Sat in a darkened hotel suite in San Jose at the Game Developer's Conference, Microsoft suprised precisely no one when it announced that the highly anticipated follow-up to Halo 2 would be released in early 2004 rather than late 2003.
To soften the blow though,
Bungie was on hand at the GDC to demo a tiny square of Halo 2 . It was literally a floating square of terrain inhabited by
Master Chief, a Covenant soldier, a Warthog, a Marine and a couple of buildings .
We proceeded to zoom in on the characters,
comparing them with the versions from the original game . Which was a real eye opener -
there's simply no comparison .
The shiny
new Master Chief is detailed, realistic, dimpled and just about perfect. We zoomed in on his bump-mapped new rifle, panned the camera along the scope, revealing highly detailed, engraved lettering on the stock.
The Marine had an equally impressive physique and a perfectly rendered, realistic human face.
The Covenant trooper was perhaps even more astounding though - the vague purple armoured 'thing' from Halo had become a living, breathing monster, with visible mouthparts and grossly pulsating mandibles. For the first time, the Covenant actually seemed worse than the Flood...
There's no doubt that when it finally arrives, Halo 2 will push the boundaries of the first-person shooter as far as any Doom or Unreal could ever hope to. Halo 2 is also set to become the flagship XBox Live game, promising a wealth of game modes not seen in the original.
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