In an interview with IG, Staten said it left out details from Chief’s background to “increase immersion.”

“The less players knew about the Chief, we believed, the more they would feel like the Chief,” he said.

“When it came to the Halo novels and other products of the expanded universe, immersion wasn’t as important as deepening understanding.”

He continued: “Immersion was the main goal here. Also keeping the Chief a man of few words reinforced what we wanted to be a tough-as-nails soldierly persona.”

Staten also said that originally, Cortana was originally due to be just a simple guide in helping get Chief from A to B among some things. But as it turned out later on, Cortana would show a more human side to Chief.

“We needed a character who could consistently guide the player through the game, and an onboard A.I. was something that could always credibly accompany the player (i.e., another soldier might get lost, wounded etc),” Staten said.

“Over time, Cortana became a fully realized character—a friend and companion to the Chief, not to mention the only person to poke revealing holes in his tough-guy exterior.

“Through his interactions with Cortana, the Chief revealed his humanity (e.g., players learned the Chief had a sense of humor when he banged his helmet to stop Cortana from talking). And it was for these reasons that we focused so much on the Chief-Cortana relationship.”

Bungie left behind the Halo universe last September with the release of Reach to work on its next big universe, which will be published by Activision under a ten-year deal.

Bungie writer Joe Staten’s said to Joystiq that the developer “had to break though” a lot of the noise that is currently going about with Infinity Ward following news of the developer signing a ten-year deal with Activision on its new IP yesterday.

“Just speaking personally, it gave us a little bit of pause because we’re so excited about this news and we knew we’d have to break through a lot of noise to get the message out there,” Staten told the site in an interview after the deal was announced.

Recent departures from the Modern Warfare developer are the icing on the cake so far, which started out two months ago when former bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West were fired from the studio for “insubordination”.

The pair have gone on to found Respawn Entertainment, which has partnered with EA Partners for its first game. Recent IW employees have made their way to the studio.

Bungie’s Brian Jarrard told VG247 in an interview yesterday following the announcement that whatever has happened recently at Infinity Ward hadn’t had an effect on the studio doing the deal with Activision.

Get our full interview with him here. We’ll wrap everything up from yesterday later on today.

Halo 3: ODST is an open-world game, Bungie’s told the Seattle Times.

“We’re doing a lot of pretty neat things in terms of mixing it up, introducing some non-linearity, some free exploration,” said Joseph Staten, writer and creative director.

“This is also a mystery story so there’s a lot more clue-finding and mystery-solving than you would normally find in a game of this kind — nothing that strays too far from the fun ‘Halo’ experience, but we definitely decided to take a little bit of risk and have some fun with this one.”

But stuff boring old 2009. What about next year’s Halo Reach?

“I absolutely think Reach could be enabled with [Natal],” said the developer.

Hit the link for more.

In an Q&A with Gamepreo, Halo: ODT writer and creative director Joseph Staten sheds some more light on how stealth will play a part in the next instalment of Bungie’s mega-shooter.

“The silenced SMG is just one of the tweaks to the Halo 3 sandbox that make ODST a stealthier experience — one that, at least in the open environment of nighttime New Mombasa, rewards a more measured approach to combat,” said Staten.

“As a non-Spartan, you’ll need to be careful about the fights you pick, especially when you’re on your own.”

“Brutes in ODST are much more interested in self-preservation than they were in Halo 3 which makes for terrific, multi-layered encounters,” he explained.

“You need to think before you engage — decide how you want to take apart an encounter before diving in or you’ll get into trouble pretty quick, especially on higher difficulty levels.

“Unlike a Spartan, an ODST doesn’t have shields,” concludes Staten. “You’re a little slower too, so if you get hit you can’t just run sprint to safety.”

We want this game right about now, please Bungie.

Full interview through the link.

By Mike Bowden

The latest issue of Game Informer has, as promised, fleshed out detail on Halo 3: Recon, revealing the add-on as an open-world shooter with flashback story-telling.

From CVG:

On the ground you’ve got new equipment, such as a PDA to set waypoints on a wireframe map, and you’re left to explore the city in an order that you wish.

“The reason we chose the ODST is it’s absolutely a character that we’ve had ideas about how to develop and put more front a center in the Halo games,” Bungie creative director, Joseph Staten explains to GI.

The goal is to find and investigate the last known locations of your four ODST team mates, using the new ‘Visual Mode’, which as shown in the debut trailer highlights enemies an items with a hi-tech neon glow, to path your way though the moon-clad metropolis.

Once you reach one of the last-known waypoints of your four teammates you’ll find a crime scene – such as a sniper rifle hanging from a street light – and enter a Lost-stlye flashback to earlier that day, where you’ll control the squad member for an entire level.

Through the 30 minute flashback, which is said to play more like a traditional, linear Halo level, you’ll discover the fate your teammate and unravel the mystery of what went on in New Mombasa.

Plenty more through there. Bungie’s last Halo trilogy entry releases in the back half of next year.