We were less than kind to "Arms Race," the first Halo-based short from director Neill Blomkamp, when it showed at E3. But we're going to try to hold our tongues as you watch the second edition of the series, captured by Gamersyde at the Leipzig Games Convention. The quality is bad, the audio's off, and it just wouldn't be fair to judge without seeing it as it was intended. You can hit the "Read" link for a higher-res, but still low-quality version.
We won't for instance, say that this reminds us more of the visceral thrill of fat guys playing paintball than anything Bungie ever created. We wouldn't say that the Covenant are kind of reminiscent of Bebop and/or Rocksteady. We won't question why the energy shields appear to have been disabled. It just wouldn't be nice. We will say that the Warthog (the car, not Bebop) and Banshee look pretty good. That's something, right?
this is really good for the budget. This is not suppose to be representative of a hollywood blockbuster halo, it's a live action short :p and i think they did pretty good, liked it better than the first one
Considering how stupidly low the budget was to finance this short, I think they did excellent. Yes, the CGI isn't the best and neither is the camera work. But it does beat the crap out of a lot of other poor sci-fi works. Even so, its awesome to see the Halo universe expanding like this. I loved this short.
It goes to show that if Peter Jackson/WETA is given a hollywood sized budget to work with, it would make for a great movie.
Oh...and Brutes don't have energy shields. They have powered armor that isn't shielded. Using a power drainer destroys their armor, making it useless, but even a few well placed shots can drop an average Brute as easily as anything else. I think only chieftains have shields, but I've played the game and know that one thing for sure.
Being honest thats quite an impressive add,If Peter Jackson really directs Halo I would go to see it even when i'm still piss off because I had to pre-order the Limited edition since Bungie didnt make enough Legendary Eidtions for everyone.
yeah word of, because you know, they weren't reserving legendary for 6 months beforehand. I had one reserved and I just reserved a limited because i'm not sure I want to pay up the ass for shit I don't even care about.
Still need a higher res video to really judge, but personally I thought it looked pretty awesome. The brutes actually looked pretty sweet, as did the Pelican, Warthog and Banshees.
I think you're being a little too hard on it, it's just short.
Oh, and I'm not really sure what energy shields you're referring to... those are UNSC soldiers, they don't have energy shields, and I'm pretty sure Brutes don't as well.
Yeah, it does look pretty good. PsychoMunky's right about there not being any energy shields. The marines, brutes, banshees, never had any shielding. That will probably be a tough effect to pull off without some loot.
Ummm... Do people not read bungie's updates... or listen to the podcast. Or do those that do just not tell anyone... The brutes will have personal shields in 3... Or a variation of on occasion to go with the body armor...
They will have bubble shields, but not energy shields. If you're talking about bubble shields, the Brutes simply didn't deploy one in the short. Plus who knows where these shorts are supposed to take place in the Halo timeline, could be before Halo 3, before personal equipment...
I'd like to start a petition to ban Hydra. Being a troll is bad enough, but you're an angry troll with a potty mouth. So let me be the first to sign the proposed petition.
....Are you kidding me? I could clearly tell this was a Halo ad because of the Warthog and the banshee. Also the armor the guys were wearing was clearly from the Halo universe.
that's what I'm saying, all the little characters and actors of the halo universe were just dropped into some battlefield which resembles Killzone or Metal Gear, nothing like that of Halo universe.
The war is pretty galactic it could be happening anywhere... Being that this is low budget I don't think they could specificly go to a halo ring or something... Although battlefields tend to end up looking the same after a little while...
what energy shield, morons. they are ODST. not SPARTANs. and they're fighting Brutes, not elites. There would be no energy shields in that battle anyway. I love how you sit all high and mighty and critique everything about halo, when you dont even know jack shit about the fucking franchise.
Didn't Frankie mention in the podcast or one of the weekly updates that he ran into some brutes and threw down a power drainer to sap their shields then they retaliated with a recharger and a bubble shield then blinded him then radar jammed him... then ate him?
He said the Brutes through an energy drainer at HIM, and he lost his shields, so he through a bubble shield to protect himself. Then the Brutes blinded him and jammed his radar, ran in and killed him.
No, I'm pretty sure he had it right the first time. He dropped an energy drainer, they dropped a recharger and a bubble shield, then a flare, then he dropped a bubble shield, then they dropped a radar jammer and killed him.
Make that 200... seriously what is the problem with you guys? Did Peter Jackson refuse to direct your script about the amazing lives of video game bloggers? Or even worse, Neil wouldn't even touch it.
Sorry for the hate Joystiq, but what is your problem with these shorts?
I'm not a massive halo fan, but this actually looks quite good. They've gone for a realistic feel, which I think is an interesting option given the style of the games.
Yeah, I thought the first live action clip was awesome, completely unexpected. This site is completely biased, one of those "We hate Microsoft just because..." sites.
I think your being far to critical, almost to the point of being unfair.
I thought it was an exceptional short, with a MUCH higher production value than Arms Race.
We watched as ODST's moved through a Warzone, fought off low level brutes(Who have power armor, not energy Shields. After a degree of damage their armor is destroyed, and you can kill the brutes). The level of detail was great, you saw plasma contrails, Spiker Rounds, We even watched as the Brutes put down a Energy Barrier at one point.
Not terrible. The Brute looked pretty nice, and the distinctive silhouette of the pelican and the banshee were nice touches. Am I the only one who noticed some weird pink on the walls, though? Kinda odd. My only complaint is that the armor on the UNSC Marines didn't look quite like it does in the games, but that's a fanboy's nitpicking.
energy sheild being deployed about 36 sec into the movie, very very obvious. its an over head shot of two covenant, one of them deploys an energy sheild, watch before you yell at people claiming something isnt there that very much is.
"Am I the only one who noticed some weird pink on the walls, though?"
Nope. At 1:07 you can see rounds from a needler stick into the side of a wall and detonate.
But I have to agree with most of you guys. Considering the fact that this is a low budget short, it looked great. The warthog, pelican, and banshee all looked really good and we verified that the brutes do look funny holding a tiny spiker gun.
Brutes do have energy shielding now, they even have it in one of the vidocs.
And I don't get this 'it doesn't look like Halo' thing, it's live action, therefore realistic whereas the games are stylised and gameplay focused on balance not realism. Even the novels are very different from the games in terms of general tone and how things work.
looks pimp...and what are you all on about it doesnt look realistic for the series? yes it doesnt have a 7ft master chief pwning dudes and pimp slapping brutes but the rest of Halo is about the war. they are marines and they are in a war zone. also the more important bits from a film perspective it really captured what it would look like to be on ground zero with a bunch of aliens firing alien weapons and trying to survive that. it was gritty claustrophobic and the guys seemed like they were cr**ing themselves but doing the job anyway..seemed good to me.
I don't know -what- the hell is wrong with you people, but I'm simply loving these Halo shorts.. well, this one is the most noteworthy for me. I watch plenty of movies, and frankly, this doesn't fail to disappoint my expectations of Neil Blomkamp and his wonderful "hand-camera war-documentary" style, for lack of a better word.
The first short had its, er, 'short'comings (pun intended) - the ending, to be more precise - but everything else I've seen is simply awesome in both of these tiny flicks. In short (groan), colour me impressed.
A lot of people are knocking this video... saying "oh this isn't quite right" etc etc...
Have you ever tried using your imagination? We all used to as kids. Personally, I find this video very intriguing. If this is the director's style, then I'm on board because I do like it. It's different than every Hollywood movie (esp game remakes).
