stonyarc
09-12-2007, 08:56 PM
Imagine waiting nearly 11 hours on a crowded San Francisco street allfor the chance to score 12 minutes of play time with your favoritevideo game. If the game is Halo 3, and your name is AnthonyMarcolongo, you wouldn't just be imagining. Anthony arrived at 10:30 in the morning to claim his place at the head of a line thatgrew to include hundreds of gamers eager to get some quality time withthe final build of Halo 3.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1099/1364056843_c7155b0ba0_m.jpghttp://farm2.static.flickr.com/1209/1364055981_35dd532f5a_m.jpg
People came to the Halo 3 First to Playevent from as far away as Atlanta to get an early look at the game'scampaign mode, and an early play of the completed multiplayer mode. The line in front of San Francisco's Metreon entertainment complexstretched down the block. Everything from Halo 3 rhinestone studdedt-shirts to real life Master Chief tattoos marked this crowd asHalo-hardcore.
Once the doors opened at 9pm, the first batch of gamers rushed up thestairs to the IMAX theater. Imagine a football field flipped on itsside and pasted to a wall and you might get a sense of the scale ofthis screen. The Bungie team fired up a two player co-op campaign, andthe crowd cheered.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1169/1364056491_aa27298b98_m.jpg http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1082/1364947684_42af47209a_m.jpg
A walkthrough of the Save Films features of Halo 3set off a wave of oohs, and aahs. I have to admit, I've played lessthan 20 hours of the Halo series, and watching a Jackal get smashed bya Warthog in slow motion on a screen the size of my house is quitepossibly one of the most moving experiences since the birth of my son. (OK, maybe 3rd or 4th, but you get the point). After the tour made me want to quit my day job to become a famous machinima director, Bungie showed off Forge.
A modified level editor, Forge allows you to do some very crazy and very wrong things within amultiplayer match, including spawning a Scorpion or 4 dozen fusioncores anywhere you'd like. If you haven't played much Halo, trust mewhen I say the Scorpion is a nasty tank, and no sane person would wantit in a cozy map like High Ground. Happily for the audience, you CANput one there - and the Bungie folks did, with hilarious results. Thecrowd also pleaded for - and got - a good look at the flamethrower andthe dual-wieldable Mauler.
After the demo players were called up in groups of8 to duke it out on the big screen for 6 minute free-for-all rounds of slayer. Aftera shot at the big time, the 8 players were rotated out to try theirhand in a less public setting on some gaming stations set up in thelobby. Most of the crowd stayed inside the theater to watch theaction on the biggest of big screens.
After all was said and done,everyone went home with Halo 3 t-shirts. Five lucky and knowledgeableattendees answered trivia questions correctly and won Halo 3-themedXbox 360 consoles. From what I could tell, most went home with a little less patience in waiting for September 25th.http://gamerscoreblog.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=553227
More... (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GamerscoreBlog/~3/155607128/553227.aspx)
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1099/1364056843_c7155b0ba0_m.jpghttp://farm2.static.flickr.com/1209/1364055981_35dd532f5a_m.jpg
People came to the Halo 3 First to Playevent from as far away as Atlanta to get an early look at the game'scampaign mode, and an early play of the completed multiplayer mode. The line in front of San Francisco's Metreon entertainment complexstretched down the block. Everything from Halo 3 rhinestone studdedt-shirts to real life Master Chief tattoos marked this crowd asHalo-hardcore.
Once the doors opened at 9pm, the first batch of gamers rushed up thestairs to the IMAX theater. Imagine a football field flipped on itsside and pasted to a wall and you might get a sense of the scale ofthis screen. The Bungie team fired up a two player co-op campaign, andthe crowd cheered.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1169/1364056491_aa27298b98_m.jpg http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1082/1364947684_42af47209a_m.jpg
A walkthrough of the Save Films features of Halo 3set off a wave of oohs, and aahs. I have to admit, I've played lessthan 20 hours of the Halo series, and watching a Jackal get smashed bya Warthog in slow motion on a screen the size of my house is quitepossibly one of the most moving experiences since the birth of my son. (OK, maybe 3rd or 4th, but you get the point). After the tour made me want to quit my day job to become a famous machinima director, Bungie showed off Forge.
A modified level editor, Forge allows you to do some very crazy and very wrong things within amultiplayer match, including spawning a Scorpion or 4 dozen fusioncores anywhere you'd like. If you haven't played much Halo, trust mewhen I say the Scorpion is a nasty tank, and no sane person would wantit in a cozy map like High Ground. Happily for the audience, you CANput one there - and the Bungie folks did, with hilarious results. Thecrowd also pleaded for - and got - a good look at the flamethrower andthe dual-wieldable Mauler.
After the demo players were called up in groups of8 to duke it out on the big screen for 6 minute free-for-all rounds of slayer. Aftera shot at the big time, the 8 players were rotated out to try theirhand in a less public setting on some gaming stations set up in thelobby. Most of the crowd stayed inside the theater to watch theaction on the biggest of big screens.
After all was said and done,everyone went home with Halo 3 t-shirts. Five lucky and knowledgeableattendees answered trivia questions correctly and won Halo 3-themedXbox 360 consoles. From what I could tell, most went home with a little less patience in waiting for September 25th.http://gamerscoreblog.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=553227
More... (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GamerscoreBlog/~3/155607128/553227.aspx)