343 started off their second Halo 4 panel with a slow roll. They announced that a trailer for the game would be premiering in movie theaters across the country on July 17th, but that we in the audience were lucky enough to see it now. While cool, the trailer turned out to be a live-action flick focusing more on the development of the game, and the differences between video games and movies. Clearly this trailer was directed towards a casual audience who maybe aren't so familiar with the video game medium.

Following this live-action short, 343 showed off an extended version of the live Infinity trailer from E3. This time we were able to peep a few extra minutes of action onboard the Infinity before it went down. An orange pulse of energy went off from somewhere inside of the ship, sending ripples of power coursing throughout the hull. As the ship began to fall apart, it also dipped lower into the orbit of a nearby planet. From here, things played out largely as they did at E3. The ship went down as Master Chief and Cortana looked on. From there, the screen faded to black.

That ended up being just about the extent of the campaign stuff shown in the panel. The main focus here was multiplayer, and although this may disappoint some, it seems that this is the area in which Halo 4 has taken the biggest strides forward. 343 is attempting somme truly ambitious stuff with this game's multiplayer suite, and if they get it right, this could be a game-changer. I speak, of course, of the Spartan Ops mode. Each week, a new CG short will premiere on Halo Waypoint depicting the game's characters getting themselves into some brand of trouble. After the short premieres, a series of co-op missions based on that short will be made available for players to run through. These missions will in turn lead into the next episode, which will premiere the next week. A San Diego Comic Con exlusive, 343 announced that the first season of Spartan Ops would begin on November 6th and would carry on for ten weeks.

Of course, 343 is making some more standard improvements to the Halo formula as well, and they spoke of these in great length. Come November, they will be providing players with the largest selection of customization and loadout options in any Halo game. The inspiration, project lead Frank O'Connor explained, was RPGs like The Elder Scrolls. The team wants players to be able to customize their loadouts to suit any playstyle perfectly. To this end, the loadouts will be more flexible than ever before, allowing for more permutations on weapon and ability combos. In order to ensure that new players can still keep up with the highly-leveled veterans, a series of pre-made loadouts will be available early on in the game that will feature a few weapons and abilities that wouldn't otherwise be accessible to low-level players. This should hopefully keep the battlefield pretty evenly matched. From here, you will be free to unlock weapons and powers to build your class as you see fit. And no, the controversial Armor Lock ability will not be making an appearance in Halo 4.

In order to further enhance customization and specialization, Halo 4 will allow players to "reenlist" after reaching the level cap. Unlike in games such as Call of Duty, reenlisting won't merely reset you to level one and give you a special icon. Instead, reenlisting will give you more levels to gain after the core path has been completed. Furthermore, you will be able to choose different specializations when you reenlist. These specializations will be reflective of different playstyles in the game, so for example you might specialize in vehicle combat or sniping. When you choose and level up a specialization, you will gain new abilities useful to the specialization that you selected. The goal of specializations and reenlistment is to give dedicated players long-term goals to work towards.

343 will be adding a few new modes to Halo's multiplayer suite. The example given was called Regicide, a mode in which one player is randomly deemed the King at the start of the round. The rest of the players are tasked with finding and killing the King, who will have a points bounty on his head. Everyone will know where the King is at all times thanks to an icon on the HUD.

Returning modes will see a few enhancements as well, the most prominent of which is mode-specific assassinations. Another exclusive to Comic Con, these assassinations are even more brutal than we've come to expect from Halo games. A CTF assassination was shown off in which the flag carrier used the flagpole to sweep an enemy off his feet before plunging it through his head, while an Oddball assassination showed the ball carrier using the coveted item to uppercut an enemy. 

After these impressive assassinations, the gameplay reels were pretty much over and done with. That didn't mean that 343 didn't have more to reveal, though. With a sly announcement, they revealed a brand new model of Xbox 360 from underneath the table. This new Halo 4-themed Xbox 360 will have custom Halo sounds, a blue LED in the power button instead of a green one, and will come with a unique, blue-streaked controller. In an impressive stylistic move, the sides of the console are actually see-through, allowing gamers to see the innards of the Xbox as it plays. A new UNSC-themed controller will also be made available for sale seperately around the time of Halo 4's launch.

Whew. That's a ton of news, but it was pretty much all good. Halo 4 is looking more promising than ever at Comic Con, and that's really saying something. We'll have hands-on impressions of the game's multiplayer for you tomorrow, so be sure to stay tuned to GameShampoo!