halo 3 beta

Developer(s) Bungie Studios
Publisher(s) Microsoft Game Studios
Series Halo
Engine Halo Engine (Proprietary)
Picture format 1080i (HDTV)
Release date(s) NA September 25, 2007[1]

EU September 26, 2007[1]
JP September 27, 2007[2]
Genre(s) First-person shooter
Mode(s) Single player, Co-op, Online co-op, Multiplayer, and Online multiplayer
Rating(s) ESRB: M
BBFC: 15[3]
CERO: D
OFLC: M[4]
Platform(s) Xbox 360
Media DVD-DL
Input Xbox 360 Controller


Halo 3, the third video game in the Halo trilogy, is a first-person shooter under development by Bungie Studios for the Xbox 360. An official announcement on the developer's website states that Halo 3 will end the current story arc of the Halo trilogy. 5 A public beta test of the multiplayer component of the game occurred between May 16, 2007 and June 10, 2007. 6 The final version of the game is due to be released on September 25, 2007 1 in the United States, Canada and Australia, September 26, 2007 in Europe and September 27, 2007 in Japan.
Contents
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* 1 Gameplay
o 1.1 Campaign
+ 1.1.1 Cooperative play
+ 1.1.2 Meta-game
o 1.2 Multiplayer
o 1.3 Weapons
o 1.4 Equipment
o 1.5 Vehicles
o 1.6 Miscellaneous
* 2 Features
o 2.1 Forge
o 2.2 Saved Films
o 2.3 File Share
* 3 Synopsis
o 3.1 Setting
o 3.2 Characters
o 3.3 Plot
* 4 Technology
o 4.1 Graphics
o 4.2 Physics
o 4.3 Audio
* 5 Different versions
* 6 Marketing
* 7 See also
* 8 References
* 9 External links
o 9.1 Videos

Gameplay

The gameplay of Halo 3 largely builds upon the previous successful renditions of the franchise. It is a first-person shooter that, once again, follows the character Master Chief and his struggle against the Covenant and the Flood. The game's action takes place largely on foot, but there are vehicles available for the player to use at certain points in the game. As with the other Halo titles, the multiplayer portion of the game is one of the game's most celebrated features, and is one of the reasons for the series' enormous success.

The balance of weapons and objects in the game has been adjusted to better adhere to what Multiplayer Designer Lars Bakken describes as the "Golden Three Things of Halo". These are weapons, grenades, and melee attacks; all three of which are simultaneously available to a player at all times while on foot (unless they are dual wielding or using one of the new support weapons).

The idea of "balance" (at least in multiplayer) is that each specific weapon or piece of equipment has specific areas where it is most useful, and others where it falls far short. No matter what combination of weapons a player chooses (players are famously limited to only two weapons at any one time in Halo), there will be situations in which they have an advantage, and others in which they have a disadvantage. The result is that there is no one weapon/vehicle that is overwhelmingly the best overall choice for whatever type of situation they may encounter.

The new default controller layout will see the Right Bumper become the "action" button (pick up, reload, board vehicles, activate switches, etc), with the X button being used for deployment of equipment 7 (see Equipment below). When dual-wielding, weapons can be individually reloaded using either the left or right bumper.

Other buttons are unchanged, but B (melee attack) also will be used to take a stationary gun turret off its tripod for mobile use, becoming one of the game's "support weapons" (see Weaponry below), 8 as well as other context sensitive functions.

As with previous games however, players can still choose to change the default control layout in their game profile to a number of pre-sets. 9

Campaign

Only a very limited portion of the Campaign mode has been shown thus far. At E3 2006, in "Et Tu, Brute?" and again at E3 2007. There are several distinct types of environments that players will have to traverse in Halo 3; lush jungles, built up towns and sparse desert environments have all been seen.

AI behavior of both enemies and allies in the campaign will be greatly enhanced in Halo 3. Marines' driving and gunning skills on the Warthog, Grunt flanking maneuvers in battle, and Brute "pack mentality" have all been mentioned by Bungie as examples of using the power of the Xbox 360 for more than making the game look better. Enemy AI will also have new non-combat behaviors, rather than just sitting around waiting for players to kill them, to make them feel more "alive" and realistic.

Campaign play also unlocks even more armor permutations for use in multiplayer. 10
Master Chief alongside the Arbiter, N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham.
Master Chief alongside the Arbiter, N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham.

Cooperative play

Halo 3 features up to four player cooperative gameplay over Xbox Live or System Link and two player cooperative split-screen. 11 Although previous games also supported split-screen co-op, system link and XBL variants of this game mode is a first for the series. Players playing split-screen can also join other players over system link and Xbox live for a total of up to four players.

For plot reasons, instead of having each player be an identical Spartan like in previous Halo games, the first player will play as Master Chief, the second player the Arbiter and the other two players newly created Elites; N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham each with their own backstories. Each player has identical abilities although the weapon starts will be different depending on whether the player is Master Chief or an Elite. 11 Master Chief will have the Battle Rifle, while the Elites will be equipped with Carbines depending on which mission they are on.

Meta-game
"The ultimate task will be to beat every mission in Legendary difficulty with all skulls turned on in a certain time limit with style... To get the highest possible score."
—Brian Jarrard, Bungie Studios 12

Halo 3 features a "campaign meta-game" in which a player is awarded a numerical score based on their performance while completing a level in the campaign. Points mostly come from defeating enemies, with extra points being awarded for stylish moves such as performing "headshots", or progressing through a level quickly. Finding and activating Skulls, a continuation of Halo 2's gameplay-altering easter eggs, allows a player to obtain even higher scores in the meta-game. As it records individual performance for each player, the meta-game also introduces a competitive aspect to co-op play. If a player themselves die, or kill a co-op teammate however, they will lose points. 12

Gamerscore is awarded for successfully getting over a certain score in each level, 13 and medals are awarded for specific accomplishments.

Multiplayer

Up to four people can participate in multiplayer match on a single Xbox 360 in Halo 3 via a split screen layout. Up to sixteen may participate in a single match over a LAN or Xbox Live. A combination of some or all of these methods may be combined for a match with up to sixteen players.

Like most multiplayer Xbox 360 titles, Halo 3 will use a customized version of TrueSkill ranking system for its online matchmaking facilities. Halo 3's matchmaking system will be based on two different ranks, skill and experience (Rating Points or RP). Skill will simply be the TrueSkill rank of the player in a given playlist, and experience (RP) is a linear measure of experience (1 point for each win in the online playlists). Overlaid by a Military rank; so, a player with a designation of a "General" will have played for a longer time than someone who is a "recruit". This is in order to make the system more fair and to reflect the effect of experience on players' profiles. 14 The RP system also has a mechanism built in to dissuade players from excessive quitting from matches, which became a problem for some players in Halo 2. When players quit from a match before it has finished, they will lose 2 RP. So players that regularly quit games, leaving their teammates stranded, may eventually end up having negative RP.

UNSC Service Tags (consisting of one letter followed by two numbers) will be used instead of small HUD emblems to identify allies in games. In addition to the customization of Service Tags, players can now choose three different colors (as opposed to two in Halo 2) for their armor in multiplayer (primary, secondary and detail), as well as three for their multiplayer emblem. 15

Spartan armor in multiplayer is now customizable in physical appearance as well as color. 16 In addition to the standard MJOLNIR-armor look, players can choose to swap out helmet, arm and body sections independently to the new armor variants; CQB (Close Quarters Battle), EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) and other, unannounced variants. The Elite player model is also customizable in this fashion, with several armor types such as the Predator armor (which is similar to the armor worn by the Arbiter) and the Raptor armor (which is similar to the armor worn by the Ranger Elites in Halo 2) 17

Further customisation comes in the ability to change the gender of the voice of the Spartan character in multiplayer to female. After considering it due to a "significant chunk" of Halo 2 players being female, and even asking their community for comment 18 it was later confirmed that there will indeed be a female voice option. 19 However, a male voice remains the default.

The UI (user interface) has been redesigned from Halo 2, making it easier to generate a custom game in Halo 3 multiplayer, which can now be saved and shared online with the File Sharing Features.

Players will now be able to "advertise" their custom games via Xbox Live Public; making it easier to find a multiplayer match to a player's taste without having to link up with friends. 14

To help players have an enjoyable time online, a new feature dubbed the "A-hole button" allows players to mute annoying players in the game quickly and easily from the in-game scoreboard view. 20

People sifting through the code, as well as those who glitched their way into the Custom Game UI, of the Halo 3 Beta have found that the strength of gravity is indeed a customizable option in multiplayer games, confirming statements made by Bungie employees. 21 In addition to existing gametype settings from previous games, new "player traits" allow players to set specific altered abilities to all players and different (if they wish) abilities to the leaders of a game, expanding the amount of gametype customization available still further.

Weapons

Most of the weapons available in previous installments of the series return with minor cosmetic and power alterations; including the Battle Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Covenant Plasma Rifle, Brute Shot and the Covenant Needler.

Halo 3 introduces a new-to-the-series class called "support weapons". These are a group of exceptionally large, powerful and cumbersome two-handed weapons that, when carried, change the view to a third-person perspective and cause the player to move more slowly. The two weapons available in this class during the Public Beta were the Machine Gun Turret and Missile Pod, although a Flamethrower also features in this class. 22

The now-iconic Assault Rifle which appeared in the original Halo as the MA5B, but was absent from Halo 2 is returning for Halo 3 retooled into the MA5C. Developer Bungie hopes it will fill the role as the "ultimate spawn weapon", allowing players to hold their own in a fight straight away (unlike the SMG in Halo 2) but not be so powerful as to overshadow all of the other weapons (like the M6D in Halo). In hopes of fulfilling this, it has a smaller magazine and slower rate of fire than its previous iteration but a longer range and greater accuracy.

There are more new weapons and grenades, most in order to expand the "Brute Sandbox:"

* Brute Spiker, a sub machine-gun like weapon with a vicious double blade on the front,
* Brute Mauler, a dual-wieldable shotgun,
* Gravity Hammer, 17 a large augmented hammer similar to the one used by Tartarus in Halo 2,
* Spike Grenade, able to stick to any surface and release a controlled explosion of deadly spikes
* Fire Bomb, an incendiary grenade with burning agent that adheres to anything it touches, including the bubble shield. 22

There is also the "Spartan Laser" that can kill players and destroy vehicles in one hit, but has a low battery and requires a three second charge.

As a visual change to the weapons, when a player is carrying a second weapon in Halo 3, the secondary weapon will be stored on the character's back (for larger, two-handed weapons) or on a leg holster (for smaller, one-handed weapons). This makes it impossible to "hide" a powerful secondary weapon and surprise unsuspecting foes.

Equipment
"The 30 seconds of fun has become 30 seconds of fun and five of total astonishment."
—Jaime Griesemer, Bungie Studios 12

A new class of usable items in Halo 3 are known as Equipment. These items have various effects and functions, ranging from defensive effects (Bubble Shield and Regenerator), or objects which blind or confuse the enemy (Flare, 12 and Radar Jammer), to ones which can actually harm and kill (Power Drainer and Tripmine). Most of these are named by their function.

They are not designed to give one player a significant advantage, as they affect both sides equally, but as items which change the dynamic of a fight momentarily.

The Bubble Shield, for example, produces a protective dome but, a person inside cannot fire out, just as a person outside cannot fire in. This creates a stalemate situation until the Bubble Shield fails, or players move through the shield onto one side of it. Equally, once the Portable Gravity Lift is dropped it can be used by both sides to gain greater height into the air, often to get over specific obstacles.

Vehicles

Halo 3, like its predecessors, will also feature a strong vehicular component. Vehicles, and their countermeasures (rockets, mines, etc.), are tightly integrated with Halo gameplay. Many of the series' vehicles are returning in the third installment. Vehicles cover a wide range of types, including light reconnaissance vehicles, large, heavily armoured tanks, troop and vehicle transport craft, plus various atmospheric and spacecraft, though not all are usable by the player.

The Mongoose ATV that had been originally designed for Halo 2 but was cut out, finally makes an appearance in Halo 3. Within the games' story, it is a human vehicle in addition to the Scorpion tank and Warthog offroad vehicle. It is a small quad-bike vehicle and, like the Warthog, the driver is unable to fire any on-board weapons, and as such is nearly defenseless. A second player can ride on the back of the vehicle, however, to provide some offensive capability. There will also be a new variant of Warthog, with rear seats for troops instead of a gun, and a light human aircraft called the Hornet which is similar in function to the Banshee. They can both be seen briefly in the E3 2007 video.

There are also two entirely new Brute vehicles, dubbed the "Brute Chopper" and "Brute Prowler" to expand the "Brute sandbox". Unlike other vehicles attributed to The Covenant in the game, that entirely hover or fly above the ground, the Chopper has a single large and heavy wheel on the front with a hovering driver seat behind. 23 It has been referred to as a "vehicle smasher," able to destroy other vehicles with a single hit. Insofar it has only been seen in the E3 2007 Trailer. The Brute Prowler however, is closer in function to a Brute version of the Warthog. 17 It has a plasma turret in front, a driver in back, and two side seats, similar to the Covenant Spectre in Halo 2.

The Covenant Banshee aircraft and Wraith tank have been altered in terms of gameplay. The Banshee now has the ability to fire its Fuel Rod Gun in multiplayer matches, an ability which was formerly restricted to Campaign and the multiplayer of Halo for Windows and Mac. But as a trade-off it can no longer point directly down. The Wraith can now carry two people instead of one. One drives the vehicle and fires the main cannon, while the other fires the smaller plasma turret. The plasma turret was formerly exclusive to AI in the Halo 2 campaign.

The largest driveble vehicle in the game is a UNSC transport vehicle named "The Elephant". 17 The vehicle is armed with an anti-aircraft gun at the front, has a Mongoose in its belly, and can transport an additional 2 Mongooses, a warthog, and a scorpion tank along with 12 infantry. In multiplayer the vehicle serves as a mobile base where players can respawn, and also holds both the flag and capture points for certain multiplayer objective modes. Because of its size, it only features on the largest multiplayer map: Sand Trap, and it is unknown whether it will make an appearance in campaign.

Miscellaneous

Fauna is undergoing testing for inclusion in the final build of the game, specifically seagulls and a cockatoo-like creature. 24 Both will exhibit flocking behavior. Some Bungie employees are reportedly keen on the possibility of going grousing in Halo 3. Fish have also been seen on the level "Sierra 117" and can be killed or hunted also. citation needed

Although Halo 3 was planned to end the Halo series, future Halo games are likely. On the Halo 3 FAQ from the official Bungie website it says, "Q: Is this the last ever Halo game? A: It is the conclusion to this story arc." This refers to the two announced games in the Halo universe, including the new Halo Wars by Ensemble Studios. Of the other project, very little is known. Bungie has said that it will be on the Xbox 360, and it will be "made in partnership with Lord of the Rings and King Kong director Peter Jackson" citation needed and a recently formed development studio headed by him under the name of Wingnut Interactive.

The game's Achievements were revealed on June 19, 2007 13 .

Features

Forge

Forge is a tool that enables players to insert game objects into existing maps. 25 Almost all weapons, vehicles, and interactive objects (various crates and barriers) can be spawned, moved and placed into maps with Forge. In an example of its uses, one of the testers was able to place an unusually large number of exploding fusion cores on a huge vehicle, which caused the vehicle to spin wildly out of control into the air upon detonation.

In games where Forge is enabled, players can switch to the forging mode at any time. While in this mode, a player appears to other players as a Forerunner Monitor and is still vulnerable to being attacked and killed. Objects can be spawned into the game in real-time and parameters such as ammo counts (for weapons) and respawn rates can be altered for each object. 12 The number of objects that can exist in a map at any one time is limited however, which each object created taking up a set amount of points from a map limit. 12

As well as using it to spawn weapons to assist a player's side in real-time, Forge alterations to a map can be saved and then used in an non-Forge game. These Forge alterations can also be transferred to other players using the File Sharing features. Modifications made by Forge can change the way a map plays quite drastically from its original configuration.

Saved Films

Halo 3 will have a feature called Saved Films. This feature allows players to save a copy of the game data of a multiplayer match or campaign session to their Xbox 360's hard drive, so that they may watch it later on. Though the public beta's implementation was very limited, 26 its functionality is planned to be extended for the final game.
"Just think about all those stories you've heard, about that game you played the other night, that awesome thing that happened – well, now you can download it and actually check it out."
—Tyson Green, Bungie Studios 27

Players will be able to view the action from almost any angle and any player's perspective (including a free-roaming camera), as well as being able to slow down the speed and also play the recording in reverse. The Saved Films can even be edited in game to create a shorter clip of a particularly amazing or special moment. 26 Players can also use the tool to take still pictures from films.

As the Saved Films are only the game data (not an actual video), this allows the file sizes to be relatively small. A recording for a typical "long" game is in the region of only 6 MB. 26 Films will also be played back at whatever resolution the Xbox 360 is set to, regardless of the resolution at which the a player was using at the time of the recording. All games are recreated in real-time on the Xbox 360 using the Halo 3 engine.

Up to 100 films can be stored locally on a player's hard drive at a time.

The Saved Films feature is described as an "excellent training aid" since players can gain valuable tactical insight into the strategies of other players by viewing the saved films. 28

This feature will also facilitate the creation of machinima and other game-related videos, as well as give the creators of such videos advanced tools to enhance the quality of this medium. Video game montage creators can save games to the hard drive of their Xbox 360 console for later use, so they never have to miss a camera shot, while machinima directors and cinematographers will have expanded camera options, instead of having to resort to using a first-person, gameplay perspective.

File Share

File Sharing in Halo 3 is an online storage and sharing service for a range of files that are created in the game, and is an extension of the game's online capabilites. Files such as Saved Films, screenshots, custom gametypes and Forge settings can all be uploaded to the File Share. When the game launches, items stored there then appear on a players Bungie.net Halo 3 profile, with the ability to comment on them and queue items to download for when the player next plays the game online. 12

Players can view and transfer these files individually to others while they are online, but can also upload them to a central, Bungie run server so friends (or rivals) can then view and download them even when the creating player is not online. During the Beta each player had 25 MB of storage space on the File Share, which may change by the time the final game ships.

In the 8/17 Bungie.Net Weekly Update, Bungie announced that players will be able to purchase additional storage space and slots for 750 Microsoft Points, dubbed "Bungie Pro"; all Gold subscribers get 6 file slots and 25MB of storage. Bungie Pro bumps storage up to 24 slots and 250MB.

While players with XBox Live Silver do not have access to the free file-share, they may purchase Bungie Pro to share their files.

Bungie has also extended the file-share to their website; players may "flag" files for download (up to 8) on Bungie.net. The next time a user signs on to their XBox, it will automatically download the flagged files to their hard drive. 29

Synopsis

Setting

The initial stages of the game take place on a future Earth in an area of eastern Africa that is in modern day Kenya.

Characters

Main article: Characters in the Halo series

The Master Chief again returns as the main protagonist, with the Arbiter making a several major appearances.

Plot

The game will not begin right where Halo 2 left off. The new comic mini-series, Halo: Uprising, will bridge the story gap between the ending of Halo 2, and the beginning of Halo 3. 30

When the game begins, Master Chief is back on a thoroughly conquered and Covenant controlled Earth. Covenant ships are hovering over an excavation site a few miles from the ruins of New Mombasa and have uncovered a large artifact in this site. Cortana is still a prisoner of Gravemind. The Arbiter, along with the remaining Elites and some portion of the Grunts, have allied themselves with the human forces after splitting from the rest of the Covenant in Halo 2.

Recent promotional items have had a strong memorial bent to them, hinting at the demise of Master Chief, though strictly through speculative circumstantial evidence. 31

The Achievements show the story mode will be divided into nine main levels, which gives some information about the game's length and an indistinct view of the story arc.

Technology

Graphics
Work-in-progress Halo 3 screenshot of single player.
Work-in-progress Halo 3 screenshot of single player.

Halo 3 utilizes a proprietary, in-house graphics engine, often referred to as the "Halo 3 Engine". 32 This engine builds upon the technologies of the Halo 2 Engine (and previously the Halo Engine) and is re-optimized for the architecture of the Xbox 360.

As detailed on the Bungie Studios website, it will employ advanced graphics technologies such as High Dynamic Range, global lighting, real-time reflections and depth of field effects within cutscenes. 33 Certain surfaces, including the Master Chief's visor (when visible) and the armor of a Ghost, will have real-time reflections (These were, however, not present within the Beta.). Most of the dynamic objects in the game will cast real-time shadows on themselves and the environment around them, including the game's plant life. Halo 3 will use normal, bump, and parallax mapping to give surfaces more detail without dramatically increasing the number of polygons.

Bungie has also stated that the draw distance of the game will be in excess of 10 miles (16 km). Sophisticated new atmospheric models are used in the game to replace the traditional skybox, 34 allowing several layers of cloud and atmospheric cover, and even a pseudo "space" beyond that. Water effects are also dramatically improved, and water can now reflect and refract images simultaneously. As well as being able to simulate effects such as waterfalls, water will visually flow around objects in its path and splash when players, vehicles, or other objects travel through it.

Physics

Halo 3, like Halo 2, uses a version of the Havok physics engine for much of its physics calculations 35 36 (although parts of the physics, like melee, are done with custom code on top of the middleware).

A wide variety of objects are affected by physical interactions in Halo 3. Crates, canisters, objective objects, dropped weapons, characters, bodies, vehicles, and some parts of the world geometry all interact with each other and the world around them in believable physical ways. Trajectories of thrown objects are also affected by the gravity lifts in the game (including the "Mancannon").

Some of the foliage in the game is physically reactive; it not only moves in the simulated wind, but actually reacts to the player's (or other creatures) presence and bullet fire, as well as explosions. Some flora in the game will also be destroyed after receiving enough damage.

Audio

As with all titles on the Xbox 360, Halo 3 will fully support 5.1 surround sound audio. In the game, there will be over 50,000 pieces of audio, with nearly 40,000 of those being NPC dialogue. 12 This is many more than in either of the preceding Halo titles; Halo 2 had over 15,000 pieces of dialogue. The AI controlling this dialogue is designed to ensure the exchanges flow naturally and convincingly.

Separate recordings have been made for nearby and distant gunfire to make for a more believable sound experience. Distant gunfire sounds, which may first seem like prerecorded ambient sound, may often be the result of an actual firefight happening somewhere in the game.

Marty O'Donnell is again composing the original score. Some pieces of the game's music are produced with a much larger real orchestra than anything in the prior two games. For example, the music for the announcement trailer was recorded with a 60-piece orchestra and a 24-piece choir. 5

Voice actors returning to reprise their roles in Halo 3 include: Jen Taylor as Cortana and Steve Downes as the voice of Master Chief. Actress Julie Benz however, is not voicing Miranda Keyes for Halo 3. 37

Different versions
Halo 3 Limited Edition cover
Halo 3 Limited Edition cover

There will be three different versions of Halo 3 for retail sale: the Standard Edition, which contains the game disc and a manual; the Collector's Edition, which contains the game disc, manual, interactive Xbox 360 bonus disc with several featurettes, and Beastiarum, which is a "hard cover, bound collection of information and art covering the species, cultures and civilizations of Halo 3." according to Bungie; the Legendary Edition, which contains the game disc, manual, interactive bonus disc, Beastiarum, Legendary DVD containing special content exclusive to the Legendary Edition, and a scale replica of the Master Chief's Helmet as a case for the three discs. 38
Features Standard Collector's Legendary
Price (USD) $59.99 $69.99 $129.99
Game Disc & Manual Yes Yes Yes
Interactive Xbox 360 Disc No Yes Yes
Beastiarum No Yes Yes*
Legendary DVD No No Yes
Master Chief Helmet Replica No No Yes
* Additional content on DVD

Marketing

Main article: Marketing for Halo 3

Mountain Dew Game Fuel.
Mountain Dew Game Fuel.

Various marketing techniques have been employed in promoting the release of Halo 3. This has included various trailers of the game; real-time cinematics, recorded gameplay sequences, pre-rendered CGI and even live action film. Throughout the course of development several "developer documentaries" were released, which explain the processes behind creating parts of the game. A large scale multiplayer Beta test was played on Xbox Live with many members of the public being able to take part and experience the game for themselves. Beginning in June 2007, Iris, an alternate reality game, began on the internet, designed to create hype for the game while involving players in slowing revealing some background information for the game.

In addition to high profile events, Bungie often talked about the game in its Weekly Update, occasionally releasing media of the game on their site. Numerous interviews with Bungie staff have been conducted by many gaming press establishments, covering a vast range of subjects. Magazines and journals also occasionally ran stories revealing new information.

Pepsi-Cola have announced a new line of soft drink, a variant of Mountain Dew named Game Fuel. The packaging reflects Halo 3, sporting images of Master Chief. 39

As Halo 3 draws nearer to completion and release the marketing drive is set to increase. Much of the advertising to date has focused on appealing to the general public, rather than just hardcore fans of the game.

Microsoft announced on August 9, 2007, that pre-orders for Halo 3 had exceeded one million in North America. 40 However, has not yet equalled Halo 2's record-setting 1.5 million pre-orders. 41

Some 7-Eleven stores have recently begun advertising Halo 3 and will be selling copies of the game. 42