Halo 3 Vid! Now we know what that 'x' button does!

**Bratman Du** · December 5th, 2006, 03:22

Well I just watched the new trailer. A 1 minute 2 second beauty of CGI!

The first bit is fairly slow, but sets the mood nicely before blowing us away with roughly 30 seconds of action, with an almost real-life looking Chief.

I'll skip the lame talking kids bit and get straight to the action...

Suffering from shellshock, we look through the Chief's eyes as he reaches for his helmet and puts it on. Then we see him receive some news from command, and then in come the wraith attacks on the scarred battlefield! How can Chief survive against such a barrage of deadly blue plasma? Well, he whips out some sort of grenade type device, fires and sticks it in the ground at his feet - and up goes a big hex covered sphere around him. Safe in his bubble, the plasma falls about him and he emerges unscratched to take a mad run and jump into a pile of what look like Brutes.

All in all, fairly good, I wasn't expecting to find any new gameplay details in a movie with no in game footage, but I think we can safely say that this shield is the much pondered use of the 'x' button. We know from a 1up.com report that the 'x' button is something you activate, and also that it's not a central part of a muiltplayer match, since, the 1up players said they didn't need to activate their 'x' button once in a match of Halo 3.

It seems from the new movie that it takes about a second to plant the shield before it will activate, and only lasts for a moment, so use of this feature may be an answer to the 'cover' style gameplay of Gears of War, adding some tactical play to the multiplayer. My guess would be that the time it takes to deploy the shield leaves you vulnerable, but if you can get it up, it will defend against possibly any attacks for the moment it remains active.

I'm still left wondering what happens if an enemy is intersected by your shield (chopped in half?!), or can you move after planting the shield? Can you be melee attacked whilst it is active? Probably not, you probably stop to plant it, and have to wait until it fades before moving on. So, as the trailer suggests, it must be a primary way for Chief to defend against Wraith and grenade attacks. How will it change Halo's multiplayer feel? Hard to say - I'm kind of getting used to being able to take cover behind burnt out cars and buildings, and I think I'd miss Gears of War's hidey-peeky-shooty antics in any future first person shooters.

By the time Halo 3 comes out, one would hope GOW's pretty bad matchmaking (or lack thereof) system will have been long fixed, and if so, GOW will be perhaps competing with Halo 2 for most played Live title. So when Halo 3 does arrive, it's not going to be the only decent shooter in the village!

You can watch the trailer on xbox.com here

Adios.