Halo 3 Video Documentary Due Soon

[fatefodder]

BUNGIE.NET (http://www.bungie.net/) has a news post entitled Et 2am Brute (http://www.bungie.net/News/TopStory.aspx?cid=9340), which introduces the video documentary due out at 2am PST in the United States on the Live Marketplace. Other versions to follow shortly.

Tomorrow morning, on December 20th at 2am PST (Pacific Standard Time) the US English version of our next “ViDoc” will go live. What’s a Vidoc, you ask? A Video-Documentary. What’s it about, you ask? It’s about Brutes in Halo 3.

...Taken from the link are the following bullets:

There are no finished graphics in the documentary, and everything you see is a work in progress.
This will be available initially only on Xbox Live Marketplace.
The first version of the Vidoc, US English, will be live at 2am, PST.
The rest of the localized language versions will be parceled out afterwards, hopefully within 24 hours. Please be patient.
We will make another, non-marketplace version available relatively soon.
It runs for seven minutes.
Standard definition and high definition variants will be available.
Thanks to our in-house Halo guru, Zeal, for a duplicate submission.

[Reanimated]

The question is will I be up at 4AM to download this...

[Zeal]

Oh y'all already know how I roll.

[Evil Avatar]

I think Xbox Live content is a great way to build hype for an upcoming title. I'm a little shocked to see that the Themes and GamerPics for Halo 3 and Halo Wars all cost money, it seems a little early to be charging for those kind of items.

[HALO 32]

it will be on youtube at 5am ;)

good because as much as a halo fan i am...i cant get xbox live where i live!... fricken sticks :(

[Wyrm]

Oh y'all already know how I roll.

If only you knew how big a fan I was... Where you're the resident Halo fan, I'm the resident humper of the leg of every developer on the team.

[JimmyDanger]

I think Xbox Live content is a great way to build hype for an upcoming title. I'm a little shocked to see that the Themes and GamerPics for Halo 3 and Halo Wars all cost money, it seems a little early to be charging for those kind of items.

Yeah - but they know people will pay - I accidentally downloaded that Halo trilogy theme - so I guess I'm not helping....

[bean19]

Everyone get ready for Xbox Live connectivity and download speed to suck tomorrow!

[MSUStud911]

I will never understand the hype that the Halo series gets, but I'm in the minority I guess. I'll buy Halo 3, I'm sure, but I just don't think either Halo 1 or 2 merit the vast praise heaped upon them.

[Zeal]

I will never understand the hype that the Halo series gets, but I'm in the minority I guess. I'll buy Halo 3, I'm sure, but I just don't think either Halo 1 or 2 merit the vast praise heaped upon them.
And I'll never understand people who come into Halo related threads to post just that.

[ldi222]

There is nothing in the world like HALO. Oh if I had only known what I was getting myself into that day @ the Mac lab with the Marathon Demo.

[Captain Awesome]

And I'll never understand people who come into Halo related threads to post just that.

Yeah, pretty much.

[Disgustipated]

And I'll never understand people who come into Halo related threads to post just that.

Because HALF LIFE is better, duuuuh! ;)

[Wasson_]

He is just trying to maintain the status quo.

[jwbxx]

Forum. 1. A public meeting place, radio or TV program, or area in a newspaper or computer bulletin board in which two or more people may openly discuss ideas.

I thought this place was for open discussion on videogames? Not just a one side mob mentality on every game. If I wanted that I would go post on the nintendo boards. The best part about this place is that everyone has different view points.

I'll buy halo 3, but as msustud911 says I really don't understand why we have to have a play by play for every minor detail in the game. An update video here and there, but other than that it's over kill.

[Rirath]

And I'll never understand people who come into Halo related threads to post just that.

Really? I mean, if you look at some of your own posts on say, JRPGs... I'd say you understand them pretty well. :p

[MaiXu]

And I'll never understand people who come into Halo related threads to post just that.

And yet you do the same damn thing in every thread that isn't about Halo.

[Rook34]

Very clever name for the video post. It made me chuckle anyway.

[TheDancinMan]

Because of this damnable holiday season, I had to go to the mall today, and invertiably, to a place called "Hot Topic."

Though nothing to me seemed topical there, I did however notice a small bit of Halo merchandise. Messenger bags, hats and hooded sweatshirts.

The problem? It was all Halo 3 merchandise. Hype is one thing, selling stuff with the logo on it well over a year before release is too much to me.

[ProfPuppet]

The problem? It was all Halo 3 merchandise. Hype is one thing, selling stuff with the logo on it well over a year before release is too much to me.

I hear if you don't buy enough Halo 3 hoodies, Master Chief dies a virgin at the end of the game.

Wait, this isn't the rumor thread.

As per this not being 'newsworthy' I'm not a Halo fan, but we've posted smaller bits of information on other titles before.

[Zeal]

Wow, I can honestly say that looked absolutely horrible.

[Durandal-217]

I give this an F

[MSUStud911]

And I'll never understand people who come into Halo related threads to post just that.
I guess my point is, all of these ViDocs and whatnot are so overblown. A $99 Special Edition of the game? I just don't get it. And the 1upShow coverage of their visit to Bungie was just ridiculous. Honestly it was like watching a felatio contest (of which I've seen many :-P) between Luke Smith and Dan Hsu to see who could suck Bungie off the hardest. And the guys they talked to just seemed so damn arrogant. It really turned me off. Which brings me back to my statement that I will never understand that massive hype behind this series, but clearly the Bungie guys are drinking their own Kool-Aid. Eh, whatever.

[Don Chichon]

Tiny video available here : http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/8082.

Looking disappointing to say the least...like an HD version of Halo 2 at best. And I know that there's one year of development left bla bla bla, but in this case I think better to show nothing or at least a one-level prototype of what the game will actually look like one year from now than this kind of crap. But hey at least it's realtime rendering :)

As far as I can remember one year before Halo was released we already had screenshots that were close to what the finished product looked like.

[Don Chichon]

Another link in better quality : http://www.xboxyde.com/leech_3453.html.

[ldi222]

Well I thought it was a pretty cool surprise. I looked forward to running to my xbox this morning to check this out. Yeah it was a lot of concept animation focusing on the Brutes but what did you expect? I hope Bungie keeps doing things like this as the release gets closer. As a die hard HALO fan, any glimpse of the future is worth partaking and enjoying for what it is. Hell, that's half the fun.

[Mdot23]

i thought it was a cool video. i'm not really worried about the graphics. the first 2 didn't dissapoint in that respect, so that's the least of my concerns. the animations for the brutes looked pretty diesel. arm ripping ftw.

[Roc Ingersol]

The brutes look stupid as hell running around with those pistols.
Their primary weapon should be much more like that giant club thing near the end of the video.

[Mdot23]

The brutes look stupid as hell running around with those pistols.
Their primary weapon should be much more like that giant club thing near the end of the video.

how are the going to shoot you then

[Dracula-X]

I will never understand the hype that the Halo series gets, but I'm in the minority I guess. I'll buy Halo 3, I'm sure, but I just don't think either Halo 1 or 2 merit the vast praise heaped upon them.
Seconded. Half-decent games, and vastly overhyped. You'd think Jesus came back as Halo the way some people go on about it.

And I'll never understand people who come into Halo related threads to post just that.
Hahahahaha! Hello, Pot? Kettle is calling!

[MaiXu]

That vid just dropped Halo 3 off my radar.

So Bungie has decided to take the worst element of Halo 2 - the Brutes - and make a whole game based on them? And then they've decided to shoehorn these boring and repetitive enemies into some kind of Elite-like armor and behavior patterns so that they won't be the boring stiffs they were in Halo 2? And then they've decided to wrap the whole thing up in a package that looks like Halo 2 running as it should have?

No, thanks. I learned my lesson from Halo 2.

[Lord Nerdious]

Was that an Elite a saw Dual-Wielding a sword? Mmmmmm..... Halo 3......

[Zanzibar]

C'mon, at least they admitted that the Brutes needed improvement to make them a more substantial bad guy. Seriously, the Brutes will now behave more like the Elites, I fail to see how that's a bad thing given how the Covenant has unraveled and we'll need a replacement for the Elite bad guys.

But THE MOST IMPORTANT thing is how they're showing DEATH ANIMATIONS for the characters. I hope this means the end of Havok Ragdoll deaths.

[Roc Ingersol]

how are the going to shoot you then
Gee, I dunno. Maybe with a weapon that actually suits their physique?
It looks like Mike Tyson chasing someone down the hall with a star trek phaser.

Is it plausibly lethal? Sure.
Does it look cool? please - it looks fuckin ridiculous.

It's like Chris Farley's Fat-Man-In-A-Little-Coat ... but with a gun.

How hard would it be to give them a stock weapon that's actually menacing? Say, like the club-thing at the end? Or their old brute grenade widget.

Hell, they could use some animations that give them weight and menace too.

[Mdot23]

i'm sure that gun is the only one the brutes are allowed to use since that's whats seen in the video.

[Schnoogs]

As a casual Halo fan I thought that was a pretty cool video...anytime I get to see the actual makers of a game is nice. Reminds me how much I hate my job and want to switch careers.

[weezbs]

The AI looked to be just shuffling back and forth randomly and the whole "brute pack" business just looked funky it seemed the other brutes just mirrored the other brutes in the pack... almost like when you play baseball games on the nes and when you control one guy you control 3 others at the same time.

The graphics looked okay, I'll wait a while to reserve my final judgement but as of right now they look like Halo 2 just upscaled a bit.

[ldi222]

This was definitely a confident risk by Bungie given that we are basing the final game on a clearly labeled watermarked alpha build. I think they may have erred in releasing a "making of" documentary before the final product is released but I am happy they did.

Bottom line is they know HALO3 is going to be massive and they can divvy out the hype even taking a chance on showing a work in progress. The animations of those Brutes was awesome and the development of their "ancient Rome" model sounds very cool.

HALO single player has always been brilliant for its AI (with what some call repetitive level design) intended to create tactical situations to engage with gameplay. The single player clips in this new video indicated a sort of advancement in tactics as we all get much better with the game and already know how to finesse a headshot with the carbon rifle. The "pack mentality" looks to add more immersiveness to the battles added to the statement that they are taking so much time to contemplate not only the AI when fighting you but what they are doing before you get there.

This 7 minute clip packed full of subtleties gives a nice glimpse into one facet of what the future of HALO will represent. Et tu Brute?

[Zeal]

What animation? That was the biggest mess of crap I've ever seen. Releasing hideously bad animatic tests and calling it Campaign footage is just incomprehensible. If that was indeed actual in-game footage, they don't have much of a game.

What in the flying fuck were they thinking.

What's more perplexing to me is that the multiplayer 'alpha' looks entirely different than what was shown to be Campaign.

[ldi222]

Well, I respect your opinion, I just have a lot of faith in Bungie and took it for what it was... What's your level in TS anyway? Not that it matters, just wondering.

[Zeal]

I'm a level 43, but not that it's relevant. Halo 2 is absolute garbage.

http://www.bungie.net/Stats/PlayerStats.aspx?player=James%20Cameron

[ldi222]

Is that a legit 43?

[Zeal]

Is that a legit 43?
How insulting.

[Chameleo]

ive never played halo 1 or 2 - but this video looks pretty cool...

i really like the higher level brute models.

the brutes look a lot like the aliens in GoW too tho don't they?

looks like a fun game!

(and isn't that what halo is all about? fun?!) ;)