Halo 3 Teasing Drop Starts Bungie's Torture

Embrace yourselves boys and girls, Bungie have begun their traditional Chinese torture, releasing the first Halo 3 drop of info in their weekly update from a few days ago. As if the brief Halo 3 trailer shown at E3 2006 weren't teasing enough, they now have the nerve to tell us that they're already playing a single-player mission from very early in the game, set before the events seen in the E3 trailer. On top of that, they also have regular multiplayer test sessions going on, mostly played on "old-school" 4:3 480i NTSC TV sets. What's next? A blurry screenshot with the end of match scoreboard?!

"Paul Bertone, one of our lead designers, let us play something that blew our minds. That was single player, and from a mission very early in the game. And one that takes place before the events seen in the E3 trailer, but Lars, one of the new(er) multiplayer designers, has a regular multiplayer test in session now - that happens every day - and with surprisingly polished-looking graphics, although I'm told a lot of the textures and decorator objects are just placeholder at the moment. Could have fooled me.

The multiplayer test lab is still packed full of old-school 4:3 480i NTSC TV sets, which tells you two things. One is that we're making sure this game looks awesome on non HD sets, and two, that there is always a crazy rush to get to the sets that are HD during those sessions."

And just in case you missed it, there's also a new screenshot in our Halo 3 gallery from a couple of days ago. Unless you're the masochistic type, expect the torture to stop in early 2007.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)