DiGiovanni just hopes the branded Burger King meals and Master Chief-emblazoned Mountain Dew Game Fuel don't presage a drop in the quality of the game. After all, for MLG's rigorous purposes, the first Halo still outshines the more accessible, easier second. ''The original was an amazingly pure competitive title,'' he says, lapsing into geek-swoon. ''It was like the perfect storm of weapon balance, character movement rate, auto-aim, magnetism. It just all came together.''
Bungie has always made a point of considering such opinions from the vocal minority. (''They had some legitimate concerns with Halo 2 being a bit dumbed down,'' says Jarrard.) Over the years, the studio has built up an extraordinary amount of goodwill by exchanging ideas openly with its audience — just check the volume of chatter on its high-traffic website Bungie.net. This spring, the developer allowed more than 800,000 people in 25 countries to test Halo 3's multiplayer mode online and tweaked it according to public response. Several of this iteration's new features, like being able to easily share gameplay footage and customize war zones, seem to come directly from the online community's Christmas wish list.
But Bungie wasn't only concerned with keeping the diehards happy. Key additions to the new game feel specifically geared toward bringing newbie Halo-heads into the fold. For example, the online cooperative mode lets up to four people play through the game's story — or ''campaign'' — together. This cyberposse setup makes it easy for better players to shepherd the less experienced. Technically, the facet was a beast to pull off. But ''we'd be a bunch of p---ies if we backed off because it was difficult,'' says studio manager Harold Ryan. ''If we can do it, we do it.''
That attitude is no doubt music to the ears at Microsoft. Word in the gaming industry is that Bungie's corporate parent is counting on Halo 3 to drive sales of the pricey Xbox 360 game console and fend off competition from Sony's poorer-selling but graphically superior PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's monstrously egalitarian Wii.
To that end, the Bungie folks employ Big Brotheresque methods of harvesting information. ''Anytime someone plays the single-player campaign in Halo 2,'' explains lead engineer Chris Butcher, ''we get an upload to our server.'' Compiling data straight from people's living rooms, the developers were able to see exactly where and when Halo 2 customers lost interest or felt beaten by their purchase. As a result, Halo 3 was built with an eye toward ''rewards and inclusiveness,'' encouraging players every step of the way.
''We do a lot of testing to make sure that it's easy to pick up, easy to play, and, hopefully, easy to get addicted to,'' says designer Paul Bertone Jr. ''Some games, after you die, a box saying 'Do you want to continue?' will pop up. We never ask you if you want to stop playing.''
Want more? Click for a sneak peek at the maps, new vehicles, and enhanced experiences awaiting in Halo 3
