Halo: Combat Evolved (commonly known as Halo or Halo 1) is a first-person shooter (FPS) video game developed by Bungie Studios

Halo: Combat Evolved Halo: Combat Evolved Developer(s) Bungie Studios Gearbox Software (Windows port) MacSoft Games (Mac port) Publisher(s) Microsoft Game Studios Composer(s) Martin O'Donnell Michael Salvatori Series Halo Engine Halo engine (Proprietary) Version 1.0.8.616 / (August 8, 2008) Platform(s) Xbox, Windows, Mac OS X Release date(s) Xbox NA November 15, 2001[1] EU March 14, 2002[2] AUS March 14, 2002[3] Microsoft Windows NA September 30, 2003[4] EU October 10, 2003 Mac OS X NA December 3, 2003[5] Genre(s) First-person shooter Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer, cooperative Rating(s) ESRB: M OFLC: MA15+ PEGI: 16+ PEGI: 15+ (Finland) USK: 16 Media CD-ROM, DVD System requirements 733 MHz processor, 128 MB RAM, 32 MB T&L capable video card, 1.2 GB free hard drive space Input methods Xbox: gamepad. Windows and Mac: gamepad, keyboard and mouse Halo: Combat Evolved (commonly known as Halo or Halo 1) is a first-person shooter (FPS) video game developed by Bungie Studios. The first game of the Halo series, it was released on November 15, 2001 as a launch title for the Xbox gaming system,[1] and is considered the platform's "killer app."[6] With more than five million copies sold worldwide as of November 9, 2005,[7] Microsoft released versions of the game for Microsoft Windows (developed by Gearbox Software) and Mac OS X in 2003, and the surrounding storyline was adapted and elaborated into a series of novels. The game was later released as an Xbox Original for download onto an Xbox 360 HDD. In Halo's twenty-sixth century setting, the player assumes the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced "SPARTAN" super-soldier. The player is accompanied by Cortana, an artificial intelligence who occupies the Master Chief's neural interface. Players battle various aliens on foot and in vehicles as they attempt to uncover the secrets of the eponymous Halo, a ring-shaped structure. The game has been called "easy to learn",[8] and has been praised for its "engaging story".[9] Many game magazines have praised Halo as one of the best[10] and most important[11] games of all time. The game's popularity has led to labels such as "Halo clone"[12] and "Halo killer", applied respectively to games either similar to or anticipated to be better than it.[13][14] In addition, the game inspired and was used in the fan-created Red vs. Blue video series, which is credited as the "first big success" of machinima[15] — the technique of using real-time 3D engines, often from video games, to create animated films. Contents [hide] * 1 Gameplay o 1.1 Combatants o 1.2 Multiplayer * 2 Synopsis o 2.1 Setting o 2.2 Characters o 2.3 Plot * 3 Development * 4 Audio * 5 Reception o 5.1 Legacy * 6 Adaptations * 7 References * 8 External links Gameplay The Master Chief fires his Assault Rifle at a pack of Grunts. Weapon, health and motion sensor displays are visible in the corners of the screen As a first-person shooter, Halo: Combat Evolved has a gameplay fundamentally similar to that of its peers, focusing on combat in a 3D environment, and taking place almost entirely from a character's eye view. The player can move around and look up, down, left or right.[16] The game features vehicles, ranging from armored jeeps (Warthog) to tanks (Scorpion), alien hovercraft (Ghost) and even an aircraft (Banshee), all of which can be controlled by the player. The game switches to the third-person perspective during vehicle use for pilots and mounted gun operators; passengers maintain a first-person view.[17] The player character is equipped with a damage-absorbing energy shield, in addition to hit points. The shield's charge appears as a blue bar in the upper-right hand corner of the game's heads-up display. When the shield is fully depleted, the player is highly vulnerable, and further damage reduces the character's health level.[9] Critically, however, the shield will recharge if no further damage is sustained for a brief period.[18] Halo's arsenal consists of weapons from science fiction. The game has been praised for giving each weapon a unique purpose, thus making them useful in different scenarios.[19] For example, plasma weapons need time to cool if fired too rapidly, but require no reloading. Instead, players are forced to discard them after depleting their batteries. In contrast, conventional firearms cannot overheat, but require reloading and ammunition. All weapons may be used to bludgeon enemies,[18] which allows a player to silently kill opponents without alerting other nearby enemies.[20] Players may carry only two weapons at once; thus, a strategy is required when using and selecting firearms.[21] The player can carry up to eight grenades at a time: four fragmentation and four plasma grenades each.[2] Like the game's other weapons, the two types of grenades differ; the fragmentation grenade bounces and detonates quickly,[22] whereas the plasma grenade adheres to targets and takes longer to detonate.[23] A controller button assigned to grenades eliminates the need to holster firearms before throwing.[18] Combatants The game's main enemy force is the Covenant, an alliance of alien species. Their forces include Elites, fierce warriors protected by recharging energy shields much like the player's own; Grunts, which are short, cowardly creatures, usually led by Elites, and who often flee in terror instead of fighting unless an Elite is present; Jackals, which have highly durable energy shields attached to their arms; and Hunters, large, powerful creatures with thick armor plates that cover the majority of their bodies.[24] A secondary enemy is The Flood, a parasitic alien life form that appears in three main variants.[25] Infection Forms, the true form of the Flood, are fragile, but often travel in swarms; they do little damage individually, but the swarms often number in the hundreds. Combat Forms result from humans and Covenant Elites who are infected by Infection Forms, and have hideously deformed bodies. Bloated Carrier Forms serve as incubators for new Infection Forms, and when wounded or near a potential victim, they explode to damage other nearby life forms and to release their spores. Battling the Flood, Covenant and player are the Sentinels, robotic drones designed by an extinct race called the Forerunners. Sentinels lack durability, but use powerful beam weapons and are immune to infection by the Flood.[25] The artificial intelligence in Halo has been favorably received.[26] Enemies take cover and use suppressive fire and grenades.[19] Some enemies retreat when their superiors are killed.[27] The player is often aided by United Nations Space Command (UNSC) Marines, who offer ground support, such as manning gun turrets or riding shotgun while the player is driving a vehicle.[19] Multiplayer Because Halo was released before Xbox Live, online multiplayer games were not officially supported.[28] The game instead uses local Ethernet or "system-link" that supports a maximum of 16 players. This setup was a first for a console game, but was often deemed impractical by critics.[20][19] As Halo lacks artificially intelligent game bots, LAN parties are needed to reach the game's 16-player limit. In addition to five customizable competitive multiplayer modes, two players may co-operatively play through the game's campaign.[16] Halo's multiplayer components were generally well-received by critics and is widely considered one of the best multiplayer games of all time.[29][30][17] Although the Xbox version of Halo lacks official support for online multiplayer play, XLink Kai, GameSpy and XBConnect's packet tunnelling software provide unofficial ways around this limitation.[31] The Windows and Macintosh ports of Halo support online matches involving up to 16 players and include multiplayer maps not in the original Xbox release.[32] However, co-operative play was removed from the ports because it would have required large amounts of recoding to implement.[33] On March 15, 2004, Gearbox Software released Halo: Custom Edition for Windows, which enabled players to use custom-made maps and game modifications.[34] Synopsis Setting Halo takes place in a science fiction universe created by Bungie Studios specifically for the game. According to the story, the overpopulation of Earth and the realization of faster-than-light travel have caused the human race to colonize other planets. A keystone of these efforts is the planet Reach, an interstellar naval yard and a hub of scientific and military activity.[18] A secret military endeavor, dubbed the SPARTAN Project, was established on Reach to create an army of biologically-engineered, cyborg "super-soldiers". Thirty-two years before the beginning of the game, a technologically advanced collective of alien races, the Covenant, began to attack human settlements, declaring humanity an affront to their gods. The United Nations Space Command experienced a series of crushing defeats, and, although the super-soldiers of the SPARTAN-II Project fought effectively against the Covenant, they were unable to turn the tides of war.[18] To prepare for a mission to discover the location of the Covenant's homeworld, SPARTAN-II soldiers were recalled to Reach for further augmentation. Two days before the mission was to begin, Covenant forces attacked Reach and destroyed the colony.[18] A starship, the Pillar of Autumn, survived the onslaught with the lead Spartan II, Master Chief, onboard. The ship initiated a random jump to slip space (similar to hyperspace),[35] hoping to lead the enemy away from Earth.[36] The game starts with the Pillar of Autumn encountering Halo. The titular Halo is an enormous, ring-shaped artificial space habitat/planet, which (according to Bungie Studios) has a diameter of ten thousand kilometers.[37] Halo sits at a Lagrange point between a planet and its moon. Centrifugal force created by the rotation of the station provides the ring's gravity.[38] Characters Main article: Characters of Halo The player character is Master Chief Petty Officer John-117,[39] one of the few (see Halo: The Fall of Reach and its sequels for more information) surviving super-soldiers of the SPARTAN-II project, and the main character of the story. Accompanying the Master Chief is the Pillar of Autumn's feminine artificial intelligence construct, Cortana, who resides in a neural implant connected to his battle armor, codenamed MJOLNIR Mark V. The Pillar of Autumn's captain, Jacob Keyes, is also a major character. Playing an antagonistic role in the game's events is 343 Guilty Spark, an eccentric artificial intelligence responsible for monitoring and maintaining Halo's systems. Plot The story is presented through an instruction manual, scripted events and conversations during the game, and in-game cut scenes. The game begins as the Pillar of Autumn exits slip-space near a mysterious ring-shaped space station, called "Halo" by the enemy of the game, The Covenant.[40] A Covenant fleet attacks and heavily damages the Pillar of Autumn. Jacob Keyes initiates "The Cole Protocol",[41] a procedure designed to prevent the Covenant from learning the location of Earth. While Keyes prepares to land the ship on Halo, the Master Chief and Cortana escape via an escape pod, which crash lands on the ring. Cortana and the Chief are the only ones that survived the impact of the escape pod crash. Keyes survives the Autumn's crash landing, but is captured by the Covenant.[42] In the second and third levels of the game, the Master Chief and Cortana gather human survivors and rescue Captain Keyes, who is imprisoned on the Covenant ship Truth and Reconciliation. Once rescued, Keyes orders the Master Chief to beat the Covenant to Halo's control center and to discover its purpose.[43] The Master Chief and Cortana travel to a map room called the Silent Cartographer, which leads them to the control room.[44] There, Cortana enters the systems and, discovering something urgent, suddenly sends the Master Chief to find Captain Keyes, while she stays behind.[45] While searching for his commander, the Master Chief learns that the Covenant have accidentally released the Flood, a parasitic alien race capable of spreading itself by overwhelming and infesting other sentient life-forms. Keyes falls victim to them while looking for a cache of weapons. The release of the Flood prompts 343 Guilty Spark to recruit the Master Chief in retrieving the Index, a device that will activate Halo and prevent the Flood from spreading beyond the facility. After the Master Chief retrieves and begins to use the Index, Cortana re-appears and warns him against the activation. She has discovered that Halo's defense system is a weapon designed to kill all sentient life in the galaxy, which the Flood need to spread.[46] When confronted with this information, 343 Guilty Spark states that the installation technically only has a maximum radius of twenty-five thousand light-years, but that its pulse would trigger other similar installations as well, killing all sentient life in the galaxy.[47] While fighting the Flood, the Covenant, and Guilty Spark's Sentinels, the Master Chief and Cortana attempt to destroy Halo before 343 Guilty Spark activates it. Cortana discovers that the best way to destroy Halo is to cause the crashed Pillar of Autumn to self-destruct.[48] However, Captain Keyes' authorization is required to destroy the ship.[49] By the time that they reach Keyes, he has been infected and turned into a Brain Flood. The Master Chief retrieves Keyes' neural implants directly from his brain, and Cortana activates the Autumn's self-destruct sequence. However, 343 Guilty Spark reappears and deactivates the countdown, discovering the record of human history in the process.[50] The Master Chief manually causes the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactors to begin to melt down, and the Master Chief and Cortana narrowly escape the destruction of the ring via a fighter. Development The first official screenshot of Halo. On July 21, 1999, during the Macworld Conference & Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Halo would be released for Mac OS and Windows simultaneously.[51] Before this public announcement, game industry journalists under a non-disclosure agreement had previewed the game in a private showing during E3 1999,[52] and were reportedly amazed.[51][52] Bungie Studios later stated an even earlier development build of the game centered on real-time strategy and was "basically Myth in a sci-fi universe."[53] At E3 2000, the first trailer of Halo was well-received.[54] The version shown there differed greatly from the one exhibited previously, marking the first major overhaul in the game's development.[55] At this point, Halo was a third-person action game, in which a transport starship crashlands on a mysterious ring world that orbits a star. Early versions of Covenant aliens appear in great numbers and loot what they can, and war erupts between them and the humans. Unable to match the technologically advanced alien race, the humans on the ring world resort to guerrilla warfare.[56] This version of the game featured Halo-specific fauna, which were later dropped because of design difficulties and the creatures' "detract[ion] from the surprise, drama and impact of the Flood."[57] As rumors had predicted,[58] Microsoft announced on June 19, 2000 that it had acquired Bungie Studios.[59] Halo became an exclusive game for Microsoft's Xbox video game console, and Bungie Studios rewrote the game's engine, heavily altering its presentation and turning it into a first-person shooter.[60] Originally a key element, the game's online multiplayer component was dropped because Xbox Live would be unfinished at the time of Halo's release. While a playable demonstration of the game at Gamestock 2001 was well-received,[61] critics had mixed reactions to its exhibition at E3 2001.[62][63][64] The game was released in North America simultaneously with the Xbox, on November 15, 2001.[1] On July 12, 2002, a Halo port for Windows was announced to be under development by Gearbox Software.[65] Its showing at E3 2003 was positively received by some critics,[66][67] with skepticism by others.[68] It was released on September 30, 2003,[4] and included support for online multiplayer play and featured sharper graphics, but had compatibility issues that caused poor performance.[69][32] Halo was later released for Mac OS X on December 11, 2003.[5] On December 4, 2007, the game became available for the Xbox 360 via download from the Xbox Live Marketplace for 1200 Microsoft Points.[70] Audio Main article: Halo Original Soundtrack Halo's soundtrack was created by Bungie Studios' audio director, Martin O'Donnell, and received enthusiastic praise from many critics.[17][19][21][9] O'Donnell has stated that his goal was to provide "a feeling of importance, weight, and sense of the 'ancient'."[71] He designed the music so that it "could be dissembled and remixed in such a way that would give [him] multiple, interchangeable loops that could be randomly recombined in order to keep the piece interesting as well as a variable length". Development involved the creation of "alternative middle sections that could be transitioned to if the game called for such a change (i.e. less or more intense)."[72] O'Donnell has remarked that he "sat with the level designers and 'spotted' the level as though it was a movie, with the knowledge that the music would have to be malleable rather than static.... [T]he level designer would tell me what he hoped a player would feel at certain points or after accomplishing certain tasks". Based on this information, O'Donnell would "go back and develop appropriate music cues, then have the designer script the cues into the level, and then we'd play through it to see if it worked as desired."[72] He explained that the use of music in Halo is sparse because he believes that "[music] is best used in a game to quicken the emotional state of the player and it works best when used least", and that "[if] music is constantly playing it tends to become sonic wallpaper and loses its impact when it is needed to truly enhance some dramatic component of game play."[73] Reception [hide] Reception Review scores Publication Score Edge 10/10 Fourth ever top score awarded Electronic Gaming Monthly 10/10 Platinum Award, Game of the Year Famitsu 32/40 Game Informer 9.5/10[74] GameSpot 9.7/10.[19] Editor's Choice GameSpy 85/100[9] IGN 9.7/10[17] Editor's Choice, Game of the Year 2001 Aggregate scores Aggregator Score Game Rankings 96% (based on 90 reviews)[76] Metacritic PC: 83% (based on 40 reviews)[75] Xbox: 97% (based on 68 reviews)[1] Awards 2002 Game Developers Choice Awards: Excellence in Audio 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards: Console and Overall Game of the Year, Console Action / Adventure, Visual Engineering 2000 Game Critics Awards: Best Action Game On its release Halo broke sales records; by April 8, 2002, one million units had been sold: this pace was faster than that of any previous sixth-generation console game.[77] During the two months following Halo's release, the game sold alongside more than fifty percent of Xbox consoles.[78] Halo's retail price remained at US$49.99 until November 30, 2003.[79] By July 14, 2003, the game had sold three million copies worldwide,[80] and by January 28, 2004, it had reached four million copies.[81] As of November 9, 2005, Halo has sold over five million copies worldwide.[7] Halo was critically acclaimed and received an overall score of 97% on Metacritic.[1] Electronic Gaming Monthly observed, "This game has me totally mesmerized ... [It] engages your intellect on a whole different level", and of its multiplayer, "GoldenEye was the multiplayer standard for console first-person shooters... It has been surpassed," awarding the game a perfect score.[6] GameSpot claimed that "Halo's single-player game is worth picking up an Xbox for alone", commenting, "Not only is this easily the best of the Xbox launch games, but it's easily one of the best shooters ever, on any platform."[19] IGN remarked similarly, calling Halo a "can't miss, no-brainer, sure thing, five star, triple A game."[17] Edge called it "the most important launch game for any console, ever", and awarded it a 10 out of 10 score, only the fourth such rating in the magazine's 12-year history.[30] The game received numerous Game of the Year awards, including those of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences,[82] Electronic Gaming Monthly, Edge, and IGN.[83] The British Academy of Film and Television Arts awarded Halo "Best Console Game", and Rolling Stone presented it with their "Best Original Soundtrack" award. According to Xbox, the game received a total of 48 awards.[83] Among the specific aspects that reviewers praised were the balance of weapons, the role of drivable vehicles,[17][5] and the artificial intelligence of enemies.[30][5] Although Halo's overall reception was largely positive, the game received some criticism for its level design. IGN wrote that "the middle third of the game basically has ... the same level over again."[17] GameSpy gave Halo a considerably lower (abeit still positive) rating than other reviewers, later placing the game tenth on its "Top 25 Most Overrated Games of All Time" list. The site stated that the levels often "degenerated into recycling the same areas over and over until you were bored to tears" and were one of the few reviewers to complain about the lack of online multiplayer play, though Xbox Live had not yet been launched and GameSpy offered its Tunnel service to enable SystemLink games over the Internet[1].[31] Noting the level design as a problem, an article on Game Studies.org stated that the game still "triumphs in understanding the anatomy of the FPS," and is "not so much about 'combat evolved' as the subtitle suggests, but about 'genre evolved'."[84] Halo's PC port garnered mixed reactions and received a score of 83% on Metacritic.[4] GameSpot stated that it was "still an incredible action game ... [and] a true classic", awarding it 9.0 out of 10.[69] It received a score of 8.2 out of 10 from IGN, who stated, "If you've played the game on the Xbox, there's not much for you here."[32] Eurogamer called the game "a missed opportunity", but stated that the online multiplayer component was "a massive draw ... for Halo veterans".[33] Legacy According to Gamespot, Halo's "numerous subtle innovations have been borrowed by countless other games since."[85] The game is often cited as the main reason for the Xbox's success,[86] and it began what is commonly regarded as the system's flagship franchise.[87] Game designer Vox Day credited the game with using science-fiction environments to follow Half-Life in eschewing static levels and a similarity to dungeon crawls, which the FPS genre inherited from Akalabeth. Day further wrote that Halo spurred a sustained trend of many other FPS console games.[88] On July 29, 2006, using criteria including revenue, average review scores, commentary, spin-offs and other elements, Halo was estimated as the second to top game of the twenty-first century, behind Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.[89] The game's popularity sparked the usage of terms like "Halo clone"[90][91][92] and "Halo killer";[13] the game Killzone was billed as the latter.[93][94] The Halo engine has been used for the game Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse".[95] Halo has been featured at both Major League Gaming and the World Cyber Games.[96][97] In machinima, the game was used as the basis for the popular Red vs. Blue. The game's sequel, Halo 2, made US$125 million with unit sales of 2.38 million on the first day of its release,[98] earning it the distinction of the fastest-selling United States media product in history.[99] Three years later, Halo 3 shattered that record with the biggest opening day in entertainment history, taking in US$170 million in its first 24 hours.[100] Adaptations Further information: Halo (series)#Merchandise and List of Halo media The story surrounding Halo: Combat Evolved has been adapted into novels, the first of which was Halo: The Fall of Reach, a prequel. Published in October 2001, this novel was written by Eric Nylund, who reportedly completed it in seven weeks.[101] The novel became a Publishers Weekly bestseller with almost two hundred thousand copies sold.[102] The following novel, entitled Halo: The Flood, is a tie-in to Halo: Combat Evolved, describing not only the experiences of the Master Chief, but also those of other characters on Installation 04. Written by William C. Dietz, this novel appeared on the Publishers Weekly bestsellers list during May 2003.[103] Nylund returned to write the third novel, Halo: First Strike, which takes place between the events of Halo: Combat Evolved and those of Halo 2. Written in 16 weeks,[102] it was published in December 2003.[104] Later novels, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (written by Nylund and released on October 31, 2006)[105] and Halo: Contact Harvest (written by Joseph Staten) further extended the Halo storyline. Another adaptation is the Halo Graphic Novel, a collection of four short stories released in July 2006.[106] It was written and illustrated by well-known graphic novelists Lee Hammock, Jay Faerber, Tsutomu Nihei, Brett Lewis, Simon Bisley, Ed Lee and Jean Giraud. Bungie Studios regards Halo's adaptations as canon.[107] References 6. ^ a b Electronic Gaming Monthly issue 150, pg 224 15. ^ Tavares, José Pedro, Rui Gil, and Licino Roque. "Player as Author: conjecturing online game creation modalities and infrastructure" (DOC). Retrieved on 2006-08-03. 18. ^ a b c d e f Halo: Combat Evolved game manual 30. ^ a b c Edge issue 105, pg 1 (review scans). 35. ^ Keyes: [sigh] We made a blind jump. How did they... / Cortana: Get here first? Covenant ships have always been faster. As for tracking us all the way from Reach, at light speed, my maneuvering options were limited. 36. ^ Sergeant Johnson: Men, we led those dumb bugs out to the middle of nowhere to keep 'em from gettin' their filthy claws on Earth. But, we stumbled onto somethin' they're so hot for that they're scramblin' over each other to get it! Well, I don't care if it's God's own, personal anti-son-of-a-bitch machine, or a giant hula hoop, we're not gonna let them have it! What we will let them have is a belly full of lead, and a pool of their own blood to drown in! Am I right, Marines? 40. ^ Keyes: While the Covenant had us locked up in here, I overheard the guards talking about this ring world. They call it... Halo. 41. ^ Keyes: All right then, I'm initiating Cole Protocol article two. We're abandoning the Autumn. That means you too, Cortana. 42. ^ Cortana: Warning: I've picked up reports that the Covenant has located and secured the Pillar of Autumn's crash site. Good news is the Captain's still alive. The bad news is that the Covenant have captured all of the surviving men. Let's hurry and find the final lifeboat so we can link up with the rest of the survivors. 43. ^ Cortana: According to the data in their networks, the ring has some kind of deep religious significance. If I'm analyzing this correctly, they believe that Halo is some kind of weapon—one with vast, unimaginable power. / Keyes: And it's true. The Covenant kept saying that whoever controls Halo controls the fate of the universe. / Cortana: Now I see! I have intercepted a number of messages about a Covenant search team scouting for a control room. I thought they were looking for the bridge of a cruiser that I damaged during the battle above the ring, but they must be looking for Halo's control room! / Keyes: That's bad news. If Halo is a weapon, and the Covenant gain control of it, they'll use it against us and wipe out the entire human race. Chief, Cortana, I have a new mission for you. We need to beat the Covenant to Halo's control room. Marines, let's move. 44. ^ Cortana: The Covenant believe that what they call the "Silent Cartographer" is somewhere under this island. The Cartographer is a map room that will lead us to Halo's control center. 45. ^ Master Chief: So, what sort of weapon is it? / Cortana: What are you talking about? Master Chief: Let's stay focused. Halo: how do we use it against the Covenant? / Cortana: This ring isn't a cudgel, you barbarian. It's something else. Something much more important. The Covenant were right. This ring, it's Forerunner. Give me a second to access... yes, the Forerunners built this place, what they called a fortress world, in order to-- Wait... No, that can't be! Oh, those Covenant fools! They must have known! There must have been signs! / Master Chief: Slow down. You're losing me. / Cortana: The Covenant... found something buried in this ring; something horrible. And now they're afraid. Master Chief: Something buried? Where? / Cortana: The Captain! We've got to stop the Captain! / Master Chief: Keyes? What do we... / Cortana: The weapons cache he's looking for is not really... We can't let him get inside! / Master Chief: I don't understa-- / Cortana: There's no time! Get out of here! Find Keyes. Stop him. Before it's too late! 46. ^ Master Chief: The Flood is spreading. If we activate Halo's defenses, we can wipe them out. / Cortana: You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the Forerunners built it? Halo doesn't kill Flood; it kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever; we're all equally edible. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death, and that's exactly what Halo is designed to do—wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. You don't believe me? Ask him! 47. ^ Master Chief: Is it true? / 343 Guilty Spark: More or less. Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective radius of twenty-five thousand light years, but once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or any least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the Flood... but you already knew that. I mean, how couldn't you? 48. ^ Cortana: We can't let the monitor activate Halo! We have to stop him—we have to destroy Halo. According to my analysis of the available data, I believe the best course of action is somewhat risky. An explosion of sufficient size will help destabilize the ring and will cut through a number of primary systems. We need to trigger a detonation on a large scale, however. A starship's fusion reactors going critical would do the job. I'm going to search what's left of the Covenant battle net' and see if I can locate the Pillar of Autumn's crash site. If the ship's fusion reactors are still relatively intact, we can use them to destroy Halo. 49. ^ Cortana: I've located the Pillar of Autumn. She put down twelve hundred kilometers upspin. Energy readings show her fusion reactors are still powered up. The systems on the Pillar of Autumn have failsafes even I can't override without authorization from the Captain. We'll need to find him, or his neural implants, to start the fusion core detonation. 50. ^ Cortana: This won't take long ... There. That should give us enough time to make it to a lifeboat and put some distance between ourselves and Halo before the detonation. / 343 Guilty Spark: I'm afraid that's out of the question, really. / Cortana: Oh, hell! / 343 Guilty Spark: Ridiculous—that you and a warship's AI with such a wealth of knowledge ... Weren't you worried it might be captured, or destroyed? / Cortana: He's in my data arrays—a local tap. / 343 Guilty Spark: You can't imagine how exciting this is to have a record of all our lost time. Human history is it? Fascinating. / 343 Guilty Spark: Oh, how will I enjoy every moment of its categorization. To think that you would destroy this installation, as well as this record. I am shocked. Almost too shocked for words. / Cortana: He stopped the self-destruct sequence! 52. ^ a b Morris, Daniel. Your first look at... Halo (full text). PC Gamer October 1999 issue, pg 40. 56. ^ Hiatt, Jesse (November 1999). Games That Will Change Gaming (scans). Computer Gaming World. Retrieved on August 31, 2006 62. ^ Toyama, Kevin. Holy Halo (scans). Next Generation Magazine May 2001 issue, pg 1. 64. ^ A World Apart (scans). GamePro May 1999 issue, pg 42. 88. ^ Day, Vox (2006). "Halo and the High Art of Games". in Yeffeth, Glenn (ed.). Halo Effect: An Unauthorized Look at the Most Successful Video Game of All Time. Dallas, Texas: BenBella Books. pp. 160–161. External links Sister project Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Halo: Combat Evolved * Official site * Halo on Xbox * Halo: Combat Evolved guide at StrategyWiki * halo.bungie.org * Halo: Combat Evolved at MobyGames [show] v • d • e Halo series Main trilogy Halo: Combat Evolved · Halo 2 · Halo 3 (ODST) Related games Halo Wars · Halo: Chronicles Printed media The Fall of Reach · The Flood · First Strike · Ghosts of Onyx · Contact Harvest · The Cole Protocol · Halo Graphic Novel · Uprising Music Halo Original Soundtrack · Halo 2 Original Soundtrack · Halo 3 Original Soundtrack Information and fiction Official games and media · Characters (Master Chief · Cortana · Arbiter · Gravemind) · Factions Promotion I Love Bees · Halo 3 marketing [show] v • d • e Bungie video games Bungie series Marathon Trilogy · Myth series · Halo series Individual games Gnop! · Operation Desert Storm · Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete · Pathways into Darkness · Abuse · Oni' · Pimps at Sea Notable people Jason Jones · Alex Seropian · Martin O'Donnell · Joseph Staten · Luke Smith Featured article Categories: Featured articles | 2001 video games | AIAS Game of the Year winners | Cooperative video games | First-person shooters | Halo games | Interactive Achievement Award winners | Mac OS X games | Microsoft games | Multiplayer online games | Science fiction video games | Windows games | Xbox games Halo 2 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Semi-protected Halo 2 Image:Halo2-cover.png Developer(s) Bungie Studios (Xbox) Hired Gun (PC) Publisher(s) Microsoft Game Studios Platform(s) Xbox, Microsoft Windows Vista, and Xbox 360 backward compatible Release date(s) November 9, 2004[show] Xbox: NA November 9, 2004[1] AUS November 9, 2004 EU November 11, 2004 JP November 11, 2004 Microsoft Windows: AUS May 17, 2007[2] NA May 31, 2007[2] EU June 8, 2007[2] Genre(s) First-person shooter Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer, Xbox Live, co-op, and system-link Rating(s) BBFC: 12 ESRB: M (Mature) OFLC: MA15+ OFLC: R16+ PEGI: 16+ PEGI: 15+ (Finland) USK: 16 Media DVD Input methods Gamepad, Keyboard and mouse Halo 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. Released for the Xbox video game console on November 9, 2004,[1] the game is the second video game title in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically-acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. A Windows Vista version of the game was released on May 17, 2007,[2] developed by an internal team at Microsoft Game Studios referred to as "Hired Gun". The game features a new game engine, as well as using the Havok physics engine; added weapons and vehicles, and new multiplayer maps. The player alternatively assumes the roles of the human Master Chief and alien the Arbiter in a 26th century conflict between the human UNSC and genocidal Covenant. Players fight enemies on foot, or with a collection of alien and human vehicles.[3] After its initial release, Halo 2 was the most popular video game on Xbox Live,[4] holding that rank until the release of Gears of War for the Xbox 360 nearly two years later.[5] By June 20, 2006, more than 500 million games of Halo 2 had been played and more than 710 million hours have been spent playing it on Xbox Live;[6] by May 9, 2007, this number had risen to more than five million unique players on Xbox Live[7] As of November 2008, Halo 2 is the best-selling first-generation Xbox game[8] with 8.46 million copies sold worldwide,[9] with at least 6.3 million copies sold in the US alone.[10] Critical reception of the game was generally positive, with most publications lauding the strong multiplayer component; at the same time, the campaign was the focus of criticism for its cliffhanger ending. Contents [hide] * 1 Gameplay o 1.1 Campaign o 1.2 Multiplayer * 2 Synopsis o 2.1 Setting o 2.2 Plot * 3 Development o 3.1 Audio * 4 Release o 4.1 Windows version * 5 Cheating and updates * 6 Reception * 7 References * 8 External links Gameplay In-game screenshot of Halo 2 for Xbox. Halo 2 is a story-driven action-shooter game with a first-person perspective.[11] The game features an expanded range of vehicles, as well as other gameplay changes compared to its predecessor. The original Halo featured separate health and shield bars. In Halo 2, the health bar is no longer visible; instead, the player's shield regenerates quickly when the player is not taking damage.[3] Certain weapons can be dual-wielded, which allows the player to trade accuracy and the ability to use grenades and melee for raw firepower.[3] The player can carry two weapons at a time (or three if dual-wielding; one weapon remains holstered), with each weapon having advantages and disadvantages in different combat situations. For example, most Covenant weapons eschew disposable ammo clips for a contained battery, which cannot be replaced if depleted. However, these weapons can overheat if fired continuously for prolonged periods.[3] Human weapons are less effective at penetrating shields and require reloading, but cannot overheat due to prolonged fire. The player can carry a total of eight grenades to dislodge and disrupt enemies. A new ability found in Halo 2 is the ability to board enemy vehicles that are near the player and traveling at low speeds. The player or AI latches onto the vehicle and forcibly ejects the other driver from the vehicle. Campaign The game's "Campaign" mode offers options for both single-player and cooperative multiplayer participation. In campaign mode, the player must complete a series of levels that encompass Halo 2's storyline. These levels alternate between the Master Chief and a Covenant Elite called the Arbiter, who occupy diametrically opposed roles in the story's conflict. Aside from variations in storyline, the Arbiter differs from Master Chief only in that his armor lacks a flashlight; instead, it is equipped with a short duration rechargeable form of active camouflage that disappears when the player attacks or takes damage. There are four levels of difficulty in campaign mode: Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary. An increase in difficulty will result in an increase in the number, rank, health, damage, and accuracy of enemies; a reduction of duration and an increase in recharge time for the Arbiter's active camouflage; a decrease in the player's health and shields; and occasional changes in dialogue.[12] There is hidden content within the game, including easter eggs, messages, hidden objects, and weapons. The most well-known of the hidden content are the skulls hidden on every level. The skulls, which can be picked up like a weapon, are located in hard-to-reach places. Many are exclusive to the Legendary mode of difficulty. Once activated, each skull has a specific effect on gameplay. For example, the "Sputnik" skull found on the Quarantine Zone level alters the mass of objects in the game; thus resulting in explosions being able to launch these objects across larger distances. Skull effects can be combined to provide various new levels of difficulty and/or novelty.[13] Multiplayer Unlike its predecessor, Halo 2 allows players to compete with each other via Xbox Live, in addition to support for split-screen and system link multiplayer.[3] Halo 2's multiplayer mode offers changes from earlier online first-person shooters. Traditionally, one player sets his or her computer or console up as a game server or host, specifying the game type, map, and configuring other settings. The game software then uses a service such as GameSpy to advertise the game to the world at large; other players choose which game to join based upon criteria such as the map and game options each host is offering, as well as the ping times they are able to receive. In Halo 2, however, Xbox Live players do not choose to host public games, and they do not specify individual maps and options to search for. Instead, players select playlists that are geared to different styles of play.[3] For fairness and balance reasons, certain gameplay aspects from the campaign mode are disabled or missing in multiplayer; for example, the Fuel Rod weapon is missing from vehicles and maps.[11] Technical lead designer, Chris Butcher, commented on the development of Halo 2's multiplayer in Edge, a British gaming magazine, in January 2007.[14] Responding to a rash of subsequent news articles, Butcher clarified his position on Halo 2 multiplayer. He noted his original intent with the game, but he also reiterated disappointment. "For Halo 2 we had our sights set very high on networking," Butcher said. "We thought about the great LAN parties you can have with Halo 1 and decided to try [to] recreate that awesome experience of having all your buddies over to play, but using Xbox Live instead of having to lug consoles and televisions around. Going from having no Internet multiplayer to developing a completely new online model was a big challenge to tackle all at once, and as a result we had to leave a lot of things undone in order to meet the ship date commitment that we made to our fans."[15] Synopsis Setting See also: Halo: Combat Evolved and Factions of Halo Halo 2 takes place in a futuristic science fiction setting, where humans, under the auspices of the United Nations Space Command or UNSC, have developed faster-than-light slipspace travel and colonized numerous worlds.[3] According to the game's backstory, the outer colony world of Harvest was decimated by a collective of alien races known as the Covenant in 2525. Declaring humanity an affront to their gods, the Forerunners, the Covenant begin to systemically obliterate the humans with their superior technology. After the human bastion at the planet Reach is destroyed, a single ship, The Pillar of Autumn, follows protocol and initiates a random slipspace jump to lead the Covenant away from Earth. The crew discovers a Forerunner ringworld called Halo. Leading a guerilla insurgency on the ring's surface, the humans discover that the rings are weapons of last resort built to contain a terrifying parasite called the Flood. The human super-soldier Master Chief and his AI companion Cortana learn from Halo's AI, 343 Guilty Spark, that activation of the Halos will prevent the spread of the Flood by destroying all sentient life the parasite subsists on in the galaxy. Instead, the Master Chief evades Spark and his robots and detonates the Pillar of Autumn's engines, destroying the ring and preventing the escape of the Flood. The Master Chief, Cortana, and a handful of survivors race back to Earth to warn of an impending invasion by Covenant forces.[16] Plot Taking place shortly after the events of the novel Halo: First Strike, Halo 2 opens with the trial of an Elite commander aboard the Covenant's mobile city of High Charity. The Elite is stripped of his rank and branded a heretic for failing to stop the humans from destroying Halo. It is revealed that the Covenant's interest in Halo lies in the religious belief that the activation of the rings would bring about a "Great Journey", sweeping loyal Covenant to salvation.[17] At the same time as the Elite Commander is tortured by Tartarus, the Chieftain of the Brutes, the Master Chief and Sergeant Avery Johnson are commended for their actions at Halo during a recognition ceremony aboard a coilgun platform orbiting Earth. Lord Hood awards the soldiers alongside Commander Miranda Keyes, who accepts a medal on behalf of her deceased father, Captain Jacob Keyes.[18] Shortly after the commencement of the ceremony, a Covenant fleet appears outside Earth's defensive perimeter. While the UNSC manages to repel most of the surprisingly small fleet, a single Covenant cruiser carrying an important member of the Covenant hierarchy, the High Prophet of Regret, flies through the orbital platforms to the city of New Mombasa, Kenya. The Master Chief clears the city of Covenant; with his fleet destroyed, Regret makes a hasty slipspace jump, and Keyes, Johnson, Cortana and the Master Chief follow aboard the ship In Amber Clad just as the slipspace rupture destroys much of the city. The crew exits slipspace to discover another Halo installation; realizing the danger the ring presents, the Master Chief is sent to kill Regret while Keyes and Johnson find Halo's key to activation, the Index. Meanwhile, the disgraced Covenant commander is presented before the Prophet Hierarchs, who acknowledge that though the destruction of Halo was his fault, he is no heretic. The Prophets offer him the honored position of Arbiter so that he can continue to fight. On his first mission to kill a heretic, the Arbiter discovers 343 Guilty Spark, who the Covenant view as "oracles". Responding to Regret's distress call, High Charity and the Covenant fleet arrive at the new Halo, Installation 05, but not before Master Chief kills the Prophet. Bombarded from space, the Chief falls into a lake and is rescued by a mysterious tentacled creature. The death of Regret sows seeds of discord among the races of the Covenant, as the Brutes are given the Elite's traditional job of protecting the Hierarchs. The Arbiter is sent to find Halo's Index and captures Johnson and Keyes before being confronted by Tartarus. The Brute reveals that the Prophets have ordered the annihilation of the Elites, and sends the Arbiter falling down a deep chasm. The Arbiter is saved by the tentacled creature and meets the Master Chief in the bowels of the installation. The creature, Gravemind, is the leader of the Flood on Installation 05. Gravemind reveals to the Arbiter that the Great Journey would destroy Flood, humans, and Covenant together. Gravemind sends the Arbiter and Master Chief to different places to stop Halo's activation. The Master Chief is teleported to High Charity, where a civil war has broken out among the Covenant; In Amber Clad crashes into the city, and Cortana realizes that Gravemind used them as a distraction to infest In Amber Clad and spread the Flood. As the parasite overruns the city, the Master Chief follows the Prophet of Truth aboard a Forerunner ship leaving the city; Cortana remains behind to destroy High Charity and Halo if Tartarus succeeds in activating the ring.[19] The Arbiter is sent to the surface of Halo, where he rallies his allies to assault the Brute's position. With the help of Johnson, he confronts Tartarus in Halo's control room. When the Arbiter tries to convince Tartarus that the Prophets have betrayed them both, Tartarus angrily activates the ring, and a battle ensues. The Arbiter and Johnson manage to kill Tartarus while Keyes removes the Index. Instead of shutting down the ring entirely, the unexpected shutdown of the ring triggers a system-wide failsafe, putting Installation 05 and all the other rings on standby for activation from a remote location, which Guilty Spark refers to as "the Ark".[20] As Truth's ship arrives amidst a raging battle on Earth, Hood asks the Master Chief what he is doing aboard the ship. The Chief replies he is "finishing this fight". In a post-credits scene, Gravemind is seen arriving on High Charity, where Cortana agrees to answer the Flood intelligence's questions. Development Halo 2 was officially announced in September 2002 with a cinematic trailer. The trailer was subsequently packaged with later Halo: Combat Evolved DVDs. A real-time gameplay video was shown at E3 2003, which was the first actual gameplay seen by the public; it showcased new features such as dual-wielding and improved graphics. Bungie informed the public on development with weekly Halo 2 development updates which started on January 16, 2004 and ended June 25, 2004; the weekly updates became standard on the Bungie website even after the release of Halo 2.[21] With only a year to go until release, Bungie went into the "mother of all crunches" in order to finish the game. The cliffhanger ending of the game was not originally intended, and resulted from the frenzy to ship on time.[22] Audio Main article: Halo 2 Original Soundtrack Halo 2's soundtrack was composed primarily by Martin O'Donnell and his musical partner Michael Salvatori, the team that had previously composed the critically-acclaimed music of Halo. O'Donnell noted in composing the music for Halo 2 that "Making a sequel is never a simple proposition. You want to make everything that was cool even better, and leave out all the stuff that was weak."[23] O'Donnell made sure that no part of the game would be completely silent, noting "Ambient sound is one of the main ways to immerse people psychologically. A dark room is spooky, but add a creaking floorboard and rats skittering in the walls and it becomes really creepy. "[23] Halo 2, unlike its predecessor, was mixed to take full advantage of Dolby 5.1 Digital surround sound.[24] In the summer of 2004, Producer Nile Rodgers and O’Donnell decided to release the music from Halo 2 on two separate CDs; the first (Volume One) would contain all the themes present in the game as well as music “inspired" by the game; the second would contain the rest of the music from the game, much of which was incomplete, as the first CD was shipped before the game was released.[25] The first CD was released on November 9, 2004, and featured guitar backing by Steve Vai. Additional tracks included various outside musicians, including Joe Satriani, Incubus, Breaking Benjamin, and Hoobastank. The Halo 2 Original Soundtrack: Volume Two CD, containing the game music organized in suite form, was released on April 25, 2006. Release Contents of the Limited Collector's Edition. The release of Halo 2 was preceded with numerous promotions, product tie-ins, and movie trailer-like commercials. There was a Halo 2 Celebrity Pre-Release Party at E3 2004, in which a private home was transformed to replicate the world of Halo, complete with camouflaged marines and roaming Cortanas.[26] In addition to more traditional forms of promotion, Halo 2 was also part of an elaborate Alternate Reality Game project titled "I Love Bees" which cost an estimated one million dollars. This 'game' centered around a hacked website, supposedly a site about beekeeping, where an AI from the future was residing. The project garnered significant attention from sites including Slashdot and Wired News;[27] Wired noted that the game was drawing attention away from the 2004 Presidential Election.[28] The game won an award for creativity at the 5th annual Game Developers Choice Awards[29] and was nominated for a Webby award.[30] On the morning of October 14, 2004, a leak of the French version of the game was posted on the Internet, and circulated widely.[31] Halo 2 was sold in both a standard and "Limited Collector's Edition". The Collector's Edition features the regular edition and includes several promotional offers, a special cover and a special DVD of the making of Halo 2. The instructional booklet is also written from the Covenant point of view rather than from the UNSC point of view used in the regular edition. Also enclosed is the "Conversations from the Universe" booklet that contains additional information from both the human and the Covenant side of the Halo storyline; transcripts are available online. The game is enclosed in an aluminum case with the Halo 2 logo. The first official release of Halo 2 was in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States on November 9, 2004. Anticipation for the game was high; three weeks before this release, a record 1.5 million copies had already been pre-ordered.[32] Massive lines formed at midnight releases of the game; the event garnered significant media attention.[33] This was followed by releases on November 10, 2004 in France and other European countries, and November 11 in the UK. The game sold 2.4 million copies and earned up to US$125 million in its first 24 hours on store shelves, thus out-grossing the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest as the highest grossing release in entertainment history.[34] The game sold 260,000 units in the United Kingdom in its first week, making it the third fastest-selling title of all time in the UK. On June 20, 2006, Xbox reported that more than a half-billion games of Halo 2 have been played on Xbox Live since its debut. Halo 2 is the best-selling first-generation Xbox game[8] with 8.46 million copies sold by November 2008. As of September 25, 2007, Halo 2 was the fifth best-selling video game in the United States with 6.3 million copies sold, according to the NPD Group.[10] From the day of its initial release and up until mid-November 2006, Halo 2 was the most popular video game on Xbox Live, even after the release of the Xbox 360; its position was eventually surpassed in 2006 by the 360-exclusive Gears of War. Halo and Halo 2 are still some of the most played games for the Xbox console.[4] Windows version The PC version with fixed widescreen ratio. See also: List of Games for Windows titles On February 9 2006, Nick Baron announced that a version of Halo 2 would be released on PC, but exclusively for the Windows Vista operating system (though this limitation can be removed by a patch).[35] The game was ported by a small team at Microsoft Game Studios (codenamed Hired Gun) who worked closely with Bungie. Halo 2 for Windows[36] was originally scheduled for release on May 8, 2007, but the release was pushed back to May 29. This delay was due to the appearance of nudity in the game.[37] Microsoft will be offering patches to remove the nude content and is revising the boxes to reflect this. The nudity was a photograph of a man mooning the camera (presumably a Microsoft or Bungie employee) which appeared as a ".ass" error when using the map editor in Halo 2 for Windows Vista.[38] Cheating and updates A common complaint regarding Halo 2's online play was widespread cheating, which began occurring almost immediately after the game's release. Users exploited bugs in the game and vulnerabilities of the network to win ranked games and thus increase their matchmaking rank.[39] Some players used "standbying" to cheat, in which the player hosting the game intentionally presses the standby button on his or her modem; this results in all players except the cheaters freezing in place. This way, the cheater would be given time to accomplish an objective in the game. "Dummying" involves using an Elite character and a vehicle, exploiting a glitch which would cause a doppelganger of the player to appear. Cheating also includes softmodding, in which a player uses devices such as Action Replay and computer programs to gain unfair advantages, and bridging, which uses computer programs to give a player 'host' status, and therefore the ability to disconnect other players from the game session. A game exploitation called "superbouncing" or "superjumping" is labeled cheating by many in the Xbox Live community, and Bungie employees have described it as cheating when used in Matchmaking.[40] Another exploit called "BXR" allowed players to melee, cancel the animation, and quickly attack for an instant kill; this exploit and many others were removed from the game's sequel.[41] Bungie released several map packs for Halo 2, both over Xbox Live and on game discs. The Multiplayer Map Pack is an expansion pack intended to make Xbox Live content and updates available to offline players, and was released on July 5, 2005. The disk contains the game's automatic update, all nine new multiplayer maps, a documentary about the making of the maps, and a bonus cinematic called "Another Day on the Beach", amongst other features.[42] On March 30, 2007, Bungie announced that two new maps would be available on April 17, 2007 for US$4. Bungie's own Frank O'Connor confirmed that both Xbox and Xbox 360 users would have access to the content.[43] The two new maps were remakes of maps from the original Halo: Combat Evolved, "Hang em' High" and "Derelict".[44] Due to issues with distribution of the maps, the updates which made the maps mandatory was released on May 9, 2007, later than planned. Bungie also reset all ranks for Halo 2 at the same time.[45] On July 7, also known as "Bungie Day", Bungie released the map pack called the "Blastacular Map Pack" for free.[46] Reception [hide] Reception Review scores Publication Score Electronic Gaming Monthly 10/10/10 Platinum Award Game Informer 10/10[47] GameSpot 9.4/10[48] Editor's Choice GameSpy 5/5[49] IGN 9.8/10[50] Best Xbox game of all time #2 Top 25 Xbox Games of All Time Aggregate scores Aggregator Score Game Rankings 95% (112 reviews)[52] Metacritic 95% (91 reviews)[51] Awards 2004 Game Critics Awards: Best Console Game 2005 Game Developers Choice Awards: Excellence in Audio 2005 Interactive Achievement Awards: Console Game of the Year, Sound Design Halo 2 was well-received by critics. The game has a 95% average critic score on review aggregate sites Metacritic and Game Rankings. Many reviewers praised the audio for being especially vivid.[52][47] Multiplayer especially was noted in being the best on Xbox Live at the time. Game Informer, along with numerous other publications, rated it higher than Halo: Combat Evolved, citing enhanced multiplayer and less repetitive gameplay, however on one occasion Halo 2 was beaten by its predecessor in IGN's Top 25 Xbox Games of All Time where Halo: Combat Evolved secured #1 with Halo 2 following in #2. Halo 2 received multiple awards, including Best Console game and Best Sound Design from the Interactive Achievement Awards. Most critics noted that Halo 2 stuck with the formula that made its predecessor successful, and was alternatively praised and faulted for this decision. Edge noted in its review, “It's fitting that we're able to steal a line from the script to sum everything up. No spoilers here, just an epitaph, from the moment Cortana turns to Master Chief and says this: ‘It’s not a new plan. But we know it’ll work.' "[52] According to Xbox, the game has received more than 38 individual awards.[53] The game's campaign mode has received some criticism for being too short,[54] in addition to some dissatisfaction with the abrupt, cliffhanger ending that sets up the sequel, Halo 3.[48] GameSpot noted that the story switching between the Covenant and Human factions made the plot more intricate, but distracted the player from Earth's survival and the main point of the game.[48] There is also some criticism of the game's on-the-fly streaming and level of detail adjustment, which can sometimes result in textures loading erroneously and "popping in" when the camera changes in cutscenes. Bungie has stated that this issue has been fixed for Halo 3 and the Windows Vista port. In an interview with Edge magazine in January 2007, Jamie Griesemer, one of Halo's design leads, said that the main reason for Halo 2's shortcomings was a lack of "polish" period near the end of the development cycle. Staff member Frank O’Connor admitted the cliffhanger ending was abrupt, noting “we drove off 'Thelma & Louise' style". Nonetheless, in the interview Griesemer promised that they would make Halo 3 a more than worthy successor.[14] References 3. ^ a b c d e f g Bungie, ed (2004). Halo 2 Instruction Manual. Microsoft Game Studios. pp. 3–6, 8, 12, 14–18. 16. ^ Nylund, Eric (2003). Halo: First Strike. Del Ray. pp. 101. 17. ^ Prophet of Regret: Halo. Its divine wind will sweep through [the galaxy], propelling all who are worthy along the path of salvation.—Bungie. Halo 2. (Microsoft). Xbox. (2004) 18. ^ Lord Hood: Commander Miranda Keyes. Your father's actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service. His bravery in the face of impossible odds reflects great credit upon himself, and the UNSC. The Navy has lost one of its best.—Bungie. Halo 2. (Microsoft). (2004) 19. ^ Cortana: -If he does I'll detonate In Amber Clad's reactors, just like we did the Autumn. The blast will take out both this station and the ring. Not a very original plan, but we know it'll work.—Bungie. Halo 2. (Microsoft). Level/area: High Charity. (2004) 20. ^ 343 Guilty Spark: Fail-safe protocol: in the event of unexpected shut-down, the entire system will move to standby status. All installations are now ready for remote activation. / Keyes: Remote activation? From here? / 343 Guilty Spark: Don't be ridiculous. [...] Why... the Ark, of course.—Bungie. Halo 2. (Microsoft). Level/area: The Great Journey. (2004) 24. ^ Halo 2: Original Soundtrack Volume 1 liner notes; supplemental by Martin O'Donnell 25. ^ Halo 2: Original Soundtrack Volume 2 liner notes; introduction by Martin O'Donnell 31. ^ "Stolen! Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Halo 2 are the latest victims of theft". GamePro (196): 22. January 2005. External links Sister project Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Halo 2 * Halo 2 PC Official site * Bungie's Official Halo 2 site * Xbox's Official Halo 2 site [show] v • d • e Halo series Main trilogy Halo: Combat Evolved · Halo 2 · Halo 3 (ODST) Related games Halo Wars · Halo: Chronicles Printed media The Fall of Reach · The Flood · First Strike · Ghosts of Onyx · Contact Harvest · The Cole Protocol · Halo Graphic Novel · Uprising Music Halo Original Soundtrack · Halo 2 Original Soundtrack · Halo 3 Original Soundtrack Information and fiction Official games and media · Characters (Master Chief · Cortana · Arbiter · Gravemind) · Factions Promotion I Love Bees · Halo 3 marketing [show] v • d • e Bungie video games Bungie series Marathon Trilogy · Myth series · Halo series Individual games Gnop! · Operation Desert Storm · Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete · Pathways into Darkness · Abuse · Oni' · Pimps at Sea Notable people Jason Jones · Alex Seropian · Martin O'Donnell · Joseph Staten · Luke Smith Featured article Categories: Featured articles | 2004 video games | Cooperative video games | Electronic sports games | First-person shooters | First-person shooter MOGs | Games for Windows certified games | Halo games | Interactive Achievement Award winners | Microsoft games | Multiplayer online games | Science fiction video games | Video game sequels | Windows games | Xbox games Halo 3 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Semi-protected Halo 3 Developer(s) Bungie Publisher(s) Microsoft Game Studios Composer(s) Martin O'Donnell Michael Salvatori Series Halo Engine Proprietary "Halo Engine"[1] with Havok Physics[2] Native resolution 640p[3] Version 1.2 (September 23, 2008) Platform(s) Xbox 360 Release date(s) NA September 25, 2007[4] EU September 26, 2007[4] Genre(s) First-person shooter Mode(s) Single player, co-op, online co-op, multiplayer, online multiplayer, Forge, and Meta-game Rating(s) BBFC: 15[5] CERO: 17+ ESRB: M17+ OFLC: M[6] OFLC: R16+ PEGI: 16+ USK: 18 Media DVD-9 Input methods Gamepad, Headset Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie exclusively for the Xbox 360. The game is the third title in the Halo series and concludes the story arc that began in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued in Halo 2.[7] The game was released on September 25, 2007 in Australia, Brazil, India, New Zealand, North America, and Singapore;[4] September 26, 2007 in Europe; and September 27, 2007 in Japan. On the day before its official release, 4.2 million units of Halo 3 were in retail outlets.[8] Halo 3's story centers on the interstellar war between 26th century humanity, led by the United Nations Space Command, and a collection of alien races known as the Covenant. The player assumes the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier, as he wages war in defense of humanity, assisted by human Marines as well as an allied alien race called Elites, which is led by the Arbiter. The game features vehicles, weapons, and gameplay not present in previous titles of the series, as well as the addition of saved gameplay films, file sharing, and the Forge map editor; a utility which allows the player to perform modifications to multiplayer levels. Halo 3 grossed US$300 million in its first week.[9] More than one million people played Halo 3 on Xbox Live in the first twenty hours.[10] As of January 3, 2008, Halo 3 has sold 8.1 million copies,[11] and was the best-selling video game of 2007 in the U.S.[12] Overall, the game was very well-received by critics, with the Forge and multiplayer offerings singled out as strong features; on Game Rankings, Halo 3 ranks as the eighth highest rated Xbox 360 game to date.[13] A prequel to the game, Halo 3: ODST, is currently under development. Contents [hide] * 1 Gameplay o 1.1 Campaign o 1.2 Multiplayer * 2 Synopsis o 2.1 Setting o 2.2 Characters o 2.3 Plot * 3 Development o 3.1 Graphics o 3.2 Audio o 3.3 Cast * 4 Marketing and release o 4.1 Leaks o 4.2 Versions o 4.3 Sales * 5 Downloadable content * 6 Reception * 7 Halo 3: ODST * 8 References * 9 External links Gameplay Master Chief aims his Assault Rifle at a group of Grunts. An activated equipment, called the bubble shield, is shown. The gameplay of Halo 3 builds upon the previous iterations of the franchise; it is a first-person shooter which takes place on foot, but also includes segments focused on vehicular combat. The balance of weapons and objects in the game was adjusted to better adhere to what Bungie Studios Multiplayer Designer Lars Bakken describes as the "Golden Triangle of Halo".[14] These are "weapons, grenades, and melee", which are available to a player in most situations. Halo 3 contains the ability to dual-wield, where a player forgoes grenades and melee attacks in favor of the combined firepower of two weapons simultaneously. Most weapons available in previous installments of the series return with minor cosmetic and power alterations. Unlike previous installments, the player's secondary weapon is visible on their player model, holstered or slung across the player's back.[15] Halo 3 introduces "support weapons", which are exceptionally large, powerful, and cumbersome two-handed weapons which drastically limit the player's normal combat options and slow them significantly, but offer greatly increased firepower in return.[16] In addition to weapons, the game contains a new class of usable items called Equipment;[17] these items are found in the game world and have various effects and functions, ranging from defensive screens to shield regeneration and flares. Only one piece of equipment can be carried at a time.[18] The game's vehicular component has been expanded with new drivable and A.I.-only vehicles.[19][20] Halo 3 also adds new features not directly related to gameplay. One such feature, known as 'Forge', is a map-editing tool that enables players to insert and remove game objects, such as weapons and crates, into existing multiplayer maps.[20] Almost all weapons, vehicles, and interactive objects can be placed and moved on maps with Forge.[21] Players can enter Forge games and edit and manipulate objects in real time. A budget limits the amount of objects that can be placed.[22] Another new feature are 'Saved films', which allows players to save up to 100 films of gameplay to their Xbox 360's hard drive,[23][24] viewing the action from any angle and at different speeds. The Saved Films are only game data (not an actual video) and this allows the file sizes to be smaller than a true recording. All games are recreated in real-time on the Xbox 360 using the Halo 3 engine.[25] Halo 3 offers a form of file sharing, where items such as saved films, screenshots, custom game modes, and Forge settings can all be uploaded to the 'File Share'. Anyone can browse user created content that has been uploaded to Bungie's website on a personal computer and tag it to automatically download to their console next time they sign into Xbox Live on Halo 3.[18][26] Campaign Halo 3's campaign contains nine levels, which complete the storyline of the Halo trilogy. The campaign can be played through alone, with two-players on one Xbox 360, or played cooperatively with up to three other players via Xbox Live or System Link.[27] Instead of having each player be an identical Spartan as in previous Halo games, the first player plays as Master Chief, the second player plays as the Arbiter and the other two players control two other Elites; N'tho 'Sraom and Usze 'Taham, each with their own backstories. No matter which character is played, each player has identical abilities.[27] A.I. behavior was enhanced and improved; the behavior of enemy Brutes the player faces was modified, giving them a "pack mentality" that causes the aliens to perform similar actions at the same time and altering gameplay.[17][28] There are various Forerunner computer terminals hidden throughout the campaign which can be accessed and provide background storyline information. Halo 3's campaign features a scoring method called the "meta-game", which can introduce a competitive aspect to cooperative play. Players are awarded points for defeating enemies while completing a level in the campaign. Extra points are awarded for certain actions (such as performing headshots or defeating multiple enemies in rapid succession), and are lost if the player dies or kills a team-mate. Hidden skulls (based on the Easter egg skulls in Halo 2) can be found on each level and then subsequently activated before future missions to cause changes in the gameplay; such as giving the enemies extra health, changing in-game dialogue, or modifying a specific A.I. behavior.[29] These skulls, as well as the difficulty level and the speed at which the level is completed, provide multipliers to the total score.[18] Players are awarded gamerscore points for successfully reaching a certain score in each level,[30] and medals are awarded for specific accomplishments. Multiplayer On a single console, up to two players can play campaign and up to four can participate in a versus multiplayer match through use of split screen. Through use of LAN or Xbox Live, up to four players can play together in campaign, up to eight can customize a map in Forge mode, and up to sixteen can participate in versus multiplayer matches. (Each console must retain their respective split screen limitations.) A public beta test of the game's online multiplayer features, as well as saved films and file share, took place four months before the full release.[31] Statistics from all games that are completed by players while connected to Xbox Live are also uploaded to the respective player's "service record" on Bungie.net. Players must actively seek out other players through their Xbox Live Friends list, using the party invite system, or the LAN search feature to play multiplayer matches with their own custom rules and customized maps. If they are connected to Xbox Live however, a player can choose to have the game decide for them the exact rules and map to play on, as well as finding additional people to play against or with, using the "Matchmaking" system (the automated grouping of players of similar skill). A player will decide from a selection of developer designed "playlists" which each contain a certain way to experience the game. The games contained within a playlist can range from 1 vs 1 free for all, to 8 vs 8 team play. Often focusing on either deathmatch games (known as "Slayer" in Halo), objective games (e.g. Capture the Flag) or a combination of the two.[32] The playlists are regularly updated; either to remove unpopular types of games or map variants, fix ones that do not work well, or to introduce entirely new gametypes or whole playlists. Like other multiplayer Xbox 360 titles, Halo 3 uses a customized version of TrueSkill ranking system for its matchmaking on a per-playlist basis (i.e. a player's performance in one playlist will not affect who they are matched against in another playlist). On top of this, a linear measure of a player's experience with the matchmade portion of the game and each particular playlist (as of TU2) is also tracked (denoted as XP).[33] Rank insignia are unlocked and displayed by a player's Gamertag as they attain certain totals of XP (and/or skill level). To help players have an enjoyable time online, several peace-of-mind features are implemented within easy reach, such as avoid/feedback options on a player's service record, as well as voice chat mute straight from the in-game scoreboard.[34] Like Halo 2, Halo 3 supports downloadable content and updates.[35] Synopsis Setting Halo 3, like its predecessors, is set in the fictional Halo universe, taking place during the year 2553. According to the backstory, humans developed faster-than-light travel (using a Shaw-Fujikawa engine attached to a regular space shuttle) and colonized hundreds of planets before encountering the alien Covenant in 2525.[36] The Covenant declared humanity an affront to their gods and began destroying human colonies by "glassing" entire planets, bombarding the planet with a barrage of plasma. Despite efforts to keep the Covenant from finding Earth, a Covenant fleet discovered humanity's homeworld during Halo 2.[37] By the beginning of Halo 3, the Covenant have arrived in full force on Earth, with most human resistance crushed. The titular 'Halo' refers to massive ringworlds several hundred kilometers in diameter that are scattered across the galaxy. These rings were constructed thousands of years ago by an enigmatic race known as the Forerunners as a weapon of last resort against the parasitic alien species known as the Flood. When activated, the seven Halos would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy, thereby depriving the Flood of its food.[38] The ringworlds were activated once in the distant past, and the Forerunners are believed to have perished.[39] In Halo: Combat Evolved, a small human ship fleeing the Covenant stumbled upon one of these ringworlds, Installation 04. The humans manage to destroy the ring, stopping the Flood once again; the Covenant, unaware of the destructive nature of the rings, attempt to fire another ring during Halo 2 in order to fulfill their religious prophecy.[40] One race in the Covenant, the Elites, learn the truth about the rings, and join forces with their onetime enemies, humanity, in order to stop the firing of the ring. Though they are successful, the unexpected shutdown of the installation triggers a failsafe protocol—all the rings are ready to fire from one single location, referred to as the Ark.[41] Still oblivious to the true nature of the rings, the Covenant High Prophet of Truth and the remaining loyalist Covenant proceed to head to Earth, where they believe the Ark is buried. Characters From left, Miranda Keyes, Cortana, the Arbiter, Master Chief and Guilty Spark Main article: Characters of Halo Halo 3's protagonist is the Master Chief, a surgically enhanced supersoldier who is one of the last surviving members of the SPARTAN Project, and one of humanity's greatest warriors. The Chief fights alongside the Arbiter, an Elite and disgraced commander whose race breaks free from the Covenant. Two new Elite characters, N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham, appear as the third and fourth players in co-op play.[42] Supporting characters that were introduced in previous games return; these includes Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, a veteran human commander, as well as Commander Miranda Keyes, who prevents the firing of Installation 05 in Halo 2.[43] The Forerunner Monitor 343 Guilty Spark, who tries and fails to stop the Master Chief from destroying its ringworld in Halo: Combat Evolved, also makes an appearance.[43] Filling an alternating antagonistic/helpful role to the player is the large Flood entity known as "Gravemind"; encountered during Halo 2, the leader of the Flood escapes from confinement on Halo by invading the Covenant mobile city of High Charity and capturing Cortana, a human-created A.I., in the process.[43] Plot Taking place shortly after the events of the comic mini-series, Halo: Uprising,[44] Halo 3 begins with the Master Chief entering Earth's atmosphere and crashing to the ground in eastern Africa, where he is found by Sgt. Major Johnson and the Arbiter. The Chief, Johnson, and company fight their way out of the jungle and arrive at a UNSC outpost. Here, Commander Keyes and Lord Hood plan a last-ditch effort to stop the Covenant leader, the High Prophet of Truth, from activating a Forerunner artifact uncovered outside the ruins of the city of New Mombasa. The Chief is ordered to clear a way into the city of Voi and to destroy all anti-air Covenant defenses so Hood can lead the last of Earth's ships against the Prophet. Using the opening caused by the ground attack, Hood mounts an offensive against Truth's ship, but the Prophet activates the buried artifact which creates an enormous slipspace portal. As the human ships recover from the shock wave, Truth and his followers enter the portal, while a ship controlled by the Flood crash-lands nearby. Elite forces, allied with humanity, arrive and vitrify Flood-infected areas of Earth, neutralizing the parasitic threat. Following the cryptic message from the human artificial intelligence Cortana left aboard the Flood cruiser, the Chief, Arbiter, Elites, Johnson, Keyes and a handful of Marines follow Truth through the portal. Joining them is the Forerunner construct 343 Guilty Spark, who aids the Chief as he no longer has any function to fulfill after the destruction of his Halo installation in Halo: Combat Evolved. Traveling through the portal, the humans and Elites discover an immense artificial structure —the Ark— which is far beyond the edges of the Milky Way galaxy. Here Truth can activate all the Halos. The Chief and company activate the installation's map room to find Truth at the Ark's control room. During their journey, the Flood arrive en masse on the former Covenant Holy City High Charity, and begin infesting the installation. While attempting to gain access to The Ark' Control Room, Johnson is captured by Truth; the prophet needs a human to utilize the Forerunner technology. Attempting to rescue Johnson, Keyes is killed by the prophet, and Johnson is forced to activate the rings. The Flood leader Gravemind forges a temporary truce with the Chief and Arbiter in an effort to stop Truth. The Arbiter, Master Chief, and Flood forces arrive and overwhelm Truth's guards, rescuing Johnson and halting the installations' firing. After the Arbiter kills Truth, Gravemind turns on the Chief and Arbiter, who escape the Flood's grasp. The Chief, Arbiter and Guilty Spark discover that the Ark is creating a new ringworld to replace the one previously destroyed. The Chief decides to activate only this new ring to eliminate the local Flood while sparing the galaxy at large. Before he can activate the ring, however, he needs an Activation Index. Knowing that Cortana acquired a copy of one on the first Halo, he rescues the AI from High Charity and creates a chain reaction to destroy the infested city and severely damage the Gravemind. Arriving on the new Halo, Cortana warns that the Gravemind is trying to rebuild itself on the ring. The Chief, the Arbiter, and Johnson make their way to the control room, where they will activate Halo's weapon. Guilty Spark explains that because the ring is not yet complete, a premature activation will destroy it and the Ark. When Johnson ignores his warning, Guilty Spark kills him to protect "his" ring. The Chief destroys Guilty Spark, activates the ring, and escapes the ring's blast on a frigate, Forward Unto Dawn. Only the front half of Forward Unto Dawn, carrying the Arbiter, makes it through the portal. Believing the Chief and Cortana to have perished, a memorial service is held for the fallen heroes of the human and Covenant war. After the memorial service, the Arbiter departs for his home planet, where the Elites are finally free of the Prophets' hegemony. Meanwhile, the rear half of Forward Unto Dawn floats in unknown space. Cortana drops a beacon, but realizes it may be years before they are rescued. The Chief enters cryonic sleep, telling Cortana to "wake me, when you need me." If the game is completed at the highest difficulty level, the scene continues to show the piece of Forward Unto Dawn drifting towards a mysterious planet. Development Initial conception for Halo 3 was done before the game's predecessor, Halo 2 was released in 2004.[45] For a period after this, much of the staff were still preoccupied in making extra content for Halo 2, while others continued with the groundwork for the development of Halo 3. Bungie remained almost completely silent as to what their new project was for the next year and half, occasionally leaving comments in their weekly update alluding to a "new project."[46] Due to the cliff-hanger ending of Halo 2, many observers correctly speculated that Bungie's new project was Halo 3. The game was officially announced with a real-time cinematic trailer at E3 2006.[7] Similarly to the development of Halo 2, Bungie kept the public informed on game development via "Bungie Weekly Updates". During development, the game was divided into single player and multiplayer builds; this made debugging and testing the much smaller multiplayer files quicker.[47] While details of Halo 3's multiplayer were widely disseminated in the sixteen months leading up to the release,[15] the single-player aspect of the storyline was kept relatively secret throughout much of the development to build up interest. The first campaign screenshots did not appear until a year after the announcement trailer, on July 5, 2007, as a "tease" for the planned pace of marketing.[48] Graphics Halo 3 utilizes a proprietary, in-house graphics engine, often referred to as the "Halo 3 Engine".[1] As detailed on the Bungie Studios website, it employs advanced graphics technologies such as High Dynamic Range, global lighting and depth of field effects within cutscenes.[49] Motion blurring was absent from the beta, but was added to the final game.[50] Most of the dynamic objects in the game cast real-time shadows on themselves and the environment around them, including the game's plant life. Halo 3 uses normal, bump, and parallax mapping to give surfaces more detail without dramatically increasing the number of polygons. Players can see distances of up to ten miles (16 km) away, all fully three-dimensional.[51] Real time reflections were written into the engine; however, they are often unused as Bungie considered it a waste of resources.[52] Halo 3 does not natively render at true HD resolution (at least 720 lines of vertical resolution).[53] In a Bungie Weekly Update, it was confirmed that the game renders at 1152 640 resolution instead of the usual 1280 720 (HD) resolution that most Xbox 360 games use.[3] This is because Halo 3 uses two frame buffers instead of the usual one, so the lower resolution allowed Bungie to preserve as much of the dynamic range as possible for the game's lighting without adversely affecting the frame rate. The image can be upscaled to 1080p by the Xbox 360.[3] Audio As with all titles on the Xbox 360, Halo 3 fully supports 5.1 surround sound audio.[54] In the game, there are over 50,000 pieces of audio, with nearly 40,000 of those being NPC dialogue.[18] This is far more than in either of the preceding Halo titles; Halo 2 had over 15,000 pieces of dialogue. The AI controlling this dialogue is designed to ensure the exchanges flow naturally and convincingly.[51] Separate recordings were made for nearby and distant gunfire to make for a more believable sound experience in the public beta,[55] and the finished game uses Waves Audio plugins to modify dialog and other audio in-game depending on conditions.[56] Distant gunfire sounds, which may first seem like prerecorded ambient sound, may often be the result of an actual firefight happening elsewhere in the game.[57] Marty O'Donnell again composed the original score for the game. Some pieces of the game's music are produced with a much larger real orchestra than any pieces in the prior two games. For example, the music for the announcement trailer was recorded with a 60-piece orchestra and a 24-piece choir.[7] Halo 3 is the first game in the series to feature custom soundtracks, allowing players to replace in-game music with their own choices.[58] The Halo 3 Original Soundtrack was released on November 20, 2007.[59] Included on the soundtrack is an original composition submitted by fans and judged by Nile Rodgers, Michael Ostin, and Marty O'Donnell.[60] Cast Voice actors returning to reprise their roles in Halo 3 include Jen Taylor as Cortana, David Scully as Sergeant Johnson and the Elites, Keith David as the Arbiter, Tim Dadabo as 343 Guilty Spark, Ron Perlman as Lord Hood, Robert Davi as Rtas 'Vadum, and Steve Downes as the voice of Master Chief. The game also features new voices, with Terence Stamp and Justis Bolding replacing Halo 2 voice actors Michael Wincott and Julie Benz as the Prophet of Truth and Miranda Keyes respectively.[61] Additional voices include celebrity presenter Jonathan Ross,[62] Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk, Katee Sackhoff, and John DiMaggio.[61] Members of the Halo machinima Red vs. Blue (Burnie Burns, Gus Sorola, Matt Hullum, Jason Saldaña, Geoff Ramsey, and Joel Heyman) have a cameo role.[43] Marketing and release A Halo 3 launch event was held at the NASDAQ building in New York City on September 25. Main article: Halo 3 marketing Various marketing techniques were employed in promoting the release of Halo 3; these included various trailers of the game, real-time cinematics, recorded gameplay sequences, pre-rendered CGI, and live action film.[63] Throughout the course of development Bungie released four "developer documentaries" which explain the processes behind creating parts of the game. A large scale multiplayer beta test was played on Xbox Live with more than 800 000 members of the public being able to take part and experience the game for themselves.[63] Beginning in June 2007, Iris, an alternate reality game, began on the internet, designed to create hype for the game while involving players in slowly revealing background information for the game.[63] The actual release was met with worldwide launch parties.[64] Numerous interviews with Bungie staff were conducted by gaming press establishments, covering a vast range of subjects dealing with the game. Magazines and journals also occasionally ran stories revealing new information. Pepsi-Cola announced a new line of soft drink, a variant of Mountain Dew named Game Fuel, branded with the Halo 3 logo and the Master Chief.[65] Much of the advertising focused on appealing to the general public, rather than just hardcore fans of the game; for example, some 7-Eleven stores advertised Halo 3 and sold specialty cups and copies of the game.[66] On September 12, 2007 the "Believe" Halo 3 ad campaign, focused on the epic nature of the story and heroism told through dioramas and third party accounts of Master Chief's service, began with the video "Museum" and continued on past the game's release.[67] Leaks Months before the release of Halo 3, the game's final testing copy before its gold release (codenamed Epsilon and confirmed by Bungie to be 99.9% complete),[68] was leaked to the Internet. Microsoft reacted to this leak by having the Xbox Live accounts of gamers caught playing the Epsilon copy banned until the year 9999..[69] Two weeks before Halo 3 was due to be released, full retail copies of the game complete with photographs of the open game box started to appear on the internet auction site eBay.[70] A week before Halo 3 was due for release, major UK catalog retailer Argos accidentally released some of their final retail copies of Halo 3. Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division were quoted as being "disappointed that it happened" but that "it was just an honest mistake" and that Microsoft had no intention of punishing Argos for the error.[71] Halo 3's final retail copy was leaked online over a week before its official release. The 6.14 gigabyte file of the game was ripped and downloaded by "thousands" of people within 24 hours of the leak.[72] Videos of the ending of Halo 3, obtained from the leaked copy, were captured and posted on video sharing sites.[72] Versions Features Standard Limited Legendary Image of contents Game disc & manual Yes Yes Yes Interactive Xbox 360 disc No Yes Yes Bestiarum No Yes (book) Yes (DVD) Legendary DVD No No Yes Master Chief helmet case No No Yes Halo 3 was released in three separate versions. The Standard Edition contains the game disc, manual, and a small poster with the game's control-map and artwork. The Limited Edition, contained in a metal case, contains the game disc, manual, poster, interactive Xbox 360 bonus disc with several featurettes, and a hard cover bound "Bestiarum", which is a collection of information and art covering the species, cultures, and civilizations of Halo 3. The final version was marketed as the "Legendary Edition", which contains the game disc, manual, poster, interactive bonus disc, Bestiarum (on one of the DVD discs), Legendary DVD containing special content exclusive to the Legendary Edition, and a scale replica of the Master Chief's helmet as a case for the three discs. The slip-cover packaging unfolds into a large heavy-stock poster of Master Chief.[73] Gamestation stores in the UK also offered a limited edition Master Chief figurine only available to the first 1000 pre-orders.[74] Upon release, some of the Limited Edition versions of Halo 3 were found to have a defect in the hub that kept the discs in place, which could lead to scratched discs. Microsoft confirmed the problem and offered to replace scratched Halo 3 Limited Edition discs free of charge until the end of January 2008.[75] This was not a problem in either the Legendary Edition or the Standard Edition.[76] Sales Bill Gates sold copies of the game at the launch in Bellevue, WA. According to Microsoft, first-day sales of Halo 3 reached $170 million in the U.S., setting a record for highest gross of an entertainment product within 24 hours of its release,[77] which was later surpassed by Grand Theft Auto IV. The performance beat the previous record setter, predecessor Halo 2, which earned $125 million within 24 hours after its launch.[77] Halo 3 has beaten other records as well; at least four million copies of Halo 3 were pre-ordered globally, making it the fastest pre-selling game to date.[78] Worldwide more than US$300 million worth were sold in the first week, helping to more than double the sales of the Xbox 360 when compared with the weekly average before the Halo 3 launch.[9] In the U.S., Halo 3 sold 3.3 million copies in its first 12 days on sale,[79] increasing to 3.7 million copies by November 15, 2007.[80] On October 4, 2007, Reuters UK estimated that Halo 3 may have sold up to 5.2 million copies worldwide in the first two weeks after launch.[9] By November 30, 2007, Halo 3 had sold 5 million copies worldwide, and as of that point, was the best-selling video game of 2007 in the U.S., even though the game is only available on one console.[81] On January 3, 2008, Microsoft announced that Halo 3 has sold 8.1 million copies.[11] The game drew over a million Xbox Live members to play online in the first 20 hours, making it the biggest day for Xbox Live gaming in history.[10] On October 15, 2007, Advertising Age reported that movie studio executives were convinced the release of Halo 3 harmed box office receipts; the week's take was 27% less than the previous year's yield.[82] While some executives decided the disparity in estimated and actual gross for films like The Heartbreak Kid was due more to the film's poor reception, other analysts believed that "the audience on [Halo 3] is the 18-to-34 demographic, similar to what you'd see in cinemas" and that this led to a decrease in receipts.[83] Later research suggested that the Halo 3 players still watched the same amount of television and movies, regardless of the time they spent playing the game.[84] Downloadable content Halo 3 supports multiplayer map downloadable content as well as game updates via Xbox Live.[85] The first three post-release multiplayer maps, Standoff, Rat's Nest, and Foundry, were released as a pack on December 11, 2007, collectively known as the "Heroic Map Pack".[86] The Foundry map in particular expanded the map-creation abilities available through Forge with a greater range of relatively primitive objects, and a clear open design. The second three maps were released in the "Legendary Map Pack", on April 15, 2008. These were three new maps entitled "Ghost Town", "Avalanche", and "Blackout"; the latter two maps are remakes of the Halo: Combat Evolved map Sidewinder and the Halo 2 map Lockout respectively.[87] These maps introduced visual filters to the Forge pallet, which change the way the maps look.[88] A remake of the Halo: Combat Evolved map Chill Out, titled Cold Storage, was released as a free download on "Bungie Day", July 7, 2008.[89] The third multiplayer map pack, titled the "Mythic Map Pack", is scheduled for release on the Xbox Live Marketplace, included with Halo 3: ODST, and included with special editions of Halo Wars;[90] the Xbox Live release has been set as early 2009.[91] The first version update for Halo 3 was released on February 19, 2008, and addressed various bugs such as melee contest resolution and saved-film theater errors.[92] The next update (called a Title Update) was released September 23, 2008, and includes new Achievements, a new XP ranking system and various new ways to detect and stop cheating in the game.[93] There are no further updates planned for Halo 3.[94] Reception [hide] Reception Review scores Publication Score 1UP A+ Edge 10/10 Electronic Gaming Monthly 10, 10, 9/10 Eurogamer 10/10 Famitsu 37/40 Game Informer 9.75/10 GameSpot 9.5/10 IGN 9.5/10 Official Xbox Magazine 10/10 X-Play 5/5[95] Aggregate scores Aggregator Score Game Rankings 93% Metacritic 94% Halo 3 was given favorable reviews from game critics. On the review aggregator Game Rankings, the game has an average score of 93%, based on 89 reviews, making it the seventh best reviewed Xbox 360 game to date.[13] On Metacritic, the game has an average score of 94 out of 100, based on 74 reviews.[96] Pro-G assured readers in its review that Halo 3 lived up to the hype, saying that the game "is everything we hoped it would be, and much, much, more".[97] Many publications, including Eurogamer and Games Radar stated that the "winning formula" of Halo and Halo 2 was unchanged, but the addition of new features and weapons prevented stagnation.[98][99] Most publications agreed that multiplayer was by far one of the best features; IGN said that the multiplayer map lineup was the strongest of the series,[100] and Gamespy added that the multiplayer offering will make "Halo [veterans] weep big sloppy sobs of joy".[101] The Forge level editor and saved films features were singled out as particularly strong features,[102][19] in addition to superb voice acting and Martin O'Donnell's rich score.[101][103] Reception of the single-player aspect varied greatly. Pro-G said that while the cliffhanger ending of Halo 2 was disappointing, the campaign of Halo 3 "is anything but";[97] GameSpot and GameSpy, meanwhile, said that the campaign was too short, especially on easier difficulty levels.[19][101] IGN was highly critical of the eighth level, stating "the penultimate chapter is so bad, just thinking about it puts a rotten taste in my mouth." The New York Times said the game had a "throwaway" plot and Total Video Games judged the single-player aspect ultimately disappointing.[104][105] Other complaints focused on the artificial intelligence; critics praised the enemy AI but complained that the intelligence of the player's allies was far poorer.[19][17][106][107] Bryan Vore of Game Informer said that human faces and some textures were just "embarrassing".[103] Game Informer criticized the occasional repeated environments and poor final boss battle, and both IGN and CinemaBlend said that they thought a part of the story was lost by not having the Arbiter featuring as prominently as the character was in Halo 2.[108][17] Halo 3 was nominated for seven awards from the Spike TV Awards,[109] of which it won "Best Multiplayer Game" and "Most Addictive Video Game Fueled by Dew".[110] It won TIME magazine's "Game of the Year" and IGN chose it as the Best Xbox 360 Online Multiplayer Game and Innovative Design of 2007.[111][112][113] Halo 3 won "Multiplayer Game of the Year" and "Geezer Game of the Year" as awarded by Geezer Gamers as well as runner-up for "Best Shooter".[114] The Visual Effects Society awarded Bungie the "Best Real Time Visuals in a Video Game" for Halo 3.[115] Halo 3 took the Calvin Award for "Best Videogame" as selected by Box Office Prophets.[116] Halo 3 also took the award for Xbox 360 Game of the Year 2007 from Gametrailers, and was voted by fans as Game of the Year on G-Phoria. Halo 3 won the Edge Award For Interactive Innovation in August 2008.[117] Halo 3: ODST Main article: Halo 3: ODST Bungie announced on October 9, 2008, that a standalone expansion of Halo 3 entitled Halo 3: Recon. This was later changed to Halo 3: ODST. It is scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2009.[118] In the game, the players assume the role of a UNSC Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST), instead of the Master Chief. The events of the game are a prequel to Halo 3.[118] References 14. ^ Bakken, Lars. "Is Quisnam Protero Damno!" Bungie Studios, 2007. (in English) 22. ^ Halo 3 Manual (Silverlight), available online from Microsoft. 37. ^ Bungie Studios, ed (2007). Halo 3 Instruction Manual. Microsoft Game Studios. 38. ^ Cortana: You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the forerunners built it? Halo doesn't kill flood, it kills their food. Humans, covenant, whatever. We're all equally edible. The only way to stop the flood is to starve them to death. And that's exactly what Halo is designed to do; wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. - Bungie Studios. Halo: Combat Evolved. (Microsoft). Xbox. Level/area: Two Betrayals. (2001) 39. ^ 343 Guilty Spark: After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings. They, and all additional sentient life in three radii of the galactic center, died ...as planned. - Bungie Studios. Halo 2. (Microsoft). Xbox. Level/area: The Great Journey. (2004) 40. ^ Mercy: Halo. Its divine wind will rush through the stars, propelling all who are worthy along the path to salvation. - Bungie Studios. Halo 2. (Microsoft). Xbox. Level/area: Sacred Icon. (2004) 41. ^ 343 Guilty Spark: Fail-safe protocol: in the event of unexpected shut-down, the entire system will move to standby status. All installations are now ready for remote activation. / Commander Keyes: Remote activation? From here? / 343 Guilty Spark: Don't be ridiculous. [...] Why... the Ark, of course. Bungie. Halo 2. (Microsoft). Xbox. 43. ^ a b c d Bungie Studios, ed (2007). Halo 3 Instruction Manual. Microsoft Game Studios. p. 31. 45. ^ O'Donnell, Marty. (2007-09-25). Halo 2 Developer's Commentary [Halo 3 Legendary Edition]. Bungie Studios. Event occurs at 04:00.— O'Donnell:"I remember when we were doing the Cortana Letters years ago where we had the entire plan from the beginning of the Cortana Letters to the end of the trilogy." External links Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Halo 3 * Official site * Official Halo 3 site at Bungie.net * Halo 3 at Xbox * Halo 3 at Halopedia [show] v • d • e Halo series Main trilogy Halo: Combat Evolved · Halo 2 · Halo 3 (ODST) Related games Halo Wars · Halo: Chronicles Printed media The Fall of Reach · The Flood · First Strike · Ghosts of Onyx · Contact Harvest · The Cole Protocol · Halo Graphic Novel · Uprising Music Halo Original Soundtrack · Halo 2 Original Soundtrack · Halo 3 Original Soundtrack Information and fiction Official games and media · Characters (Master Chief · Cortana · Arbiter · Gravemind) · Factions Promotion I Love Bees · Halo 3 marketing [show] v • d • e Bungie video games Bungie series Marathon Trilogy · Myth series · Halo series Individual games Gnop! · Operation Desert Storm · Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete · Pathways into Darkness · Abuse · Oni' · Pimps at Sea Notable people Jason Jones · Alex Seropian · Martin O'Donnell · Joseph Staten · Luke Smith Featured article Categories: Featured articles | 2007 video games | First-person shooters | First-person shooter MOGs | Cooperative video games | Halo games | Microsoft games | Multiplayer online games | Science fiction video games | Video game sequels | Xbox 360 games | Xbox 360-only games Halo: Chronicles is being made into an episodic video game first announced at Microsoft's Xbox show, X06.[2][3] Peter Jackson and his recently formed Wingnut Interactive will create a project set in the Halo universe, in partnership with Bungie Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360.[3][4] [edit] Development Microsoft executives Shane Kim and Chris Satchell revealed at the 2007 Gamers Development Conference that Halo: Chronicles would in fact be a new series (or mini-series).[5] The British Xbox 360 magazine Xbox World 360 speculated that the game will be more of an "interactive movie"; in a similar manner to the Metal Gear Solid series, some parts will be semi-playable, and certain parts will be almost completely playable. [6] They also speculated that the game could retail for less than the cost of a normal Xbox 360 title, around $25–30.[6] However, none of this information has been confirmed by Bungie, Microsoft or Wingnut Interactive. At the 2007 Game Developers Conference, Microsoft executive Shane Kim confirmed that the project will be episodic. According to Microsoft, Bungie and Jackson are planning two episodic series for the Xbox 360. These games appear to be in a downloadable format (via the Xbox Live Marketplace). Microsoft stated that the game is now in the development phase.[5] As of April 23, 2008, Microsoft began greatly expanding the team working on the project. Microsoft Game Studios has been hard at work collaborating with Peter Jackson on the development of (a Peter Jackson-helmed Halo project). At this time, it's necessary to grow the internal team to keep pace with development. Bungie will continue to remain involved in multiple aspects of the Halo Universe with MGS. —Microsoft spokesperson to MTV Mulitplayer[7] On April 25, 2008, Bungie confirmed it in a Weekly What's Update: [..]So what does this all mean? In a nutshell, Microsoft is building a development team to work on future Halo game titles - the first one being collaboration with Peter Jackson. Just like the upcoming Halo Wars from Ensemble, this isn't "our" game. However, having worked with him already, we are possibly more excited than you are to see what someone of Peter Jackson’s imagination, talent and resources can bring to a Halo game experience. Bungie will, however, continue to remain very much involved in multiple aspects [of] the Halo Universe as part of our ongoing relationship with Microsoft. Meanwhile, we're damn busy ourselves with a variety of projects underway within the studio including one that you'll be hearing more about in the very near future. Now that we control our own destiny we also have other longer term, top secret plans afoot. The wait for that may be a tad longer though. —Frank O'Connor [2] [edit] References [edit] Eternal Links * Halo: Chronicles @ Halopedia [hide] v • d • e Halo series Main trilogy Halo: Combat Evolved · Halo 2 · Halo 3 (ODST) Related games Halo Wars · Halo: Chronicles Printed media The Fall of Reach · The Flood · First Strike · Ghosts of Onyx · Contact Harvest · The Cole Protocol · Halo Graphic Novel · Uprising Music Halo Original Soundtrack · Halo 2 Original Soundtrack · Halo 3 Original Soundtrack Information and fiction Official games and media · Characters (Master Chief · Cortana · Arbiter · Gravemind) · Factions Promotion I Love Bees · Halo 3 marketing This article related to a video game is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This Xbox-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Categories: Upcoming video games | Halo games | Xbox 360 games | Xbox 360-only games | Episodic video games | Video games developed in New Zealand | Video game stubs | Xbox stubs Halo 3: ODST (formerly named Halo 3: Recon)[3] is a standalone expansion for Halo 3, based in the fictional Halo universe.[4] In the game, players will take on the role of a UNSC Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) during the events leading up to Halo 3.[1] Contents [hide] * 1 Gameplay * 2 Synopsis o 2.1 Setting o 2.2 Characters * 3 Development o 3.1 Pre-production and trailer o 3.2 Audio * 4 References [edit] Gameplay Although the gameplay of Halo 3: ODST bears a strong resemblance to previous Halo games,[5] the player does not assume the role of the Master Chief as in the Halo trilogy. Instead, the player controls a lone soldier in the city of New Mombasa, Kenya.[6] Since the soldier, known as an ODST or Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, does not possess Master Chief's advanced armor, reflexes and strength, he is more vulnerable to weapons fire; players are forced to act more cautiously. While the game is not focused on stealth gameplay, some elements of stealth will be incorporated. It will also include an open world environment.[2] The main objective of ODST is to lead the soldier through the ruins of New Mombasa and discover what happened to his missing teammates. After finding a piece of evidence left behind—a sniper rifle hanging on a lamppost, for example—a flashback is triggered and the player assumes the role of the missing soldier.[6] [edit] Synopsis [edit] Setting The game is set on during the events of Halo 2 in the fictional city of New Mombasa. [edit] Characters The game's protagonist, referred to as The "rookie", is a towl unnamed member of the UNSC Marines' Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs) or "Helljumpers". ODSTs often deploy in small, one-man Human Entry Vehicles (HEVs), launched from spaceships in the upper atmosphere.[7] During the game, The "Rookie" is separated from his four teammates (Romeo, Dutch, Buck, and Mickey) and must find out what happens to them with the guidance of a city maintenance AI known as the Superintendent.[8][9] [edit] Development [edit] Pre-production and trailer ODST began development in March 2008 .[10] Bungie community director Brian Jarrard who stated in an interview that the game "was a labor of love to [Bungie's] fans" who wanted more Halo-related content. Bungie veterans wanted to flesh out story elements, and fans wanted more action on Earth. "At the end of Halo 2, fans wanted to know what happened back on Earth, how humanity was defending it," Jarrard explained.[11] Because Bungie did not want to do "more of the same," the main character was made an ODST. "The ODSTs have always been fan favorites and the events that unfolded on Earth is something fans still clamor for after being 'short changed' in Halo 2," Jarrard said,[12] in reference to complaints that Halo 2 left the Earth setting early in the game.[13] In an interview on MTV on July 16, 2008, Microsoft’s head of Xbox business, Don Mattrick, stated that Bungie was working on a new Halo game for Microsoft, independent of the franchise spinoffs Halo Wars and Halo Chronicles.[4] An announcement of the new Halo project was expected at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2008 game exposition, with Bungie unveiling a countdown on their web site, but the announcement was shelved by Microsoft.[14] Microsoft stated that it wanted the game to have its own event. On September 25, 2008, a year after the release of Halo 3, Bungie debuted a teaser for the new project on their web site.[15] A full trailer was released during the Tokyo Game Show on October 9, 2008, officially unveiling the game's name as Halo 3: Recon and a release date of Autumn 2009. In an unusual approach for Bungie, the trailer was comprised of pre-rendered graphics, instead of being created using the game engine or existing assets; story director Joseph Staten explained that it was too early in the game's development to spend a large amount of time on the trailer, and it would not have allowed Bungie to add touches for fans to discuss.[10] In post-trailer interviews, Bungie staff members told gaming press that ODST was the last installment in the Halo trilogy.[16] Though Bungie does not consider the ODST a full game[17] (community manager Luke Smith compared it to The Frozen Throne, an expansion to Warcraft III), the game will ship with Halo 3 Heroic, Legendary, Mythic and future map packs[18][19] and ODST will not require Halo 3 to play.[20] Smith made sure to point out the game would not be a crossover into the stealth and squad-based genres, noting "This isn't Brothers in Arms: Halo or Splinter Cell: Halo."[11] On November 25, Jarrard announced the game had been retitled to Halo 3: ODST as a "more straightforward" description of the game.[3] By December 2008, the game was "representational", meaning that players could experience the game from start to finish, albeit in an unfinished state. The entire Bungie staff was pulled from other duties to play through the game and offer feedback. Among the unfinished elements was the lack of finished dialogue delivered by voice actors; story writer Joseph Staten filled in placeholder audio.[21] [edit] Audio Bungie's audio director Martin O'Donnell will contribute music for ODST, as he has done for the previous Halo games. Due to ODST's shift to a new protagonist, O'Donnell wanted to create new music that was evocative of Halo but branched in a different direction.[10] [edit] References 10. ^ a b c Jarrard, Brian; Luke Smith, Chad Armstrong. (2008-10-31). The Bungie Podcast 10/31/08: With Joseph Staten, Martin O'Donnell, and Jim McQuillan (.MP3 (zipped)) [Podcast]. Washington: Bungie. Retrieved on 2008-11-02. 11. ^ a b Staff (Christmas 2008). "'Halo 3: Recon'; Please remain calm, the ODST are here to finish the fight". Official Xbox Magazine UK (41): 40–41. Category: Upcoming video games Halo Wars is an upcoming real-time strategy video game set in the Halo universe, developed by Ensemble Studios for the Xbox 360 game console. It is the last project to be developed by Ensemble Studios. Contents [hide] * 1 Gameplay * 2 Synopsis o 2.1 Setting * 3 Development o 3.1 Audio * 4 Versions * 5 Anticipation * 6 References * 7 External links Gameplay Units are built, buildings upgraded, and special abilities utilized by using resources that are simply known as supplies. Supplies may be found on the battlefield and claimed, but the bulk of supplies are generated by building special structures at bases. The more supply pads (for the UNSC) or warehouses (for the Covenant) a player has, the more income. Some buildings and upgrades may also require additional tech. When playing the UNSC, tech is acquired by building Reactors. Each reactor gives 1 tech level, however reactors can be upgraded to provide 2 tech levels. The Covenant gain tech by advancing ages using the structures called Temples. Ages are advanced just like any other technology with the use of supplies. Each base has only a limited amount of building space, so players must balance their resource buildings with other facilities, like those used to create vehicles. The number of units and vehicles a player can bring to the field is constrained by a population limit; more powerful units cost more than one population unit. Upgrades can increase the maximum population. Combat in Halo Wars is balanced by a "rock-paper-scissors" mechanic common in many real-time strategy titles. Ground vehicles are powerful against infantry, infantry is stronger against aircraft, and aircraft are exceptional at destroying vehicles. Each unit has a special ability accessed by using the Y button; for example, human Marines throw grenades while vehicles called Warthogs run over enemies. Each faction can also bring in special hero units, which impact what abilities and units players can access. The humans also have access to their ship, the Spirit of Fire, and its special abilites; these include a powerful coilgun, the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon or simply the MAC. The Covenant have more powerful units led by Leaders who command units on the battlefield and have special abilities of their own they can use to turn the tide of battle. Built from the ground-up specifically for console, Halo Wars uses the Xbox 360 controller's A-button primarily for selecting units and the X-button for moving to or attacking a target.[4] Selecting a unit gives the player the option of commands and selecting certain buildings brings up a "circle menu", the most important menu in the game,[4] which is used for creating units and buildings and researching upgrades.[4] Synopsis Setting Halo Wars is set in the 26th century in the year 2532, about 20 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. Development Halo Wars was first announced at X06.[5] Announced during Microsoft's X06 media briefing on September 27, 2006, details of the game first appeared on 1UP.[6] A small demonstration of Halo Wars was revealed to gaming media at E3 2007 on July 10, 2007 and a demo video narrated by Halo Wars' Lead Designer was released on the Xbox Live Marketplace on August 27, 2007.[7] Because previous console real time strategy games have been criticized for their control schemes, Ensemble developed the controls six months before approaching Microsoft.[8] An update on January 30, 2007 stated that the developers were considering using motion capture.[9] Photos of the test posted on the website show mocap being used, however it was not confirmed whether it would be included in the final release of the game.[9] Weekly playtests are held within Ensemble to provide both the art and design teams with feedback on developments.[10] Microsoft employees were spotted on Xbox Live playing the "Halo Wars Alpha" in April 2008 sparking speculation and jealousy among the gaming community.[11][12] Ensemble later confirmed that the Alpha version was a tutorial and multiplayer version with limited features. Ensemble employees frequently played against others seeking aspects of the game to improve.[13] In the October 2007 issue of Official Xbox Magazine, it was mentioned that there will be a playable demo of the game before it is released.[14] Bungie Studios has had little involvement in the making of Halo Wars. Since the splitting of Microsoft and Bungie Studios, Bungie will only be helping Ensemble Studios, the main developers of the game, and Microsoft in areas including the environment and the general "feel" of the Halo universe. [15][16] The Elites as depicted in the X06 Halo Wars trailer, with Banshees flying in formation overhead. The game was announced at X06 with a pre-rendered trailer. The trailer was created by Blur Studio and shows a group of Warthog vehicles searching for a missing unit of soldiers. The recon patrol is killed by camouflaged Elites who de-cloak and advance into battle supported by Banshees. The battle has various human and Covenant vehicles and foot soldiers and ends displaying Spartan Group Omega wearing their MJOLNIR armor.[17] A video of gameplay footage narrated by Graeme Devine, the lead designer was shown at E3 2007 and later made available online. Controls and other gameplay features such as vehicles, user interface and special weapons were highlighted, along with new creations. The footage also showed off a UNSC base consisting of an airbase, vehicle depot, missile silo and several other buildings that can be created while playing Halo Wars.[4] On September 10th, 2008 it was announced that Ensemble studios would close after the completion of Halo Wars. A new studio formed by Ensemble employees will not only continue to support Microsoft Game Studios, but will also provide post launch support for Halo Wars.[18] Devine described the main challenge of the game being to get real-time strategy players to play a Halo game, and Halo fans to play an RTS.[19] Early in development, Ensemble considered making the Flood a playable race, but this idea never made it past the concept stage. According to Devine the main issue was that in order to balance the Flood with the UNSC and Covenant, the Flood would have to have been similar to StarCraft's Zerg, which did not mesh with the Flood's role in the games, to be "the single scariest thing in the galaxy."[20] The playable demo for Halo Wars is now available to the public, which became available for download on February 5. Also, redemption codes were handed out for early access to the demo starting January 29.[21] Audio Halo Wars's music was composed by Stephen Rippy, the composer of all of the Age of Empires games. Rippy was concerned with keeping the music's feel in the Halo universe while still branching out and writing new material; due to the iconic nature of the music, elements of the Halo trilogy's music, written by Martin O'Donnell, appear in the game.[22] Halo Wars Original Soundtrack tracklist[23] # Title Length 1. "Spirit of Fire" 2. "Bad Here Day" 3. "Perspective" 4. "Money or Meteors" 5. "Flollo" 6. "Just Ad Nauseum" 7. "Unusually Quiet" 8. "Flip and Sizzle" 9. "Put The Lady Down" 10. "Six-Armed Robbing Suit" 11. "Action Figure Hands" 12. "Status Quo Show" 13. "Part Of The Plan" 14. "Work Burns and Runaway Grunts" 15. "Freaked Out" 16. "Rescued Or Not" 17. "Best Guess At Best" 18. "One Problem At A Time" 19. "De Facto The Matter" 20. "Part Of The Problem" 21. "Fingertips Are Broken" 22. "Out Of There Alive" 23. "Through Your Hoops" 24. "Under Your Hurdles" 25. "Insignificantia (All Sloopy/No Joe)" Versions In addition to the standard retail version, Halo Wars will be released as a Limited Collector's Edition through participating retailers and will include 3 maps for Halo 3 entitled the "Mythic Map Pack". These maps will also be available for purchase from the Xbox Live Marketplace sometime after the release of the Halo Wars. Other bonus features include a graphic novel by Phil Noto, Graeme Devine, and Eric Nylund called Halo Wars: Genesis. A unique in-game vehicle, trading cards, and a Spirit of Fire patch are also included. As an added bonus, fans will be able to pre-order Halo Wars and receive a pre-order card to download a special in-game Warthog vehicle with flame decals from select participating retailers.[24] Anticipation As part of the Halo series, Halo Wars is highly anticipated by most of the Halo community. The IGN Xbox Team has ranked Halo Wars as their 7th most anticipated game of E3 2008 and Next Generation Magazine ranked it 5th.[25][26] PC World rated as one of the most anticipated titles of E3, though they stated they are concerned by the fact that it is not being developed by Bungie.[27] The trailer shown at X06 was listed as twenty-fifth of GameSpy's Top 25 Video Game Cinematic Moments for "[displaying] the world of Halo on a much grander scale."[28] References 4. ^ a b c d Graeme Devine. E3 Demo Video. Ensemble Studios. Retrieved on 2008-01-11. 14. ^ McCaffrey, Ryan (October 2007). 'Halo Wars'. Official Xbox Magazine. pp. 25. 15. ^ Bungie Leaving Microsoft 16. ^ The Bungie / Microsoft Split External links * Halo Wars Official homepage * Halo Wars Xbox Page * game manual [hide] v • d • e Halo series Main trilogy Halo: Combat Evolved · Halo 2 · Halo 3 (ODST) Related games Halo Wars · Halo: Chronicles Printed media The Fall of Reach · The Flood · First Strike · Ghosts of Onyx · Contact Harvest · The Cole Protocol · Halo Graphic Novel · Uprising Music Halo Original Soundtrack · Halo 2 Original Soundtrack · Halo 3 Original Soundtrack Information and fiction Official games and media · Characters (Master Chief · Cortana · Arbiter · Gravemind) · Factions Promotion I Love Bees · Halo 3 marketing Categories: Upcoming video games | 2009 video games | Halo games | Real-time strategy video games | Video game prequels | Xbox 360 games | Xbox 360-only games