1UP's final week of Halo 3 coverage is upon us, and today they deliver the first public info on Halo 3's campaign. The staff of 1UP was witness to approximately 17.25 seconds of a campaign level. That's it. What's more, the snippet they saw was not specially engineered by Bungie at all. In fact, the tiny video was made using the new film recording feature. Supposedly, the pre-Alpha footage was discarded immediately after being shown to the press, so we probably won't be getting our hands on it.
The level witnessed took place inside what appeared to be a human city, possibly the bombed out ruins of New Mombasa. The author of the article suggests this may take place directly after Halo 2 ends, with the Chief landing on Earth in the middle of a war zone. Master Chief begins by jumping onto a Warthog and is quickly pursued by ships and a new Ghost. This special ghost is the new Brute Ghost, a reconfigured version of the standard Ghost. The article describes it as normal Ghost with its wings folded, presenting a more "tube-ish" design. The Chief raises the Warthogs Gauss cannon to fire and ... that's it. According to 1UP, Halo 3 is visually very impressive, so much so that it may give Gears of War a run for it's money (which it should as a 3rd generation 360 game). Hopefully, this will allay graphical concerns leveled at Halo 3's multiplayer screenshots.
So there you go, 17.25 seconds of gameplay scrutinized for all they're worth, and then some. God help Bungie if they screw up Halo 3. If people are reading this much into 17.25 seconds, imagine what they'll do with an entire game. It's frightening (and mildly titillating, strangely).
Update: Clarified headline to prevent potential riot.
