There has been a lot of talk surrounding a Halo Movie over the course of the past year or two, but any attempt to actually get things rolling on that front has ended up coming to a sudden halt.

However, there looks to be a small glimmer of hope according to G.I. JOE Screenwriter Stuart Beattie, who has written a speculative script for a Halo Movie on his own time, which would create a trilogy of movies, with the first episode based off Eric Nylund’s Bestselling “Fall of Reach“.

HALO: FALL OF REACH is a labor of love by Beattie in the hopes of finally getting the movie made.

So what is the script about? Below is what my source tells me…

The script is, first and foremost, a character-driven story about a soldier named John who was kidnapped or “conscripted” by the UNSC when he was just six years old, and then brutally trained to become an elite Spartan warrior known as Master Chief 117.

The script then takes us through the horrific first contact with the Covenant hordes on the doomed colony world of Harvest, and then climaxes with the spectacular fall of the UNSC forward base on Reach, during which every other Spartan is slaughtered.

This certainly would make for an Epic start in the Halo Movie series. Let’s hope it pulls through and someone gets this thing going in Holywood!

Bungie has released a trailer for their upcoming Legendary Map Pack for Halo 3, and this time, no one’s pulling an April Fools on anyone else (sheesh… I am April Fooled out). You can grab an HD copy directly from them if you’d like, or from the Xbox Live Marketplace eventually. We’re really excited about the launch of the three new Maps, Blackout, Avalanche, and Ghost Town.

Remember, you can grab em on live starting April 15th! Mark your calendars!

The flash video appears to be down, so I recommend using this link to the Bungie.net story and downloading the videos from there.

Halo Wars Heaven got a chance to interview Lead Designer of Halo Wars, Graeme Devine, in which he revealed quite a bit about a new playable race in the upcoming Halo Wars title. The Forerunner.

And with the Forerunner making an appearance, it only makes sense for there to be an AI controlled Flood!

HWH: You mentioned containment, are we right to guess the Flood will make an appearance?
Graeme: The addition of the Forerunner race could only mean that the Flood would be a part of the game in some fashion. Not as a playable race, mind you, but as an interesting component in the world.

The Flood is controlled by a set of AI routines the programmers lovingly call “Gravemind”. And on any given map, there’s a group of wild Flood roaming around and causing general havoc. The Forerunner player’s most obvious option against this menacing force is to capture as many specimens of the Flood as they can, and study them to unlock various technologies and upgrades. The thing, though, is that the Forerunner player won’t be able to contain them, there’s just too many of these parasites scurrying around. So there’s one final option that the player can call upon if the need is great.

This interview is juicy with information about Halo Wars folks. I highly suggest you go give it a full read!

Halo Wars got us good. I guess this is one of those times you wish it wasn’t an April Fools joke.  However, there are new Forerunner concept art pieces in the Halo Wars Gallery.

Nah, we’re not selling out H3P like HaloHero mentioned this morning. If anything, we’re revamping it a bit and cleaning up house. All angry viewers should PROMPTLY send your hate mail to HaloHero for his terrible idea. Just don’t let him know I gave you all access to his contact information!