Halo 3 Thread: News, views and frolics

[Guest Nicole]

I was online, well I say I but it was J and his mate, and they were talking on it and had no problems. I like the beta, tis fun playing group games. Was taking quite a while to find players last night tho.

[The Icon 152]

I sold my Crackdown, thankfully. Now I don't have to play it or Halo Three. Neither of which interests me that much. I enjoyed Halo 2 to a limit, but one Halo is enough for any collection. I will therefore give Halo 3 a skip.

[Guest frednut]

it does have vehicles that have now been christened "cars" and "sausages".

 

I'm still no nearer to finding them flying sausage things. Everyone seems to get them before me and won't tell me which tunnel they come from.

 

on another note, Why the hell does the beta always choose the same frigging map?, It's always that one called High Ground, Valhalla is a quality map but I've only played it twice now. The "man cannon" on it is quality but think they should have re-named it...

[Guest ahsatan]

I'm still no nearer to finding them flying sausage things. Everyone seems to get them before me and won't tell me which tunnel they come from.

 

We all wanted a flying sausage!

 

The "man cannon" on it is quality but think they should have re-named it...

 

There's just too much innuendo with that name! :lol

[wyndorf 389]

I want to know exactly who came up with the concept of (whilst in game) pushing up on the D-pad to talk. Seriously, what idiot thought that was a good idea?

 

Did they think "I know, lets do something that no other game has ever done, just to try and mask the fact that Halo is just another generic shooter"? Why does this person have a job in the first place? Why the hell didn't someone else from Bungie stand up and say "That's a crap idea! It will go down like a fart in church!"?

 

If this is in the finished game, I'll press my D-pad up - right up! - Bungie's corporate ass!

[Guest Andrew]

I've just played my first beta match and even though I came last I loved it, going to hopefully get a few more games in later before I goes on holiday tomorrow. Can't wait till September comes for the full game!

[Guest frednut]

I've just played my first beta match and even though I came last I loved it, going to hopefully get a few more games in later before I goes on holiday tomorrow. Can't wait till September comes for the full game!

 

I'll probably be online playing it later. Feel free to join me :)

[Guest Andrew]

I'll probably be online playing it later. Feel free to join me :)

 

Sounds good to me :)

[Guest ahsatan]

Sounds good to me :)

 

 

Ooh ooh! I'll play! :D

[Guest Clarkey]

This is from CVG, I'm sure the hackers will find alot more besides by the end of the Beta though (if anything more is there to be found anyways):

 

By digging through the source data of the multiplayer beta, the modding community has been able to unlock a massive list of on-screen text for both Halo 3's multiplayer and single-player campaign.

 

One fragment of text modders unearthed was this bombshell:

 

"The game cannot start because all players are set to observer. Too many players for splitscreen. Only 2 players may play splitscreen coop on the same Xbox 360 console. The party size is too large to start the game. Up to 4 players may play coop on Xbox Live or System Link. Loading information from Xbox Live..."

 

So if this doesn't turn out to be another Bungie red herring, it looks like Halo 3 is going to sport 4-player campaign co-op via Xbox Live and System Link - a feature that's been begged for inclusion since Halo 1.

 

Potentially - requiring Halo 3's single-player campaign isn't as rubbish as Halo 2 - this feature could be huge on Xbox Live - and indeed we'll be as happy a butcher's dog if it does in fact make it in.

 

When Microsoft get back to work tomorrow morning we'll see what it has to say on the matter, but don't count on it being anything other than "we don't comment on rumours and..." etc.

[Guest Clarkey]

A list of achievements has been found by the hackers from Halo 3 Beta (credit to 7th columist and Spong):

 

achievement_complete_mission_jungle

achievement_complete_mission_base

achievement_complete_mission_outskirts

achievement_complete_mission_voi

achievement_complete_mission_floodvoi

achievement_complete_mission_wasteland

achievement_complete_mission_citadel

achievement_complete_mission_highcharity

achievement_complete_mission_halo

achievement_complete_campaign_easy

achievement_complete_campaign_normal

achievement_complete_campaign_heroic

achievement_complete_campaign_legendary

achievement_find_jungle_skull

achievement_find_base_skull

achievement_find_outskirts_skull

achievement_find_voi_skull

achievement_find_floodvoi_skull

achievement_find_waste_skull

achievement_find_citadel_skull

achievement_find_highcharity_skull

achievement_find_halo_skull

achievement_jungle_training

achievement_jungle_no_casualties

achievement_floodvoi_no_flood_victims

achievement_spartan_recruit

achievement_spartan_graduate

achievement_spartan_officer

achievement_extra_crispy

achievement_banshee_surface_to_air_kill

achievement_triple_kill

achievement_killtacular

achievement_sticky_x5

achievement_brokeback

achievement_tripmine_vehicle_kill

achievement_flag_carrier_kill

achievement_kill_frenzy

achievement_triple_sword_kill

achievement_mongoose_splatter

achievement_melee_kill_x5

achievement_needler_kill_x5

achievement_sniper_kill_frenzy

achievement_headshot_kill_frenzy

achievement_full_warthog_kill

achievement_temporary_placeholder

 

I can't wait to unlock 'Temporary Placeholer'. But on a serious note, it at least reveals some locations if not even the actual level names with; (Credit to Spong):

 

Included in the list are: Jungle, Base, Outskirts, Voi, FloodVoi, Wasteland, Citadel, High Charity and a level on Halo itself.

[Guest LUKE]

I'v got my xbox back so if anyone want a game tonight I'm up for it.( sep when BB on)

[King 277]

.( sep when BB on)

 

 

Oh my God:lol

[Guest Clarkey]

Since Microsoft launched the beta for Halo 3 two weeks ago, some have murmured that the graphics are a bit, well, uninspiring, especially in comparison to Gears of War. Next-Gen spoke to Bungie about this perception.

 

Bungie's Frank O’Connor talked about the public’s reception to the beta and any changes in the game in the months between now and launch on September 25. He said, “Well to be honest, we’ve seen them [the graphics] praised too. Multiplayer is by necessity a more sterile iteration of our graphical style and will always be tuned for performance and elegance rather than jamming the screen full of pixels. We think that the final aesthetic look of our game will be judged at launch in September and in part based on the more intense single player spaces. We’re also focused on maintaining the Halo character and atmosphere in our visual design – we’re competing with ourselves, and not simply trying to match the aesthetic of other games. We think that folks will be happy with Halo 3’s graphical polish come September.”

 

He added that there would be some changes in the months ahead and that the game has not been seen in its complete form, “We have a long time to polish and iterate on the largely complete game at this point. We’ll be working on some big ticket items as well as making sure that the little details, like decorators and shaders are all in place. Lighting and atmospherics are going to be big keystones in our look and feel, and those really haven’t been shown except in multiplayer to this point.

 

There have been no complaints about Halo 3’s gameplay, and the title is sure to be a blockbuster. O’Connor said the game had been the product of “constant iteration, fine tuning and about six years experience in making console FPS games”. He added, “Philosophically, it’s making decisions at the start that you’re pretty sure won’t come back to bite you later – like including a balanced spawning weapon, making sure that the equipment add-ons are at least theoretically self-balancing, and applying the years of good feedback and data we have from Halo 1 and 2. Hopefully this beta process will supply even more data for subsequent fine-tuning. It’s already paying dividends for our network and matchmaking test process.”

 

Image On changes in the pipeline he said, “I think it’s safe to say there will be lots of visual surprises in Campaign and a few nifty graphical improvements in multiplayer.” The biggest challenge in development has been getting the right people on board. “It has been a challenge, hiring lots of people, managing dozens of them, making sure we have the best of the best and that we have space, equipment and resources to build next-gen content. Next-gen requires a lot of content. And a lot more people to build it.”

He added that Bungie had put a lot of emphasis on planning. “In the end, that will mean more features, fewer cuts, better polish and a more intensive test cycle. All of those will add up to a better game, and none of them are likely to happen without good planning. Halo 2 taught us a lot of tough lessons, but they were lessons learned."

 

Normally the Beta released is pretty much the final game bar some niggles, so reading this surprised me slightly in that how willingly Bungie seem to be in changing the aspects that have been complained about this late in development. It makes the cynic think that this released Beta is pretty close to the final product as it should be, but to save some of the criticism they got when releasing Halo 2 they have cleverly gathered reaction before releasing all they have under their jacket. While I can't forsee a huge graphics overhaul, I can see the improvement and think that Bungie have attempted to how much they could get away with (as close to Halo 2 as the Beta's graphics etc are), half hoping the public would accept it anyways. Overall they have, meaning less work on their front.

[Guest LUKE]

Oh my God:lol

 

Well your got to watch the first show so you can see what freaks go in.:lol

[King 277]

Well your got to watch the first show so you can see what freaks go in.:lol

 

 

True I suppose:P

[wyndorf 389]

I've accepted the graphics, now. It just kinda smacks you in the face when you first play it, how....well, dull it looks.

 

All they need to do is fix the pressing 'up' to talk stupidity.

[Guest frednut]

is anyone else just a tad bored of the halo 3 beta now? I suppose it may be down to the lack of options and maps available but it's just another fps game now to me. The multiplayer just needs more to it, like being able to talk without getting killed at the same time.

 

I'm still going to buy the full game as both myself and my sister enjoyed playing through co-op together on previous versions so hopefully the single player will be fun still, last i heard it was 4 player co-op.

[wyndorf 389]

I'm bored with pressing 'up'.....

 

I looked at it as generic FPS on first play. It's better with friends, not on the level of GoW, mind. That mode where you have to stay in the ever moving circle - on that level that never comes up more than once in 4 hour session - was pretty good. Skull Ball wasn't bad, either. Team matches are a mess, if you're on the blue team you're pretty much gonna spend the entire game saying "what colour team am I on?" It makes perfect sense for the blue teams names - to have a red font.....

 

Also, did I mention they need to fix that stupid pressing 'up' to talk guff? Man, I hate that!

[Guest Clarkey]

It makes you just wonder why none of the QA team picked up on it? Unless Bungie have confirmed it is just there at this point, it does seem mightily dumb on their part.