Halo: Reach may not be getting any DLC or other in-game content soon, but Halo Waypoint will get a ton of franchise-related goodies this weekend, Xbox Live avatars will have some new Halo-related gear available tomorrow, and later in April Halo fans will get a full-on motion comic.
Tomorrow (April 14), a fun new collection of Halo Avatar gear and props will be made available via Xbox Live. Included in the gear and props are a new selection of Spartan helmets, Red vs. Blue T-shirts, and a Flood infection form for your Avatar to nurture and love. Yes, that’s pretty sweet.
The following day, on Friday April 15, Halo Waypoint will receive an update with numerous new features and performance enhancers that will make Waypoint faster and smoother. For the first time, gamers’ Halo: Reach service record will be fully accessible from Waypoint, making everything from detailed game history to weapons stats and Challenges available directly from your Xbox 360. Also on the way is a brand new “Compare with Friends” feature that lets you compare your stats against your friends and rivals, along with two new Waypoint career levels.
The Halo Waypoint update will also add the ability to launch the Games on Demand version of “Halo: Reach” straight from Waypoint. In addition, it will introduce a new video player that features the same “Instant On” streaming technology utilized by Zune to make viewing Halo fiction and community videos on Waypoint faster and easier over Xbox Live.
For the record, many of these same Waypoint features will be available on Windows Phone 7 with the Waypoint Application available in the Windows Phone App Store and on the Web.
Later in the month, on April 23, a new motion comic called “The Mona Lisa” will premiere on Halo Waypoint to let franchise fans hear a dark tale from the “Halo Evolutions” anthology. Set shortly after the events of the first Halo (Combat Evolved), The Mona Lisa shows the crew of the UNSC Red Horse after being sent on a highly-classified mission in the debris field of the Halo artifact. While on the mission, the crew discovers a derelict prison ship — the Mona Lisa — adrift in space. When a contingent of marines board this vessel, they come face to face with a more terrifying threat than the Covenant and must battle for survival.
As with the Halo Waypoint updates, “The Mona Lisa” motion comic will be available on Xbox Live as well as Windows Phone 7 and on the Web.