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Halo’s Secrets
The biggest, prettiest and hardest spacewar is about to end during 2007. At E3 last May, we got to see Master Chief in his suit. Just a month ago, we got a personal meeting in Bungie’s HQ. We are LEVEL, and we have played Halo 3 before anyone else.

After weeks of email correspondence with letters, we finally made it to Seattle. Even though I didn't know what we were about to see, it was still exciting. Of course, it had to do with Halo 3 but we weren't too sure. But we shouldn't have doubted it.

Welcome to Bungie
We got to meet Brian Jarrard, the man with the jacket. The guard looks at me and closes the doors behind us. The first thing we meet is Bungie’s own soda machine. Master Chief sells his soul for Mountain Dew. Behind the door to the right of it, is Halo 3 being developed. It looks like NASA in there, one huge room with lots of screens and papers. The left door was just about to open itself, and we were very excited.

The Cards on the Table
When the door finally opens up, the Halo-logo starts spinning around on a big TV. Xbox 360's are just next to it and huge headsets. Sometimes, it felt that I was really about to play Halo 3. That feeling felt good, inside. After a couple of seconds, I'm sitting there with my Xbox 360 wireless controller in my hands. I got to meet a well-known green-suited man with new weapons.

If you're used to the controls in previous Halo-games, Halo 3 won't be hard to find it "comfortable". Bungie has actually been working on a new concept, where the player represents a perspective of the hand controllers back. With the shoulder buttons, you reload. This is like a complete version of dual-wielding. You also get to reload your weapons individually, that way, you get more tactic-aspect during the game.

Detailed Feeling
Before anything is said, Jaime Griesemer said that the multiplayer-part of Halo 2 was good... in the beginning. It was popular but definitely not perfect. One of the problems were "spawning weapons". In Halo, we had the old version of our Assault Rifle, which seriously gave an impression of "worthless". We also had the pistol, which was a bit powerful. Nothing was spectacular, and we just had too many SMG-weapons. When we started developing Halo 3, we sat down and thought of many new ideas.

New Toys
I don't think I'll spoil much if I say that Brutes will have a huge role in Halo 3. They will be huge, and yes, hairy too. With massive weapons. The weapon which is rotating on the screen while Jaime talks is equipped with long, blades and their ammunition contains deadly spikes. At the moment, we call them the "Spiker". On the top of that, Bungie introduces the new spike grenades, which can be set on walls or roofs. Next stage is High ground, which reminds us of Zanzibar. Me and my team cooperates with each other, while the enemy has its camp on the beach. Our warthog stands right next to me, so I'm safe when it comes to defending.


Welcome Home
The third and last stage has the name "Valhalla". It's like paradise, but better. Water, trees, mountains, it's the stage I've been dreaming about. All the pretty stages in Halo, but now on updated hardware. Valhalla is our new Blood Gulch, says Jaime Griesemer. It's terrain is very varied. I also get to see the new vehicle, a Mongoose. It sounds like a ATV, and it's perfect to use in handy on huge stages like this one. There's also the new transport method named Man Cannon. I jump off my Mongoose and jump in the cannon. Well, I fly. I fly in the air and I get to see hundreds of meters from above. I see lots of fighting below me. X-button will do something special.

The End
Before you go home today, we have something to show you, said Brian Jarrard. It's not much, but I know that it's been anticipated. You're just about to see the first single player part of Halo 3. Everything you see is 100 % true, and you get to see it one time. The lamps went off, and the projector started spinning. The white text is on the black background, it says Loading.

Don't blink or you'll miss it, someone with a Bungie shirt shouts out loud before it starts. It went quiet after that, until all of a sudden, we got our self a look at some of the most amazing scenes in game history. We are in a city-like-place, full of searchlights, explosions and motions. In the background, we hear Marty O'Donnells groundbreaking music which I missed while playing multiplayer. Soldiers move in forms and shoot against the Covenant. Grenades fly in the air. In the yellow sky, many strange airships arrives. The camera follows, all of a sudden, a person, which happened to be Master Chief, appears. He's being hurt by massive fire and his shield starts blinking back and forth. Massive explosions starts to blow up like no tomorrow, around us. Ten seconds after that, the lights were on and the footage we saw of the single player part of Halo 3 still amazes me every time I think of it. We're checking out the mother ship later on, for now, the war on Earth has just started.