I got my Friends and Family invitation yesterday and have been playing this morning. Just wondering if any CFers want to party up.
Tell us about it - what do you like dislike? Some of the screenshots didn't look to impressive, how are the graphics?
Quite nice. The gameplay is fantastic. Hold on, more after this game. VIP gametype rocks! Territories has changed as well. It is now 4 rounds, offensive/defensive (like 1 bomb assault or 1 flag CTF) where the teams try to capture all five territories one at a time, once a territory is captured, it cannot revert.
any chance to get extra invites? i signed up but didnt get selected...whats the friends and family deal?
The only way to get the beta now is to buy a marked copy of Crackdown. The "public" beta starts Wednesday. "Friends and Family" was Bungie's way of having a preview of the public beta. They sent invites to random Bungie.net users as well as to their actual friends and family. I got the invite (I have since learned) on Friday. It is a good thing I only found out about it today, because I really needed to mow the lawn yesterday.
The main "Beta" of Halo 3 Matchmaking starts Wednesday. There is only one way for you to get in if you are not already. That is to buy a copy of the game "Crackdown" that is labeled to contain the Halo 3 Beta. I just got lucky.
Yes I will be playing on Wed. I'm waking up at 6:30am. Also, If you like to play MLG-style Customs lemme know. Gamertag: Drizno.
Here are my impressions after a few hours... Very nice graphics, incredible detail. For any of you who have read the weekly updates at BNet, the water really does look amazing. Great gameplay, the weapons are nicely balanced, the Spartan Laser ROCKS!!! They have added "equipment" that you can deploy. Things like the bubble shield you saw in the H3 trailer, a trip mine that kills anything that runs into it, and a portable grav lift. The brute shot's power has been increased, as has its clip (6 rounds) and is now closer to being the power weapon that Bungie thought it would be in H2. The sniper and beam rifles recoil a bit more, making it harder to get 2 shot snipes (when you miss the head shot). More to follow.
There are a bunch of gameplay videos at Gametrailers and a few other sites FWIW. Here are a few: <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="409"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=19447"/> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=19447" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="409"></embed> </object> <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="409"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=19443"/> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=19443" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="409"></embed> </object> <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="409"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=19426"/> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=19426" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="409"></embed> </object> There are MANY more (including a developer walkthrough).
Some of the new weapons look fun...graphics don't really look that much better (maybe it is just the quality of the videos) and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot new. Maybe I just haven't seen it all yet. Those that are playing it, are the graphics that much better than Halo 2?
When is Halo 3 expected to come out? December? was thinking of maybe picking up Halo 2 since its cheap and use that to get back into Halo
I believe early November. I've got it on reserve, but I can't really remember when exactly it comes out.
Did you download the HD videos, or were you just basing that on the videos I posted? I don't think the graphics are amazing like say Gears of War (and probably a lot of games that come out by the end of the year), but they seem pretty solid to me, especially considering the type of game Halo 3 is. Also keep in mind that they will continue to improve as times goes on (still got a lot of development time left). The early shots looked a lot more like Halo 2 HD than these videos did IMO. Someone who has played the game might be able to comment more.
