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...

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.

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.

A projectile passes by two blue spartans. Too small to be a rocket?

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.

The tripmine explodes, destroying the Warthog and killing the deployer as well.

A pyrrhic victory nears for this blue spartan as the Warthog runs over the tripmine he's deployed.

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.

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.

Tired of all the anonymous beatdowns in the VIDOC? Here's the death of one Ken Fu for you then.

Player footsteps, dropped weapons, and explosions all kick up snow from the surface of snowbound-- even if they are in large, placeholder-particle sized chunks in this early alpha footage.

Another of the VIDOC's many melee attacks, this one from up close and way too personal.

This blue spartan appears to have turned his back on an opponent, much to his detriment. The de-emphasis on dual wielding seems to have sparked an increase in melee attacks, which was part of Bungie's stated purpose for the change. The video includes a significant number of melees.

This Foreunner bridge structure, hanging high in a snowy valley, is seen several times in the VIDOC; at least once from a great distance while in a map editor.

The public beta is slated to include only Higher Ground, Valhalla, and Snowbound. This would not appear to be any of these levels. So which level is it?

A spartan on Snowbound prepares to swap his default spawn assault rifle for the presumably punchier battle rifle.

No animation is shown for picking up the weapon; it merely appears in his hand. Afterwards, the secondary weapon appears slung on his back.