Looks pretty good, and I hope to God they go for a different gameplay approach, but chances are they'll keep it tried and true Halo. I'd really love to play a more tactical shooter-like Halo game, something of a crossbreed of Rainbow Six Vegas meets Crysis.
Billy Idol
Legend
Somehow, the trailer got me really interested in what follows...so for me it was not boring!
Yep, this was really cool!
the ignoramus
Regular
When do we get to see what the game looks like when it's being played?
Not too terribly long, since a beta is due presumably well before the game in 2010.
Yeah sure....not this again...so previously 360 devs would just leave plenty of 360 processing idle...IMHO the animations scream pre-rendered....and based on Bungie past records....i bet the whole trailer, at best, is made up of "highly" pre-rendered ingame assets.
I am starting to think that as well. and if its true it would be really sad. There were a couple other games that looked good last night that gave the same impression as reach - would love if they were real but highly unlikely. For example "spec ops" that game looked like a revolution in gaming and my best thought was "I hope this is what PC gaming is going to be with dx11" but like with reach i couldn't help thinking "this can't be real." If spec ops is coming to PC its quite possible
Now I am thinking they might have meant in-game CG (as in the cutscene will be in the game basically) instead of "this is what the game will look like." If thats it I'd pretty much have no respect for bungie or the halo franchise after. The game will either look really good or pale in comparison to the vid shown and piss ppl off.
Last edited by a moderator:
Because showing a cutscene or render that looks nothing like the game for the debut trailer has never been done before. Oh wait, it's actually the rule, not the exception.
LightHeaven
Regular
Oh goody... generic bald soldier that looks like Baldur (Too Human), John Forge (Halo Wars), the dood from Fracture, Star Wars Force Unleashed, Infamous...
The dude in Star Wars force unleashed is a replica of a real actor XD
ShadowRunner
Veteran
Indeed, its pretty much the standard. Still it does give a good idea of what the game will look like in terms of art direction, which is the most signifcant part of a games graphics. Seems to be a definate change in direction, reminded me of the live action ODST trailer as soon as it started.
I wonder how the big Halo fans feel about the grittier look, in the past the use of vibrant colours has been held up as one of the main reasons why it looked great.
Last edited by a moderator:
Seriously, are you guys doubting Bungie here? I'm 100% convinced that this is all done in their engine with the actual assets, nothing looks impossible here. The only thing to suspect is the AA, as there's just too much of it, thus suggesting that the trailer material has been bullshot-rendered (and making it impossible to tell if they've managed to get rid of the 640p-noAA resolution of the previous games).
The biggest improvement I see is the general quality of all the assets from character and vehicle models to the ground textures and atmosphere effects. The engine already had good lighting and shader capabilities, it was mostly the content that did not make the absolute best use of it. Bungie seems to have taken the criticism of their previous titles to the heart and decided to show the world what they're truly capable of. Talented artists can easily push twice as good looking stuff from the same poly/texture budgets.
Although there's no doubt that the engine has been improved significantly as well, considering all the publications from Bungie that indicated serious research into stuff like shadows. It's just not as obvious as the increase in the quality of the artwork.
On a somewhat different topic, does the girl Spartan has an artificial right arm? I think it's the first time we see such a thing in the Halo universe.
The biggest improvement I see is the general quality of all the assets from character and vehicle models to the ground textures and atmosphere effects. The engine already had good lighting and shader capabilities, it was mostly the content that did not make the absolute best use of it. Bungie seems to have taken the criticism of their previous titles to the heart and decided to show the world what they're truly capable of. Talented artists can easily push twice as good looking stuff from the same poly/texture budgets.
Although there's no doubt that the engine has been improved significantly as well, considering all the publications from Bungie that indicated serious research into stuff like shadows. It's just not as obvious as the increase in the quality of the artwork.
On a somewhat different topic, does the girl Spartan has an artificial right arm? I think it's the first time we see such a thing in the Halo universe.
I'm with you laa-yosh.
Some nice shots and analysis here:
http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=957095
The Elite's mandibles have some nice fake SSS shading:
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/BlueNinjaBE/Halo%20Reach/22Sangheili.jpg
I hope they make them as scary as possible - as much as I've liked the twist in the story, the Brutes have never been a good enough replacement.
Can't wait to see what they've done to the other species of the Covenant. Grunts are a tough decision though, as their childish voice was another constant source of criticism (even though anyone who actually played the games on Legendary would know that they can be terrifying at times, particularly the black spec ops ones with fuel rod guns in Halo 1).
http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=957095
The Elite's mandibles have some nice fake SSS shading:
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/BlueNinjaBE/Halo%20Reach/22Sangheili.jpg
I hope they make them as scary as possible - as much as I've liked the twist in the story, the Brutes have never been a good enough replacement.
Can't wait to see what they've done to the other species of the Covenant. Grunts are a tough decision though, as their childish voice was another constant source of criticism (even though anyone who actually played the games on Legendary would know that they can be terrifying at times, particularly the black spec ops ones with fuel rod guns in Halo 1).
Except that sites are saying "in-game." The fact that its not easily discernible as rendered (if it is) would suggest the intent to deceive.
What have they done to suggest otherwise? The sky also looks suspect, but u can notice the grass is low res and some low poly rocks on the ground so its really confusing to me. Is it possible they replaced the sky and background mountains with higher quality renders in the process of adding higher aa and a bit more aniso to the upfront elements? The pic of the elite looks very believeable
Bungie has never, ever lied about what was ingame and what was CGI (that one H3 ad from Digital Domain).
Besides, there is nothing in the trailer that could not be done in a realtime engine on a current console, apart from the AA. Capturing the trailer using their bullshot making feature explains that perfectly, and honestly, I couldn't care less about this issue. Yeah, the game will have jaggies, so does every other one, but that's no reason not to get rid of them for an announcement trailer.
Have you seen the skies in ODST? They use the old H3 engine and look almost as good.
And the last level actually features a giant Covenant carrier coming out of the clouds in the distance, so they've already done that too.
I honestly can't understand the doubt. It is quite exactly what I've expected from Bungie to do (and which is why I thought those 'leaked' images a month ago were either fake or absolutely not representative of the game). The only question is the actual game resolution and AA, but I guess they haven't fully finalized that at this point, considering there's still some 9 months of development and finetuning left.
I thought Kenneth Scott is with 343, not Bungie? I don't think 343 have anything to do with Reach. We've yet to see what Kenneth Scott is up to
I don't mind the Elites vs. Brutes replacement in either direction, but the last few frames with the Elite were very cheesy, and brought down the overall impression very well.
Also, the commander guy is a prime example of why (interesting) human models should be used as the basis for characters - a discussion we had in another thread. He's pretty generic, looking a bit like half a dozen of other game protagonists, starting e.g with commander Shepherd of Mass Effect.
Overall, I'm very impressed though. The lighting is fantastic. The camera work/cinematic stuff etc. was way above what I remember of Halo 3. And the flashing clouds are going straight onto my desktop!
Hm. Looks like its possible they just refined the way they did the sky and background. It still looks a bit fake because it has a sense of depth that seems unreal and you can see the carriers moving into the background. Its possible they just did a great job with it and only resolution and aa are enhanced like u said
As far as I know 343 Industries is working on the franchise/IP related stuff, so I don't see why they would need a highly experienced and talented game artist. Ken's skills would be wasted doing promotional material. Then again his bio states that he's a senior art director there. But I think the girl's face is pretty close to his style.
And I've also spotted this post on CGTalk a few days ago from one of bungie's animators:
" i popped this article to Kenneth too."
- so they're probably on daily speaking terms.
And I've also spotted this post on CGTalk a few days ago from one of bungie's animators:
" i popped this article to Kenneth too."
- so they're probably on daily speaking terms.
lol. I pretty much hate trailers unless they show whats obviously gameplay so don't mind me. The vid of spec ops actually has me on edge more than halo did because that one seemed to fake actual gameplay. Elements in it can be part of a game (most likely PC) but the characters movement and environment were suspicious. Hate being tricked.
we'll see in the months to come if its real enough
