Kotaku 
Enter your username and password.
Denver, 3:22 PM
Mon Nov 30
39 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip us:
Editor-In-Chief:
Brian Crecente
| AIM | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Stephen Totilo
| AIM | Twitter
Senior Editor:
Michael McWhertor
| AIM | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor, Japan:
Brian Ashcraft
| AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, East Coast:
Michael Fahey
| AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, Oceania:
Luke Plunkett
| AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, Weekends:
Owen Good
| AIM | Twitter
Correspondent, San Francisco:
AJ Glasser
| AIM | Twitter
Columnist:
Leigh Alexander
Columnist:
Tim Rogers
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
09/17/09
"Halo 3: ODST provides a new campaign from the point of view of an entirely new character. Combine that with three new multiplayer maps, the entirely new cooperative mode called Firefight, and the complete Halo 3 multiplayer collection on a standalone disc, we feel this is a good value and tremendous addition to the Halo franchise."
$60 for an expansion. Not surprising from a company that charges people for Gamer Pics.
09/17/09
It's basically a numbers game. And honestly, co-op modes like Firefight sounds awesome to me.
IMO it's better than GTA4 stories being sold for $40. I'd rather download for $20.
09/17/09
Anyway, looks to be shaping up better than I had hoped. Glad I got it preordered the other day along with Brutal Legend.
09/17/09
That would be an Engineer. They appeared in some of the novels. Engineers figure into the Firefight mode as a way to grant shields to nearby enemies. They also provide an elegant point of failure for you to attack.
09/17/09
Thanks guys. I didn't recognize the Engie because it had a full suit of armor on. After taking a peak at some of the concept art at the Halopedia, I understand now.
09/17/09
09/17/09
The Engineers were found by the Covenant and incorporated into the Covenant with the Covenant thinking they were just another alien race that happened to be able to completely take apart and reassemble almost anything mechinical including Forerunner tech. It turns out that the engineers only appear to be biological creatures and if you go down to a level so small that it's undectable to anyone in the Halo universe, they are actually artificial. They are mechanical beings created by the Forerunners themselves to do more complicated yet menial mantenence that thier robotic AI's can't do. At least that's the gist of it.
They almost made it in as background characters in Halo 2 but due to time constraints and such they had to focus on more important things.
09/17/09
09/17/09
Still though, better than what I thought it was going to be.
09/17/09
Check out the other ViDoc.
09/17/09
From what I gather it is Halo 3 with med packs instead of Auto Health Regen. The Horde mode if that makes it into the final game will probably be awesome.
From what I understand this is just an expansion.
Bungie and MS are justifying the full price of this title by including all of the map pack DLC with the game. Something PC FPS fans typically get for free.
09/17/09
09/18/09
09/17/09
09/17/09
09/17/09
09/17/09
we're talking about Bungie and ValvE here.
I expect no less from the two premiere names in game development today.
09/17/09
09/17/09
09/17/09
It'll most likely be 80 pixels short of a "official" HD resolution... again. But if by "sacrificing" 80 pixels to get a better experience, who cares?
09/17/09
I'm not sure it is sacrificing with their budget, and since it has been an issue since before halo 3 came out.
09/17/09
A lot of games don't run on the "official" HD resolutions. If I recall correctly, they were running Halo 3 on a sub-HD resolution because of "High Dynamic Range" lighting. The choice between 80 more pixels or that, isn't a hard decision to make really.
09/17/09
And yet lots of other developers haven't had to make that choice. For their budget and time they should, by this time, be able to get around that.
09/17/09
That might be so, but the amount of games that are running on 60fps and being rendered on 720p or higher are quite hard to find. For example CoD 4 and 5 run on 60fps but on a sub-HD resolution. GoW2 is rendered at 720p, but capped at 30fps. Same for Killzone 2.
It just doesn't seem to be that easy of a thing to do.
09/17/09
30 fps is fine for me. I've played those games, they work fine.
Loads of games are in HD.
Actual HD.
A number of them in Full HD
Flagship titles not being in hd is seemingly lazy.
09/17/09
09/17/09
Sub HD content having to be upscaled doesn't exactly scream quality in person.
Full HD being 1080p, not 720 which is what these games haven't been able to hit.
09/17/09
I never said 30fps wasn't fine. I was using it as an example that running a First-person shooter at 60fps and rendering it at 720p or higher is hard.
So choices have to be made, and reducing the framerate to be a "HD" game sounds like something a marketeer would do. It sounds nice, but it's just stupid.
The sub-HD resolution isn't noticeable at all, but the difference between a 30fps cap and a 60fps cap is.
The lazy part is rather odd remark to make. I think you shouldn't cling to the HD resolutions that much. They don't say a thing about quality, just the amount of pixels.
ODST wouldn't be a better game if it was rendered at 720p.
09/17/09
I can really picture, sometime in the distant future, Gears' Horde & ODST's Firefight becoming a DLC game that we can download straight to our HDD.
09/17/09
Epic vs Bungie: Firefight of the Hordes
09/17/09
09/17/09
09/14/09
09/14/09
She's got the look that screams 80's metal.
She'd fit into a Brutal Legend shirt nicely.
PS - I'm not really an MMO player anyway, but shouldn't most everyone be scared by the fact that they are announcing that they had to strip out a lot of the gameplay that makes the Korean version boring?
Wholesale changes like that rarely go over well in any type of software development (speaking from experience here).
09/14/09
09/14/09
09/14/09
Cuts to girl with nipple-less boobs
Well played.
09/14/09
Apparently naked nymphs are new to the western MMO market.
09/14/09
09/14/09
I played to level 20 and the gameplay experience was identical to Warcraft. Quest, kill, look for a group to tackle a larger foe.
What exactly is the difference?
09/14/09
09/14/09
09/14/09
Good show.
09/14/09
09/14/09
Quests like that are a part of every MMORPG. It is something that is part of the genre and in every MMORPG.
If you don't like it and find it boring, then maybe the MMORPG genre isn't for you.
09/14/09
09/14/09
09/14/09
Sorry, not that much different, same old mechanics with a different coat of paint. If you really think that's a big difference I feel a little bit sorry for you.
09/14/09
08/11/09
08/11/09
08/11/09
08/11/09
08/11/09
08/11/09
Any word on whether or not the characters from the console versions will be able to interact with the PC? PS3 might be a stretch, but Xbox could work (XBL & Games for Windows play nice on some games).
08/11/09
There probably won't be cross-platform play if they are planning to bring it to PS3 as well, but it might happen. Who knows.
08/11/09
I'm both worried and excited about the console version of an MMO, though. It seems more conducive to my lifestyle, but I don't want it to just be a crippled or less usable version of a great PC game.