Teh Haloz

Alright. Business time. At last we left off our valiant hero was just finishing the second hour of E3. It was at this point that I got my ass over to the Microsoft Theatre as it was called, for a special presentation on Halo 3: ODST. Now for those of you that aren't exactly "in the loop" Halo 3 is huge, just hitting 1 billion games of multiplayer in March 2009. And it came out in September 2007. People still play it. Just getting my own 360 in the Fall, I went out and bought it for something around 50 bucks. Almost full retail price a year after it's release? That's when you know you've got a winner.

Anywho, Halo 3: ODST is a prequel of sorts to Halo 3. In it you take the roll of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) and after a botched drop, your character has to go seek out the fates of his Squad Mates. During the presentation, we saw the opening movie featuring the likeness and voice of actor Nathan Fillion, who I love because of his roles in the TV show Firefly and the movie based on it Serenity. It was an awesome set up, which led us into a small preview of the games opening minutes. There were noticible changes, like the HUD (Heads Up Display) set up, and the way you see the world, as you can now change into night-vision, which allows you to scope out Friends and Foes from far away. We were told about the new Health system, which involves Stamina and Health itself. When taking damage, it initially hurts your Stamina, and after that's depleted, it moves on to your health. If you stop getting hurt, your Stamina will replenish, however your Health will not. The only way to do that is with health terminals located throughout the city of New Mombasa, the setting of the game.

After a short walk through, elaborating on the differences between playing as an ODST as opposed to the Spartan Master Chief, we switched over to the new multiplayer mode Firefight. If you've ever played Gears of War 2, it's pretty much Halo meets Horde. For the Gears impaired, your group of ODSTs will be squaring off against wave after wave of Covenant enemies. There are key differences however. In Firefight your squad uses a pool of lives, and for each new set of enemies another of Halo's infamous skulls will be turned on, like the Tough Luck skull that allows your enemies to dodge grenades and other attacks better, or the Catch skull which makes them throw more grenades. The presentation ended shortly after this.

At this point I'm skipping the rest of the convention (don't worry, I'll go back to it) and going to skip to my playthough of Firefight. That's right. At the very end of the convention I hopped in line to play and was one of the last groups to get to play. The three older guys and myself sat down in some nice comfy chairs, and got ready for battle. Bysides a few stylistic changes, it was clear the same Halo 3 engine was underneath the matchmaking system. Then we got right into the action. It was the same Halo feel, but the new silenced SMG felt a lot different than the SMG that Halo players are used to. The Pistol is more like the one that players remember from Halo: CE where it had a lot more kick to it than in Halo 2 and 3. Play was a lot different, as when you used to practically be able to walk up to grunts and melee them in the face, you had to pick 'em off from afar as you're not the tank you used to be. One thing did remain unchanged though: The sheer fun of Halo. Picking off Grunts and sticking a Brute with a plasma grenade were just as fun, if not more so in this new style of play. We made it through the first set, and were cut off shortly after the second set began, but let me tell you; I really miss being able to walk up and jack a Covenant Wraith. Those things SUCK when you're only packing a needler and an SMG and are taking pot shots at you from the distance. None the less, playing the game was incredibly fun, and I can only imagine it getting even more fun when I'm playing with three of my friends when it comes out this Septemeber.

Next time, MORE SHANANAGINS AT E3! HOORAY!!!