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If you recall, this is our recently announced stand-alone extension to Halo 3 that features an all new campaign played from the perspective of an ODST in the heart of a Covenant occupied New Mombasa. In addition to sleuthing around the city and piecing together the details surrounding your squad's whereabouts, the game will also include some new Halo 3 multiplayer content as well as one or two unrevealed surprises when it's released next Fall.

This new title is a more straightforward account of the experience that awaits and the role you will assume as you explore the streets of New Mombasa. But don't worry, you can still has Recon. (the armor that is, it's still tied to the Vidmaster achievements and will be accessible via the final retail release next Fall).

"ODST" (literally pronounced "Oh-Dee-Ess-Tee" and not "ohdst") is the acronym for "Orbital Drop Shock Trooper." This special forces branch of the UNSC military force is called into action for highly specialized, small scale operations. ODST units were deployed during portions of the Halo 2 and Halo 3 campaign and have also been featured in some of the Halo novels. To learn more about this elite military operation, check out this recent interview with Bungie's Halo fiction guru, Robt McLees.

Halo 3 : ODST will drop into stores next Fall and the Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack will be coming to Xbox LIVE Marketplace sometime early next year*. (More info as soon as we have it!)

Stay tuned to Bungie.net in the coming weeks and months for development updates and new details on our latest project. In the meantime, please remove "Halo 3 : Recon" from your memory banks and replace it with "Halo 3 : ODST." Also note that all existing content on Bungie.net and Xbox LIVE Marketplace will get replaced to reflect this new name. The announcement trailer is the same one you've already seen or downloaded with just a minor change to the new title card at the end.

On a side Note... To accompany Last week's release of the New Xbox Experience, Microsoft is offering a brand new Halo 3 Theme on Marketplace. The Halo 3 Splatter Spree Theme lets your lineup of Xbox Live friends play around in the Halo 3 vehicle sandbox. If you're still thinking about holding RB to board, here's a few shots from the theme, cooked up by Bungie's own internal artists, to help you make the call.

Who cares what they call it as long as it kicks ass.................

New Details Emerge On Halo 3: ODST

Hope you don't mind running without shields. If Halo 3: ODST" writer and creative director Joseph Staten is to be believed, Halo fans are in for quite a different experience once they take off that Spartan armor.

Speaking with GamePro, Staten discussed the stealthier gameplay that will make up a large part of the core of ODST. Among other things, he described the silence SMG, which he said excels at "dropping unwary, unshielded enemies." He also described new tactics for the Brutes, which he said will make them more interesting to fight.

"Brutes in ODST are much more interested in self-preservation than they were in Halo 3 which makes for terrific, multi-layered encounters. They'll lure you into traps, gang up on you - generally make you wish you'd hit them in the flanks instead of hard-charging, Spartan-style," Staten said.

While dealing with those Brutes, players will find their character to be slower, among other things, which means that they can't just sprint to safety. According to Staten, the "golden rule of ODST combat is 'look before you leap.' "

Sadly, it looks like ODST characters won't be playable in the multiplayer modes, so no extra challenge for the truly elite players. But for everybody else, it looks like ODST will have plenty to offer when it arrives this fall.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3172365