Halo has truly been a worldwide phenomenon in terms of sales, popularity and critical acclaim. Originally a small game for the first Xbox, it won over fans through its great story and characters and critics through its innovative gameplay elements and the fact that it handled remarkably on a console.

Its sequels, Halo 2 and 3, took the franchise even further in terms of popularity and set sales records, with Halo 3 still being played on Xbox Live, over a year after its launch. The franchise propelled the Xbox 360 forward and is now one of Microsoft's most valuable IPs (Intellectual Properties).

The first expansion to Halo 3 was announced some time ago by Bungie, the studio responsible for the franchise and will be entitled Halo 3: ODST, after being formerly named Recon. It will follow the story of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, hence the name, as he fulfills a reconnaissance mission, hence the first name, in a city occupied by the evil alien alliance, The Covenant. Through this mission, the player will find various objects of other comrades, which will trigger flashbacks in which gamers will get the chance to play them out.

Joseph Staten, one of the executives at Bungie, recently talked with GamesTM about this new aspect of the expansion, which is set to ship in the fall season of 2009. He went on to say that, although the main character was unknown to the player, his squad mates all had distinct personalities that would leave an impression on the gamer.

"The reason we decided to keep the rookie faceless and anonymous is to help smooth these clue-triggered transitions from one ODST to another," says Staten. "The game is designed to put you in the boots of a bunch of fun, memorable characters so you can experience this awesome pocket of Halo fiction from as many points of view as possible."

A pretty innovative storytelling aspect, which might turn out to be very adequate for this game. After all, it is an expansion, and it serves to give the big number of Halo fans a new taste of their favorite franchise. Let's just hope that Bungie will deliver the same great games it has gotten us used to.