Thread: Halo 3: ODST

Originally Posted by SAGExSDX

if its squad based, i would think there'd have to be some changes to the game core. it wouldn't just be new maps. there'd have to be new control schemes, new UI/HUD. i think it'll be a separate retail product. hopefully with an optimized and updated engine!

To me there is no doubt that a squad based Halo game is coming. Bungie did hire the creative director of the Ghost Recon series about a year ago.

This teaser does seem to indicate squad based b/c of the ODST reference, but seeing Halo 3 at the end of the teaser makes one think this is going to be an expansion to Halo 3.

I would have thought MS would have loved to milk money on a separate game and charge us all another $60. However, if you think about the millions of copies of Halo 3 sold, they have a nice install base for an expansion. So maybe they are going to test the waters with a squad based Halo game using Halo 3? If they do this a dlc they save a ton of money on publishing and manufacturing discs. I figure MS will charge $20 for expansion. If it does well then maybe next year we see a full game come out on a disc?

off topice

I want one

Good find! So it is for sure a campaign experience. I guess I can wait until January.

Yea, I wonder what kind of shenanigans we will be getting into now.

January's good. It's after the crazy holiday season and in the first of the year lull.

I said all that stuff yesterday, and I'm still going frame by frame through that trailer. :P

Maybe we get to play as Sarge? hmmmmm.........That last pod is Sarge baby!

Anyone want to try to get the vidmaster annual achievement tonight?

Originally Posted by Wondermonkey

(although they are single person pods aren't they?)

They were singles in the books. And not overly reliable... seems every time a drop was discussed, they were talking about failure rates, people getting separated, etc.

Oh, and very, very nice catch on the ship behind the buildings!!

My only thought on the DLC aspect would be its departure from the MS/Bungie norm. It's not that it's not doable, but I would imagine a download with up to 6 campaign levels would be unbelievably large... so large as to make it hard to get into a downloadable packet. BUT if it's on a disc, then you have the problem of whether or not you force people to have H3 in order to play this new content. Agh!

Then there's the whole 750 new achievement points (if that's the number). Why 750? That's not 1,000... and not the 250 of an expansion. Why in between? Or weren't there some games that started with less than 1,000 pts and added more later with DLC?

Looks to me like MS will sell themselves some hard drives over this... who knows, maybe they'll bundle it pre-loaded on a nice big hard drive.

Originally Posted by Supafreak

Bungie did hire the creative director of the Ghost Recon series about a year ago.

Dude... that's professional-quality puzzle solving write there. What did they serve in the Bungie cafeteria yesterday? That could have an impact... Very nice catch!

Originally Posted by Wondermonkey

Personally, I think they stole some of ours.

The key word being some. They should've taken more! Heck, we've gotten into more detail than the "pros".

You know what would be badass? If they set up the entire massive city of New Mombassa and you had to fight to a certain point in the city... only every time you restart the game, your drop point changes... so you never play the same game twice. You actually have to find and fight to your squadmates to rally up with a clock ticking, then fight together to win the game...

We need to design games...

Maybe SI is just a part of the story like Guilty Spark, and he was obscure enough to be used in the teasing. A sort of mascot for the new expansion packs.

Originally Posted by Wondermonkey

My question in all of this is where exactly the Superintendent comes into play. I like the idea that he controls a city (camera, maint, cleanup) etc. but doesn't it seem a bit out of place for a squad based shooter expansion pack?

It's a little quirky, but I'm cool with that if they're going with this pure speculation line that I'm thinking: The New Mombassa AI is totally offline (thus "Where are you Maddie?"). The ODST Troopers don't have AI-enhanced armor like Master Chief does, so they need the assistance of some local AI to keep them informed of what's going on, give them directions, etc. Instead of a fully functional AI, they end up with this slightly off-kilter maintenance AI... kind of an R2-D2 approach to giving the gamer a comm interface. He's your new sidekick.

I'm wondering further if the messages across the screen are messages from Bungie, or level names, or nothing, or what:

Please remain calm
expect delays
Road Closed
Yellow means Yield
Obey Posted Limits
Pardon Our Dust
Maddie where are you? (Find the AI... just like finding Cortana)
Proceed with Caution
Danger, Flood Zone!! (This sounds deliberate...)
Final Notice, Bill Past Due
Keep it Clean

Originally Posted by Wondermonkey

Also, this is the cutscene where the covenant crusier jumps within NM:

http://halo3cinema.bungie.org/halo2/...pedient_hd.mov

Thanks! I have played through Halo 2 several times now but forgot all about this.

You guys have stepped up the talk on this. Glad to know there are some other geeks like me that dig this speculation crap as much as I do.