Bungie Weekly Update/09-07-01

This is the Bungie Weekly Update of September 7, 2001, written by Matt Soell.

Bungie Update

Like Neil Diamond, the Halo Update has steadfastly refused to die. But will there be enough data to keep it going until its first birthday?

• Post-combat behavior is in; AIs now can now comment to themselves or each other after an encounter, shoot enemies on the ground to make sure they're still dead, and so on.
• The crewmen fight better - better than the Bobs in Marathon, notes Chris Butcher.
• AI units now know the difference between darkness and light, and consequently know when to use the flashlight.
• Signaling animations are in; you'll see Marines waving, pointing things out to each other and so on.
• You can order Marines to get the hell out of the Warthog so you can drive it. This is a more humane alternative to the previous procedure for removing them from vehicles.
• Marcus made the Banshee contrails look nicer.
• We fixed some specular lighting issues.
• Marty got all the music hooked up in the last mission of the game and is fiddling around with it so it matches the action and doesn't get obnoxious.
• At nearly all times, several people in the office are playing the game. Co-op in particular is a lot of fun, but there's plenty of multiplayer action to be had. Bungie employees speak in awe of a certain 12-player CTF game that occurred a couple nights back. It was just like a war, said Hardy. Exactly like we hoped it would be.