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[Tieno]

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/800/800896p1.html
Since not everyone checks the beast that is the Halo 3 Beta thread.

Confirmed:
-Customizable armor and helmets
-You can take screenshots and upload them to bungie.net
-More equipment to come (total is in single digits): Jammer messes up radar which leads to chaos.
-Brute chopper is great for ramming into people, lots of pointy stuff and blades for extra damage.
-Still more unnanounced maps than announced maps
-Stitch all the H3 MP maps together and still not as big as a SP map
-MAP: Shrine (desert map) is huge, biggest map. Best for vehicles
-MAP: Epitaph is Forerunner 'cathedral'
-MAP: Last Resort is remake of Zanzibar
-Bungie SP/MP team is about 80-20% devide in people


VIDEO : if you want to see Epitaph and Last Resort in action check this dutch preview video from a few weeks ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRGIEy6NE8g

SCREENSHOTS
edit: updated and replaced some pics with the better 720p screenshots taken from Blim's xboxyde.com
http://www.xboxyde.com/news_4523_en.html who doesn't compress screenshots to shit like IGN.


Epitaph

Shrine

Last Resort

Valhalla

High Ground

Snowbound

Brute Chopper

Those blades at the pedals will cut you!

(SP?) Artwork

Quotes from the IGN Q&A (provided by Ghaleon): http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/800/800901p1.html

Jaime Griesemer: It's not as bad as Halo 2. Halo 2 was a hell-crunch. Right up until the end, the 'cliff'. The big difference is, in Halo 2, we were crunching like madmen just to finish the game. Now we're still crunching like madmen, but we're crunching to add that extra polish and shine. That's a lot easier.

IGN: Why was there so much mystery surrounding the X button? Was this a hype tool? Or was its function still up in the air?

Jaime: Honestly, when we first showed it, the reason why we weren't talking about it was because the pieces of equipment we had were not ready to show. We had a lot of placeholder art, code that wasn't done and only a few pieces that were done, in-engine. We weren't really ready to show it. It was sort of obvious that there was something big missing from the control scheme. So it wasn't really done to build hype - I don't really remember anyone proclaiming "This will change the way you play videogames!".

Jaime Griesemer: We actually don't know what the final equipment count will be - it depends on how many we can get in. And there may be some items in single player that we won't use in multiplayer. We're really focusing on more interesting pieces of equipment rather than a large quantity of equipment, because we didn't want to run into the problem where there were so many pieces of equipment that you couldn't really keep track of them all. They only had one really specific use, so what we tried to do was keep it pretty small; I'd say single digits, probably.

IGN: You've gone all-out with documentaries, weekly updates, the Open Beta. Why so much emphasis on transparency in development?

Tyson Green: Well, we were so busy on Halo 2 just trying to figure out the processes and getting it done that we couldn't really talk about it - and because there wasn't as much to talk about.

Jaime Griesemer: Bungie's always been 'open' but 'not open'. I mean, we did weekly updates all throughout Halo 2, so in some ways we're super-open about our process. Then in other ways, not at all! I mean, nobody, nobody is getting any preview of the story [in Halo 3]. Not a glimpse. It's sort of that 'open-hand, closed-hand' policy that we've always had. I think the big difference is now is that there's enough stuff going on that there is a lot of interesting stuff to show people. I think that is the big thing.

IGN: Why the secrecy surrounding the single player experience?

Jaime Griesemer: The public beta is our focus for this summer. That's our big roll-out, our big reveal of the game. We're just not going to talk very much about single player because that is the big 'secret stuff' that we're saving for people.

Tyson Green: People invest a lot of weight in Halo's story, and its campaign is very important to them. You wanna save that until the end so that it's a good surprise, a good reveal. It's like talking about a movie before it comes out.

IGN: That's a good point, and it's something that highlights a question of team sizes and internal emphasis. Is it a 50/50 split workforce developing the single player as opposed to multiplayer? What's the ratio?

Tyson Green: No, definitely not - it's more like 80/20. There's a handful of guys like me who work on both. So it's probably like 15 percent totally dedicated to multiplayer and maybe another 20 percent who overlap. The thing is, if you took every single multiplayer map and stitched them together into this unholy fusion of a multiplayer map, it would probably be about the same size as some of the single-player maps, right?

Jaime Griesemer: Yeah - half of a small single-player mission!

Tyson Green: The use of space in single player is so much different than it is in multiplayer. You need more art resources to accomplish something like single player. You need more designers paying attention to every square inch. Multiplayer can afford to be a little bit smaller.

Jaime Griesemer: Although I would say the number of people working on multiplayer in Halo 3 is the same as the number who worked on all of Halo 1. This is a lot bigger.

 

[a Master Ninja]

The ninja armor will be mine!

 

[AdmiralViscen]

Thanks.

Most shots look great, but the bike looks really ugly.

Halo 3 Beta thread should be locked.

 

[Costanza]

NICE.

Anyone else notice a huge graphical bump since the beta? Loving it.

 

[Mr Vociferous]

I knew someone would do this eventually...Ghaleon's beta thread seemed immune to all general forms of thread death. He must have magical powers.

 

[Chinner]

Look's like they've bumped up the distance in which foilage it renders. I loved it in the beta, but it would always be ruined when it went out of the apprioate LOD distance (noticable in mancannon and when looking across the map). Looks like they've also put in reflective visors as well. Sweet.

 

[fernoca]

Looks great, but come on Bungie!
SP (Single player) screens!!!..
We already know how the MP mode looks..heck we already played it!!! :lol

 

[armubaba]

Thanks.

Most shots look great, but the bike looks really ugly.

Halo 3 Beta thread should be locked.

Aw HELL no....

 

[joelseph]

Takes my breath away.

 

[cluto]

Most shots look great, but the bike looks really ugly.

The Brutes will be pleased to hear their Chopper doesn't look prettyful.

Spoiler

Tieno: where art thou second P in Epitaph?

 

[Confusion Illusion]

Goodness. I think the graphics are freaking awesome, imo, and this is just the MP.

EDIT: I really love the HUD too....

 

[ant1532]

****ING AWESOME.

 

[Stat Flow]

Screens look fantastic.

 

[CrunchinJelly]

You're not Ghale... Oh.

 

[op_ivy]

links

beyond the beta
screens (more then posted)
Q & A

 

[Okin]

I hope that's real anti aliasing, and not bullshot stuff.

Also, is it really hard for the engine to push polygons? The brute chopper could really use some.

Otherwise, I really like the lighting on the chiefs. I would like to hear more about that.

 

[AdmiralViscen]

Aw HELL no....

E-penii are at stake!!

The Brutes will be pleased to hear their Chopper doesn't look prettyful.

Spoiler

Tieno: where art thou second P in Epitaph?

No, I mean it looks like a Halo 2 model.

 

[elostyle]

Reminds me of quake 3 levels.

 

[MirageDwarf]

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/800/800896/halo-3-20070701092604686.jpg
http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/800/800896/halo-3-20070701092825653.jpg
http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/800/800896/halo-3-20070701092820840.jpg
http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/800/800896/halo-3-20070701092806497.jpg
http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/800/800896/halo-3-20070701092612529.jpg

EDIT: Images are posted in first post now.

 

[cluto]

No, I mean it looks like a Halo 2 model.

I'm pretty sure that's just the art style. Brutes like low-poly sharp things.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Damn it looks good. Hopefully multiplayer achievements aren't limited to ranked matches(I really don't have the patience for getting stuck with and/or against random players anymore).

 

[AgentOtaku]

hey lookin great!....glad to see the customizable armor as well!

 

[Tokubetsu]

HYPE RISING! I can't wait for this <3

 

[TemplaerDude]

looks amazing.

 

[Grecco]

Brute Chopppa is all sorts of awesome . Kudos Bungie

 

[dammitmattt]

New Zanzibar looks amazing.

 

[Karg]

Damn it looks good. Hopefully multiplayer achievements aren't limited to ranked matches(I really don't have the patience for getting stuck with and/or against random players anymore).

Spoiler

Most of the MP achievements are from ranked FFA matches. All are pretty reasonable. And the ones that aren't FFA specific you can do is any ranked playlist or campaign.

 

[Dina]

GFX turned up a notch, awesome.

 

[Bluemercury]

Graphic wise its lacking comparing to other 360 titles.....

 

[ice cream]

LAG heaven...

i'm sorry, but you all know it's true...

 

[Y2Kev]

Looks nice!

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

The maps look great (except that dark, really sparse one, but I suppose it will serve well in terms of gameplay), but that chopper looks like a clump of something moreso than a vehicle. It'll probably make a lot more sense in motion though.

 

[drohne]

the brute chopper is a total mess -- like a random piece of one of the movie transformers. doesn't even look like it would move. i understand that they were going for something very unlike the sleek purple covenant vehicles, but it doesn't appear to come off. in bungie we trust, but my one real worry about halo 3 campaign is that brutes won't be cool, even if they've been tuned up as adversaries.

 

[nelsonroyale]

looks like a load of fun with all the vehicles, graphics are still rough though...bike looks akira esque

 

[Blimblim]

LAG heaven...

i'm sorry, but you all know it's true...

Someone had to it

 

[Emiru]

LAG heaven...

i'm sorry, but you all know it's true...

Get better internet.

 

[cluto]

Graphic wise its lacking comparing to other 360 titles.....

It only took 29 posts, but that's a ****ing record for a Halo 3 thread.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Spoiler

Most of the MP achievements are from ranked FFA matches. All are pretty reasonable. And the ones that aren't FFA specific you can do is any ranked playlist or campaign.

Shucks. Well I guess that isn't so bad as long as they're reasonable. If it was like say Call of Duty 3's multiplayer achievements then yeesh..

 

[op_ivy]

Graphic wise its lacking comparing to other 360 titles.....

i dont see how anyone can look at a screen such as this

and say that with a straight face. i mean even discounting the fact that halo's scale and epic-ness absolutely destroys gears, this stands up incredibly well graphically IMO. i guess its the fact that halo multiplayer, by design, is relatively straight forward.

 

[SPEA]

Oh how I miss thee.

 

[Ronin]

I said "Wow".

 

[PAYBACKill]

No wonder Sony is showing killzone 2 right after MS's keynote.

 

[Instigator]

the brute chopper is a total mess -- like a random piece of one of the movie transformers. doesn't even look like it would move. i understand that they were going for something very unlike the sleek purple covenant vehicles, but it doesn't appear to come off. in bungie we trust, but my one real worry about halo 3 campaign is that brutes won't be cool, even if they've been tuned up as adversaries.

If Halo tradition holds up, the Brutes (with Jackal and Grunt allies) won't be the only adversaries during the entire game. At some point, the flood has to show up and even the possiblity of fighting Elites and Hunters again.

And who knows, maybe some new baddies will show up...

 

[Karg]

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/800/800896/halo-3-20070701092604686.jpg

Oh how I miss thee.

The new level on top of the base, can't remember if its accessible. Anyone?

Just hope I don't see any super jumping jack offs up there anymore.

 

[Brandon F]

the brute chopper is a total mess -- like a random piece of one of the movie transformers. doesn't even look like it would move. i understand that they were going for something very unlike the sleek purple covenant vehicles, but it doesn't appear to come off. in bungie we trust, but my one real worry about halo 3 campaign is that brutes won't be cool, even if they've been tuned up as adversaries.

Actually, marketing polls have shown that people love Halo but really truly wish they could shoot more hulking ape-men that ride motorcycles in future entries. Bungie is merely servicing that desire.

 

[Okin]

If anything, Halo 3's graphics are very inconsistent. Some screens look OMFG awesome, but then some, like this one, look like an EA game.

 

[GhaleonEB]

I started a thread with the same content then got hauled into a meeting unexpectedly. My only suggestion to Tieno is to organize the pics in the OP into sections, one for each map, and include the Last Resort arial shots a few posts up.

The new shots are amazing. Some subtle lighting and detail touches make them look better than the Beta, and new map designs as great. Shifting Zanzibar into larger, more vehicle-friendly map will keep it interesting throughout rounds, and Shrine looks just stunning. The lighting in Epitaph is gorgeous.

Halo 3 MP is shaping up to be inredibly impressive visually, and we still have only seen less than half the maps, and almost none of the features.

Hot damn. Is it E3 yet?

 

[cluto]

The new level on top of the base, can't remember if its accessible. Anyone?

You tell me:

 

[armubaba]

Graphic wise its lacking comparing to other 360 titles.....

No, just......no.....

 

[GhaleonEB]

If anything, Halo 3's graphics are very inconsistent. Some screens look OMFG awesome, but then some, like this one, look like an EA game.

Part of the reason for that is there is mixed compression going on. Some look native, others like this one have some nasty compression artifacting. I think IGN sized them all the same way, but that's not how Bungie provided'em.