2007-07-12 01:04:28

Man I'm LTTP to this discussion, went out after the Sony presentation so I'll try and address what I'm seeing.

* There was a new vehicle, not sure if it was supposed to be in there. It's tiny! I think GAF spotted it ;)

* Regarding the story, there are enough elements in that trailer that point to the story and what might happen. In fact, a short playthrough the level that the media seem to be getting would give LESS away, so reasoning the gameplay montage is to prevent story spoilers isn't valid really.

* There are some beautiful shots in the montage, they are just edited together badly. They could have been going for the attract video kind of vibe but the Halo 1 and 2 attract videos were much better done.

* Optimus You like putting faith in things so trust me when I say this. There was a much better way of showing and building hype for Halo 3. Bungie have alluded to not showing their full MP hand during the beta. If they really wanted to keep the story under wraps they could have showed us some of that, MP customisation, plans for Bungie net, saved films and maybe some online co-op through the first level.

Given AI is likely to be pretty good in campaign, some set pieces to illustrate that would have gone down a treat.

Maybe it's saved for later in the week, if not, you'll see what I mean when the game comes out.

* It's strange as following the updates, they are having an easier crunch than Halo 2 and have way more time to polish things. I don't buy that this showing is down to them not having any time.

2007-07-12 01:42:18 In reply to deftangel (2007-07-12 01:04:28)

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The fans have spoken. Concerning the graphics of the Halo 3 Beta: "There's so many little effects and things going on that make this game pretty much 2nd only to Gears at the moment."

2007-07-12 02:52:32

"It looks amazing and fun to play and that's all there is to it. What more would you expect?"

Are you suggesting Halo 3 doesn't look amazing and fun to play? We saw just a gameplay montage for crying out loud. A properly put together trailer or straight up gameplay and people would likely be very pleased with what they saw. Also grift yes I did mention the deployable equipment and I gave examples of such.

"unlike the AI, and the vehicles, which so far as we know aren't any more impressive than they were in the last installment."

So from everything bungie has shown thus far you know the AI isn't improved? You impress me more and more :)

COD4 looks "lots and lots" different because its now a modern war as opposed to World War 2. I knew Bungie should've made the Chief retire and become a detective of the LAPD cleaning up gangs on the street. He'd wear civilian clothes, but still wear the helmet, you know to keep his face hidden.

But seriously Halo 3 story itself will seperate halo 3 from the last game, but people keep overlooking this as if they don't care about what takes place in the Halo 3 story. Are we suggesting Halo 3 SP wont be a lot of fun to play? I mean look at those damn environments wide open. I can't wait to own the crap out of a bunch of enemies and see some nice scripted scenes.

Also don't take my responses as insults or anything I'm simply trying to explain what I think.

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Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

October 20th 2007 (A good day)

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

2007-07-12 03:08:17

Optimus, you can't possibly say with a straight face that this was a presentation even remotely as exciting as that for Halo 2. Anything LESS than the Halo 2 demonstration strikes me as a cock up considering this is supposedly the last in the trilogy, the big finish.

I thought the trailer looked surprisingly rushed. In fact, the AC demo on stage seemed rushed aswell. It all felt like they hurried people in and out and barely let trailers set a mood at all.

2007-07-12 03:33:06

I've already admitted it wasn't as good Simon :)

I'm just saying some are assuming Halo 3 wont be an exciting and fun gaming experience just because the trailer didn't excite them.

It wasn't nearly as good as the Halo 2 stuff which I know the presentation wasn't there, but I think its obvious why that is the case. Isn't Bungie in crunch mode with Halo 3 and their release date is even sooner than most expected it to be? I assume thats why they couldn't put together something more impressive to show it off (and their trying to keep things under wraps of course)

I'm not saying bungie is free of blame they deserve to be blamed for the bad presentation of such an important game, but I atleast expect there to be confidence in their ability to deliver a fun epic looking game.

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Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

October 20th 2007 (A good day)

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

2007-07-12 03:45:16

2007-07-12 04:06:12

You didn't even mention custom classes in CoD4 Grift :(

To say CoD4 is like the other Call of Duty's, just in modern times and natural technical evolution, blatantly ignores the fundamental gameplay mechanics and design changes IW has made.

It doesn't look substantially different just because of the change from WWII to modern combat. It looks, from a gaming perspective, substantially different because they are taking some new approaches to the FPS genre. They are not blatantly recycling CoD2's ideas and merging them with modern combat. They didn't take the core CoD online experience -- excellent as it is -- and slap a new layer of "modern combat" paint on it and call it a day. CoD multiplayer wasn't broken yet they saw room for improvement to make the best game possible, not just the best CoD game possible.

This is why "fan" discussions are so nasty. I can imagine the frustration of a company like IW who has vastly revamped their franchise and been very progressive in evolving the genre and get the fan treatment, "It is only different because of the setting" and ignoring the fundamental changes to the game design.

No wonder Epic (Unreal Tournament 3) and Free Radical (Haze) decided there was no point even competing this fall. It took a good couple months for the Halo 2 dust to settle with some in the press openly questioning their part in the hype and how it impacted their reviews. For good or bad, Halo 3 will be no different. Whether it is the best game of the year or not it will demand game of the year sales and attention.

Hence the sci-fi FPS are not even bothering with the Xbox this year. There will be WWII shooters (BiA3, MoH:AA) and modern combat (CoD4) but the sci-fi guys (UT3, Haze) -- as awesome as Epic's and Free Radical's pedigrees are -- don't even have a chance.

If CoD4 can get labelled pretty much, "like previous COD games only... modern" I don't blame them because I doubt they will be getting much of a fair shake. Much like Shane from 1Up, "MGS online is awesome... because it is MGS!" UT3 and Haze aren't Halo 3... already a demerit in the eyes of the faithful.

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The fans have spoken. Concerning the graphics of the Halo 3 Beta: "There's so many little effects and things going on that make this game pretty much 2nd only to Gears at the moment."

2007-07-12 04:10:47

heh I'm going to end the argument as it'll end up going in circles again :)

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Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

October 20th 2007 (A good day)

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

2007-07-12 07:15:15

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Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

October 20th 2007 (A good day)

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

2007-07-12 10:19:22

Didn't BUNGIE say in one of there Video docs that the AI had been vastly improved in SP?

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Halle Berry: Delgado i am feeling really reall dirty tonight, shall i call Jessica Simpson for a threesome?

Delgado: HALLE what have i told you about bothering me when i'm playing Mass Effect!!! now get out and dont come back for 2 months!! (Slams door

2007-07-12 10:30:53 In reply to dcdelgado (2007-07-12 10:19:22)

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Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

October 20th 2007 (A good day)

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

2007-07-12 11:30:32

I have a lot of faith in Bungie. I would even buy this game only for multiplayer after Beta, but the fact that they didn't show us gameplay is rather sad. They could have at least let people from gametrailers.com make a video from their behind close doors demonstration, especially now that all folks from teamxbox, IGN and whatnot said that they should have shown us real gameplay. :(

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"That just happened 'cause that was awesome" - Randy Pitchford, Gearbox

2007-07-12 12:02:55 In reply to Optimusv2 (2007-07-12 07:15:15)

2007-07-12 19:12:48

Noticed some additional things from the trailer that I may have missed.. Smoke grenades, the potentially new vehicle, the AI construct (343 Guilty Spark?).. good stuff. Subtle stuff.