Halo 3 Beta: May 16th - June 7th

Great news! I'm glad it's after April a.k.a. university exams.

 

I really don't agree with that.

You're right that Master Chief is an iconic hero, one that is very popular in America, but that's really only one very small part of Halo's appeal.

Halo tapped into the sort of rabid want that Rare experienced with Goldeneye, which was a good FPS multiplayer for a console-centric userbase that had never really experienced something like it before. Halo 1 came along, and not only did pretty much everything that Goldeneye did either as good or a bit better, it added a solid control scheme, and the use of vehicles. Even Halo 2, which had plenty of faults, really added more than it took away.

Master Chief's action-hero status helps the appeal of game, but the long-standing popularity of the Halo series comes from it's good-great single-player, fun co-op, and without a doubt it's excellent & unique brand of more deliberately-paced multiplayer.

 

Please can somebody call AlStrong's family and friends and tell them that they won't see him, at all, from May 16th to June 7th and that they should not worry too much?

 

Lets not tell them I wonder what they'll do...

 

I can see how Bungie wants to put the focus on the gameplay features and innovations, which do seem to be substantial. Yet I think they're pretty close to the line where showing pre-alpha graphics will start to negatively affect the game and create the wrong kind of buzz.
They really should completely stop with the videos and screens until they have final stuff to show, because the game looks far too simple and sometimes even bad on these.

 

cool video analysis of the ViDoc

 

It beats showing dolled up bullshots like many developers do.

 

I agree, but it also creates the impression that Halo3 looks bad... and it may be too hard to overcome that.

 

I agree too. Even though it states "alpha" in the video itself, I think a disclaimer before the video should make it clear that things are not final etc etc. That way, you don't need to have Frankie visiting all eleventy billion forums telling people to sit tight and not worry. And at the same time, when joe blow shows the vids to other people it'll at least be a half-decent excuse that doesn't require the interweb to explain.

I'd rather they show wireframe or untextured video captures if they want to get across the idea that the focus is on gameplay. At the very least, people should instantly recognize that the game isn't going to be gourad shaded.

As it stands, the vid documentary looks exactly how Halo 2 would look like with increased resolution. Already some of my friends are going "meh" even though I explained that the graphics are not final. When the game is so close to being released (several months), these videos just give that underlying impression that there isn't going to be that much room for improvement. "The game is this close to being finished, and this is what they have?" That sort of thing.

If they were that paranoid about people commenting on the graphics, maybe they should actually give a date as to when the footage was captured. If they're too afraid of that well gee... Now I'm actually worried.

How thoughtful!

Most likely nothing They might decide to call after a few days, but they'd guess I would be at my friend's house playing 24/7.

 

The GFX does not scream WOW (ala GOW) but the attention to detail such as the character movements (the spartan actualy steps around the bubble shield when he dropped it) is fantastic. Bungie is taking the Turn 10 approach this time around, building the hardcore gamplay mechanics first then upping the GFX. For such an important game, I agree with this route. I'd much rather the game play brilliantly and look good instead of looking brilliantly and only playing good.

This screen capture has some nice details:

 

Well, AFAIK they're developing the MP and SP on different engines (it's heavily implied from earlier MP screenshots). While I believe they'll fix things in the end, it certainly doesn't help to keep releasing such "inferior" footage to the public. What makes it so difficult to record footage from the beta-quality graphics?

 

I think the marketplace video looks pretty good, at certain places anyway and what's most important the new gameplay mechanics look interesting. It seems that they are emphasizing the gameplay more towards Halo 1, with most of the combat happening with rifle, grenades and melee instead of dual wielding, which is a good desicion imo.

 

Exactly. I like seeing how the graphics are coming together, and in some spots it already looks really nice. Of couse it looks like Halo 2 in high res, MP is built from Halo 2's engine, but they can push a lot more polygons and a lot nicer shaders on the 360 and I'm sure the final game will do plenty of both.

 

I understand your point but there's always the angle where spoon feeding these early shots is a strategy to create the perception that the final product looks better than it really does based on where it came from.

Marketing graphics is such a tricky business these days, but regardless what it ends up looking like, I do think theres some need for THIS halo to have obvious improvements over Halo2 to the average person. The last thing MS wants is people saying "it looks just like Halo2" when its released.

 

Good point.

I'd like to see the Public distribution show severly limited graphics to drive the point home further emphasizing gameplay over all else. Hires(720p) and a solid 30fps should be the only requirements. Even just colored flat shaded polys. Crazy I know, but it allows the focus to be where it needs to be and lessens the possible confusion by less informed players as they will obviously be place holder graphics.

On a side note - I hope Halo3 graphics impress. Likely scenario places it quite a few notches below Gears based on scale alone, but I hope to be surprised.

 

Source? First time I've heard this and it goes against the patten. Halo 1 and 2 both have the same engine for SP and MP. Unless this is your way of trying to damage control for the screenshots?

Personally, I think the alpha footage looks pretty good and I don't really understand these 'Halo 2 HD' comments as it doesn't look like Halo 2 at all. You want to see Halo 2 HD? Check out H2 Vista. Halo 3 looks and feels alot dffernet, and after seeing Halo 3, Halo 2 looks pretty bland both technically and artistically.

I'm not suprised people are concerned about graphics, because if you compare the current stage of Halo 3 to other games at around the same development period it makes Halo3 look underdeveloped. I just think people should be considerate that the footage which is shown is old and graphics development is still being juggled (and perhaps, backseated to gameplay development?) around with gameplay. Actually, I think Bungie is being pretty awesome taking their time to show H3 footage to their fans. It's not like they're idiots either, they'll be fully aware of the consequences of showing early footage to people will bring, but despite this they're showing this stuff to please the fans (and no doubt build hype as well).

 

Time will tell, but if thats the case thats disappointing. I'd ask Frankie on GAF, but alas my account hasn't been verified.

Not to doubt you guys, but it just doesn't seem right. Maybe the weekly update said it wrong, but if it was a updated version of Halo 2, I'm sure they would of used that as means of damage control. Frankie keeps saying that'll get to see the first proper graphical glimpse of Halo 3 with the mutiplayer beta. And with the updates he keeps going into detail of all these features which he makes sound like will be in the SP as well.

As I said, I'd like to ask him but they take so long verifying stuff.

 

If they are shooting for a 60fps game then the graphics are in line with my expectations. For a MP game I would take 60fps over 30fps with better graphics.