NATAL!NATAL!NATAL!NATAL!NATAL!NATAL!NATAL!NATAL!NATAL!NATAL!NATAL!NATAL!NATAL!

HE he he........... :)

Using natal you could actually kick a grunt in the nuts... hear me ACTUALLY KICK HIM IN THE NUTS!

Well, if you read my post Deft, that's basically what I said I was doing isn't it? We'll find out at E3. I'm not convinced by their statement, as it contains wiggle room. I would've liked them to say that the game is only being designed for the 360 controller and nothing else, that isn't the kind of statement we got, though. I think I've made my point, however, and we'll indeed find out come E3. :D

Yea, I saw the resolution confirmed on Beyond3D awhile back. I'll take the best possible game they can design over a forced 720p anyday. The Modern Warfare games have already done more than enough to showcase that it isn't an absolute must in order to have a fantastic looking game.

Thanks for linking to that article Deft, pretty cool. I'm also excited about the particle shower scene, because I know that they'll likely be using that aspect of their engine for more than just having particles rain down on vehicles. There will be a massive space battle taking place between the UNSC and the Covenant right outside the atmosphere of Reach. I expect that while these Spartans are on the ground, we'll probably see signs that such a battle is taking place, perhaps something will come crashing and burning down onto the planet. Also, we haven't necessarily seen what an explosion of a vehicle or some other object looks like yet in their game.

I'm also digging how thick the black smoke I'm seeing looks.

I wonder if the primary reason we keep seeing all of these major pieces of artwork without Noble Six in them, is because Noble Six may actually end up being the only Spartan from Noble Team that dies on this mission, or maybe his mere presence is suppose to be so utterly top secret that Bungie themselves are even playing along with how they are promoting the game? I have a feeling that the cutscene we saw with those soldiers appearing to point their guns at Noble Six could be a flashback of some sort.

You (the player) can customise the look of Noble Six. Plus you'll rarely see yourself when playing the game anyway. The other characters are far more important.

I wasn't aware grunts had testicles. Or maybe they have like three or something?

I believe the game is going to have a cover system of some sort. Practically every Halo title has had a cover system, except there simply wasn't some explicit animation for when you took cover behind something.

I think they could make it work by ensuring that, even though you can take cover, you can't pull any blind fire bs like a lot of these titles with cover, if you want to shoot, you gotta expose yourself the old fashion way. Also, they could make the cover animation a third person type deal, just like the assassinations.

Going a step further, imagine context sensitive cover animations. Let's say that simply crouching wouldn't be enough to provide you with cover behind a certain object, so your character scoots down lower to the point that he's almost lying down on the ground. Think about it, what makes that any different from Halo as it already is? They'd simply just be giving us an animation for when we take cover, if we so choose to use it, and it would pull out to the third person view :)

Your shield is your cover. NOW GET YOUR BUTT OUT THERE!!

AhGood! Now they are distracted!*runs and hides under a table*

Yes, practically every Halo game has had a cover system, except it entailed the player hightailing their butt behind some structure where they could avoid getting shot for a while. Where would be the harm in giving players a dedicated animation for something players have always been able to do in Halo, as long as it doesn't allow the player to do something like blind fire, which would be too big of a departure from Halo's gameplay?

Not a sticky cover system, I mean one where you yourself hit a button and you take cover. Hell, they could even make it like the assassination mechanic where you hold a button down to get into cover. When I'm in some trouble in Halo, I run behind the safest piece of cover that I can, and stay there for a bit.

They did say that there are a whole host of new features that they aren't talking about yet, and I wouldn't be surprised if a cover animation is one of those things. As Acert said, they did show quite a bit of cover in the vidoc and I'm suspicious that such things won't just be the type of thing that your npc allies can do, even the elites were shown to be taking advantage of cover, and with all the advancements they are making with regards to animations, I won't be surprised if a cover animation is something they decide that they want to explore for the player.

Another thing said in the vidoc is that the game would be doing many things that players won't expect from a Halo game. This was said by the executive producer, I believe, at the tail end of the vidoc. What exactly can the game be doing that players wouldn't expect in a Halo game? Perhaps cover is one of those things. I also pray that we get to use the fiber optic probe like Master Chief uses so often in the books.

But perhaps one could be right in suggesting that your shield is your cover, haha :)

You could even make an argument that a cover system of some sort would perhaps serve a strategic end, especially if it pulled out your field of view enough in third person for you to get a better look at the battlefield.

I don't think that simply breaking line of sight entails having a cover system. Honestly, it's a huuuuge stretch to claim Halo games have had a cover system.

Great point with regards to pace of the game and AI trying to flank, but then if Bungie ever implemented a cover system, they would probably do it well enough that it didn't hurt the pace much. More than that, seeing the introduction of the third person assassination kill when an enemy isn't aware of your presence, you can probably make the assumption that Bungie intends to throw many different situations at the player where they will be perhaps encouraged to operate at a specific pace or in a specific fashion, or they will at the least present the player with the option of going about things in a number of different ways.

In regards to the AI flanking, a pull out to third person when the player enters cover wouldn't actually be too bad in giving the player advanced warning of potential incoming threats.

Also, Ron, breaking the line of sight for awhile to go hide behind something while you gather yourself isn't much different from a cover system, the only thing missing is an animation that explicitly signals to the player, "hey, you're taking cover from fire right now"

Now, I understand where some are coming from. The implication is that the inclusion of a cover animation would encourage individuals to play more hide and seek than actually manning up and shooting it out. However, if you can't even fire back while in cover (no blindfire) and absolutely MUST come out of cover to fire, what really changes? If people want to make themselves sitting ducks by overusing the new cover animation to their detriment, then that's their decision. However, there wouldn't exactly be an ironclad rule that you MUST use the cover system, you can simply opt to run for cover in the more traditional Halo fashion.

Anyway, that's just my thinking on the matter. What's more, when the executive producer said what he did in the vidoc regarding things people won't expect in a Halo game, he was careful to mention it only within the context of the Campaign. Bungie probably wouldn't implement it in multi, or perhaps they will, but will give players the option to disable it.

You might as well say Super Mario Bros. had a cover system then.

The "system" in "cover system" implies that there's some kind of mechanic being implemented in the game. I could hide around a corner in Wolfenstein 3D, but nobody would say that it had a cover system. You're being far too liberal with the term.

A Bohemia Interactive made Halo game would be bloody brilliant (after the bugfixes and patches)