Bungie Teases Possible Halo 3 Expansion

[Nathan Meunier]

Bungie Teases Possible Halo 3 Expansion

A suspenseful 12 hour countdown on the Halo developer's site has left an even bigger tease for fans this morning.

Yesterday, a familiarly cryptic front page once again appeared on Bungie's website with a series of unusual phrases, including "keep it clean" and "please remain calm," accompanied by a countdown. It was, in fact, the exact same page put up and then taken down around E3, when Microsoft temporarily pulled the plug [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/85135] on plans for an exciting announcement from the developer.

At the countdown's conclusion early this morning, Bungie released a teaser trailer [http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=15574] for what looks like a Halo 3-related project. The brief clip, titled "Keep It Clean," shows a swarm of drop pods crashing down into a cityscape. It concludes with the Halo 3 logo and the catchphrase "Prepare to Drop."

The same trailer was made available today on Xbox Live Marketplace [http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/25/xbox-live-halo-3-expansion-coming-possibly-on-jan-6-2009/]. However, it also included a brief but somewhat revealing description: "High action and deep mystery await players in this new Halo 3 campaign experience. Prepare to drop!" Joystiq also reports a reader uncovered a potential release date of January 6, 2009 hidden within the trailer. Of course, there's no official word yet, but it certainly smells like a Halo 3 expansion is in the works. We will find out soon enough.


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[TomNook]

Maybe they can make a full single player mode with this thing.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Watched the little trailer and thought it looked awesome.

But then, Bungie have a history of creating cryptic, awesome trailers for relatively mediocre games. Perhaps they should stop developing games and move into advertising, they'd be good at it.

 

[lukemdizzle]

I liked Halo 3, it did have some glaring problems. mostly with campaign but I think that bungie's in competition with developers like infinity ward they learned allot about how to develop next gen. games. I think this would be a great opportunity for bungie to redeem themselves as the premiere developers of single player shooters

 

[Amnestic]

Maybe they can make a full single player mode with this thing.

This. I'll likely buy it anyway because I have a completionist thing, but I hope they bother making a real single player game.

 

[meatloaf231]

Maybe they can make a full single player mode with this thing.

This. I'll likely buy it anyway because I have a completionist thing, but I hope they bother making a real single player game.

Well, it does say "Halo 3 campaign experience" so we can hope so.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Maybe they can make a full single player mode with this thing.

This. I'll likely buy it anyway because I have a completionist thing, but I hope they bother making a real single player game.

Well, it does say "Halo 3 campaign experience" so we can hope so.

You know this will be a first for consoles. Halo keeps bringing all the PC staples to the so-called "consoletards."

Three cheers for Bungie (and Ensemble maybe, throw in Microsoft too)! I bet you haven't seen that expresion in a while.

Ahhh, well, back to the drugery they call "life."

 

[Anton P. Nym]

This fits with some earlier discussions held with members of the voice cast of Halo 3; some of them said at ComicCon that they'd been doing Halo-related voice work... which probably wouldn't be needed for a multiplayer map expansion. (My bet at the time was a bonus cinematic, akin to the short film A Day At the Beach released on the Halo 2 Map Pack disc. I can't say I'd be disappointed if I was wrong.) Given that Microsoft is pitching it as a campaign expansion, there's that much more hope that this'll be a single-player (or co-op) set of missions on the "episodic content" model.

The repeated mention of "01/06/09" in the text overlays of the video has led to speculation that it might be released either January 6 (USAian dating) or 1 June (rest-of-the-world dating) with a slight bias towards the January 6th date... as it's a Tuesday, the traditional day of big releases, whereas June 1 is a Monday. If this is true, though, it's coming impressively quickly... which likely would mean minimal changes in the Halo 3 engine itself and use of art assets either previously used in the Halo games or ones developed but dropped from Halo 3. I wouldn't really expect a squad-based game or any major change from the play style of Halo 3 if this is true, but keep in mind the dates are speculative and not announced.

I'm kinda excited, actually. Definitely looking forward to seeing what comes next.

-- Steve

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Maybe they can make a full single player mode with this thing.

This. I'll likely buy it anyway because I have a completionist thing, but I hope they bother making a real single player game.

Well, it does say "Halo 3 campaign experience" so we can hope so.

You know this will be a first for consoles. Halo keeps bringing all the PC staples to the so-called "consoletards."

Three cheers for Bungie (and Ensemble maybe, throw in Microsoft too)! I bet you haven't seen that expresion in a while.

Ahhh, well, back to the drugery they call "life."

A first? Expasions are a first?

What about bethesda and Bioware?

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

A first? Expasions are a first?

What about bethesda and Bioware?

You can make pretty much anything a first if you aren't specific enough.

"First single-player expansion to a console game with a multiplayer feature."

There it works.

However, you are right and I'm just trying to pick up the lost sticks of the ****** that is my dignity. (don't be stupid, a ****** is a bundle of sticks)

 

[Xyzgon]

The trailer looks absolutely freaking awesome. And honestly i've never understood the halo bashing going around. The entire trilogy was fantastic and the first was revolutionary. Honestly Halo 3 holds its ground as one of the better fps's available. Also if you look at this http://onpause.org/2008/09/halo-3-keep-it-clean-teaser-trailer.html (bottom video) then it says it found a date 1/06/09. A release date? Well there's my two cents.

 

[Amnestic]

then it says it found a date 1/06/09. A release date? Well there's my two cents.

I hear reading all of the first post is greatly appreciated:

Joystiq also reports a reader uncovered a potential release date of January 6, 2009 hidden within the trailer.

And I'm not even going to start bashing (in detail) the utter disappointment that was Halo 3's single player. It's been done before.

 

[Swift Tactix]

Watched the little trailer and thought it looked awesome.

But then, Bungie have a history of creating cryptic, awesome trailers for relatively mediocre games. Perhaps they should stop developing games and move into advertising, they'd be good at it.

I thought Microsoft handles the trailers and advertisings since they're the publisher.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Watched the little trailer and thought it looked awesome.

But then, Bungie have a history of creating cryptic, awesome trailers for relatively mediocre games. Perhaps they should stop developing games and move into advertising, they'd be good at it.

I thought Microsoft handles the trailers and advertisings since they're the publisher.

No, developers always do the trailers/teasers. Publishers do advertising, but in general don't feed the hype machine (Halo 3 being an exception).

 

[tregon75]

Interesting, it seems we might play as ODSTs, judging by the fact that those were the pods they drop down in. If that happens, I would have to say, it would be pretty cool.

 

[stompy]

Interesting, it seems we might play as ODSTs, judging by the fact that those were the pods they drop down in. If that happens, I would have to say, it would be pretty cool.

That would be awesome. Unfortunately, I'm most likely not going to purchase this, simply because I'm not the type to buy expansions.

 

[2ndclasscitizen]

Interesting, it seems we might play as ODSTs, judging by the fact that those were the pods they drop down in. If that happens, I would have to say, it would be pretty cool.

Might be a HL1-type expansion set during the Covenant invasion, i.e the same event seen from a different point of view.

 

[Knight Templar]

Gearing up the wild thoughts!

Spoiler: halo 3 ending

1- The broken half of forward unto dawn starts to crash on the x-world and the drop pods are released and chief goes onto the world.

2- During the war wih the outlying worlds is when the game takes place.

3- the game is on Onyx, worst way for this to go.