Anyway, it blew stuff up real good, so our boy drove around and did that for a while.Īllow me to point out here that the streets look like the perfect place to go racing. So hopefully Someone Who Knows will step in here and tell what it was. It fired a plasma-like bolt that exploded much like a rocket. However, all is not lost, as whoever did it has graciously installed something better! Another moment of honesty here, I don't know what the thing was. I suppose that's what he gets for parking it in such a crappy part of town. Anyway, the MC shortly gets into the gunner's seat of a Warthog, only to find that someone removed the LAAG when we weren't looking. If there was any lag, I certainly didn't see it. At one point I figured there were at least 15-20 different Covenant, a handful of Marines, and a whole mess of explosions, projectiles, and moving vehicles, all vying for rendering time. The number of enemies and Marines on-screen is astounding. Lots of debris piles, exploding (and explodeable) vehicles, and the requisite Covenant forces making a big mess of things. A quick jaunt down the last set of stairs and a few more Covenant forces out of the way and we're off through the streets. At this point, the big Covenant mortar-type-thing that has been mercilessly shelling the building we started in is finally targeted by squad of Longswords, dropping bombs and completely annihilating it. To be totally honest, I wasn't looking close enough to tell if they were two ARs or two SMGs, but they were both the same. He offers his gun, which allows the MC to fire two weapons at once. The wounded soldier however, has a present. After taking out a mess o' Grunts n' Jackals, the MC relinquishes the chain gun.
The transition was quite smooth and fluid, just as in Halo:CE. Your head is a bit of an obstacle here, which definitely will make some battles a little more challenging. The current interface is a bit different, however, with the camera moving to a third-person perpective just behind and over the right shoulder of the MC. Adjacent to him is a stationary chain gun, much like the LAAG we remember from the warthog. Moving downstairs, we come across an injured soldier, leaning against a partially-destroyed wall. The new and improved AR, with a handy-dandy scope, makes short work of these guys. Looking over the edge of the promenade, we see a few Grunts and Jackals getting into trouble down on the ground. We see a section of the building that we are in get destroyed, and run past the new hole to see an enormous Covenant mortar-type unit perched a few blocks away. Past the first aid area, we come upon our troops being shelled pretty hard. There's a lot of stuff - buildings, debris, supply containers, architecture, etc. Remember on AotCR when you climb the ramps towards the Control Room doors? Remember those paltry few bits of debris that the Covenant used for cover? Well, if you're a player who wants to check every nook and clear out every corner, be prepared to spend an eternity poking around. The amount of detail on screen, in this scene alone, with no combat taking place, is unbelievable. A medic is attempting to resuscitate a wounded soldier, but is unsuccessful and logs the time of death. Snatches of conversation, acknowledgements of the MC, story elements (nothing I could glean, however) all fade in and out as you move through the area. Throughout the makeshift hospital zone there is a lot of dialogue. The MC is lead, in much the same way as in the Pillar of Autumn level (but this time with a weapon: the AR), through a first aid area and up to the front line of this particular skirmish. The drop ship lands (with real landing gear this time), and the live part of the demo begins.
It really does an excellent job of moving your eye to the action, while providing a level of detail that would otherwise be confusing. The depth-of-field effect, first displayed in the initial trailer, was used periodically. A few were wearing almost-but-not-quite MJOLNIR armor with helmets. Another thing noticeable here is that the some of the marines have been upgraded. Almost, in that, instead of one pilot seat in an closed cockpit, there are two seats up front, and the cockpit area seems to be accessible from the main cabin area. First off, the Pelican is almost the same as the one we know so well. It opens with the MC and a bunch of Marines in a pelican, cruising over a city on Earth. The Halo 2 demo was the definite high point of the evening, as evidenced by the tremendous reaction when Ed Fries brought out Joe Staten to do the demo. I'll skip the non-Halo 2 stuff and cut to the chase. Just got back from the Microsoft Press Briefing, and I thought I might drop by and tell you a little about what I saw.