the Hushed Casket

Here is how I am describing the HALO 3 beta:

it's a pretty HALO 2
it's a big HALO 2
it's HALO 2 with more H2-ish features

The vague descriptions above aren't a knock on the game. HALO 2 was a good game. It was fun. We all know how we felt about HALO 1 and HALO 2. But, who would have thought that the HALO 1 that we played for years would eventually lead to this?

From HALO 1 to HALO 2, there were some big changes that happened that affected gameplay (interactive content, destructible content, the energy sword, no pistol, round-based play, no fall damage, a new health system, the n00b combo, dual wielding, air lifts, etc.). In HALO 3, I'm not yet seeing the big change in gameplay that happened from H1 to H2. The gap between H1 and H2 is MUCH larger than the gap between H2 and H3. I am saying that the gap between H2 and H3 is small.

I guess that's a little surprising to me. I was expecting (even the) beta to have more WOW to it that it did. I was expecting the beta to show me things that I wasn't expecting. I had a friend over that hadn't played HALO 2 in quite a while. He said that if it weren't for the User Interface and the new controller (he didn't have an XBOX 360) that he would think that the HALO 3 beta is HALO 2. I agree.

People that liked H2 will definitely like H3 unless they have high expectations. I actually expect some members of the media to knock on H3 and give it bad ratings. Bungie has made a well polished game. There will be no game out there like it for a while. It is a great work of art and a work of technical achievements. But, I suspect that some people will see it as HALO 2.

If you had reasons to not like HALO 2, I don't see how HALO 3 will be that much different.

If only Bungie would have done something similar to HALO 1 (take previous game, add better graphics, and improve online play). A HALO 1 with better graphics and an online party system would have caused me to lose a lot of sleep. I guess it kind of already did that (HALO PC).

I do have high expectations for the campaign. The story had better be amazing. It should take a longer amount of time to play than the H2 campaign. It had better have online co-op.

All that said, I think HALO 3 will be hugely popular. It will become the most popular game released on XBOX 360. Why? One reason is because the new interface makes it much easier to party up and play with friends. The easier it is to do that, the more people will do it. Additionally, a lot of HALO fans haven't adopted the XBOX 360 platform yet. HALO 3 will draw them in. Some people will buy the console just because the new game is coming out. I know several people that are doing this. And finally, the XBOX 360 console will be almost TWO years old at the time HALO 3 releases. It's already penetrated the market. It's widely accepted as a great gaming platform. The risk of buying a $400 gaming system with just a 20GB hard drive and no wi-fi has already been dealt with by many gamers. So, I think old HALO fans will be anxious to buy the game and won't have to think long about buying a brand new console just to play this game. Once they get the game and console, playing the game will be really easy thanks to the beautiful UI.

I don't think THX has found a LAN replacement for HALO 1. I think we'll LAN HALO 3 as much as we LAN'd HALO 2, which wasn't that much. Long live the HALO 1 LAN.

Some comments that will add to what Midnight wrote:

• The stats at B.net are cool. Here are mine (link).
• There are no number-based rankings in H3.
• You are ranked in a military style (recruit, private, corporal, etc.).
• The UI for H3 is Web 2.0. It's slick, fast, easy to use, and rich.
• H1 shotty is back.
• MC doesn't seem to run faster.
• MC seems to run slower than in the Betalicious video.
• Gamespeed didn't seem faster for me.
• I hit the "X" button on accident way too often.
• I often deploy tech where I don't want to.
• RB is your friend. You use it to pick up and reload weapons.
• I said that the reload button is remapped
• No reloading/cancellation tricks seems to work (BRB, BRX, etc.).
• Melee's seems a bit stronger. Melee lunging still in the game.
• You can save a "film" of the game you just played.
  • they are about 5MB in size
  • Bungie gives you 5 slots on their servers to save films
  • anyone can download those films from your profile
  • you can save films to your hdd if you wish
  • you can share films in a peer-to-peer fashion
• Bungie has added more menu items to the "view gamercard" screen.
• On top of the screen are three H3-related menu items
  • HALO 3 service record
  • HALO 3 file share
  • HALO 3 party details
• The in-game UI and XBOX 360 UI are very connected.
• One takes you to the other seemlessly.
• Vehicle passengers seem MUCH easier to kill with BR (and other weps)
• I got 30 messages on my friends list yesterday
• 40 people on my list have the beta
• Thousands of unique people are playing it now
• I guess Bungie has big family

/s/

Corporal EA
Grade 1, H3 beta
United Nations Space Command

PS. A look at the ranking details screen:

PS2. An online version of HALO 1 will ship inside the retail version of HALO 3. You heard it hear first.