Bungie have just released the “MP bomb” that Marcus Lehto referenced yesterday – it’s a trailer showing some multiplayer action from the Alpha build of Halo: Reach, and it shows of some new features we’ll see in the public Beta in May. You can read about it and download HD versions direct from Bungie.
I’ve stepped through the video frame-by-frame and came up with the following observations:
- 00:13 – 00:15 From the Loadouts bit, I think it’s clear that jetpacks, active camo, and sprint are all armour abilities.
- Also looks like the radar shows you the name of the area you’re in e.g. “Slipway” (00:15) , “Yard” (00:21) – should help with team communication
- 00:22 The bit where the Spartan survives the Ghost ram, looks to me like the Spartan does some kind of power punch to the ground or something that kills the Ghost? As kidtsunami points out on the HBO Forum the movement of the Spartan is very reminiscent of the action in the Halo 3 CGI trailer where Master Chief triggers the bubble shield
- The Covenant weapon at 00:48 looks like a plasma grenade launcher or rocket launcher with tracking projectiles
- Human grenade launcher at 1:03.
- You can see the armour ability icon “recharging” the jetpack ability at 1:05 – a small circle around the icon.
- 1:09/1:10 some kind of new gametype where you have to blow up the generators? It’s marked with a “C”, and it’s definitely called a “Generator” in the text that comes up when you blow it up. A Territories variant?
- 1:12/1:13 – Phantom airstrike taking out the tank?
- 1:16 is definitely some kind of Covenant equivalent of the Spartan Laser.
- 1:17 you can see “Revenge” come up as he headshots the guy – is this a new medal?
- 1:20 – DMR looks like one head shot kills.
- Looks like the Covenant Laser is back at 1:23 (top-left, targeting the tank).
- 1:24 Guy that lands beside the “May 3, 2010″ shoots the human grenade launcher towards the camera
Conversation about the video is progressing in this thread on the HBO Forums
On Wednesday I was able to download the Halo 3 Mulitplayer Beta and jump into the action – unlike people who were waiting to use Crackdown to download the Beta. Apparently there were problems that led to a 15-hour delay while Bungie and Microsoft came up with a patch to Crackdown that sorted things out. There were also problems with some people that got in via the “Rule of 3″ promotion that didn’t receive their codes via email, and Bungie have resent these emails and are dealing with any remaining issues themselves. The Internet nearly melted with the ire flowing from disgruntled players, with Major Nelson seeming to get the brunt of it, bringing down 
