Q&As// Halo 3 Hands On And Q&A

SPOnG: For you, then, what are the coolest things in Halo 3, both single-player and multi-player?

Phil Spencer: I think the video play-back stuff will be, in the end, something that probably touches more people than anything that we’ve ever done with Halo before. The number of times that people who don’t own an Xbox 360 and have never played Halo see something that’s totally wack that somebody has done on screen… For me, it’s about taking this little game that we’ve built and exposing it to a ton of people.

I’m a huge Gears fan and a huge Crackdown fan, but for me, the co-op in Halo is just great. The thing about playing first-person shooters is that if you’re really good and I suck, the multi-player is not such a good experience.

If we can sit down, crank the game up to Legendary and play together, it’s about us playing together through the single-player campaign and having a great time. You saw that with Gears of War – the two-player co-op really made that game. So, with four people getting together to play Halo 3… I think those two features will really resonate. And, obviously, being on the 360, being high-def, finishing off the story – that’s all expected.

SPOnG: What’s new features-wise?

Phil Spencer: Well, you saw some of the weapons, and you saw the Brood Chopper. In the multiplayer, you’ll see some big tank weapons that really allow a bunch of people to get together – really feeding on that four-player co-op. For the hardcore Halo fan, it’s always been about dual-wielding and, “What’s that shield thing I saw in the demo two years ago?”

SPOnG: What was it that made the original Halo capture the public imagination?

Phil Spencer: This is totally my personal view – my role at Microsoft is that I head all the game production for Xbox – that doesn’t mean my opinion is right, but this is what I think.

In my opinion, the thing that really pushed Halo – and this is going to sound funny – is how easy it is - they’ve written this up in white papers. There are little things the game did with the controls. Most people don’t see those things, but it’s that attention to making a game that most people see as hardcore. They were able to make it light and make it funny – with the little Covenant grunts – it wasn’t so in-your-face and trying to slam you all the time – it was about the ten-second fun experience, and I think they nailed that.