Narcogen and Blackstar, together with Miguel Chavez, look forward to the Halo Reach Beta coming May 3, 2010; wrap up some final thoughts on Halo 3: ODST, and reminisce about the retirement of Halo 2 multiplayer on Xbox Live.

Show Highlights:

Look, Wendy, I Can Fly
What Is The Primary Main Objective
These Are Not Gilbert’s Arenas
The Promise Of Firefight
Should Bungie Listen To Fans?
For Every Arena There Is A Season
Have A Nice Trip (Mine)
Reach’s Rolling Rank Resets
3rd Party USB Sticks On Xbox 360
*Not By Bungie
DLC vs DRM
Halo Public Betas
Farewell To Halo 2
Politically Incorrect Custom Games
Conclusion

A deeper look at ODST– what worked and what didn’t in this small-team, short-cycle Bungie experiment that landed with the profile of a fat expansion and the pricetag of a discounted full title.

Show Highlights:

Keep On Truckin’
GamesRadar: 7/10
Was ODST a Good Idea?
Demise of Chronicles
Comes With Beta (or The Crackdown Factor)
Full Game vs Expansion
What Would 343 Do?
What’s Good in ODST?
Will it Rain on Reach?
Time Flies
Finding My Way
An Uplifting Preserve
NMPD HQ FTW
Playing Detective
Clues That Work…
…and Those That Don’t
Kikowani Station
Mission… Accomplished?
Allowing For Failure
Breaking the Finale
Blowing the Bridge (or not)
Carrots and Sticks
Death From Above

For those wondering, we ambushed Blackstar late at night on his birthday with a 3-hour recording session he wasn’t fully prepared for, and that accounts for him being quiet in this episode (that and the fact that I don’t know when to shut up). More of his contributions will be in the second half of this episode, which looks ahead to the Multiplayer Beta of Halo Reach.

This is the MP3 version of this podcast.