Halo, Nothing But Halo 67
The Halo 3 Beta has been in the news just a bit lately, and with it the Halo franchise is again looming large in other formats. Director Peter Jackson is speculating that the release of the game this September may refocus attention on the movie, stalled as it has been since October of last year. Jackson still wants to make it, but only with Neill Blomkamp directing. The Halo comic, meanwhile, has been confirmed as an ongoing series. The comic will consist of several mini-series runs, with future adventures possibly featuring the return of Brian Michael Bendis (the mind behind the first series). As for the game itself, Beta code has uncovered several game achievements that will be earnable after launch. Trying to calm fans somehow disappointed with the Beta's graphics, Bungie's Frank O'Connor assures us the shipped game will look better. And finally for a broader view of the game N'Gai Croal and Stephen Totilo are at it again, dissecting the Beta experience with witty correspondence.
Red Vs. Blue (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Can someone who actually played the beta... (Score:5, Interesting)
The graphics are stepped up from Halo 2 but not by leaps and bounds. Cod3, GoW, Oblivion all look 100x better. The weapons are about the same, one or two new weapons but nothing which would make anyone go wow. I can still dominate just with the standard gun.
They are few items one can pick up: one creates a shield around you so you can have a safe area to rest (though people can still come in and kill you), one causes an EMP pulse that will knock out anyone's shields (not really used you have to be very close to use and by that time either you have killed them already or are dead), the land mine (useful), and an item which gives you a grav boost in the air (again I rarely see anyone use it). Oh there is a cloaking device (not 100%) but once you see the invisible person moving it doesn't matter.
Vehicles...the same, nothing special. You can hold multiple grenade types at once: frag, emp, sticky ones, etc. Nothing special.
Maps again nothing special. Some of them have a cool launching ramp that shots you half way across the map. That is fun.
Summary: Don't expect a massive graphics update (unless they change it up a lot past the beta), games like Cod3, GoW, Oblivion all have better graphics. If you like Halo 2 you will like this game. If you hated Halo 2 you will hate this game. Maybe the single player experience will be more of a wow factor.
OH on the plus side lots of teenagers still talking about how cool they are, women they bang, how gangsta they are, etc.
I won't be buying Halo3 (Score:2, Interesting)
It always feels to me like open commercialisation; effectively it's a way of forcing the customer to give you more money, not on the merits of the game, and the merits of its followup, but because the customer wants to finish off what they paid for the first time.
So list me as one of the people who won't be purchasing Halo3.
Gary (-;