OUR story begins in 1997. A small, independant Macm dev called Bungie studios was known primarily for their "GOOM KILLER" marathon, as well as cult strategy series called myth. bungie has just started working on a new RTS game. Christened HALO, the sci-fi TS pitted the human UNSC corps against aliens of the covenent. in this early prototype, the alien enemies rode sleek hover vraft and piloted huge,beatle like tanks while the marines bore no resemblence to MASTER CHIEF...
BORN OF STRATeGY
THE rts halo didnrt live long/ during its early devolpment team members fell in love with the ability to zoom up close to individual units and watch battles from within the action. they tried tying the camera to a single unit and controlling the unit alone,and quickly realized they'd been on the wrong track all this time. what they really wanted to make was a game set in the tranches. A shooter.
SO in may of 1999, at the E3 in los angeles. BUNGIE showed off the new halo behind closed dooors. there,journalists wiutness the first new footage EVER released of hloe,noew deep into development as a third person shooter(YES,IT WAS ORIGINALLY a 3rd person view shooter) ,oonline,team based shooter. the Trailer showed oiff ground breaking physics, fully world reflections in polished metal, and seemless transitions from indoor to outdoor environments (accomplished via two seperate GRPHX engines). THE geme promised a world so detailed that individual bullet casings would drift through water more slowly than through air...
THE BIG BANG
FLASH4ward to may 13,2000 bungie showed up atE3 with a 10 minute trailer of a very different halo. aside from its over the shoulder perspective. this version was almost indistinguishable from the game that landed on the xboox over a yr later. the game,still a mac and pc title,had seen an enourmas visual upgrade, while the game protaganist, MASTER CHIEF was fleshed out with his new iconiC MARK V MJOLNIR suit. the press thought the game looked BREATHETAKING.
MICRSOFT thought so too. having seen what bungie managed for home computers at E3, the windows publisher announced its plans to acquir the studio. a mere month month after the xpo, they followed through, simulataneously announcing halo would b repurposed for the then not famous xbox. mac addicts FUME: bungie had always catered to apple computers 1st and they saw microsofts acquisition as a betrayal (even steve jacobs fumed) PC users mourned. the shooters shift from mouse and keyboards controls to a gamepad was one that many re-fused to follow...even to this DAY... gamers everywhere hold deep reservations about the new, XBOX EXCLUSIVE HALO.
interesting facts before HALO BECAME HALO
~dinosaurs nearly made an appearance. in the original plans, the titular ringworld was home to these strage alien beasts/ bungie cut them out of the final version so they wouldnt destract from the shock of encountering the FLOOD.
~master chief originally had a short sword even b4 halo 2
THE HAPPY ENDING
EVERYBODY KNOWS WHERE THE STORY ENDED. DESPITE ITS lamyrinthe developmeny process. halo went to b the killer app for the fledging xbox,winning millions of fans in the process. in RETROSEPCT, the sheer volume critical acclaim bungie earned is something of a curiosity. halo's single player campaign was clouded with overused environment and repetetive engagments,likely due to MICROSOFT'S tough new deadline. and the mutliplayer was limited to the local system link play only. a shortcoming that halo2 later went to adress in soaring from the tune of some seven million games sold in its first year alone. though many others tried to best halo, it took bungie to make a true halo killer
but halo's journey, at least from bungie's prespective,is nearing to an END. in a mere month, the final installment of the halo trilogy will arrive in shops across the world. everyone will b looking for the same thing: a "HALO KILLER" as only bungie can make them. and while there will undoubtly be clones that follow that folloW HALO 3'S wake. bungies core innovations will live on in games like the upcoming strategy title halo warS (designed by ensemble studios) as well a mysterious project involving the "the lord an the rings" director PETER JACKSON....(movie??? LETS HOPE SO)
HALO 3 may be the last time BUNGIE gets behind the reigns. but its not the last we'll hear out of this series~
NOT BY A LONG SHOT!!!!!
i hereby bow down to the FPS that popularized FPS's on console~
HALO~
may that title b remembered 40 yrs by now...
WORDS FROM OTHER DEVELOPERS~
~TED price
CEO,INSOMNIAC studios~
" A PARTICuLARLY genius design move in halo was simply making the first person shooter controls work on a console controller. with other FPS's of the time i remember being distracted from the gameplay because the controls were bad. but everythin about halo's contol scheme was just right......and now of course~!!!! ost fps's gems copt halo's controls~"
~tobumonobu itagaki
HEAD OF TEAM NINJA,tecmo~
" in the first game,when u exited the ship looked up at the environments,heard of the epic music, an saw banshees flying oberhead...that moment crosses cutltural bounderies. thats a beauty that i think anybody should be able to see. whether u like the game or not...but anyone who didnt think that was impressive is pretty insensitive to good games"
~peter molyneux
MANAGING director, LIONHEAD STUDIOS~
" For me the strength of halo is its polish and innovation. WHEN I LOOK BACK AT HALO I SEE THE INCREDIBLY BRAVE STEP that bungie took-design decesions like only having two weapons at a time,auto healing,and the amplicity of combat. in their time. theese were groundbreaking features. nut i think halo's real silver bullet was co-op play"
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