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Bungie says it is testing the single-player portion of its FPS; reveals new info on weapons, comic, game modes, documentary, matchmaking playlists, and more.

Development on perhaps the most-anticipated game of 2007 seems to be running smoothly.

After announcing two months ago that multiplayer testing of Halo 3 was under way in the Bungie Studios' offices, the developer has revealed that the game's single-player campaign is getting its fair share of action. The announcement came late last Friday, just before the stretched-out Independence Day weekend began in the United States.

"Multiplayer, single player, you name it, folks are playing it," said Bungie's Frankie O'Connor. "The lab formerly known as the multiplayer lab is now also the single player lab."

O'Connor used the company's weekly update posted on Bungie.net to say that it is running through the single-player game as "a gameplay test, not a graphics one."

Since the graphics are unfinished, he shifted the focus to gameplay and praised the increased power of the Xbox 360 to churn out more advanced artificial intelligence among Halo 3's enemies. "That counts for your human allies," he wrote, "but it's more noticeable at this early stage in the behavior of your opponents."

O'Connor described a heated encounter he experienced in the game, which he said showed off Halo 3's improved AI.

"At this point, they're testing out the new AI and encounters as much as anything else. ... Today, I swear I saw some Grunts do a classic pincer-movement to trap me in a narrow canyon," he wrote. "I was battling um, something bigger than a Grunt, and suddenly, I'm being peppered by a second group of jerks, mostly Grunts, who'd been sent in around my flanks to take me out. Grunts are still grunts though, and once I showed some serious opposition, a couple of them panicked and fled, but they nearly had me and it was quite a shock."

O'Connor's "um, something bigger than a Grunt" may be a likely indicator that some new enemies will be thrown into the intergalactic mix.

He also officially revealed several more tidbits relating to the Halo franchise, from a new Halo 3 multiplayer mode and revamped weapons to Halo 2 matchmaking playlists and the release of the Halo comic book.

--Since multiplayer testing began two months ago, a new "utterly terrifying" Halo 3 game mode has been developed. "I have never, ever heard so much frightened screaming during a play test of anything. And plenty of laughing too," O'Connor said, without offering any further details.

--The seven-minute mini-documentary that profiled the development of the Halo 3 E3 2006 trailer was released a month ago on Bungie's Web site, but it will just now be coming to Xbox Live Marketplace. The documentary will be available for download sometime this week or next week, O'Connor said.

--Many of the classic Halo weapons, such as the Covenant sniper rifle, are getting a graphical makeover for Halo 3. "I wanted to go back and make everything better," said Bungie weapons designer Tom Doyle. "The Covenant sniper is one of my favorite weapons--it just feels so powerful. I wanted to emphasize that in the new version, so we're adding some detail that will really show off the building energy in the weapon."

--The upcoming Halo graphic novel is hot off the presses. "[Bungie artist] Lorraine [McLees] literally just arrived back from Marvel's printer with the very first copy," O'Connor said. Halo: The Graphic Novel will be unveiled at the July 20-23 San Diego Comic Con and it will go on sale this month, O'Connor said.

--A revamped form of matchmaking playlists will be hitting Halo 2, and Bungie is looking for community contributions--because the playlists will be designed by Halo 2 players. "[T]hese fan created playlists will be temporary and their lifespan will be determined by popularity ... If people like your list, we'll keep it up for longer and if they hate it, we'll yank it," O'Connor said. Still, don't expect the new playlists anytime soon. "This thing is a long way out and playlists take a long time to test," he said, "so don't hold your breath."

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6153533.html

People Make such a big deal about halo....

it's just a game people, move on.

People tend to make big deals about stupid things...

Personally I loved Halo 1, but Halo 2... I dunno, multiplayer was awesome...

I probably wont be able to play No. 3, as I don't have 400$ to dish out for a 360.

*Syphon clears throat.

Halo > Kingdom Hearts. Go home, chew on that, it's tasty.

Anyway, if I had 600 dollars laying around the first thnig I would do next year is buy an Xbox and one of these babies. Halo 3 looks sweet.

only need 300$ + 60$ for brand spankin new game




Agreed.

Nobody else opinions matter but yours?

The Halo series is overrated. Halo 1 was alright, but it's hardly as good as people say it was. Halo 2 was worse, with still no bot AI to play in matches against, and a pretty poor single player campaign with a bad storyline that doesn't make much sense because you're playing it through multiple points of view.
The graphics were average, so what wa so good about it?

Yes, I'm the only important one.

Well I've never played Halo without compeating against my friend, or worknig with him in Co-op. SO I don't take much notice of story, just good gamepaly. The graphics were above average.

And it's not overrated. I hardly ever hear people talk about it.

omgz....can't believe it but

thx deathawk >_<



Sureeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Thats a load of **** right there! people talk about it like it's the second coming of christ.

I love how jealous people get so angry because people like playing Halo. Their like "OMFG!!@@11 HALO SUXXx YOU NUBZZZZ IDC IF YOU Liek it!!111 CUz its sSOO forkn OVerrraT3D1111"

You must have a low IQ if you cant understand the Halo storyline. I got the jist of it and I never had Halo 1.

Did you even read the article? Halo 3 is going to be better than Halo 1 and Halo 2. What constitutes as a bad single player campaign anyway? I enjoyed the campaign. Also, how would you know all of these things. You probly haven't played it other than multiplayer at your firends house. Graphics were above average.

The gameplay is whats good good about it. Get xbox Or 360 put in Halo 2 and play on x box live. It is extremely fun. If Halo is so bad what godly games do you play.

ADDITION:


How does only his opinion matter he simply said that halo is way better. It's his opinion. You can have your opinion that kingdom hearts is awesome.

Yes, fans and haters both talk about this game. Which is part of it's success.

Hey halo 3 campaign is going to FUNand MC have his helment off in the 2 level and they going to have xbox 360 live for halo 3 in 10 weeks after the game hit stores

I know a bungie worker

good point ><

i saw it in a magazine somewhere that 3 was coming out for xbox. It must be friken awsome.... The graphics and gameplay will probably be insane. Unless it already came out and it was for the movie i dont' know. I just saw HALO 3 in big words.

I am not jealous, why would I be jealous of something like that. It's an overrated game. Halo 1 was hardly as good as it was hyped up to be. Nothing new, generic storyline..

I do understand the storyline, but it was jumbled up(That's the way it was made, because they used multiple points of view.)
I mean, no duh you got the jist of it, that part was obvious. It's the details and stuff.

Yes, I read the article. Cool, it should(hopefully) be.
Well, the single player campaign contained of like 20 levels of the same thing. There wasn;t much variation, just a bunch of get to the finish while killing all the monsters.

How would I know it? I own the game, and have beaten the single player(well.. I did co-op) campaign two times, one on the easiest difficulty, one on the second easiest difficulty. I also had XBox live (Gamertag :Deathawk2231) but I stopped using it and my subscription was canceled. The mutliplayer was fun, for Halo 2, though, but hardly warranting the groundbreaking publicity it the game recieves.



I never said Halo was so bad, I only say it was an overrated game, because of all the hype it gets. It's an above average game, I wouldn't give it any more than that.

I play games like Starcraft, but for an FPS comparison, I'd say UT2004 is just as good, or better than Halo 2, yet it doesn't get near the publicity.

I agree. Sorry for making fun of you. My whore argument thing came off as mean



I'm simple.


Halo just reached 500,000 million or billion but i think million matchmaking game played. not including from when the server went down or their were errors and i dont think it counted private games either. So a lot of people love it. maybe thats why.



I can see how it would be overrated as a game but the game play is OmFuxtabular

Personally I liked the multiplayer in Halo 1 better than Halo 2, never actually played the single player stuff in Halo 2, but in Halo 1 it was good.

They are both good, people say Halo 2 was short. but in reality, Halo 1 was a lot shorter than Halo 2. =/ Personally, I think that Halo 2 is good, but just cause Halo series are good doesnt mean i don't play other games. There are few halo players that are obsessed and always talk about halo that halo this. they are annoying. aside that... but don't get me wrong. everyone has a maniasm on something. I dont know why you complain how its overrated. it gets what it gets.

You need to get yourself some new friends then.

The price tags on both the Core and Full versions of X-box 360 will almost certainly be reduced when the PS3 comes out, so you won't have to pay so much to get an X-box and Halo 3.

Everyone I know with an X-box 360 still plays Halo 2 with it. There is nothing good on the X-box, and never has been, except for Halo. The only reason to own an X-box was for Halo 2, and the only reason to own a 360 will be Halo 3. The game is that damn good that it is worth buying an entire system just for playing it. The thing is, anyone who says it's overrated, either isn't big into FPS games or has never expierenced 8/12/16 person LAN parties. Why they can't or don't get to expierence such a gathering of people... I'll leave that for you to figure out. Halo 2 is an extremely fun game to play socially with lots of people. I expect Halo 3 to be the same way.

Sidenote about Oblivion: "Some people" out there like Oblivion for the 360. They are fooling themselves. This game is not good. The auto-difficulty adjustment ruins the game, unless you are a power leveler who gets a guaranteed 15 stat points per level. The average player gets more like 7 or 8 tops. Thus you're left to choose the difficulty for the game, instead of facing specific challenges the developer set down and coming out alive. This is a great strategy for a game company, it means they don't have to balance the game at all, cutting down on costs and testing tremendously. It's a really lazy approach.

If you really want to punish yourself by playing games like Oblivion you could get them for the PC.

I think Peter Moore said they weren't going to cut the price when the PS3 came out. I'm not sure, though.

Halo 2's singleplayer got a little repetive at times. That one level where you chase after the prophet of truth(?) was basically the same sets of areas over and over again.

Their are plenty of good games for xbox and their are good games for 360. ie : call of duty 2.

Also, 360 will not have a price drop. Microsoft has already said that they will not be lowering the price.

Call of Duty 2 is an example of a game that you could get a better version of for the PC. Furthermore, I despise virtually all World War II games as they are short, non-violent atrocities made by EA or Activision. You are entitled to your own opinion on the matter, though I would argue that you are kidding yourself that it is a fun game. Regardless, the main point still stands that you could have purchased it for the PC. Anything that is multi-platform is automatically disregarded in any argument over whether a system has good games or not.

WWII games range in difficulty and length. It is an overdone genre, but so are others. I've only played the COD2 demo, but I thought it was fun.

I hope Halo 3 isn't as crappy as Halo2 or I will hire suicide bombers to blow up bungie. (and maybe microsoft)

Halo 1 single player was much more repetitive. God I hated the library. The level seemed like 1 floor, but copied 4 or 5 times. And let's not forget the ice level. Oh wait, I know how we can add another level to the game, get the longest level that bobby built, and make it so you have to go through whole damn thing again, but this time, back wards. Genius!

But I do agree with ya, the prophet level was a lil repetitive.

They're both great games, but it seems to me people either under rate it too much or over rate it too much. And it getting annoying.

Thats retarded because they are different when they are on different consoles.