[Laa-Yosh]

It really is interesting that games we don't usually consider to be technology showcases have good AA and AF, whereas a flagship title like Halo3 fails to get either. And you can't even say that Bungie didn't have the time, the console is almost 2 years old by now.

[Tap In]

NY Launch report

LA Launch report

[wco81]

Perhaps.

I can see the Co-Op as a good way for casual gamers who generally don't play shooters or are new to Halo could have their hands held.

But I was watching this "pro" gamer playing H3 on Attack of th Show and he was casually killing people while talking to the hosts. Hard to imagine casuals not being discouraged if they faced something like that.

Maybe H3 becomes so popular online like WOW did, and gets people to continue subscribing or buying expansions and so on.

MS might have been able to get away with charging a monthly fee to play online. An additional fee that is, above and beyond XBL Gold, because the game is so popular.

Reason would be that if they get a significant number of SKUs above $60 sold (they have 2 SKUs which are priced higher), that means the support is so great that they could have tried this busines model, imposing an MMOPRPG business model over a console game.

[scooby_dooby]

Originally Posted by wco81

But I was watching this "pro" gamer playing H3 on Attack of th Show and he was casually killing people while talking to the hosts. Hard to imagine casuals not being discouraged if they faced something like that.

Well, I believe they've implemented a beginners room, where anyone with a high rank can not play, that'd be the obvious place for casuals to play.

Also, in general Halo matches you up by trueskill rating, any 'pro' is going to get a very high ranking very soon. As a beginner at level 1 or 2, you'll mostly face off against other players at level 1 or 2.

At least that's how the beta was....

[Tap In]

Originally Posted by wco81

But I was watching this "pro" gamer playing H3 on Attack of th Show and he was casually killing people while talking to the hosts. Hard to imagine casuals not being discouraged if they faced something like that.....

I agree with you that Co-op is a BIG draw for casuals...

Scobby is right... Trueskill groups like player-skills with like player-skills.... it's one of the main reasons why Halo works so well in MP.

[AntShaw]

Originally Posted by Tap In

I agree with you that Co-op is a BIG draw for casuals...

Scobby is right... Trueskill groups like player-skills with like player-skills.... it's one of the main reasons why Halo works so well in MP.

I wasn't going to get this just yet, as I am still playing through 2 games, but I broke down.

One buddy called this morning saying he picked up his copy, another shortly thereafter and then the final one.

I went down on my lunch break to pick it up from Best Buy, and got the regular edition. Although they did have 5 Legendary editions still? I wonder how many of these are sold total?

So with that said, 4 player co-op is what its all about for me with this game. I'm a general Halo fan, and this 4 player is what helped push me over the edge.

[Tap In]

Originally Posted by AntShaw

I wasn't going to get this just yet, as I am still playing through 2 games, but I broke down.

One buddy called this morning saying he picked up his copy, another shortly thereafter and then the final one.

I went down on my lunch break to pick it up from Best Buy, and got the regular edition. Although they did have 5 Legendary editions still? I wonder how many of these are sold total?

So with that said, 4 player co-op is what its all about for me with this game. I'm a general Halo fan, and this 4 player is what helped push me over the edge.

yep picking it up today and I already have a 4 player co-op scheduled for today at 4pm for 3 hours

[jb]

So I went to the Miami launch event. Got there around 9:30 PM and there was a BIG line. Stood in line for a bit, got a raffle ticket for some door prize. So at 10 PM they draw a number, and SOB its mine!

So I get to go inside (take the wife and jr with me as I figured leaving them out side in the hot muggy crowd was probably not the best idea), get pictures taken, then they hand me over a xbox360 elite and a copy of Gears of War. Not only that but we were allowed to stay inside (in the AC) and talk with some folks from Bungie, Microsoft, got some Miami Dolphins players autographs. And finally we were placed at the head of the line and were one of the first to buy Halo3 So in all a good time. Not sure what I am going to do with 2 xbox360s. Since Jr is starting to play more and more we will probably use them both for co-op and other type games.

Sad to say did not play it yet. We got back after 1 AM and had to be to work by 7 AM the today. Hopefully in a bit when I am done with work!

BTW there are some pics/youtube video if you care to see...

[swaaye]

I think the console devs are reaching for ways to get the mod-ability of PC games into their games. Look at Oblivion. It has just an unbelievable modding community. Hell, the game's barely worth playing without mods, IMO. Lots of PC games get a ton of new depth, enhancements, etc by freelance mod teams.

So, even if they can only put out a gimped map editor, it's way better than nothing. Something to extend the replayability and variety of gameplay of the game. It will make the game last longer because there will always be fresh content. It will undoubtedly sell more copies of the game than if it were to just stagnate like other console titles.

And yeah, I too don't really see what is appealing about the whiny english voices of the enemies. The crystal clear english of Halo 2 was very disappointing and really pulled me out of the experience. I'm probably going to just skip this game after having heard more about the copycat SP.

[Laa-Yosh]

1.8 million in 8 hours, and counting. That'd make at least a hundred million dollars already...

[scooby_dooby]

Well my half day is finished, I'm headin home for some SP goodness...

[Dr Evil]

1,5h until I get my copy at a midnight sale. I went ahead and upgraded my launch day Premium to a Elite unit today, basically I'm all set!

I have a college exam on thursday... LOL!

[Rangers]

Originally Posted by Laa-Yosh

1.8 million in 8 hours, and counting. That'd make at least a hundred million dollars already...

Interesting, in there they say the average selling price of halo 3 is $78. That is what legendary and special editions do for you. Free money, really. Without any special editions obviously the ASP would be about $60, so they're picking up close to a third more money.

Anyway, more thoughts on yesterday's playtime, the game does look really good. Somebody at neogaf said the game is slathered in more shaders than any game he's ever seen, and others claim it looks on an overall basis better than Gears of War. Maybe it's just the "new" factor, but I'm close to agreeing with them.

Basically the supposed weak point of the game, graphics, is one of the strongest points at this point to me, oddly. While the supposed strong point, gameplay, is conversly weaker.

[Dr. Nick]

I guess they changed the name of the thread. I'm sorry to bring this up but have you guys figured out Halo 3 's native res?

[Rangers]

Also on the "feel" of the weapons. Another criticism I agree with is that the guns feel weightless, like popguns.

I dont want to bring Gears up, but again Gears just feels so rock solid in those area. Everything has weight and feels solid.

Now, I dont WANT Halo to be Gears. Not every game can be Gears. But it's clear Gears just changed so much. Killzone 2 to me is really a Gears clone.

[Dave Glue]

Originally Posted by Rangers

Also on the "feel" of the weapons. Another criticism I agree with is that the guns feel weightless, like popguns.

I dont want to bring Gears up, but again Gears just feels so rock solid in those area. Everything has weight and feels solid.

Agreed. Cliffy B talked about that quite a bit, they really wanted to get the "feel" right - that everything had weight to it, the way your characters slam against a wall, etc.

Like you, I want Halo to be Halo, not GoW. I just expected the feel of the game to evolve a little bit more - so far it's Halo2 all the way in terms of combat. And if we're on earth, why the heck is the gravity like it was on Halo? I haven't seen any physics so far which compare to HL2 at this point.

Another minor gripe: Without any motion blur when turning, and being in first person with the aiming reticule attached directly to your viewpoint (unlike say, Lost Planet), 30fps _really_ stands out to me, which I can't say for GoW or Bioshock (thanks to its option to turn off vsync).

Those are the games I spend 95% of my time on with the 360, so going from those to Halo3...let's just say Halo3's graphical drawbacks to tend to stand out a bit more.

Again though, largely nitpicking here. I'm compelled to continue the story, which is more than I can say for most FPS's.

[Laa-Yosh]

Originally Posted by Dr. Nick

I guess they changed the name of the thread. I'm sorry to bring this up but have you guys figured out Halo 3 's native res?

That's a different thread in the console technology forum. And it's 720p native.

[almighty]

I was in the line getting my copy at 12am

The good -

Its Halo
Framerate seems very solid
Control are very easy to pick up
The MP
Very few jaggies and seems to have a nice amount of filtering

The bad -

The graphics are hit and miss IMO, enemies are low poly and the human faces are horrid
I keep getting my ass handed to me on LIVE
No 7.1 surround sound, i know i know... but this game sounds sooooo good i would kill to hear the Halo musical score in ful 7.1
My ears are hurting, god-damn MK speakers, toooo loud but woooooooooooo

[Paul_G]

Does anyone know when we'll find out how the first day sales went? I'd be quite interested to hear if they managed to break the record like they hoped

[Daozang]

I just picked up my special edition copy! Only 3 hours to leave work... The package and the booklet inside are very well done! My only problem is that the game disk had slipped from its position and has a few scratches here and there...
I hope that it's readable...

[StefanS]

Originally Posted by Laa-Yosh

That's a different thread in the console technology forum. And it's 720p native.

To expand on that: The thread has been renamed to The Neverending Upscale discussion because it's now a general purpose thread. According to Quaz51 it's not native 720p though.

Mind you, this is a bit off topic here (this thread is now mostly about gameplay) and should the need arise to discuss this, please use the upscale thread linked in this post.

[Laa-Yosh]

Originally Posted by StefanS

According to Quaz51 it's not native 720p though.

That's very strange, most screenshots released with the reviews are 1280*720p with 1:1 pixel mapping, with obviously no AF and AA. So these are supposed to be a new kind of bullshot?

http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/7...g_4911249.html

[Dave Glue]

Finished the first chapter. Fun, but they weren't kidding about zero exposition for players new to the series. MC is down, they get up - start fightin'.

But jeez - I think Gears still rules graphically on the 360. With no AA, and jeez - bilinear filtering (wtf?) - it really does detract from the art. A lot of shimmering, and I just can't get over that they couldn't even go trilinear. A big dividing line between decent looking textures -> mud. Ugh. It does seem like it's the Halo2 engine pushed to the max.

Fun, though. So many weapons available right off the bat.

Me like the gravity hammer.

Me smash things.

Me laugh as grunts scream as they fly through air.

Me get more beer.

[swaaye]

Forza 2 uses bilinear. When u go off the road you are treated to some highly obvious mip map borders. I was shocked by that and even my tech-anti-saavy buddies were like "what's with those blurred steps?"

Makes me think Xenos has some filtering performance problems.

[RobertR1]

This game is damn intense. Playing on Heroic and I got to Tsavo Highway (maybe half way through it?) and I have a couple of cuss out and throwing controller sessions already. Some of those fights are just not fair!

I'll let the "experts" weigh in the graphics and so forth but the it's such an immersive exp, I have no idea what's going around me. If you have a good surround system, you're in for a treat!