Halo 3: ODST

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

Bungie unveils a new Firefight map and a new ViDoc is coming.

http://www.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=Halo3ODST_RallyPoint

RALLY POINT

Sector 10 inside the city of New Mombasa has seen better days. The air is heavy with acrid smoke parted only by the constant arrival of enemy drop ships. Lucky for you, the crossroads that converge on the entrance into ONI’s Alpha Site offer up a textbook choke point. The Covenant has come to claim access. You and your squad of ODST’s are going to stop them at all costs.

Alongside this pair of images we’re also screening the latest Halo 3: ODST ViDoc for those in attendance at Gamescom this week. While we’re not quite ready to drop that onto B.net, you should definitely stick around and keep your eyes peeled. We’ll rally and serve it up as soon as we can.

Stay Tuned.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

I don't think the people playing here know you can zoom-in with both the SMG and Pistol.

Firefight - Rally Point

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Firefight Crater (Daytime)

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[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

Bungie Weekly Update

Hear No, See No

We’re just barely over a month away from Halo 3: ODST’s street date. If you’re struggling to keep every last bit of information under wraps so you can experience everything from a fresh perspective when you finally get to play, tread lightly. Press previews are starting to roll out and some folks just don’t get why you wouldn’t want all the tasty tidbits forced upon you the moment you load up the forums.

Since we have no way to police every darkened Internet alley you squat in, it’s up to you to pick and choose where you get your information and how much risk you’re willing to take.

Transforming Transport Truck Tour

You hear about this? Twenty-two cities, eight Xbox 360’s, and a whole truckload of Halo swag courtesy of Microsoft and GameStop. They say this bad boy clocks in at a “beefy” thirteen tons, which is like ten times larger than thirteen standard tons and over a hundred times more meaty.

Our Visual Design team coated this sucker, inside and out, with some eye-candy you’ll need to see to believe. In fact, check out some shots of what you’ll see if you happen to catch up with it when it comes to your area (or you go on a great journey of your own):

Locations

http://www.gamestop.com/gs/landing/h3otour/h3o_tour.pdf

New ViDoc coming next week.

Team Bungie is on the ground in Cologne, Germany to promote ODST at the gigantic Gamescom show. This huge gathering puts E3 to shame in terms of crowds and scale, a fact clearly evident with our whopping 32 stations of hands-on Firefight ("Feuergefecht") compared to the mere 8 we had in Los Angeles. We have five different maps available for play including the world premier of the latest map, Rally Point. So far the game has proven to be a hit with consistent crowds and lines for the duration of the show.

Upstairs we've been doing round-the-clock campaign demos for over 200 worldwide media. We're showing the same demo we did at E3 which includes the opening cut-scene, a bit of exploration through New Mombasa and start of the Oni Alpha Site campaign mission. As a grand finale, we're giving a sneak peak at the next ODST ViDoc which is slated for worldwide release on Xbox LIVE marketplace next week. So far it's been a big hit including the special German language addition that was made just in time for the show.

Overheads of the new multiplayer maps

Citadel
Longshore
Heretic

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

From OXM:

• ODST feels impeccably paced, better than any previous halo game.
  
• ODST is a much darker experience.
  
• Despite the memories of Combat Evolved this is a distinctly quieter Halo. This is even reflected in the series' composer Marty O'Donnell's film noir-ish score, highlighted by a brooding piano-and-alto-sax number.

On an encounter with a couple Hunters:

Using our VISR map to circle all the way around and flank him on the other side, we began unloading on the big blue brothers, confident of success after getting the drop on them. Shotgun in hand, we managed to terminate the first after an extended battle that exhausted our entire grenade supply.

As we retreated inside a building riddled with darkened narrow hallways to reload and regroup, the surviving - not pleased about his buddy's demise - lived up to his name. He proceeded to stalk inside the structure. With only a handful of shotgun blasts left, we couldn't do much to his armored frontside. Talk about getting our backsides handed to us.

Sure, ODST may look and feel like Halo, but without the abilities and pain threshold of a seven foot tall super soldier and his half-ton reflex enhancing MJOLNIR armor, ODST's increased vulnerability makes Halo scary again. Remember your first white-knuckled encounter with Hunters in Combat Evolved? We do, and we missed that sweaty-palmed thrill after getting a little to comfortable with Master Chief's demigod-like skills in Halo 2 and Halo 3.

Lars Baken, "A lot of things went into making ODST feel different. Part of that was lowering the camera height. You're not seven feet tall anymore. The other thing is taking away the motion tracker, which means you don't have a really good idea of your surroundings or where your enemies are. You have to rely on your ears and eyes. You have to rely on health packs. When you get low on health your kind of in trouble. You have to play more carefully. The jump height has been lessened. You move a bit slower. All of those things go back to the original Halo."

The rest is pretty spoiler heavy of the first half of the campaign, which is what they played.

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Gamestop Sgt. Johnson Ad

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VG247 Interview

It’s had a bit of a tumultuous life-cycle. There was the name change after it was announced at TGS, and there was the controversy over the price. You don’t tend to expect this from a Bungie product. You have a squeaky clean image.

Jarrad: Yeah, ODST has been a different product for us a lot of respects. It’s the first time we’ve had a game that we’ve basically done on an accelerated 12 month schedule with a small team. We’re definitely proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in a short time. It’s been a first in many ways, but I think that the final product came out even better than we had hoped, and it’s going to speak for itself when it comes out next month.

What’s the general feel like at Bungie now you’ve split with Microsoft? Is there a different feel at all?

Day to day life hasn’t changed that much. We’ve been super-busy, obviously. We’ve finally been able to announce Halo: Reach, which has been in development right since the end of Halo 3. Having a portion of our team working on ODST while Reach has been going full steam; we’ve been too busy right now to think about too much else. We’re just heads-down making great games. Right now that’s our focus.

What about the open structure of ODST? It’s something you haven’t really done before. Is this something you’re going to extend into Reach?

It’s possible. We can’t really talk about Reach right now, but you’re right: ODST is a whole different way for us to propel the missions and the whole narrative structure. I speak for these guys; they had a lot of fun doing it. It was a different experience. A welcome change.

Does it keep it fresh?

CJ Cowan: Yeah. One thing that I found about it is that in the trilogy there are so many storylines and different places, and you’re trying to keep track of everything, and we were struggling all the time to try to keep the stories simple. With ODST we decided very early on that we wanted to make this a small story about a small group of guys and what happened to them, and to tell it in a very elegant and complex way, with back-flashes and jumping into the boots of several of the characters.

Do you think it’s a more personal game, as opposed to the more gung-ho, flag-waving thing?

CJ Cowan: It is. It’s contained right here in New Mombassa, and it’s about this squad of people that you really get to know throughout the game, especially as you jump into their shoes. You understand all their motivations. It’s very character-centric, far more so than our previous games.

[Spectre]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

I just preordered on Amazon- $10 credit towards a future game and $5 in mp3 (I'll grab some hard to find stuff). There's also something on the amazongames twitter that said there would be an additional $5 off- I'm not sure if that successfully went through but I did have two promotions listed (hopefully the $5 and the mp3 promotion) and one "credit on shipment" (the $10) listed in my order summary.

Pretty sweet deal- I'm doing SuperSaver shipping because I won't have time to play it for a week anyway

I love saving big bucks on a game I'm going to play the crap out of!

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

New ViDoc - Sgt. Johnson + Firefight

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[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

Ars Technica: behind the scenes with Halo 3 ODST

The development time on the title? Barely a year. Ars Technica spoke with the game's creative director Joseph Staten to find out just exactly how much of a cowboy project this is.

"I wouldn't say we were flying by the seat of our pants," he told us. In fact, the limits of the project were known from the start. "We knew it was going to be a modified version of the Halo 3 engine. We knew we had a smaller team, and we knew we had a year. From there we began to make plans," Staten said. The original set of projections they were working with came from the development of Halo 3, and of course included padding to iron out and test the engine. Except now the team was working with an engine they knew well, and had mature development tools.

"With a totally stable engine, in the first three or four months, we realized we're moving a lot faster than we thought we would." The ideas began to expand, and he said they quickly understood they could "bite off" much more than anyone had at first assumed. "What you saw, what we announced as we were beginning production, at that point we hadn't benefited from those savings yet," he explained. "We were actually going in to cautiously, and we were able to stretch a bit."

Since you're no longer a Spartan, there will be no regenerating health, no dual-wielding. You're going to feel much more like a soldier than a superhero. How are gamers going to react to such a radical shift in gameplay mechanics and feel?

"People won't feel like they're missing anything if we did our job right," Staten said. "We wanted to make sure people felt like an ODST, where in Halo 3 you feel like a Spartan. This is a different character; we have to take some things away, and add some things to nail that experience."

People may have to make adjustments and get used to feeling slightly more vulnerable, but it's not a bad thing to shake things up every now and again. "Players will feel very rooted in this new character, with tools very well suited for his job."

It helps that the four-man squad—the game's "main" character is an unnamed ODST called "The Rookie—is voiced by Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, and Alan Tudyk. That's quite the cast of talent, but we asked Staten if the game might suffer from feeling like something of a Firefly reunion.

"Keep in mind that these three guys did work with Halo 3," he said. "So for us at least, that was a good indication that getting those guys together again was just about getting three talented actors in the studio... The tone of the piece and the characters were sufficiently different from what they did in Firefly that we weren't concerned at all." He explained that there were only two qualifications they were looking for: getting people who fit the characters, and who played the game and enjoyed it. All three men were Halo fans, which made the process of recording much easier.

There will also be an Oni agent overseeing the team's mission, and she'll be voiced by a name Battlestar Galactica fans will recognize rather easily: Tricia Helfer. She actually was in the same room as Nathan Fillion for a recording session, a rarity when it comes to voice work. "They brought a really great relationship with them into the studio," Staten said. "We did their cinematic dialog and some mission dialog. It was great. There were scenes where having the connection was wonderful; their performances were stronger having them together at the same time.".

Halo has always been a game that has thrived in co-op, and that won't change with ODST. It's there from day one. "Every Halo game has been made with co-op in mind. It informs how we build our environments, how we create a scripting system—we have to build an AI that can do with co-op."

It's something that's given thought from the earliest stages of development. "We acted on [co-op] from the get-go," said Staten. "Every one of our missions was tweaked for two or more ODSTs going through the space. We made sure they had different routes to take, different roles to fill. The city is a great place to run around in with four guys."

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

Enter for a chance to win Halo 3 ODST + Themed 360

http://www.mtndewhalo3odst.com/Home.aspx

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

Mtn. Dew is actually giving one away every day until the release. They put the codes up on their twitter every other day. 8/26-8/27 code is 24015

[Cyros]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

I'd like to win one, but the odds are against me.

BTW, how big is the HDD supposed to be, 120GB?

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

OMG Firefight blowout. Bonus Round.

1UP's videos are the best:

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IGN Video Preview

<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='object_ID=852871&downloadURL=http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/video/article/101/1018678/haloodst_firefight_preview_flvlowwide.flv&allownet working="all%"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360'></embed><div style='width:433;'><a href='http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/852/852871.html'>More Halo 3: ODST News & Previews</a></div>

[sportsdude]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

those videos looked great, I'm looking forward to playing this. Firefight mode, I was a little unsure about when it was first announced but after seeing a bunch of videos I think it looks awesome.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

Holy ****, Bungie has really outdone themselves here.


Return of the New Hotness

And of course, with the release of Halo 3: ODST, we’re once again upping the Bungie.net ante.

And as with all sneak peeks we should make mention that there may be minor differences between what you see here and what makes it into the final build. Don’t worry though. We’re not talking about features hitting the cutting room floor. More like small visual tweaks and maybe a minor repositioning of some stuff here and there.

Identify Yourself

Your future identity bar will now be fueled by magics. If the last title you played happens to be Halo 3: ODST, it’ll display relevant information for that title. If your last online affair was with Halo 3, it’s show off stuff pertaining to your faithful old gal. If you want to make the selection on the fly on your own, it'll accommodate that too. See? Magics.

You might also notice that in the case of ODST, there’s a pile or medals being shown and a grim skull on display. More on that last bit in a sec.

Under the ODST Hood

Ah, here’s where we really start digging in. It’s probably where you’ll dig in as well. Steel yourself for a stat assault unlike anything you’ve ever seen. It’s gonna get all numerical up in this, uh…section. Leaderboards? Check. Line graphs. Check. Circle charts? Now come on, don’t you think you’re asking just a little too much? I mean, you know we don’t charge for this stuff, right? Fine. Check.

Click to View

What you see is what you get. From the Online Stats Overview page you can get a glimpse at how many players are online, see some recent games, click into your Halo 3: ODST and Halo 3 service record, and search and sort custom content using the drop down and links provided.

Click to View


Click to View

Once you make it a bit more personal by clicking into your own Service Record, you can check out a wealth of statistical data about your career performance, games played, and your own custom content. Click into Halo 3: ODST and you can sort your personal data by mission and difficulty, see information covering your points total, your kills-to-deaths ratio, and get breakdowns of how it all averages out, per game. Averages include Points per Game, Kills per Game, Deaths per Game, Points per Death, Kills per Death, and Points per Kill. You can also check out your Tools of Destruction, with each being sortable via a handful of relevant categories.

To the right, you’ll find your Chests that display information and statistics about the medals you’ve earned, the enemies you’ve dispatched, and the vehicles you’ve turned into scrap. These are also sortable.

Drilling Down

This same information will carry over into the game-by-game statistics as well, allowing you click on any of the relevant bits to get an even more detailed look. As you can see above, clicking on the Brute Hero nets you a look into how many of this enemy type each player in the game took down. Of course, there are plenty of other categories readily available from here as well.

If you’re a feeling overwhelmed by all of this, you can always just stick with the heatmaps. They’ve gotten a nice visual upgrade as well.

Livin' La Vida Leaderboards

Campaign and Firefight Leaderboards will let you get a good look at where your scores ultimately stack up. You can fiddle with some query values to return results based on difficulty, mission, and how many players were in the mix.

Click to View

The blue-toned graph offers a Global Comparison, in this case the point values range from 0 to 840, 000. This data provides a visual representation of where the entire population falls in the overall scheme of things, and the orange line shows you where you live (lol, stosh).

The list below will default to those on your friends list, provided they have data from Halo 3: ODST games recorded. If you want to view other players’ totals, you can do that by looking at the stats section of their profile. When you do so, the system will temporarily add them to the list alongside you and the rest of your crew.

We haven’t gotten to the really detailed bits yet. Take a deep breath and let's go deeper.

Click to View

Bam. We’re looking at a single game of Firefight here. You can see the navigation links at the top let you browse through older or newer games (and of course, you can step back and see them all in a nice, digestible list). Top right is the player breakdown. To the left is the game overview and a handful of icons that will let you share your game date over social networking sites, email, and even the old fashioned way via your printer.

“Dear Grandma, today I played some Firefight. It was awesome. Love, Me.”

Line by Line

The line chart here is displaying Set 1, Round 2. Each colored line is attributed to one of the four players that were in on this game. You can see their point totals climb as they progressed through each wave. If you wanted to, you could use this same tool to check out similar data for Points or Deaths. Right now it’s showing Kills. The default view will show the entire game, broken up into Sets. Clicking on a Set will drill down to display the data relevant for that time frame. And so on and so forth. Too much? There’s more.

Round and Round

This one might be a bit tough to wrap your head around until you get some hands on time. The beginning of each game is marked by the twelve o’clock position and mission "time" runs as you would expect, in a clockwise manner. You know about non-digital clocks, right?

The inner most ring represents Sets (in this case there are four of ‘em), the central band is rounds (three for each set), and the outermost ring is waves (5 per round). Just like the line chart described above, clicking into any individual segment will refresh the stats to display info relevant only to that segment of time, be it a full Set or a particular Round or Wave.

Is your head swimming yet? Trust us. It’s as intuitive in practice as it is mind-boggling in theory. You can see your stats from a lofty vantage, or you can zoom in and get as granular as you want. Your choice.

Bungie.net Firefight Skulls

You may have noted the new skull icon in the title bar. You may have also noted that in some of the images on display, it’s been obfuscated so you can’t make it out. As you progress through Firefight, earning higher and higher scores on higher and higher difficulties, you’ll earn better and better skulls to show off. It’s bragging rights only, but we thought it best to reserve some of the higher tiered stuff so you can see them for the first time when you earn ‘em (or when your friends emasculate you by linking to the newer, better, hotter skull they’ve just snagged).

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

Red vs. Blue Halo 3: ODST Debut

Rooster Teeth's Red vs. Blue series is, without question, the best game machinima around. So when we found out that the folks at Rooster Teeth had teamed with Gamestop to create a series of special episodes in anticipation of Halo 3: ODST's launch, we were anxious to see them.

The first in the weekly releases shows the Red vs. Blue Spartans gathered around to discuss the impending release of ODST. Since ODST's Firefight Mode features "normal humans" rather than Spartans, the switch to a new game should be promising. But are these ODSTs really pushovers?

<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='object_ID=852871&downloadURL=http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/video/article/101/1019436/rooster_trl_haloodst_prtredvsblueodst_82709_flvlow wide.flv&allownetworking="all%"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360'></embed><div style='width:433;'><a href='http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/852/852871.html'>Halo 3: ODST at IGN.com</a></div>

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

Bungie Weekly Update

What’s New?

We’ve already deployed two ODST ViDocs for your viewing pleasure, but we’re definitely not done with them yet. There is another, but you’re gonna have to wait a brief spell before you get to see it. Sorry.

You’re definitely going to like what’s up next though. Those clamoring for a more official ViDoc – the more traditional developer documentary-style stuff – are going to get exactly what they’re looking for. ViDoc Triple is once again a star-studded affair and it’s coming soon. (You can go to bed early tonight and sleep in late tomorrow, though. It's not coming that soon.)

Double Dose of Matchmaking Updates

September’s Matchmaking shifts are coming in two separate waves. The first round will be the monthly stuff you’re already accustomed to while the second shot will be aimed directly at supporting Halo 3: ODST’s retail launch. Folks with the shiny Halo 3: Mythic disc should have plenty of places to play the brand-spankin’ new Heretic, Citadel, and Longshore hotness.

Update the First: Beginning of September

General

All core gametypes with AR starts will now be AR/Magnum starts.

Ranked

Playlist order modified. This will not affect Trueskill or EXP rank:

• Lone Wolves
• Team Slayer
• Team SWAT
• Team Snipers
• Team Doubles
• Squad Battle
• MLG

Team Snipers – Shotty Snipers is now Skip After Veto

Team Doubles – Cubed, Plurality, removed

MLG – Construct, Guardian, and Narrows updated to MLG 6.1 spec

Social

Rumble Pit – Cubed removed


Update the Second: September 21st in the Year of Our Lord, 2009

General

Mythic 2 maps added to all hoppers as optional, except as listed below.

Ranked

Team Throwback – New Ranked Objective playlist. 1 Flag, 2 Flag, and Oddball with BR/AR starts. Halo 3: Mythic disk required.

Social

Team Mythic – 4v4 Slayer and Objective. Vetoing in this playlist will result in a Mythic 2 map. Halo 3: Mythic disk required.

Big Team Mythic – 8v8 Slayer and Objective. Vetoing in this playlist will result in a Mythic 1 or 2 map. Halo 3: Mythic disk required.

Double EXP Weekends (In Order)

• Grifball – Now Mythic 1 required
• Team Flag
• Rocket Race
• Prepare to Drop – 4v4 Slayer and Objective loosely inspired by Halo 3: ODST. Halo 3: Mythic disk required
• Mythic Brawl – Halo 3: Mythic disk required.

7 on the 7th

New Community Maps added:

• Sentiment, Nocticulent added to Slayer
• Undulation, Coup d’Etat added to Team Slayer BRs
• Rat Trap added to 2 Flag