Halo 3: Official

**Nomi** · 27 Apr 2007, 03:38 PM

I still don't understand the crazy Halo 1 defense. Some people on campus play halo 1 every week and flat out refuse to touch H2, and it just confuses me. Honestly, Halo 1 is a bit boring to me.

**Opaque** · 27 Apr 2007, 03:40 PM

Originally Posted by Nomi

I still don't understand the crazy Halo 1 defense. Some people on campus play halo 1 every week and flat out refuse to touch H2, and it just confuses me. Honestly, Halo 1 is a bit boring to me.

It plays like shit compared to the second.

Apparantly some people like not being able to jump.

**Nash** · 27 Apr 2007, 03:58 PM

Originally Posted by Opaque

It plays like shit compared to the second.

Although I wouldn't say Halo plays like shit now, I will say the gameplay leap from the first game to the second game is astounding. It's not that noticeable until you actually go back and play Halo after spending a lot of time with Halo 2.

**Nomi** · 27 Apr 2007, 04:01 PM

I had not played H1 multiplayer before 2 years of H2 on Live constantly. Really, going back to Halo 1 is not a pretty experience for me. I just don't understand why people prefer it at all. It's not nearly as fun.

**Opaque** · 27 Apr 2007, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by Nash

Although I wouldn't say Halo plays like shit now, I will say the gameplay leap from the first game to the second game is astounding. It's not that noticeable until you actually go back and play Halo after spending a lot of time with Halo 2.

Which is where I stand as well.

I enjoyed Halo multiplayer until I went back after a year of Halo 2. Then when I fell jumping between the flats and the center in Warlock I realized it was some humble shit.

**MechDeus** · 27 Apr 2007, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by Nomi

I just don't understand why people prefer it at all. It's not nearly as fun.

Wait until you talk to Goldeneye sympathizers, which makes even less sense.

**Frogacuda** · 27 Apr 2007, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by MechDeus

Wait until you talk to Goldeneye sympathizers, which makes even less sense.

I'm Frogacuda, and I approve this message.

**Cowdisease** · 27 Apr 2007, 10:58 PM

Looks like the rumors of Microsoft forcing Bungie to make Halo 3 support 1080p natively aren't true.

Originally Posted by Bungie.net

The strangest rumor of all was that MS was “forcing” Bungie to make Halo 3 60 fps at 1080p. Um, it was one thing to see that on a forum, but it was strange to see it on regular news site.

1080p at 60 fps is awesome for fighting games and barely a stretch for Live Arcade games. But if you want epic battles, dozens of bad guys, huge vistas and colossal structures, with advanced AI, HDR lighting and explosive physics, then you’re not getting those at 1080p at 60fps. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate – Halo 3 will display at 1080p through the Xbox Elite with its scaler and HDMI port, but not natively. We’ve seen it do just that and it looks utterly lovely. So if you have a 1080p TV, enjoy it yourself in a few weeks. Most people, and I mean the VAST majority of people don’t have a 1080p TV, so it would be foolish to sacrifice even a single feature for a bullet point number on the back of a box.

The only number we’re committing to is that our number one priority is to make Halo 3 look awesome, smooth, detailed and innovative, no matter what resolution you run it at. Although that said, it does look significantly better in HD, so maybe you should convince the powers that be, that now is the time for a set upgrade?

Actually, HD resolutions are one of the tougher things to account for when building a console game. PC game makers are used to supporting multiple resolutions and we do have lots of experience in this regard. But when you add it to the test cycle, it becomes this enormous amount of work. Every aspect of the game has to be tested at 480i (normal, ancient TV resolution) all the way up to 1080p resolutions to check for everything from graphical glitches to controller lag. And the odd thing about HD resolutions is that they aren’t even necessarily “correct” to begin with.

For example, most folks running an image at 720p, are doing so on a screen with a native resolution of 1280 X 768. The HD resolutions were all decided on during the heyday of the CRT tube, so the introduction of fixed pixel displays brought along with it new problems and inconsistencies. We have to build graphics and gameplay to work with everything from that ancient wooden RCA in the basement to a 60 inch Pioneer Elite. I think that one of the real payoffs of all this testing is that it looks pretty damned good and “next-gen” even on a cruddy old set. I actually know someone who uses a 360 via a crazy RF adapter. Now that is hardcore!

I had my doubts about this rumor. Team Ninja said that it would have been too difficult to make Ninja Gaiden Sigma run at 1080p on the PS3 without some heavy sacrifices (and those guys are crazy talented), and I'd imagine that Bungie would run into the same problems if they were forced to develop in 1080p. I couldn't understand why Microsoft would jeopardize the Halo 3 development by pushing for something that only a small minority of people would notice.