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[drohne]

Concerning the Flood from the Infinite Succor, it's an interesting situation and I've discussed this with some of you guys before. I've always been under the impression that the Flood came from sentient hosts and my definition of "sentient" dealt with the ability for the host to think and reason at one time.

well, that's not what 'sentient' means -- it just refers to a capacity to think or feel. dogs are clearly sentient. but i remember some dialogue snippet from one of the halo games about suitable hosts for the flood -- there was definitely something about body mass, but i don't know if anything was said about intelligence.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand how people are so blown away by these shots. We've seen stuff that looks better than this and as it being the premiere IP, you would hope/think that it would push the envelope for the system or at least rank up there.

 

[Blueblur1]

That Wired article is really really good. If anyone's interested in the development and testing process, go read it NOW.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand how people are so blown away by these shots. We've seen stuff that looks better than this and as it being the premiere IP, you would hope/think that it would push the envelope for the system or at least rank up there.

I'm at a loss as to how people can say this looks bad. Halo is a clean game, as that can't get said enough. They just need to provide both density and vastness to the game, then it will be OMGWTFBBQ epic. Gritty and the artstyle of Halo should not co-exist in my book. Other ame might look better upon immediate inspection, but look at that single player pic. Two convenant capital ships, looks like 8 banshees. None of this was going on in the previous Halos. They are striving for scope in a game. Any game can look better when you walls are 10 feet apart. Halo 3 looks fine.

 

[Thermite]

ugh, late to the party once again. the new campaign shot looks crazy good. I counted a total of 10 vehicles at once in the background, it'll be orgasm inducing to see 10 Covenant aircrafts battle with 10 UNSC aircrafts overhead. (OMG!) the battles look as action packed as ever on foot. fighting two Hunters will be hard enough, let alone fighting two or more Brutes right after that. I hope there's plenty of ammo around, because I know I'll need a ton for the battles we've seen so far in screenshots.

I still can't get over how good the Elite models look this time around, intimidation total. Sandtrap will be an extremely fun map, especially with dust storms obscuring vision. it'll be challengingly fun to try to kill your opponents across the map. I love the lushness and layout of Guardian. my only worry about this map was addressed by Luke earlier in the thread. it's relieving to hear that it has a much different flow than Lockout and it's not a wait it out and camp map. September 25th can't come soon enough!

 

[wonderkins]

Just went to five different stores looking for Halo 2 as a gift for a new 360 owner (the bro-in-law). Finally found the only copy left at BB, hidden among old sports games. After the second, he'll be prepared for Halo 3.

These shots remind me the reason why Halo is one of those landmark series; it looks fantastic! Thanks to Havok for finding them and urk for the thread. The game looks ace; no concerns about gameplay, whatsoever.

Bioshock tomorrow, and Halo 3 in a month. I think I'll borrow a phrase and just say, "Wow!"

 

[Buttonbasher]

That's hot.

 

[Marty Chinn]

I'm at a loss as to how people can say this looks bad. Halo is a clean game, as that can't get said enough. They just need to provide both density and vastness to the game, then it will be OMGWTFBBQ epic. Gritty and the artstyle of Halo should not co-exist in my book. Other ame might look better upon immediate inspection, but look at that single player pic. Two convenant capital ships, looks like 8 banshees. None of this was going on in the previous Halos. They are striving for scope in a game. Any game can look better when you walls are 10 feet apart. Halo 3 looks fine.

I didn't say it looked bad. I just don't understand how people are so blown away by it visually. I'm excited for Halo 3, but I just don't get the spooging going on over these pics. It doesn't look bad, but it also doesn't look amazing. It just looks ok.

 

[PleoMax]

That Wired article is really really good. If anyone's interested in the development and testing process, go read it NOW.

I'm on the first page. Good shit.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

I didn't say it looked bad. I just don't understand how people are so blown away by it visually. I'm excited for Halo 3, but I just don't get the spooging going on over these pics. It doesn't look bad, but it also doesn't look amazing. It just looks ok.

Well, placed against Halo 2, it looks tons better.I know, I just ran thru single player again last week for a story refreshing. I guess Halo can look bland at times due to the symmetrical nature of the buildings and such. However, I can't quantify how much they are giving up on visual pizazz for scale and scope, but if Halo 3 makes me feel like I'm really in a war with a shitload of soldiers against the covenant, I'd say that the trade off is worth it. I think my Halo breathen is looking at that as well.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Well, placed against Halo 2, it looks tons better.I know, I just ran thru single player again last week for a story refreshing. I guess Halo can look bland at times due to the symmetrical nature of the buildings and such. However, I can't quantify how much they are giving up on visual pizazz for scale and scope, but if Halo 3 makes me feel like I'm really in a war with a shitload of soldiers against the covenant, I'd say that the trade off is worth it. I think my Halo breathen is looking at that as well.

Well ya, if they make it look vast, with lots of stuff going on and stuff like that, then that will offset the visual looks being a bit underwhelming. However, none of that is really conveyed here in these shots.

 

[Dirtbag]

Some good parts of an excellent article.

"A lot of the energy weapons in Halo 2 felt frail, like pyoo-pyoo-pyoo Buck Rogers lasers" he says. It made people not want to pick them up and use them. "This feels more deadly. You can almost feel the heat of the weapon, the ignited plasma beams." He chuckles. "You know this thing is gonna kill."

Pagulayan and his team have recruited about 20 people to come into the lab and play the game. Some tests include a pop-up box that interrupts the player every few minutes, asking them to rate how engaged, interested, or frustrated they are. Pagulayan also has gamers talk out loud about what they're experiencing, providing a stream-of-consciousness record of their thought process as they play. Over time, he's gathered voluminous stats on player locations, weapons, and vehicles.

Welcome to the Jungle
In early tests, players wandered lost around the Jungle level: Colored dots showing player location at five-second intervals (each color is a new time stamp) were scattered randomly. So Bungie fixed the terrain to keep players from backtracking. Sure enough, the dots clustered by color, showing that players were moving smoothly through the map.

A similar report showed that in the game's first level, called Jungle, players often ran out of rounds for their rifles. This was a mystery, because the designers had been careful to leave more than enough ammunition lying around. The team checked Pagulayan's video records and found that people were firing at the aliens when they were too far away, misjudging the range of the weapon and wasting bullets.
At first the designers couldn't figure out how to fix this problem. But then Griesemer stumbled on an elegant hack: He made the targeting reticule turn red when enemies were in range, subtly communicating to players when their shots were likely to hit home. It worked.

As I wander through the lush forest, I'm struck by details: Steam rising off felled logs, clusters of insects flying in clouds, plants that sway realistically as I brush past them. Halo 3 may not have the most advanced graphics available, but it's noticeably more gorgeous than the previous Halo games

 

[Proelite]

Well ya, if they make it look vast, with lots of stuff going on and stuff like that, then that will offset the visual looks being a bit underwhelming. However, none of that is really conveyed here in these shots.

Halo 3 battles can have up to 30 allies, and 100+ enemies by the second level. The battles gets bigger from there onwards. Mind you these are fully featured AI combatants that has individual AI. Flocking AIs/ group AIs behave in groups of fifties. A Brute pack in Halo 3 is 20 brutes.

 

[PleoMax]

The pressure to deliver nearly destroyed Bungie. When it began making the original Halo, the design team consisted of 10 people. They could all sit in a single room and communicate by yelling over their shoulders or peering at each other's cool creations onscreen. To make Halo 2, the company ballooned to more than 60. Separate teams formed to design each level of the game, but they didn't coordinate their efforts: When project leaders assembled the pieces for the first time, they discovered that the story was incomprehensible and the game whipsawed from too easy to nearly impossible.

"It was a disaster in the game-story campaign," admits Harold Ryan, the studio manager. "We looked around the room going, 'I don't want to play this. I don't want to make this.'" They threw out 80 percent of the work they'd done and started over. But they now had barely a year and a half to reconstruct the entire game.

This is why Bungie rocks the house, to be able to deliver something like Halo 2 after that clusterfuck.

And that is why Halo 3 is going to be fucking amazing.

 

[Karma Kramer]

That Wired article was absolutely excellent.

 

[manxor]

I would actually be severely dissapointed if the graphics looked as good as Gears... as that would only mean one thing: More small scale battles & corridor levels.

One of my most favorite things about Halo:CE was the huge open levels and battles with enemies coming from all directions. Halo 3 looks to be really blowing that out, and that's what has me so excited for it.


I'm actually quite impressed with how the visuals have shaped up given that.

It's like there's a virtual % slider between playable scale and visual fidelity, and Halo 3 has both. I'm sure this game will be pushing the 360 like no other.

 

[Dirtbag]

That Wired article was absolutely excellent.

I whole-heartedly agree. I think I want a subscription now.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Halo 3 battles can have up to 30 allies, and 100+ enemies by the second level. The battles gets bigger from there onwards. Mind you these are fully featured AI combatants that has individual AI. Flocking AIs/ group AIs behave in groups of fifties. A Brute pack in Halo 3 is 20 brutes.

Do you see that in these pics? Show it to me because I sure missed it.

 

[Marty Chinn]

I would actually be severely dissapointed if the graphics looked as good as Gears... as that would only mean one thing: More small scale battles & corridor levels.

One of my most favorite things about Halo:CE was the huge open levels and battles with enemies coming from all directions. Halo 3 looks to be really blowing that out, and that's what has me so excited for it.


I'm actually quite impressed with how the visuals have shaped up given that.

It's like there's a virtual % slider between playable scale and visual fidelity, and Halo 3 has both. I'm sure this game will be pushing the 360 like no other.

So Gears has peaked the system? Wouldn't it be impressive if they had a visual quality that was closer to Gears and yet had the vast scope of Halo?

 

[Proelite]

Do you see that in these pics? Show it to me because I sure missed it.

BWU and past interviews.

So Gears has peaked the system? Wouldn't it be impressive if they had a visual quality that was closer to Gears and yet had the vast scope of Halo?

lol

 

[Dirtbag]

So Gears has peaked the system? Wouldn't it be impressive if they had a visual quality that was closer to Gears and yet had the vast scope of Halo?

Nope

Another baddass wired screenshot.
My design tendancies just FAPPED all over this shot.

 

[Witchfinder General]

I guess I'm not the only one saying this but whilst the game looks good it's just not the graphical powerhouse I was expecting Halo 3 to be, especially considering how amazing the '06 E3 video/screen shots looked.

I still remember getting my Xbox and Halo 1 at launch and being in awe of the graphics.

I want that feeling again.

 

[Cubsfan23]

So Gears has peaked the system? Wouldn't it be impressive if they had a visual quality that was closer to Gears and yet had the vast scope of Halo?

Epic and UE isn't going to get blown away by anybody. We'll see how good Gears 2 looks.

 

[Proelite]

I guess I'm not the only one saying this but whilst the game looks good it's just not the graphical powerhouse I was expecting Halo 3 to be, especially considering how amazing the '06 E3 video/screen shots looked.

I still remember getting my Xbox and Halo 1 at launch and being in awe of the graphics.

I want that feeling again.

You will on september 25th.

 

[Surfheart]

Halo 3 battles can have up to 30 allies, and 100+ enemies by the second level. The battles gets bigger from there onwards. Mind you these are fully featured AI combatants that has individual AI. Flocking AIs/ group AIs behave in groups of fifties. A Brute pack in Halo 3 is 20 brutes.

Well I'm certainly considering the quality of the visuals in a new light now because I did not know of the scale that bungie are aiming for.
As Marty said though, they have shown nothing of that yet, all I've seen in screenshots are very close environments with few combatants.

Is it also confirmed not to be native 720p?

 

[Marty Chinn]

Epic and UE isn't going to get blown away by anybody. We'll see how good Gears 2 looks.

Wow not even by Microsoft's premiere developer with their premiere franchise? Not using an engine that is custom and taylored for the 360? Remember, UE is a cross platform engine. I'm sure someone can taylor an engine around the 360 and really take advantage of it, especially since Bungie must have created their own engine since it's not using UE.

 

[∀ Narayan]

I'm a giddy goose for Halo 3.

 

[Proelite]

Wow not even by Microsoft's premiere developer with their premiere franchise? Not using an engine that is custom and taylored for the 360? Remember, UE is a cross platform engine. I'm sure someone can taylor an engine around the 360 and really take advantage of it, especially since Bungie must have created their own engine since it's not using UE.

Halo 3 development started on alpha kits and is itself a heavily modified Halo 2 engine. Only exclusive games that begun developement in 2006 would be customed and taylored for the 360.

Is it also confirmed not to be native 720p?

:lol :lol :lol If you look at the resolution of the screens, or count the steps, it's 563p!

 

[Dirtbag]

I really hope that halo / metriod prime usher in a new trend of big releases in august/september. This fall shit has got to stop. I love how holiday 07 feels like it starts so early this year.

 

[Thermite]

Is it also confirmed not to be native 720p?

afraid not. it has now been confirmed that Halo 3 renders everything at 370p, while the Xbox 360's upscaler, Chewbacca, upsales it to 720p.

edit: of course, this is all subject to change before launch.

 

[Stachzilla]

Oh crap guys... look at the bottom right portion of this screenie. Does anyone else see that glitch? Totally random plummeting-to-death glitch that I believe Frankie has repeatedly experienced, and yet here we are seeing it in action. If they don't fix that before launch I'm totally not buying more than 1 copy. Fix your game Bungie omgwtfhax

:lol

(Seriously thats my favorite part of that entire shot. Other than the obvious spartan icon on the left.)

 

[Proelite]

From the wired article, it really, really seemed like Bungie stepped up the game on singleplayer. They have made good gameplay what used to be an art now a science.

 

[manxor]

So Gears has peaked the system? Wouldn't it be impressive if they had a visual quality that was closer to Gears and yet had the vast scope of Halo?

No, that would be something for the next Xbox.

The other issue is that Halo is an FPS, so the textures need to be of a higher resolution than that of a 3rd person shooter. Two UE3 games, Gears & Bioshock. Compare. Then compare with GRAW1/2.

Gears didn't peak the system, the full game was already running at near-final framerate when they were still only running on 1 core /lolz. I'm sure Gears 2 will have a larger, more epic scale in its environments and areas of traversal than the first. However, when it comes to numbers of enemies at once, I doubt they'll even come close to Halo:CE. In addition, features like 4 player CoOp, foilage that not only moves (nearly everything in Gears was static) but also reacts to player and NPC movement, and constant film recording really push things over the top.

When all is said and done, we've all played through every level and have seen everything, I'm certain Halo 3 will be anything but a disappointment in the graphics department.

 

[Falagard]

I didn't say it looked bad. I just don't understand how people are so blown away by it visually. I'm excited for Halo 3, but I just don't get the spooging going on over these pics. It doesn't look bad, but it also doesn't look amazing. It just looks ok.

I think people, including me, are blown away by it because we're looking at the screenshots with the knowledge that we're seeing a small portion of a HUGE level in a HUGE game.

We're seeing it in context - each shot looks good. Not Gears of War good, but we know it can't because there's no fucking way in this generation that a game as large scale as Halo could have Gears of War like graphics, and support all the features that Halo 3 does (saved films, 4 player co-op over Xbox Live, etc.) running on current hardware.

It's all about context.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

Wow not even by Microsoft's premiere developer with their premiere franchise? Not using an engine that is custom and taylored for the 360? Remember, UE is a cross platform engine. I'm sure someone can taylor an engine around the 360 and really take advantage of it, especially since Bungie must have created their own engine since it's not using UE.

You don't seem to get it. Halo 3 has a draw distance of over 12 miles. Gears is played in confined corridors. There are like 8-10 people in an area with you in Gears, Soldiers can go up to 30 people and Brutes alone can come in packs of twenty. Not just that, they are accounting for 4 people playing the game locally. Taken all of this into account, Halo 3 looks phenomenal and I'd wager that Halo 3 is 'pushing' the 360 much more than Gears is.

 

[Proelite]

I think people, including me, are blown away by it because we're looking at the screenshots with the knowledge that we're seeing a small portion of a HUGE level in a HUGE game.

We're seeing it in context - each shot looks good. Not Gears of War good, but we know it can't because there's no fucking way in this generation that a game as large scale as Halo could have Gears of War like graphics, and support all the features that Halo 3 does (saved films, 4 player co-op over Xbox Live, etc.) running on current hardware.

It's all about context.

QFT. Context is really important. If Gears looked like the MADWORLD teaser x 10, then there would be no comparison. He would have a point to his rants.

 

[Wile E Bud]

dam it. i peed a little again. halo 3 does that to me

 

[PleoMax]

Halo 3 is also one of those games that looks tons better in motion while you're playing it. I read the damn previews, and all i hear is about details in the freaking graphics that i can't spot in stills.

 

[Marty Chinn]

So you guys are just using your imagination to make it impressive. :lol Maybe if we had seen a video showing the scope or a lot of stuff going on, I could be more impressed, but it's hard to take that away from just THESE screenshots. I'm taking it with the context of what I can see in front of me, and can't you understand how these screenshots alone aren't that amazing?

 

[Proelite]

Bah.

 

[PleoMax]

So you guys are just using your imagination to make it impressive. :lol Maybe if we had seen a video showing the scope or a lot of stuff going on, I could be more impressed, but it's hard to take that away from just THESE screenshots. I'm taking it with the context of what I can see in front of me, and can't you understand how these screenshots alone aren't that amazing?

What you don't get is that nobody is saying this game looks freaking amazing omg omg i want you i want you.

Now the question is....what else do you want? The answer to your question is yes.

 

[Cubsfan23]

:lol :lol :lol you do realize that most of the ones in this thread are from multiplayer right? Read the wired article if you don't believe all the action that will be on screen.

 

[Proelite]

So you guys are just using your imagination to make it impressive. :lol Maybe if we had seen a video showing the scope or a lot of stuff going on, I could be more impressed, but it's hard to take that away from just THESE screenshots. I'm taking it with the context of what I can see in front of me, and can't you understand how these screenshots alone aren't that amazing?

Yes. We're are all masterbating to our imagination. In truth, we're all disappointed in Halo 3. Us Halo fans are all maniacs who are constantly entertaining the idea of drowning ourselves in our toilets since E3 2007.

 

[Kuroyume]

HOT SEX

I love how there is a group of Brutes in the background with Banshees flying overhead... As if the two Hunters wasn't enough of a problem... :lol

 

[Gadfly]

I didn't say it looked bad. I just don't understand how people are so blown away by it visually. I'm excited for Halo 3, but I just don't get the spooging going on over these pics. It doesn't look bad, but it also doesn't look amazing. It just looks ok.

I think you are not seeing these pictures through a Halo fan's eyes. And I do not mean it in a bad way.

When we see these pictures, we put ourselves there. You see a couple of flying ships or some enemies on the back and consider them as scenery or background. To us however, they speak volumes about the scale of the battles and individual encounters. We know what it means for these ships and enemies to be there.

This scale is what most of us find exciting in some of those pictures. And this is what makes the game so engaging and immersive for us. NOT how detailed the textures on the rocks are or how an already dead soldier moves when you keep shooting him while 50% of screen is pitch black and you cannot make out anything in it. That's not Halo.

I also personally prefer the colorful open world of Halo much more than monochrome closed world of most other shooters.

Edit: loosk like I was already beaten.
It is not our imagination. We know it because we have played Halo 1 and Halo 2 (and some of us Halo 3 ) so we know they are there.

 

[Stachzilla]

What I wouldn't give for this image to be poster sized....

 

[manxor]

So you guys are just using your imagination to make it impressive. :lol Maybe if we had seen a video showing the scope or a lot of stuff going on, I could be more impressed, but it's hard to take that away from just THESE screenshots. I'm taking it with the context of what I can see in front of me, and can't you understand how these screenshots alone aren't that amazing?

Ahhh the screenshot debate, screenshots alone w/o video w/o animated .gif's. It just doesn't work... you can't read that much into it. You just don't get to see enough to gleam that kind of information.

It's not imagination, it's the Weekly updates, Bungie's podcast, Frankie's posts, Luke's posts, countless previews, impressions, and other articles. Anyone closely following Halo 3 has a pretty good idea of what to expect from the core game.


Also, this isn't Halo 2. Bungie isn't in the same place they were then, organization / scheduling / deadline wise. This is the end of the trilogy, and by everything we know, it truly looks set to deliver... and deliver big!

I'm trying to keep my hype within the realm of reality, but it really doesn't matter. If Halo 3 ends up being a better game than Halo:CE then it'll smash any expectations I have.

Regardless, there's MP. Most of us have already played the Beta and know that it's tits.

 

[professor_t]

HALO 3 IS A VIDEO GAME
IT IS FOR THE XBOX 360 VIDEO GAME SYSTEM FROM MICROSOFT
IT IS A VERY BEAUTIFUL GAME
I LIKE THIS GAME VERY MUCH!

HAAAAAAAAAALO THREEEEEEEEE!
HAAAAAAAAAALO THREEEEEEEEE!
HAAAAAAAAAALO THREEEEEEEEE!
HAAAAAAAAAALO THREEEEEEEEE!

YOU WILL PLAY AS MASTER CHIEF
MAYBE YOU WILL ROCK IT AS ARBITER TOO
USE AN ENERGY SWORD TO STOP THE COVENANT
THE COVENANT CAN LICK A SNOW LEOPARD'S ASS

HAAAAAAAAAALO THREEEEEEEEE!
HAAAAAAAAAALO THREEEEEEEEE!
HAAAAAAAAAALO THREEEEEEEEE!
HAAAAAAAAAALO THREEEEEEEEE!

I GO ONLINE TO PLUG FOOLS WITH HOLES
SNUFF THE LIFE FROM MY COMPETITION
TRY TO SNUFF THE LIFE FROM ME
I WILL DUMPSTER YOUR BODY, MOTHAFUCKA!

HAAAAAAAAAALO THREEEEEEEEE!
HAAAAAAAAAALO THREEEEEEEEE!
HAAAAAAAAAALO THREEEEEEEEE!
HAAAAAAAAAALO THREEEEEEEEE!

R.I.P.

Nice job, but I think you needed to finish with some completely inane product replacement. "Applebee's, eating good in the neighborhood!"

 

[Tzeentch]

It hasn't been really noted, but I must say they have REALLY cleaned up their normal map generation on the character models this time. The Elites in Halo 2 looked like their armor was made of melted wax because of no real specular maps and the ridiculously low resolution of the normal maps (a whopping 256x256 normal map on the torso). Still very shiny but that's (IMO at least) part of the Halo aesthetic.

 

[GhaleonEB]

So you guys are just using your imagination to make it impressive. :lol Maybe if we had seen a video showing the scope or a lot of stuff going on, I could be more impressed, but it's hard to take that away from just THESE screenshots. I'm taking it with the context of what I can see in front of me, and can't you understand how these screenshots alone aren't that amazing?

Something occurred to me in the Beta. I thought in screens, the Beta looked pretty good - my mind wasn't melting or anything, but very solid. It was a next-gen Halo.

And then I played it, and realized what screens don't convey. Like how there are a ton of different weapons, and they all make great visual effects - and you have all of them on screen at once. Lots of different things blow up - vehicles, missiles, fusion cores, objects - and the explosions are multi-layered, unique and beautiful. Equipment has subtle and interesting visual effects - the distortion of the Bubble Shield, the energy waves in the Gravity Lift. It's meticulously done.

Then I noticed the details in the levels themselves. Snow drifting down the hills in Snowbound, and gusting off the distant mountains as well. The way the shield doors have a ripple effect that is appropriate to the weapon used - the Assault Rifle causes it to ripple back and forth a little bit, but a Spartan Laser blast bows the force field inward a couple of feet, and it snaps back and forth like a layer of jello that wiggles around but just won't break. The leaves falling gently from trees on High Ground, the way the light plays off the surface of the water in Valhalla. The physics-based animation of guys rocking around on the Mongoose, or adapting their pose procedurally to the uneven terrain.

There's a lot of beauty in Halo 3, but a good chunk of it of that isn't expressed well in screens. So yeah, some of what we're fapping about is using our imagination. We've seen this baby in motion, and it's pretty. And the lighting in these shots, as in the Beta, is just gorgeous. Then I read stuff like this in the Wired article:

As I wander through the lush forest, I'm struck by details: Steam rising off felled logs, clusters of insects flying in clouds, plants that sway realistically as I brush past them. Halo 3 may not have the most advanced graphics available, but it's noticeably more gorgeous than the previous Halo games.

Halo 3 is a big game, and it sounds like it's filled with details like that.

Then I see stuff like the Campaign screen in the OP, where there's a dozen guys fighting at once. I note the excellent lighting as you transition from indoors to out, and how there's a gaggle of ships cruising around in the distance. I know from other pics, and from previews how big the level shown is. The level of detail we've seen, with that much combat going on, all the great weapon, vehicle and equipment effects, set in huge environments - it's a great package.

I'm not a graphics whore by any stretch, but I think the new screens are simply wonderful. And part of that is what's on the screen, and part of it is because I know how much isn't on the screen. So yeah, a bit of imagination.