When it rains it pours.
Coming off a pretty lengthy dry spell, we’ve finally lifted our frilly little skirt and let you get a good old fashioned peep at the intimate apparel we're pimping. Hot on the heels of the most recent media blast, we’ve deployed tons of
high resolution screenshots, concept art pieces, 3D renders straight from the engine, and even a few delectable fictional tidbits to keep you coming back around to our little corner of the gaming universe from time to time.
Of course, with great assets comes great responsibility and since there are now a good number of understandable assumptions and gross misconceptions floating about, we figured we’d take a stab at dispatching a few of them with extreme prejudice.
So, let’s dive right in. Answers courtesy of Sketch, with some added Editor’s Notes by yours truly.
Halo: Reach Mythbusters
Myth: That cross hair in the first person screenshot is way off to the left! It totally means <insert wild gameplay speculation here>!
Truth: Sorry folks, you won’t be perpetually leaning to the left nor will you be navigating multiple cross-hairs for various purposes. Truth be told, it’s just a good ole fashioned bug. Bug #15163 to be exact. Here’s the entry as found in our RAID database:
===== Opened by dg on 11/02/2009 01:33PM =====
SCREENSHOTS: Tiled screenshots using screenshot console command have crosshair in the wrong spot
Description:
Screenshots taken with the screenshot commands (tiled screenshots) all have the crosshair in the wrong place. It's either missing, or aligned too far to the left.
Note: attached screenshots correspond to commands below. chief.jpg is a screenshot using xbox chief.
Repro Steps:
- Launch Reach
- Start a campaign game
- Create screenshot using _screenshot_ command
- Note crosshair position for each shot
Actual:
Crosshair is off center for all tiled screenshots
Expected:
Crosshair is centered appropriately
Impact:
This prevents the community team from getting good screenshots.
Repro:
100%
Editors Note:
Impact:
This also makes the Internet freak out.
Myth: I read that every weapon in Reach will now be “hit scan.” Hell yeah!
Truth: Here’s the real scoop, straight from Sage Merrill, sandbox Design Lead for Reach:
“Most of the primary human weapons were moved to hit scan while the Covenant weapons remain as various speed projectiles.”
Currently the Magnum, DMR, Assault Rifle and Sniper Rifle are all hit scan, but other weapons such as the Shotgun and Rocket Launcher are, for obvious reasons, not. When the beta hits this spring you’ll be able to get up close and personal and see for yourself.
Editors Note: For more information about Halo: Reach’s sandbox design philosophy and changes, you should check out
our most recent podcast featuring none other than Bungie’s aforementioned and majestically bearded sandbox designer, Sage Merrill.
Myth: Reach is being built for Natal! (See that crosshair to the left as proof!)
Truth: Halo: Reach is NOT a Natal title and is being developed expressly with the traditional Xbox 360 controller in mind.
Myth: Reach environments don’t have any decorators and a lot of those textures we saw in screenshots seem like they could use some work!
Truth: The screenshots that recently surfaced were taken from a pre-alpha build that was created last November. A lot of work has happened since then and a lot more work is yet to come. The environment art team is continuing to polish and beautify everything, including adding plenty of decorators. We’ll hopefully be able to share some progress soon.
Myth: The HUD in Reach is yellow!?
Truth: The same pre-alpha build that didn’t feature final textures, geometry or decorators also included one of many earlier iterations of the HUD (which even today is still getting tweaked and refined). As of now it’s no longer yellow and sources say it won’t be returning, either.
Editor’s Note: We did drop in on David Candland, Bungie’s Lead UI designer earlier in the week to ask if HUD customization is something he’s ever considered implementing and the answer is yes. The problem with the multi-colored approach, it turns out, is that it can often blend into the color palette on display in a given environment, rendering it effectively unreadable. Since those color palettes can change dramatically from space to space (and even from room to room), it’s more problematic than just hooking up the technology and hoping for the best.
Myth: Bungie pixelated some super top secret stuff in one of the screenshots.
Truth: Here’s how it really went down:
Sketch: Dammit, I really like this screenshot and it’s the only passable first person asset we have right now, but it’s got all this extra UI text in it that’s not in campaign.
Urk: Just pixelate it. Everybody will think we’re hiding super top secret stuff.
Sketch: lol
Myth: The Assault Rifle has a 600 round capacity and the Magnum tops out at 50!
Truth: That’s what it shows in the screenshots, fo sho, but you should always take that stuff with a grain of salt. Not only are all of those parameters in flux as the team continues to test and tweak, but when us community dudes get into a build, we’re often turning on all kinds of freaky cheats to make sure we can get the right shots in time to deliver. If that means we want to rip through a sequence without having to scrub for ammo, we might flip some dials of our own.
Myth: Some of the high resolution assets released on Bungie.net feature flipped and mirrored art. Bungie is lazy!
Truth: Astute observers noticed that the weapons on display in our high resolution galleries feature flipped/mirrored art. Seems a few people weren’t too happy with that. Seems even a few went as far as to call our team lazy. Suffice to say, those people are jerks and the texture issue on display was identified long before we published the shots. It’s definitely gonna be fixed for ship.
We figured you wouldn’t want us to hold back the sea of high resolution assets on its account. That’s just how we roll.
Myth: Sketch called the Falcon, the “Warthog of the Skies.” Does that mean we’re going to get to pilot it in campaign and multiplayer?
Truth: Yup.
