15/10/2008
27/06/2008
New Halo Wars Screens, Unit Info
The Halo Wars team over at Ensemble have updated their site yesterday, adding some shots and info on two of the units set to feature in the game. One, the Warthog, I'll imagine you're somewhat familiar with. It's fast, it's iconic, it's cheap, you can upgrade it. The other, though, is the UNSC firebase, your base of operations if you're playing as the human forces. It builds, it powers, it slices, it dices. Concept art and in-game model shots of both below.Halo Wars Units
18/06/2008
INSIDE BUNGIE
Most folks only know of Bungie because of Halo, but now, learn about the studio's quiet beginnings and its sometimes dubious history.
Read about the trials and tribulations that brought us blazing to where we are now, in a rambling, halcyon view of days long past.
The epic saga continues with Halo 3, the hugely anticipated third chapter in the highly successful and critically acclaimed Halo franchise. Master Chief returns to finish the fight, bringing the epic conflict between the Covenant, the Flood, and the entire human race to a dramatic, pulse-pounding climax.
Taking full advantage of the power of Xbox 360, Halo 3 expands on everything that has made the Halo franchise great, adding a wealth of graphical, technical and gameplay advancements, as well as offering a whole new level of online gameplay.
08/04/2008
02/04/2008
Storyline Inside the Halo™ Universe
Mission Briefing
The year is 2552. For hundreds of years, mankind has sent ever-more-advanced spacecraft deep into our galaxy to explore and colonise. As the human race pushes ever outward, it comes into contact with intelligent, but aggressive alien life forms, possessing highly advanced technology. When this collective army of alien species wipes out Earth’s outermost colony, the human race realises a war had begun. Known as The Covenant, this pact of widely varying alien species shares a common belief in a long-vanished godlike civilization known as "The Forerunners." Believing that the destruction of mankind is the will of the gods and that it is their instrument, The Covenant has been destroying human colonies for more than 30 years. Outnumbered and outgunned, the human race is on the very brink of extinction, as the Covenant juggernaut moves ever closer to Earth.
SPARTANS to the Rescue
To combat the aliens and their powerful weapons, the Earth government sanctions the use of cybernetic super-soldiers from a project known as SPARTAN-II. These armoured warriors are far more durable and dangerous than conventional human soldiers, and the program shows promising signs of eventual success. The Covenant encountered SPARTAN-II soldiers multiple times before and, in a brutal struggle, wiped out most of the Spartan forces on the military planet Reach. One SPARTAN-II soldier, however, survived. SPARTAN 117, also known as Master Chief, escaped and with the Covenant close enough to attack Earth itself, it now falls to him and the soldiers aboard the Pillar of Autumn ship to stop the Covenant onslaught.
The Halo™ Artefact
The battle to save Earth takes place at the far reaches of the galaxy on a mysterious artificial ring, 10,000 kilometres in diameter, with Earth's normal gravity and a breathable atmosphere. The purpose of this “Halo™” is a mystery, but it is being protected by the Covenant with a ferocity seldom witnessed. Master Chief battles the enemy on foot and behind the wheel of powerful vehicles (tanks, Warthogs, and airborne alien craft called Ghosts and Banshees), pressing ever deeper into the heart of the alien mystery. Desperate to stop the Covenant’s advance on Earth and to discover the artefact’s true purpose, Master Chief is assisted by his on-board A.I. Cortana, who provides valuable mission intelligence and helps the Chief navigate unfamiliar terrain.
A Shocking Development
Just as Master Chief has encountered the most powerful Covenant troops and triumphed over impossible odds, a terrifying new threat emerges that even the Covenant fears. Master Chief now has two alien menaces to contend with, each determined to destroy the other—and Master Chief, if he gets in the way. By accident or design, the ring has drawn each of these warring factions together, and the key to this dangerous situation lies in the very heart of Halo™. With Cortana’s help, a little back-up from the human Marine corps and an arsenal of powerful ballistic and plasma weapons, Master Chief must solve the riddle of the Halo™’s purpose, halt the Covenant forces and get back to Earth.
Halo™ 2 continues the adventures of Master Chief and Cortana as they battle the Covenant, but if you want to see where it all began and experience the complex and gripping world of Halo™ for yourself, there’s no better place than in the game that started it all.
Halo® 2
Halo® 2 is the sequel to the highly successful and critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. In Halo 2, the saga continues as Master Chief—a genetically enhanced super-soldier—is the only thing standing between the relentless Covenant and the destruction of all humankind.
Xbox 360™ Elite System
27/03/2008
Halo 3: The Bungie boys reveal more…
We began by asking if there were there any features Bungie had to reign in or scale back due to technical considerations. “We really accomplished everything that we set out to with Halo 3,” explains Jarrard. “We approached the game with a list of things we wanted to implement if technology wasn’t an issue but at the same time were very conscious that these had to fit within Halo’s core gameplay: one guy versus an army.
“There wasn’t really anything we had to drop because of technical imitations, which was liberating but also brought its own challenges. It’s easy to think that creating more enemies or bigger playing areas is always going to make a game better but in fact it’s often a case of scaling back the scope of the experience to ensure it’s always manageable and, crucially, fun for players.”
Some fans found that they preferred the on-the-fly battles of the first Halo game over the sequel’s emphasis on dramatic gameplay set-pieces. We wondered if this feedback affected Bungie’s approach to the third game in any way? “We have definitely made a gameplay decision to follow the feel of the first game more closely,” explains ‘O Connor. “While we are building on Halo 2’s many achievements there there’s also a feeling that we’re returning to the series roots.
“For example, in Halo 2 there was one section where you took on a huge Scarab enemy. This section was a scripted encounter as the Scarab’s movements were on-rails. By contrast, in Halo 3 the Scarab is now an AI entity that will be seeking out Master Chief by clambering over buildings while choosing to take its own cover. This brings the dynamic sense of unfolding action closer to the first game again.”
Bungie has famously talked about how its designers worked hard on the first game to make a typical 30 seconds of gameplay as compulsive as they could before creating the game by repeating this building block many times over. With new moves, items and features being introduced into Master Chief’s repertoire, we wonder how the team has managed to maintain the purity of experience?
“We’ve been very careful to ensure that everything we’ve added into the game fits into the 30-second balance rule,” explains Jarrard. “For example, when players first saw the bubble shield there was outrage that this might upset the balance of the game. But in effect, while it gives you protection you can’t actually fire out. With all of these things it’s a case of adding to the player’s toolbox to increase the sense of immersion while simultaneously maintaining tight control over the balance of gameplay. Thankfully, it’s something I think we’ve achieved very well in Halo 3.”
3 new maps for Halo 3
The symmetrical valley of Standoff, with its entrenched bases and fields of boulders is ideal for mid-sized objective and Slayer game types.
The vast, labyrinthine passages of the Rat's Nest bring something completely new to the multiplayer experience: an indoor vehicle paradise. Strongly influenced by the Campaign mode, this map is ideal for big team battles.
Foundry is the ultimate Forge map. Players can edit every single object in this voluminous industrial warehouse, placing stairways, walls, bridges, and tunnels to create an entirely new play space and build almost any kind of map imaginable.
All three maps will become available for free download via Xbox LIVE Marketplace in Spring 2008, just prior to the next wave of new Halo 3 multiplayer maps.
26/03/2008
Halo 3
