10 Things You Didn't Know about Halo 3
- July 06, 2007 15:03 PM PST
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Think you know everything about Halo 3? GamePro highlights 10 questions and answers from our recent trip to Bungie Studios to discuss weapon balance, detachable turrets, the Mongoose, Melee design, the Spartan Laser, matchmaking, stats, and social networking.
1. GamePro: Are there any weapons carried over to Halo 3 that have gotten changed?
Bungie: Everything has constantly gone through a little bit of flex. Probably the biggest change will be the Brute shot which is up to six rounds in the clip now, and it fires a little more directly. It does not have as much gravity in the projectile making it a little easier to use. It will bounce on extreme angles but most of the time doesn't.
2. GP: What is the craziest weapon that never made it into Halo?
Bungie: We made a gun that shot crates because we needed to know how fast a crate needed to travel before it would hit and kill you, so we made a sniper rifle that essentially shot creates at 100 mph. We played around with that for a while as a weapon.
3. GP: How did the detachable turrets come to fruition?
Bungie: I think it is pretty obvious: "Man! I wish I could carry this thing!" I am a programmer; I can make it carry this thing. We wanted some weapons that were halfway between vehicles and regular guns; something where you were still on foot and you were still jumping and doing all your regular movement modes, but were really powerful in some way and then we just wanted to use it for a little while and then take it away from you - like give it a limited amount of ammo. Detachable turrets just turned out to be a really good way of doing that.
4. GP: How did the Mongoose end up in Halo 3 being that it was originally for 2?
Bungie: The biggest problem with the Mongoose [in Halo 2] was technical. We wanted to make it into a mini Warthog which just never really worked. It never really felt connected to the ground. We've never made a vehicle that fast of that size, but our physics system for Halo 3 is dramatically improved so we are able to really make a Mongoose that is really good... In Halo 3 you have something for allies to transport them around in without filling up the whole map with [large vehicles], so the Mongoose comes in really handy.
5. GP: What is your philosophy on Melee design?
Bungie: Basically, it is a third of the combat. So for Halo 3 we are just trying to preserve that (but in a very limited way).
6. GP: What was the philosophy behind the Spartan Laser?
Bungie: We were looking at the weapons that we had and we felt like Halo 1 really nailed infantry combat, and Halo 2 did a really good job of integrating vehicle combat into the infantry combat. For Halo 3 we wanted to really emphasize vehicle vs. vehicle combat, but you are pretty much screwed in that scenario if you don't have a vehicle. So we wanted to have some sort of infantry weapon that was potent enough to kill vehicles and really make you a force on the battlefield. The Spartan Laser blows up vehicles really well.
7. GP: What matchmaking improvements can gamers expect?
Bungie: As you probably know too, Halo 2 really changed the way online console games were played. We don't have a server list. We don't have a bunch of different games to scroll through. We opened a matchmaking system that will take you - and throw you into a group of players and people with similar skill and ideal connection quality and we took it upon ourselves to give that great experience back to the players. In Halo 3, we have actually just improved upon pretty much every one of those areas.
8. GP: What about friends?
Bungie: With Halo 2, after the game was over and if you wanted to keep playing with the guys that you were playing with, you really had to sort of jump through some hoops to meet up later. With Halo 3 and the press of a button, you can party up in a post-game lobby... We have created this environment where now you can play with guys and see if you like playing with them and if you want to keep playing with them, you can stick together really easily. If you don't, you can go right back to matchmaking and get matched up with a new group of people.
9. GP: How will stats be incorporated?
Bungie: We are giving more focus to the player through more robust stats. In Halo 2 we had race stats but in the game we didn't really present them in an intuitive way, but in Halo 3 we sort of brought some of the things that we had on bungee.net into the game. At the end of the game there is a "stat page" where we call out some of the things that some of the guys in the game did well and gives people sort of a showcase and the winner is actually showcased in the games as you see there. Every player has their own page, and we'll have a great spot for stats on bungee.net as well.
10. GP: Anything else we should know?
Bungie: When you are done playing, we have this great thing called Save Films so you can go back to the lobby after you are done playing and fire up the best films and watching them. But even better than that, you'll be able to go into the Save Films and record the highlights of the best moments in the game. You can get any camera angle that you want, take pictures and share them. So we have capped all our social experience together with a file share where you can then go and upload your screen shots, your saved films and your custom game ratings, so it gives people the opportunity to share these experiences.
