Q: We have so, so many questions, why won’t you give us any answers!?
A: The good news is that you won’t have to wait much longer to get many of the answers you’re looking for. The bad news is that they probably aren’t part of this FAQ today. Expect to get more insights into Reach in mid-January when some magazines around the world start hitting subscribers. Once that embargo clears we’ll open up the flood gates on Bungie.net accordingly. In the meantime, perhaps you will find the answers to SOME of your questions below…
Q: So what’s the deal, is this trailer “real” or not?
A: The Halo: Reach trailer was produced directly in our new game engine using real game assets. Because the game is still in the midst of development, which means things like framerate are still in flux, we do something called a “frame dump” that lets us spit out the content, frame by frame, and then compile it back as the video you all saw on Saturday. We can actually run this same cinematic right now, within the latest game build, but it’s not always at the consistent smooth framerate of the final game (yet).
Q: Awesome, so this is what the final game will look like?
A: This trailer absolutely represents our visual bar for the final game and is near identical to what you’ll see next Fall. The single biggest difference between this trailer and the final game will be the extra generous amount of anti-aliasing (the smoothing of “jaggies” or edges of pixels) present in what you’re watching right now but rest assured that Reach will be significantly improved in this department compared to Halo 3. (The extreme “AA” in the trailer was due to the “frame dump” mentioned above.)
Suffice it to say we’re really excited about the technological and artistic advancements we’re making with Reach and you’ll see more from the campaign in just a few weeks.
Q: What were the names of those people? What was that weapon? What’s that flying thing called?
A: See question #1 above. Soon my friends… soon.
Q: Are those Spartan IIIs or Spartan IIs we see in the trailer?
A: See question #1 above… (but the answer is YES).
Q: Is there a date for the multiplayer beta yet? Can you give us any new info?
A: Not yet. We can reconfirm it’s going to land in Spring 2010 and we should be locking down the final date early next year. You’ll still need ODST to access the content so make sure you hold onto those discs!
Q: The music in the Reach trailer was awesome. Where can I get my hands on it?
A: Welcome to yesterday. The file is now available on Bungie.net, courtesy of Marty O’Donnell.
http://www.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=BWU_121809
