Halo recruits ex-Rockstar developer

Despite the secrecy surrounding an upcoming title from the creators of Halo, they have announced the recruitment of ex-Rockstar developer Danny Bulla.

You may not have heard of Bulla but he is one of the names behind Western-sandbox Red Dead Redemption, which is perfect for Bungie, the developers behind Halo, who have also announced their new game Destiny will be sandbox-based.

“We liked Red Dead Redemption so much that we hired Danny Bulla to come here and help us fill your next sandbox," Bungie says.

"He’s doing some amazing work and, so far, he hasn’t tried to lash any of us to a pair of railroad tracks."

Although further details are thin on the ground, it almost seems as though Destiny could be an attempt at an open-world game; awesome.

Intriguingly there have also been reports that Bungie’s senior audio designer, David Henry, has visited dumps and recording the sounds of metal on metal.

“The events depicted in our next game happen in a noisy place, and we’ll need entire orchestra of artists to provide the sounds you’ll hear when you play,” says yet another blog post.

Current information suggests the game will release for current-gen consoles, as senior engineer Mike Forrest has commented on developing for the Xbox 360, but it is also possible the game will branch out to next-gen consoles too.

“My favourite work so far has been learning about the low level architecture of the Xbox 360 while optimising various bits of encryption code," Forrest says.

"I’ve always enjoyed squeezing performance out of systems and working within the confines of a console game engine is a great excuse to exercise that muscle."

So, to wrap it up, it’s a sandbox game, it’s loud, and it’s from the makers of Halo.

If they put up a pre-order link I’d probably have already clicked it.