Bungie Countdown Expires, Teaser Video Unveiled

Lame

Tomorrow I will have a chance to play Halo 1 and Halo 2 for the first time.  So...  my theory is the coming game will be something I won't be playing for a long, long time to come.  Oh, horrors.

This video isn't a new game, rather an expansion, most likely for the Halo 3 campaign. Why, you ask? check out X3F's analysis, plus my friend Bennyishere has a good explanation for this himself too.

Bennyishere said:

*SPOILER WARNING*

It's an expansion, hence the Halo 3 title being showed several times. Also, it implies that something is going down on January 6th, which seems a bit too fast for a new game. In the trailer, the last pod lands after the destruction, which is probably the classic entré by Master Chief. Also, if you complete Halo 3 on Legendary there's an extra cutscene where Master Chief gets into a stasis pod on a ship, making this a natural continuation.

i thinks this video describes better what the new Halo 3 experience will bring, i think the expansion pack will take place in Halo 2, after Master Chief goes, watch the teaser, and Halo 2 cutscenes in Youtube, it all adds up, well, thats what i think. And then, theres the video that JeffG posted reveiling the secrets behind the teaser =P

Why does the camera say  "EMP Detect" when Regret goes into slipspace? And the date?!(hopefully)
I would have never seen that.

Who's Maddie?

This is their shoutout to call of duty. Placing the marine(s) against flood and not the cov. takes away the sheild aspect which is unrealistic and a turn off to most cod4 players. This hopefully will show that they can create a call of duty rival and unleash yet another domination of the Live activity.

Guys watch the video that JeffG posted...

meh! Weak. 

i kno wat it is its so obnouse....its about the devestating after math after rock like objects have fallen from space! duh

Yah there seems to be a lot of reference in there, at least in location and setting. New mombasa obviously. You can see in the background the orbital elevator (that thing you see in the 2nd level of Halo 3 all crashed down over the landscape). My guess is this game takes place between two and three, during the invasion. I wouldn't be surprised if those shorts that Neil Blomkamp tie into this story as well. Anyway, it's a teaser alright.

ok....were those drop pods covenant or helljumper pods? If they were the Helljumper pods than this probaly confirms whatever this project is will be a squadish based spec-ops game or Halo 3 expansion

It's the sequel to Gnop!

Looks like it could be some sort of side-story expansion, but of what exactly, I'm not sure.  Are we going to be playing as some sort of elite "paratrooper"-esque squadron?  Are we playing as the Covenent or space marines or another party all together?! 
Am I even anywhere near base in any of these guess-timates?!
My mind swims.

@meltbrain, nothing would be better that a grunt dancing "crank that". so it isn't a fair comparison :D

Seems fairly obvious. Two clear shots of ODST drop pods, coupled with the slogan: "Prepare to drop".

If I had to guess, I'd say it's a operation by the ODSTs, attempting to reclaim New Mombassa from the Flood or the Covenant while MC is off doing his saving the world thing. The city is clearly New Mombassa, presumably following the Covenant invasion in Halo 2 or 3. The ODST connection is obvious, but they're clearly linking this to HALO 3, so I'm wondering how far this will actually depart from the original game.

Looks interesting, regardless.

I was expecting another game not an expansion but I guess an expansion would be cool.

Yea I couldn't make out the M word but somebody says its Mombasa....

Did you guys notice the "City of New M????" in the top left corner of the screen? Its in the parts when they show a view of the street with cars.

Nay-saying aside. I'm fucking excited. I dropped the fuck-bomb... It's that exciting. You know what would be really cool... If they came out with a squad based Halo FPS in the vain of Battlefield... That would be the best game ever... Even if this is just a campaign ad on... Still exciting.

The setting there actually reminds me a bit of what they tried to get across with the infamous missing level from long ago--the first Halo 2 public demonstration. While I'm sure it's not the same place (clearly), I wouldn't be surprised to see a reference here and there.

It actually looks like they did know it was coming because in the first camera view it says, "Evac Complete" and, "Pop: 0" so there's probably no one  in the city. Wonder what it is? Oh well, Only time will tell.

hmmm, how disappointing.

Looks intense.  Well, I am not dying for more Halo right now so I don't care whether or not this is a real trailer or not.  Looks cool though.

"Security camera shots of a futuristic city are shown"

City of New Mombasa is shown in the trailer .. (the text on a sign)

hmmm

The X3F video is really the best when it comes to analyzing the video. I agree that it will be a game involving the ODSTs or "Helljumpers".

I love how people seem to have been expecting a feature length film as the teaser or something.

yeh wrst teaser in the world but very very cool that they are doing another HALO 3 campaign

yay.. weak.

Worst teaser ever? What was that God of War atrocity at E3? So God of War 3 is coming out and it still.. well.. exists. This Halo trailer at least had some tidbits of revelations, however minuscule they may be. Do we know for a fact that it is in an expansion? No. So there is no reason to dismiss it as one. If you were expecting some box art with plot revelations, you were kidding yourselves.

Orbital Shock Drop Troopers!!!!!!

lol It's just gonna be that Halo 3 is coming to pc.

Also, Joystiq just broke this. Looks like an expansion, not a stand-alone game.

Worst teaser ever. Although to anyone who's ever read a Halo novel, it's pretty obvious is either an FPS or squad-based shooter starring the Helljumper squadron. They're pretty much the special forces of the Halo universe, whose name comes from the fact that they jump down to a planet in those drop-pods.

Portal type funny sci-fi vs. Star Wars type semi-serious sci-fi (the tendency of the Halo games).

I really haven't been excited about Halo since the 1st one.  The two sequels - while technically superior - never really reached that crescendo of suspense that was present in the original.  It really was just more of the same, and in some cases too much of the same.  Halo 3 broke ground with the Forge and video tools, but the fact you still couldn't play as the other races was just inexcusable.  A Class-based multiplayer game where the race of Covenant made up the different classes would have been so much more than the tired rainbow of Master Chiefs we've had since Halo on PC.  Adding the Elites and different suit parts was a start, but they didn't take it all the way, and games like Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty 4 trumped them.

That being said, a GRAW-style Halo game would be nice, either with four dudes in the Mjolnir armor (possibly experimental models) or go the other way and make it four Marines that don't need that fancy shit to get the job done.  It worked for Republic Commando, and I can see it working for Halo.  Master Chief needs to stay in bed and let some new faces breathe some life into the franchise.

As for Portal-esque storylines.  Didn't Portal ape the original Halo's Librarian?  And frankly, rogue AI antagonists are nothing new, Portal just did it well.

And for what it's worth, I'd love to see a new Marathon, either in remake or sequel form.  Even a new Pathways game would be a nice change to all this sci-fi.

Here is a good explanation from xbox 360 fanboy.  http://www.viddler.com/player/f5a05f66/

Well- they could be going down the path of Final Fantasy 13's man iterations. Or it could just be an expansion pack for Halo 3. Which I'm not sure makes the most amount of sense unless its just to kill time until their next major project appears. The tone of the trailer feels like they might be taking the chance to make something for the fun of it. We'll have to see what they tell us.

I agree that this gives no clear details about gameplay mechanics- unless the new stuff ends up being a tactical drop pod simulator. I do also think that it would have been kind of Bungie to get more to the point. But for a "Just for fun." teaser trailer- it could end up being mildly useful. But let's hope that Bungie gives us something more this Friday in the Update.That might actually happen since they've officially acknowledged this project- which has been popping up in random computer communciation text on the tale end of variious Bungie.net articles for the last few months.

Thanks Jeff, for being the first to register some arched-eyebrow skepticism.

If the trailer rocks someone's world, cool. No offense. But this constant chain-yanking from Bungie is liable to yank the chain right out of wherever the chain is attatched to, ya know?

Waiting for the 15-year old fanbase to grow tired of Bungie's teasing. They're not there yet, so Bungie will continue to alert the media every time they have a brainstorm.

Thanks for writing about vid games from a slightly cynical POV. There are enough fanboys out there.

The teaser is exactly that, so I wasn't expecting much anyway. However, when a game has been out as long as Halo 3 has you would think they would drop all this build up stuff and cut to the chase. Apparently it's a campaign expansion and a Joystiq post (I forget the original source) says it could be coming early '09.

Whatever happens, this trailer is rubbish. It does enough to open up a bit of speculation between fans, but does absolutely NOTHING to show what could actually be in this content. After the countdown I was expecting some decent news, this did not deliver.

its a fine video as a teaser, but not much else.
I would guess something halo related seeings as they mentioned halo 3 right in it...

The Halo 3 portion of the clip implies that this is some sort of Halo 3 add-on or related content. Everything appears to take place from the point of view of a security AI watching as what appears to be drop pods crash down in a huge group. The overall graphical quality seems to imply the use of a previous engine- Halo 3 or prior. All of it seems a bit comical- so people probably shouldn't expect anything too serious out of this.

In the opening scene there is a very large "Traxus" logo in the bottom right  corner of the camera's view. "Traxus" is a reference to an AI in the Marathon series- a forerunner (Not Forerunner) AI to Durandel and Tycho (who are the main AI characters in the series). Traxus went rampant- destroying much of the Martian Net infrastructure- and forcing that network's shutdown in order to stop the AI. (http://traxus.jjaro.net/traxus/Traxus)

If we charge after that thread- you could possibly get the idea that maybe Bungie is making a nod to Portal. A Portal-esque plot oriented- and possibly comedic- expansion to the series- based on the Halo 3 engine. Traxus or an AI of that type could be introduced as a Glados like character- manipulating and influencing what could end up being the expected Halo universe squad based tactics game.

In the process of the drop pods- or whatever they're- hitting the ground- they also destroy much of the city- forcing the citizens or the AI to react with emergency oriented precautions- implying that this drop might have not been expected- or wanted. The AI's reaction appears to be almost WALL-E ish. The graphics of emotion go from emotionless to confused to freaked out and then to sad.

If they AI that seems to be our viewpoint in the trailer has nothing to do with the eventual game- the large number of pods could imply the squad tactics format by themselves. Based on the footage- the squad game we have been expecting might just be a repurposing of Halo 3's advancements in 4-player co-op, Bungie creates a modfiied version of the existing campaign- or a new campaign altogether- but just as an add-on to Halo 3's overall gameplay.

In reference to the award videos that were released earlier this year- what that might have shown us was a PVE level editor- a new take on the concept of Forge- which would expand any Bungie generated campaign material.


Or- in the most straightforward- boring- and literalistic interpretation- this is a teaser for Bungies new "Ultra-Mega-Doom" Banhammer technology- which will force the citizens of Halo to "Keep it Clean"- and thus- making Xbox Live family friendly; allowing for free Xbox Live and huge amounts of ad revenue.

I cant wait. The teaser looks f*cken awesome

Halo expansion pack...  how disapointing. Was hoping for a new game of some sort.

What a shitty way to start the day. I was expecting some awesome Halo news when I went to bed last night and all I get is an unexplainable teaser trailer? Lame.