Halo 3 Sneak Peek & Official Audioholics Discussion

How do the Makers of Halo 3 live up to the enormous expectation of gamers?

Tonight, Yahoo News had a homepage featured video on Halo 3, one of the most anticipated games developed by Bungie Studios for Xbox 360 scheduled to be released in fall of 2007. In the video was footage of actual game play and interviews with some of the developers and testers. One of the main programmers stated the first thing he does in the morning when he gets to work is cry for 30 minutes as he realizes the enormous expectations from fellow gamers for this game. His goal – to exceed expectations and continue the legacy of Halo.

Another programmer stated his objective to ensure that the multi player experience was BETTER than that of Halo 2. If this becomes the case, than some Audioholics (including myself) are going to find it harder to get work done while resisting the urge to get online and battle it out. With my Xbox 360 literally 20 ft from my office, I may just have to install a lock with a timer release for myself, Clint and Tom, programmed to release for after office hours (whenever those are since lately we seem to be working around the clock).

It’s apparent the programmers for Halo 3 are taking this game most seriously. They’ve been testing it and collecting user feedback since day one of development and adjusting aspects of the game as needed.

One of their goals for the multi player maps is to make them fun enough to play 100’s of times over and over again. The map designs will be more asymmetrical in nature than ones of the past. They showed one map “High Ground” which had an insurmountable wall you must overcome while also avoiding AI gunners in nearby towers trying to pick you off.

The programmers are placing more emphasis on the little details in the maps to help players more easily identify landmarks and / or locations where flag poles or weapon respawns occur.

As far as player movements go, the programmers of Halo 3 are adding a new feature called “Man Cannon” which catapults you in the air to hurl you great distances as opposed to the instant teleporters from previous Halo games. The cool thing about this is it provides yet another snipe opportunity to pick off your unwary opponent while he is flying through the air.

A few new features for Halo 3 include:

• Bringing back the beloved assault riffle from Halo 1 which fits Master Chief like a glove (not OJ’s glove, mind you) and allows him to make better use of other tactics like grenades and secondary support weaponry.

• Bubble shield which you can drop to encase your player to save your tail when an enemy from behind you is attacking.

• Trip mine to nail a vehicle that is attacking you. It kills you too but gives you the satisfaction of bringing your opponent down with you.

The purpose of Halo 3’s multi player feature seems apparent to me – generate more talk among your battle group as you relish in the aftermath once the fighting is done.

The video shows a teaser trailer towards the end of two kids looking up at sky contemplating if intelligent life exists on other planets. It then turns to an image of Master Chief’s (MC’s) helmet on the ground where he shortly thereafter picks it up, places it on his head, throws down a bubble shield and jumps into action on a screen loaded with other soldiers.

So with this little blog on Halo 3, I open the dialog to our readers to post anything and everything you know about this game on our forums to keep us drooling until the unannounced release date. Post away and save the assault rifle for me.