Halo 3 Impressions

[The C]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Old gamertag


New gamertag

why do you have a new gamertag?

[Beantown]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

why do you have a new gamertag?

Longhorn got messed up somewhere along the way.

[The C]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Longhorn got messed up somewhere along the way.

oh, i thought you might have been one of those super compulsive people who make new gamertags for halo because they lost

[Beantown]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

oh, i thought you might have been one of those super compulsive people who make new gamertags for halo because they lost

Nah, I couldn't log in to any EA games with Longhorn anymore, so had to switch.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Bungie Weekly Update

Halo 3: ODST

With Christmas and New Year's fast approaching, the studio has been buzzing like a hive of bees. As we noted in last week's update, Halo 3: ODST is now what we consider "representational." In layman's terms, that means the game is theoretically playable end-to-end, although tons of game content is in non-finalized states. The playable spaces are all in, but while the plot plays out from start to finish, there's still quite a bit of Microsoft Mike and studio talent in the mix, standing in until the professional actors lend their voices to us.

Right now, in ODST, it seems like Staten is everywhere at once. Marine voice actor, check. ODST voice actor, check. Female marine voice actress, he's got that down too. The man has range.

We're not going to dive too deeply into specifics now (obviously), but the entire studio was pulled "offline" on Wednesday - diverted from their other work - to play through Halo 3: ODST. For those of you who think it's all work and no play at Bungie, this might not help to quash your unfounded assumptions, but quash them you should because while we certainly enjoy playing games, and while it's our stated mission to craft kick *** games that we want to play, the first playthrough is all business. We don't take it lightly. We're not only trying to find out what's fun to play, we're trying to ascertain what isn't fun to play. Where are players having to backtrack? Why are they toting a plasma pistol when they should have located the sniper rifle? The questions are nearly endless and the after-the-fact evaluation is thorough and honest.

Happy Holidays

Each year Bungie puts together a unique holiday card for family and friends. This year, Lorraine McLees and her Creative Services Team put together the awesomeness you're about to see below. Since we're all friends here, we figured you should get a copy in your digital mailbox. Scroll down for a sweet downloadable version you can print and send out to all the Halo fans you know and love. Or maybe just to freak your grandma out a bit.

Click on the images for the complete card, ready for assembly.





Happy Holidays to you and yours. We hope you have a great holiday season. Thanks for helping us make 2008 kick much *** - we can't wait to for you to see what we have in store for 2009. Stay tuned.

Oh, and one last little thing before we head off into the Winter Wonderland. Click to make huge. Check back next week. More to come.

[Miles_Yuhas]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

New Screens from Mythic map pack maps Orbital and Assembly.

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=16546

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Q. When are you going to show us Sandbox? You expect us to buy the Mythic Map Pack without getting a good look at the goods first?

A. Hello, my fine friend, and may I bid you welcome to Bungie.net. You'll find that we're always as forthright and forthcoming as we can be. Stick around and make yourself right at home - we'll give you everything you need in order to make a sound purchasing decision before you're forced to open up your e-wallet. Certainly before March 3rd. In fact, just this week the Community Team threw down in some somewhat noncompetitive matches against of our internal friends in Creative Services and Test to generate some sweet screenshots you'll be treated to soon, one way or another.

Q. Aw, come on. Can we at least get Luke to give us an interpretive illustration?

A. Bam. What is it? We really can't say. Not because we're on gag order, but because there simply are no words.

Outdoor nighttime map would be interesting.

[Miles_Yuhas]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Oh yeah Flawless I didn't even think of that when I saw that drawing. Outdoor night part would be really interesting.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Halo 3 meets Fallout 3 - V.A.T.S in Halo 3

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[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Sandbox screen leaked




Supposedly this is a Foundry-like Forge map and is what those blue gridlines that we saw months ago.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions


New Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack Details Revealed

Sandbox combines large-scale vehicular combat with a limitless amount of Forge customization. Boasting a tiered, open-world layout, “Halo 3” players will be able to build their own unique game experiences using the Forge map editor. Sandbox is a map unlike any Bungie has ever created.

Still no date when the map pack will be available for everybody. I'm definitely not buying the Halo Wars CE to play them. This map pack has been done for months according to Bungie and was actually going to include 6 maps, but Microsoft decided to try and take advantage of Halo fans by splitting them up between Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST.

[Miles_Yuhas]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

New Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack Details Revealed



Still no date when the map pack will be available for everybody. I'm definitely not buying the Halo Wars CE to play them. This map pack has been done for months according to Bungie and was actually going to include 6 maps, but Microsoft decided to try and take advantage of Halo fans by splitting them up between Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST.

Yeah, this has been a bit frusturating for someone that still plays Halo regularly. The Legendary Map Pack has been out forever and it's still not required for ranked team slayer. It's frusturating because Ghost Town and Blackout are great maps for 4v4 TS. It would also be nice to get Avalanche for Squad battle.

I don't know if I'm going to get Halo Wars, but if I do I'll get the LE because I will pay for the maps anyways which is what I pay for with Halo Wars LE, I just get them earlier.

Sandbox looks like an even better forge map than Foundry, and looks to be a pretty cool map on its own. We'll see how the three maps play. The other 3 maps for ODST will be interesting as well. We'll see if we ever get the long rumored Moon level possibly with low gravity.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack Interview

IGN: What new Forge items are being added for use with this map?

Lars Bakken: On top of just about every kind of building block (we hope) you could ever want, there are some cool new goodies too. We have tunnels now, different sized door frames (like ones that are crouch height), and some extra things that we can't talk about yet. One of our favorites though has to be the "Kill Ball." It's essentially a big sphere that kills anything that is foolish enough to enter. Justin Hayward, our art director, was able to cook up a red and blue dynamic light object that will allow players to place them around the map to differentiate bases easier.

IGN: Which matchmaking playlists will Sandbox, Assembly, and Orbital eventually be incorporated into?

Lars Bakken: When Halo Wars ships, there'll be a 4v4 playlist called Team Mythic that features only the Mythic map pack. After the maps hit Marketplace, we'll start off with some focused Mythic offerings in addition to requiring them in Rumble Pit, Social Team DLC, Social Big Team, Team SWAT and Team Snipers, and optional in pretty much every other hopper. They will not be present in Social Slayer, Social Skirmish, or MLG (unless MLG decides to add variants to their playlist). Double EXP weekends will be updated to feature Mythic after they hit Marketplace. As always we'll continue to monitor how things are going and update the playlists as needed. We're also hoping to see a nice influx of high quality Sandbox variants that will eventually make their way into matchmaking as well.

IGN: How long will those who don't pick up the Collector's Edition of Halo Wars have to wait before they can buy the map pack? How much will the pack cost?

Brian Jarrard: The maps will eventually arrive on Live Marketplace as a standalone download for 800 points. Exactly when that will happen is still being finalized.

IGN: How much longer will new maps continue to be made for Halo 3? Have resources been shifted to Halo 3: ODST or is there yet more to come?

Brian Jarrard: We haven't actually been working on new maps for quite a while aside from some final testing and preparations for release. These days, we've got a smaller team that's focused on finishing the ODST campaign and all that it entails while the rest of the studio continues making progress on other, larger, secret projects. Once the Mythic maps are released this Spring, fans will still be able to look forward to a few more exclusive new maps that will be included in the Halo 3: ODST release later this Fall.

Overall though, we are viewing the ODST campaign and the included multiplayer maps as the final exclamation point in our ongoing efforts to extend the Halo 3 experience. We're really grateful to our fans for standing by Halo 3 for so long and continuing to show us such strong support. It's been a great ride thus far and but it's not quite over yet. With the wide open possibilities of Sandbox and Forge, two additional solid maps and some new achievements, players will hopefully find plenty of ways to keep having fun with Halo 3 before we unleash ODST later this Fall.

Be sure to check back with IGN on Monday, February 9 for our exclusive look at more of the flexible Sandbox map.

Blue grid

[Candyman5]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Looks nice.

[Miles_Yuhas]

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Sandbox looks really good. It'll be interesting to see what people come up with with a much more open level than foundry. I wonder what people are going to do with that giant ball of death.