Tag Archives: halo 3: odst

The embargo on Halo 3: ODST has lifted! We’ve scoured the Internet and found every* review – every opinion, every ounce of knowledge – of the game and posted them all here. Just for you! Have a look-see!

• Kotaku – No score (More blue paragraphs than red, though. That’s good, right?)
• Joystiq – No score
• Giant Bomb – 4/5
• Planet Xbox – 9.3/10
• 1UP – A-
• IGN – 9/10
• Eurogamer – 8/10
• Gamespy – 4/5
• Worthplaying – 9.5/10
• GamePro – 4.5/5
• NowGamer – 6.3/10 (!)
• Gametrailers – 8.9/10
• Gamikaze – 8.9/10
• Edge – 9/10

*This is a blatant lie. If there are more reviews you’d like us to add, just drop us a line.

Xbox Europe entertainment boss Steve McGill’s told MCV that he expects Halo 3: ODST’s Reach beta promotion to be more successful than the Halo 3 multiplayer beta entry given away with Crackdown.

“The only way to access this beta will be through the Halo 3: ODST disc, so we feel there’s another extremely compelling reason for both fans and newcomers to the franchise to experience Halo 3: ODST,” he said.

“We saw the success of this mechanic with the Halo 3 multiplayer beta that came on the Crackdown game disc and the continued sales momentum and excitement generated around that title throughout its lifecycle, and we fully expect Halo 3: ODST to exceed that achievement.

“It’s a great way to extend the shelf life of the title at retail, and allows us to deliver some cool and creative sustained marketing activity around the game throughout 2010.”

ODST ships next week. Reach is planned for a 2010 launch.

Microsoft has announced that a Halo 3: ODST hardware bundle will be made available in all PAL territories.

Inside the large Halo decorated box, consumers will find a 120Gb Xbox 360 Elite, controller, a copy of Halo 3: ODST, a copy of Halo 3 and a key to the Halo: Reach beta.

It’s due later this month, and will run you £249/€280/R4,228 (South Africa).

Via Kotaku.

A vidoc detailing “the vision” behind Halo 3: ODST is now up on Live, says Mr Major.

Blurb:

A Covenant warship dominates the sky over New Mombasa. The evacuated city burns below. You are an ODST, one of the few soldiers ready and willing to drop in and put up a fight. But before you head feet first into the city and experience Halo from a fresh perspective, get an inside look at the creative process behind Halo 3: ODST straight from the strike team at Bungie that got the job done. To complete their mission, they had to explore some dark and uncharted territory of their own. Download this VIDOC and get briefed on the vision, technology and tactics it took to bring the city of New Mombasa and Halo 3: ODST to life.

Game’s out next week.

VG247 has learnt that the embargo for Halo 3: ODST reviews will be lifted from this weekend.

The embargo for all British journalists is 5.00 am BST on Sunday, September 20, while east coast American journalists can post their reviews from midnight EST.

Journalists from the west coast put their reviews live from 9pm PST this Saturday, September 19.

The game is out next Tuesday for Xbox 360.

XboxInsider has managed to obtain what is the “Legendary” ending of Halo 3: ODST. We haven’t watched it ourselves for obvious reasons, of course.

It’s after the jump for you to spoil your eyes over.

*WARNING*: Video is a MASSIVE spoiler, so watch at your own risk. Otherwise, if you want to stay clean before September 22, don’t watch it.

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The Halo 3: ODST live-action trailer will be released in its entirety tonight on FX (Sky 164) in the UK.

It’s two minutes and 30 seconds long, and will air at 11:41pm during True Blood.

If you can’t wait that long, GamersHell has it for download, and if you want a taste of it, here is an excerpt.

Game’s out on September 22.

Microsoft’s Alex Cutting, Halo 3: ODST producer, has told VideoGamer that as far as a Natal version of Halo is concerned, the firm will only do it “when it makes sense”.

“A lot of people are interested in what Natal’s presence in Halo’s going to be,” he said. “We are committing to only doing it when it makes sense. We are not going to produce a gimmicky feature that just takes advantage of motion controls when it doesn’t feel right.

“We’re going to make the games we want to play. We’re not going to make a feature that’s not fun. If there’s an opportunity to do it, we will definitely investigate it. If it’s fun we will leave it in the game. But further than that, I can’t tell you any specific plans.”

More through the link.

Bungie’s Brian Jarrard has admitted to Eurogamer that if the co-op mode in Halo 3: ODST, Firefight, is a success, it’s very likely that it’ll feature in Halo: Reach, when it releases next year.

“I can’t talk too much about Reach specifics, but hopefully the game mode’s going to be received as well we think it will be, and people are going to enjoy it.”

“I don’t think we’ve ever been known to really take things away from each successive release, so I think it’s safe to say that if Firefight gets a lot of traction and people love it, it probably has a good future home in our next title as well,” admitted the community leader of the developer.

More through the link.

Speaking at a panel at PAX, community leader of Bungie Brian Jarrard has said that the developer won’t be “totally” speaking about Halo: Reach until Halo 3: ODST ships in a couple of weeks.

“Obviously right now what we’re excited about is the impending launch of ODST, so we don’t want to totally start talking about next year’s model before this one’s even off the assembly line,” admitted Jarrard.

“But there is a beta that’s coming next year, so all you’ve got to do is sit tight. If you want to be part of Reach from the very beginning then you want to make sure you keep an ODST disc handy,” he further said.

Speaking of ODST, it was admitted that DLC could be a possibility for co-op mode Firefight. But for now, its unlikely.

“There’s no current plans right now for DLC for ODST,” admitted senior designer for the game Lars Bakken.

More at EG.

During the Halo 3: ODST panel at PAX, Bungie’s Joe Staten revealed that Fourth Wall Studios are developing a meta-game for Halo 3: ODST called “Sadie’s Story.”

Created by artist Ashley Wood and former members of 42 Entertainment, which created the “ilovebees” campaign for Halo 2, Fourth Wall’s meta-game tells the story of New Mombasa after the Covenant attack, but before the ODST arrived on the scene.

The story will follow the exploits of a New Mombasa resident named Sadie, which serves as a companion to the main narrative, which Bungie’s Marty O’Donnell compared to a radio play.

Not much else was revealed, other than some art from Sadie’s Story, including the “security camera footage” pictured above.

Sounds interesting at least.

More over on Joystiq.

Microsoft’s latest commercial for Halo 3: ODST has been released.

Shows a new ODST throughout his career and it is very, very, very well done.

It’s past the break, courtesy of IGN. The full video will be on Spike TV Monday September 7 at 10:30pm EST.

Game’s out on the 22nd.

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This may not be going according to Bungie’s plan. Almost 30 minutes of HD Halo 3: ODST footage has appeared on YouTube. It’s 720p direct-feed capture of the game’s opening.

Obviously, this is a huge spoiler. To be clear – This is the first 30 minutes of Halo 3: ODST – DO NOT WATCH IT if you don’t want the game to be spoiled.

The vids are here: one, two, three.

It’s out on September 22. Thanks, G1GAHURTZ.

Xbox Live’s Stephen Toulouse has said that French Halo 3: ODST players who got copies early will not be banned from playing online as long as it is a legitimate copy they’e playing.

“We will not be banning legitimate customers from Xbox Live who play early”, he tweeted.

Microsoft is still trying to figure out how this snafu happened and have not gone into major detail on the investigation either.

More through Kotaku.

Two new Halo 3: ODST videos were released today, showing off the Covenant’s little creepy Engineers.

Previously only appearing in the Halo novels, these guys can supposedly fix anything the Covenant breaks and this is the first time they have been present in a Halo game.

Cool.

Both videos are posted below courtesy of GameVideos, via D’toid.

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Microsoft has released a new Halo 3: ODST video featuring the Firefight multiplayer mode.

It’s below the break courtesy of D’toid.

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Bungie’s community manager Brian Jarrard has told VG247 that Halo: Reach will be the final game the studio does on the “current” Halo trilogy.

He confirmed it would be a standalone game and that it is a prequel.

“For now Reach is definitely our next big thing, and it doesn’t really fit into the Halo trilogy itself. It’s definitely a prequel, standalone offering, so we don’t have current plans to go back and inject more content into the current Halo trilogy,” said Jarrard.

“I think ODST is going to be a nice exclamation point, a nice rounding up of multiplayer content and a different side-story, but right now Reach is our focus.”

Halo 3: ODST was proclaimed finished by Halo 3 creative director, Joe Staten, back at E3. Reach was announced at E3 for a fall 2010 release, but there will be a multiplayer beta with ODST.

ODST will drop on September 22.

Catch the full interview here.

Bungie’s Brian Jarrard has told VG247 at GamesCom that Halo 3: ODST, in between having an E3 2008 reveal being pulled at the last minute, an accidental reveal from senior vice president of Xbox, Don Mattrick and a name change from Halo 3: Recon, has been “a different product”.

“Yeah, ODST has been a different product for us a lot of respects. It’s the first time we’ve had a game that we’ve basically done on an accelerated 12 month schedule with a small team.”

But despite what it has gone through within the past year, Jarrard does insist that Bungie are still proud at what they have done with ODST.

“We’re definitely proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in a short time. It’s been a first in many ways, but I think that the final product came out even better than we had hoped, and it’s going to speak for itself when it comes out next month.”

Go read up the full interview here, you’ll find out loads of “different” info on ODST and the recently announced Halo Reach.

Gamestop EVP Tony Bartel has said in the retailer’s Q2 financial call that Modern Warfare 2 could potentially be “the best selling title” of all time.

Despite how evil Activision seems to have become lately, he is most likely right.

He said: “We expect Modern Warfare 2 could be the best selling title of all time.”

He also pointed called out Halo 3: ODST and Assassins Creed II as two other titles that could sell well this holiday season. But let’s be honest, it’s all about Infinity Ward this Christmas, innit?

Bartel said in the same call that Gamestop were “excited” to be selling the PSPgo.

More over at D’Toid.

Interview by Patrick Garratt.

During GamesCom, Bungie’s community manager Brian Jarrard and director of cinematics CJ Cowan sat down with VG247 to talk a bit about all things Halo.

The guys also spoke a bit about the split from Microsoft, why Reach does not fit into the Halo trilogy,and how ODST is a new way to propel the missions and the narrative structure of Halo 3.

Loads more on past the break.

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