14 DAY TRIAL // There have been a lot of rumors going around ever since Bungie announced its Halo: Reach and most of them resonate with either leaked screenshots or short alpha-gameplay clips. Of course, there's also the fact that we know how Reach is going to end, since its a prequel, so it's incredibly easy to reverse-engineer a rumor, by starting from a known conclusion and backtracking to an amazing premise. So, it's no surprise that the amount of gossip about the game outnumbers the actual facts by the hundreds.
Rumors and gossip might be the root of hype, and thus preorders, but some things are so outrageous that Bungie has decided that it's time to debunk some of the myths that are flying around about its upcoming Halo game. So, picking up the most popular ones, Bungie has come to the conclusion that it's the perfect time to set the record straight.
The first rumor that has gotten hit by the developers is the mysterious off-centered crosshair that appeared in one of the released screenshots. This one triggered a lot of rumors and it looks like all of them are false. The game allows for neither an independent control of the aiming reticule, nor for multiple crosshairs, nor does it support Project Natal as a controller.
"Sorry folks, you won’t be perpetually leaning to the left nor will you be navigating multiple cross-hairs for various purposes. Truth be told, it’s just a good old fashioned bug. Bug #15163 to be exact," the update reads. As for the Natal part, the answer is a definite no, with Bungie stating that, "Halo: Reach is NOT a Natal title and is being developed expressly with the traditional Xbox 360 controller in mind."
One of the rumors that got a more interesting explanation than all the speculation it started is the "secret pixelated smudge." In the screenshot, there is a area to the bottom-left side of the screen that is heavily blurred. Unfortunately, this does not hide a giant corporate secret. All it contained was some extra UI that wasn't present in the campaign. The Bungie explanation reads that,
Sketch: I really like this screenshot and it’s the only passable first person asset we have right now, but it’s got all this extra UI text in it that’s not in campaign.
Urk: Just pixelate it. Everybody will think we’re hiding super top secret stuff.
Sketch: lol. With that out of the way, we also learned that we'd be able to fly the Falcon, but also that, "Most of the primary human weapons were moved to hit scan while the Covenant weapons remain as various speed projectiles," as Sage Merrill, sandbox Design lead for Reach revealed. Also, the final version of the HUD won't be yellow.