Official Halo 3 Thread

[ScorelessCoasts]

This thread is to gather every piece of info and news for Halo 3.

October 27, 2006 -

Some information and photos of Halo 3 have emerged from Sweedish game magazine Level;

On plot twists
"Halo 3 will contain more plot twists than any other game in the series" --Jaime Griesemer

On Gears of War being competition
"We've played lots and lots of multiplayer and some singleplayer, and yeah, it's really good. But it's also quite a bit different from what we're doing. I realize that a lot of people are concerned that Halo 3 and GoW are going to compete for the same audience, but I think that when people get to play, they'll realize how different the games are. Gears is a much slower game where stragegy and cover plays a bigger part." --Jaime Griesemer

On graphics
"A lot is still missing in this build. Weather- and water effects are missing, and most of our HDR isn't in there yet. We're still at alpha stage, but when everything is in place, Halo 3 will be the best X360 has to offer." --Brian Jarrard

"We definitely have another strategy than Epic Games when it comes to graphics. We'll never engulf our game environments in lots of details like that. GoW looks absolutely fantastic, but we want to avoid compromising Halo's unique visual style. That's why we're making a clean, sharp game as opposed to one with insane amount of details." --Brian Jarrard

"There are many ways to convey emotion. Graphics is not the most important one." --Brian Jarrard

On multiplayer and bots
"Multiplayer has always been important, but it's developed in a different way which makes it look bigger for every game. We have a base that we always build the MP part on, whereas the SP mode practically has to be built ground-up every time. Xbox Live also made MP in Halo 2 even more important." --Brian Jarrard

"A lot of people ask us about bots. They think that the AI in Halo was pretty damn good, and would work well in MP as well, but it's really not that simple. The enemies in Halo are optimized for encountering the player in large numbers. They would be a lot worse at abstract thought AI like 'I have to defend my flag' and so forth. In short, to create bots for Halo would be an immense undertaking, and we rather put that time into making new levels, weapons and netcode." --Jaime Griesemer

New Weapons:
*Spiker: the weapon of choice for brutes.
*Spartan Laser: An anti-veichle weapon, fires a red laser that pretty much destroys any veichle that is hit.
*Nail Grenade: Sticks to walls and fires nails into the air

New Vehicle:
*Moongoose: The ATV that was supposed to be in Halo 2. It carries 2 people and it doesn't have any weapons so it's mainly a means of getting from point A to point B as fast as possible."

Multiplayer levels:
3 levels were shown -
*Valhalla
*High Ground
*Snowbound

Misc. info:
*Your secondary weapon is visible on your back at all times
*New transportation system in multiplayer- man cannon, launches you into the air through air streams, you can still be fired at and you can fire back
*The X-button will have a special use which Bungie will not reveal
*Bumper buttons can be used to reload both weapons independantly

Photos of the magazine - note, many of the special effect elements are missing and the current build is using many placeholder textures and is far from complete;

More news!!

Halo 3: Collector's Edition
It will be called the Legendary Edition and will come in a replica of the Master Chief's helmet and include four DVD discs.
- The first disc will be the game disc.
- The second will contain documentaries and developer comments.
- The third disc is all about the spin-off material that has been created (Red vs. Blue, Spark of Life etc).
- The fourth disc will contain all of the cut scenes from Halo 1 to 3 in HD. (you can see it on the 3rd photo)
- A taste of the Halo movie will be on one of the discs.

Hint from Bungie -

And that won’t be the only Halo 3 info this year… there are one or two surprises still to come.

More -

We know it takes place on Earth, during a very large-scale battle within a city. For some it was reminiscent of the Halo 2 E3 2003 footage that sparked the hype for the previous game in such an amazing way. This time the footage wasn’t a demonstration build made for project benchmarks, but this was actual, in-engine footage running on the current build of Halo 3’s campaign.

During the battle, we know that we see a number of things. Large groups of Marines and Covenant are engaged in warfare. Grenades, bullets and energy blasts are being exchanged amid explosions and carnage. At one point, strange flying crafts appear in the yellow sky and then we bear witness to the Master Chief, who is in danger and his life is clearly being threatened. With fire consuming him and his shields sounding off, it looks extremely bleak. Then, shortly after several very powerful explosions, the demonstration ends.

Although the translation of the article from Level magazine is rough, we do get a general idea of what we can expect to see. When will we see it? H3DA believes we may get this 15-30 second piece of footage on Bungie.net and Xbox Live Marketplace sometime in the near future. Bungie has promised other surprises before the end of this year, and we believe this may be one of them.

We’ve also been told that Halo 3 will have a movie capturing software which will allow you to record, save and possibly trade Halo 3 recorded events, both in campaign and multiplayer. This feature was originally intended for Halo 2, but thanks to the original Xbox’s limitations, it wasn’t entirely possible. Could this be the new function for the (X) button? It’s definitely possible, since there doesn’t seem to be a real function for it now. How would it be to be able to record both amazing campaign and multiplayer events on the fly by simply pressing a button? At the end of the match, the player could select to save or discard to footage and possibly the option to even send it to other players.

New scans from Famitsu;

 

[ScorelessCoasts]

*reserved*

 

[ScorelessCoasts]

*And just incase *

 

[Dernhelm]

weapons can be stole from ea other's backs!!!

 

[Jim]

ooooh like the sound of a Nail nade, sounds a bit primative though, firing nails into the air, ya standard rusty ones

 

[Dernhelm]

theres a nail gun too

 

[Jim]

haha, like what you use to make your decking?

 

[Dernhelm]

yeah.. from ign. It stated that the covenants will be equip with nail grenades and nail machine guns. Must be a new covenant race..

 

[Naluka]

Nail machine guns just sounds like and upped version of the needler... Can't wait for some more info to find out what other goodies are being added

 

[Jacques XVII]

i think the nail grenade is basically a shrapnle grenade?

 

[Bootaaay]

Some info on the 30second single player Level magazine saw;

We know it takes place on Earth, during a very large-scale battle within a city. For some it was reminiscent of the Halo 2 E3 2003 footage that sparked the hype for the previous game in such an amazing way. This time the footage wasn’t a demonstration build made for project benchmarks, but this was actual, in-engine footage running on the current build of Halo 3’s campaign.

During the battle, we know that we see a number of things. Large groups of Marines and Covenant are engaged in warfare. Grenades, bullets and energy blasts are being exchanged amid explosions and carnage. At one point, strange flying crafts appear in the yellow sky and then we bear witness to the Master Chief, who is in danger and his life is clearly being threatened. With fire consuming him and his shields sounding off, it looks extremely bleak. Then, shortly after several very powerful explosions, the demonstration ends.

Although the translation of the article from Level magazine is rough, we do get a general idea of what we can expect to see. When will we see it? H3DA believes we may get this 15-30 second piece of footage on Bungie.net and Xbox Live Marketplace sometime in the near future. Bungie has promised other surprises before the end of this year, and we believe this may be one of them.

http://h3da.ascendantjustice.com/?p=87

 

[blakedaking]

u cant wait for this game, i plan to get my 360 when this game is released, hopefully there will be a Halo 3-60 bundle haha.

 

[ScorelessCoasts]

Stop saying stuff that isnt official :/

I need sources >.>

EDIT: Just saw bootaaay's post, freacking awesome

Also Bootaaay if you want you can edit my post and add that in, its better to browse everything in First page :/

 

[Dernhelm]

they call it spike grenades and spike guns (not needlers)

 

[ScorelessCoasts]

Hmm guessed we missed a part..

We’ve also been told that Halo 3 will have a movie capturing software which will allow you to record, save and possibly trade Halo 3 recorded events, both in campaign and multiplayer. This feature was originally intended for Halo 2, but thanks to the original Xbox’s limitations, it wasn’t entirely possible. Could this be the new function for the (X) button? It’s definitely possible, since there doesn’t seem to be a real function for it now. How would it be to be able to record both amazing campaign and multiplayer events on the fly by simply pressing a button? At the end of the match, the player could select to save or discard to footage and possibly the option to even send it to other players.

 

[Bootaaay]

New scans from Famitsu;

 

[ScorelessCoasts]

2nd scans had left me with some questions and answers

-AR is nicely upgraded a bit
-The sniper seems to have stands, would we see prone position? X button maybe?
-Seems to be liking the things on their legs (forgot what they're called) to holds pistols/magnums.
-Spiker Gun Maybe in second pic? Seems awesome

Cant wait for gameplay trailer.

 

[Dernhelm]

More details from ign

Following Microsoft's strategic reveal of Halo 3 last week, the French Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) today added new fuel to the Covenant fire. The magazine details were revealed by a European reader on Bungie's Website (and then quickly pulled off) but a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed with IGN the French OXM was given official Halo 3 details.

First the multiplayer goodness: According to OXM, Halo 3's multiplayer mode has a maximum of 16 players, not more like many people has speculated. The Valhala map (which was revealed along with Snowbound and High Ground) is inspired by, similar to, and more or less an improved version, of Blood Gulch; but it's not a remake. And the cannon, referred to loosely as the "Man Cannon," works with both explosive barrels and vehicles. The gameplay mechanic enables players to be shot into the air like human missiles and they can then, from mid-air, shoot at and be shot at by enemies.

The magazine also reported you can add gamers without having them on your friends' list, and listed a bunch of new multiplayer types: NinjaBall (keep the ball at all costs), TankFlag (a very powerful "tank" will carry the flag, but in turn it will be much more powerful), and Elimination (kill five opponent team members).

The current screenshots of Halo 3 aren't nearly as good as the final build will be, insists Bungie in the OXM article, which also reported the game is still in its alpha stage of development. Bungie staff members used the last month to build additional software for Halo 3 on Xbox 360, and insisted that Halo 3 will be done "when it's ready." Will Peter Moore show us the release date on his bicep next year? Stay tuned!

Other details: For those wondering about the handling of the Warthog and Ghost, they control similarly to the vehicles in Halo 2. The Spartan Laser is a powerful guided weapon that requires three seconds to lock-on and fire and uses a guidance system. The highly touted X button is currently "unused," but will be part of Bungie's overall re-imagining of the controls. A new feature loosely called the Movie Maker enables players to capture approximately 10 seconds and possible 30 seconds of multiplayer footage to show off to friends (this last detail was vague and of a more speculative nature).

 

[DarkSora]

16 players? what happened to the 60 players? lol.

 

[Bootaaay]

That was called a rumour

Anywho, that many players would require huge maps and multiple spawn points - it's not right for Halo style multiplayer and is more suited to games like Battlefield. I think 32 players is the max for an FPS like Halo.