Halo 2 Playlist Update Delayed
Frankie at Bungie.net writes that the planned playlist update is being delayed until next week (probably) while they continue to investigate the problems some users are having in downloading Halo 2 maps.
Death by intelligence.
Brutes Can Smell Through Rock
Wired blogger Chris "GeekDad" Anderson recounts what little of his recent Bungie Studios visit that his NDA will allow. What he can say is that he recorded about thirty lines of Marine dialogue for a character that apparently becomes Flood infected. The process apparently involves "screaming like a girl".
He's put up all the lines he was asked to read in his blog, so head over and check them out.
Halo 4 Rumors... Already?
Only a year ago, Bungie finally admitted they were, in fact, working on Halo 3, and had been for over a year.
Now, with the release of that game still, in all likelihood, more than half a year away, rumors of sequels, "true sequels", expansion packs and secret features are circulating through the labyrinthine tubes of the Internet.
PlayThree is citing unconfirmed, unidentified "sources close to Bungie" that state the following:
RUMOR: Halo 3 will run at 1080p, 60fps. MS apparently wants this to one-up ths PS3's claim to being the only "true 1080p" console. Bungie is supposedly testing this internally now.
UPDATE: Frankie, aka Stinkles, has smacked this report down hard in the NeoGAF forum. His response? BS. Confidently written BS, but still BS. Thanks KP at HBO for the notice.
REACTION: One can see why Microsoft would want this, but the record for past Halo games is that they will lock at 30fps and walk the line where textures and effects are more important than resolution or high framerates. That the rumor specifies that the Beta won't be 1080p is just a hedge, meaning this rumor gets to survive past that point, whereas otherwise people might assume that if the beta isn't 1080p, the game won't be. After all, Halo 3 has had a lot of work done to it so far: geometry, textures, effects. If it wasn't all done with 1080p in mind from the start, can this be changed so late in the process? And if so, why doesn't it apply to the beta?
RUMOR: Bungie is striving to make Halo 3 compatible with Xbox 360 Cores, but may have to drop to 30fps in some cases.
REACTION: That makes little sense. A hard drive is of use for caching content, reducing load times. How it affects framerate is difficult to see. Why Microsoft would want to make part of their installed base feel like they are getting a crippled version of a flagship title just for the "1080p 60fps" on the back of the box is beyond me. People who want Halo 3 will buy it regardless of those numbers.
RUMOR: Halo 4 will be a launch title for the next next-generation Xbox in 2011.
REACTION: Doesn't Bungie want to do something else for a change? Isn't the whole idea in letting Ensemble and Wingnut work in the Halo universe to give Bungie a break, so they can move on from Halo?
Halo 3 Public Beta VIDOC, Annotated
Louis Wu at HBO has put up an extensive roundup of analyses, commentaries and transcripts on yesterday's Bungie VIDOC. To complement them, I've put together an annotated gallery of screenshots from the VIDOC, pointing out major features.
Melee Lunge: Kill
Helped by the melee lunge, the kill is complete. The lunge is most significant when using the sword. No sword attacks are shown in this VIDOC.
Melee Lunge: After
... and this very next frame shows the player after the lunge, having covered a significant amount of territory between him and his (as yet) unseen prey.
Melee Lunge: Before
One controversial feature from Halo 2 remains: the melee lunge. Players making a melee attack will "lunge" significant distances towards their intended target. This frame shows a spartan beginning a lunge...
Boom.... Headshot!
One use for the saved films feature: the ability to see close-up that amazing across-the-map no-scope snipe you just pulled off.
We Has Filmz
Static images don't do this feature justice. Halo 3 will record your matches and allow you to play them back from any angle, in slow motion if desired. Here, the feature is used to change the camera angle and follow two blue spartans on a mongoose ATV.
Bigger Than A Breadbox
A projectile passes by two blue spartans. Too small to be a rocket?
Two Kills For One
The player who deployed the tripmine is killed, but in the background we can see his two red victims. The HUD also displays the double kill medal the tactic earned him.
Round Over
The tripmine explodes, destroying the Warthog and killing the deployer as well.
Tripmine Deployed
A pyrrhic victory nears for this blue spartan as the Warthog runs over the tripmine he's deployed.
Tripmine Activated
Another piece of equipment, up close and personal: the tripmine. This proximity mine is probably intended for slightly more stealthy uses than seen here: at point blank range against a Warthog bearing down on the player.
The tripmine may be the spiritual successor to the long-lost "wall hugging hippos" of Halo 1.
Harlem Globetrotters
A player deploys the "bubble shield" equipment using the X button and an egglike device appears, quite a bit larger than the object seen in the "Starry Sky" CGTV ad from 2006.
Also unlike that device, which the Chief spiked solidly into the sand and remained stationary even after a Wraith blast, this semispherical device rolls down slopes, which could be a help or hindrance to players deploying it, depending on the situation.