Sorry there has been no posts over the last few days, but I have been quite ill and laid up in bed.. I still feel quite bad, but I have my trustly laptop to keep me company...
You may or may not know about the EGM (Electronic Gaming Mag) Exclusive on Halo 3.. Well they have been given some cool info buy Bungie that they are allowed to share on HALO 3...
Here is there story:-
" During our
recent trip to Bungie's office, the developer showed us three multiplayer
Halo 3 maps. And nestled in these three are similarities, familiarities and surprises that will fundamentally change the way you play in this ridiculously anticipated first-person shooter. Read all about the game in the December issue of
EGM, on newsstands now, or continue on for an in-depth look at those maps themselves.
SNOWBOUND:The first is a small outdoor map blanketed in snow. The map's outer edges are guarded sentry-style by large guns, and while they weren't active in the pre-Alpha build we played, the plan is to have them kill players who try to venture outside of Snowbound's borders. Plus, several rock outcroppings cover one half of the perimeter with weapons strategically placed along the edge among the cover.
Two forerunner structures act as bases on either side of the map, with a series of intertwining tunnels beneath connecting them. You'll also find two other entrance points into the underground tunnel system. A shotgun is in the underground tunnel network, placed in the middle of explosive fusion coils (the things behind the Sniper Rifle on Lockout in
Halo 2). Up on the surface, a Sniper Rifle sits in a similar room just underneath a snow drift -- and it, too, is guarded by explosive fusion coils.
What's New: Punitive parts of the environment that kill players aren't new to Halo's multiplayer (lifts have squashed players in multiplayer in the past, and Terminal from Halo 2's
Multiplayer Map Pack had a train that would send players to respawn as well), but there will be auto-firing gun turrets on this map when it's finished. These guns, when we finally see them online next year (pun unintended), will be an extension of the environment-that-kills mechanic; maybe there will be a way to get them to target you and then use their fire against other players?
The Shield Doors are hands-down the best truly "new" multiplayer aspect found in Snowbound. These relatively transparent doors don't open or close, but they serve as barriers between Snowbound's underground tunnels. You can see through them, but explosions and gunfire don't pass through the doors. When the now-famous beeping of "no shields" tick comes up in multiplayer, those near a tunnel taking gunfire may have a chance to duck through the Shield Door and get just enough of a reprieve for their shield to recharge.
Automatic gun turrets in a Halo game? You better believe it. This is one of two mock-ups you can check out by clicking through to the Halo 3 screens page.
The weapon sets have seen some new additions (read about the new "sandbox" on page two) in addition to the resurrection, retooling and repurposing of one of
Halo: Combat Evolved's most memorable weapons: the Assault Rifle. In the Halo 3
announcement teaser, Master Chief is very clearly carrying a weapon that looks very similar to the Assault Rifle in Halo. It is similar aesthetically, but that's about it.
The MA5B Assault Rifle in Halo:
Combat Evolved had a 60-round clip, was fully automatic and ineffective at long-range shots (it could be, because the M6D Pistol was so great overpowered at that range). Only one of those three characteristics of the MA5B remain: it's still fully automatic.
With the MA5C Assault Rifle, the clip-size has been drastically reduced from 60 to 32, and as a trade-off, the weapon's accuracy at long-range has been increased. Why the revisions to the Assault Rifle? Well, the starting weapon in Halo 2 -- the SMG -- didn't exactly work out how Bungie wanted it to. Jamie Griesemer, lead designer on Halo 3 (you know, that "30-seconds of fun" guy), points to the two previous starting weapons and their problems. "It shouldn't do headshots... and it shouldn't be dual wieldable," according to Griesemer. The new MA5C Assault Rifle allows neither.
Instead, in the MA5C, Bungie believes it's found the third side of the multiplayer "Golden Tripod" (seriously... Bungie's words, not ours) -- Melee attacks and Grenades need to supplement a versatile, functional (but not too functional) starting weapon.
Ideal # of Players: 4-10. A five-on-five game pushes Snowbound to its claustrophobic limits (not in terms of performance, just in terms of fun). The tunnels beneath the bases get crowded with people (and corpses) pretty quickly.
Best Gametypes: Slayer, Team Slayer, Tank Flag, Ninjaball, Oddball, and King of the Hill. It's an excellent Slayer map because of its size, and we also played a bunch of "ball" games on Snowbound. The underground tunnels make a ball carrier navigating between bases and finding ways to protect him- or herself perfect for Snowbound.
How Bungie Played It: Bungie might or might not have told us that the fuel canisters guarding the Sniper Rifle and Shotgun were explosive, and since the canisters were retouched visually from the Halo 2 versions, we might not have noticed that they functioned the same -- until one of us strolled in to pick up the Sniper Rifle or a Shotgun, that is. Boom!
Additionally, guys like multiplayer designer Lars Bakken turned the Shield Doors into cat and mouse fiascos, popping their heads in and out tempting us to chase after them into, well, traps. In Ninjaball -- a mode where the ball carrier runs and jumps 150% faster and higher than the other players, we saw Bungie guys (who were at this time intermixed with us to show us the ropes) use the elaborate tunnel system to prolong the ball carrier's life and, well, set more traps. "
"HIGH GROUND:High Ground is a medium-sized map that revisits some familiar ground tread in Halo 2's Zanzibar. There's a beach and a compound, and the map is built with objective gametypes (One Flag CTF, Assault) in mind. Instead having of a giant spinning wheel and a huge distance to cover from beach to base, High Ground is a much more compact assault map.
Like Zanzibar, there are several entrance points to the compound and both teams have a vehicle and weapons of their own. Both teams have access to shotguns and the squad coming from the beach gets a Warthog and a Sniper Rifle. The base's garage houses a Ghost and a turret sits atop the gate, acting as the anti-vehicle weapon.
Also like Zanzibar, there are multiple ways to infiltrate High Ground's base. Along the left side of the map (approaching from the beach) is a small half-blown-apart bunker. Players can enter the bunker through the side and into a small tunnel system leading into the base, or they can use a Spike Grenade or a Plasma Grenade to blow apart the hatch on top of the bunker and drop into the tunnel system that way.
Along the right side of the base, players can jump up a group of rocks and onto the walkway where the turret sits. Also on the right side players can access a small pipe system that requires them to crouch (still with a click on the left analog stick) and infiltrate the base that way.
The beach team's Sniper Rifle is supposed to keep the turret in check -- it's no shield door, but it definitely provides another game of cat and mouse.
What's New: Destructible environments (OK, hatches covering bunkers) aren't entirely new, as much as they are neat, and alternate routes into a base aren't new -- that's just good map design. But High Ground is the map where Bungie let us mess with the first of Halo 3's new toys.
Griesemer calls one of the major changes to Halo 3 "the Brute Sandbox." The Brute Shot and Brute Plasma Rifle (a red plasma rifle with a higher rate of fire and as a result a faster overheat) were introduced in Halo 2, and in this installment fans will get the Spike Rifle and Spike Grenade.
The Spike Grenade has a spot in the HUD, just like plasma and frag grenades, and it combines the technology of both grenades. Visually, the grenade looks a bit like the Nail Bat weapon from
Final Fantasy VII, with a ton of spikes sticking out of it. Those spikes are for grabbing onto a surface before the destructive, conical blast follows.
Here's a mock-up of what High Ground looks like, with various callouts that you can read much more clearly in the full size version linked on the screens page. Click the image above to check out all Halo 3 screens.
Halo players know the familiar "tink, tink" of a frag grenade bouncing at their feet, and they know the static hiss that comes just moments before the plasma grenade stuck to their helmet blows up. In Halo 3, they are going to get used to a new sound. When players throw the Spike Grenades, there's a noticeable "whoosh" -- the sound of the spikes cutting through the air before grabbing a wall like an explosive sea urchin.
Instead of a splash-y blast of damage, Spike Grenades blow a thin cone of energy, perfect for throwing one at your feet when you are being chased. If timed right, the blast will blow straight up into the air and your chaser will be counting backwards from 10 waiting to respawn.
Ideal # of Players: 6-16. While eight-on-eight on High Ground could definitely get a bit crampy, there's enough cover to hide behind to turn the map into a series of strategic strongholds if zergging the base for the flag fails.
Best Gametypes: One Flag CTF, Assault, Slayer, Team Slayer, and Eliminatio. With the break-in-steal-the-flag-and-flee-to-the-beach nature of High Ground, One Flag CTF is a natural choice. Inside the base at the very back is a huge SAMSITE missile station, something Bungie indicated could be a potential target for an Assault game.
Eliminatio is a brand-new gametype Bungie ran us through. In this multiplayer mode, the round ends when a team logs five kills. Players still respawn after they die (although the respawn timer is 15 seconds) and once a team has five kills the round ends. In order to win the gametype, you must win three of the five rounds. Eliminatio presents a completely different pace for a Halo game; the quick five-kill round is offset by the careful, meticulous set-ups, strategic trapping, and kill-swapping.
How Bungie Played It: "Do your job, Joe."
That's Luke Timmins (he's Abe Froman, -- the guy who had the Froman tower in Zanzibar named after him for his relentless abuse of Bungie employees with the Sniper Rifle from that post) chiding Bungie producer Joe Tung. The result of the "Do your job" is Tung racing to grab a Sniper Rifle and Timmins camping at the turret at the beginning of a round on High Ground.
Each round, for the most part, started like
chess, with Bungie moving the same pawns into place -- the Sniper Rifle is the judicial system to the Turret's executive order. Occasionally, Bungie guys would rush down from the base and forcefully remove the sniper rifle from our hands, flooding toward the beach through the caves on the map's right side (if you're looking at the base from the beach). When they weren't rabidly defending the console that opens the gate on defense, they were whoring the Ghost. When they'd assault the base, typically two of their players would head in through the hatch on the left side, while a sniper (damn, Joe Tung, damn him) shut down the right side of the map entirely. "
"VALHALLA:In Norse mythology, Valhalla is Odin's Hall. In Halo 3, Valhalla is sacred in its own way. As the spiritual successor to Blood Gulch, Valhalla shares several similarities (and even more differences) with its symmetry-filled cousin. Bases are tucked on both sides of the map, and a river runs angularly through the terrain. Two elevated plateaus in the map's center hold weapons of their own -- on one sits a new shoulder mounted weapon, the Spartan laser, and on the other, a turret.
What's New: By the point in the day we saw this map, Bungie had rolled out a new starting weapon, a new grenade, a new one-handed weapon, and declared the Brutes would finally have a series of guns all their own. What's left -- a new vehicle? That's exactly it. Remember that whole "old is the new newness" business from the intro? Aside from the return of a new iteration of the Assault Rifle, Bungie has dusted off one of its long-shelved ideas from the Halo-verse for Halo 3's multiplayer: the Mongoose ATV.
"Press RB to ride Brokeback." The message flashed on the screen as Bungie demoed the four-wheeler. After announcing that the passenger in a Mongoose was "riding Brokeback" (and the Microsoft PR team pulling its heads out of its hands), the developers let us toy around with the new vehicle. Quick and agile, the Mongoose is pretty much designed for racing someone from point A to point B. The fastest ship in the fleet would require a new way to counter it -- the team admitted it's still thinking about how the rocket launcher might work in Halo 3 (it's lock-on system was a bit overpowered for blowing apart vehicles on the ground in Halo 2). Until the rocket launcher situation is sorted out, Bungie has another way to counter vehicles in Halo 3.
Enter the Spartan Laser.
A shoulder mounted rocket-launcher in appearance (see the EGM cover image in
here), the Spartan Laser functions like no weapon currently in the Master Chief's arsenal. When using the Spartan Laser, there's a three-second delay while the weapon charges. A thin red sighting-laser shoots out of the gun, while in true Death Star fashion, the laser cannon charges. At the tip of the shoulder-mounted cannon, a sphere of energy boils before exploding into a single beam of light that completely obliterates whatever it hits during the shot. The laser does not persist; rather, it fires the burst of energy and dissipates.
How to use the Spartan Laser, then? Well, as an anti-vehicle weapon, its use is obvious: the sight laser lets you track the target while the pulse charges before completely eradicating everything in its path (including multiple Spartans if the ducks are all in a row), but the weapon ends up functioning equally well as an anti-personnel weapon.
Note the weaponry his back and the all new weapons in his hands. Halo multiplayer will never be the same again. Click the image above to check out all Halo 3 screens.
Kills made with the Spartan Laser are attributed as "Snipe kills" on the medal-log in the Post-Game Carnage Report (it's safe to assume those will be back, as well). However, the ease of use, despite the three second charge time, has Bungie concerned -- it is being extremely careful with Halo 3 to make sure one weapon doesn't become too useful (see: the Human Pistol in Combat Evolved).
By now, you've probably heard the term "Man Cannon,"
and you know it's real. In addition to vaulting Spartans half-way across Valhalla's terrain, the Man Cannons will also launch projectiles and some strategically placed boxes. Players can drop grenades onto them, launch the Mongoose (with guys riding Brokeback) off the lift, or even shoot the Warthog (though it's a pretty weak limp off of the lift instead of an airborne exploration).
While only the main center-launching Man Cannons have been discussed, there are actually two lifts on each base. The second lift launches Spartans to the side, either into the treeline or near a narrow path through some rocks (depending on the base).
Ideal # of Players: 6-16. Anything less than six will feel a bit empty, and with 16-player high jinks, the map will fill up quick. How do you feel about eight-on-eight Warthog/Mongoose only? Yeah, same here.
Best Gametypes: CTF Classic, CTF, and Team Slayer. This is the optimal flag-at-home-to-score map. The flags aren't underground in the bases (but some weapons are), and two ramps lead up the back of the Forerunner structures to the flags for an easy grab and eject off the Man Cannon to a waiting Mongoose.
How Bungie Played It: In addition to a handful of Bungie staffers being able to execute the shooting gallery-style duck hunt slaying of inbound Man Cannon'd Spartans, being able to drive the Mongoose much better than we could and just generally having played the game for, uh, six months longer than we had allowed them to attack with strategy. Attacks on bases unfolded in stages, with infantry arriving to start the murder and Mongoose vehicles arriving to escape. Several times, our own Mongoose guys were ganked for the ease of their escape.
As certain members of the Bungie team (Joe Tung) redefined the term "weapon whoring" with their constant grabbing of the Spartan Laser, we reminded them we should probably get to use it, since we had to write about it. They (he) begrudgingly allowed us to use it... once in awhile."
WOW!!!! After all that babbling from Like Smith of EGM i'm lost for words... Come on we want a DEMO..DEMO....DEMO...DEMO....
KSI-NITRO
