Halo 3 official site update: new screenshots and details

P-L-A-C-E-B-O-E-M-P-E-R-O-R-S-N-E-W-C-L-O-T-H-E-S
Err? Hmm.. . Buy more Ovaltine?

The Halo series is not overrated. There isn't a single console FPS game as good as Halo 2 or with as large of a following.

@ Fernando Rocker

Hmm, the best console FPS of all time is overrated? I think you need to get your skull checked for a brain there buddy.

@wackychan

FPS?? i thought it was an "Online-battle-game-that-almost-no-one-play-the-main-game-mode" game.

Best FPS? Try Goldeneye...

If we're talking multiplayer, then Halo is the way to go when your playing an fps on a console. But as far as the campaign being the best for a console fps... that's up for debate.

Also, do these screen shots represent what the final graphics will look like? They look like Halo 2 in HD, and I wasn't even impressed when H2 came out.

#2
Doesn't that just scream 'overrated'?
If a game is given praise for being the "best" of a certain type of system but is really not all that great when compared to other games on another type of system, doesn't that mean that, in a way, it's overrated?

The vehicles and character models look great, but the terrain looks so sterile. Play Call of Duty 3 and you can lay in the grass, but Halo is just terrain with grass patterns.

It would be cool if you could switch between FPS and Over the Shoulder like Gears of War.

Halo is obviously the best game ever made in the history of the universe. But we shouldn't be debating that... we should be debating errors that have been put up on the site like this one, under Characters - The Flood:
All of these forms have an attraction to any calcium-based life form of sufficient mass to accommodate them and will try to attack/infect any they encounter.

This just screams a lack of basic biological knowledge. I mean, I realize Ca and C both start with the letter "C", but the word was written out! Calcium based life doesn't even make sense. Some scientists have speculated on the possibility of silicon based life, but carbon is definitely the way to go. They need to fix that pronto. Or if they don't, at least all of humanity will be safe from the flood, since we're carbon based :D

@ 7,

Who knows. Maybe they only eat lifeforms made out of dairy products? Man, that'd be a cheesy ending. Probably just a chance to milk the series even more.

>_>

What?

Generally Halo is considered the best console FPS shooter and this is one of the instances where majority rules so it's not like your opinion matters. That would be your favorite FPS where you only need to take your own feelings into consideration. The Halo series is the console FPS to beat period and it doesn't have much competition in that regard, though I do like the time splitters series, but I still rather play halo if I had to choose between the two.

I think you need to reexamine those shots if you don't think they look good. Everything is smooth and very well aliased, textures are very good looking especially the cliffs, shadows are well done, lighting from what I can tell looks good, no bitmap or noticeable bitmap rendering from what I can see, nice dust affects and hell, they even seem to change the posture of the spartans depending on the incline they are standing on. It's certainly not the best looking game out there but it seems to be a nice improvement over halo 2. It's not going to look photo realistic as that's not halo's style. Like zelda, or viewtiful joe, the games look good but have a very unique artistic style. Halo is very recognizable and I'm glad they kept the look. As long as they improved on gameplay and have some awesome maps it will be a classic.

Is there a version of the site that isn't rendering 3D fog for the background because that nonsense is grinding my browser to a halt.

"FPS?? i thought it was an "Online-battle-game-that-almost-no-one-play-the-main-game-mode" game."

@ fernando

I'm sorry your forced to play campaign modes in all your games. Hey, maybe you'll find some friends to play with you someday. Online play is ok, but i prefer system link with my friends.

By the way, the only thing that made goldeneye so great was that it had multiplayer and some decent maps. A FPS cant be great without well designed multiplayer. The last time I went back and picked up goldeneye, I realized how shitty the controls are. And as far as halo goes it has the best controls, best maps, best weapons, and it is the best multiplayer console game of all time.

Goldeneye seemed great because it was the first FPS on a console that didn't suck. Halo not only doesn't suck, it will never disappoint.

Im suprised that MS is even allowing Epic/Midway to release Unreal Tournament 3 on its console. One would think that as soon as any of these "diehard" Halo fans see what a real MP shooter look and feels like they would never go back.

Not only does UT3 look so much better, We all know Epic will support with maps and gametypes for years to come as well(of course MS will charge you for them).

Im suprised that MS is even allowing Epic/Midway to release Unreal Tournament 3 on its console. One would think that as soon as any of these "diehard" Halo fans see what a real MP shooter look and feels like they would never go back.

Not only does UT3 look so much better, We all know Epic will support with maps and gametypes for years to come as well(of course MS will charge you for them).

wackychan, Goldeneye not only ruled because of awesome multiplayer (for its time), but because that one player campaign was completely bad ass (for its time). On top of just being a cool game where you didn't just shoot everyone up right away, it also followed the movie nearly exactly. I can't think of another movie game where it turned out good and/or accurate.

Other than that, you are right in just about every other point you make. I myself have yet to touch Halo 2's campaign mode, and have very little interest in it, but I have no problems playing online... every chance I get :(

Um.

So it appears the information has been updated/changed since it was first released.

Check it out, it's seriously interesting, maybe they let too much slip?

One thing's for sure, this has the work of the Bungie Ninjas all over it.

Phranctoast,

I can see that you are a bit naive on the subject, so I will help you out. PC shooters don't transfer well to consoles. This is in part because PC shooters are built around twitch aiming. Counterstrike is considered by many to be the best PC shooter ever. It was ported to xbox and it absolutely, positively, sucked major arse.

Hell, the original Unreal Tournament was ported to PS2 and it sucked. Console shooters port alright to PC, but not great. I've played PC and console shooters and enjoy both, for the record. On one hand, I enjoy how easy it is to aim inhumanly quickly and accurately on PC games. On other days, I enjoy the realism and challenge of aiming in console games. Aiming is the hardest part of shooting something and it doesn't necessarily make it bad if you miss once in a while.

But, in the end, Unreal Tournament won't be played on PS3 and 360 and will be loved by PC gamers. Halo3 will be loved by 360 owners and called over-rated by everyone else. whoopitty-doo. I still think Gears is better than both of them (assuming they are good when they come out). ;)

I hate to say it and agree with Frnando Rocker but Halo 2 was overrated. In fact, 1up did an article a while ago where one guy went back and interviewed the various game reviers who gave Halo 2 an impossibly high score and many believed they rated it much higher than it deserved. One even stated "we are just as prone to get caught up in the hype as any other gamer." This was about a year ago though. And truth be told, not sure if it WAS 1up or Gamasutra.

Now, having said that, I'll probably have to get this game. I have no real preference towards Halo but it's what a large group of my friends play. I suck at Halo but it's what they play.

I don't know about the story because I have honestly never beaten one. I got to the point in the original Halo where you reach the "true" end of the game then they tell you to go all the way back. My general feeling on this matter is "fuck that. What a worthless ass attempt to artificially inflate a games length." On Halo 2, it got to The Flood and I quit playing. They aren't hard, per se. It's just that they are possibly the most goddam annoyingly stupid enemies thrown in an FPS since the cybernetic frogs in Daikatana. Yes, I went there. The Flood belong in Daikatana.

However, as stated before, I'll be online May 17th with the rest of you people. In fact, feel free to "pwn" me. Gamertag NME-Se7eN. My PSN name is Sheppy7 in case you want to add me there as well.

"Hell, the original Unreal Tournament was ported to PS2 and it sucked."

Cant really compare a game that had no online (ps2 version) to one that will have online (ps3 verison).

Epic has also said they will support mouse and keyboard for the ps3 version. Hopefully ps3 m+k players will be able to go against pc players.

Epic also appear to be developing all the versions at the same time and not "porting" them (the same can be said of quake wars).

your also forgetting that fans of gears will be drawn to UT3 since its made my the same developer, and it will gain publicity with the younger gamers that dont remember UT.

I understand twitch gaming and I can agree on enjoying both.

Halo to me just seems like it filled a console fps void and was in the right place at the right time.

@Phranctoast

Your knowledge of who decides Marketplace pricing for downloadable content is lacking. You imply that Microsoft will force Epic to charge for UT3 DLC, most likely because of the issue where Microsoft wanted to charge for Gears of War content when Epic didn't. They key difference there is that Microsoft published Gears of War, and is therefore allowed to have some authority over pricing decisions; if Microsoft is not the publisher for UT3, they will not.

good point gap tooth, but I believe its already been stated that since MS owns Live they have a right to charge for things regardless of whether they publish them or not.

Does anyone else think this game looks like it belongs on the original xbox

I agree. I was expecting something along the lines of killzone cg trailer or gears.

this game does look next gen. killzone CG is not possible yet and was just.. CG. GoW was a very linear game with not much depth so not much horsepower needed there. just one flat ground and nothing else.