It's a trailer for new Halo 3 campaign content.

I called it when the new achievements were leaked at PAX, but I had started to wonder if I was right or not. There were a lot more than what was included in their title update this week, including like six or so that were "------- Skull" indicating that there would be more hidden skulls to find. And since hidden skulls are a campaign thing, well, there you have it, more campaign.

Further speculation: one of the achievements, if I recall correctly, was "Heretic Skull" and heretic was the name of a level in Halo 2. That video looks like the events from the start of Halo 2. So my guess would be that this new campaign content might be either remakes of classic Halo 1/Halo 2 levels, or some sort of "Rosencrantz & Guilderstern" style side story.

Looking at the trailer, the pods that were dropping around 24 seconds were the drop pods from Halo 2.

I'm still thinking ODST tactical game.

Oh, f*ck you guys and your ability to watch new Halo stuff while I'm stuck at work.

It is the best possible news, though. Seeing how they just wasted their extra 250 gamerpoints on the previous map pack, I'm thinking this isn't a downloadable add-on, but something standalone.

I still need to play Halo. It's one franchise I haven't really ever touched.

Meh, I still haven't played Halo 3.

I don't mind the universe, but the gameplay just isn't for me. I'm really looking forward to seeing something different out of them, even if they stay in the Halo lore.

I'd rebuy Halo 3 if there was some new non-flood campaign content. It was right after encountering the flood on Legendary I put it up for auction on Ebay.

I couldn't agree more...I played and replayed those levels like dozens of times. The rest of the game, not so much. Halo 2 really made me hate the flood. If they do an ODST expansion pack in that time frame....drool.

I'm cool with spots where I need to go nuts on a bunch of weak, dumb enemies, but on Legendary some of the flood become dumb walking tanks. I ended up progressing by gaming the AI, doing stuff like shooting the feet of enemies stuck on objects. That's no fun.

A CoD 4/Gears of War style health system wouldn't be that much different than what Halo has currently, and wouldn't really be any different than what Halo has right now. Sure, it's hackish and totally unrealistic, but Bungie can probably explain it away with a comment about new armor or something.

Master Chief's jumping never made sense. I thought that was just a conceit for the sake of the game. It doesn't matter how awesome your legs are, gravity should pull you down all the same.

As for the shields, you can already play Halo 3 without the shields and it works. It's just more tense. The health 'beneath' the shields regenerates as well, just at a slower rate with a longer delay. The difference isn't that severe because the shields weren't layered on top of the health. They're really two different channels, so the damage you take to your health and shields varies depending on what weapon is doing the damage - projectile or plasma.

Some more info on this just dropped at TGS -- Kotaku says that it's called Halo 3: Recon, it's a prequel, and it's out Fall next year:

http://kotaku.com/5060880/halo-3-expansion-hits-fall-2009

There's a trailer, too (it's on Marketplace as well -- I'm currently grabbing it from there):

http://kotaku.com/5060886/halo-3-recon-the-trailer

Very interesting. I wonder if this will work out into something Rouge Squadron-esque or wind up feeling too similar to previous Halo games. Color me excited.

Rise!

From the Halo 3: Recon cover story in Game Informers, I present a dose of awesome:

Excuse me while I change my pants.

Ok, done. We know this game is open world, and the Brutes from the trailer are on patrol. To me this means H3: Recon = Halo GTA. Which is mega-awesome. Bungie has the best AI in the business.

As for the day/night cycle, there isn't really one. The game takes place over 1 single day. Your main character wakes up at sunset, the flashback mission happen during daylight hours.

This is a good direction for them to be heading in.

-It just occurs to me that this will make a second open-world shooter set in Africa.

Since the game is supposed to be 3-5 hours, I wouldn't expect it to be huge or even remotely comparable to GTA. Also, remember that the flashback sequences are supposed to be like 30 minutes long each, with there being five of them.