Bungie: Halo 3 to look wiz-bang

Mike Bantick
Thursday, 31 May 2007 12:10

Opinion and Analysis

Remember kids, the current multiplayer Beta test for Halo 3 on the Xbox 360, is just that, a Beta Test.  In a recent interview, developer Bungies' Frank O’Connor talks up the fact that they have not finished tweaking the Halo look.

Halo 3 is set to hit shelves this September 25th (North America at least), and there will be a large portion of Xbox 360 owners keen to join the Master Chief in the final confrontation of the series.

Currently the multiplayer Beta is being conducted for a select few frantic fraggers over Xbox Live, and a number of opinions have arisen around the games structure, pace and look.

Generally comments online have been positive about the additional components of new vehicles, weapons, deployable equipment and pace.  The matchmaking system lacks a final version lobby polish, but has features that sit well in the multiplayer community.  Rating points to achieve player ranking and matching works well.

Apart from complaints about the “snowbound” map, which is a frenzy of activity from the get go, some online pundits have commented on the lack of graphical lustre increment over Halo 3’s forebears.

Personally I love the look already, and a recent interview with Next-Gen.biz, Bungie big-wig Frank O’Conner sets about to allay fears over the final version gleam;

“Well to be honest, we’ve seen them [the graphics] praised too. Multiplayer is by necessity a more sterile iteration of our graphical style and will always be tuned for performance and elegance rather than jamming the screen full of pixels. We think that the final aesthetic look of our game will be judged at launch in September and in part based on the more intense single player spaces. We’re also focused on maintaining the Halo character and atmosphere in our visual design – we’re competing with ourselves, and not simply trying to match the aesthetic of other games. We think that folks will be happy with Halo 3’s graphical polish come September.”

O’Conner expands on where Bungie is focusing their graphical microscope;

“We have a long time to polish and iterate on the largely complete game at this point.  We’ll be working on some big ticket items as well as making sure that the little details, like decorators and shaders are all in place. Lighting and atmospherics are going to be big keystones in our look and feel, and those really haven’t been shown except in multiplayer to this point.

Unfortunately O’Conner does not add any more detail to speculative single player campaign content.  So if like me, you are being owned during the multiplayer Beta test, or simply hanging out for Halo 3 when it hits retail, keep on hanging.