Halo 2 E3 demo was "smoke and mirrors"

By Robert Purchese Published 12 April, 2010

Bungie had to scrap engine afterwards.

Bungie's admitted to Eurogamer that the Halo 2 E3 2003 presentation was a fanciful snapshot of a game that could never be recreated on Xbox hardware.

"The graphics engine that we showed at E3 2003, driving around the Earth city... That entire graphics engine had to be thrown away, because you could never ship a game on the Xbox with it," said Chris Butcher, engineering lead on Halo 2.

"Through putting ourselves through hell, we were able to do a five-minute demo of it, but after we came back from E3 we had to admit that this graphics engine was never going to work - it was never going to support the kind of environments that are really important for a Halo game."

"So we literally scrapped the entire graphics engine and started from scratch."

That E3 2003 Halo 2 reveal can still be found on YouTube, complete with audience whoops and cheers as dual-wielding and Covenant vehicle-stealing mechanics were shown.

But an overly ambitious E3 demonstration turned out to be the precursor of a wild development cycle, in which hype and disorganisation created a monster in need of a brutal haircut and weight-loss programme.

"We were building stuff that just couldn't be played, in any engine," revealed Butcher. "We built, and detailed, and went a huge way down the path with a whole bunch of environments and levels for the game that just totally didn't make it.

"If you look at the level with the Flood, inside the quarantine area - that is the remaining 20 per cent of a gargantuan, sprawling level that was meticulously built and hand-constructed, but that could never, ever have shipped in any engine."

Head over to Eurogamer's detailed, seven-page interview with Bungie about the making of Halo 2 to find out much more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • stuarty_2003 #1 2 years ago

    This is just a tiny segment of the bigger article. Slow news day?

  • Retroid #2 2 years ago

    /Deja vu
    /Deja vu

  • mashk #3 2 years ago

    I feel like I've been raped.

  • Xerx3s #4 2 years ago

    I'll use lube next time.

  • mashk #5 2 years ago

    Also, do me the courtesy of giving me a reacharound.

  • Ian2097 #6 2 years ago

    How about a Halo 2 Directors cut?

  • mingster #7 2 years ago

    Why has this Not-News come back from the past seven years into the future to the present day?

  • B0MBJ4CK #8 2 years ago

    Right! Time to cancel that pre-order then...

  • mcmonkeyplc #9 2 years ago

    Jesus christ?! Is it 2004 again?!

  • Haloboy #10 2 years ago

    Let's do the time warp agaaaaaaaaain!

  • Beano #11 2 years ago

    Killzone Zero

  • Lotos8ter #12 2 years ago

    I'm getting ready for a "Rise of the Robots was a really good game but you fucking gamers never gave it a chance" retrospective any moment now.

  • Tyronne #13 2 years ago

    what was so special about these huge levels which made them impossible for any engine to power? Still none the wiser.

  • sfp_noodle #14 2 years ago

    wow has this been dug up and pasted on the main page by mistake? i swear its 2010 right now....

  • andywilkie35 #15 2 years ago

    2003 called it wants its news back

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #16 2 years ago

    This is just a tiny segment of the bigger article. Slow news day?

    Little bit. It's more that we're making sure people find the other article rather than padding out the news column.

  • Darren #17 2 years ago

    I've still got that Halo 2 E3 video presentation on my PC hard drive and for years I wondered why it was that the actual game didn't look anywhere near as good, bearing in mind that most pre-release demos tend to look far worse than the final release builds. Now I know.

    Bungie lost my respect somewhat with Halo 3, which I found dull not to mention technically unimpressive considering it was their first game on the Xbox 360, and I never bothered with ODST as a result. Halo Reach, however, is looking much more interesting so hopefully it'll pique my interest in what I consider to be a waning series that has just never matched the mighty heights of the first magnificent game on the Xbox.

  • DaftVice #18 2 years ago

    It would be nice if someone also explain what went on with the E3 demo of Twilight Princess and why it looked so much better than the final game. Wasn't there meant to be a fully realised forest and tree creatures and communicating with animals and stuff?

    ...Maybe it's just my memory being lame...

  • TruSmiles #19 2 years ago

    To be fair, I think this news bite is a good way to direct or attract people to the article who hadn't already read it, at least it worked for me!

  • Razorus #20 2 years ago

    Ah good times. That was one of the most exciting E3 vids I had ever seen! I remember getting so hyped up and watching it everyday in the run up to Halo 2's release. Alas, the game was not as good as I hoped.

    This story reminds me of the Red Steel video shown when the Wii was revealed. Looked pretty damn good and look at how the game turned out. Absolute fucking horse shit. I demand an apology and explanation from Ubisoft for their smoke and mirrors tactic.

  • viper_h #21 2 years ago

    Didn't I hear somewhere that there was a third one of these Halo games coming out sometime?

  • Madafunkola #22 2 years ago

    Question is - can this be handled on the 360 now? If so, do a "Halo 2 R3M1X" so that people can keep playing it now that the original Xbox live service is getting its plug pulled. Do it as a digital only download on GoD...

  • davisorle #23 2 years ago

    @B0MBJ4CK

    They are talking about Halo 2. Unesh you are planning on going back in time to do so I honestly dont know if you did read the article or even all the title of it, or you just ... make no sence :/

    @Bertie

    Lets be honest. Few news, specially controversial or hype/fanboy related for a rebellion and you know that this tiny bit of the article was capable of creating shitloads of posts and arguements. No hits on the links, no good for sponsors and commersial to pay the website. Simple things.

    @Madafunkola
    Its not about being able to be handled now. Its the way they started the design of the levels and enviroments wasnt possible to run on their engine. Neither they would have time to tweek so much an engine with all the wait all over. Thats why the apparent bad resollution and non detailed levels ( the game was great but graphically we all expected more ). Halo Reach for example might be visually many times better than the Halo 2 E3 demo but i all comes down to the level design and its requirements and how tweekable the whole thing is for them and the time frames they might have. So its kind of pointless to even say a yes or no cause liek i said.. Its not somethign compairable.

    @viper_h
    There has been a 3 and a "3.5" for a long time now.. Its like asking if COD: MW 2 is coming out any time soon..

  • FooAtari #24 2 years ago

    And at the time how many fans wouldn't accept that it might not be an accurate representation of the game?

    Thousands.

    Gullible bastards.

  • Les #25 2 years ago

    Aren't E3 presentations in general smoke and mirrors (FF XIII, Killzone 2, Move, Natal, etc.)? Doesn't matter much IMHO as long as they give as accurate a portrayal of the final product as possible.

  • fiery_jackass #26 2 years ago

    "Little bit. It's more that we're making sure people find the other article rather than padding out the news column."
    this is, in fact, exactly what happened to me. Didn't feel up to reading the full article but had my curiousity piqued by the headline-ette. Not something I'd want to see a lot of, but not entirely useless/evil either, eh?

  • monkie_king #27 2 years ago

    This is the remaining 20 per cent of a gargantuan, sprawling article that was meticulously built and hand-constructed, but that could never, ever have attracted many page impressions without a link-baiting headline posted as a weekday news story.

  • Power_n_Glory #28 2 years ago

    Looks like Bungie were finally able to make the world they wanted with Halo ODST.

  • MeBrains #29 2 years ago

    I seem to remember this other FPS which had a very fancy and nigh impossible E3 trailer; it was brutally slashed to pieces by supporters of this one...

  • B0MBJ4CK #30 2 years ago

    @ davisorle

    Its just i was really looking forward to playing this online.

    I'm getting an Xbox1 and Xbox Live on my birthday (April the 14th)!! Woop!!

  • Power_n_Glory #31 2 years ago

    Ahh Killzone 2. Great graphics but the gameplay is flawed. Multiplayer isn't that great either.

    Halo 2 didn't really deliver on the solo campaign but I was hooked on the multiplayer. It's why I'm still on Xbox Live now.

  • zedzee #32 2 years ago

    I'm sorry, EG, but there's nothing in the snippet or in the article that says Bungie are saying that it couldn't be done ON THE HARDWARE itself.

    What they ARE saying is that the engine was either sh*te or over-ambitious, as were indeed, the environments (either because they were self-indulgent and too big or that they simply would not fit on the storage medium of the machine).

    YOU are saying the XBox coudn't handle - they are saying their engine was crap and some of their ideas simply did not make it into the final game...nothing new there at all.

    Honestly, if you can't advertise your very own long interviews/articles/reviews, then what hope is there for your readership in believing anything that you claim to be the truth.

    PS: I don't own an XBox or 360 or PS3 or Nintendo. I'm just logically reading your words and they don't fit the quotes.

  • Dead_Man_Typing #33 2 years ago

    Mingster: "Why has this Not-News come back from the past seven years into the future to the present day?"

    Well, this is the first time that Bungie has officially admitted that Halo 2 had to be restarted. We all knew it, there were clues everywhere and most people who were interested enough to care, could tell that the real time E3 demo in 2003 was almost nothing like the finished product. A real shame that they couldn't make it work. The Halo 2 seen in that demo is something everyone wanted to play.

    I always think about the part of the Making of Halo 2 where Joe Staten says "we aren't going to see the sun for about 5 or 6 months", and the game didn't ship for another 18.

  • schnide #34 2 years ago

    @davisorle

    Someone said it a lot more subtley than I'm able to resist - you sir, are an idiot.

  • lockload #35 2 years ago

    This was on the halo 2 special edition disc

  • mcmonkeyplc #36 2 years ago

    Yeah Bungie pretty much told the world this when they released the game. It was on the special edition DVD.

  • MasterNameless #37 2 years ago

    People are just too sensitive, always keen to jump on their sopaboxes and start crying. :/

    /hands out tissues

  • anephric #38 2 years ago

    Maybe Bungie should've spent a bit less time playing volleyball.

  • davisorle #39 2 years ago

    @schnide

    And you lack basic education cause calling me "sir" before an idiot for no apparent reason doesnt mean you have manners nor any less of an idiot for whatever the reason you felt like talking to me and not commenting at all to anything practically.