Surprises for Halo's 5th birthday?

[deadite76]

http://www.xboxic.com/news/1983#more-1983

What do you think?

[danked]

has it been that long

[mykevermin]

Whether it's for the "anniversary," or to distract from this week's release of the PS3 and the Wii, there's sure to be something. I hope it's better than an "I played on Emergence Day" Gamerpic.

[Brak]

Uh-oh! The video game bloggers are going to make a mountain out of a molehill, and when Bungie / Microsoft "fold" on their "promise" (that the bloggers crammed in their mouths), the fanboys are going to come out in full force, torches and pitchforks in hand.

[Apossum]

Uh-oh! The video game bloggers are going to make a mountain out of a molehill, and when Bungie / Microsoft "fold" on their "promise" (that the bloggers crammed in their mouths), the fanboys are going to come out in full force, torches and pitchforks in hand.


QFT

look out Bungie, you're about to get KOTAKU'D and JOYSTIQ'D.

They don't give a fuck man! They'll knock Zelda for having unreadable signs! You may not even get to finish Halo 3 from all the pressure put on by the blogs.

[seanr1221]

A solid release date for Halo 3 would be a nice surprise

[mofo1115]

haha I have the same birthday as Halo...they better give me something good

[klwillis45]

Online MP via XBL on the 360?? BC Haxzors FTW!!!1! (Yeah, right)

[ryanbph]

maybe that mac game that bungie made, maraton, on xbox live arcade

[thrustbucket]

If Halo 3 doesn't come out in the next six months, I don't really care about it. Gears of War has more than satisfied me for now.

[LinkinPrime]

Didn't MS or Bungie say that come this November there would be big Halo news? I think it was mentioned at TGS or X06.

[thamaster24]

This stuff would include free gamerpics and themes (most likely) maybe a new trailer, I doubt they would put any gameplay footage out yet...

But I would love to have Halo: Combat Evolved on XBLA

[derder]

Oh baby, if they some how make it so that you can play halo1 online i'll pee my pants.

[jwg]

I wouldn't expect much from this.

Just look at all of the "cool stuff" we got when Live was down for a day to be updated.

[ryanbph]

This stuff would include free gamerpics and themes (most likely) maybe a new trailer, I doubt they would put any gameplay footage out yet...

But I would love to have Halo: Combat Evolved on XBLA

While it would be nice to have halo on xbla, I doubt they could due to the size of it.

[klwillis45]

While it would be nice to have halo on xbla, I doubt they could due to the size of it.

Yeah, but if they cut out campaign... :-k

[help1]

Yeah, but if they cut out campaign... :-k

IMO, tehy should jsut pick 3 halo CE maps and put them online with different modes, like a demo.

[jalu6]

IMO, tehy should jsut pick 3 halo CE maps and put them online with different modes, like a demo.

They could probably do a downloadable add-on for Halo2. Call it the "Classic Pack" charge $10 for it and basically make it a mod where the maps, weapons and vehicles are all restored to the way they were in Halo 1. Besides a few maps and a few skins, I can't imagine it being that hard to fit in 50Megs.

I'm sure it will never happen, but its a nice thought.

[Mookyjooky]

They could probably do a downloadable add-on for Halo2. Call it the "Classic Pack" charge $10 for it and basically make it a mod where the maps, weapons and vehicles are all restored to the way they were in Halo 1. Besides a few maps and a few skins, I can't imagine it being that hard to fit in 50Megs.

I'm sure it will never happen, but its a nice thought.

Why does it need to be 50MBs? The GRAW update was 700MBs.

[gunm]

This isn't about that "Halo Wars" RTS, is it?

[Kaijufan]

I think the surprise will be a few Halo 3 and/or Halo Wars screenshots, or maybe a short trailer.

[A Happy Panda]

For anyone doubting the legitimacy, the quote they used is straight from Bungie's Weekly Update. That aside, Bungie seems to know how to please it's fans, and will most likely do so. I also agree with the above, screenshots will be revealed, new features talked about, and maybe even a release date, or a small time frame for a release date, ie. Spring 2007.

[elsnow77]

its probably just some stupid vids posted on the live marketplace

[zewone]

Why does it need to be 50MBs? The GRAW update was 700MBs.
Live Arcade games can be 50MBs max.

[CYRiX]

Last time I checked halo was born on MY 11th birthday, I think its gods way of saying I must play halo.

[help1]

Live Arcade games can be 50MBs max.

Gameupdates (downgrades?) dont have to be.

[Trevor]

Here's an idea!

Release the online co-op part of Halo2 that was supposed to be in the original release (and is even still in the menus).

[thamaster24]

Don't know if anyone has said this yet, but 11/15, tomorrow just happens to be a Wednesday... that can only get my hopes up a little bit (usual day of XBLA titles release)

[A Happy Panda]

IGN has posted an article stating that a HUGE announcement will be made at 2 AM Wednesday. Considering Bungie is based in Seattle, I'll assume its PST. Only an hour away now....

EDIT: The IGN states that this information came from Microsoft and not Bungie itself. Take that as you will.

[Sporadic]

I'm guessing they are finally going to release the first screenshots or teaser trailer from the singleplayer campaign.

EGM was just raving at how good it looked compared to the multiplayer demo they got to play.

[Ugamer_X]

IGN has posted an article stating that a HUGE announcement will be made at 2 AM Wednesday. Considering Bungie is based in Seattle, I'll assume its PST. Only an hour away now....

EDIT: The IGN states that this information came from Microsoft and not Bungie itself. Take that as you will.
Where's the article?

Edit: Nevermind, found it: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/745/745686p1.html

[A Happy Panda]

Where's the article?

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/745/745686p1.html

[Ugamer_X]

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/12231/Halo-3-Multiplayer-Beta-Announced/

Hot damn.

Edit: the fact that the new maps can only be played on a 360 sucks though. Spring 2007 is too far away.

[zewone]

I never thought they would do it, but goddamn, I'm fucking happy.
http://www.bungie.net/News/TopStory.aspx?cid=9182

[A Happy Panda]

I never thought they would do it, but goddamn, I'm fucking happy.

As sweet as this is..I'd still like a release date.

[zewone]

As sweet as this is..I'd still like a release date.
New Halo 2 maps and Halo 3 online beta will hold me over until November (which is my guess of when Halo 3 will come out).

[spoo]

I was hoping it was going to be something on live tonight, but it is still good news.

(Offtopic but to everyone that is still up Superman Returns demo is on Live now, just a fyi.)

[Sporadic]

Pretty lame besides the news of the public beta before launch.

[daphatty]

Meh... Halo < PC FPS...

[seanr1221]

Pretty cool news...I cant imagine how long that Halo 3 beta will take to download, because its going to get hit hard.

[fraggedbylaggers]

My school is blocking bungie's site. Can someone copy and paste? A HAlo 3 beta? Sweet!!!

[edison]

Here you go.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Happy Halo Day
Posted by Sketch at 11/15/2006 6:00 AM PST

Happy Halo Day!

Today marks the five-year anniversary of Halo and to commemorate this occasion, Microsoft just revealed a few tantalizing announcements for fans of the franchise. You may have already read the details online elsewhere but we thought it’d be best to recap these events ourselves and perhaps shed some additional light on what’s ahead.

For starters I’d just like to point out that all of you out there in our beloved community are now officially coined “Halo Nation.” How do you like your new moniker? I suppose “Underground Army recruits to further Bungie’s goals of World Domination” just didn’t have the same ring to it. But between us, we know that’s what’s really going on. For now we’ll all agree to go along with this ruse.

Halo 3 Commercial!

Now to the business at hand – There’s some juicy Halo information to absorb and process. First up is the announcement of an exclusive worldwide Halo 3 TV commercial set to air during Monday Night Football on December 4th. Naturally we don’t want to spoil the fun but we did want to clear the air on a few points up front to set your expectations appropriately. As the press release mentions, this ad will feature CG scenes that are being built by a 3rd party agency (known as Digital Domain). Now you may be thinking to yourself – “CG!? But Bungie doesn’t do CG!” – and you would be correct… until now.

For the purposes of this holiday commercial and knowing the tight timeline with which it had to come together we decided a long time ago that utilizing real, final, actual gameplay just wasn’t the right thing to do. As you know, we’re very protective of our baby and we will only show it when we feel it’s ready to be shown (and even then it’s sometimes pried from our protective fingers). We all agreed that a cooler thing to do would be to move as far away from gameplay-style footage as possible, and make something more movie-like. Let our fans see what the Halo universe looks like in a photo-realistic fashion.

We didn’t want folks to think we were trying to pull the wool over their eyes, when we had such a great opportunity to do something cool and worthwhile.

Now don’t get me wrong – just because this ad isn’t gameplay doesn’t mean it’s not really cool. In fact, we provided the folks at Digital Domain with all of our new in-game models and assets. They then polished them up to movie CGI standards, animated them and rendered them to a degree of stunning beauty. There will be a lot to like in this ad and we’re happy with how it’s turning out. Just because you’re seeing a kind of “real-life” representation of Halo 3 doesn’t mean you aren’t seeing real gameplay elements from Halo 3.

Of course you’ll also hear Halo 3 as well, with new music composed by our own Marty O’Donnell. We’ll leave it at that for now. After the commercial airs on television, it will be available on Xbox Live Marketplace in full 720p glory for you to dissect and discuss.

Shortly after the commercial airs, we’ll be treating our fans to the next installment in our “making of” documentary series on Xbox Live Marketplace. This next “VIDOC” is going to give some new insights into elements of the campaign and will peel back the curtain on a certain prominent character in Halo 3. We’ll talk more about this in the coming weeks.

New Halo 2 Maps!?

Another bombshell that was dropped today was the announcement of upcoming new multiplayer maps for Halo 2. There are a ton of details we simply can’t reveal right now but we can confirm that this content will be coming out sometime next Spring and it will cost something to download. We can also confirm that this new content is only going to be available on Xbox 360 and that you’ll need a hard drive to download them (which is also required to play Halo 2 on 360 anyways).

That last point is probably going to rub some of you the wrong way. And frankly, we can’t really blame you for potentially being a little upset at this news. We’re really excited that these maps are coming together and we have the opportunity to give our fans some new content over two years after the game shipped but ultimately, when it comes to pricing and timing and distribution and exclusivity, it’s not up to Bungie. We make games and in this case we’re making maps. Microsoft Game Studios is our publisher and they have the final call on the when/where/how part of the equation.

We’ve seen a gradual shift in our online population more and more towards Xbox 360 but I know there are a lot of folks out there who haven’t made the switch yet. Does that mean you’ll never get to play these new Halo 2 maps? We can’t say for certain, but ultimately we hope to find ways to make the maps more accessible to more fans over time. We have in the past, after all. But again, the final outcome of those decisions won’t totally be up to us.

These maps are shaping up to be really cool and once we can start talking more about them, I think our fans are going to be very, very happy with what’s in the works. With several hundred thousand people still playing Halo 2 on Xbox Live, it’s clear that there’s still high interest in our game, which is awesome. We’re eager to get this new content in your hands as we have folks who are putting a lot of hard work into making something really cool.

One positive of all this is that the team responsible for the backwards compatibility on Xbox 360 are going to go back and look at Halo 2 again. Many of you are aware that a few bugs exist when playing Halo 2 on the new platform and we’ve gotten indications that work is being done to try and improve that experience.

And ultimately, if you want to play Halo 3 next year and if you want to take part in the OTHER big bomb that was dropped today (see below), you’re going to have to upgrade to Xbox 360. There’s still some time and hopefully between now and then, getting a 360 will be more viable for you and there will continue to be more and more reasons to convince you it’s worth the upgrade. (if Halo 3 isn’t already enough)

Halo 3 Public Beta!?

Perhaps the biggest bomb that was dropped today, the MOAB of press announcements, was the indication of a public beta for Halo 3 coming next Spring. What exactly does this mean? Well, again we can’t really get into the details quite yet (notice a theme here?) but we can confirm that our fans will have an opportunity to play Halo 3 multiplayer over Xbox Live BEFORE the final game is available. You’ll be playing a little multiplayer and simultaneously providing us with some valuable data to help our development team. We’re still working out the details on timing and scope and there will be a lot more info coming in the weeks ahead. We can confirm that you will absolutely be required to have an Xbox 360. Probably not a huge surprise.

Stay Tuned!

As you can see, 2007 is shaping up to be a HUGE year for the “Halo Nation.” And if all of this and ultimately Halo 3 isn’t enough to satisfy your Halo cravings, there’s even more on the longer term horizon like Ensemble’s “Halo Wars” and the Bungie-Peter Jackson collaboration project that will result in some new adventures in the Halo Universe. In the short term, we have the upcoming release of Halo 2 for Windows Vista which should be landing on a PC near you sometime early in 2007. In addition to delivering Halo 2 in stunning hi-res glory with online optimizations and a custom map editor, it’s also the only way to get precious Live achievements.

We’ll continue to keep you abreast of the latest developments in the world of Halo and of course our ongoing progress with Halo 3 through Frankie’s Weekly Updates. In the meantime, you can satisfy your Halo jones right now by checking out Eric Nylund’s latest, “Ghosts of Onyx” and grabbing the new issue of EGM for a first look at some new multiplayer elements in Halo 3.

But Wait, There’s More!

And finally, in celebration of this special occasion, we are happy to present this brand spankin’ new screenshot from Halo 3. Some folks may already have noticed this image in the current issue of Newsweek but it’s small and puny. Now we bring it to you in full hi-res glory (click for big version!).

A quick note about this shot - this is an actual screenshot taken from the actual game within an actual campaign level of Halo 3. When the MGS PR team asked me to give them a new image for an upcoming issue of Newsweek magazine, this is what we came up with. It's intentionally not meant to really reveal anything - we just wanted to give a glimpse of the latest Master Chief model and I thought the level that environment artist Frank Capezutto was working on provided a great backdrop. What's not to love about next-gen rusty beams and pipes? And best of all, it gives away absolutely nothing. We told you that Halo 3 was still very much in development and work continues on making the game look and play great. I think this is a cool snapshot of where the team is right now. We hope you enjoy it! :)

[jwg]

It's pretty crappy that the new Halo 2 maps can only be played on the 360, despite Halo 2 being an Xbox game.

I guess Microsoft is doing whatever it can to sell more 360s.

I think the fact that this is all coming sometime in Spring next year pretty much guarantees we won't see Halo 3 till November or December in 2007.

Oh well...at least we'll have a little something to hold us over until then.

[fraggedbylaggers]

not to bad...

Thanks for posting actual article!!!

[Corvin]

snore.

A commercial. Wow.
A beta(fancy word for demo) - cool but we are six months out from seeing it, so at this point it gets a big fat "who cares?"
New maps for a three year old game full of rampant cheaters - again six months out so another "who cares"

[danked]

yep blah

[ryanbph]

it was rather dissapointing

[A Happy Panda]

For the three guys above me. It's fairly obvious you guys are not very keen on Halo, so why even post? Or even look at this thread?

For any real fan of Halo, this is great news. The opportunity to play a beta before the final release? And to have the ability to test it out, play and see how the gameplay changes work, and have the chance to tell Bungie what works and what doesn't? How can that be "MEH" at all? They are empowering the fans with the chance to fine-tune Halo 3's MP. They are trying to do what they can to give us a game we all want.

And more Halo 2 maps? So what if it's 2 and a half years old at that point? The fact that they continuously update the game (playlists, the banhammer) and that they give us the OPTION to download maps is bad? (I'll assume they will become free eventually if you choose not to buy them like prior maps)

I will agree with the commercial thing tho. The fact that it's CGI and not gameplay footage is disappointing. I want to see what this damn game looks like in motion since every MP screen shot I've seen looks exactly like Halo 2.

[-Never4ever-]

has it been that long

:lol: that's what I've been thinking.

Five years since the best gaming holiday we've ever recieved came & went.

[Corvin]

For the three guys above me. It's fairly obvious you guys are not very keen on Halo, so why even post? Or even look at this thread?


:lol:

What's fairly obvious is the fact that you believe that people can't have different opinions than yours.

I bought an Xbox because of Halo. I played though on Heroic on both games. I host Halo lan parties, and have since the original game came out. Up until Gears came out Halo 2 was the only non-arcade game I played online for the past two years. I will be getting Halo 3 the day it comes out. Maybe even the Legendary version. So yeah, you have no idea what you are talking about.

I love halo as much as the next guy, but until we are closer to release these scraps of info are worthless.

[LinkinPrime]

WTF! So the surprise was an "announcement" of stuff coming "soon". What if they actually released the maps today, now that would have been good.

I wonder if MS has anything else to temp potential PS3 buyers on Friday to step in to the "light" side. ;)

[zewone]

I wonder if MS has anything else to temp potential PS3 buyers on Friday to step in to the "light" side. ;)
Gears of War.

[captainfrizo]

WTF! So the surprise was an "announcement" of stuff coming "soon". What if they actually released the maps today, now that would have been good.

It's actually kind of smart for them to wait until later to release the maps. When they release them a lot of people will be playing the game again just to try them out. They (Bungie/Microsoft) probably hope it will get them hooked again and cause them to purchase Halo 3 if they were previously on the fence. The new maps aren't to please the diehard fans, it's to get everyone else excited if they weren't already.

I wonder if MS has anything else to temp potential PS3 buyers on Friday to step in to the "light" side. ;)

They already do, a console that is $100-200 cheaper than the PS3. . .

[ryanbph]

For the three guys above me. It's fairly obvious you guys are not very keen on Halo, so why even post? Or even look at this thread?

For any real fan of Halo, this is great news.2.

That is your opioion. A nice suprise is not an announcement of something in the future. I was hoping for maration or whatever there mac game was to come out on xbla. Don't get me wrong, the beta is great news, as is the maps. But, if this was supposed to help keep the ps3 hype down, imo, it will/did fail miserably. Now if the announcement made you happy, then congrats. IMO, it was shitty to hype a suprise for the 15th, and then tell you on the 15th the eariest you will get a chance to see any of the suprises is the 4th on dec, and that will be a commercial.

[ryanbph]

WTF! So the surprise was an "announcement" of stuff coming "soon". What if they actually released the maps today, now that would have been good.

It's actually kind of smart for them to wait until later to release the maps. When they release them a lot of people will be playing the game again just to try them out. They (Bungie/Microsoft) probably hope it will get them hooked again and cause them to purchase Halo 3 if they were previously on the fence. The new maps aren't to please the diehard fans, it's to get everyone else excited if they weren't already.


You know your argument sound ok, but for the fact that it announced of the suprise on bungies website. Maybe I am wrong, but only the diehards of halo actually still visit the site. It isn't the casual/on the fence gamer, it is great they are releasing more maps, I will be getting them, but l;ets be realistic, the people that will be PAYING for the halo 2 maps, will not be the people on the fence. If someone is going to be dropping money to play a last gen game that is a couple years old, most likely they were already going to be getting halo 3.

[danked]

lol I forgot its my moms Bday today .. shes a bit older then 5 tho

[TC]

That beta is cool. I'm all for anything that may help to reduce cheating. The maps sound nice, although I've only played about 20 games of Halo2 over the last year. Guess the commercial is supposed to get all those people who can't find a PS3 thinking about Halo otherwise a commercial for a game so far out seems pointless.

[A Happy Panda]

:lol:

What's fairly obvious is the fact that you believe that people can't have different opinions than yours.

I bought an Xbox because of Halo. I played though on Heroic on both games. I host Halo lan parties, and have since the original game came out. Up until Gears came out Halo 2 was the only non-arcade game I played online for the past two years. I will be getting Halo 3 the day it comes out. Maybe even the Legendary version. So yeah, you have no idea what you are talking about.

I love halo as much as the next guy, but until we are closer to release these scraps of info are worthless.


Touche. But as a Halo fanboy (which I clearly am) I tend to eat up just about everything Bungie throws our way.

[xtchuh]

Is it me or the reason why they are making it 360 only maps is to see if anyone is going to try and sucessfully mod those maps and see if that code is good enough for the Halo 3 Game... Just a thought.