[scooby_dooby]

Originally Posted by archangelmorph

Now can you get rid of the arbiter and co now Bungie!

It would be pretty cool if they were unlockable

[Carl B]

I like the direction they're taking with the co-op; game looks good and it looks fun. Fun is always the most important element.

[Tap In]

Originally Posted by archangelmorph

Looks like a skybox to me..

in the MP beta, the sky was interactive all the way up and into space.

[archangelmorph]

Originally Posted by Tap In

in the MP beta, the sky was interactive all the way up and into space.

Holy Sh**!

I should have spent more time with the beta..

[AlStrong]

Originally Posted by archangelmorph

I can tell you enjoyed telling me all that info as much as I enjoyed reading!

But LOOK!

You've got your 3 multiplayer coop Spartans right there!

Now can you get rid of the arbiter and co now Bungie!

What can I say, I love the story, and it's so unique amongst a lot of games out there. I'll probably get sucked into the Mass Effect story once I get the novel too.

Originally Posted by archangelmorph

Holy Sh**!

I should have spent more time with the beta..

It kinda begs the question of what Bungie has been keeping in store for the campaign. Why create a level that huge and restrict it in multiplayer?!

[iceberg187]

Originally Posted by AlStrong

It kinda begs the question of what Bungie has been keeping in store for the campaign. Why create a level that huge and restrict it in multiplayer?!

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/800/800901p4.html

Tyson Green: The thing is, if you took every single multiplayer map and stitched them together into this unholy fusion of a multiplayer map, it would probably be about the same size as some of the single-player maps, right?


Jaime Griesemer: Yeah - half of a small single-player mission!

[Deepblue]

Originally Posted by archangelmorph

Looks like a skybox to me..

I'm happy to hear they've got online coop, but why the hell do they have elites? with all the new Spartan designs it would have been nice to be ablre to play as new spartans as opposed to bog standard elites..

In the past two Halo games Master chief mows down enough covenant elite to let us believe that they really aren't all that amazing in terms of battle prowess.. Now we are expected to believe that these particular elites can hold their own against armies of brutes in some comparable fashion to the chief?

C'mon bungie!!

Give me a playable female spartan anyday!

Both of you are incorrect. The mountain is real geometry, and the cloud is not volumetric. If you did the ol' banshee to space trick in the beta, you got a nice look at the atmospheric effects bungie is implementing. Clouds are actually just multiple planes of textures intersecting each other. It's VERY convincing right up until the point where you cross the plane.

[Deepblue]

Also:



OMGZ. Thumbs up indeed.

[Subtlesnake]

Originally Posted by AlStrong

The Spartan II program pretty much requires special children who have specific gene markers. The original program started training the children at around age 6 and they were trained for years.

The Spartan III program was an attempt to speed up the process by being more lax on the gene requirements and the training time, and by the time of Earth's invasion hundreds had already gone through the program. The thing is that they weren't as "high quality" and were treated as kick-ass cannon fodder. If I recall correctly, there are about 10 left, all in the micro-dyson sphere.

From the way the program was conceived, I personally don't think they started other training groups. It was a secret project that involved kidnapping and faking the death of one of the Spartan IIs (Kurt) so that he could go off and train the new generation of Spartan IIIs along with CPO Mendez (who trained the original Spartan IIs). Kurt was killed near the end of the book. I got the impression that the Spartan III program described in the book was an act of desperation and the only one that existed because they wanted trainers involved with the Spartan II program to make the new one somewhat effective. But hey, they're all about secrets so... they could have new trainees somewhere.

(On a side note, Spartan II or III refer to the types of soldier rather than the sequential training of groups. For instance, there were several groups of Spartan IIIs who were trained at different times over the span of 15-20 years leading up to the invasion of Earth)

There is, however, one thing that has yet to be explained. In the first book there are three unaccounted Spartan IIs who have mysteriously disappeared and not mentioned again... In Ghosts of Onyx, the characters find 8 stasis tubes and bring them into the micro-dyson sphere. Five of those are Spartan IIIs who were placed in them by some events earlier in the book. The remaining three stasis tubes... unknown.. The book ends before the characters open them.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but the 3 Spartans were mentioned briefly - they're Gray team, and they haven't been heard from in over a year.

http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Gray_Team

The other people in the tubes weren't described - they could be significant, or they could just be people that ran the facility.

There are actually over 300 Spartan IIIs still alive, because, as described in the book, only 3 small teams were on Onyx when the facility was attacked. The surviving Spartans could be doing another mission, or they could be held in reserve someplace.

To act as a replacement for the Spartan IIs they'd need to be outfitted with MJOLNIR armour however, as their current SPI armour doesn't recharge, and is rather weak. However MJOLNIR armour is ridiculously expensive, so I guess that's what's stopping the UNSC from outfitting some of the Spartan IIIs in it, assuming they have the manufacturing facilities anyway.

So that's why you can't play in co-op with your spartan friends

[AlStrong]

Originally Posted by Subtlesnake

Sorry to rain on your parade, but the 3 Spartans were mentioned briefly - they're Gray team, and they haven't been heard from in over a year.

http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Gray_Team

That's what I mean though. No one knows where they are.

The other people in the tubes weren't described - they could be significant, or they could just be people that ran the facility.

Ok.... Isn't that the same as "The remaining three stasis tubes... unknown..." As in... nothing is known about who those three are? I was merely going over who was left.

There are actually over 300 Spartan IIIs still alive, because, as described in the book, only 3 small teams were on Onyx when the facility was attacked. The surviving Spartans could be doing another mission, or they could be held in reserve someplace.

I probably misinterpreted the book when I read that part, or I more likely got confused keeping track of all the hundreds.


If raining on my parade is correcting the point of the 300 S-IIIs, well.... ok.

[Todd33]

It's time for us to sack up and tell you what's what regarding online co-op.

So you were probably wondering why we didn't want to commit to two player co-op online over Xbox Live. We certainly got plenty of mail asking, no, demanding that we make it happen. Of course we were working on it, but we were also working on something better. Not two player co-op. Not three-player co-op, but up to four player co-op. Online. On Xbox Live, or sure, System Link if you prefer.

That is correct - up to four player co-op in Campaign mode on Xbox Live or System Link.

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.a...thesoundofsack

Good news, hope it's not old.

[Subtlesnake]

Originally Posted by AlStrong

That's what I mean though. No one knows where they are.



Ok.... Isn't that the same as "The remaining three stasis tubes... unknown..." As in... nothing is known about who those three are? I was merely going over who was left.


I probably misinterpreted the book when I read that part, or I more likely got confused keeping track of all the hundreds.


If raining on my parade is correcting the point of the 300 S-IIIs, well.... ok.

I thought you were hinting that the 3 Spartans were in the stasis tubes, which would have been rather unlikely given that they haven't reported in.

[AlStrong]

Originally Posted by Subtlesnake

I thought you were hinting that the 3 Spartans were in the stasis tubes, which would have been rather unlikely given that they haven't reported in.

Ah... Yea, I probably should have separated the paragraph. No worries.

Anyhoo... I wonder if they're going to make the cutscenes in Halo 3 with a wider aspect ratio than 16:9 (since the initial announcement trailer was 2.35:1).

[Deepblue]

Whipped myself up a new background image today:

"Tag Team"
http://i19.tinypic.com/4vdumg9.jpg

Someone wanna cross post this in the GAF Halo 3 topic? A few people there would prolly appreciate it.

Also, if anyone wants to clean up the transition between the image I had and the fluff I PSed in, please do and post it.

[nintenho]

EGM has impressions of the singleplayer and multiplayer. I won't tell everything but here's some information:

*first mission seems to take place in Kenyan wilderness.
*enemy AI is much better, very smart even on normal.
*brutes won't just berserk all the time, if you knock all armor off they will but they usually stay in the back since they're the leaders.
*brutes have new toys: personal shields, jetpacks, etc.
*enemies are more aggressive and can climb over pretty much anything.
*water dynamically deforms (flows around dead bodies).
*lots of factors into sound effects )supersonic sniper bullets whizz by before banging, soil and rock makesound effects different, etc.)
*seargeny johnson is supposed to look a lot older (graphicsable to show his age this time).
*can use gravity hammer like sword (sends away vehicles and grenades).
*3-4 person human banshee (MAKES ME WET).
*story to be much better, they admit halo 2 didn't work out as they wanted, writing lead says no "raiden" moment (MGS2 reference).
*many marathon references in halo 3 (possible story connection?).
*campaign scoring; points for kills, headshots, taking down shields, sticking grenades, etc. medals to be awarded for good/bad things you do. all stats on bungie.net.
*skulls to return (do odd effects in singleplayer if you find them( and effects stack so you can have all of the skull effects on.
*can change ANYTHING in multiplayer (speed, gravity, invulnerable in certain areas, etc.) with map editor in real-time. don't actually physically alter maps, just move objects and change settings, done from persepective of a monitor (those floating orb-like robots), press up on D-pad to turn monitor into player to test level. you have a spending limit before you can "buy" anymore objects for a level though. can be done simultaneously over xbox LIVE. can have innovative game types such as two teams with a monitor on each team dropping weapons and vehicles for his team. keeps track of score.
*new human vehicle called "elephant": three stories tall, carries about a dozen passengers, slow, can carry a mongoose in belly bay, CAN'T be destroyed by spartan laser (completely indestructible), has turret, can respawn troops, hold home flag, hold return point for enemy flag.
*most awesome news for last: the scarab (that huge crab thing in the second level of halo 2) has AI this time and will chase you down. there are more ways to take it down.

there's a ton of AMAZING screens in the magazine. there's also a chart that shows the estimated scales of the vehicles.

[EndR]

Originally Posted by nintenho

EGM has impressions of the singleplayer and multiplayer. I won't tell everything but here's some information:

*first mission seems to take place in Kenyan wilderness.
*enemy AI is much better, very smart even on normal.
*brutes won't just berserk all the time, if you knock all armor off they will but they usually stay in the back since they're the leaders.
*brutes have new toys: personal shields, jetpacks, etc.
*enemies are more aggressive and can climb over pretty much anything.
*water dynamically deforms (flows around dead bodies).
*lots of factors into sound effects )supersonic sniper bullets whizz by before banging, soil and rock makesound effects different, etc.)
*seargeny johnson is supposed to look a lot older (graphicsable to show his age this time).
*can use gravity hammer like sword (sends away vehicles and grenades).
*3-4 person human banshee (MAKES ME WET).
*story to be much better, they admit halo 2 didn't work out as they wanted, writing lead says no "raiden" moment (MGS2 reference).
*many marathon references in halo 3 (possible story connection?).
*campaign scoring; points for kills, headshots, taking down shields, sticking grenades, etc. medals to be awarded for good/bad things you do. all stats on bungie.net.
*skulls to return (do odd effects in singleplayer if you find them( and effects stack so you can have all of the skull effects on.
*can change ANYTHING in multiplayer (speed, gravity, invulnerable in certain areas, etc.) with map editor in real-time. don't actually physically alter maps, just move objects and change settings, done from persepective of a monitor (those floating orb-like robots), press up on D-pad to turn monitor into player to test level. you have a spending limit before you can "buy" anymore objects for a level though. can be done simultaneously over xbox LIVE. can have innovative game types such as two teams with a monitor on each team dropping weapons and vehicles for his team. keeps track of score.
*new human vehicle called "elephant": three stories tall, carries about a dozen passengers, slow, can carry a mongoose in belly bay, CAN'T be destroyed by spartan laser (completely indestructible), has turret, can respawn troops, hold home flag, hold return point for enemy flag.
*most awesome news for last: the scarab (that huge crab thing in the second level of halo 2) has AI this time and will chase you down. there are more ways to take it down.

there's a ton of AMAZING screens in the magazine. there's also a chart that shows the estimated scales of the vehicles.

DAMN!!
This is crazy! GOTF(orever)

[Subtlesnake]

Originally Posted by nintenho

there's a ton of AMAZING screens in the magazine. there's also a chart that shows the estimated scales of the vehicles.

"brutes have new toys: personal shields" As in, rechargable Elite-like shields? Because that would be awesome.

[one]

Originally Posted by TurnDragoZeroV2G

Least you could do if you're going to keep tossing these comments around. And 600p? Yeah, here we go again...

OK finally I could spare some time to play with Photoshop.

http://images.gamersyde.com/gallery/...0/798_0023.jpg
http://www.gamersyde.com/gallery_5740_en.html

is the source 720p image captured from the E3 Halo 3 720p direct-feed trailer distributed by Microsoft.

http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...T_6300Kbps.wmv

My analysis is in this PNG image:

http://www.freeimagehost.eu/image/eee5b9690084
http://www.freeimagehost.eu/image/78a115690085

The second link is the cropped part, open it in an image viewer and zoom in to count the height by yourself. Call Of Duty 3 is just like this too, and I remember I pointed out the same thing about Halo 3 MP Beta in another thread of this forum before without showing a pic like this but it was ignored and people told me the SP engine and MP engine are different. I'll be glad to be corrected if my method is erroneous

[AlStrong]

We really ought to bug Luke or Frankie about the E3 2007 video... "Why is it such a crap encoding" "Why does it look upscaled to 720p" "How old is the footage"

They sort of cover it here and there, but there's nothing detailed enough for folks here.

[Tap In]

Originally Posted by one

OK finally I could spare some time to play with Photoshop.

quite a hobby you have there considering that you hate Xbox.

[Tap In]

Originally Posted by nintenho

....
*can change ANYTHING in multiplayer (speed, gravity, invulnerable in certain areas, etc.) with map editor in real-time. don't actually physically alter maps, just move objects and change settings, done from persepective of a monitor (those floating orb-like robots), press up on D-pad to turn monitor into player to test level. you have a spending limit before you can "buy" anymore objects for a level though. can be done simultaneously over xbox LIVE. can have innovative game types such as two teams with a monitor on each team dropping weapons and vehicles for his team. keeps track of score.
*new human vehicle called "elephant": three stories tall, carries about a dozen passengers, slow, can carry a mongoose in belly bay, CAN'T be destroyed by spartan laser (completely indestructible), has turret, can respawn troops, hold home flag, hold return point for enemy flag.
*most awesome news for last: the scarab (that huge crab thing in the second level of halo 2) has AI this time and will chase you down. there are more ways to take it down.

there's a ton of AMAZING screens in the magazine. there's also a chart that shows the estimated scales of the vehicles.

holy crap

complete MP editor with each team designing their own defenses? how cool is that?

[one]

Originally Posted by Tap In

quite a hobby you have there considering that you hate Xbox.

I'm just trying to correct the FUD that blames the person who encoded the Halo 3 video for no reason So do you agree with the conclusion from this pic? Try the same thing for other pics.

[Deepblue]

That caption makes it clear enough, you're the one trying to spread fanboy FUD. I expect to see that image used by fanboys to troll the game. Despite that, we have this:

http://www.bungie.net/images/Games/H..._E307_FP01.jpg

Direct feed and clearly 720p.

[rbushner]

Originally Posted by one

I'll be glad to be corrected if my method is erroneous

I don't find it surprising that you found exactly what you were looking for. The MP beta was not upscaled.

Originally Posted by one

I'm just trying to correct the FUD

Ohhh the irony.


This game is going to be epic, I cannot wait. I would like some more details on the meta games, can you get more points for melee only, what are all the style points for a kill? I could see it being months before I even venture into deathmatch style games, campaign, co-op and metagames could keep me very busy.

[one]

Originally Posted by Deepblue

That caption makes it clear enough, you're the one trying to spread fanboy FUD. I expect to see that image used by fanboys to troll the game. Despite that, we have this:

http://www.bungie.net/images/Games/H..._E307_FP01.jpg

Direct feed and clearly 720p.

And absolutely zero aliasing in that image. Why? Please note that I don't claim 360 is underpowered or anything, it just shows Bungie could never miss the 2007 holiday and chose the safest path.

Originally Posted by rbushner

I don't find it surprising that you found exactly what you were looking for. The MP beta was not upscaled.

Really?
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/...0518/halo3.htm
have plenty of clear images from the beta. Why not try it by yourself for an image like this
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/...18/halo321.htm
to see the truth?