| sega4life said:
X10: Halo: Reach demoed, will be 'the definitive Halo'by Randy Nelson  Click to enlarge
Bungie's "community guy " Brian Jarrard and Halo: Reach creative director Marcus Lehto are on-hand at X10 to provide a much deeper look into the workings of Reach, what they are calling "the best Halo yet" and "the most ambitious title Bungie has ever produced." The duo talked us through many of the changes being made to the established Halo formula, and new elements they believe make this "the definitive Halo experience." Lehto talked about the team's desire to "throw new things at the player," building on the hallmark underpinnings of previous Halos, even changing some things to suit the new game's more serious tone, but says Bungie won't "be pushing it." Another key goal with Reach, according to Lehto, is to "reintroduce the Covenant," by both making them look different -- more alien, more savage -- and giving established enemies new behaviors. It was also mentioned that, to keep with the more realistic tone of Reach, players won't be able to understand what the Covenant are saying. Gallery: Halo: Reach     
On the tech front, Lehto confirmed that the game engine has "been entirely re-written" in order to facilitate what Bungie wants to do in Reach. Specifically, its goal is to make the world more expansive, put a lot more on-screen and introduce much more detailed character, environment and weapon models. Addressing the former, Bungie showed a test animation of a battle between Noble Squad, eight marines and 30 Covenant -- it was even more impressive looking than it sounds. We got zoomed-in looks at things like rifle scopes, which are detailed down to small writing and screws. The game is pushing about four million polygons more than Halo 3 overall, we're told, with a completely re-written animation system and A.I. The result, Bungie hopes, will be a much more realistic world to look at and be involved with. From the stills and footage we saw, it's on track to deliver -- the game looks phenomenal. It promises to sound great, too, as every sound effect has been re-recorded. Lehto told us the revamped game engine and A.I. will allow Reach to adopt a more "sandbox" style within its levels. They're going to be much less linear, he said, and much less scripted. This will, Bungie hopes, give players more freedom to approach combat in their own way. |
Sweet words. Now I know that this game will be good.
