Halo 3 at E3

Last year this was the hottest ticket in town. The prospect of being ushered into a hotel room to see Halo 3 running would have given most gamers vertigo. But since then we’ve seen the game in action and there’s been a beta program where god knows how many have played the game. We even have a firm release date less than three months from now.

There’s very few games in this position that would be able to command attention beyond the “cool, but not top priority” camp. After all – there’s so much new stuff to see, right? Not this E3, and not this game. Halo 3 is destined to become the biggest game of the year. Forget Rock Band, Guitar Hero 3, and Call of Duty 4 for a moment. They will have their moment in the sun, but unless your game name is “Grand Theft Auto IV”, it’s hard to conceive any game being able to match the marketing and sales blitzkrieg that will kick off when Halo 3 drops. This game will not be allowed to fail, and there’s very few titles you can say that about.

I joined a scrum of punters in a small hotel room while the Bungie high priests laid down some gameplay on us.

We get into it quickly. We’re about one third through the first level to avoid spoilers from the introduction. The level name is Sierra 117 (“Sierra 117 is military code for Spartan 117”, we’re told). The Bungie staffer explains he has this on the “heroic” difficulty setting, “so I might die”, he quips.

There’s no music in this build. Perhaps that’s what makes this game seem very, VERY chatty. I don’t know what the battlefield of the future is, but if Halo 3 is anything to go by, I’m bringing my MP3 player. The enemies squeal and shriek, your teammates constantly hoot and holler. It sounds like a pack of lustful football players chasing a bunch of smurfs around. Don’t ask me how I know this – that’s just how I roll.

The fog and lighting effects are beyond reproach – we’re in the midst of a rolling battle in the middle of a very lush, green outdoor area, complete with pools of water and boulders. For the life of me I cannot spot a straight line. Barring a couple of hitches initially, framerate is supremely solid as well, which is a factor you just cannot overlook when considering the jump this Halo is on the last one.

Maybe it’s the difficulty level, maybe it’s the game, but using cover is mandatory. There’s a hell of a lot of enemies all around. It’s not a mass flood of baddies on screen, but its still conveying the heat of a battle. I’m kind of getting that Ewok forest battle vibe, if you catch my drift. Only without crazy log weapons etc.

There’s some beautiful effects in play. As a AI teammate starts firing, we can see some superb muffle flash lighting, and when our guy opens up, there’s a seriously realistic proximity glow illuminating nearby objects. There’s a bunch of minor detail being executed very well here that we as gamers tend to let slide – the dazzling glare of sunlight through the tree canopy, the interplay of light on rocks, even the shifting of reeds in the water.

Master Chief is copying a bit of a pounding now. Hit repeatedly by a weapon, spidery arms of electricity coruscate across his frame. Out comes the personal shield, and as many will know, this effect is so cool. A glassy, hexagonal segmented dome that our smart Bungie rep darts in and out of to deliver some melee pain to his enemies. As the campaign presentation fades, we all exhale, still captivated.

Brian Gerard, Bungie’s Community guy steps up. He’s taking us through the “save film” function of the game. In the final game, you will not be restricted in your playback point of view. You will be able to manipulate the camera wherever you want – including through other player’s points of view, zoom around, essentially do whatever your creative muse dictates.

He runs us through an example battle on the “Sandtrap” map, previously known as “Shrine”. It’s not rocket science, but it’s very impressive. Because the feature uses game data, it takes up hardly any storage space at all, and because you can take out clips of your favourite action, you won’t need to fast forward through 20 minutes of battle just replay and freeze frame the sensational headshot you got from across the map.

You will not be able to covert the clips and films to an external video format – you will need to play them back in game. But Bungie have some ambitious plans to support amateur film makers through bungie.net – so watch this space, essentially. As a consolation, you can save screenshots in high resolution and say, email them to your future victims. Just a suggestion.

Halo 3 has some actually decent competition this year, but we all know it won’t stop it from becoming a monster hit. As good as it looks, there’s better looking games at this show. But you’d be a brave soul to suggest that the competition will get the numbers playing online or the Bungie multiplayer refinement straight out of the box. Time will tell, but given that Bungie has mastered the art of giving near PC levels of flexibility in its online multiplayer – the excellence of what we’ve seen in campaign mode and the cool factor of save films augurs well for the franchise.