Best News Ever!!!
"The Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta will go live on May 16th at 12:00 AM PDT and run through June 6 th at 11:59 PM PDT. That means that folks who purchased specially marked copies of Crackdown, or won a spot in the Beta through the Rule of Three or other regional promotions, will be able to log into their Xbox Live Gold accounts, download and play the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta and enjoy an early peek at the multiplayer aspect of the game.
If youve been sitting on the fence, and are interested, you can still enter the Beta by picking up a specially marked copy of Crackdown, which would ordinarily be a chore, but thankfully Crackdown is an awesome action game which might ironically distract you from the Beta Im pimping here. Bungie is also giving out a few Friends and Family spots to valued community members, but those are few and far between, so its safer to assume youre not getting in that way.
Now, I will say this again and again the game youre going to play one month from now, is Beta software and while it will look somewhat close to the final game, it IS Beta and will contain quirks, a couple of roughedges and all that jazz. But were pretty confident youll find it a dynamic and exciting taste of whats to come in Fall.
The Beta itself consists of three maps Valhalla, High Ground and Snowbound graphically improved since our first MP screenshots and all three will be playable in Matchmaking only (that is after all, what were Beta testing here). All three maps are suitable for a wide variety of gameplay types, and you will have the chance to try all manner of game types, familiar and new.
There are a number of new features youll get to test out including a new grenade type, a completely different class of weapon and some of the enhanced online functionality we plan to bring to the game but it should be noted, a lot of secret features are hidden in this Beta. Were keeping a lot of our powder dry for Fall. In May, when your firing the Spiker, sniping vehicles with the Spartan Laser and sticking fools with the Brute Spike grenade, remember that its just a peek-a-boo fraction of whats to come.
And do me a special personal favor walk down to the beach, the river or the lake in High Ground and Valhalla, and take a look at the water.
There will also be new guns, vehicles and gameplay features to try including the mysterious X-Button functionality. But you dont have to wait to find out what that is, since you can now view part of its functionality in our latest Vidoc, Is Quisnam Protero Damno! a long look at the making of Halo 3s Multiplayer game.
Here youll meet the Multiplayer team and watch a level get built from concept to completion. Youll see the care and attention that goes into every aspect, and yes, youll see a level or two that nobody has ever seen before.
There are a lot of questions raised in this Vidoc, and well be answering them in the next couple of weeks, so keep checking back for more updates. Youre probably not even reading this huh? Youre watching the Vidoc. I give up.
NOTE: All of the game footage in this doc was taken during the Alpha stage and isnt even representative of what youll see in the Public Beta, let alone the final game. You will see frame rate skips, unfinished animation and graphical features that will change come Fall. All the footage is clearly marked Alpha. Youre looking at the features here folks, not the final quality bar which weve set pretty high. Your next taste of that will be in May.
And theres a ton of stuff in the Vidoc you simply havent seen before (including the X-Button) and its well worth the download. Now, theres nothing like seeing it in 720p in Dolby Digital, so remember this Vidoc is also available today on Xbox Live Marketplace, where big screen TVs can do it more justice than your PC."
Well there it is folks, the biggest news to hit the Halo 3 story yet. Here's the video he was talking about: [go to my better website Here
2-16-06- Huge news today! Today Bungie gave out the control scheme for Halo 3. Before you read it, please know that they are subject to change.
Multiplayer Control Scheme as of 3:43pm Today (subject to change).
Left and right sticks: Movement and look. Just like H2.
Click left and right sticks: Crouch and zoom just like H2, although there is a toggle crouch option, so that you can stay crouched until you click the stick again.
A: Jump
B: Melee attack. Note: B may also be used to activate a subtle, but nifty context-sensitive feature.
Y: Switch to next weapon.
X: Activate mysterious new feature which on the cool scale falls somewhere between crouch and activate Fantanas on speed dial.
LT: Toss grenade.
RT: Shoot weapon.
LB: Cycle grenade type (you have at least three types of grenade now, so they must be cycled rather than switched).
RB: Pick up weapon/activate stuff/reload/use turrets and so on.
Note: If you hold LB while standing over a dual wieldable weapon, youll pick it up in your left hand a huge improvement over the Y button in Halo 2. This doesnt affect grenade cycling, because you can still tap LB to cycle grenades, but you cant toss em while dual wielding anyway. So its moot. After about ten minutes of play, it feels incredibly natural, with the lone downside that you have trouble adjusting when you go back to Halo 2. But more vitally, LB reloads the weapon in your left hand, individually when youre dual-wielding.
BACK: Calls up the Multiplayer player menu where you can mute jerks, see gamer data and so on. The back button is useful, but tough to press in really hectic action, since its so close to the Guide button.
START: Pause menu (which is translucent so you can adjust controls without losing track of whats on screen) and one or two other significant goodies we havent revealed yet. From here you can also end or quit a game, naturally.
D-PAD: Used for sweet circular fighting game moves. No wait, my bad - it is currently used to activate team chat, but thats very provisional. This is being given a lot of care and attention and is tied to other matters, such as your default settings and how team chat and proximity voice work. Youd be amazed how much testing and thought goes into this stuff.
Bungie Story
Also today was the introduction of the Halo 3 Teaser!!! Here are links to the wallpapers:
And here's the image:
Bungie Story
-Stillerccity
Here |
