Found below is every significant piece of info about everything bungie has decided on, regarding Halo 3. I know you guys won’t believe me when I tell you I know what’s going on with Halo 3. How about this for a start. Sometime this month, if everything goes as planned, very soon actually, a modified version of Hang Em High will be added to the list of maps for Halo 2. And plans are underway to release a modified version Sidewinder along with some new maps early next month depending partially on how successful the Hang Em High release proves to be. Hopefully, once this information come true, you will start to believe what I’m about to tell you.
I don’t care too much if you don’t believe. No one believed me when I said that Halo 2’s live features will be limited because Bungie isn’t going to let you search for the specific games with the settings you want to play. This time, if you don’t believe me, I would appreciate it if you just skip over this thread if you don’t rather than bash me incessantly for doing what I think is right. Just ask yourself, does this seem like something realistic/reasonable based on what you know about MS and Bungie. And once you admit that it is, please take the time to contact them to let them know how you feel about the changes being considered there.
Yes, this information is from a friend. And I will vouch for my friend. He is in a position to know precisely what’s going on at Bungie and has never once lied to me about this kind of stuff in the past. And yes, I know that makes it sound like I’m making this all up. Thus you can rest assured that should everything go according to plan (it almost never does) everything mentioned below will be a part of Halo 3. I really want Halo fans to here about these changes because this time around, whether the changes being considered below make into the final game will depend largely on fan input regarding whether or not Xbox 2 should include a HDD and whether the additions being considered by Bungie for Halo 3 are popular among fans of the series. So I strongly recommend that fans of the series contact Bungie and MS via either email or through petitions letting them know what they think about this.
And before getting excited about any of the information below, please remember it’s too early for anything to be confirmed or finalized. Some of the changes below may well not make it into the final game. Here’s what my friend has confirmed for certain…
Work on Halo 3 is very much deeply underway though Bungie will wait a little longer before even announcing the game. They want to build the core of the game or atleast get the basic details ironed out before they announce it.
Bungie has received Xbox 2 development kits and it’s employees are continuously receiving updates on the preliminary design of Xbox 2 as well as it’s various accessories and features. The prototype system currently goes by the codename Xenon and is currently based on Apple’s G5 processor and ATI’s r520 generation of graphics cards. But there is a chance the processor might be changed (possibly even to the Intel Centrino) should MS conclude that which we already know, the backward compabilty will be a key factor in whether or not Xbox 2 succeeds and then find that they will need to switch processors to accomidate backward compatibility. Bungie was also sent prototype Xbox 2 controllers to design Halo 3 around. My friend isn’t sure if this is the case for all gaming companies or just a special gift for Bungie. The controllers appear to be more rounded wireless versions of the Controller S that look and operate eerily similar to the Logitech Cordless Controller.
I’ve been told that the concept art for the wireless hubs that plug into the controller ports look sweet though. Unlike the gray rectangular hubs that come with Nintendo’s Wavebird controllers, these hubs will be either silver or black half circles with a green led X similar to the one on the top of the center Xbox 2 concept design below. The led X lights up whenever the controller is used. It appears that the hub for the DVD controller remote will look identical to these controller hubs. Microsoft still hasn’t decided whether Xbox 1 Controllers and the Xbox 1 DVD controller and hub will be usable on Xbox 2.
The prototype Xbox 2 designs being considered all look smaller, much sleeker, and a good bit more rounded with the exception of the very popular design pictured in the link below.
http://www.justplay.nl/media/58/20031118-Xbox%202.jpg
Of the various Xbox 2 concept pictures floating around on the internet, the one above is the only one seriously being considered. And only change made to the concept since the picture above was released is that the X2 symbol below the green X has since been removed in order to center the green X and the bottom half of the Xbox 2 concept has been changed to look similar to the top half pictured above. There is also a circular concept for the Xbox 2 being seriously considered that I’ve been told looks somewhat similar to the PS3 concept pictured in the link below…
http://www.playstation-3-forums.com/playst...rig00000014.jpg
None of the concepts being considered have those horrid looking ridges found on both the Xbox and the Play Station 2. Microsoft is definitely releasing a version of the Xbox 2 an year after the release of the original Xbox 2 that includes both a large HDD and a TV Tuner card allowing people to use their Xbox 2’s along with Xbox Live to add Tivo like functionality to the console. They are also considering adding other PC like functionality to this version of the console including various music and video codecs, internet browsing, instant messaging, and possibly even applications like picture editors, and word processing applications utilizing a wireless keyboard and mouse. But no decision has been made in regards to whether the standard version of the console will include a HDD.
Microsoft is really pushing Bungie to try to have atleast a playable demo of Halo 3 ready to go by early 2006. There was huge infusion of cash into Bungie after the success of Halo 2 and they are strongly considering contracting out a ton more talent developers in order to speed the production up on the last game of the trilogy. And Bungie is really pushing to have Xbox 2 feature backward compatibility and a HDD. Bungie wants fans to be able to play all three games of the trilogy on the same console. More importantly, a HDD is needed if Bungie is to make Halo 3’s levels massive, completely destructable (down to every building, tree, and ambient life form), and incorporate all the other features that they are planning. Numerous Bungie employees including my friend are also convinced that the HDD and backward compatibility are critical if Xbox 2 and thus Halo 3 are to succeed.
Most of Xbox’s early base came from people who were willing to wait a bit in order to own the most powerful console packing features that truly revolutionized console gaming. They would love to sell off their bulky Xboxs on Ebay and play the large collection of exceptional games they’ve accumulated over the years on the sleeker, smaller Xbox 2. And those that buy used copies of the first Xbox at bargain bin prices will have an opportunity to discover the Xbox’s great gaming franchises for themselves. But without a HDD, these early adopters have no reason to not just wait for the more powerful PS3 that does include a HDD and thus many of the features they loved about the first Xbox.
As for current PS2 and GC owners, Xbox 2 has the potential to pick a lot of them up if they are also given the ability through backward compatibility to play great games like Ninja Gaiden, KOTOR, and many others that they missed out on this generation. Without backward compatibility, gamers have no real reason to not just wait for Xbox 2 to accumulate a large library of quality games or atleast a killer app like Halo 3 before even considering the console. And by then, they’ll probably be won over by the release of a more powerful PS3 featuring a HDD. Considering that Halo 3 will almost certainly not be a launch title and Xbox 2 will not be the powerhouse console in comparison to it’s competitors this time around (the PS3 will almost certainly be as powerful if not a lot more powerful and will also be backward compatible), I’m absolutely convinced that without a HDD and backwards compatibility, Xbox 2 and thus Halo 3 will fail to make as large an impact as they have on the current generation.
Considering that one can get a 160 gb HD retail for about $30 after rebates, I really don’t see how when bought in bulk an year from now, the HDD would cost MS more than $10 each. And if Xbox 2 can’t be made backward compatible hardware wise, there isn’t really any reason why it can’t be made backward compatible via an embedded emulator in the operating system. Assuming that Xbox 2 will have a PC core like the first one, programming an embedded Xbox emulator into the operating system shouldn’t be that hard a task. So Bungie employees do have a very good point in insisting that Xbox 2 feature backward compatibility and a HDD and I hope that fans of the series will join me in contacting MS and asking them to heed the wishes of Bungie’s employees. I would hate to see many of the great features that Bungie has planned for Halo 3 be scrapped due to the lack of a HDD.
As far as Halo 3 is concerned, very little about the game has been decided but there are a great many changes strongly being considered. Many of these features were ones that Bungie wanted to implement in Halo 2 but were unable to due to time constraints. What Bungie is sure of, according to my friend, is that they want to completely redefine combat yet again. No one at Bungie likes the idea of releasing the same game with new levels and slightly improved graphics. So there are a couple of suggestions going around about how to reinvent the franchise. For one thing, Bungie is considering including several new types of grenades including EMP grenades with a much larger blast radius that are ideally suited for temporarily disabling all nearby vehicles including airborne vehicles like the banshee, proximity grenades that only explode if someone approaches them within ten seconds and fast moving grenades that bounce all over the map for 10 seconds until they hit a player or vehicle. To implement them all, Bungie is considering just having one type of grenade on the map. But these standard grenades can be made into either sticky grenades, EMP grenades, proximity grenades, or bouncing grenades based on which button the player holds down as they press the trigger to launch the grenade into the air. This is an early feature still being tested at the moment.
Other new weapons and vehicles that development is hard at work on include a flame thrower, a human jet ski, a large boat with a cannon and the ability to carry up to three people, and a helicopter. So obviously, battles over bodies of water will be included in the third game of the series and this will be accommodated by making it so that all the covenant hover vehicles including the wraith and the ghost will be able to hover on both water and land. Work has already begun on programming in various weather and particle effects including snow, rain, lightning, dust storms (presumably for a desert level), fog (presumably for a rainforest level) as well as many ambient life forms found on Earth, including fish, sharks, alligators, birds, rabbits, stampeding rhinos, and civilians in complete panic and disarray. In addition, the design team is already hard at work on a human land counterpart to the ghost such as either an ATV or possibly a motorcycle. Design is also working on creating more faster and scarier flood variants confirming that the flood will indeed be found on Earth in the third game.
As you probably guessed, this time around, the game will center on repelling the covenant invasion of Earth. The levels will be much bigger as will the number of enemies and the number of allies by your side. This will be a full blown massive war between the covenant, humans and flood with tons upon tons of units from each faction engaged in combat at any given time all over the massive levels. The outdoor levels also allow players to free roam and choose which battles they wish to engage in thus giving players the sense that they truly are fighting an epic war for Earth’s survival. Bungie is very set on harnessing Xbox 2’s graphical prowess to truly give players the sense that they are just one soldier in the middle of a massive war. To facilitate this, the AI will be ramped up some more, the multiplayer games will support up to 32 players at once, as well as a few more playable characters with unique strengths and weaknesses.
The playable characters being considered include Hunters (bigger targets, slower except when charging someone without a weapon, but they have more life, are much faster and have more varied melee attacks) and the flying Drones found in the first level of Halo 2 (weaker but faster and possessing the ability to fly limited distances). But there is talk that all the characters in Halo will be playable characters. As already mentioned, the flood will be unleashed upon Earth and as before will seek out large dark areas where they sometimes congregate in numbers too massive for even Master Chief thus occasionally forcing him to strategically destroy light sources and sneak past them in the shadows.
Master Chief will be able to sprint this time and will also be able to quickly duck and roll out of the way in order to avoid charging vehicles and hunters. Bungie is also considering heeding the requests of fans by utilizing the improved AI to implement rudimentary bots for use in unranked multiplayer games. A feature being considered tied to this includes voice control of nearby marines and bots. No one is sure exactly how this will be implemented but it’s likely that by utilizing the headphones used on live, nearby bots and marines will be able to recognize and obey simple commands such as defend this area, retreat and take cover, follow me, drive this vehicle to enemy flag, wait here, attack in line formation etc.
Also a popular request, Xbox Live games will have many more options and players can choose to play with 31, 15, or 7 other players in the game type and the map of their choice. Players will also be able pick such rudimentary options as whether they want infinite grenades and whether all starting primary and secondary weapons as well as the heavy and light vehicles are randomly determined each respawn. Everything in the game from the trees to the giant skyscrapers will be fully destructible. Another popular fan request being considered includes an online co-op and counter-op mode with up to 16 players. These 16 player co-op and counter-op modes will only be available for a select few massive open ended single player missions. In co-op 15 players play along side you as fellow marines while the counter-op team will assume the roles of elites and other units all over the massive map with the job of preventing your team from completing the mission in the allotted time. When one of the co-op or counter-op players die, they simply assume the role of one of the computer controlled allied or opposing characters should one be available. The viability of programming a map/mission maker is also being strongly considered though many Bungie employees aren’t convinced that there is enough demand for this feature to warrant the amount of work such an addition would require.
The only aspect of the game that will not be completely revamped is the graphics engine! I was surprised to hear that too but it makes sense when you think about it. Bungie put an enormous amount of time on the graphics engine already creating almost photorealistic in game graphics. Instead of spending an enormous amount of time redoing it all again, Bungie will spend this time working on the actual game and instead use Xbox 2’s significant processing and graphical power to create much bigger, much much more populated, fully destructable levels with a great many enemies, simultaneous battles, ambient life and objects such trees and bushes. This is all essential is Bungie is to implement the revolutionary new gameplay feature discussed below.
The HDD if MS opts to include it with Xbox 2 will be used for a lot more than just faster level loading and game saves this time around. Bungie is considering letting players play music tracks stored on the Xbox’s HDD. In addition, all actions and events will be stored to the HDD so that players will be able to review their gameplay from multiple angles at any desired speed after the level ends and players will even be able to store their favorite clips of gameplay to the HDD. You know how during Live matches, you get to view the gameplay of a fellow teammate from a more aerial perspective. That’s supposedly what the stored footage on the hdd looks like. But that’s just scratching the surface of what this aerial viewpoint and zooming feature will be used for. More on that in a bit.
So why am I putting so much emphasis on the zoomed out camera mode and the massive level sizes? Why is Bungie dedicating so much time to programming in an AI smart enough to literally take over for a human player for short periods of time? Why are there going to be so many characters engaged in combat all over the level at any one time? Why did Bungie spend such a large part of Halo 2 introducing a new covenant ally that is also a playable character? Why is it so important that enough fans write to Microsoft to convince them to include backward compatibility and a HDD in Xbox 2? Because Bungie is seriously considering taking the Halo universe back to it’s original roots in some of massive outdoor maps in the single player campaign. And by it’s original roots, I’m referring to how Halo originally started as an RTS. Fear not Halo fans, a top priority of Bungie is that this be integrated into the gameplay seamlessly so that players can easily switch back and forth from the aerial RTS perspective whenever they desire. Halo is still fully designed to be an FPS first and foremost and you will be able to play through the entire game without once having to try the RTS aspect of the game if you so desire. Every level starts from the FPS perspective and ends with the FPS perspective. Sure in some of the massive outdoor single player levels, you will be able to zoom out to a more aerial perspective for some RTS functionality at any time, but this is by no means a critical component of the game, just a fun diversion of sorts.
So how will this feature be implemented? From what I can gather, everything about this mode, including whether or not it will even be included, is still very much up in the air. Several Bungie employees are unsure how fans will react to this addition, no matter how well it’s implemented or how unintrusive it will be to the FPS mode. So if you’re indeed interested in seeing this feature be implemented, I strongly recommend that you contact Bungie with your reaction and contact MS with your desire a HDD be included to allow for the plans that Bungie has for Halo 3. But here’s how the mode is being approached for now. Cortona will be rescued early on and will take charge of coordinating Earth’s forces against the invading hordes. She will be observing the entire battlefield from an aerial perspective. And in certain levels, you can opt to switch to her perspective by pressing a button (likely the black button) giving the AI control of Master Chief or the Arbiter or whichever character you were commanding. The AI plays far more conservatively with these characters than a normal human player so they won’t die on their own losing you the mission. But since they are not nearly as aggressive as human players, assuming their character will be essential to complete missions. As Cortana, you will assume Cortana’s various duties but can at anytime opt to switch back to your character, or possibly any allied character found on the battle field that you select.
So what exactly will you be able to do as Cortana and how will you be able to execute these commands with so few buttons? At this early stage, here is what seems to be the popular choices. Cortana’s primary job will be coordinate troop movements. All allied forces will be divided into various squads that Cortana can cycle through with the press of a button. You use one joy stick to move the pointer around the map and the other to change the camera angle and zoom in and out. While the various squads will use their AI to direct their general actions and will often follow Master Chief or the Arbiter’s lead, Cortana will be able to order the selected squads to go to any point selected by the pointer and will be able to command them with basic voice commands such as defend this area, assault or attack this area etc. Cortana will also be able to select individual units on the map using the pointer and give them commands such as (using the pointer as an indicator) drive this vehicle, man this turret, take this sniper rifle, leave your squad and go to this high point and snipe this area, be the gunner of this vehicle and she can then use the pointer to select the entire vehicle and order it to attack a certain point etc.
Good squad coordination to take advantage of choke points, good sniping spots, defend critical buildings, provide supporting fire to another squad in trouble, sneak into and destroy critical enemy structures, destroy critical vehicles will all make the level much easier for Master Chief and/or the Arbiter. In addition, there will be various drop ships all over the battlefield that pick up newly built vehicles or newly trained troop squads and drop them off in needed regions on the battlefield. While this process is completely automated, Cortana can use a button to cycle through and take control of active drop ships to ensure that the drop ships take the safest, fastest route possible and drop off supplies to the squads that you intend to use for future assaults etc. Bungie is also considering implementing an influence bar for Cortana.
While new squads of troops may be trained at the barracks on the battle field and dropped off for deployment, Cortana can also use up her influence (with the press of a white button) to request additional troops, weapons, or vehicles be dropped off to the area indicated by the pointer via drop ships from bases that are some distance away from the battle field and thus out of the level’s view. Her influence bar will increase as allied forces destroy enemy vehicles, units and buildings. And this bar is depleted slightly everytime Cortana requests additional units or vehicles. Cortana will not be able to construct new buildings or rapidly repair entire buildings as is possible in most other RTS as it’s not realistic having a building pop up in the middle of a battle. But there will likely be various buildings already on the map that Cortana will have to defend and utilize. And Cortana will be able to cycle through the various buildings on the level with the press of a button.
For example, there may be various powerstations on the battlefield that you as Cortana will have to defend. Should one of them be damaged or destroyed, Cortana will choose which of the support buildings will be powered down (indicated by all the lights inside the building going off). These support building will likely include turrets surrounding key choke points, various factories that can produce a couple of vehicles of Cortana’s choice throughout the course of a battle, repair facilities that can fix damaged vehicles. Cortana will be coordinating both human forces and allied covenant forces led by the arbiter and will thus have access to human drop ships on some levels and covenant drop ships and units and vehicles in other levels. All of these tasks are automated and most of these actions occur without you having to order them. Squads attack nearby enemies on their own. Drop ships drop off supplies on their own etc.
When playing as Master Chief or the Arbiter, players won’t even really notice all this stuff going on in the background. Occasionally, Cortana tells you where to go. Occasionally, drop ships drop off additional marine squads, weapons, and vehicles for you to use. This aspect of the game will feel identical to how Halo 1 and 2 feel. They maybe able to request additional supplies or troops dropped off by cortana. And it's likely they will be able to request air strikes from support ships onto specific locations. But these won't significantly alter the gameplay. The only key differences will be more open ended level design, gameplay, fully destructable environments, and more enemies on screen for those particular levels where the Cortana mode is available. Other levels such as indoor levels will feature objective based gameplay with various check points as before. But as Cortana you can take charge and coordinate how these all background tasks occur. According to my friend, Bungie really wants to find a way to incorporate this new mode into online play (perhaps having one player on each team play Cortana’s role for the team defending various buildings and commanding all the drop ships while all the units on screen are played by real people). But this is a task that’s far easier said than done.
I hope you’re as excited about the direction Bungie plans to take Halo 3 as I was when I first found out. And I hope you will join me in contacting MS and encouraging them to including backward compatibility and a HDD to make this all possible and in contacting Bungie sharing with them whether you would be dissatisfied with these gameplay additions.
Once again, I expect that next to none of you will believe a word of what I just told you. I hoping a few of you come around once Hang Em High does get released as I already told you that it would.
So all I have to say is. Wait for Hang Em High. And if it doesn't come out this month, then proceed to call me names.
I don’t care too much if you don’t believe. No one believed me when I said that Halo 2’s live features will be limited because Bungie isn’t going to let you search for the specific games with the settings you want to play. This time, if you don’t believe me, I would appreciate it if you just skip over this thread if you don’t rather than bash me incessantly for doing what I think is right. Just ask yourself, does this seem like something realistic/reasonable based on what you know about MS and Bungie. And once you admit that it is, please take the time to contact them to let them know how you feel about the changes being considered there.
Yes, this information is from a friend. And I will vouch for my friend. He is in a position to know precisely what’s going on at Bungie and has never once lied to me about this kind of stuff in the past. And yes, I know that makes it sound like I’m making this all up. Thus you can rest assured that should everything go according to plan (it almost never does) everything mentioned below will be a part of Halo 3. I really want Halo fans to here about these changes because this time around, whether the changes being considered below make into the final game will depend largely on fan input regarding whether or not Xbox 2 should include a HDD and whether the additions being considered by Bungie for Halo 3 are popular among fans of the series. So I strongly recommend that fans of the series contact Bungie and MS via either email or through petitions letting them know what they think about this.
And before getting excited about any of the information below, please remember it’s too early for anything to be confirmed or finalized. Some of the changes below may well not make it into the final game. Here’s what my friend has confirmed for certain…
Work on Halo 3 is very much deeply underway though Bungie will wait a little longer before even announcing the game. They want to build the core of the game or atleast get the basic details ironed out before they announce it.
Bungie has received Xbox 2 development kits and it’s employees are continuously receiving updates on the preliminary design of Xbox 2 as well as it’s various accessories and features. The prototype system currently goes by the codename Xenon and is currently based on Apple’s G5 processor and ATI’s r520 generation of graphics cards. But there is a chance the processor might be changed (possibly even to the Intel Centrino) should MS conclude that which we already know, the backward compabilty will be a key factor in whether or not Xbox 2 succeeds and then find that they will need to switch processors to accomidate backward compatibility. Bungie was also sent prototype Xbox 2 controllers to design Halo 3 around. My friend isn’t sure if this is the case for all gaming companies or just a special gift for Bungie. The controllers appear to be more rounded wireless versions of the Controller S that look and operate eerily similar to the Logitech Cordless Controller.
I’ve been told that the concept art for the wireless hubs that plug into the controller ports look sweet though. Unlike the gray rectangular hubs that come with Nintendo’s Wavebird controllers, these hubs will be either silver or black half circles with a green led X similar to the one on the top of the center Xbox 2 concept design below. The led X lights up whenever the controller is used. It appears that the hub for the DVD controller remote will look identical to these controller hubs. Microsoft still hasn’t decided whether Xbox 1 Controllers and the Xbox 1 DVD controller and hub will be usable on Xbox 2.
The prototype Xbox 2 designs being considered all look smaller, much sleeker, and a good bit more rounded with the exception of the very popular design pictured in the link below.
http://www.justplay.nl/media/58/20031118-Xbox%202.jpg
Of the various Xbox 2 concept pictures floating around on the internet, the one above is the only one seriously being considered. And only change made to the concept since the picture above was released is that the X2 symbol below the green X has since been removed in order to center the green X and the bottom half of the Xbox 2 concept has been changed to look similar to the top half pictured above. There is also a circular concept for the Xbox 2 being seriously considered that I’ve been told looks somewhat similar to the PS3 concept pictured in the link below…
http://www.playstation-3-forums.com/playst...rig00000014.jpg
None of the concepts being considered have those horrid looking ridges found on both the Xbox and the Play Station 2. Microsoft is definitely releasing a version of the Xbox 2 an year after the release of the original Xbox 2 that includes both a large HDD and a TV Tuner card allowing people to use their Xbox 2’s along with Xbox Live to add Tivo like functionality to the console. They are also considering adding other PC like functionality to this version of the console including various music and video codecs, internet browsing, instant messaging, and possibly even applications like picture editors, and word processing applications utilizing a wireless keyboard and mouse. But no decision has been made in regards to whether the standard version of the console will include a HDD.
Microsoft is really pushing Bungie to try to have atleast a playable demo of Halo 3 ready to go by early 2006. There was huge infusion of cash into Bungie after the success of Halo 2 and they are strongly considering contracting out a ton more talent developers in order to speed the production up on the last game of the trilogy. And Bungie is really pushing to have Xbox 2 feature backward compatibility and a HDD. Bungie wants fans to be able to play all three games of the trilogy on the same console. More importantly, a HDD is needed if Bungie is to make Halo 3’s levels massive, completely destructable (down to every building, tree, and ambient life form), and incorporate all the other features that they are planning. Numerous Bungie employees including my friend are also convinced that the HDD and backward compatibility are critical if Xbox 2 and thus Halo 3 are to succeed.
Most of Xbox’s early base came from people who were willing to wait a bit in order to own the most powerful console packing features that truly revolutionized console gaming. They would love to sell off their bulky Xboxs on Ebay and play the large collection of exceptional games they’ve accumulated over the years on the sleeker, smaller Xbox 2. And those that buy used copies of the first Xbox at bargain bin prices will have an opportunity to discover the Xbox’s great gaming franchises for themselves. But without a HDD, these early adopters have no reason to not just wait for the more powerful PS3 that does include a HDD and thus many of the features they loved about the first Xbox.
As for current PS2 and GC owners, Xbox 2 has the potential to pick a lot of them up if they are also given the ability through backward compatibility to play great games like Ninja Gaiden, KOTOR, and many others that they missed out on this generation. Without backward compatibility, gamers have no real reason to not just wait for Xbox 2 to accumulate a large library of quality games or atleast a killer app like Halo 3 before even considering the console. And by then, they’ll probably be won over by the release of a more powerful PS3 featuring a HDD. Considering that Halo 3 will almost certainly not be a launch title and Xbox 2 will not be the powerhouse console in comparison to it’s competitors this time around (the PS3 will almost certainly be as powerful if not a lot more powerful and will also be backward compatible), I’m absolutely convinced that without a HDD and backwards compatibility, Xbox 2 and thus Halo 3 will fail to make as large an impact as they have on the current generation.
Considering that one can get a 160 gb HD retail for about $30 after rebates, I really don’t see how when bought in bulk an year from now, the HDD would cost MS more than $10 each. And if Xbox 2 can’t be made backward compatible hardware wise, there isn’t really any reason why it can’t be made backward compatible via an embedded emulator in the operating system. Assuming that Xbox 2 will have a PC core like the first one, programming an embedded Xbox emulator into the operating system shouldn’t be that hard a task. So Bungie employees do have a very good point in insisting that Xbox 2 feature backward compatibility and a HDD and I hope that fans of the series will join me in contacting MS and asking them to heed the wishes of Bungie’s employees. I would hate to see many of the great features that Bungie has planned for Halo 3 be scrapped due to the lack of a HDD.
As far as Halo 3 is concerned, very little about the game has been decided but there are a great many changes strongly being considered. Many of these features were ones that Bungie wanted to implement in Halo 2 but were unable to due to time constraints. What Bungie is sure of, according to my friend, is that they want to completely redefine combat yet again. No one at Bungie likes the idea of releasing the same game with new levels and slightly improved graphics. So there are a couple of suggestions going around about how to reinvent the franchise. For one thing, Bungie is considering including several new types of grenades including EMP grenades with a much larger blast radius that are ideally suited for temporarily disabling all nearby vehicles including airborne vehicles like the banshee, proximity grenades that only explode if someone approaches them within ten seconds and fast moving grenades that bounce all over the map for 10 seconds until they hit a player or vehicle. To implement them all, Bungie is considering just having one type of grenade on the map. But these standard grenades can be made into either sticky grenades, EMP grenades, proximity grenades, or bouncing grenades based on which button the player holds down as they press the trigger to launch the grenade into the air. This is an early feature still being tested at the moment.
Other new weapons and vehicles that development is hard at work on include a flame thrower, a human jet ski, a large boat with a cannon and the ability to carry up to three people, and a helicopter. So obviously, battles over bodies of water will be included in the third game of the series and this will be accommodated by making it so that all the covenant hover vehicles including the wraith and the ghost will be able to hover on both water and land. Work has already begun on programming in various weather and particle effects including snow, rain, lightning, dust storms (presumably for a desert level), fog (presumably for a rainforest level) as well as many ambient life forms found on Earth, including fish, sharks, alligators, birds, rabbits, stampeding rhinos, and civilians in complete panic and disarray. In addition, the design team is already hard at work on a human land counterpart to the ghost such as either an ATV or possibly a motorcycle. Design is also working on creating more faster and scarier flood variants confirming that the flood will indeed be found on Earth in the third game.
As you probably guessed, this time around, the game will center on repelling the covenant invasion of Earth. The levels will be much bigger as will the number of enemies and the number of allies by your side. This will be a full blown massive war between the covenant, humans and flood with tons upon tons of units from each faction engaged in combat at any given time all over the massive levels. The outdoor levels also allow players to free roam and choose which battles they wish to engage in thus giving players the sense that they truly are fighting an epic war for Earth’s survival. Bungie is very set on harnessing Xbox 2’s graphical prowess to truly give players the sense that they are just one soldier in the middle of a massive war. To facilitate this, the AI will be ramped up some more, the multiplayer games will support up to 32 players at once, as well as a few more playable characters with unique strengths and weaknesses.
The playable characters being considered include Hunters (bigger targets, slower except when charging someone without a weapon, but they have more life, are much faster and have more varied melee attacks) and the flying Drones found in the first level of Halo 2 (weaker but faster and possessing the ability to fly limited distances). But there is talk that all the characters in Halo will be playable characters. As already mentioned, the flood will be unleashed upon Earth and as before will seek out large dark areas where they sometimes congregate in numbers too massive for even Master Chief thus occasionally forcing him to strategically destroy light sources and sneak past them in the shadows.
Master Chief will be able to sprint this time and will also be able to quickly duck and roll out of the way in order to avoid charging vehicles and hunters. Bungie is also considering heeding the requests of fans by utilizing the improved AI to implement rudimentary bots for use in unranked multiplayer games. A feature being considered tied to this includes voice control of nearby marines and bots. No one is sure exactly how this will be implemented but it’s likely that by utilizing the headphones used on live, nearby bots and marines will be able to recognize and obey simple commands such as defend this area, retreat and take cover, follow me, drive this vehicle to enemy flag, wait here, attack in line formation etc.
Also a popular request, Xbox Live games will have many more options and players can choose to play with 31, 15, or 7 other players in the game type and the map of their choice. Players will also be able pick such rudimentary options as whether they want infinite grenades and whether all starting primary and secondary weapons as well as the heavy and light vehicles are randomly determined each respawn. Everything in the game from the trees to the giant skyscrapers will be fully destructible. Another popular fan request being considered includes an online co-op and counter-op mode with up to 16 players. These 16 player co-op and counter-op modes will only be available for a select few massive open ended single player missions. In co-op 15 players play along side you as fellow marines while the counter-op team will assume the roles of elites and other units all over the massive map with the job of preventing your team from completing the mission in the allotted time. When one of the co-op or counter-op players die, they simply assume the role of one of the computer controlled allied or opposing characters should one be available. The viability of programming a map/mission maker is also being strongly considered though many Bungie employees aren’t convinced that there is enough demand for this feature to warrant the amount of work such an addition would require.
The only aspect of the game that will not be completely revamped is the graphics engine! I was surprised to hear that too but it makes sense when you think about it. Bungie put an enormous amount of time on the graphics engine already creating almost photorealistic in game graphics. Instead of spending an enormous amount of time redoing it all again, Bungie will spend this time working on the actual game and instead use Xbox 2’s significant processing and graphical power to create much bigger, much much more populated, fully destructable levels with a great many enemies, simultaneous battles, ambient life and objects such trees and bushes. This is all essential is Bungie is to implement the revolutionary new gameplay feature discussed below.
The HDD if MS opts to include it with Xbox 2 will be used for a lot more than just faster level loading and game saves this time around. Bungie is considering letting players play music tracks stored on the Xbox’s HDD. In addition, all actions and events will be stored to the HDD so that players will be able to review their gameplay from multiple angles at any desired speed after the level ends and players will even be able to store their favorite clips of gameplay to the HDD. You know how during Live matches, you get to view the gameplay of a fellow teammate from a more aerial perspective. That’s supposedly what the stored footage on the hdd looks like. But that’s just scratching the surface of what this aerial viewpoint and zooming feature will be used for. More on that in a bit.
So why am I putting so much emphasis on the zoomed out camera mode and the massive level sizes? Why is Bungie dedicating so much time to programming in an AI smart enough to literally take over for a human player for short periods of time? Why are there going to be so many characters engaged in combat all over the level at any one time? Why did Bungie spend such a large part of Halo 2 introducing a new covenant ally that is also a playable character? Why is it so important that enough fans write to Microsoft to convince them to include backward compatibility and a HDD in Xbox 2? Because Bungie is seriously considering taking the Halo universe back to it’s original roots in some of massive outdoor maps in the single player campaign. And by it’s original roots, I’m referring to how Halo originally started as an RTS. Fear not Halo fans, a top priority of Bungie is that this be integrated into the gameplay seamlessly so that players can easily switch back and forth from the aerial RTS perspective whenever they desire. Halo is still fully designed to be an FPS first and foremost and you will be able to play through the entire game without once having to try the RTS aspect of the game if you so desire. Every level starts from the FPS perspective and ends with the FPS perspective. Sure in some of the massive outdoor single player levels, you will be able to zoom out to a more aerial perspective for some RTS functionality at any time, but this is by no means a critical component of the game, just a fun diversion of sorts.
So how will this feature be implemented? From what I can gather, everything about this mode, including whether or not it will even be included, is still very much up in the air. Several Bungie employees are unsure how fans will react to this addition, no matter how well it’s implemented or how unintrusive it will be to the FPS mode. So if you’re indeed interested in seeing this feature be implemented, I strongly recommend that you contact Bungie with your reaction and contact MS with your desire a HDD be included to allow for the plans that Bungie has for Halo 3. But here’s how the mode is being approached for now. Cortona will be rescued early on and will take charge of coordinating Earth’s forces against the invading hordes. She will be observing the entire battlefield from an aerial perspective. And in certain levels, you can opt to switch to her perspective by pressing a button (likely the black button) giving the AI control of Master Chief or the Arbiter or whichever character you were commanding. The AI plays far more conservatively with these characters than a normal human player so they won’t die on their own losing you the mission. But since they are not nearly as aggressive as human players, assuming their character will be essential to complete missions. As Cortana, you will assume Cortana’s various duties but can at anytime opt to switch back to your character, or possibly any allied character found on the battle field that you select.
So what exactly will you be able to do as Cortana and how will you be able to execute these commands with so few buttons? At this early stage, here is what seems to be the popular choices. Cortana’s primary job will be coordinate troop movements. All allied forces will be divided into various squads that Cortana can cycle through with the press of a button. You use one joy stick to move the pointer around the map and the other to change the camera angle and zoom in and out. While the various squads will use their AI to direct their general actions and will often follow Master Chief or the Arbiter’s lead, Cortana will be able to order the selected squads to go to any point selected by the pointer and will be able to command them with basic voice commands such as defend this area, assault or attack this area etc. Cortana will also be able to select individual units on the map using the pointer and give them commands such as (using the pointer as an indicator) drive this vehicle, man this turret, take this sniper rifle, leave your squad and go to this high point and snipe this area, be the gunner of this vehicle and she can then use the pointer to select the entire vehicle and order it to attack a certain point etc.
Good squad coordination to take advantage of choke points, good sniping spots, defend critical buildings, provide supporting fire to another squad in trouble, sneak into and destroy critical enemy structures, destroy critical vehicles will all make the level much easier for Master Chief and/or the Arbiter. In addition, there will be various drop ships all over the battlefield that pick up newly built vehicles or newly trained troop squads and drop them off in needed regions on the battlefield. While this process is completely automated, Cortana can use a button to cycle through and take control of active drop ships to ensure that the drop ships take the safest, fastest route possible and drop off supplies to the squads that you intend to use for future assaults etc. Bungie is also considering implementing an influence bar for Cortana.
While new squads of troops may be trained at the barracks on the battle field and dropped off for deployment, Cortana can also use up her influence (with the press of a white button) to request additional troops, weapons, or vehicles be dropped off to the area indicated by the pointer via drop ships from bases that are some distance away from the battle field and thus out of the level’s view. Her influence bar will increase as allied forces destroy enemy vehicles, units and buildings. And this bar is depleted slightly everytime Cortana requests additional units or vehicles. Cortana will not be able to construct new buildings or rapidly repair entire buildings as is possible in most other RTS as it’s not realistic having a building pop up in the middle of a battle. But there will likely be various buildings already on the map that Cortana will have to defend and utilize. And Cortana will be able to cycle through the various buildings on the level with the press of a button.
For example, there may be various powerstations on the battlefield that you as Cortana will have to defend. Should one of them be damaged or destroyed, Cortana will choose which of the support buildings will be powered down (indicated by all the lights inside the building going off). These support building will likely include turrets surrounding key choke points, various factories that can produce a couple of vehicles of Cortana’s choice throughout the course of a battle, repair facilities that can fix damaged vehicles. Cortana will be coordinating both human forces and allied covenant forces led by the arbiter and will thus have access to human drop ships on some levels and covenant drop ships and units and vehicles in other levels. All of these tasks are automated and most of these actions occur without you having to order them. Squads attack nearby enemies on their own. Drop ships drop off supplies on their own etc.
When playing as Master Chief or the Arbiter, players won’t even really notice all this stuff going on in the background. Occasionally, Cortana tells you where to go. Occasionally, drop ships drop off additional marine squads, weapons, and vehicles for you to use. This aspect of the game will feel identical to how Halo 1 and 2 feel. They maybe able to request additional supplies or troops dropped off by cortana. And it's likely they will be able to request air strikes from support ships onto specific locations. But these won't significantly alter the gameplay. The only key differences will be more open ended level design, gameplay, fully destructable environments, and more enemies on screen for those particular levels where the Cortana mode is available. Other levels such as indoor levels will feature objective based gameplay with various check points as before. But as Cortana you can take charge and coordinate how these all background tasks occur. According to my friend, Bungie really wants to find a way to incorporate this new mode into online play (perhaps having one player on each team play Cortana’s role for the team defending various buildings and commanding all the drop ships while all the units on screen are played by real people). But this is a task that’s far easier said than done.
I hope you’re as excited about the direction Bungie plans to take Halo 3 as I was when I first found out. And I hope you will join me in contacting MS and encouraging them to including backward compatibility and a HDD to make this all possible and in contacting Bungie sharing with them whether you would be dissatisfied with these gameplay additions.
Once again, I expect that next to none of you will believe a word of what I just told you. I hoping a few of you come around once Hang Em High does get released as I already told you that it would.
So all I have to say is. Wait for Hang Em High. And if it doesn't come out this month, then proceed to call me names.
