Halo 3 Beta Impressions

Yesterday in New York City Microsoft held an invite-only preview of the Halo 3 Beta, and passed out early Beta keys to a group of game journalists. The result is a barrage of coverage about this most-anticipated title. Notable features beyond basic previews include Dan Hsu's take on the game, Dean Takahashi's 'I got my butt kicked' perspective, the San Jose Merc's interview with Bungie Community Lead Brian Jarrad, CVG's hosting of the official Beta Movie, and Joystiq's interview with Frank O'Connor, Bungie's writing lead. From the 1up preview: "It's unmistakably Halo gameplay, despite the rearranged controls (which feel natural after 10 minutes), and all of the additions fit perfectly into the multiplayer universe we've come to love. The interface has been overhauled and is even easier to use, and you now have such niceties as being able to change your control layout at any point on any screen. While the visuals are rich and beautiful, it's the audio that's really impressed us so far. The rumbling throttle of unleashing dual SMGs makes them feel incredibly powerful, and the Spartan Laser tearing past your head is as scary as you'd imagine. Audio cues are more important than ever, and the better your sound system the more next-gen this will feel." More coverage below.

Never played Halo..

[1155]

But I have played Gears of War. Quite a bit, it's almost my favorite game now. How does Halo compare to Gears?

Re:Still missing one thing.

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Don't forget RE4. On the PC it just wouldn't play half as well as on the Cube. The game was designed for the controller and it's done to near perfection when the PC port is ment to be terrible to the point of unplayable.

For the sake of questioning your logic. Is someone playing solitaire a gamer or not? Because your logic seems to imply -any- game playing makes you a gamer. Where as IMO a gamer is someone who invests some time in games and is involved in the future. The same way anyone can spend time on a PC, but most -real- geeks invest a massive amount of time in the community and on their PCs (which is usually the same thing in effect).

Re:Still missing one thing.

[Anonymous Coward]

YES! lets have an FPS mouse vs controller FPS flame war!!

Remember the first time you ever used a keyboard / mouse to play an FPS? I'll bet it didn't seem intuitive at all

WRONG - being immediatly obvious and intuitive is why FPS games on the PC are so popular.
flame on! I hate trying to play an FPS with a controller. I always hear the same story "after 10min it's totally natural" - B.S! I've played for hours and it only gets more frustrating as the action heats up and the controller is this obstacle between you and the kills! Lets get a mouse for the xbox already! What the hell??!

Re:Joypad VS Mouse+keyboard: braindead battle

[Anonymous Coward]

Not knocking those who like/prefer joypads, but I've never been able to get the level of sensitivity a mouse provides with any joypad, regardless of settings. Also, playing against people who felt they were proficient with a joypad while I used a KB/Mouse was simply no contest, ever. They just could not exercise the same level of precision a mouse provides. My $.02

Hey Bungie People

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you ever wish you'd been bought by Apple instead?

Serious question.

Re:Low Quality Graphics

[Osty]

TFC had a grenade button years before halo and I doubt that was even the first

TFC? Ha! The original TeamFortress (the Quake mod, not the Half-Life mod) had two buttons for grenades, as each class had two grenade types. Kids these days, thinking TFC was the origin of TeamFortress. The 'C' stands for "Classic" for a reason, you know.

Call of Duty and Iron Grip are two games I can think of just off the top of my head that use the quick melee attack like halo and I am sure there were many before those

Call of Duty (2003) was two years after Halo 1 (2001). I have no idea what Iron Grip [gamefaqs.com] is. As best I can tell, it's a mod for Half-Life 2 which automatically puts it after the launch of Halo 1. Other games had melee (Quake, Doom, Half-Life), but you had to switch weapons rather than just hit a button to attack.

I am not sure the many check points and lack of a user save can be counted as a positive but many console and computer games have used the checkpoint style system since the start of time..

True, but most older games tended towards checkpoints too far apart, and requiring user intervention to actually save (if you aren't paying attention, tough crap. It's another two hours to the next save point). Halo made it automatic.

I'm surprised the original poster didn't point out probably the biggest innovation in Halo 1 that has been copied over and over since -- regenerating shields. Without your shields, 1-2 shots will kill you, so you shields are essentially the same thing as health in Doom, Quake, Half-Life, etc. The difference is that rather than having to hunt around for pickups to regenerate, you just have to hide. Totally changes the dynamic for multiplayer games, because it forces you into tactical situations. Previously, you'd think, "I'm low on health and there's no way I'll find enough to keep me alive for a few more kills. Therefore, I'll just rush the next guy I see in order to do some damage before I'm taken out." Halo changed that to, "Do I hide and regen my armor, or do I attack and prevent my enemy from regenerating his armor?"

Re:O RLY?

[SilentChris]

Actually if you read the interviews linked the guys from Bungie said no assets were used from previous games (certainly not Halo 2). Not even the maps/story were used from previous games (even the butchered stuff from the end of Halo 2).

It wouldn't have made much sense to use the previous assets anyway. They're going from 480p to 1080i. You think blurry textures on a 50" HDTV running at 1080i would be acceptable?