Bungie has, once again, used its weekly update to unveil some new Halo 3 features which are bound to bring a smile to most Halo fans. Bungie's Frankie also revealed a secret feature, saved films, which he promises will be, just a fun addition, that's planned to grow into something pretty amazing by launch, and will be included in the Halo 3 beta.
The developer update reveals that players of the Halo 3 beta will be able to enjoy two-player split screen action although that feature won't be so limited in the final release version of the game. You'll also be pleased to hear that split-screen will be an option, although limited to two people in the Public Beta. We've also done something cool with the splitscreen display for HD monitors - instead of stretching the horizontal or vertical axes into big, scary too wide or too tall horrors, we've sensibly windowed the action, maintaining lots of screen real estate, but preserving a proper, playable aspect ratio.
The update also proceeds to attack some Halo 3 related rumors including suggestions that the game will support 128-player games. Halo 3 will only support up to 16-player online gameplay as Bungie does not see any reason to increase the match size. Additionally, Bungie refutes rumors that MS is forcing it to deliver 60 fps at 1080p simply stating that the game will look good on all modes.
Finally the Bungie update offers our first look at how the Halo 3 controller system will be setup (you can view an image by following the Screens tab above). The update explains, I thought I would take a moment or two today to run you through the Beta control scheme (it will certainly change or improve between now and launch, after all) and so below, you'll see a diagram of the current default scheme. Don't worry, the Beta will include all the standard setups that you're used to. And this diagram does not include some of the functions available from the Start and Back buttons, since they require a quick dig-down into the interface.
