Reuters: Halo 3 beta getting "mixed reviews"
- May 14, 2007 12:52 PM PST
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While any news surrounding the Halo 3 beta has had gamers buzzing for months, initial reaction by testers at last Friday's beta preview event has left some questioning the graphical leap made since the last console generation.
By Eugene Huang
It appears as though Halo 3 is a big enough title to deserve attention from the mainstream media without the need for negative press involving ultra-violence and controversial material. In a recent report covering last Friday's preview of the Halo 3 beta, news agency Reuters stated in a report that the upcoming Bungie title "will help it fend off competition from Sony Corp. and Nintendo Co. Ltd".
However, according to interviews with testers at the event, the beta has so far gotten "mixed reviews".
Does this look last-gen to you?
"The graphics can use some work, said Nicholas Puleo of Evilavatar.com. "They're not much different than the previous Halo."
Puleo then goes on to say that there is still time for the development teams to polish up the graphics, but in comparison so far to some of the other titles that are being prepared for the platform, "it's not standout".
The release of last month's ViDoc, which explained the beta in more detail, contained messages in fine print stating that the gameplay footage shown was from the much rawer alpha version. Since then, Bungie's developers have promised that graphics in the public beta version would be much more finely-tuned.
Still, whether the beta's graphics become a disappointment or not, executives at Microsoft still believe that Halo 3 will be game of the year.
"I definitely believe that Halo 3 is going to be bigger than Halo 2," said Shane Kim, head of Microsoft Game Studios.
"This is going to be a huge competitive advantage for us. Sony has nothing like it."
