Halo 2 VS Halo 3

A good comparison that shows the improved graphics in Halo 3.

[MADGameR]

Just high res and a few details. Thats all.

[WilliamRLBaker]

lets see more detailed spartan models, more detailed weapon models, more vehicles, more weapons, bigger maps, more dense maps, better textures on every thing...yep just high res and a few details all right...

[power of Green]

Cracks me up when playing both games on a 42" LCD and hearing comments like this.

"Shadow Flare" Are you sure you're not a moron?. Are you saying all developers develope their games in the same fashion?. Just because games have the same window of Beta to release doesn't mean they're put together the same way and any order, from what i noticed PlayStation games generally showcase what the devs like/want the game to look in tech demo's or games that are graphiclly far ahead than the rest of the game in progress and then it gets balaced out or the devs will attempt to bring the visual first shown in tech demos etc. vs MS's showing off what the gameplay is all about then working on graphics and wowing people. Halo 3 beta is made up of place holders etc. how many times do people have to be told when itching to bash Halo what we're looking at now in the "Halo 3 beta Multi player" could be radiclly different from the final release as the devs said.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

People kill me. Take that back...fanboys kill me.

@MADGameR.....Are you serious? You some how are failing to see the significant graphical upgrade to the enviornments? I would think even the most brash Sony Fanboy would look at these screens and say "yes" graphically it has been enhanced quite a bit.

I will say the over all look and feel of the game is very similar. Hud is similar, perspecitive is similar, color schemes, etc... it has the same tried and true Halo look to it.

BUT it looks a helluva lot better than H2.

This ......was a great comparison to look at...but even its not a very fair one as again...we compare a finished game (last gen) to a Beta build of a next gen game. I have no doubts the final H3 will look fantastic and graphically WAY superior to H2 as it already does and it's only the beta build.

[clownfacemcgee]

The pics aren't showing, which sux because I wanted to look at them. I've seen another one though and it didn't looks that great, but I hear there are some very cool effects btw. O and sorry about leeching off of your post, but I wanted to get this as close to the top as possible so everyone would know the pics are down.

[sumfood4u]

More detailed in texture, to an equalivent fraction of Greatness!

[MADGameR]

I'm no SONY fanboy so stop pointing at me as a fanboy. You 3 are just ignorant. It hurts you that bad that I said something about it? Its just overhyped man. Halo 1 was the best. Get a life and try framing someone else as a fanboy. Anyone else who tries to get defensive about this, I will point u out as the fanboy. I am a gamer, not a fanboy. So get it right. My appologies to some people. Its just these noobs come out and talk without understandment.

[Shadow Flare]

is a game that HITS you in the face straight away and you think, frickin hell those graphics are incredible! Not a game where you have to SEARCH for the good graphics and disect the game apart.

Heavenly Sword and Uncharted for example are games where you straight away think, this is next-gen stuff. It looks awesome.

Halo 3 is a game where we get articles like this doing comparisons (to a last-gen title for crying out loud) to hunt for the good graphics. Mind blowing...Sure Halo 3 is fun, but its because its Halo 2. With a very slight twist

And for the record, Heavenly Sword and Halo 3 are in the exact same stage of devolpment; BOTH Beta's and both launch the same day

[edit]

ok, sorry you're right about the shaky cam Halo 3 pic. I've changed it now. And a pic of Lair, also Beta. I think my point still stands

[T-Virus]

You get a pic of Halo 3 from a shaky cam photo, then compare them to CGI screen capture.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

You beat me to the punch! I was just thinking the same thing. How can you compare a CGI cut scene to a in game shot take via a hand held camera? Totally comical!

[candystop]

click disagree if your gay!

[calderra]

They're totally different art styles. It's been said a million times- Halo can only ever reach a certain level of graphics, because it will always be very clean and almost comic-book-ish in a certain way. Halo 3 is basically the ultimate evolution of that. It's "clean" sci-fi taken to the max.

Examples: You don't see pores on characters' skin... because the characters aren't showing any/much skin. You don't see a lot of grime encrusting all over everything because that's not the art style. Well, except maybe in Flood levels. But we haven't seen those yet.

Halo 3 does have a lot of things the other game doesn't have. For example, you need a magnifying glass to find jaggies in Halo 3, even on a 30+" television. In Heavenly Sword, jaggies abound. And you see tons more detail in Gears of War... but the very largest map in Gears is probably smaller than smallest map yet seen in Halo 3. Halo 3's fluidity of animation and framerate absolutely shames virtually all competitors. Halo 3 also has a million tiny details that few other games can think of matching- bullet casings not only fall to the ground, they have individual physics and will realistically roll and bounce down an incline after they hit.

But details like these are totally lost on 90% of people who just look at (generally tiny) screens side-by-side and declare a winner without thinking about anything actually happening in the screen at all.

[techie]

"If you look at some earlier shot's of heavenly swords like cloth and fingers you can easily see that all they did was add lighting and a few effects to kind of cover up the kind of last gen look it had"

I'm not entering into this stupid comparing debate, but you lost me RIGHT there candy. HS was hailed as being a game that looked truly next gen since it was unveiled for a publisher almost 3years ago. It now looks a multitude better, this game is MUCH more than a few effects. If it was any platform this would still be one of the most impressive games out there...a dev that actually took the time to create a true next gen game way before other devs had even thought about it. You have no idea hwat you're talking about...i've watched this game for three years, even before it was announced as a ps3 title.

Alan Wake makes Uncharted look bad? What are you doing candy? Uncharted is one of the most impressive titles, if not the most when we talk about textures, water, animation etc.

Shadow Flare why do you have to be such a d*ck and enter into this and start comparing completely different games and criticising Halo3. Sh*t can't you just leave it as is. It looks good for gods sake.

[fenderputty]

Ummm ... yeah ... pretty much.

[ImTheNumber12]

Anybody can make any game look ugly. All you need is to mess around with ingame shots, shots of playing off screen, Target renders, and take a picture of pgr3 and call it GTHD

So all of heavenly sword is played that close into the main characters face? Did not know that.

[candystop]

You know that's my bad for letting Shadow invoke me into saying some stuff that I normally wouldn't say! Yes HS and Uncharted are great looking games and shouldn't be compared to others so just ignore my last comment! It's been a great week for all of us but now all of a sudden these stupid comparisons start popping up and were back at it again with each other!

[techie]

Good for you candy :)

[Odiah]

meh.

[SimmoUK]

I thought Microsoft would do more for this one it feels kinda rushed for a flagship title, it looks better but not by as much as i was expecting, anyway there saving grace is that it probably plays well but graphically not impressed...

Maybe weve just been spoilt with graphics in other games, i meen bungie was never pushing the graphics bounderies with halo 2 that didn't look to good so I can accept why this looks average...

[Cartesian3D]

"A good comparison that shows the improved graphics in Halo 3. "

but even capitan obvious wont tell sth like that...

Halo3 use next gen tech in lighting ,textures and blah blah .. cuz of 360 hardware that is so much more powerful than Xbox1(main and first hardware for HALO2 developing).. its obvious.. whats the point in this comparsion??

[PS360WII]

So they added a layer sweet. Why are you guys having to defend Halo 3 graphics? Isn't it suppose to be a given that the graphics will be better than a 2 1/2 year old game?! H3 is gonna be great! It never was competing for "the best damn graphics period" they are going for "the best damn online period" and I'm thinking that's a shoe-in easily

[calderra]

Tons of people immedaitely blurted out "h3 look exactly like Halo2" when the beta hit, and vids like these are a response to that showing these these statements are wildly false.

It shouldn't be necessary, and yet it is.

[sticky doja]

This is a good comparison of the improvements to H3 from H2.

[PS360PCROCKS]

how can people not see the difference...It's so blatantly obvious. like everyone else has said already though halo is like a comic book look it's NOT going for real LIFE

[eques judicii]

When I first watched a DVD i didn't notice the difference. It wasn't until I went back and watched the same movie on VHS that I saw the huge difference! Its the same with Halo 3. The game looks the same and our mind blocks out a lot of the low-res textures and boring scenery in halo 2 and only recognizes the same art style in Halo 3. We have this way of remembering the good and forgetting the bad. Thus, it looks the same. But its when you go back to halo 2 that you realize how much better halo 3 actually looks, just like when i've gone back to vhs...

[iceice123]

The next Halo vs be Halo 3 VS Halo 3 CGI commercial.

[tplarkin7]

There is a ton of stuff going on in multi-player. Everything is being recorded for all players in real-time. You can save a replay of the entire battle. MP maps are always of less quality than single-player levels. Don't worry, we have seen the very worst of Halo 3 and it looks great. I fully expect some amazing graphics in SP.

[Covenant]

And this is just the beta.

The best is yet to come.

Can't wait for September 25th!

[SF49er408]

WTF DO U WANT. DEDEDEE. "JUST HIGHER RESOLUTION AND MORE DETAILS" LOL FINALLY SOMEONE POSTS GOOD COMPARISON SHOTS. HALO 2 WAS SICK WHY WOULD THEY CHANGE THE STYLE AND FEEL OF IT. WE ONLY HAVE 3 MAPS.......................... ...........THE REMAINING 10 MAPS COULD BE LOCATED ON SPACE STATIONS, ALIEN PLANETS, ANYWHERE. OBVIOUSLY THESE ARE THE 3 MOST BASIC MAPS. AND ALL THE GAME MODES HAVENT EVEN BEEN REVEALED. AND ALL THE WEAPONS HAVENT BEEN REVEALED. AND ALL THE VEHICLES HAVENT BEEN REVEALED. AND ALL THE TEXTURES HAVENT BEEN FULLY UPDATED....................... .......................... THIS LOOKS 10X BETTER THEN HALO 2 AND I GUARANTEE THE SINGLE PLAYER WILL PROVE EVERYONE WRONG. WAIT FOR SPACE BATTLES OVER EARTH AND ALL THAT CRAZY S**T, EVERYTHING IN THE MP LOOKS AND SOUNDS BETTER. WHEN PEOPLE SAY I PLAYED THE BETA AND I WASNT IMPRESSED THEY PROB. SUCK AND DIE IMMEDIATLY. LEARN TO PLAY AND GET GOOD, THEN THE GAME GETS FUN, GETTING A KILLING SPREE AND DOUBLE KILLS, AND KILL JOY IS THE BEST S**t SINCE SLICED BREAD. AND DAMN PS3 FANS GO PLAY SOME MORE HMM. WHAT WAS THAT GAME.. OY YEA.. WAIT WHAT WAS IT AGAIN.. WAIT IS IT COMING OUT LATER THIS YEAR??? NO... HMMM... NVM. .............................. ...................SIERIOUSLY THOUGH THE PS3 SUCKS. I CANT WAIT FOR IT TO BE 250$$ AND HAVE ALL THE GAMES ALREADY THERE, BUT DAMN NOTHING YET. AT LEAST WITH THE 360 I HAD COD2 MP THAT KEPT ME ADDICTED FOR MONTHS. RESISTANCE LOL. WITH 600 DOLARS I COULD BUY SOME WE*D, 4 30 PACKS OF BEER, SOME CLOTHES, A SWEDISH HOOK*R AND MAYBE A NEW STERO SYSTEM AND INTERIOR FOR MY CAR. RIGHT NOW MOTORSTORM LOOKS BORING, THE ONLY GAME THAT CAME OUT IN APRIL WAS SPLINTER CELL, LAIR AINT COMING OUT FOR AWILE, I DONT LIKE DRAGONS, AND ALL THATS ON THE SYSTEM IS CRAP AND ALL THE AAA+++ TITLES HAVE BEEN SET BACK TO MARCH 2008.
.....
N REALLY I DONT HAVE TIME TO PLAY ANY PLAYSTATION GAMES, I HAVE GAMEFLY 4 GAMES AT A TIME AND I WONT BE ABLE TO KEEP UP THIS CHRIST DAY. I THINK THE XBOX 360 IS A PIECE OF CRAP MACHINE, THE S**T BREAKS ON ME ALL THE TIME BUT AT LEAST MS PAYS FOR MY S**T TO GET FIXED. BUT IT DONT MATTER BECAUSE MS IS RICH AS F**K THEY HAVE THE PC LOCKED EVENTUALLY AND THEY HAVE TOO MANY GOOD GAMES TO LOOK AWAY. THIS YEAR AND NEXT. THEN WE CAN LOOK FORWARD TO ALL THE SEQUALS. REALLY THOUGH LOOK AT FFXX11111 OR WHATEVER AND MGS 1 2 3 & 4 AND THEY ALL HAVE "A FEW BETTER TEXTURES & DETAILS". I ALWAYS READ THE COMMENTS ON EVERY NEWS ARTICLE AND I NEVER SAY S**T SO THIS IS MY ONLY COMMENT AND THATS WHY ITS SO LONG. PS3 PLEASE HURRY I LOVE GAMES AND I HOPE... I HOPE.... KILLZONE LOOKS LIKE THE TRAILER CAUSE I KNOW CELL CAN DO IT, AND I KNOW CELL WILL BE MORE SUPERIOR TO 360'S CHIPS, I JUST HOPE SONY IS INVESTING MILLIONS INTO THAT GAME AND OTHER DEVELOPERS. I LOVE FPS AND KILLZONE LOOKED SO SICK. PEACE OUT

[Xi]

you loose a bubble for not letting go of the shift key.

[Xi]

I said, this looks so much better than halo 2. The only people saying the game looked the same were halo haters and ps3 fanboys. I'll say it doesn't look millions of times better but it does look better.

[PT Fone Home]

Ok

I love my 360 and I love Halo, I played Halo 1 through about 100 times co-op with a mate of mine. I then played halo 2 about a million times on multiplayer once I got broadband. To be honest the graphics on Halo 3 don't really make me go WOW the way something like gears of war did but I remember the first time I played on-line in gears, I remember thinking, this just doen't make me go WOW like Halo 2 did. Halo 3 won't be the nicest looking game out there but it will be one of best gaming experiences ever. On-line multiplayer is going to bring me and my friends list back playing together all the time. Do you remember how much fun it was playing Halo 2 online with your mates? How easy was match making?

I just wish my 360 wasn't getting off getting fixed - then I could play the beta :(

[InMyOpinion]

That's Halo 2 vs Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta. Not Halo 3...

[ApocalypseShadow]

to last gen graphics.anyone could do that.but compared to current gen games,it look last gen itself.

super mario sunshine looks better than mario 64.

ridge racer 7 look better than ridge racer 5.

GRAW looks better than ghost recons on xbox.what else is new.

compared to other 360 games,it looks just good.not great.compared to gears of war,it looks like a joke.that's just fact.

will people have fun playing?sure they will.that's what counts.but this "ATI gpu will blow everthing away" won't happen with this game.

from "forza2 looks awsome!" to "it's got car damage.""it's all about gameplay.""turn 10 never concentrates on graphics."

from "hal3 will own all!" to "bungie never concentrates on graphics."it always about gameplay."

all that enthusiasm and banter with exclamations has turned into:"well it still should be fun."

we're just pointing it out to all the big mouths that said games would continue to look better and pull away from ps3 year in year out.and it's not happening.and we're laughing at you.

[Xi]

wow. that's the point. You're deserve a gold star.

[big_tim]

But the Beta is for Multiplayer purposes only. In order for them to have a version that plays at a constant frame rate without drop and great performance on live at this stage for us to try is to have place holder graphics. It is not a demo that has a finished level or two to try. It is a work in progress. This is why they usually don't make a huge deal out of the betas. I understand the urge to compare the graphics but that should be held off of for a few months.

I know it is the case with other games where the multiplayer doesn't look as good as the single player to improve performance. It could be the same here also.

As it stands now, the game play is perfectly sound. No frame rate issues or performance. Aside from a few tweaks in the game mechanics, my only complaint is the amount of time it takes to get into a game. This is of course is because it isn't finished.

I also see the other side where everyone is expecting it to look like Gears. It might come close, but it isn't at that stage to judge right now. They will replace the textures with the final ones and then tweak the code to keep it at a constant frame rate. Right now, they want feed back on the MULIPLAYER ONLY part of the game. If you have actually played it you would understand. They make you try out the various modes of play so that you will have something to comment on when they need it.

[OneBubbleBastard]

which one is HALO 3??? nevermind I really can't tell which one is crappier..

My god what a crappy game.

Xbot always saying BETA helloooooo? What part of BETA you don't understand stupid retards don't have a clue what BETA is..

BETA = B etter E rase T hat stupid idea that CRAPO 3 will look less crappy than it already is A way.. there you have it..

OneBubbleBastard showing xbots the light..

[Drew]

The only thing that is even remotely similar between Halo 3 and Halo 2 is the art style. People seem to get art style and "graphics" in the technical sense. Okami was gorgeous, but technically, God of War was superior. It's all a matter of opinion, and not a matter of which game has "better" graphics. Technically, Halo 3 is amazing. Artistically, it's exactly the same as Halo 2.

People need to get over themselves.

[Kastrol]

What did Bungie do with all that money

[PS360PCROCKS]

What did you do with your time? Oh that's right you spent it putting the same exact comment on anything Halo related. you're the definition of someone who is 'lame'

[MoonDust]

Fix.

[ApocalypseShadow]

does gears of war look the same in multiplayer?does it look as good as the singleplayer campaign?

that's what we're saying.halo3 should look as good in multiplayer as single player.but now there are excuses.

resistance fall of man looks as good in single player as multiplayer.and multiplayer is 40 players.resistance doesn't look downgraded to support 40 players.so that busts your theories.

halo 3 has 1-16 player multiplayer.there's no excuse on graphics when gears has 4 on 4 multiplayer.are people saying that halo 3 can't have gears of war graphics and add 8 more people?you saying it can't handle 40 players like resistance?

stop making excuses.halo 3 doesn't look outstanding.it looks good.but stop lying to yourselves.

edit: i already corrected it after i went to IGN.com after walking away from the computer.still no excuse.it should have 40 player with those graphics.

[MoonDust]

Halo is a 8v8(16 players) MP, not 4 players(2v2). LOL. Know what you are commenting on before commenting.
The 1-4 thing is for one box, that means 4 players can play, either co-op or online on one box. Online is 16 players can play, all on seperate xbox's in one game.

[Dr Pepper]

Haven't these comparisons of Halo 2 and Halo 3 (beta) been done a bunch of times already? Why is it still happening!?
These comparisons just bring never ending arguments

[ApocalypseShadow]

so i corrected it.tell me why halo 3 can't have 40 player multiplayer with those graphics?that would make it that much of a war.the graphics aren't that far away than resistance.

tell me why bungie can't make a graphics engine that rivals gears of war that still has up to 16 multiplayer?

tell me why people are making excuses for second gen games when it was said games would get better and better on 360?

even if gamers aren't going to play with that many players online,why does it have limits already?bungie should give options.

you know why?because microsoft knows that you're going to buy it anyway.awsome graphics or not.so why spend a huge amount of money making this extraordinary game when they don't have to.millions are going to buy it on name alone and they can take that money and the money they save not upgrading it and run off with it.

[MoonDust]

They have a bunch of things that they haven't revealed.You can judge it when it's done.
Halo is a 16 player game, more players does not equal more fun. 40 player would be retarded for halo, people playing Halo enjoy more a 4v4 than a 8v8. It's hard to get 8 player team, strangers are always acting retarded.

[Bhai]

1. First of all gog, you yourself are comparing Halo-3 with Halo-2, showing how much you yourself feel they are alike. Compare Halo-3 with Unreal Tournament 3 which has the same genre, more vehicles, more weapons, same production time, same machine and I'm sure better physics. And I know that you totally know how pathetic Halo-3 will look in front of it. To make it easy for you, yes Halo-3 isn't much better than Halo-2. There is just about no upgrade in gameplay. Its the same experience on a much able and powerful machine and that's a shame.

2. Look in you own comparison, its just a "texture-swap" that's all. Its exactly as I've said all along, 360 games are nothing more than texture-swaps on past-gen games. What's exactly new here? nothing. No physics, no procedural synthesis, no better polycount...its just a bit normal-mapped HaHaHa !
Halo-3 needs to look ways better than FarCry, Riddick or Half-Life 2 to even stand an appreciation chance. By far its so bad looking that's a torture in itself.

[Drew]

Might want to learn a thing or two about what you're talking about before you open your mouth.

[The BS Police]

But Halo is just alot more fun.... let alone alot more popular.

[SF49er408]

you are retarded. halo 3 does not look like crap. when the camera switches to 3rd person it looks as good as gow. let bungie release the final version before anyone says SH**T. I love that these PS3 fanboys have no GAMES TO PLAy and instead read about the sick games we have to play this year and next. ALL the PS3 exclusives are jumping ship because the great PS3 cant sell more than 100K. haahahhahahahahahahhahahahhaha hahaahhahahahahahhahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahhahahahahahaha hahhahahahahahhahahahahahahaha. ..... sieriously why was diablo, mario, halo, and zelda so great, oh yea thats right........... gameplay. play the game. the game is great. and oh yea the graphics are a huge improvement. anyone who says the graphics are "last gen" is a PS3 fanboy and is jelous of how well the xbox 360 is doing. just admitt it. MS is smart and has a 3 decade plan to take over our living room and supply us with a constant stream of games and high def movies.

[SF49er408]

drew thank you