2007-11-22 05:37:44

Some screenshots I took a couple of weeks ago have finally appeared on Bungie.net and here they are.


The pictorial definition of a Bwutechibo (a big, kinda fat, pretty dumb, not so balding, alien ape thing).


Unggoys breathe it, Sangheilis fart it.


If in doubt, or out of ammo, a kick in the arse will do the job

2007-12-11 12:09:40

Here's a fresh set of screenshots.

2007-12-19 20:37:38

Nice shots Chief. Game looks gorgeous as ever. The lighting, and scale are awesome.

Here's one I took on the new map Standoff(gorgeous map btw):


Nice view!(satellites move too!)


LOL, breakdancing galore!


About to kick ass!


Bungie Jumpin. lol

Ha, and some nice stats:

Halo 3 Players Online:73,456
Unique Players (Last 24 Hours):793,873
Matches Logged (Last 24 Hours):1,747,037
UNSC Campaign Kill Count:4,021,402,512

Will post more soon.

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Wii60!

"We've said that Gears of War was graphically the best game have ever been made, well it looks like Pong compared to Crysis and some of the DX10 titles."

-Gary Whitta (Venting on the NG podcast after Coming back from the Games for Windows)

2007-12-19 20:41:34 In reply to NeoNemesis (2007-12-19 20:37:38)

I see Halo players are still playing on average less than 3 matches a day. 793,873 players is a lot, but it's still odd that they're playing so few matches considering that population.

2007-12-19 22:30:14 In reply to GriftGFX (2007-12-19 20:41:34)

Check back during the weekend :)

I only get about an hr each day free to play halo during the week, thats like 5 matches max.

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Street Fighter 4... Believe.

2007-12-19 22:32:07 In reply to Jin187 (2007-12-19 22:30:14)

Right.. but the average is far less than that. Meaning, for all of the people who play 5+ matches a night, there must be thousands playing like, .5-1 match per night. Now that's a dedicated audience ;)

2007-12-19 22:39:03 In reply to GriftGFX (2007-12-19 22:32:07)

Lol, dont be surprised by the fact that people actually have lives to live :)

Either way, no other online console game comes even close to those daily numbers .

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Street Fighter 4... Believe.

2007-12-19 22:44:23

True, no other console game does come close to those numbers. It just continues to be an odd disparity between the number of people playing and the number of overall matches they play. I think it's probably in the top three played online (FPS) overall, maybe in the top five overall online games period.

2007-12-19 22:51:30 In reply to GriftGFX (2007-12-19 22:44:23)

I'd be very surprised if it isnt no1 for FPS' and its probably in the top 3 overall online games.

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Street Fighter 4... Believe.

2007-12-19 23:07:12 In reply to Jin187 (2007-12-19 22:51:30)

Counter Strike 1.6 and Source both probably beat it. For instance, there are currently 166,617 (down from well over 200,000 people earlier in the day) people playing CS and 76,163 people playing Source (and an additional 20,000 playing condition zero). In overall time played, I'd be willing to wager that both games probably trump Halo 3's numbers on a daily basis. And yeah--World of Warcraft. So no, I doubt it's in the top 3 overall.

Unfortunately, no one tracks Call of Duty 4's numbers, which combined from the 360, PC, and PS3 versions probably puts it well above Battlefield 2 at this point (currently ~20,000 players logged in)--hell--I imagine the PC userbase alone probably trumps BF2's numbers at this point, which would easily put it in the top 3-4 overall if you could find combined numbers.. but you can't. :/

And what's really remarkable about that--CS is what, 10 years old? Can you imagine people playing Halo 3 in ten years? I know I can't.

2007-12-19 23:19:01 In reply to GriftGFX (2007-12-19 23:07:12)

Well, theres currently 322,069 people playing halo 3 right now.

EDIT: TEAM HARDCORE IS UP, my life is now officially over!

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Street Fighter 4... Believe.

2007-12-19 23:20:48

Yea but they'll only play one game.

Oh, and PS: Not according to bungie.net (#Halo 3 Players Online: 150,363)

2007-12-20 00:25:23 In reply to Jin187 (2007-12-19 23:19:01)

My Halo life just started. Well kinda... I was waiting for the update yesterday and it didn't come and now it's already too late, was playing so much TS that I just can't concentrate anymore. Now the question: Do I play TS to work towards lvl 50, or do I play Hardcore and have a few easy wins. Well might be not that easy, just got matched up with lvl 48 and had a really intense battle we won in the end.

Grift, as we had the discussion in the other Halo thread: I'm a conservative kind of player, at least when it comes to Halo. There were certain settings that just worked for me in Halo 2 and one of them was THC. Now being a conservative player I still think this is the best setting you can play Halo on, doesn't matter wich one.

Now after my first round I'd have to say that it IS indeed the best setting. We had to play on the most hated and most camped map, Snowbound, but in this match there was NO camping at all. You don't go hiding when you're shot at and hope your enemy doesn't come around to finish you off like in TS. You get shot at shoot back, retreat and go for a surprise attack, since he can't see you on the radar (in TS this is simply not possible, he'd notice you on the radar and one shot you).

Everyone is on his toes and trying to hold the best positions. Team tactics are very likely to change during the match a few times wich is very interesting for a change, cause usually the best tactic most teams can come up with is camping.

2007-12-20 00:42:48

I'll have to give it a go when I get the chance. I did enjoy the MLG settings in Halo 2, so I can't imagine that it isn't good stuff.

PS. It's up over 175,000 players now--still not 300,000+ though.

2007-12-20 01:07:21 In reply to GriftGFX (2007-12-20 00:42:48)

Turn your 360 on in Halo 3 and look at players on line, its now 362,045

BTW, Hardcore is absolutely awesome!!! The game variations are fantastic, oh... the Joy!I couldnt agree more!

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Street Fighter 4... Believe.

2007-12-20 01:14:15 In reply to Jin187 (2007-12-20 01:07:21)

I guess Bungie is lying (to one of us)--I guarantee that those numbers are totally skewed by either guests or people playing campaign/co-op. I trust their websites tracker--it seems much more reasonable. But it would make sense if there were more people on.. I mean.. after all.. they need to get up to that 800,000 mark where people play one match a day!

In time played, Halo 3 will never approach CS, which will keep on going on for ages while Halo 3 will slowly die off as we move into the next generation. Sure, there are 20 thousand people who play Halo 2 in any given day, but that's not many, considering the console population as a whole. That would be a lot, if it were a PC game (that didn't start with the words "Counter Strike").

Even if Bungie's in game stats mean what you think they mean, I'm willing to bet in time spent it still doesn't even come close to CS 1.6's numbers on a 24 hour basis, day to day. After all, players only play a game or two on average.

2007-12-20 01:28:15 In reply to GriftGFX (2007-12-20 01:14:15)

I thinks thats more to do with the fact that console gamers are no where near as hardcore as pc gamers and we like to move on when something better comes along.

Halo 3 wont go for 10 years simple becaus ethe 360 will not last anywhere near that long. Put it this way, there no way CS has clocked more hrs than halo 1/2/3 overall.

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Street Fighter 4... Believe.

2007-12-20 02:15:39 In reply to Jin187 (2007-12-20 01:28:15)

Yes there is.

CS is 8 (corrected--doesn't change the point/facts much though) years old and still clocks more than 8 billion player minutes per month (9 billion if you count condition zero--11 if you count CSS). That number hasn't gone up over the last few years, and you're crazy if you think that Halo 3 is clocking more than 8 billion player minutes monthly. Counter Strike (alone, not including source--which if you do would dwarf it even more significantly) easily has out paced the entire franchise in total playtime.

Consider this: Halo 3 has the largest population that the franchise has ever had, and even at ~1.5 million games daily over 31 days, averaging at ~15 minutes (which I think is a fair estimate) you're looking at less than 7 billion player minutes in that time frame.

I won't deny that in certain ways, it's easily the most popular FPS franchise ever (note: that doesn't mean best)--especially when you look at the run away success from a sales perspective. But those 800,000 individual players are logging less than 2 games per day on average, which isn't adding up to the total play time that Counter Strike's continued popularity is. When you consider Counter Strikes age into that equation, the total playtime over the last several years is immense and easily dwarfs Halo's MP in player minutes.

It's not like I'm denying its popularity, or even that it's among the top 3-5 played games online, globally.. it's just not the most played FPS ever.. by a longshot I'd imagine, when you account for the eight year lead CS has on the game, even if you were to consider the first two installments in the franchise towards its total numbers. More people play it than COD4, that's for sure (which on PC currently has an average population of 20,000+ players, there are no numbers for the 360 but I'm sure they're larger). Good thing we've already established that popularity and quality are completely separate issues ;)

2007-12-20 02:21:00

i was playing CS yesterday, its still awesome

2007-12-20 20:11:54 In reply to GriftGFX (2007-12-20 02:15:39)

Well, all we have is a load of unofficial stats, so theres no point me even arguing and to be honest the amount dedicated fans a game has will have no effect on the amount of enjoyment I will get.

Halo 3 is a phenomenon and always will be a classic, which is the reason 52% of 360 owners have it, a number which is still growing.

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Street Fighter 4... Believe.

2007-12-20 22:31:49

I clocked more hours on halo 1 than 2-3 combined then multiplied at least 100 times

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STREET FIGHTER 4, BRING IT ON!

2007-12-20 22:47:43

Some screenshots i've taken from sierra117:

2007-12-20 23:20:01

Very nice pics Milhouse!

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Wii60!

"We've said that Gears of War was graphically the best game have ever been made, well it looks like Pong compared to Crysis and some of the DX10 titles."

-Gary Whitta (Venting on the NG podcast after Coming back from the Games for Windows)

2007-12-23 07:39:02

halo 3 is one of the best 360 games i have ever played hands down

2007-12-23 21:18:20

My GOTY for Xbox 360, easily. I love Call of Duty 4, but there's certain things about the console conversion that make me prefer the PC version in a big, big way. Halo 3 is more feature rich in that environment, and the movement and aiming is more well suited to a gamepad, too.