Leading up to the release of Halo: Silentium (March 19, 2013), Tor and 343 Industries will be sending out encrypted communications via halowaypoint.com bulletins and forums, which will allow Halo fans to unlock additional content. There will also be embedded data in the text of the Halo: Silentium paperback and e-book editions.

These communications will begin now, and continue on halowaypoint.com leading up to the March 19th release of Halo: Silentium. Check out a larger version of the cover, along with a synopsis of the story.

Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC—the largest publisher of science fiction in the world—and 343 Industries™ are excited to unveil the real cover art—previously hidden since it revealed too much about the now-released Halo 4—for the forthcoming hardcover and trade paperback edition of Halo: Silentium out on (March 19, 2013) by #1 New York Times bestselling author Greg Bear. The cover art is by Sparth, Robogabo, and Glenn Israel.

In Halo: Cryptum, Greg Bear began a three-book arc set in the era of the Forerunners, the ancient and enigmatic creators and builders of the Halos, which continued in Halo: Primordium. Now, in the last years of the Forerunner empire, chaos rules. The Flood—a horrifying shape-changing parasite—has arrived in force, aided by unexpected allies. Internal strife within the ecumene has desperately weakened Forerunner defenses.

[Read more]

The main problem with talking about anime adaptations of video games is knowing where to start. Just go and look at this list over on Wikipedia and it’s clear that games have been a constant source of material for anime movies, films and direct to video releases for decades—there’s literally hundreds of entries, many of which are familiar names, while plenty of others will seem utterly alien to western gamers. 

[Insert coins to continue...]

Fake coughs are starting to echo in offices around the world as Halo fans everywhere prepare for Master Chief’s return this upcoming Tuesday. The impending release of Halo 4 marks the first time a developer other than Bungie has made a major contribution to the Halo canon. So how did developer 343 Industries handle Microsoft’s most expensive video game ever, to date? Early reviews hit the net just yesterday and, well... see for yourself.

[Prepare to burn through your sick days...]

The release date for Halo: Silentium by Greg Bear, the final book in The Forerunner Saga trilogy which concludes this story of the the enigmatic creators and builders of the Halos, has been updated to March 19, 2013.

Silentium chronicles the last years of the Forerunner empire, when chaos rules. The Flood—a horrifying shape-changing parasite—has arrived in force, aided by unexpected allies.

[Read more]

Last night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon brought about the debut of a new, Hollywood-powered Halo 4 trailer. Produced by David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and directed by Tim Miller (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), the new CGI/live-action hybrid trailer provides a few hints as to plot direction and also teases the series’ new big bad – after all, Master Chief can only kick Covenant butt for so long until he requires a change of pace.

[“An ancient evil awakens...”]

In this new clip from Wreck-It-Ralph, the titular character finds himself inside of a FPS game called “Hero’s Duty,” which looks to be a kind of mash-up of Halo and Gears of War. Watch the cute scene below. (We love our mommas!)

[Watch]

The striking image above comes with the Ubisoft press release that announces five downloadable content packs for Assassin’s Creed III. Three of the DLC packs will be single-player episodic content exploring post-Revolution history “as it could have been.” Namely, what if George Washington fashioned himself a tyrant instead of a president? It’s an intriguing romp into an alternate America. Evil George Washington is so much more interesting than yet another zombie mode.

As the October 30th release date approaches, Assassin’s Creed III is definitely one of the biggest games of the fall season. Never huge fans of the franchise ourselves, we have to admit that this installment looks like madcap, badass, gorgeous fun and the timeframe (and the historical research) for the story really makes it stand out.

In other gaming news: CliffyB leaves Epic Games! And watch the first episode of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn.

[Would you like to know more?]

Tor Books and 343 Industries™ are excited to announce the on-sale availability of Halo: The Thursday War by #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss. Traviss, who has penned number one bestselling novels in the Star Wars universe, as well as bestselling novels for the Gears of War franchise, continues to explore the events following Halo 3 in this second novel in her Kilo-Five trilogy.

This March, Tor will also publish Halo: Silentium, the third and final novel in the Forerunner Saga by science fiction icon Greg Bear.  

[Read more]

Seattle, Gilded City of Utilikilts, was once again host to thousands of gamers for the annual PAX Prime convention. Thus far, there have been no reports of controversy or rampant sexism, just a ton of cosplay and an exciting batch of new games from some of the industry's biggest (and smallest) studios.

And we got to play some of them.

[Firefall, Torchlight 2, Playstation All-Stars, and a delicious platformer punching its way to the top of critics' best-of lists...]

Tor Books has just announced the title, first cover, and release date for the third novel in the New York Times bestselling Halo Forerunner Saga, Halo: Silentium, written by legendary science fiction author Greg Bear. The first two books of the Forerunner Saga, Halo: Cryptum and Halo: Primordium are currently available in trade paperback, e-book, and audiobook. This newest book in the series will release in hardcover from Tor on January 8, 2013 alongside simultaneous audio and e-book editions.

[Read more]

E3 2012 came and went this past weekend in L.A., carrying in tow a plethora of new games and devices to suck our wallets dry and while away our precious spare hours. While there’s no way we’d be able to discuss all (or even most) games covered at E3 this year without taking over the entire front page of Tor.com, we have culled content for the sake of manageability, and touched base here with only those franchises and games that pique our specific interests, including Halo 4, Gears of War: Judgment, Watch Dogs, God of War: Ascension, Assassin’s Creed III, Sleeping Dogs, The Last of Us, and more.

[Click to get up-to-speed with all the games you’ll be playing next year.]

Tor Books has announced the title, release date, and cover for the second novel in the Karen Traviss’s “Kilo-Five Trilogy” of Halo books, the follow-up to last October’s Halo: Glasslands. Halo: The Thursday War will release on October 2, 2012.

Halo: The Thursday War picks up immediately where Halo: Glasslands left off, with forces on Earth and among the Covenant threatening a peace that is precarious at best. With a splinter group among the Sangheili pushing for war, some human colonies rebel against earth authority; and as ONI policy continues to shift with the volatile situation in space, the discovery of a trove of Forerunner technology on Onyx provokes leaders on Earth to seek uses for it in the conflict. For the fight is far from over….

[Read more]

EA has released the first substantial gameplay trailer for their latest entry in the Crysis series, Crysis 3. Set in a futuristic New York overgrown by rainforests, and encased within a nanodome by a corrupt billion-dollar corporation intent on world domination, the player is thrust into the role of Prophet, a recurring character in the series, who makes his way through the city looking for vengeance and, of course, kicking some alien ass along the way.

[Don your nanosuits after the jump]

Tor Books has just announced the title and release date for the second novel in the Karen Traviss’s “Kilo-Five Trilogy” of Halo books, the follow-up to last October’s Halo: Glasslands. Halo: The Thursday War will release on October 2, 2012.

[What the novel will focus on]

Grab your battle rifle and don your Spartan armor — Master Chief is back in action. 343 Industries released their first “Making of” video for Halo 4 earlier this week, containing an extremely brief look at in-game footage. Highlights include a revamped HUD geared toward establishing a sense of looking out through Master Chief’s visor, a significant focus on multiplayer (no surprise there), and a storyline heavily focused on Master Chief’s character development. Halo 4 news will begin to ramp up in the near future, as the game is believed to be scheduled for a holiday 2012 release.

[Read more]

This is King’s Landing from A Game of Thrones as created through the infinitely variable game Minecraft. The team behind this project has already started on Westeros and aims to map the entirety of Westeros before they’re done. That’s a lot of brothels to build.

Before you consider that enormity, take a gander at some of the more intriguing offsite links. Highlights below the cut include:

1. A writer on Mother Jones explaining why Return of the Jedi is actually the best Star Wars film.
2. Star Trek: The Next Generation season 8 as told through Twitter.
3. A fully detailed model of Hogwarts that’s bigger than your house.

[Read more]

Halo: Primordium, the second book in Greg Bear’s Forerunner trilogy, is out in stores today. Primordium continues the story of the enigmatic creators and builders of the Halos that began in Halo: Cryptum. In the wake of the apparent self-destruction of the Forerunner empire, two humans — Chakas and Riser — end up on a strange inverted world where horizons rise into the sky. Their epic journey across this damaged Halo takes them into the domain of a powerful and monstrous intelligence who claims to be the Last Precursor. Called the Captive by Forerunners, and the Primordial by ancient humans, this intelligence has taken charge of, and perverted, the Master Builder’s already horrifying research into the Flood. Chakas and Riser unwittingly become trapped in an ancient game of vengeance between the powers who seeded the galaxy with life and the Forerunners, who have taken up the sacred Mantle of duty to protect all living things.

“As we head into the launch year for Halo 4, more and more fans are begging for answers to a lot of questions,” says Frank O’Connor, Franchise Development Director at 343 Industries. “In Primordium, Greg answers those, and a bunch you never even thought to ask and introduces some new mysteries that will have a resounding and lasting effect on the Halo universe.”

Fans of Halo can read the first chapter right here on Tor.com.