Master Minds Affiliate Marketing Blog

Halo 3 is approaching and all us gamers can do is salivate for more info. We dig deep into internet forums for new rumors and the latest buzz on Bungie’s anticipated conclusion to the Halo series. And for today, we can rejoice for a plethora of new information that has been revealed by Electronic Gaming Monthly. What has been revealed is a lot to take in so I will start with the ‘megaton’ information. Let’s start with the bad news – online cooperative gameplay is still in question regarding if it makes the retail version. Rumor has it that it won’t be included on day one but rather show up as downloadable content. Now, about the good news – the Arbiter is only available in co-op. What does this mean? The campaign is exclusively revolves around the Master Chief. As it currently stands, if players want to play as the Arbiter, they’ll have to play co-op with a friend. Next up is my favorite subject in the Halo series – the vehicles. First up is the ‘Prowler’ which is basically a Brute Spectre that can carry up to four players. . The second vehicle spoken about is the UNSC helicopter, the Hornet. I am sure many have seen this in the E3 2007 trailer so it has been confirmed what the name of the vehicle is. The last vehicle is my personal favorite, the UNSC Elephant – the human’s answer to the Covenant Scarab. This gigantic vehicle is said to only be available in the level Sandtrap as of right now and houses up to twelve soldiers and a Mongoose. It will end up holding flags and capture points, and for defense, a turret has been added. For comparisons sake, EGM compares it to a Jawa Sandcrawler. Now that two biggies are out of the way – the vehicles and co-op – I will tackle the weapons next. For shotgun fans, they’ll be happy to hear about the Mauler; it’s a dual-wieldable shotgun used by the Brutes. If players are tired of Plasma Swords, maybe the addition of the Gravity Hammer will please them. The gravity Hammer is another Brute weapon that was featured at the end of Halo 2 used by Tartarus. It’s a giant hammer that can be used as a sword, but the best ability it has is to knock vehicles and grenades out of area of the player. Continuing on, a flashbang has been added called a Flare. Not much info besides that it has a Forerunner design to it. If players remember the Power Drainer, they’ll be glad to know that there is ‘Regenerator’ being introduced that has the opposite effects of the Power Drainer. The next items talked about have long been rumored and now confirmed. The Radar Jammer will be used often in multiplayer, but as for single-player campaign, it is said to be useless. The last is the Positional Shield that have both appeared in Halo: CE and Halo 2 – think about those darn Jackals hiding behind shields as they shot you from far away. These little shields will provide cover from fire in dire situations. Information outside of the new vehicles and gear is significant too. The Brutes are now more intelligent than ever. Their chieftain leaders will all come with Grav Hammers and the same invincibility Tartarus once had. Two big additions to the Brutes is the fact that they now can use jetpacks and climb trees – both huge factors that will come into gameplay. As for the multiplayer, a new map has been revealed titled Guardian. It’s a Forerunner designed map that is smack dab in the middle of the jungle. It is Lockout influenced and contains a catwalk across the top of the level. The game modes have been confirmed to contain a ton of customizable options such as gravity, spawns, move speed, and immunity for King of the Hill circles. Other tidbits were included such as the Elite models for multiplayer are slightly larger than the Spartans and that there will be Invincibility added as equipment that Tartarus once had. The leaderboards will contain stats of offline play of finding the hidden skulls and on the difficulty levels presented in Halo 3. The last multiplayer information revealed was that you can turn your Spartan into a Halo Monitor and have full control of the map’s spawned items. This essentially allows players to create their own gameplay. Sadly, there was no confirmation of how many players on Xbox Live will be available. The campaign is claimed to have more authentic encounters that convey feelings of warfare. The lighting, sound and music have all been improved on top of the graphics. The sound will have over 40,000 voice clips added to present authenticity of each character. As for the other enemies in the games, the Grunts have now sided with the Brutes and the Hunters’ alliance is still up in the air. Gravemind is still potentially the mastermind behind the entire flood and controls them with the help of Cortana. The third level in the campaign is set on the Afrika mission where the Covenant is ripping up Earth to get to the Ark (E3 2006 trailer). Lastly, the fourth level will be based on chasing down a Scarab that has unscripted A.I. as the Covenant potentially have found what they were looking for. What’s even better is that the chase puts the Master Chief on the back of a Mongoose chasing down the Scarab. It is evident Halo 3 is going to be a monster game – all this info gives us goose bumps here at Xbox Evolved. Stay tuned for more information that we are able to dig up on Halo 3. Until then, run out and buy the upcoming EGM to read up more about Halo 3.