Halo 3 Multiplayer Demo Coming In Spring

Today is the fifth anniversary of the original Halo: Combat Evolved. To celebrate Bungie has announced new maps for Halo 2, a commercial for the upcoming game to be shown on December Fourth, and (most entertainingly) intentions to offer a multiplayer demo of Halo 3 this coming spring. From the lengthy post: "What exactly does this mean? Well, again we can't really get into the details quite yet (notice a theme here?) but we can confirm that our fans will have an opportunity to play Halo 3 multiplayer over Xbox Live BEFORE the final game is available. You'll be playing a little multiplayer and simultaneously providing us with some valuable data to help our development team. We're still working out the details on timing and scope and there will be a lot more info coming in the weeks ahead."

Re:

[newgalactic]

Where did you see Halo 1 alpha? And what about it was better then Halo CE?

Re:

[Kenja]

"Where did you see Halo 1 alpha? And what about it was better then Halo CE?"

At Bungi back before they got purchased by Microsoft. (shrug) Seems I'm a troll however, so dont mind me.

Re:

[newgalactic]

What about the 2nd question? WHat about it was better then Halo CE?

Re:

[otacon]

I thought I was the only one that remembers "old" Halo, I remember seeing it at the MacWorld convention in like 1998. I remember thinking "oh cool, the mac will finally get a sweet game"

Re:

[Meagermanx]

How is This [wikimedia.org] better than this [wikimedia.org]?

Re:

[Kenja]

"How is This [wikimedia.org] better than this [wikimedia.org]?"

So the only way to tell if a game is good or fun is by the quality of the graphics? Halo was dummed down to work on the xbox and has never recovered.

Re:

[newgalactic]

You still haven't answered my other question. What was better about Halo 1 alpha then Halo CE?

Re:

[admdrew]

What was better about Halo 1 alpha then Halo CE?

It seemed to be more expansive and I believe it was supposed to have a fairly good multiplayer component (I seem to recall hearing massively-multiplayer somewhere... but don't remember where), which Halo 1 lacked. The Halo games that were made were amazingly linear as well, something the early concept game wasn't supposed to be.

Halo might have been one of the best implementations of an FPS on a console, but that's not saying much (Halo PC anyone? C'mon... *a

Re:

[newgalactic]

Ok, I like the sound of a massive multiplayer experience, that would have made the game better. But was that in existance at all, or was it just an idea. Did Halo 1 alpha have that capability? or was it just a cool idea. If it was only an idea, I would say that you can't take it into consideration when making the statement "Halo 1 alpha is better then Halo CE". Thanks for your input admdrew, your insight is helpful. But Kenja started this thread by making the claim "Still not as good as Halo 1 alpha".

Re:

[admdrew]

I had heard ideas that it was going to be sorta massively multiplayer, kinda along the lines of what Planetside [sony.com] turned out to be (which is a lot of fun).

Unfortunately, I believe it was just talk; the only early gameplay videos I saw involved nothing larger than squad-based combat (~20, or less, players).

Re:Still not as good as Halo 1 alpha?

[Ford Prefect]

So the only way to tell if a game is good or fun is by the quality of the graphics? Halo was dummed down to work on the xbox and has never recovered.

Have you seen non-cinematic videos of the early versions?

There. Was. No. AI.

Aliens just ... stand there, oblivious to the player's presence. Going further back to the third-person versions - aiming was a mess of reticules and lucky guesses. 'Gameplay' might have involved driving over someone with a warthog, or shooting him/her/it with one of the vast and peculiar array of weapons available. While wandering round an unfinished map with almost no cover whatsoever.

The beginnings weren't much of an improvement - the game was an RTS where you could place units, order some around, and that was about it. Wahey.

There's a video out there somewhere which has Bungie employees pointing and laughing at the incredible smoke-and-mirrors act they pulled from a game which, to be honest, wasn't really going anywhere. They had ideas, they had talent, but if someone hadn't bought them out or paid them, and then given them a giant deadline to meet, then Halo would probably have been forgotten...

The amazing, nebulous vision of a perfect, detailed Mac-only Halo steeped in aeons of complex gameplay - then being crushed under the boot of a monolithic Microsoft - is just a creation of people's imaginations. Sorry.

(Aha! Found it: The Evolution of Halo [bungie.org]. Worth seeing.)

Re:

[RidiculousX]

Bugnie never ever said it was going to be Mac-only.

Re:

[Meagermanx]

I don't know if this is the same video, but it's definitely an interesting watch. It goes through the early Halo builds. Part 1 [youtube.com] and Part 2 [youtube.com].

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[Dihi Doctor]

Wow, that was interesting to see how far Halo came. The PC version still was a load of fun IMO, if not quite living up to the hype that surrounded the game (before it suffered that horrid Xbox transition and 1-2year delay to get back to PC - I still remember that devastating blow as a 15-year-old-ish reading PC Gamer :'( )

Re:

[AcidLacedPenguiN]

I think the idea is that, for a game that hasn't been released we can imagine all these nifty features the game could have but when the game actually comes out it can never live up to the imagined greatness that a few minutes of alpha footage can bring. I was excited about the Mac version when I heard about it, they were calling for some form of human vs covenant epic online battle for the ringworlds. Being a game from back in the day, what like 1998 it sounded legendary. When I heard that Microsoft bought

Re:

[The Great Pretender]

Opening up the floodgates here, but I can't think of any game that didn't become a shadow of it's former self, when you consider the former self to be the initial planning stage.

Re:

[udderly]

Parent modded -1 Non-Groupthink Compliant

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[WilliamSChips]

No, parent modded -1 Copy+Paste Troll. Has nothing to do with groupthink(which is what Slashdot trolls concentrate on to avoid the fact that they're jackasses)

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[WilliamSChips]

Register. Then we'll talk. ;)

What a coincidence...

[Shadow Wrought]

Right around the time PS3's might actually be available in quantity. Huh. Funny that...

Re:

[Ghostalker474]

I thought H3 was supposed to come out when the PS3 did. They had plenty of time to work on it. Pity, I really like the story behind the game :(

Re:

[Broken scope]

Wouldn't want to put out Gears of War and halo3 so close together. Plus the more time they have the better, and bill gates doesn't know game development?

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[MooseMuffin]

Instead they gave the Halo team another year to work on it and created a whole new blockbuster franchise in Gears of War to go up against the PS3. Halo 3 will be all the better, and they'll have it when the PS3 gets some major titles. Seems like a good play all around.

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[Blimey85]

For those that like Halo, Gears Of War should keep you happy until Halo 3 is out. I just bought it two nights ago and I'm really wishing the weekend would hurry up and get here so I can play it all night. I love co-op FPS games and Gears of War is awesome! I'm glad Halo 3 was delayed rather than coming out at the same time as GOW. That wouldn't have made any sense from a maximum profit angle.

Re:

[stunt_penguin]

I think releasing Halo 3 and Gears of War at the same time would mean that the combined greatnesses form some kind of singularity, and gaming itself implodes in a puff of logic.

Besides, they might have Halo 3 around for the European PS3 launch- it wouldn't hurt.

Re:

[Vr6dub]

Kind of like how the sun will be up when I step out the house tomorrow. OMG, what a coincidence.

I don't see what is so funny. When would you prefer they ship it?

Re:

[Plutonite]

From Bill Gates' interview with Time Magazine:

"And the day the PS3 comes out they will run into HALO 3."

There is nothing strange or unusual about this. Free market economy.

price?

[gEvil (beta)]

Anyone wanna place any bets on whether you'll need to spend some "points" on the demo?

Re:price?

[EGSonikku]

Considering there wasn't a charge for the "Phantasy Star Universe" Public Beta or the "Final Fantasy XI" Public Beta, nor any charge for any of the dozens of demo's released for Xbox Live (many of which feature online play), i'm thinking there will NOT be a charge...call it a hunch ;)

Re:

[MeanMF]

Count on it. The last item in their recent customer survey [xboxic.com] is very telling.

That's Not A Demo

[StingRay02]

You'll be playing a little multiplayer and simultaneously providing us with some valuable data to help our development team.

Granted, I didn't RTFA, as I don't really care, but that line struck me. This isn't going to be a demo, it's a beta test!

Re:That's Not A Demo

[Saige]

The Bungie article that it's linked to refers to it as a public beta, not a demo. So you're completely correct on that account - it's the Slashdot article that called it a demo instead.

Re:

[StingRay02]

Ahhhh, good to know. It's bad enough that PC games typically aren't finished when they're released. I was being to worry that if publishers start calling console betas demoes, then console gaming was progressing down that path even faster than I'd originally thought.

Beta on a console

[RingDev]

The odd part is that it is a beta on a console. Something that is usually considered a black box solution. If they are running a beta in an environment where lockups and crashes are not acceptable, they have to be pretty confident in the condition of the engine.

The only thing I can figure is that they will be looking more for playability issues (run speed, reload timers, choke points, etc...) and balancing just prior to launch.

-Rick

Re:

[Broken scope]

Well alot of the things come with a "This is not final code" blah blah blah blah thing. If they go further and call it a beta, then it should be fine.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering the problems they had with cheating in Halo 2 on XBL, I think they are also trying to "cheat-proof" Halo 3 multiplayer as much as possible before it ships.

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[mr_zorg]

So, please, please, please people. No cheating during the beta. :)

Re:

[Turn-X Alphonse]

or they are very desperate to steal the press's all seeing eye now when the PS3 is just out the blocks.

If something seems fishy, it probably is.

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[StingRay02]

I've participated in a few different online betas on the PS2. Battlefield 2:Modern Combat and Jak X:Combat Racing, and I've heard of a large number of others. Granted, they weren't open to the public, you had to be chosen, but I never did anything special to be chosen, except for sending in the registration card for my network adapter.

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[WarwickRyan]

Yes, the console itself is a black box. However, the network with hundreds of thousands of simultaneous clients that will be involved in the Live game certainly isn't a black box.

Thus the need for large scale beta testing.

Pay to Play!

[Channard]

I don't think you'll have to pay for the Halo 3 commercial, but I'm guessing it'll be release first on Live Gold, a la the Gears of War trailer. You will probably have to pay for the Halo 2 maps, if reports are to be believed. But all the Halo maps released so far eventually became free, so I think I'll just hang around till they're non-premium. If indeed I'm still playing Halo 2 at that date.

Microsoft has to release this info now.....

[8127972]

.... Because if they don't, the terrorists win.

Re:

[GrumblyStuff]

Are they in the base?

So is this the big news we were told last week

[CrazyJim1]

Cuz I was expecting BIG news.

Halo Not Aging Well

[Anonymous Coward]

The general reaction to the media from Halo 3 has been pretty bad. Back when it came out there weren't that many 'shiny metal' games out - and certainly not green metal ones.

But now days every damn Unreal engine game is full of shiny metal guys and Halo is looking more and more of just another one of the crowd. By the time Halo ships next year there are easily going to be 20 to 30 other 'guys in bulky metal armor' games.

Bungie never was known for their graphics engines - although the Marathon games were sta

Re:

[brunascle]

seconded.

anyone know if the fps games in these next-gen consoles support keyboard + mouse by default? i know you can hook them to the console, but can you use them instead of the controller?

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[MoriaOrc]

I don't think any console FPS does this yet.

On a related note, there was an adapter for the orignal XBox that let you hook up a PS/2 ([insert witty comment on the port's name wrt consoles) KB+M with mouse movement bound to the what is usually the "look" stick and other bindings programable. In general, though, it gave the people with it a fairly good sized advantage and I doubt they would integrate the controls into the game.

Re:

[MrP-(at work)]

As long as multiplayer is segregated.. blacks on one server, whi... i mean console users on one server and pc users on the other..

im HORRIBLE at games (i was good as a child though hmm), i dont play any on my PC and i rarely play any on consoles but I do play halo 2 and ill be buying a 360+halo 3 when it comes out..

At least with all console multiplayer I have a chance (up until about level 13, then i always die and give up for a year then buy another 12 month xbox live subscription to play for another month

Re:

[WilliamSChips]

Notice how you completely dodge the issue of consoles still having a horrible interface(console controllers) for FPS and RTS games. (And no, the Wii doesn't make this any better.)

Re:

[PenguSven]

He also dodged the fact that the original XBOX DID have compatibility issues. my 3 friends had 3 xbox's (one an early, two a bit later i think) and one of the games they bought wouldnt load on all of them.. i forget if it was the newer or older ones it sh!t itself on, but the fact remains, it wasnt just "plug it in and it will work". As for the controller. Console Games ALWAYS have increased "hit zones" (ie the area you have to be aiming at to actually hit the target) because they KNOW you cant aim for sh!

Re:

[drsquare]

I had more fun playing Goldeneye on N64 than I did playing any PC FPS. But then I'm more interested in actually having enjoying a game than spending all day configuring keybindings and optimising framerates.

Re:

[WilliamSChips]

I had to do more searching for buttons when trying to play Halo then I did with every PC FPS I've ever played, combined.

Re:

[elrous0]

Is there a mod for "Another goddamn loud-mouthed keyboard/mouse asshole"?

-Eric

Re:

[animejoe]

Notice how you completely dodge the issue of consoles still having a horrible interface(console controllers) for FPS and RTS games. (And no, the Wii doesn't make this any better.)

Obviously, you're entitled to your opinion. But claiming that consoles have horrible control interfaces seems like a somewhat ignorant statement. I will agree that RTSs have a long way to go before they're controlled efficiently on consoles, but FPSs seem to do rather well. I've spent equal time on consoles and PC. While the mous

Re:Wake me up when it runs... (funny)

[Laebshade]

It's funny that I was modded flamebait. Maybe some mods have a personal interest rather than objective take on what I said? Nah...

So why did I say that? Because I believe it's true, of course. My first online fps I played was Unreal Tournament; you just can't beat the accuracy that a keyboard and mouse offer compared to a controller. I've been played online fps for years, yet when I sat down at an anime con (Anime Weekend Atlanta) and tried playing Halo, I failed miserably. Using the left analog stic

Re:

[elrous0]

Thanks for sharing. I think I speak for everyone here when I say that I really do give a shit.

-Eric

And trust us..

[bealzabobs_youruncle]

we aren't floating this to try and steal some spotlight from PS3 and Wii...

Xbox owners get the shaft from MS

[drc003]

If you read the article you will notice that the new maps will only be available for Xbox 360 when released. Very nice marketing ploy to try and force your customers to upgrade away from a console which still has plenty of life. No this is not surprising coming from Microsoft but still annoying nonetheless. Bungie pretty much apologizes saying they want all of their fans to enjoy the new content but that their hands are tied by the publisher, Microsoft Game Studios. Here's to not seeing other great game com