Halo 3
On Snowbound, spike grenades and Cats.
It's probably tattooed onto Peter Moore's face, but Halo 3's release later this year will be big. Bigger than all of us. Bigger than Tom's credit card bill. And as with the very biggest games, the information drip-feed would torture even Jack Bauer into confessing that, yes, he prefers the Xbox 360 to the PS3.
So what do we know so far? Well, despite haven written nine million news stories on a game no one's ever seen outside Bungie, we know very little. You know, the names of the new weapons, the Mongoose ATV, the names of some maps, but little of consequence. Here's a World Exclusive guess: it's going to be a bit like Halo 1 and 2, but with high definition badgers.
And to continue the agonising process of filling up our factometer on the game, we grabbed content manager Frank O'Connor to see if he had any more nuggets to reveal. Interview by Gregor Wildermann of Eurogamer.de.
We're continually looking for ways to improve things we've done before, so of course we welcome and acknowledge criticism and look for ways to make the game better. We're probably our own harshest critics, so literally, there isn't a single element of Halo 2 that we're not trying to improve upon.
Well you'd be surprised how much the sun reflecting on the snow affects your aim, but mostly the terrain is there for atmosphere. It won't really change gameplay, or how your player runs for example - but at the moment, you do leave footprints that can be tracked for a few seconds before they fade away.
Spike grenades are the invention of our design team and of course their look is heavily influenced by how the art guys interpret the design team's request. As for gameplay, it shares a lot in common with the plasma grenade - but is harder to see against an object and that allows it to become a deadly trap for following attackers.
Well, we haven't lost a single weapon thus far, but we've improved a few. Our test process is simple. Play it, play it some more, take notes, make changes, play it more.
The idea came from inside Bungie and it was simply designed as a holiday treat for hard working men and women who are fans of Halo. There was no political, publicity or gameplay testing purpose, so that's really all we're prepared to say.
As ever, we'll tell a story and surround the player with that story in a number of traditional and occasionally innovative ways.
Lots of them. Our influences come from many different kinds and genres of media. Movies, books, TV shows and one Broadway Musical. I will not reveal which one. Let's just say it's magical and packed with dancing cats.
We'd love to see the Halo movie made and our relationship with Peter Jackson is as strong as ever. If we find out more, we'll be sure to share that information with you.
Definitely a painting we received. I cannot tell you what the contents were, since this is a family show. Let's just quote Joe Staten, our resident scriptwriter, who exclaimed, "Where is Sgt. Johnson's moustache?"
Icy hot stuntaz.
Well the Covenant are powerful, so they would have Koizumi's incredibly powerful hair. They are vicious and heartless, so they would have Simon Cowell's personality, and they have an incredible array of deadly weapons, so they would have Ted Nugent's armory.
Halo 3 is due out on Xbox 360 later this year. Check back soon for our thoughts on the Halo 3 Beta Test.