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| Halo 3 | |
| Posted By: mnemesis <mnemesis@bungie.org> | Date: 7/14/07 4:46 a.m. |
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I had an interesting Friday this week. Besides the garden-variety perks of fresh biscotti and a home-made coffee cake at work, I found an intriguing email waiting for me. Brian Jarrard wanted to know if I had some free time, since he and Frank were demoing Halo 3 all day, and they figured they could squeeze me in somewhere if I was interested. I glanced at the biscotti, then left a little Roadrunner-style dust cloud in my wake as I jetted to Santa Monica and the very chic and swanky Viceroy hotel, and the Halo goodness therein. Now, right off the bat I want to say that I've seen some pretty comprehensive coverage this last week on all things E3, from all the usual suspects in the gaming press. Much of what I saw and heard has already been reported, so don't look to my paltry little 'review' for anything new or earth-shaking on the Halo 3 front. Still, I hope to give just a little bit of the ol' HBO flavor to things, so there might be something here of interest. I'd also like to say that, while I understand the visuals are important to the game, I also think that the obsession with comparing this game to that, this rendering engine to that one, this set of shaders to those, is just silly. What looks good in Gears of War, or Assasin's Creed, or whatever, won't necessarily look good in Killzone, or Quake Wars, or Halo 3 for that matter. For all the similarities, triple-A title status, and platform and genre comparisons, they're still all different games with different art styles, color palettes, and designs. If anyone out there thinks that any one of these games (and hundreds more like them) is going to rise or fall based on just how realistic the specular reflection is on that half-shaded, mossy boulder there next to the ammo crates, they're deluding themselves. Know that I don't give a rat's ass if the Halo 3 graphics look to people like they're too close to those in Halo 2. I thought that everything about the game I just saw looked better, shinier, fuzzier, grittier, sandier, splashier, furrier, smoother, foggier, more colorful, more natural, more alien, and generally more more. Most importantly, it looks right. That's all it ever has to do, in any game. So, as you know, they ran through a part of the first game level, just playing the way one would normally play. One interesting thing about the graphics that sort of jumped out at me was the way light can help, and sometimes hinder, your ability to focus on the scene at hand. For those that played the Beta, you may remember the way your view would be a bit oversaturated if you ran into bright daylight from a dark, shaded space. As Frank ran through the lush setting of the single-player level, he occasionally glanced up, showing off the light bloom around the myriad branches and leaves of the tree canopy on that part of that level. The thing that kind of surprised me, though, was that the lit/shaded patterns that he ran through were highlighted by the weapon in hand becoming brightly lit, and then shadowed itself. In a game where one is constantly looking for certain color patterns and types of movement to indicate an upcoming enemy, having the gun that's in front of your face all the time kind of blink at you certainly adds a new twist to things. ;-) I also like the hexagonal pattern that faintly reveals itself all over the HUD if you take damage. Interesting way to deal with an indicator like that, to embed it in the 'fabric' of the HUD itself. I read one review that mentioned Elites. Never saw 'em, other than Arbiter, who was running and fighting alongside through this level. And saying obvious things like, "Sleepers! when a clutch of snoozing Grunts was discovered. Anyway, I think the review that mentioned Elites was confusing them with Jackals, of which there are many. Frank was playing on Heroic, and there were a few of the dreaded snipers, but he never died at the claws of one, so take that how you may. The Brutes' power armor can be blown off by grenades, Plasma pistols, etc., which just seems to make them more pissed and feral. The grenades from the Brute shot seemed to work more effectively, but it could just be that Frank knows how to aim that thing. I know I never could... As for the second half of the presentation, the multiplayer, the big thing there is the films options. As I'm pretty sure had been mentioned, you can change angles, fly the camera around, and switch between player viewpoints. You can slo-mo back and forth, freeze the action, fast forward, rewind, and skip ahead or back much as one can with a DVD player or TiVo. You can save just a clip from part of a game, and do it using your own camera angles. You can save off hi-res screens from whatever angle and point in a game you want to. Bungie.Net, Live, and your Xbox 360 are going to be working very closely with each other to allow a lot of freedom in sharing films, etc. with the rest of the world. Now, finally, we'll have a simple way to distribute those wacky HBO gametypes to whomever wants them. No more waiting around while one player tries to remember those game settings from the other day! FAE will be available for all to play! A couple of things about the playback capabilities seemed to me to bear notice. One, that even when paused, objects emit their own innate sound, in glorious Dolby surround. It just seemed especially cool to get up close and personal with a frozen rocket, vicious little flame spitting out the back, while it hisses and fizzes, waiting to be set free to complete its journey of fiery destruction. Neat. The other thing is that the moveable camera and freeze make searching for art eggs much easier. You can pause next to someone on the chain gun, and get right up close to the shells, frozen as they are ejected. I only hope the Bungie artists are up to filling everything with as much eye candy as is possible. Speaking of eye candy, there were a couple of the new Halo 3 Xboxes on display, also. Brian mentioned that Frank had worked on the copy for the little text bits scattered around on it. He also dropped the intriguing hint that said text bits contain eggs that pertain to the Halo story. The light in the hotel ballroom was extremely low, and my eyes far too old and feeble for the task. If anyone who gets one of them would care to take some clear, well-lit pics, they'll have a happy home over at the HSP, I guarantee. The final thing I wanted to mention isn't about Halo 3, but about Halo Wars. I didn't get to see their demo at all, but the two guys I met were very cool (unfortunately, I don't remember their names). Brian had seen their demo, though, and said that they (Bungie) thought it was looking extremely awesome so far. He especially noted that the Ensemble guys were doing a bang-up job getting the physics to match that of our own Halo games. Meaning, among other things, that Warthogs fishtailed properly, and groups of exploding Grunts flew the right way. One last thing he also recalled was that the player had the ability to call in a MAC cannon strike. Ho-boy, that's something I'm looking forward to! :-D
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| Replies: |
| Halo 3 | mnemesis | 7/14/07 4:46 a.m. |
| Re: Halo 3 | DHalo | 7/14/07 4:58 a.m. |
| Re: Halo 3 | Louis Wu | 7/14/07 8:07 a.m. |
| Re: Halo 3 | DHalo | 7/15/07 5:16 p.m. |
| Re: Halo 3 | Louis Wu | 7/15/07 5:34 p.m. |
| Re: Halo 3 | DHalo | 7/15/07 6:03 p.m. |
| Re: Halo 3 | LoneRanger 2.5 | 7/14/07 5:22 a.m. |
| Re: Halo 3 | Avateur | 7/14/07 5:54 a.m. |
| Re: Halo 3 | Hunt3r | 7/14/07 2:21 p.m. |
| Re: Halo 3 | mnemesis | 7/15/07 6:04 p.m. |
| i luvs the mnem *NM* | Miguel Chavez | 7/14/07 8:59 a.m. |
| Re: Halo 3 | J Robinson | 7/14/07 1:30 p.m. |
| Re: Halo 3 | ACEfanatic02 | 7/14/07 3:51 p.m. |
| Re: Halo 3 | Sep7imus [subnova] | 7/14/07 1:38 p.m. |
| Lucky git! ;) *NM* | Spartan Jag | 7/14/07 4:54 p.m. |
| MP Disappointing so far | MasterChief2829 | 7/14/07 5:30 p.m. |
| I will be exposed............. | Cyclone_Ranger | 7/15/07 11:24 a.m. |
| Re: BTW, really informative subject line, mnem. *NM* | Sep7imus [subnova] | 7/15/07 6:08 p.m. |
| I was only a few hours away... *NM* | CYBRFRK | 7/16/07 9:31 a.m. |
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