November 1, 2006 - Following Microsoft's strategic reveal of Halo 3 last week, the French Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) today added new fuel to the Covenant fire. The magazine details were revealed by a European reader on Bungie's Website (and then quickly pulled off) but a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed with IGN the French OXM was given official Halo 3 details.

First the multiplayer goodness: According to OXM, Halo 3's multiplayer mode has a maximum of 16 players, not more like many people has speculated. The Valhala map (which was revealed along with Snowbound and High Ground) is inspired by, similar to, and more or less an improved version, of Blood Gulch; but it's not a remake. And the cannon, referred to loosely as the "Man Cannon," works with both explosive barrels and vehicles. The gameplay mechanic enables players to be shot into the air like human missiles and they can then, from mid-air, shoot at and be shot at by enemies.

The magazine also reported you can add gamers without having them on your friends' list, and listed a bunch of new multiplayer types: NinjaBall (keep the ball at all costs), TankFlag (a very powerful "tank" will carry the flag, but in turn it will be much more powerful), and Elimination (kill five opponent team members).

The current screenshots of Halo 3 aren't nearly as good as the final build will be, insists Bungie in the OXM article, which also reported the game is still in its alpha stage of development. Bungie staff members used the last month to build additional software for Halo 3 on Xbox 360, and insisted that Halo 3 will be done "when it's ready." Will Peter Moore show us the release date on his bicep next year? Stay tuned!

Other details: For those wondering about the handling of the Warthog and Ghost, they control similarly to the vehicles in Halo 2. The Spartan Laser is a powerful guided weapon that requires three seconds to lock-on and fire and uses a guidance system. The highly touted X button is currently "unused," but will be part of Bungie's overall re-imagining of the controls. A new feature loosely called the Movie Maker enables players to capture approximately 10 seconds and possible 30 seconds of multiplayer footage to show off to friends (this last detail was vague and of a more speculative nature).

We'll have more when Bungie gives it up!

this came from IGN.com and is not mine!

 

Awesomely awesome

 

yea it is but it seems like the game is not turning out to be tooooo good.

 

How? Theres no way to tell, I mean its still a year away from hitting stores, a lot can be done in a year.

 

its going to be the same as Halo to Halo2. the multiplayer feature is giong to be 50912837590328 times better but the campaign mode is going to be worse than the previous.

 

true it just sounds like it is starting to turn out like halo 2 to me atleast.

 

In what way?

 

Halo is geared towards live, so if your getting the game for campaign you wont be as impressed. Most 360 games these days are geard towards online gameplay, and thats where they shine.....

 

I dont get people say Halo campaign sucks and what not, it has co-op, and have you even beaten legendary (w or w/o dying)?

 

the campaigns and story line are the reasons why i buy and play halo games...if i want kick *** mutliplayer with an enourmous fan-base i will go to valve for that...