Last week, we had put up a feature on Halo 3 and how the game has been perceived before the launch. Here is the concluding part of the feature.
Now, I finally come onto the graphics of Halo 3. I honestly was not at all impressed from what I’ve been seeing all this while but here’s a little treat for everyone who doubts the difference of the latest Halo being a 2.5 game instead of a full fledged Halo 3 game.
1) Bungie has a better looking game over all then Gears of War in darker lit conditions. No jokes. Brighter conditions would also be better, but the sand and dirt still lacks what the rest of Halo has (the lighting is the best of any game ever seen from my eyes) in terms of looks. (Comparison guys.) Also, when you drive, you do not really make any tracks. The stuff being kicked up looks very good [from the wheels] but needs to last longer as it dissipates to fast. In real life sand or dry dirt would not take that short to settle, especially when moving that fast. The trails should be longer.
2) Water: The water is amazing. AND THEY FINALLY MADE IT SO YOU HAVE SOUND AND CLOUDY VIEWS WHEN UNDER WATER!!!!! YAAAAAAAA!!! No more “oh look, there is the sky above this jelly like thin layer of water. Grass floats in the motion of the water, and does move even in water when you sift around in it. Grass graphics are ok, but move like it should. In other words, the hype is worth it from Frankie. It also has some excellent sound under there too.
3) Lighting effects are too amazing. Crysis what? They cannot touch Bungie on this front. You will see later on soon…
4) Machine and human models look overall better then in Gears of War. Some of the best looks you will see in the next gen market right now. Spartan and Arbiter graphics looks superb, but grunt, jackal, and buggers look OK. I kind of wish they had the detail that your marines amazingly have too. They are great mind you, but nothing compared to the other guys I mentioned.
5) Size is still Halo like. Nothing big from what I saw. In other words, don’t bye all the hype. What really makes the game look and feel big is the sky. Having a Covenant ship flying right by you shows how big the game is above. Granted, the game is much bigger then most games you will play with, but from what I felt, not as big as Bungie proclaims. Or at least what the player has time to see.
6) Warthog graphics finally look real now. Before they looked like Halo 2.5. Now they look next gen and I welcome the change. Damage graphics are not bad. Better then almost any other FPS out there right now, or in the next 2 months. So it’s still very good, but nothing amazing compared to the rest of the game is what I am trying to get at. (Again, comparison guys.)
7) Brutes are easy and well, predictable. I saw a lot of AI action when Frankie got the sniper rifle on the higher ground on the 2nd session. They take cover, they do good things, but I am still looking for what really makes Bungie’s AI stand out to the rest of the World’s AI. Mind you, Frankie played on Heroic, but the game was still so easy, and both of them hardly worked together too. If you are very good, or are above a 25 in Halo 2, you best stick with Legendary, as Heroic looks like something in between Heroic on Halo 2, and Halo 2’s Legendary. They only died so much because They never stuck together, rushed to much, and Frankie sucks with the BR. (He is all over the screen but not on the target.
7.5) They had very good animations, like when you snipe a Brute in the head. (Only his head gets sent back, not like the elites which hold there tummy’s and bend over in halo 2. Lol) By the way, it takes 2 shots to the head to kill a brute with armor. ONE MORE EXCLUSIVE THING! Brutes barrel roll out of the way of grenades, and crouch really low. Think of Tom Clancy. They do that animation in about 1second. They also stand in the same spot to long. Why would you do that? To be fair though, they use equipment a LOT. They also try to out wit you, and the AI is still very good. Just nothing that is different from what we have seen in other next gen games so far from what I saw.
8) Buggers are better to fight. They still are annoyingly flying around, but are slower, and more spread out. They are super aggressive, so you cannot really run away, but they are easier to play, and thus more fun to kill. It’s better this time around.
9) Grunts are not bad. They do a lot of damage on Heroic, and they seem to be more afraid of the arbiter, and talk to him more. I know because Frank and Luke where right next to one another when it happened. Interesting really.
10) Jackals are still mean and hard, but not so hard. They seem weaker too. I don’t like how the AI is handled to much with shielded jackals vs. Vehicles. It could be better. They are very much like Halo 2’s E3 demo’s AI, all in formation, and sharing the “follow his action” kind of brute thing. Oh, and Brute Packs consist of 12-15 Brutes.
12) Tree graphics FINALLY got updated, and look SO much better. Now they fit the next gen mark in my eyes.
13) PARTICLE EFFECTS ARE AMAZING! Very, very good. Muzzle effects are now what I call next gen, and the plasma weapons look like beasts. All expect for the Covenant plasma turret. It was cool when he picked it up, but lame when he fired it we where like, ah. It looks like it could kill a horse, but then only spits a weak small plasma projectile out. Plus it looks like the plasma is just frozen to the gun on all 4 corners of the gun’s muzzle. Plasma effects for it are still good for this gun, but the gun handles like weak sauce when you see that plasma’s projectile leave and go to the target. Really, you will be like “Oh man, this gun is going to -blam!-!…..WTF? Why does it spit out this small stuff?”
14) Being Hit in the head when playing no longer flashes your screen with red. Instead, you get a electronic like error grid that is slightly transparent in the center of your screen, and is not to much of an annoyance. It also turns red if it is a heavy blow, like being hit with a sniper rifle. Good add on by Bungie. It only lasts for 1 second
15) Personal Shields can be destroyed by being run over by a warthog. They look good too. Bubble shields look better.
16) More to come for this
17) You can like in MP, turn around your dead body’s camera or look at your co-op buddy’s camera.
18) There was prob. at max 50-60 enemies on screen. But you only had about 4 marines. So nothing has changed SO FAR here. (enemies are more abundant though.)
19) Weather effects were stellar
20) Punching Marines in the back wont always work. Frankie aimed at the neck when he could not jump the bridge, and it never hit him. AI can not jump a 4 foot jump to the other side of the bridge.
21) Animations were very good for the video game world, but the arbiter’s jumping has not changed from halo 2 too much, and still looks kind of cheesy. He does look sexy though. MC has better animations for crouching.
22) Keys calls in on the inter calm and says (after you see the Forerunner ship) that she tried to get a hold of you, and glad that she can get you now. Sarge tells her something, and then she says it looks like they dug up a forerunner structure. We can only assume that is the ark. That’s exactly what she said.
23) Wraith AI for Heroic is kind of sad. Reminds me of normal difficulty. It should not try to get that close to you. Maybe it’s scripted? Wraith looks Amazing. The game is still really, really good. Best for sure out on the market.
24) You drop any duel wielding when you deploy the equipment. You also have an animation for it now.
25) Fuel Rod is just like in halo 2, only no following abilities. It kind of sucks ONLY because a Brute chieftain fired Frankie with it once, then 2 times at the ground, and his shields where only 3/4 damaged. They fire like every second. They still stand still.
26) Brutes can go berserk, bet it is better looking. Odd-looking boarding on the back of a gunner animation for them too.”
Overall impressions are very good. I wanted to pick at a few things to show that the game is not perfect, but it is dang close! It has a lot of good elements with it, and was definitely worth waiting in line for just to see it! I am a tough person when it comes to games, so the fact that there are way more positive things to say then negative, says even more. Like I said, Bungie knows what there doing, and they are doing it just fine.
So there you have it guys this is just the beginning, just wait for the rest of the stuff to flow in a couple of days’ time, including a new live action movie, Peter Jackson’s game and the science of Halo 3.
–By Neelesh Mukherjee