Slashdot Mirror
Halo 3 Multiplayer Demo Coming In Spring
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."
Right around the time PS3's might actually be available in quantity. Huh. Funny that...
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
The Bungie article that it's linked to refers to it as a public beta, not a demo. So you're completely correct on that account - it's the Slashdot article that called it a demo instead.
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
The odd part is that it is a beta on a console. Something that is usually considered a black box solution. If they are running a beta in an environment where lockups and crashes are not acceptable, they have to be pretty confident in the condition of the engine.
The only thing I can figure is that they will be looking more for playability issues (run speed, reload timers, choke points, etc...) and balancing just prior to launch.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Considering there wasn't a charge for the "Phantasy Star Universe" Public Beta or the "Final Fantasy XI" Public Beta, nor any charge for any of the dozens of demo's released for Xbox Live (many of which feature online play), i'm thinking there will NOT be a charge...call it a hunch ;)
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
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.
... 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.
Have you seen non-cinematic videos of the early versions?
There. Was. No. AI.
Aliens just
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.)
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?