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E3 06: Halo 3 announced, plot details revealed
[UPDATE]: We got a close-up look at the Halo 3 trailer--which is reportedly rendered in real-time--with Bungie representatives;
its setting is a Covenant-occupied Earth.
By Jason Ocampo, GameSpot
Posted May 9, 2006 4:45 pm PT on GAMESPOT.COM
Master Chief makes his debut on the Xbox 360.
LOS ANGELES--Microsoft officially unveiled Halo 3 during its E3 press conference today, and the company released a trailer
for its highly-anticipated sequel on the Internet and its Xbox Live service. Halo 3 will be the first Halo game designed for
Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, and the importance to the company was highlighted by the fact that Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman
and chief software architect, was on hand to help announce the game.
When the trailer was shown to the audience at the Grauman's Chinese Theater, where Microsoft held its annual games briefing,
the crowd erupted. Halo 2 ended in a cliff-hanger, with the Master Chief, the hero of the Halo series, returning to Earth
in the midst of a climactic battle between the Covenant, an alien coalition, and Earth's defensive forces. The Halo 3 trailer
begins with a slow shot of the dusty African plains. Wreckage litters the landscape, and a woman's voice is heard. It's Cortana,
the artificial intelligent construct that was the Master Chief's main ally. As the Master Chief enters into the frame (armed
with what looks like the original assault rifle seen in Halo), she says in a distorted voice, "I know you. Your past.
Your future."
Suddenly, Covenant Banshees and cruisers appear in the skies. The music swells, and in the distance, a huge hatch slowly
opens in the ground. A bright beam of light begins to build, blinding the camera. Cortana then chimes in, "This is the
way the world ends." The Bungie logo then flashes on the screen, followed by the text: "Finish the fight in 2007."
Bungie, the internal Microsoft studio that created Halo, also released the trailer onto the Internet, and a high definition
version was put up on Xbox Live Marketplace, the online service available to Xbox 360 owners. To quote the accompanying text
found on Xbox Live, Halo 3 is about Earth under Covenant rule: "With its defensive forces, all but obliterated, Earth
has fallen to the unstoppable might of the Covenant. These alien occupiers have discovered something beneath the ancient African
sands--something incredible ... something Forerunner." The Forerunners are an extinct alien race that built the huge
artificial ringworlds called Halos, and the Halo games have focused on the mystery surrounding these strange objects.
The importance of a new Halo game for the Xbox 360 cannot be underestimated. The original Halo was a launch title for
the first Xbox, and was easily the biggest hit, driving sales of that system. Halo 2, which launched in 2004, became a cultural
event, with thousands of gamers lining up for hours for the midnight launch. Halo 2 made entertainment history by generating
$125 million in sales in one day. However, Microsoft didn't mention Halo 3 at all during last year's Electronic Entertainment
Expo, and fans had been left wondering when the software giant would finally drop the big news. Well, the waiting for news
of Halo 3 has now come to an end. Now they'll have to wait to 2007 for the game itself.
[UPDATE] Shortly after Microsoft's presentation, we had an opportunity to get a close-up look at Halo 3 with Bungie representatives.
We spoke with Brian Gerrard, one of Bungie's community managers, as well as CJ Cowan, the studio's cinematics director. Cowan
stated that the trailer was a good example of where Halo 3 is going, in terms of fiction. By that, he means that the story
is epic in scale, but dark as well, and Bungie is going for a distinct mood, since Halo 3 will represent the end of the trilogy.
The Bungie representatives made it clear to us that the trailer was running in real-time on the Xbox 360. The trailer
is set in the African desert, and it was taken from roughly a third of the way through the game. Cowan noted that the constant
battling has taken its toll on Master Chief, and you can see that by the many scratches and gouges in his armor. The flashes
of Cortana seen in the trailer fill you in on the state of her mind, and the Forerunner structure seen in the distance at
the end of the trailer represents a pivotal point in the story.
We next met with Marcus Lehto, Bungie's art director, who filled us in on the technology as he gave us a fly through of
the locations in the trailer. The crater seen in the trailer is three miles across, and it's all rendered in real geometry.
Halo 3 has a new global lighting system that now lights everything uniquely from the same source, which explains just how
that setting sun looked that good as it illuminated everything in the trailer. Halo 2, on the other hand, used a lighting
system that lit everything separately. Meanwhile, parallax mapping is able to give depth to structures in the distance, such
as the clouds above the crater. A new particle system offers different levels of light diffusion to take the quality of the
atmosphere into account, and that makes for different layers of light.
The demo shifted away from the crater to the part of the level you see the Master Chief walking in from. He was controllable,
which means that the trailer indicates just how good the game will look. Lehto was able to zoom in on the Master Chief with
the camera, and you could see the many different ways light reflected objects onto him. For example, you could see light reflect
off the ground and onto his armor. A new materials system shows the difference between his armor and the rubber undersuit.
It's so detailed that if you bring the camera close to the Master Chief's visor, you see everything in front of him reflected
in it, right down to the ammo counter in his rifle.
[UPDATE 2] An update to the official Bungie site, Bungie.net, also gave some hints as to why Cortana appeared to be making
semi-sinister statements. "The Master Chief's AI companion Cortana is still trapped in the clutches of the Gravemind--a
horrifying Flood intelligence, and a civil war is raging in the heart of the Covenant," read the plot description on
the brand-new Halo 3 site. Following the abrupt end of Halo 2, it was unclear if Cortana had been corrupted by the Gravemind
or had been destroyed altogether.
Cowan also talked about Cortana's ambiguous status in a Bungie.net article. "Given the variety of character and story
arcs at the end of Halo 2, we wanted to boil down our announcement to a few key threads," he said. "Cortana and
the Chief being a galaxy apart is a situation we haven't seen before, and is something that is a powerful component to Halo
3. We are using her transmissions in the demo to give the viewer a few subtle clues to her situation and state of mind, without
revealing any specifics we want to save for the game itself."
*WTF, WHYYYYYYY, why does nintendo keep ruining
itself. WHAT THE HELL R U DOING? I am the biggest nintendo fan, and i am ashamed. Iam still going to buy it....but i am not
calling it that! THATS SO GAY!, Why not leave the name as it is! Revolution sounded Great! You screwed yourselves again! Its
not bad enough that meijers, EBgames, Gamestop, has reduced your section down to a near 5ft or less section....while PS 2
freakin many bad games , has a whole section double or triple that! AHHHHHHHHHHH! -allyn
Remember when Tom Cruise got stoned and decided
to dedicate the rest of his life to finding out how bat-fartingly insane he could get before he didn't have a single fan left?
Well Nintendo is doing that. Today they announced that the already-doomed Revolution (working name) would be sold as
the Nintendo Wee, spelled "Wii" to make it even more awkward and alienating:
Again, if you know any remaining members of the loyal Nintendo tribe, keep this URL handy. -http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/
PS3 LAUNCH DATE HAS BEEN FINALIZED, EVERYTHING
IS GO, maybe...
Will the real PlayStation 3 launch date please stand up?
With the XBox 360 officially launched and the Nintendo's Revolution still under wraps, the anticipation game for Sony's
next-generation PlayStation 3 console has reached a fever pitch. With no official word from Sony itself (other than the words
"in Spring 2006" on their PlayStation web site), analysts worldwide have been trying to pin down an actual date.
Namco Bandai's president, Takeo Takasu, has come right out and said it: "without any announcements so far, the spring release is impossible." While developer kits have shipped and third-party
companies are working on putting together the first round of games to coincide with the release of the platform, the status
of the final hardware itself is very much in question. Sony has only shown empty shell mockups at recent trade shows such
as CES and the Taipei Game Show.
Financial analysts Merrill Lynch recently posted a report that challenged the possibility of the PS3 even shipping this year in the United States. While some question that
report's accuracy (particularly its estimates of component costs for the console itself), there have been other stories leaking
out that seem to corroborate its conclusions.
First, a report from a Taiwanese manufacturer Compeq (translated web site) indicates that Sony has placed an order to manufacture the printed circuit boards for the PS3, an order
that is not scheduled to be delivered in bulk until the end of June or early July. Obviously, this would make a spring 2006
launch "impossible" and may delay the Japanese launch until fall or even later. As the US release is scheduled for several
months after the Japanese one, it may miss the crucial Christmas 2006 shopping season.
Another report, this one coming from Variety, claims that delays in the chips required to control the console's Blu-ray
drive are pushing back the release date. That article has been widely criticized for technical errors, however. It seems unlikely that the Blu-ray
drive would be the culprit, given that other manufacturers have already demonstrated their Blu-ray drives at the January CES,
and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment plans to deliver its first batch of Blu-ray movies in May.
Other chips may be causing problems, however, specifically the much-hyped Cell. The custom, PPC-based processor is large
(235mm2) and difficult to manufacture. In fact, the specification for the processor calls for one PPE core and eight SPE vector acceleration units, with one SPE disabled. This is thought
to be a way of increasing yields on the Cell, since chips that have one broken SPE can still be used in production units.
IBM has already had issues with chip production, starting with the iMac G5 debacle, and similar problems were blamed for the shortage of Xbox 360 consoles at launch. Could Sony be delaying the launch of the
PS3 to avoid these issues?
All this speculation about release dates, of course, ignores the one thing most gamers will be interested in: the games
themselves. Today, few people remember the poor showing of the PlayStation 2 on release, with limited supply of the product,
immature development tools, and an extremely weak launch line-up of games. All people remember is that it wound up selling
over 100 million units and that it played games like Final Fantasy X and ICO. Can history repeat itself with the PlayStation
3? Clearly, Sony is banking on just such a thing happening.
An Xbox.com forum poster, DM Duo Maxwell, is claiming to have reproduced, in its entirety, an exclusive
Game Informer article from the upcoming April issue that reveals details about Bungie's next project—Duo Maxwell
did not supply an actual scan because Xbox.com does not permit images that violate copyright laws. According to the post,
Bungie's next project will be a Halo game for the Xbox 360, currently codenamed, Forerunner. In Halo lore,
the Forerunners are a technologically advanced race that mysteriously vanished from the universe.
The source reports
that the game will feature "huge persistent worlds" using a modified Halo 2 engine. The main campaign will still
feature Master Chief and will showcase 4-player co-op. The missions, however, will not be linear, nor will objectives been
required. For example, if players are tasked with capturing a weapons depot, but decide to forego the assignment, then they
will loose the opportunity to seize the additional weaponry and, in effect, will hand these weapons over to the enemy.
For
now, we have to write this off as pure speculation (read: April Fool's gag). But these new details are certainly tantalizing
and in line with Bungie's method of revealing a game piece by piece, until the puzzle is complete. Look to E3 for a major
announcement.
Speaking at the unveiling of Rare's Viva Piņata today in New York,
Microsoft Game Studios' General Manager Shane Kim made some interesting comments regarding the next Halo game.
First of all it could seem like the next Halo game, or the mythical Halo 3 as Kim called it, will not
be coming to Xbox 360 before the end of 2006. Since Kim named the recently announced Viva Piņata as "most important game of
2006”, it does seem like Microsoft is expecting Bungie’s next project to be ready some time in 2007. Of course
this is pure speculation, but we do agree with CVG that it is highly unlikely that Microsoft would rate “Halo 3” less important than Viva Piņata.
However the most interesting bit of info to come out of Shane Kim when questioned about “Halo
3” was that an announcement regarding the next Halo game was just around the corner.
"We'll be talking about anything we're doing in the Halo universe - whether that's Halo 3 as I call
it or anything else - at the right time. That time will be soon."
And maybe even more interesting is the way he referred to the game, “anything we're doing in
the Halo universe”, could this possibly mean that the next Halo will not be anything like Halo and Halo 2 at all? Could
Bungie be working on some sort of squad-based shooter, or maybe an RTS game set in the Halo universe? Or could it be an RPG
or even a MMO game?
The only thing certain is that we will know soon enough, most likely in May when E3 kicks off.
Nintendo Info
02/20/06
Interview: Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime
Have you set a timetable for when the DS Lite will be available here in North America?
We have not announced the date and we won’t be announcing a date for the foreseeable future.
We are working through our inventories and our allocations of product and frankly, we are doing everything we can just to
meet current demand. Japan has already announced that they will launch in early March and they have the same challenges of
meeting that very high level of demand.
We need to make sure that we have enough product in hand for us to launch effectively here in North
America and as soon as we feel we are in that position we’ll announce it.
What sort of response have you gotten to the new Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service for the
Nintendo DS?
We feel the launch has gone spectacularly well. We launched Nintendo Wi-Fi connection with advertising
that communicated the ease, the accessibility, and the match-up service that allowed consumers to play against people of their
own skill level. The launch of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in the U.S., in Japan, and in Europe has been phenomenal. We are on track to break all
types of records in terms of number of connections and number of unique users. And the software that we’ve launched
is what’s driving really it.
The Tony Hawk title from Activision, our own Mario Kart DS, and Animal Crossing DS and we’re
quite excited with the titles coming up. We’ve announced Metroid Prime: Hunters and Tetris DS, both WiFi compatible,
both launching on the 20th of March. So we think we’ve launched extremely well, we’re quite happy with the numbers.
And quite frankly, we’re prepared to bring out more and more titles to drive the service and ur objective is to get
every single consumer to try Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection at least once, that’s our objective.
Where is Nintendo right now with the development of the Revolution?
We have been sharing the controller mechanics with developers across the world. We have shipped over
a thousand controller dev kits to developers so that they can begin getting experience with the controller mechanics. The
response to the controller has been fantastic. Developers are truly embracing the innovation. They’re embracing the
approach and quite frankly, they’re embracing our vision; our vision of creating games that are as sophisticated as
the core gamer wants it to be but could also be as straightforward and as accessible as brand new gamers. And that vision,
that strategy is what Nintendo is all about. We want to create a system with Revolution that appeals to all types of gamers
versus going down a path that, frankly, is a bit exclusionary.
Is Revolution going to be the final name or is it still a code name?
It is still a code name.
What is Nintendo's philosophy going forward? Do you see multimedia as a distraction from gaming?
Our philosophy is that consumers want great gaming experiences and our passion is delivering great
gaming experiences. In the home console space, we believe that the best way to do that is with a dedicated machine. In the
handheld space, as you’ve said, the DS does have other capabilities in the multimedia area, but we believe it’s
important to first establish its credentials as a superb game playing device.
To be perfectly clear, the Microsoft and Sony strategies are based on overall corporate objectives
versus what’s right for the consumer. That’s a reality. Microsoft is essentially trying to get you to put a PC
in your living room because they are fundamentally a PC software company. Sony is trying to get you to put an entertainment
hub that has Blu-ray technology because that’s important to their movie business and the rest of their entire electronics
business.
We are a gaming company. We are gamers at heart. We love creating great, innovative content and superbly
designed hardware, that’s what we do. And with that passion comes a laser like focus to do things that are right for
the consumer and right for the business. That’s the fundamental difference in our strategy versus our competition.
Sony has denied that delays to the launch of its next-generation PlayStation 3 puts the company on the back foot against Microsoft's Xbox 360, which hit the shelves last year.
"We have our own strategy and we don't look to other competitors or competitive activity to dictate
what we do," said Jennie Kong, PR manager at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
However, industry analysts Current Analysis called the delay a "disaster".
"Whether Blu-ray is the sole cause or not, it's a disaster for Blu-ray and for PS3, and for Sony in
general," said Steve Kovsky, senior analyst at Current Analysis.
"There is an entire game economy built on the PlayStation franchise, so there will be a very unpleasant
trickle down effect from this delay.
"You'll hear it cited over and over, ad nauseum, when game development and retail companies have their
next earnings calls."
The current situation is the reverse of what happened when the two companies first went head-to-head
in a console battle.
Back then Sony's PlayStation 2 beat Microsoft's Xbox to market by a year and Sony was able to use aggressive
pricing to strengthen its position against its rival when it did finally appear.
This time around the Xbox 360 is already in the shops while the PlayStation 3 will not arrive until
November. Kong confirmed that delays sorting out the Blu-ray DVD system were to blame for the hold up.
"From the Japan side, they've been looking to finalise the specifications and until they do they obviously
couldn't confirm which date it would come out," she told vnunet.com.
"With the final specifications now in place we're looking to do a global release in November, in all
territories simultaneously," she said.
However, Kovsky believes that the extra time to market for the PS3 may affect Blu-ray's attempts to
become the dominant standard.
"Blu-ray may well be in jeopardy as well. One of the reasons it was pulling ahead of the competing
HD-DVD standard in terms of industry support was that it appeared to have a lead in time-to-market. That advantage is lost,"
he said.
"It would not be too surprising if some of the studios that are staunch Blu-ray backers started to
do some backpeddling toward HD-DVD. You have to believe that the HD-DVD camp is going to make the most of this setback for
Blu-ray."
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Friday , March 10 2006
An Xbox.com forum poster, DM Duo Maxwell, is claiming to have reproduced, in its entirety, an exclusive
Game Informer article from the upcoming April issue that reveals details about Bungie's next project—Duo Maxwell
did not supply an actual scan because Xbox.com does not permit images that violate copyright laws. According to the post,
Bungie's next project will be a Halo game for the Xbox 360, currently codenamed, Forerunner. In Halo lore,
the Forerunners are a technologically advanced race that mysteriously vanished from the universe.
Where is Nintendo right now with the development of the Revolution?
