14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at 343 Industries has revealed that it has tried dozens of versions for the Halo 4 branded Special Edition of the Xbox 360, as it tried to capture the essence of the new game.
343 Industries said in a blog post on the official site that, “There were dozens of iterations with hundreds of changing elements, but it’s kind of a continuum of progress and refinement.”
The statement adds, “We landed on the final design as we went through all of the goals – create a Forerunner-themed object that differed significantly from prior consoles (which is why we ended up with translucent gray plastic – in part to differentiate from the simple metallic finish of the Reach console, which would have been an obvious direction otherwise).”
The Forerunners are at the heart of the upcoming Halo 4 experience, as Master Chief, the hero of the first three titles in the series, and his Artificial Intelligence companion Cortana move to discover a number of new artifacts they leave behind a battle a new alien threat.
The developers at 343 Industries have already said that their take on the Halo universe would involve less shooting than the video games that Bungie created and would place more of an emphasis on mystery, exploration and a sense of discovery.
The themes that Halo 4 will touch on include Forerunner presence, the aftermath of the war between the UNSC and the Covenant and the evolution of Cortana.
The game will also include a new Spartan Ops mode, which is designed for cooperative play and will include a number of missions that 343 Industries delivers over a number of weeks.
Halo 4 will be launched exclusively on the Xbox 360 from Microsoft on November 6 of this year and will probably be the last game in the series to arrive on the current generation of home consoles.