4 Player Campaign Co-Op confirmed for Halo 3

[l Maximus l]

And it's over XBox Live.

Though, take a read of this article from the Horse's mouth... It appears that no two people can be the same characters (like two Master Chiefs, for example) this time. It appears that one person is the MC, the second is the Arbiter, and the third and fourth have a choice of two other new Elite Characters.

You can read it here...I'll share my thoughts later in the thread: http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=thesoundofsack

[wulkar]

nice, this game is going to be game of the year material.

[GuiltySpark]

Intense. Can't wait to see how this all ties into the story...

[FatBox]

Wow I can't wait. I was pumped up about the multiplayer, but now I'm pumped about the single-player too! zomg can't take it.

[l Maximus l]

Another confirmation here: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/809/809569p1.html

Personally, I'm not all that excited how we don't have the choice any more about what character we want to play if there is more than 1 person playing the Campaign. It appears that the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th players all have to be different characters. It's not as if everyone can be the MC.

But, anyway, overall, it's amazing to have four player Co-Op! This should definately make for some interesting times on XBL and a lot more longevity for playing the Campaign on top of playing multi-player.

[ChessPieceFace]

Im so glad they added this feature, this will make the campaign way more fun.

[l Maximus l]

Im so glad they added this feature, this will make the campaign way more fun.

Yeah, dude...up for another 10-12 hour on-line gaming episode!? :D

[Variation-XBA]

I LOVE how only player 1 gets to be MC, player 2 is Arbitor, and 3/4 are new characters. AWESOME idea.

[l Maximus l]

I LOVE how only player 1 gets to be MC, player 2 is Arbitor, and 3/4 are new characters. AWESOME idea.

I think it may work better with the story and cut scenes, but, out of curiosity, why not make it an option to be the other players?

I know it worked for Gears of War well, but, Halo? I guess we'll see. But, either way, 4 player co-op over XBL is pretty sick regardless.

[ChessPieceFace]

Yeah, dude...up for another 10-12 hour on-line gaming episode!? :D

Heh yeah it was 12 hours wasnt it ? Yea I got mine on pre-order maybe we can play the day it comes out, unless your doing the midnight thing ?

[l Maximus l]

Heh yeah it was 12 hours wasnt it ? Yea I got mine on pre-order maybe we can play the day it comes out, unless your doing the midnight thing ?

No man...no midnight thing this time! I may take the day off on the release day or the next day because I believe it comes out on September 25th...I've read on other sites that it is coming out on the 26th - these days are Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. I really would like to take the day off so I can g33k out and play all day! I guess we'll see what happens...depends on how busy work is at that time. Right now, I'm so busy with work! Fortunately, I got off early today because I got up very early - 5:00am, which is earlier than normal for me. Still, I worked a 10 hour day!

Anyway, yeah, dude...we'll see what's going on...I'd love to jump in and play the Campaign all the way through. It would be cool to get two other dudes so we can test out the 4 player Co-Op! One of my best friends will very likely be available to play - He's a school teacher and won't likely be able to get the day off, but, he gets off at a reasonable time.

Anyway, I figure that if we don't beat it in one sitting, we'll at least get through 3/4 of the game! That is, unless there is a coal car tunnel mission and black bats are coming at us ;) hehe

[ChessPieceFace]

No man...no midnight thing this time! I may take the day off on the release day or the next day because I believe it comes out on September 25th...I've read on other sites that it is coming out on the 26th - these days are Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. I really would like to take the day off so I can g33k out and play all day! I guess we'll see what happens...depends on how busy work is at that time. Right now, I'm so busy with work! Fortunately, I got off early today because I got up very early - 5:00am, which is earlier than normal for me. Still, I worked a 10 hour day!

Anyway, yeah, dude...we'll see what's going on...I'd love to jump in and play the Campaign all the way through. It would be cool to get two other dudes so we can test out the 4 player Co-Op! One of my best friends will very likely be available to play - He's a school teacher and won't likely be able to get the day off, but, he gets off at a reasonable time.

Anyway, I figure that if we don't beat it in one sitting, we'll at least get through 3/4 of the game! That is, unless there is a coal car tunnel mission and black bats are coming at us ;) hehe

Haha yeah. That tunnel mission was frustration at first then it became down right ridiculiously funny. Yeah that sounds good there is always the weekend 4 of us could play. I read tho that more than 2 that the difficulty will have to be legendary in order to be fun.

[l Maximus l]

Haha yeah. That tunnel mission was frustration at first then it became down right ridiculiously funny. Yeah that sounds good there is always the weekend 4 of us could play. I read tho that more than 2 that the difficulty will have to be legendary in order to be fun.

Oh yeah...definitely Legendary with four people. When we played GoW, it was on Insane mode and that was with two of us...this time there will be four, which should make for a serious Covenant booty beating!

I'm also thinking the weekend would be best...that way most of us (if not all of us) won't have to go to work the next day. I mean, it's hard enough to go to sleep straight after playing really intense video games at night, let alone playing all day!

My wife is so going to kill me if I play all day...but, I'll prep her now so she can make plans :D

[Variation-XBA]

I'm going to take a week off and beat campaign in one sitting, then the rest of the week for multiplayer :)

And it's the 25th at midnight Maxi, I better see you online!

[l Maximus l]

I'm going to take a week off and beat campaign in one sitting, then the rest of the week for multiplayer :)

And it's the 25th at midnight Maxi, I better see you online!

So wait...are you saying that one minute past 11:59pm on September 24th it is available or one minute past 11:59pm on the 25th it's available?

Some sites I have seen say it's available September 25th and others say September 26th. That's why I'm asking...

I strongly doubt that I'm going to get it at the midnight selling time because I seriously hated being cramped into a tiny store for Halo 2 even after I won it by winning a Halo 1 competition while in the store. Most people there were so annoying that after a couple hours, I almost went insane. It wouldn't have been so bad if I knew someone there...lol

Anyway, I'll just pick it up after or during work the day it comes out and yes, I'll be on-line the moment I get home. I may take a day or two off, but, the following Saturday, I'm easily going to play all day long :cool:

[FatBox]

It comes out 1 minute after 11:59 PM on September 24th, to clerify things. And you can bet I'll be getting mine on midnight, I'll be taking the rest of the week off of school. I'm just going to do what I did last year though, I'm not going to pre-order. I'll just go there at midnight, walk in, walk passed everybody in the pre-order line, and pick up my copy. Last year everybody pre-ordered their copies and I was only one of a couple who didn't so I just walked into the non pre-order line which had nobody in it and got a copy and went home.

[ChessPieceFace]

Yeah the EB employee told me that I could come in a midnight and just walk in and grab it. Right now they are running a special for 20 extra dollars in trade in value for 3 Xbox 360s on trade in so I used the credit to get half off on Halo 3 and pick up C&C just to have an RTS.

[ScorpionX]

"For fictional reasons, we decided to avoid Halo’s slightly surreal compromise of two identical Master Chiefs and rather, use this opportunity to expand the Halo universe just a little bit. Player one will control the Master Chief, player two will control the Arbiter and players three and four will get the chance to control two brand new Elite characters."

Thats just silly

[l Maximus l]

"For fictional reasons, we decided to avoid Halo’s slightly surreal compromise of two identical Master Chiefs and rather, use this opportunity to expand the Halo universe just a little bit. Player one will control the Master Chief, player two will control the Arbiter and players three and four will get the chance to control two brand new Elite characters."

Thats just silly

I think so, too. First of all, I think it would be great to be able to change your armor color and play that way as MCs if you wanted...or if you all want to be the same color, who cares? Also, if they really want everyone to be different characters instead, why not incorporate fellow marines or something instead of Elites?

All I know is that I'm definitely going to want to play as the MC, but will compromise if I have to.

[ChessPieceFace]

I think so, too. First of all, I think it would be great to be able to change your armor color and play that way as MCs if you wanted...or if you all want to be the same color, who cares? Also, if they really want everyone to be different characters instead, why not incorporate fellow marines or something instead of Elites?

All I know is that I'm definitely going to want to play as the MC, but will compromise if I have to.

Yea it would have been nice to play whatever you wanted, Brutes or even the flood. Just not have it effect the campaign cut scenes , like blank out everyone else except MC that would have been fine. Im just hoping that this compromise doesnt effect the main story is all. Oh and BTW Im the MC soooooo you will be an Elite :whistle:

[l Maximus l]

Oh and BTW Im the MC soooooo you will be an Elite :whistle:

DOH!!!! :rofl:

[Spike Minoda]

What I think could have been cool is if Marines were playable characters, one of the four is an LT (Perhaps commissioning the Master Chief to Ensign?), another a SGT and two of them pretty much grunts... talk about tactical engagements there. ;)

[Variation-XBA]

Read today's bungie update, AWESOME infos! :D

Bungie Weekly Update: 08/03/07
Posted by Frankie at 8/3/2007 4:35 PM PDT

Luke here,

Just a few short days ago, Bungie announced that four-player co-op over Xbox Live would be a feature shipping in Halo 3. Additionally, you’ll be able to play 2-player split screen and connect with another 2-players over live in any live-enabled configuration. So it could be, me and my brother-in-law , playing at my house, joining a room with Frank and Lars, but Frank and Lars are both on their own boxes. The same rules apply to system link play.

To quickly recap, you’ll be playing as two unique Elites as Players 3 and 4 and for reasons we’re not entirely talking about yet on the Internetz (but the latest issue of EGM can lend you a few hints), all four players have identical abilities and similar weapon load-outs at the start of missions. We want all of the players to feel equally powerful to one another during Halo 3’s Campaign and it’s vital that no one feels like they are getting mounted by playing as an Elite.

Showdown

The artists are getting restless. After delivering a glove slap to their collective cheeks on a recent episode of the world-beating Bungie Podcast, a herd of them sauntered up to my desk, snapping their fingers like they were the Jets – I think I even heard humming, but I can’t say for sure. Michael Wu, one of the Grizzled Ancient Environment Artists sat down on my desk, talking about how Velociraptors hunt in packs and usually pick on the weak, isolated, youngsters when they are getting ready to feed. Apparently, he’s been watching a lot of Jurassic Park lately.

I’m all alone. Frank is still out of the office, Joe Staten is working on his book in a dark, silent room in a far corner of the office and Rob McLees is out of the office today, so I’m the only writer sitting in our tower of pretension. I know what these jerks are up here for; they want to play a Humpday right now, me against the four of them.

Bungie.net regulars have sent tons of missives to me lately asking the equivalent of “WHAR IS TEH HUMPDAY?!!” “STOP EATING SNAX AND PLAY HALOZ WITH US,” because the Humpday has been on a bit of a hiatus. This is due to myriad exuses including, but not limited to: Brian and Frank’s rigorous world tour; it’s really hard to go back to Halo 2 when I have supped from the sweet, sweet cup of Halo 3 (and do every day for an embarrassing amount of hours) and because dudes are still finishing the game. Don’t worry, once we send this game off to be pressed into a hojillion copies, I’m sure guys like Luke Timmins and Joe Tung are going to want to play in the Humpdays, and we’ll begin the process of handing out bathroom tissue for you to dry your eyes on.

But before the game goes out the door and into the world, these artists want to get a game on. The artists, Ske7ch has pointed out, have asked for their own “special” play sessions so they can play with their fufu rules. “Let’s play with Plasma pistols only!” “Let’s play Juggernaut with Sentinel Beams only and call it Ghostbusters.” There will be no Gozar the Gozarian or StayPufft Marshmallow Man when we play the artists in a Humpday coming very soon.

What You Left Behind

At last week’s Comic-Con, a Halo fan brought something to Joseph Staten. When Joseph tried to return it the fan said “No.” Upon arriving back in the great Northwest, Joseph had an idea on how to upgrade said item and return it to the fan, but there’s a problem: Joseph doesn’t have this dude’s address.

So: What I need from you, dear mysterious reader is for you to send me a message on Bungie.net with your real name, address, tell me what the item you gave Joseph was and what it was made of, so that we can bestow a treat upon you.



WE INTERRUPT THIS BORING, EMO LUKE THING TO BRING YOU OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED FRANKIE

Hay guys wut’s goin on?

I just got back from Amsterdam. Ishn’t that weerd? Eet ish time to get HYPED! The spellchecker continues to battle my attempts at phonetic spelling, which although initially based on Austin Powers: Goldmember, isn’t really THAT far from a real Dutch accent, although they swing wildly from mostly English sounding to mostly German sounding. All of which is wrapped in the embarrassing fact that everyone there speaks at least two languages fluently.

At the Amsterdam event, we basically assembled a bunch of European press and showed them some Campaign (Jungle and Tsavo Highway levels) and let them play some multiplayer and Campaign stuff. The big announcement we had (obviously) was the four player co-op mode, which we’d been sitting on for a while, making sure it actually worked well.

Well, it works great, so announce it we did. We even let the European press play co-op (although the location – a moving boat, forced that experience to be System Link only). Xbox Live play is practically identical when your connection is solid, right down to the instantaneous Lobby joining process. And speaking of that, let’s clarify what actually happens in co-op, so that nobody is left in any doubt:

Number of players: You can play one, two, three or four player co-op, online or on System Link.

You can play two player split-screen co-op for a single Xbox 360 – and yes, you can play online or System Link co-op against another split-screen setup for a total of four players, two Xbox systems. You can also combine a split-screen with two single players over Live or System Link.

To start a game, you can invite players to your Campaign lobby as the host – or, if they see you sitting in a lobby and there’s a slot available, they can “Join Session in Progress” and they should instantly appear in your Campaign lobby.

You can only begin a game from a level start or an “Insertion Point” which is like a sub-chapter in the game, and always a nice logical place to start. The number of insertion points per level varies, but is usually around least three or so.

Once you’re in a game, you should (unless one of you hits a snag, like a lost connection) stay together until you volunteer to leave the party.

Edit: Because of things like team scoring and so on, the game is now set up so that if a player leaves the party, he drags the other fellows back to the lobby, where they can restart from an insertion point.

Co-op will be easier, even with the measures we’ve inserted to keep it challenging, so we automatically suggest upping the level you play at to either Heroic, or preferably Legendary. There are other measures you can take to increase the challenge, and we will discuss those later. An example of it being easier is that you can send out a bullet sponge to draw sniper fire while one of you runs out to grab a much-needed weapon. So you can see that co-op also dramatically changes the types of strategy you’ll employ too.

The two new Elites, joining the Arbiter and Master Chief, both have real bios and appropriate fiction, but they will not be appearing in the cinematics and so on. They are designed to be believable and useful allies, without affecting the fictional arc in a negative way – and they do not appear in the game as AI controlled opponents during one or two player games.

Scoring in co-op games will be revealed in all its glory soon, but simply put, each player will have his or her own score, which is at its simplest, you get points for killing something, and you get more points for doing it with style (say a headshot, for example). There will be measures in place to ensure that both individuals and the party as a whole, feel a sense of satisfaction while playing and scoring in co-op. But again, more on that later.

But that’s an aside. The new EGM is now arriving on store shelves, and we heartily recommend that you purchase and digest this fine tome immediately. There is a ridiculous amount of information and art from Halo 3 in there, and it’s a must-have for fans. It also has the most complete description of Forge available – but you can read all about that in Forge. However, I came back to discover the most outrageous-looking movie of Forge ever created and couldn’t not share this tidbit with you.

Petar, one of our engineers, found a saved film from one of our testers playing on Sandtrap. He basically placed a RIDICULOUS number of exploding fusion cores on and inside the Elephant vehicle. They had their respawn times set to as close to “instant” as Forge allows, so that every time one exploded, it respawned. Now, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what kind of chain reaction this would cause once a single core was detonated.

What we didn’t expect was the effect it had on the Elephant physics. Now the huge metal beastie is indestructible, but it has weight and mass in the game universe, so explode it enough and you can move it. Explode it with a never-ending cascade of fusion cores and you have the most dangerous Halo item ever. A vehicle big enough to park a Scorpion a Hog and two Mongooses inside, flipping around at incredible speeds and tumbling all over the map, releasing exploding cores and the occasional vehicle like some kind of satanic piñata.

And all the while, players have the ability to play a normal game variant in this environment. It’s sheer insanity, and just a taste of what players and player-designers will be able to achieve with Forge. We literally cannot even fathom what folks will come up with using time and imagination, as well as Forge’s multiplayer nature. Actually, I need to invent a fake word that combines normal game players with level designers.

I christen that word: Desciplayers. No, wait, Playsigners. No that’s not right. Forgers. Bam. You’re Forgers. Go forge something.

Of course, this kind of madness – while it seems to work fine right now – might add some unforeseen shenanigans – so if what I just described ends up being impossible in the shipping game, then it was my fault for drawing attention to it.

Got a lot of questions about the AV calibration tool, and so I decided that it’s not terribly secret, so I should give you some info. Of course this isn’t on the same schedule as the game, so it could change slightly, but at the time of writing, this is all correct.

First off, what is it? Well, simply put, it’s a 360 app that helps you tune your TV to best display Halo 3. Now, we’re using industry standards to make sure that this actually helps with any and all TVs. These standards are as close to objective and “correct” as is possible to achieve, but again, the nature of this kind of calibration is by its nature, subjective. However, we’ve had them independently tested and verified by industry experts, so the settings, if correctly adjusted, should make Halo 3 and everything else you watch on an HD set, look better.

The process is seated firmly in the Halo universe – basically, Sgt. Johnson appears and guides you through a number of tests and retests. He will, for example, ask you to adjust the contrast on your set until a Grunt barely becomes visible from a white background, or to change your color settings until an image of Cortana becomes crystal clear. It’s all very simple – the only real challenge for the viewer will be making sure that words like “Sharpness” actually map to an equivalent in the myriad TV interfaces out there.

He’ll ask you if things are correct for say, the brightness settings, and then move you on to the next item. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, and the end result will be confidence that your set is calibrated to industry specifications and if you prefer your settings brighter or darker, or warmer or m0ore dynamic – you at least have a great baseline to work from.

A simple audio test follows, which basically lets you make sure your 5.1 speakers are at least wired correctly. This is an upgraded version of the olde surround sound test. No more wondering whether your right rear is actually wired left rear. A Grunt makes it all perfectly clear…

One other item to note – more advanced visual settings can be reached by using a blue filter that we’ll make available at the Bungie store. This is basically just a dumb piece of transparent blue plastic, but it will help tremendously when making very fine scale adjustments. We’ll try to make sure it’s priced fairly. More information on that later.

I will close with a photo of the crazy Dutch guy who, dressed as Master Chief, yelled at us in a thick accent to “get hyped!!!” and so we did.

[l Maximus l]

Cool, Variation....thanks for posting that.

I think it's great that Halo 3 will have a built in calibration mode so that the game can be viewed at it's best. Right now, on my HDTV, Halo 1 is a little bright and with the exact same settings, Halo 2 is a little dark. Having it built into the game will make it nice because the XBox 360 will save those settings on the internal hard drive every time we put the game in. I strongly prefer this. I remember Ninja Gaiden having a similar feature which made it look breathtaking after calibration, but, Halo 3's sounds even more detailed, which is nice.

[Variation-XBA]

I like how they said player 3/4 new elites are no way tied to the story, nor will be in cutscenes, they are just there to be new characters for co-op. So no more wondering how they would tie into the story :)

I like the hint at how scoring is going to work too.

[l Maximus l]

Yeah, scoring is definately a cool feature, especially when playing Co-op. It will give us a sense of satisfaction for making bold moves and solid kills in the Campaign...like making headshots and the like.