UPDATE: The below was written early in 2007. In mid-2007, Bungie announced the official release date of Halo 3 as September 25, 2007 for the Americas.
All Bungie has said so far is "2007". Speculation is already beginning that this is a conservative estimate and that Halo 3 will ship this winter. This is most likely naught but wishful thinking.
If you couldn't register on Halo3.com the first time out, and the idea of buying Crackdown miffs you, then relax: there are still other ways to get into the Halo 3 beta to be held next spring.
The Gamerscore Blog lists two new ways that US residents can get in: by buying Crackdown, by playing at least three hours of Halo 2 online on Xbox Live and then registering at Halo3.com (first come, first served, 13,333 spots available).
Wha- Why? Why would an Elite, after helping a couple humans (who he attacked before) stop Halo, have any reason to want to fight Master Chief? I mean- it makes no sense.
If there HAD to be any kind of boss battle, it would be with either truth or gravemind (i dont know if he's good or evil, but in halo 2 it was obvious that there wasnt really much of a choice in him helping the humans and elites).
Since some HBO forumgoers were kind enough to hold open the thread for me, I'm now morally obligated to deliver the goods on the Brute documentary. Given that it is longer and more up-front with its new content than the TV ad, I think a frame by frame analysis, in most places, is unwarranted, so instead I thought I would cherry-pick a few notable quotations or bits of information, and add my own commentary.
For the complete text, click "read more" from the front page.
HaloDev has put up the first of in a series of "Feature Focus" articles. This one, by Talin, is accompanied by a very complex render done by Talin and Veegie and covers the technique of normal mapping to add the appearance of detail to textured polygons.
Xbox Live is telling you to walk away from the television set and spend time with your friends and family in the real world this holiday season. At least, that's the message one might infer from the fact that for several hours now, subscribers can connect to the services to browse the Marketplace or use voice chat, but not play games.
Trakan, a moderator at the Cheap Ass Gamer forum, has posted scans of an ad for the upcoming Xbox 360 game, Crackdown, in Gamepro magazine.
Spartan182 discusses in his blog the possibility of plasma energy swords being dual-wieldable in Halo 3, based on suggestions in the Brute video documentary.
Max "Yeroen" Hoberman, Bungie alum and founder of Texas-based Certain Affinity, now working on new Halo 2 multiplayer maps for release next year, gave an interview to Firing Squad.
However, that's not all they're working on, apparently:
FiringSquad: You are also working on a new game. What can you tell us about this game at this stage?
So the Brute documentary is out. I'm going to stop using Bungie's VIDOC or Video Documentary term, because I really couldn't think of any other kind of documentary except perhaps for film, and since George Lucas says film is dead and HD Video is the way to go, I suppose it's redundant.
Certain pockets of the fan community, while they enjoyed the very slick and polished Halo 3 Announcement Trailer, have been bothered by the stream of apologia that accompanied first the non-real-time, non-Halo-engine CG television commercial, and now the pre-pre-alpha, not-yet-finished visuals of the Brute documentary.
I'd like to praise Bungie for its candor, however. The documentary on the Halo 2 Limited Edition was quite frank about some of Halo 2's shortcomings, as well as some of the reasons for them. This latest documentary is no different: first and foremost Bungie is admitting that Brutes in Halo 2 were a late addition to the game. They were tough only because they could take a lot of damage; there was no differentiation between different Brute individuals except for Tartarus himself and a few honor guard headdresses, and fighting Brutes was more like fighting Super Flood than fighting Elites or other Covenant units.
Click "read more" below from the front page for the complete text.
