Bungie weekly update 3/16/07!

In Bungie's latest update, Frankie went into detail about the size of some of the battles that we will see in Halo 3 and how the graphics are coming along.  He even touches a little on the improvements in the AI compared to Halo 1 and 2:

"It was a battle of such ferociously large scale, that it stood out even in the newly embiggened Halo 3. I mean, scale. Scale of combat and literal, physical scale. There’s a couple of things I’m not at liberty to reveal about that encounter, and the one immediately before it, but it was big. Think dozens of fiery explosions, plasma fire coming from everywhere. Aerial combat in the skies above. Jerks with turrets on the ground below. Rockets flying everywhere and dozens of ways to approach the combat. It was epic and mind numbing, and still 100% Halo."

Frankie then goes on to talk about how the graphics looked in area's of the game like the large battle sequence he just talked about:

"But graphically, this level was sort of a shock to me. Some of the interiors were apparently totally complete. Lit, shader effects, proper detail, atmospherics, audio, everything. The exteriors still needed some polish, but sweet crimeny Christmas. It looked amazing. Last week I talked about how we were adding all this hyper realistic stuff, while still trying to keep it true to the look and feel of Halo. The evolution of those ideas is that some of the test screenshots we took for an internal presentation, looked exactly like their concept paintings. Not just in terms of scale or detail, but the actual color palette. It’s rich and vivid and full of life."

Here Frankie talks about the improvements to the AI, like when you want the marines to get in your vehicle:

"Other vehicle behaviors have been vastly improved too. When you drove quickly up to Marines in Halo 2, they used to scatter and dive out of the way – which is cool, but not too convenient when your intent is to cruise up to them and tempt them into a vehicle. Now they’re far smarter about knowing where you’re aiming and how fast you’re going, and will only dive at the last second if they sense real danger to their livelihood. They’re also way faster and more logical about getting in and out of vehicles. It’s almost as if they know there’s a war going on…."

To read all of what Frankie talks about, click here!