Microsoft has come out with a preview of Halo 3. They showcased the final chapter of the shooter game in New York and San Francisco on Friday at an invitation-only event, which was held to ward off competition from Sony and Nintendo. Halo 3 beta will go live next Wednesday.
Opinions on the preview of Halo 3 were divided. Some of the gamers were happy with the game, many of them, not. One of the most common complaints was regarding the graphics of the game and the critics felt that it was similar to its predecessor, Halo 2.
Shane Kim, Head, Microsoft Game Studios explains, “I certainly believe that Halo 3 is going to be bigger than Halo 2. Retailers know what Halo 2 did and they are not going to want to be caught out of stock. I consider this is going to be one of the three biggest consumer entertainment events of the year, along with Spider-Man 3 and the new Harry Potter book. This is going to be an enormous competitive advantage for us. Sony has nothing like it.”
However, the graphics of Halo 3 are more advanced than that of Halo 2. Developers Bungie Studios have made the movements in “Halo 3” more closely follow the laws of real-world physics to make things more realistic. For an example, Grenades that are thrown on harder surfaces skip and roll but if they are tossed in snow; they do stay in their place. Also, if the players venture too close to the exploding grenades, their characters will be injured by the shrapnel effect of the grenades. Then there are the dead bodies, which will float in water, much like in the real world.
The Halo games are one of the most important game series for Microsoft. The first Halo game helped Microsoft gain a strong foothold in the video game market, which is regarded as one of the most competitive in the tech world. As for Halo 2, even though it did not live up to the gamers’ expectations, the game is one of the most played titles on the Xbox Live.
Our verdict, we feel Halo 3 will do well when it is released, as there are a lot of Halo fans out there and the only thing it has to worry about it is, not from outside competition, but from the challenge from inside. Halo 3 will inadvertently be compared with Gears of War.