New Halo: Reach info, art released

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Bungie has released a bundle of information about Halo: Reach in its weekly update - with a load of new artwork.

The firm reveals that: 'In Reach, Elites are bigger, they're faster, and they boast better shield technology than their Spartan counterparts.

To drive the first point home, the firm prepared a handy side-by-side comparison.

It added: Size matters. And when we say Elites are faster, we mean it. Natively, Elites are about as fast as a Spartan at full Sprint. Add Evade into the mix, and they're easily the most agile combatants on the battlefield in multiplayer.

Unlike Spartans, their health is not limited to recharging in thirds as their vitality is whittled away in stages, but will recharge fully without even the need for a health pack. Their health also recharges faster, as do their shields. Significantly faster.

So, how are we gonna work them into multiplayer? Well, in a number of ways. In some circumstances, like Arena, you'll only square off Spartan vs. Spartan or Elite vs. Elite. In others, well... stay tuned. We'll dig into some interesting scenarios in the weeks ahead.

Bungie also revealed more about '120 degree' assassinations - which it says are very similar to those seen in Halo 3.

It said: The 120 degree cone is actually based on where you happen to be looking at the moment the nefarious assassin strikes. Your "Aim Vector." Picture a triangular with its origin point emanating out behind you. If it helps, you can think of Aim Vector as the camera's current position. If your assailant is within that 120 degree zone outside your vantage, and close enough to you to engage the coup de grāce, then you're going down. Keep in mind, they don't necessarily need to be directly behind you if your head's turned.

The assassinations that appear to be happening right in front of the player's eyes in the Multiplayer trailer, are really occurring in the second stage of the assassination. It's already over and the assassin has spun his victim around to deliver the finishing blow with a cool, full frontal flourish.

There was also info about shields:

In previous titles, when you were laying into a shielded opponent and bringing them right to the brink of shieldlessness, any damage you did before the pop would transfer into their underlying health. Hypothetically, let's say they had 5 points of shield left when you clocked them for 10 points of damage. The result would be the loss of their shields and a 5 point reduction to their heath.

Not anymore. Now those additional 5 points are absorbed by the shields as they wink out of existence and the underlying health is left unscathed.

Perhaps the place this impact will be felt the most is in melee combat. Ostensibly this means that if your opponent is shielded to any degree when you land a melee strike, they will not die. You'll pop their shields. If their shields are gone, however, they'll drop like a rock.

Armour abilities were also extensively covered, including: Active Camo (temporary invisibility), Armor Lock (invulnerability), Evade (enhanced leaps), Jet Pack (erm, Jet Pack), Sprint (running fast). You can see pics of these under this very story.

The update also covered the new weaponry in the game, which we showed off earlier.

Check out the full update through the link below.