Gamertell

During a press event in Amsterdam, Bungie confirmed that Halo 3 will be playable in co-operative mode over Xbox Live with two to four players. The news was reported on XboxWorld, and was later confirmed on Bungie.

Bungie revealed that you will be able to join up with friends in the Xbox Live lobby and, when you and your posse are ready to ride, you enter into the Campaign mode.  Once the Campaign mode begins however, your friends will not be able to join up. The party can start from the beginning of the game, or at any of the saved checkpoints. Co-op still supports split-screen play with two players per Xbox 360, and those players can join up with two other players on Xbox Live or over System Link.

Bungie also took the opportunity to introduce two new playable characters: N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham (Players 3 and 4 respectively). Player 1 will control the Master Chief, while Player 2 controls the Arbiter.  Bungie has stated that the Arbiter might not always fit along side MC, so I would look for other Spartan-IIs or IIIs to step up and fill in during the Elite’s absence.

With both Halo 1 and Halo 2 co-op modes being limited to only two players split screen on one Xbox, the news of four players comes as quite a surprise. The limits of the Xbox 360 will be put to the test, as Bungie taxes the limits of it’s enemy AI, and networking code.  While games such as Gears of War, have proven that 2 player co-op over Xbox Live is possible, more than 2 players has not yet been tried in a FPS.

How will the enemy AI react to four players? Will there simply be more of enemies, or will the enemies just get smarter? How will the networking code hold up to such large atmospheres and environments? Bungie’s only answer to these questions, so far, is to say that we’ll have the time of our lives playing and replaying through the Campaign.

Read [Bungie] Also Read [XboxWorld] Via [Joystiq]

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