Stand-alone expansion, set to release in fall 2009, extends the award-winning Halo® 3 experience with hours of new campaign excursions and multiplayer gameplay. In addition, attendees were given an all-new glimpse of the Xbox 360 exclusive strategy game Halo Wars from Ensemble Studios. The campaign mode provided a thrilling taste of the revolutionary gameplay and new perspective of the Halo universe.
Patch: These days, it seems like for every Halo fan out there, there’s a gamer who just doesn’t get what all the fuss is about. Superficially, I’d agree with the latter – but then I kick back into a custom match and execute a perfectly-timed grenade toss or rocket launch and I remember why I love this series: the game just feels right. Enter: ODST – a semi-prequel to Halo 3 and one that addresses one of my biggest sticking points – the uninspired storyline that made me want to smear some dookie on the Chief’s faceplate and push him over a cliff. ODST looks awesome through and through – with no Master Chief in sight. Bless.
Naz: Ditching Master Chief is a good thing? Can’t agree with you there but I do agree that a direction change can’t hurt because the single-player side of the trilogy has been getting progressively less compelling (although thankfully the multiplayer has been getting better and better). Personally I’m most interested in the new Firefight mode where you face wave after wave of progressively tougher Covenant enemies.
In this Halo 3: ODST ViDoc Bungie gives us a look at Sgt. Buck and his squad of battle-hardened ODSTs.
Good morning. You seem to be up pretty late by our clock – it’s past midnight. What’s the matter, can’t sleep? Yeah, us neither.
Since you’re already here, might as well settle in, make yourself comfortable, and fire up our latest Halo 3: ODST ViDoc. It’s takes a good look at Sgt. Buck and his squad of battle-hardened ODSTs. The very same squad you’ll be dropping into New Mombasa with, so you should spend some time and get cozy with this crew. Of course, if you’re in a time zone where the sun is already up, or you’re simply stumbling in late having slept away the wee hours of the morning, you’re still quite welcome to have a watch.
Now you might recognize a familiar voice or two in the footage, but you definitely won’t recognize some of the locales – many of the spaces showcased in this ViDoc have never been seen before by any public eyes. But you’ve been checked out and clearance has been granted. All set?
Let’s drop in.
“Gunnery Sergeant Eddie Buck has witnessed more war than any Marine should. He fought alongside Cole at Harvest—somehow managed to make it off of Reach alive. The fact that Buck is still on his feet says more about his mettle than his military dossier ever could. Now the Covenant have found Earth. Devastated her defenses. Anyone who could have stopped the invasion is dead or gone. But Buck and his squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers aren’t going to let Earth fall without a fight. These ODSTs may be headed feet first into hell, but they’re going to make damn sure it’s crowded with Covenant when they get there.”
Gamasutra is reporting that Halo 3:ODST is the most wanted on the Xbox 360 List. This list was created by the research group OTX.
Bungie Studios’ standalone expansion Halo 3: ODST tops the list of most-wanted Xbox 360 games, says research group OTX — but it only barely edges out Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2, which seems to have a slightly more dedicated audience, according to data given to Gamasutra by the analysis firm.
Showing the power of franchises in game awareness, both titles are direct followups to the most recent releases by their developers; ODST to the main Halo 3 game, and Modern Warfare 2 to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
In Bungie’s weekly update the confirm that Halo 3: ODST will not have Elites. Here is what they had to say:
We realize that the Elites are of a fan-favorite, so it’s probably wise to set aside your compassion and steel yourself for what is about to come. There are no Elites to fight in Halo 3: ODST.
Still here? Good. Deep breaths. We wanted to clue you in early so you didn’t have a chance to let your expectations wind you into a whipping maelstrom of assumption and conjecture. Think of this as the intervention portion of this week’s update. Look, we care about you. We don’t like to see you get hurt.
They also give us a small glimpse in to the time line for Halo 3: ODST:
The following is a cursory exploration of some of the more critical events along the Halo 2 and Halo 3 time lines. This examination is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather a set of way points to guide you along as we look back at key events and characters that influenced and impacted the Covenant schism, circa 2552.
October 20: New Mombasa, Kenya is destroyed by the Slipstream Space Rupture Backlash from the Prophet of Regret’s ship.
November 2: The Prophet of Regret’s ship and In Amber Clad arrive at Delta Halo. Prophet of Regret liquidated by SPARTAN-117.
November 3: Prophet of Truth leaves High Charity for Earth in Forerunner dreadnought.
November 8: The Forerunner dreadnought arrives in the Sol system and proceeds to Earth at near relativistic speed.
November 17: The Forerunner dreadnought arrives at Earth. SPARTAN-117 ejects and lands in the Kenyan jungle.
Bungie has an update for us on in their weekly update. In the Update they talk about testing Halo 3: ODST, what it means for a build to be “representative”, about have modify your tactics not being a Spartan plus a host of other goodies. Here is a look at your main weapon. It is the M7 Submachine Gun.
February 2009 issue of Game Pro features Halo 3:ODST. In the issue they have an exclusive two-page interview with Bungie on their ambitious plans for Halo 3: ODST. So be sure to pick up the February 2009 issue of Game Pro to read all about Halo 3:ODST.
Microsoft is set to talk about it’s 2009 lineup. This will occur at the Microsoft’s CES keynote. Two key games they will talk about fall in the Halo universe. The first game is Halo Wars developed by Ensemble Studios, which is set to shutdown permanently in 2009. The other game is Halo 3: ODST, an expansion pack to Halo 3. However, even though the game is an expansion pack, Halo 3 is not required to play the addition. Steve Balmer, CEO of Microsoft, will talk up these two games.
Balmer was extremely excited at the last CES, maybe we can see a repeat this year?
Bungie has an update for us. In it they state “Halo 3: ODST is now what we consider “representational.”. What “representational” means is that Halo 3:ODST is fully playable from start to finish. Here is what they had to say.
Halo 3: ODST
With Christmas and New Year’s fast approaching, the studio has been buzzing like a hive of bees. As we noted in last week’s update, Halo 3: ODST is now what we consider “representational.” In layman’s terms, that means the game is theoretically playable end-to-end, although tons of game content is in non-finalized states. The playable spaces are all in, but while the plot plays out from start to finish, there’s still quite a bit of Microsoft Mike and studio talent in the mix, standing in until the professional actors lend their voices to us.
Right now, in ODST, it seems like Staten is everywhere at once. Marine voice actor, check. ODST voice actor, check. Female marine voice actress, he’s got that down too. The man has range.
We’re not going to dive too deeply into specifics now (obviously), but the entire studio was pulled “offline” on Wednesday – diverted from their other work – to play through Halo 3: ODST. For those of you who think it’s all work and no play at Bungie, this might not help to quash your unfounded assumptions, but quash them you should because while we certainly enjoy playing games, and while it’s our stated mission to craft kick ass games that we want to play, the first playthrough is all business. We don’t take it lightly. We’re not only trying to find out what’s fun to play, we’re trying to ascertain what isn’t fun to play. Where are players having to backtrack? Why are they toting a plasma pistol when they should have located the sniper rifle? The questions are nearly endless and the after-the-fact evaluation is thorough and honest.
Bungie has an update on the progress of Halo 3: ODST and they also have a genreal Q&A for us. Here is some what they had to say about Halo 3:ODST.
Q. DTA MoonDawg asks: How is Halo 3: ODST coming along?
A. Like Wilco, let’s begin here.
Halo 3: ODST
The door to Marty’s office has been shut. The “RECORDING” light has been on. Blindfolded outsiders have been shuffled into his recording studio.
Marty and the audio team have also been doing off-site recording in LA and earlier this week even helped all of Bungie get our SAG cards by recording us as crowd sounds for possible use in ODST. Thanks Marty!
All of the ODST mission dialog is written and implemented – thought the current implementation is often the dulcet tones of Joseph Staten coming through my headset.
Damian is working on patrol cycles (think seek and destroy, not vroom vroom) for enemies in the Hub and adding some new behaviors for a foe.
Barry is sitting at a teeny, tiny desk and adding decorators, details and signage to the Hub. He’s bringing things to life.
Adrian Perez hooked up some stuff for some things that will add pretty visceral feedback elements to players.
Halo 3: ODST is just a day away from the Representative Experience milestone and preparing for a team-wide playthrough of the whole game next week.
To follow-up on the last topic, the best named man in gaming, and ODST’s Executive Producer, Curtis Creamer, fielded a few questions of his own about what a representative experience milestone is. We’re de-mystifying jargon one sporadic update after another.
