Its all just too damn good, the sheer amount of content in this game is mindblowing!

Lead producer Joseph Tung tells NowGamer exclusively about new resolution for the series...

We've just emerged from a impressive showing behind closed doors here at E3. The game is looking stunning - more on that later. In the meantime, here's a tidbit we picked up from the game's Lead Producer Joseph Tung. "Reach runs at a higher native resolution than Halo 3".

“it's significantly higher”

However, when pressed on whether that meant 720p or higher he wouldn't say "We're not talking specifics," he said "But it's significantly higher".

And it shows... the game is looking stunning.

Over the years, though we’ve struggled to love Halo. The series has iterated, but never really felt like it was doing anything that couldn’t have been done in Combat Evolved or its sequel. Resolutions were low, graphics were average, stories ranged anywhere between confusing and utterly pointless. So here we are with Reach now and finally, it’s gearing up to the lead the world again. Bungie are rightfully proud.

You may have already seen the section of single-player gameplay which Microsoft showed at it’s press conference the day before yesterday. Noble 6 and his crew take on a giant fort, annihilating Covenant along the way, before getting into Sabre rocket ships and – in one of the most impressive in-engine sequences we’ve seen in a videogame for some time – blasting into outer space with all the correct rocket-stage science playing its part in a far more believable – for Halo – sci-fi ballet.

And that seems to be the crunch with Reach. Everything has more eight to it. Rockets behave like rockets, gravity is fiercer and less bouncy and weapons are more meaty and impactful. Once out in the ether, with all stages broken away from the Sabre, what we’re left with is a pretty cool Buck Rogers-looking assault craft. But this is Halo, and being Halo, it’s not very long before defecation meets oscillation.

Confirmed in person; the game really does look this good.

As we circled around a gigantic UNSC space installation, its occupants reported that its defences were down; cue dozens of Covenant craft jumping out of hyperspace and into the field of combat. Love X-Wing vs Tiefighter? Then you’ll love this. Frenetic and convincing space combat ensued as our demo team showed off both the Sabre’s forward-facing blasters, as well as homing missiles which simply ‘release’ from the side of the caraft, float there for a second, then break out of their outer casing and zero in on the enemy.

The demo ended with Noble 6 protecting the station long enough for it to get its own defences back online. We were assured by lead producer Joseph Tung that in terms of gameplay that’s completely new to the series, space combat is a minute part. Sadly, they weren’t talking about any of these allegedly dozens of new gameplay types today. Which is a shame.

We were also shown Firefight 2.0 as Bungie is calling it. The mode now has full matchmaking facilities, as requested by halo’s many fans. Well, that’s how Bungie put it anyhow; we would replace the word ‘requested’, with the word ‘lamented’. But then again with the other new feature in the mode we can’t feel too hard done by. You see, we were also shown briefly through the game customisation opions... briefly because there are so many it made our head spin and to show them all would take hours. Sod waiting for Bungie to make the playlist you want – now you can make your own.

I'm a little less excited about the space combat the more I see it.