Bungie Studios, game developers behind the Halo franchise, will be releasing a new title, “Halo: Reach” on Sep 14.

“Halo: Reach” will be a prequel to the original Halo trilogy, portraying events that lead up to the first game, “Halo: Combat Evolved”. The campaign will follow the story of Noble Team, a group of military super soldiers known as Spartans.

When the planet Reach is invaded by The Covenant, a collection of alien species whose religion claims the human race is a plague which must be wiped from the galaxy, Noble Team must take the mission of defending the planet and insuring that the Covenant does not discover the location of Earth. On May 3, 2010, a Beta was released on Xbox Live which allowed gamers to test Halo:                             

Reach’s multiplayer. This Beta was only accessable to anyone who owned a copy of “Halo 3: ODST”, a game released Sep 2009. The Beta allowed for many of the game’s competitive multiplayer features to be tested, such as new game playlists, as well as the classic playlists brought over from “Halo 3”.

Also tested were changes in the game play, such as the addition of armor abilities such as sprint and the jetpack. Many new weapons were added as well.

All features from the beta will be returning improved, as well as many new things not seen in the Beta.

Returning from “Halo 3” is the game’s forge mode, which allowed for players to modify objects in each multiplayer level.

However, the forge mode in “Halo: Reach” has been improved in order to allow for more customization, giving players the ability to edit walls, as well as improving previous editing tools to make placement of objects and walls much easier.

Firefight from “Halo 3: ODST”, which let the player fight endless waves of alien enemies, also returns improved.  As opposed to its previous version, Firefight in “Halo: Reach” will allow for players to edit what types of enemies you fight, as well as the weapons you fight them with. Another change is the new Firefight matchmaking option, which matches you with teammates equal in skill to fight along side you. Game editions for “Halo: Reach” include Standard Edition, which includes only the game. Limited Edition includes reading material that opens up secrets about the Halo universe, as well as a few in-game armors. Legendary Edition includes everything from Limited Edition, as well as more armors, and a collectable statue of Noble Team.