A new title update has been launched for Halo: Reach! Who cares (I hear you ask) when Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is out November 15th? Apart from the millions of people still regularly playing the game, co-op fans should also take note. Some of you may remember the co-op controversy at launch, when owners of HDD free 360s could not play the game in co-op. This has finally been fixed in the latest patch, along with a multitude of other tweaks and twiddles designed to draw Reach and Anniversary together.
As well as finally allowing 4GB and 'Arcade' owning 360 users the pleasure of Halo Reach's co-op campaign and Firefight mode, the update is being used as a test run for the upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. A 4 vs 4 matchmaking mode will be added that will test how Halo owners play online. Microsoft plan to study gamer's choices and change the multiplayer aspects of the Anniversary addition in keeping with how the modern Halo-ist tackles the game.
By the time November 15th comes around and both games are on the shelf, Microsoft will have a similar online matchmaking experience in both games. Anyone who has bought the original map DLC for Reach will be able to cross play with owners of Anniversary - nice!
Here are the details of the update:
• Make damage bleed to health through shields possible.
• Make reticule bloom configurable.
• Modify Armor Lock.
-- Sticky grenade will not be nullified if you use Armor Lock after being stuck.
-- Damage received while in Armor Lock is transferred to remaining Armor Ability energy.
-- How much the damage depletes your Armor Lock energy is configurable.
• Modify Active Camo.
-- Reduce the bonus time the player gets in Active Camo while standing still.
-- Reduce the overall length of time the player can be in Active Camo.
• Remove Sword block.
-- Disable the ability to block Sword attacks using melee with anything other than another Sword.
• Enable playing Co-Op Campaign and Firefight without requiring a HDD.