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Halo 3: ODST Xbox 360 Preview: The New Halo

• By Dan Tennant
• May 22, 2009 10:10 AM PST
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An open world and flashbacks? Welcome to the new Halo.

The UNSC calls them Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. They pack themselves into insertion pods with all the glamour of space sardines and ride the atmosphere like balloons in a thunderstorm. They might make landfall, but then again, they might not. Some think they're all crazy. As far as they're concerned, they need to be. After all, they do call themselves Helljumpers.

For all you skeptics who think Master Chief is the only UNSC soldier that can bring the awesome, we politely point to these falling angels and suggest you think again. No, they don't have an AI snapped into their brains or a suit of armor that can face off with tanks. But they do have the guts to step into the fray, the means to ratchet up the kill count, and that sliver of insanity that can turn soldiers into heroes.

Halo 3 Squared

Halo 3: ODST is a standalone expansion for Halo 3 that includes all the multiplayer maps of the original, all the downloadable content that's been released on Xbox Live, and a handful of new arenas for good measure. It'll even give players a guaranteed way to unlock Bungie's infamous Recon helmet: a fantastically rare multiplayer armor option that's only been granted to a lucky, envied few.

For much of Halo Nation, those maps and that helmet would be worth the price of the box, but the rest of us are craving more. In service to those single player die-hards, Bungie's whipped up something special. Long have Halo games sent us on missions beyond the outermost reaches of our galaxy; it's only fitting that the series' last hurrah will push its own boundaries in ways we've never seen before.

It's a grand promise, but it starts simply, with a new protagonist taking the reins of gaming's dynasty. Remember in Halo 2, when Miranda Keyes followed the Prophet of Regret through a jump that sent shockwaves tearing across New Mombasa? Well, with the Master Chief gallivanting off on Delta Halo, the city's bones were left for the Covenant to pick clean. The forces defending Earth weren't about to just sit back and watch, though. They sent a vanguard of Helljumpers to beat the Covenant's beachhead to a pulp.

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