Bungie's footage of Halo: Reach at Microsoft's X10 event caused many heads to turn when the development team discussed the painstaking effort that was taken to ensure that the graphics received as much care and attention as other aspects of the game. In a new interview conducted by EuroGamer, Creative Director Marcus Lehto elaborates on Bungie's decision to re-vamp Reach's graphics.

With graphical powerhouses such as Uncharted 2 and Mass Effect 2 leading the charge in terms of art direction and scalability, Bungie harbors no doubts that it certainly has a tall order to fill in having Reach on par with contemporary graphical standards within the industry.

Well... we realised that we needed to compete against quite a number of other titles. It really did require us to rebuild nearly everything across the board.

Judging by the footage, it appears that Bungie's efforts are paying off in spades. With a difference of over two million polygons from the last Halo title, Reach's character models appear more vibrant, animated, and realistic. Coupled with an entirely new rigging system and motion-captured animations, Reach could finally propel the Halo franchise into visual stardom.

[GalaxyNextDoor]