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Story by Johnny Cullen

Mon, Aug 29, 2011 | 18:30 BST

New art-based Halo 4 trailer airs at PAX panel – watch

A new, concept-art led trailer of Halo 4 aired at the culmination of a PAX HaloFest panel based on the anticipated shooter, as well as dropping heavy details on the new trilogy. Video and screencaps inside.

The trailer featured pieces of concept art being made from senior art director Kenneth Scott, revealing several scenes of the ship carrying Master Chief and Cortana heading towards its probably doom, but also showed pieces from what we can expect to see from the 343 shooter next year.

It was also confirmed at the panel that the new trilogy of the series – first announced at E3 – would be called “The Reclaimer Trilogy.”

According to a HaloWiki page, a Reclaimer is “an individual who, whether by chance or by precedent, has been placed in charge of activating a Halo super-weapon. The individual must journey to retrieve the Halo’s activation key (the Index) from the ring’s Library and then use it to activate the Halo Array.”

Make of that as you will.

Whilst major story bits weren’t diverged from the event, some nuggets were dropped. Creative director Josh Holme said that Chief’s AI companion Cortana would have “an important role in the story,” but the new game’s main focus will heavily be on the Spartan character known as John 117.

On the duo’s relationship in H4, executive producer Kiki Wolfkill added: “There’s certainly a unique relationship between Chief and Cortana that hasn’t been seen in previous games.”

Receiving a rousing applause from the crowd in attendance, sound director Satoro Tojima – who worked on Metal Gear Solid – said that he was looking to include a sort of emotional bridge between the game’s story and music.

When the floor opened up to an audience Q&A, franchise development director Frank O’Connor said it was interested in exploring Chief’s origins in more detail, but wouldn’t commit to seeing something of the sort in H4, adding it was “definitely something we’re passionate about.”

He further added however, when asked a question about how much Chief would talk in the new story, that players are “definitely going to have the opportunity to dive deeper into John’s mind in this trilogy.”

O’Connor killed off any speculation that access to a multiplayer beta for Halo 4 would come part of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

In terms of Forge, the mod-making tool thats been part of the series since Halo 3 in September 2007, Holme confirmed it would make a return, adding that it “has been an engine to create and share amazing creations,” continuing that “it’s something as a studio we very strongly believe in,” and concluded by saying that 343 was “continuing to invest in that toolset.”

Wolfkill added that 343 had “all hands on deck for Halo 4″ when someone asked about potentially doing an off-shoot game in the Halo series in the near future, a la Bungie’s ODST.

Halo 4 launches next holiday season for Xbox 360. Get some screengrabs and the actual trailer below.