[Xbox 360] Bungie Unveils Halo 3 to Gaming Media in NYC
Posted by Damian Sarcuni on 05.12.2007
411mania was on hand taking dual wield to a whole new level...
Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios held a special event at New York City's popular night club hot spot, BLVD, to promote the open beta of the upcoming first person shooter blockbuster, Halo 3. Media participants around the world were treated to several hours of hands on play time with the game, as well as in depth Q&A sessions with some of Bungie's lead designers.
The upcoming Halo 3 beta will feature several brand new weapons in the multiplayer version of the game. One of the major changes is the addition of "equipment", special devices that work differently from normal weapons and vehicles. These devices have special uses such as trip mines that explode when enemies come near, bubble shields that block incoming fire and projectives, and grav lifts that propel characters and enemies 20 feet into the air.
Also on the new weapons front is the Spartan Lazer, a truly lethal weapon that, when timed correctly, results in a single hit kill. Although the rocket launcher used in previous Halo games no longer tracks enemies when fired, a new weapon called the missile pod does with deadly accuracy. Probably one of the most intriguing additions however, is the introduction of 3rd person view. While not a mainstay in the game, picking up special powerful weapons (such as portable gun turrets) will switch players into a third person view. While characters move slower in this view, they are twice as lethal while using the special weapons they carry.
We had the chance to sit down with Bungie writing lead Frank O'Conner and get more into detail about the development of the game. The multiplayer in the game still features a maximum of 16 players, and although the net code used in the game is all new, it still uses a peer to peer system (so host advantage will be a factor here). When asked about the reason for the short, 3 week beta, Frank replied that the team would only require 3 weeks to gain the data they needed. He also mentioned that testing on the game has been going on over real Xbox Live conditions for over 1 month now.
When asked about the single player campaign, Frank was a bit more secretive. He did say that Halo 3 is meant to tie up all the loose ends left open at the end of Halo 2, and that the series would come to close at last. So does this mean the end of the Halo Universe? "No." says Bungie studio manager Harold Ryan, "While the trilogy itself is coming to a close, Halo itself still holds great interest for us. It's a great universe, and we still have many aspects left to explore."
If Halo 3 is any indication then, this might just be the beginning instead of the end. Combat in Halo adds several brand new features including independant reload buttons for dual wield weaponry. Players can also record videos of their favorite matches, which will include all viewable angles in each video file. Despite the huge variety of angles available in a single file however, these videos will only take up about 6 megabytes of space on an Xbox 360 hard disk. What's more, files can be uploaded and shared to an online "fileshare" storage service for later viewing.
With all these overwhelming features, it took a good while before we were able to find our ground on the Halo 3 battlefield. When we asked Frank O'Conner for strategy advice to use in the upcoming beta, he left us with this mysterious clue: "Either use the needler all the time, or never touch it. It's more powerful than ever." The upcoming beta test for Halo 3 begins May 16th. You must have signed up for the beta or purchased a copy of "Crackdown" for Xbox 360 to participate in this beta. Stay tuned to 411mania for an upcoming hands on preview with the game and more details about what went down at Bungie's special NYC gaming event.
