Halo 3: ODST

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: Recon

Bungie

New Campaign, New Heroes, New Tactics

Much more than an expansion, Halo 3: ODST allows players to explore dangerous new ground, search the dark, abandoned streets of New Mombasa for clues, and fight back against the Covenant invasion from multiple perspectives. Dropping in as "the rookie," a new member of an elite squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers sent into New Mombasa on a classified recon mission, you'll be armed with specialized weaponry and upgraded technology, including silenced weapons and a VISR enhanced vision mode.

Separated from your squad, you'll have to scour the city for clues in order to learn what happened to Buck, Dare, Dutch, Mickey, and Romeo. As you collect new clues, you’ll experience the story from their perspectives, fighting through the occupied city hours earlier.

4 Player Co-op Firefight

Drop feet first into a new way to play Halo with the cooperative campaign mode, Firefight. Form a squad of your friends over System Link or Xbox LIVE and put your skills to the ultimate test against the invading Covenant war machine for glory, high scores, and achievements. Do battle in multiple environments, on foot or in vehicles, and against increasingly difficult waves of Covenant attackers while Halo 3's skull modifiers progressively activate to up the ante.

After the Firefight, relive and review every last kill you earned and see how your high scores and stats stack up against your friends' and the community overall using Bungie.net's persistent online stats and Firefight leaderboards.

3 New Halo 3 Maps and The Complete MP Experience

Three all-new maps make their debut for Halo 3's traditional, chart-topping multiplayer. Heretic, Longshore, and Citadel drop in alongside the original Halo 3 Multiplayer Maps, all packed in and playable from one standalone disc. Twenty-four maps in all, including the Heroic, Legendary, Cold Storage, and Mythic Map Packs, provide a peerless multiplayer experience, near limitless content creation and customization via the Forge and Sandbox, and a slew of new multiplayer achievements for Halo 3.

Invitation to the Halo Reach Beta

Buy Halo 3: ODST and receive an invitation to participate in the Halo: Reach Xbox LIVE multiplayer beta. If you want in, hold onto your copy of Halo 3: ODST and stay tuned to Bungie.net and Xbox.com for more details.

Community Features

4-Player co-op experience over Xbox LIVE or System Link, Screenshots, Saved Films, custom Halo 3 Multiplayer Map and Game Variants via the Forge…all of the award-winning features included in Halo 3 are packed into Halo 3: ODST with an extra 1750 available achievement points piled on for good measure. And Halo 3: ODST introduces an all-new single player experience with new characters, new weapons and technology, and the frenetic cooperative experience, Firefight, an entirely unique way to play Halo.

Bungie.net Integration

What good is winning if you can't brag about it to your friends? Extend your gaming experience beyond the console with Bungie.net's expansive integration. All of your lifetime stats are aggregated into your online Service Record - every last kill, every single medal, and your entire collection of career post game carnage reports, plus robust charts, graphs, and leaderboards allow you to instantly see how you stack up against the rest of your squad and the Halo 3: ODST community at large.

Pre-order Bonus

Ready to enlist? Sign up early by pre-ordering your copy of Halo 3: ODST at select retailers and get a token to unlock Sgt. Johnson for use in Firefight.

[Altimus]

Re: Halo 3: Recon

Pretty neat pre-order bonus.

[Beantown]

Re: Halo 3: Recon

I love how every game is now incorprating a "survival"/"horde"/"firefight" mode.

It's been my favorite gametype since the old Ghost Reacon days...so take that, add in my favorite game series of all time...and I'm a happy Halo-nerd.

[Altimus]

Re: Halo 3: Recon

Buy the collector's edition of ODST ($99) and get this:



I'm getting that.

[Miles_Yuhas]

Re: Halo 3: Recon

Thats an awesome controller. I'll be taking advantage of the pre-order bonus.

[sportsdude]

Re: Halo 3: Recon

I was planning on getting this anyway, but knowing we get to play the Halo: Reach beta makes it even sweeter.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: Recon

This trailer shows Firefight Mode.

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[Beantown]

Re: Halo 3: Recon

Yeah, I really can't wait for this one.

[Altimus]

Re: Halo 3: Recon

Yeah, I really can't wait for this one.

Maybe it's just me but the shooting physics look better when people get shot.

Again, maybe it's just me.

But like you can't wait. Halo: ODST and than a year later or so Reach. Awesome.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

Shooting definitely looked more precise. I'm hoping to see more later in the week, because the demonstration or trailer didn't really show off the open-world structure of New Mombasa. I knew there wouldn't be a regenerative health system, because it doesn't make since as an ODST, but it's interesting they went with the old health packs system. Most shooters use the Halo-style regenerative health system even if they don't make since. Only thing I'm slightly disappointed with is there looks like there have been no upgrades to the Halo 3 engine. I guess that's to expected though, given it's a smaller project, but damn some AA and AF would make a world of a difference, as anybody can see with Halo 3's photomode.

[Flawless]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

IGN Hands-on Firefight

Once the game starts, it's all about survival. There are only a set number of lives that the entire team shares. And since you need health packs to regenerate your health, you'll want to make sure you use them wisely as a team. The scoring works largely the same as it does in the Halo 3 metagame scoring. Headshots are worth more. Kill several enemies quickly and you'll rack up big combos. Kill a teammate and you'll lose points. Each player's individual score is kept as well as a cumulative team score and along the way you'll also earn medals and achievements.

The game is laid out into rounds. The enemies start out pretty easy before building up to a squad of shielded Brutes which is where some sweet music kicks in to let you know this is a mini-climax. Beat those guys and you'll move on to the next round. Each time you move up a round, new mixes of skulls are added making the game just a little more difficult. Make it far enough and you'll find almost all of the skulls activated, making the fight just about impossible for all but the pros.

Two maps were open for play: Security Zone and Crater (Night). Security Zone takes place near the ONI complex and is a large, well lit area. A central valley funnels most of the action into one column while sniper rifles and turrets conveniently sit atop overlooks. Midway through each round of enemies you'll find a Wraith or two to tackle. Sadly, you can't jack these in this level though I'm told ODST do have the ability to jack vehicles. It was just disabled for that map for balancing purposes.

Security Zone is a pretty big map so it's easy to get separated from your partners. I would advise against this, particularly at the end when the last wave of Brutes is sent out and the music kicks in. Seeing five Brutes using jump packs to leap towards you, flying dozens of feet in the air carrying Brute Hammers, while you sit on the ground with your wimpy ODST shield is quite intimidating even on the easier difficulty settings.

Crater is a much smaller map with a layout that fits the name. The outer edges are all raise with ramps leading down to a central, lower courtyard. The Covenant drops in from all sides, sometimes surprising you from the rear which makes it highly necessary to keep moving so as not to get surprised. If you can make it through the first round of enemies and snag a Brute Hammer you'll find quite the effective weapon in these close quarters.

The Crater map had a telling set of brackets after its title indicating that it was a night map. Bungie wouldn't confirm that you could also play it in a day setting, but the smile sent my way during that lack of info spoke volumes. I'd bet my only dime the certain Firefight maps will be playable in both lit and dark modes.

There will obviously be other maps to use in Firefight once ODST ships, though Bungie isn't putting an exact number how many that will be just yet. Some, I'm told, will even feature vehicles to use in your Covenant kill-fest. The Forge mode won't work with Firefight, so you won't be able to design your own custom co-op arenas. Creative Director Joe Staten lamented, "Wouldn't it be nice if we could put everything in the game?" Yes, it would.

[Beantown]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

Don't know if I'm a fan of the skulls being active in it...but still sounds sweet.

[DTX3]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

Between this and Splinter Cell, I might be back on the 360 in a month or so. Just gotta find a good deal.

[Altimus]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

Any news to how shields will be online?

[allBthere]

Re: Halo 3: ODST

the stuff on the marketplace really makes it look like gaming has passed by bungie.

their draw distances looked terrible and the graphics are not competetive anymore. They had that fog crap everywhere.

their cut-scenes look good, but the gameplay should look like those on the 360.

total pass for me.