Supposedly Bungie handed it to 343 so they could decide if they wanted to include it with Halo 2 Anniversary so we know the files still exist . I also heard that Frank O' Connor said that they have though about releasing it "Sometime in the future" I don't think 343 will be as tight as Bungie when it comes to holding onto beta files especially as 2 builds of Halo 4 leaked. Seriously i need to play this Demo!!
That sounds like bullshit to me. If memory serves Bungie said it was heavily scripted, and that demo resembles what we got. What is attractive about it? I wouldn't be surprised the artificial intelligence is much simpler when it's there, and a bunch of the enemies do the same thing when you replay it. I'd rather have one of the dozen prototypes that were made for Halo 1.
To quote an earlier article it wasn't running on real hardware, and Bungie were deleting resources on the fly to keep it running ok, "smoke and mirrors" indeed! That's not to say the assets behind it could have been transferred to 343 for possible future use. http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?38895-Was-the-Halo-2-E3-Demo-Ever-Leaked http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/bungie-halo-2-e3-demo-was-a-fake
When a game goes gold isn't it derived from a master build (give me real term if you know it) that has its debug and proto data chopped off? If so 343 could have more than an E3 demo.
I know about all the details about how it barely ran, but that doesn't bother me, i just want the files!
The problem isn't that it "barely ran", The problem is that it isn't real, Like Metro Spy said the demo was "being built" as it was shown since the ol' Xbox simply couldn't run what they had. What I would like to get hands on is the cut levels which iirc Marty said all the voice work was done for but was cut do to time.
Those levels weren't ever really "created". Essentially, from pre-production they had a lot of ambition to build a huge game. The levels were designed out but never had any real resources put into them. They were cut before they were ever really created. If they were playable, I imagine they wouldn't be any fun. Speaking of, I would love to get my hands on the audio files of the original ending of Halo 2. It would be interesting to see what they had planned out originally.
Correct me If I'm wrong. Early stage of Halo was not playable as CPU control the game. It was originally exclusive to MAC before Microsoft bought it. it was shown in Apple press conference in 1999 I think.
Halo 2 was always an fps. The original changed genres several times, and it was playable. [video=youtube_share;YIso0_ygl_g]http://youtu.be/YIso0_ygl_g[/video]
Yep, the original morphed from a RTS to a thirdperson shooter to the FPS we know today. As for the topic, I don't see this ever being released in any form. Where did you read Frank O' Connor saying they thought about releasing it? Anyone hoping this will be officially released along side a new Halo is kidding themselves. Just like those saying capcom should release 1.5 as some bonus with a new RE. We are beta lovers, most gamers are not. & no company is gonna polish up beta material for release as playable extra, it just doesn't happen. Especially since it never ran on real hardware, anyway.
It happened at E3 I believe. IGN asked about the mission from the demo. Frank O' Connor specifically says that the engine isn't even the same as the one shipped and if the player had deviated by a couple pixels while driving the warthog the build would crash. He does however say that they have the files for the build but it would take a lot of work getting it into any condition for a release. I can't remember off the top of my head if he completely writes off a release but it does sound far fetched. Skip to about 14:20 and watch from there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYxlqHMHxA0
Forgot the studio and game, but a developer did share a prototype of one of their games. No it wasn't a public test. The best thing you can realistically wish for is for studios to share really old material in video or pictures. Platinum did this for Bayonetta.
That has happened multiple times from different developers. Duke Nukem 3D was released in the form of the lameduke PC builds by 3D Realms (& way more stuff to be released by the current owners) , Doom betas were also shared by ID (I believe), STALKER developers also released an early build, + countless more examples. It happens, but this specific Halo 2 demonstration seems highly unlikely. Don't get me wrong, I always loved that video ever since I bought that specific OXM at the store just to get the disc in a slim dvd case that said it had Halo 2 material on it. I watched that video over & over. One thing I wish they kept was the beat down combo. I am happy enough with what was shown to us. (Ha, & after watching the video posted by drahcir, O' Connor says the same thing.)
How unexpected that it is that common. More should follow suit lol. (Please Nintendo I have wet dreams about your protos.) In the case of Doom are you referring to the old shareware model?