4 or 5 new screens(most small). There is a making of Halo1 article(which is 7 pages long), and a pretty funny new Halo2 ad (nursery)
-A screen of a grunt jumping OVER a Wraith tank
-Big one of chief shooting at an Elite, while a grunt jumps over a Wraith tank. Level is indoors, with light shadows on the wall. 4 small ones: 3 with the badass drones. A couple of those show off the daytime lighting, very cool. Another bigger one shows Chief shooting a couple Covenent with a battle rifle.
-The pictures have the elites in a couple different single player color schemes. They have a silver, blue, and red version in a couple different pics. Of course none of the pics are from the first person. They are all taken away from the action. There is no mention of the new HUD design either.
-The graphics of the environments look a lot better than the '03 E3 demo. Back then all the buildings looked nondescript... no features to them. One pic shows a new enemy hovering in the sky attacking Master Chief and the background has a tall sky scraper... but opposite the tall building is what looks like a run down apartment complex. It's brownish in color and it has great shadows... The windows have awnings above them and the achitecture is more realistic in appearance... looks like a city in present day New Mexico
-The structures look more organic and weathered.Yhey have what looks like water damage where the roof meets the wall. The first building is in the light where as the rest of the complex looks like it is in the shadow of the sky scraper...
-About the shadowing. It looks excellent.
-There are also two pics of what looks like new mutliplayer levels. The first is from the level that the new sniper pic was taken from. It shows a Red masterchief piloting a banshee and he is being jacked by a green spartan. They are falling into what looks like a circular cropping of stones. The next is taken from what looks like the level that was the very first shown. The dirt is red in color and there is an old structure coming out of the ground. It's hard to see what is going on because the Covenant tank is firing right at the camera and the explosion takes up most of the screen. It also has a green Elite manning the turret on a Warthog while a red spartan drives...
-What the images show are outdoors, in more of a 'weathered" part of the city. It looks excellent, with powerlines, realistic shadows, etc
-The First pic in the mag looks like it's from a cutscene. It has Master next to two helljumpers and they are firing at something off camera. There are two pelicans flying overhead. You can tell the characters are in game models but the background action is blurred somewhat and has a more movie like feel to it.
Enemies
New Covenant Drones:
-It is pretty much believed that this action figure is a drone.
-Accompanied by the disctinctive buzz of insect wings is a swarm of new Covenent creatures that come fluttering over the rooftops of outlying buildings. "These guys are called drones. They fly, they can snipe, and they're total jerks." O'Connor quips.
-They say drones fly in packs and they fly erratically so it is hard to draw a beed on them. The hunters have an upgraded fuel rod gun mounted on there arms and it will take more then 1 shot to the back to kill them this time around.
-They are greenish, almost teal. They very much look like flying insects. Their wings are opaque, with blues and purples. Their bodies have a lot of "sharpness" to them.
They do have backwards feet.
-After fighting the covenant they describe the introduction of the drones. They fly in over the buildings and use the environment to shield themselves and zig zag between areas while they snipe you from afar. They say it's like playing hide and seek with the enemy. The drone prefers to snipe and use speed and attack in numbers. They have limited armor so they can be taken down quickly if you can get them in your scope.
-[Added Oct 1 2004 4:35AM]The drones wings can be shot off making them a severe ground threat when equipped with a carbine. Word of advice make sure your first sniper round is a bio-hazard shot because it may be your only free shot at a clean straight kill with these things. Don't let them get on the ground!
Various Enemies:
-"What's imemdiately noticeable in our first skirmish with Halo 2 is just how much livelier its compatants-both friendly and hostile-have become. "When you hear the buzzwords like how there are 20,000 lines in the game, that's not just throwing a bunch of dialogue onto the bonfire," Parsons says, "The AI in this game is fundamentally different than it was in Halo."
-Hunters have their fuel-rod gun still attached to their arm. The one jumping has his arm in front of his face like he is swinging it.
-Unlike hunters from the first halo, these doggies exhibit much more aggression, taking care to let loose with their hand cannons whenever possible, while going to greater lengths (such as pushing aside the wreckage of an overturned truck) to bury you and your comrades.
-Hunters can't be killed with one shot to the orange part.
-To our surprise, the covenant are actually sniping back, with pockets of drones and jackals taking potshots at us using Covenant carbines and beam rifles.
Various SP Campaign Details
Storyline:
-Here's the opener...
We arrive at Bungie on a quiet Sunday afternoon. After introductions, the ground rules: No one may write about anything they are expressly told not to write about, such as the big, cool thing at the beginning of the second level. Or the ridiculously enormous ship that levitates ominously over New Mombasa. Or the thing that happens at the end of what may be the third level after crossing the really impressive Golden-Gate sized bridge in the newly remodeled scorpian tank. It must also be accepeted that cimematics are incomplete, graphics are unfinished here and there, and this build of Halo 2 is still preoptimized, things could get a little choppy in the framerate department, especially when master chief is attacked by that huge - oops!
-Really not much is given on the story line that we don't already know about. I was hoping for more impressions of the gameplay versus the first one, but it delves more on the history of the lack of Halo 2 info and what happens in the books between the closing credits of Halo and the beginning of this game. I find it interesting that the journalists started on the 2nd level and not the first. I'm assuming that it holds some cool surprises that would have revealed too much story. They describe the 2nd level as being close to the movie Blackhawk Down. Except the enemy soldiers have been replaced by jackals and elites. Wave upon wave of enemies attack you as you try to make your way through the city streets.
-You start off in a Pelican, but a large creature (they don't describe it) attacks the squad and knocks the Pelican out of the air. You then are on foot and have to fight your way to a clearing so other troops may land.
After fighting the covenant they describe the introduction of the drones. They fly in over the buildings and use the environment to shield themselves and zig zag between areas while they snipe you from afar. They say it's like playing hide and seek with the enemy. The drone prefers to snipe and use speed and attack in numbers. They have limited armor so they can be taken down quickly if you can get them in your scope.
Then you face off against two hunters.
Next you're in a "cool shade of a crowded alley" . At the end of the alley you make your way through a pitch black motel interior. You have to use your lights to see while you are being attacked. You can see the enemies glowing green eyes in the murky interior. Once outside you are on a beach where the vehicles are waiting for you. At this point Frank took them directly to the next level so it's up in the air how much more there was to this level. This is kind of a streamlined version as they decribe more interactions within these events
Switching Guns with Marines:
-"I'm not having much luck with this gun here" O'Connor says, "while Sargeant Johnson over tehre has a sniper rifle--and I want it--so I'm going to chase him up here. Sergeant, I need that." By walking up to Johnson and pressing X, Master Chief can swap weapons at will with fellow UNSC infantry.
After the exchange, whereby forcefully barter our crappy submachine gun for a sniper rifle, Sarge *****es indignantly, "That hurts, Chief. That hurts real bad."
On the hole...I mean whole:
-"On the whole, single-player Halo2 is a tender balance of missions where you're propelled onward by way of level design while being bombarded by enemies and areas where the pacing is more diliberate, giving you plenty of time to explore your surroundings."
