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Halo 3 Multiplayer Demo Coming In Spring

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the who-is-the-chief dept.

Today is the fifth anniversary of the original Halo: Combat Evolved. To celebrate Bungie has announced new maps for Halo 2, a commercial for the upcoming game to be shown on December Fourth, and (most entertainingly) intentions to offer a multiplayer demo of Halo 3 this coming spring. From the lengthy post: "What exactly does this mean? Well, again we can't really get into the details quite yet (notice a theme here?) but we can confirm that our fans will have an opportunity to play Halo 3 multiplayer over Xbox Live BEFORE the final game is available. You'll be playing a little multiplayer and simultaneously providing us with some valuable data to help our development team. We're still working out the details on timing and scope and there will be a lot more info coming in the weeks ahead."

2 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. What a coincidence... by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Right around the time PS3's might actually be available in quantity. Huh. Funny that...

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  2. Re:Still not as good as Halo 1 alpha? by Ford+Prefect · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So the only way to tell if a game is good or fun is by the quality of the graphics? Halo was dummed down to work on the xbox and has never recovered.

    Have you seen non-cinematic videos of the early versions?

    There. Was. No. AI.

    Aliens just ... stand there, oblivious to the player's presence. Going further back to the third-person versions - aiming was a mess of reticules and lucky guesses. 'Gameplay' might have involved driving over someone with a warthog, or shooting him/her/it with one of the vast and peculiar array of weapons available. While wandering round an unfinished map with almost no cover whatsoever.

    The beginnings weren't much of an improvement - the game was an RTS where you could place units, order some around, and that was about it. Wahey.

    There's a video out there somewhere which has Bungie employees pointing and laughing at the incredible smoke-and-mirrors act they pulled from a game which, to be honest, wasn't really going anywhere. They had ideas, they had talent, but if someone hadn't bought them out or paid them, and then given them a giant deadline to meet, then Halo would probably have been forgotten...

    The amazing, nebulous vision of a perfect, detailed Mac-only Halo steeped in aeons of complex gameplay - then being crushed under the boot of a monolithic Microsoft - is just a creation of people's imaginations. Sorry.

    (Aha! Found it: The Evolution of Halo. Worth seeing.)

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