Microsoft announces Halo 3 Recon

Microsoft has announced Halo 3 Recon with the tagline "new hero, new campaign, prepare to drop fall 2009". The game will include new multiplayer maps and Forge content in addition to, clearly, new single-player content.

According to Xbox.com, it's a "standalone expansion" that "lets you experience events leading up to the epic story told in Halo 3 through the eyes of a new hero in the Halo universe".

"The Halo 3: Recon campaign is an intriguing side story that takes place during the terrifying events leading up to the Master Chief's return to New Mombasa in Halo 3," the announcement says.

"Experience the fate of Earth from the brand-new perspective of a special forces ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper), adding a unique outlook and new gameplay elements to the events that unfold in the trilogy’s finale. While the feel of this new chapter greatly resembles that of previous Halo experiences, Halo 3: Recon will require you to employ more elements of stealth and cunning than ever before."

Revealed during John Schappert's TGS keynote, Recon was trailed by the second part of what Ellie has labelled "the Madeleine trailer", by which she means the Keep It Clean vid.

The new trailer, which you can watch now on Eurogamer TV, saw shots of buildings, a meteor storm of some sort, dust clouds, "Lumumba 2594" written in the bottom-right of the screen, and then a ship hovering over debris, out of which someone emerged and scoped out a few brutes nearby.

There's no word yet on how much the game will cost or how it will be distributed, but we'll be talking to Bungie today, so we'll let you know whatever we found out.

Schappert also said that Xbox Live gamers have now spent over a billion hours playing Halo games. Here's to the next billion.