Halo 3 unveiled
Weapons, maps, vehicles, more.
Concrete details about Halo 3 have started to appear on the Internet after Bungie invited a few magazine people round for tea and Blood Gulch, with subscriber issues of Swedish magazine LEVEL revealing weapon, vehicle, level, control and collector's edition details. The latter sounds particularly eye-catching - or should we say 'head-catching', since it apparently includes a replica Spartan helmet.
Halo 3 will see the introduction of several new weapons, Bungie told LEVEL, including a Spartan Laser - a tricky-to-use tool that has the power to disable vehicles in one shot - and Brute spike grenades and spikers. The former will stick to walls and shoot out nails when they explode, which is nice. Apparently secondary weapons like the spiker - reportedly a melee weapon - will be visible strapped to the player model's back, too.
Vehicles-wise, Halo 3 sees the introduction of the Mongoose, a quad bike that can carry two people but lacks weapons, and was originally slated for inclusion in Halo 2.
The preview also introduces three new levels - Valhalla, High Ground and Snowbound, which are likened to Blood Gulch, Zanzibar and Frost Bite respectively - while multiplayer modes will also benefit from something playfully dubbed the Man Cannon (it sounds a bit like an aimable bounce-pad), and the X button will be given new, unspecified multiplayer functionality. Some speculation suggests you'll use it to grab an enemy's gun, although there's no confirmation of that. Meanwhile, the reload function will shift to the left and right bumper buttons (LB and RB) so that you can reload left and right weapons individually.
Finally, there's news on the contents of the Halo 3 "Legendary Edition", which will consist of four DVDs' worth of content and, amusingly, a replica Spartan helmet. So what's on those four discs? Well, the game, obviously, and then documentaries and developer commentaries, bonus material like Red vs. Blue episodes, and cut-scenes from Halo 1 to 3 in high-definition. There will also be some sort of Halo film trailer located in the package.
Bungie hasn't posted any of this information on its website, but it has confirmed that magazine previews will be hitting around now and ordered its fans not to post scanned images on its forum. So don't, eh?