Halo 3 vidoc goes live

By Tom Bramwell Published 21 December, 2006

Brutal.

As promised, Bungie has released a seven-minute video dealing with Brutes in Halo 3, and offering a couple of glimpses of new weapons and even the single-player campaign.

It's up on Xbox Live Marketplace now in standard (480p, 97MB) and high definition (720p, 336MB) versions, with a non-Marketplace version due out today. You can also find it on Eurogamer TV.

The word from Bungie is that a lot of what you'll see is quite old now, and has been surpassed by subsequent coding, so don't be alarmed by unexplained grenades on the HUD, or graphics that look like placeholders.

For more disclaimery goodness, join Frank O'Connor on the Bungie website, and for a look at the trailer, fire up your Xbox 360 and head to the Game Trailers section of Xbox Live Marketplace.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Zomoniac #1 6 years ago

    I'm hyped yet sceptical. With less than one year to go, and despite having been in development for about three years already, it doesn't look a tenth as good as GoW did when it was first shown 18 months ago.

  • DutchDemons #2 6 years ago

    I think Bungie said that they did not include final graphics and such. AT least, i'm hoping that they said that...somewhere.

    I'm not a big Halo fan, really never got the whole 'omg, halo is the best FPS evar!' I liked Halo 2, and never understood the 'omg, this is such a bad sequel'.

    I like the Brutes, they are much cooler than those stupid ass aliens from halo 1+2 (names??). I also hate those stupid pink and blue lasers, but hey, i think you'll get my point...not a big fan.

    gonna buy H3 though, i'm a hype-whore:)

  • thinktank #3 6 years ago

    I wouldn't place to much emphasis on the graphics you saw, there are place holder, the final licks of paint always added towards the end of devolpment. What im realy pleased about is the way they are making the brutes more interesting and upping the AI, which in H2 is still some of the best even by todays standards. Very happy with that.
    Edited by thinktank at 21/12/06 @ 09:25

  • Xerx3s #4 6 years ago

    A bit late EG. :/

  • Xerx3s #5 6 years ago

    I like the Brutes, they are much cooler than those stupid ass aliens from halo 1+2 (names??). I also hate those stupid pink and blue lasers, but hey, i think you'll get my point...not a big fan.

    Elites. And an Elite would kick brute arse any day of the week. Btw, did I see a brute wielding an energy sword there? I hope not. Brute charge + energy sword = Instant death.

  • Dizzy #6 6 years ago

    This was not about the looks but the AI of the brutes. Some of the ideas certainly look interesting... pack AI with a commander ;) I wonder what happens if you take out the commander first.

    The dynamic lightning in the "demo" was also way beyond Halo 2 and GoW.

  • Xerx3s #7 6 years ago

    I wonder what happens if you take out the commander first.

    I suppose the same thing as with grunts when you take out the higher elite. Minus the funny screams and comments.

  • morriss #8 6 years ago

    It rocks. Hard.

  • Carpathian #9 6 years ago

    Why do they always launch these things onto Live when I'm sitting at work - can't they wait until about 5:45pm when I get in and do it then ? I always feel like I'm the last to the party and have to sit on the rickety chair that nobody else wants.

    [taps fingers on desk and waits until later]

  • peteb #10 6 years ago

    i really liked the part of the vid with the grunts huddling around the brute and moving with him side by side as he moved...little cowardly fuckers haha

  • penhalion #11 6 years ago

    @Dizzy

    Dynamic lighting was way over the top, too much specular making everything too glossy. This was a demo machine and the guy doing the demo was showing unfinished assets. If the textures are not placeholders however, then I would question what the heck Bungie have been upto for the last three years!

    Pack AI is not new it's implemented in most games these days. Fear had it, Gears has it etc. etc.

    The graphics as they stand do not look near the quality of gears or at least not to my eyes. Maybe bungie were simply not expecting gears to be as good as it was and so didn't really make the effort to be different/new enough. Whatever the case, since gears, the bar is raised whether Bungie like it or not. As for Microsoft, they are in a win win scenario as if Halo doesn't do as well, there is always Gears 2.

  • Helios #12 6 years ago

    Well, they look about a thousand times more fun to fight this time.

  • Dizzy #13 6 years ago

    "Pack AI is not new it's implemented in most games these days. Fear had it, Gears has it etc. etc. "

    Yes and no. Halo 1 had pack AI and plenty of other games. It looks like the "commander" AI is something new and something I haven't really seen a lot in FPS games. Most FPS games that I have played or sniffed at the AI code have been cheating a bit on the commander AI. Usually the game AI makes decisions and then the game engine links that decision to a "commanding" unit.

    Example: AI decides to outflank player. Commanding units shouts "To the right men!". (this is what happens in GoW... I LOVE the game but I have not seen very clever pack AI in GoW, just good individual AI. I guess HL and Halo are the kings of pack AI).

    It looks like Bungie is trying to add real commander decisions. Hard to tell of course based on this video but I can imagine the possibilities. To be honest I am no AI expert... I have done a lot more work lately on procedural asset generation but I can imagine similar things in AI. The commander unit for example could be given a much more "cheating" view of the battlefield (removing LOS for example) so he can take much more tactical decisions. Anyway.. no use raving about it... we will see when we play the game.

    I wrote an article on EG a long time ago about connected AI and I hope some companies will go that way in the future. Basically setting up an online AI (neural net type thingy) that will learn and make decisions not based on a single player but on all players that have played that game. I can't do everything myself!!! :(

    "The graphics as they stand do not look near the quality of gears or at least not to my eyes"

    I think Halo 3 will have a different look than gears. I also think the focus will be more on dynamic environment instead of brutal squad encounters. So in the end Gear might look better... it certainly is a more close up view game. The levels in gears are certainly amazingly awesome. That factory at night was unbelievably well done IMHO.

    "i really liked the part of the vid with the grunts huddling around the brute and moving with him side by side as he moved...little cowardly fuckers haha "

    Yeah no game has done pack AI super well IMHO. There are so much more things you can do (especially in an SF environment). Halo 1/HL AI was groundbreaking and I hope Bungie will focus a lot on that instead of uber graphics. A higher polygon, higher res version of Halo 2 is enough for me.. just give us cool physics, awesome AI and killer online gameplay.
    Edited by Dizzy at 21/12/06 @ 11:36

  • Stormflood #14 6 years ago

    You have to remember that Gears is set in very small environments with very few enemies and really pushes the 360 hard. Halo 3 will be far more open in terms of size and game paths.

    And if we can put up with Wii visuals...

  • penhalion #15 6 years ago

    @Dizzy

    Well made points. I saw the vid on gamespot (it's on their main page) and unfortunatly these do look like they are the final graphics (give or take a tweak). It looks like motion capture is used extensively so I'm not too impressed.

    I think the AI may end up being the great selling point here. However, making it too clever is actaully going to harm the gameplay after all inreality one man against an armada usually ends up as one man buried as a hero.

  • Dizzy #16 6 years ago

    "However, making it too clever is actaully going to harm the gameplay after all inreality one man against an armada usually ends up as one man buried as a hero. "

    The challenge of AI in games is not to make it too hard but make it "cool" enough so the player is awed by decisions that AI players make. I remember those Quake bots that could headshot me in .01 sec even if they saw only 1 pixel of my face :) The player must feel that the AI is at least trying to beat him and knows he is there (GT AI doesn't even know the player is on the track for example) :) I guess that is the holy grail of games AI :) There are different ways to solve all this ;) but that will be for another thread :)
    Edited by Dizzy at 21/12/06 @ 11:54

  • Carpathian #17 6 years ago

    To be honest, I'm getting tired of people looking at vids like this and moaning about graphics not being 10^hype better than the last iteration. Whilst better visuals than the previous version are something you would always hope for, they will only carry a title so far.

    How many times do you see great looking screenies for a title, only to have most reviews and comments to say "I wish they'd spent more time on the game and AI".

    Personally, and again this is just my opinion, I find that once I get into a title I'm more taken up with the quality of the play rather than the visuals. If you can get both then great, that's a double plus, but if it's one over the other I'll take gameplay and great AI any day.

    Just thinking outloud, I guess........
    Edited by Carpathian at 21/12/06 @ 12:19

  • Zomoniac #18 6 years ago

    But this is Halo. It needs to be pretty. It's the Xbox flagship game. The first two had "look at what WE can do" spread across them. Take a look at the list of most loved games over the past 8 years or so, Tomb Raider, Gran Turismo, MGS, Tekken 3, Mario 64, Ocarina Of Time, Soul Calibur, Shenmue, MGS2, GT3, Halo, Halo 2, God Of War, Resident Evil 4, Gears Of War. They were all the best looking game around at the time they came out. Graphics don't make a game, but it's not a coincidence that most of the 'classic' and 'groundbreaking' games had mindblowing graphics.

  • Dizzy #19 6 years ago

    "But this is Halo. It needs to be pretty. It's the Xbox flagship game."

    I am sure it will be more than pretty enough.

  • Zomoniac #20 6 years ago

    TBH if it looks like the "real-time" announcement trailer then I'll be more than happy.

  • Mashum #21 6 years ago

    NPCs in Halo 1 and 2 feal like they had a bit of character - some running away, some laughing and taunting you to come out into the open, the occasional mad charge by an Elite. In addition to AI decisions like hiding, charging or whatever it is the flashes of character that really bring the game world alive.

    As much as I liked GeOW and it's AI I don't think it had the same charm.

  • penhalion #22 6 years ago

    Gears was gritty full on combat and so only really took combat tactics into account for AI. Halo was more about the story than the graphics or AI. This is why many people (my self included) didn't like the Halo 2 single player. The story simply felt wrong and disjointed.

    AI is fine for combat as it forces you to think. This is where gears succeeds so well. You learn early on that the normal charge in and soak up damage, just doesn't work even slightly. Suddenly real world tactics are all you can rely on. The same goes for rainbow six vegas and advanced war fighter.

    Halo has never had this before and frankly this is where the bar resides now. If halo tries to go back to the run in gunning approach, I fear that silky graphics and Brute AI will do nothing to save it. Instead reviews will probably hark on about how you can't even take cover. I could almost quote someone as saying "And you can't even nip behind a wall or blind shoot out at the enemy...this is a step backwards in my book". Some reviewer will say that almost verbatim I bet.

  • Dizzy #23 6 years ago

    >If halo tries to go back to the run in gunning approach

    Someone didn't play on the "real man" difficulty setting ;)

  • Xerx3s #24 6 years ago

    Dynamic lighting was way over the top, too much specular making everything too glossy. This was a demo machine and the guy doing the demo was showing unfinished assets. If the textures are not placeholders however, then I would question what the heck Bungie have been upto for the last three years!

    Err, the film constantly states pre-alpha build. Considering that, the fact that it misses stuff that have been mentioned in earlier blog updates and that it's quite normal for a film to be released months after it was finished... I would say that nothing shown is of any relevance in terms of graphics and otherwise.

    Seriously, the only reason that I can think of why they made this is to say: "Hey, yeh, so H3 will have brutes in it. We know they sucked and know that you hate them but we are doing everything we can to make them cool to fight."

  • Mashum #25 6 years ago

    So... will there be Elites to fight?

  • Skooch #26 6 years ago

    I'm not really understanding this general consensus that H3 won't look absolutely stunning. Yes, it is played on vast arenas rather than close-combat factories and buildings but this is MS's flagship title - the title that launched a console and a brand into the marketplace. Just start imagining the resources going into this project - they can't afford for it not to look geogeous or play well, it HAS to be a great game. It will have a different look to Gears but some of the beautiful graphics can already be seen, check out the plasma grenade explosion when stuck on the Brute's face for a good example.

    This title is going to squeeze every last bit of power out of the console and it will be just as pretty as Gears, just in a different way.

  • AHiFi #27 6 years ago

    Mashum - Well, unless my eyes are mistaken The Arbiter still seems to be there from the video so I'd assume he'll be fighting the brutes. The Chief, at a large guess, will be fighting a mix of brutes and 'honourable' elites; as opposed to the heretic elites in Halo 2 that The Arbiter dealt with...

    Does anyone get the feeling that as the storylines get closer together, we're going to see some story related co-op characters? I.e. One time you could play a second Spartan, another time the Spec-Ops Leader, MC and the Arbiter working together etc. I know they usually don't have one of the playable characters working as AI, but you know...

    Anyway, the graphics are supposedly a work in progress as aforementioned in the above comments. Some of it looked nice, some of it looked poor - but we won't know until they actually release official gameplay footage. Plus the beta isn't too far away anyway.

  • Helios #28 6 years ago

    I'm sure it will come together visually. No need to be quite so worried, especially considering it's a MS flagship title, and after Gears of War I don't they would settle for anything below good graphics wise.

  • JavaJawaUK #29 6 years ago

    "TBH if it looks like the "real-time" announcement trailer then I'll be more than happy."

    And if it looks like the second trailer then I'll orgasm.

    Go Bungie!

    NB: I recall seeing somewhere that the E3 trailer was the Halo 3 engine but running scripts for the purpose of the trailer - so hopefully we can expect those graphics to be in the finished product. Guess we'll know in a few months.

  • max #30 6 years ago

    I saw the vid on gamespot (it's on their main page) and unfortunatly these do look like they are the final graphics (give or take a tweak).

    Wrong. Did you miss the disclaimers all over the intertubes saying that it was far from final graphics?

    It looks like motion capture is used extensively so I'm not too impressed.

    Wrong. Films of animators jumping around is not "motion capture", it is "animation reference".

    Max