Bungie Weekly Update/03-09-01

This is the Bungie Weekly Update of March 9, 2001, written by Matt Soell.

Bungie Update

No time this week to think up any introductory comments. Straight to the meat we go.

• Our framerate got another boost this week.
• Marcus is working on blood decals.
• We've got melee attacks in for several weapons. It's quite fun to drive the jeep up to a building's front door and let Marcus distract the Covenant forces with the chain gun while you sneak in a side door, creep up behind them and slam the butt of your assault rifle into the back of their heads.
• Marcus and Chris Lee are working on a new mission, the first big exterior mission you'll play in the game.
• Sparks fly if you accidentally scrape a wall with the jeep.
• Rob is upping the resolution on one of the Covenant weapons yet again. He hopes to start working on a hand grenade soon.
• We now have force feedback in the controller when you fire your own weapon or get hit by someone else's.
• Chucky did some tweaking to the Jeep physics. In addition to the generally improved control, you can see the suspension working again. And if there's an AI manning the chain gun when you catch air in the jeep, he'll respond appropriately.
• Even cyborgs take a little falling damage now and then.
• The Mighty Chris Butcher has the AI communicating target info to other AIs now; as a result they're getting much craftier about finding ways to sneak up on you.
• Marty's written some new Halo music for Gamestock next week. It fits together nicely with the old Halo music everyone knows, with little nods here and there to some of the great film soundtrack composers - in keeping with Marty's aim to connect music with the game's action in a very cinematic way. I visited the studio this morning while Marty and his assistant Jay tweaked the mix to shake the Gamestock audience properly. All your bass are belong to Marty.