News First Look at Halo 2 Anniversary's Forge

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Finally, the long awaited forge gameplay has been released in the new IGN First video. There are a lot of things I'd like to say regarding the footage, but words are simply not enough in this situation. You just have to see the video for yourself:

Some of you may have trouble loading the video due to heavy site traffic, but fret not! I'll summarize the main points from the footage:
  • New forge canvas: Awash is a 1-foot deep open ocean with small islands in the backdrop. You can walk anywhere on the water's surface.
  • New natural objects: You can now spawn natural terrain including flat land and cliffs as shown in the video. Trees and rocks can also be placed as in the previous titles. Placed terrain is seamless.
  • Precision object rotation: Precision editing now includes precision rotation, allowing players to rotate objects as low as 1 unit increments.
  • Lighting Generation is fast: No apparent lag when switching from monitor to player when generating lighting. Also, very fast generation when loading the map in a standard custom game.

Breaking off of this list, here's the big thing about the video: SCRIPTING IN FORGE!


Control consoles act as buttons/switches used to trigger player-set events on a map.

You can now press buttons to :
  • Blow up all vehicles or within a boundary (not specified in video but all vehicles in plain sight were destroyed)
  • EMP all vehicles within a boundary (all vehicles in plain sight were disabled, dynamic element from Coagulation usable in forge and linked to button)
  • Open doors like the one in Zanzibar (Zanzibar gate, another dynamic element, usable in forge and linked to button)
  • Spawn in vehicles (A hornet is spawned out of thin air)
  • Spawn in structural geometry (In a toggle effect, a bridge is spawned between two of the islands in the preview map. Also, it is mentioned that an entire racetrack was spawned while testing out the new forge with the push of a button, confirming that multiple structural objects can be linked to one button)
Also:
  • Variant of button switch that can be shot to be activated (in the video, the button is shot to open a gate while piloting the hornet).
  • You can spawn in a Heretic Banshee, like the ones from the last campaign mission from Halo 2.
  • Beaver Creek has been recreated in forge and is seen at the end of the video.
It's a lot of information to take in. The forging community is definitely excited about the news though. It's safe to say we can expect some great things coming from the forgers in the near future.

We'll keep you guys updated on any further forge news assuming anything else is released before November 11th. Feel free to share your thoughts and excitement both here and in the Master Chief Collection Discussion Thread. Forge is back!
 
Watched the video and mind = blown! I can't wait to see the kind of crazy awesome shit that forgers make with this much functionality and versatility, and I'll definitely have to give it a go myself!!! I seriously don't think it's possible to over-hype this game!
 
Hmmm..... Idk why, but the map in the custom games looks darker than the one in forge. Like, daylight darker....
 
I foresee a wild Buddhacrane returning to Forge and creating a blindingly complicated puzzle map...

P.s. This forge mode is the shit!
 
Hmmm..... Idk why, but the map in the custom games looks darker than the one in forge. Like, daylight darker....
I noticed that too. I think it has to do with the small white object you see floating over the water at 4:45 above and to the left of the radar. Then he goes over next to it and it's in frame at 4:56, but then he quickly turns so it's out of frame. It may be a time of day setting/modifier.
 
Few things I'd like to point out for no real reason.

I don't think that the button blew up the vehicles but the cores beside them instead. I could be wrong though.

And beaver creek wasn't actually remade, just made to look similar to it. If you look closely you can see it's way under scaled, theres no room for underground tunnels, the bases look fake and the higher ridges don't connect to the normal routes.

I foresee a wild Buddhacrane returning to Forge and creating a blindingly complicated puzzle map...

P.s. This forge mode is the shit!

Hopefully he's coming back to trick jump too!
 
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Few things I'd like to point out for no real reason.

I don't think that the button blew up the vehicles but the cores beside them instead. I could be wrong though.

And beaver creek wasn't actually remade, just made to look similar to it. If you look closely you can see it's way under scaled, theres no room for underground tunnels, the bases look fake and the higher ridges don't connect to the normal routes.



Hopefully he's coming back to trick jump too!
It's was the fusion coils, it was way too conquicendental to have two of them next to each of the vehicles.
 
I noticed that too. I think it has to do with the small white object you see floating over the water at 4:45 above and to the left of the radar. Then he goes over next to it and it's in frame at 4:56, but then he quickly turns so it's out of frame. It may be a time of day setting/modifier.
That's a load out camera...

However judging by the lighting change, and how lighting is rendered in game anyway, I'd assume daylight effects are an option.
 
I noticed that too. I think it has to do with the small white object you see floating over the water at 4:45 above and to the left of the radar. Then he goes over next to it and it's in frame at 4:56, but then he quickly turns so it's out of frame. It may be a time of day setting/modifier.
Yeah, that's unfortunately a loadout camera :(. BUT, I kinda wanted to point out that when he put on the map in Custom Games, there was two versions of the IGN Demo. It could've been a new feature showing the old version and the modified version, but it's still possible that one's for the Demo in Forge and the other for the Custom Game section hiding something, maybe a daylight option :laugh:
 
I also hope that when spawning in objects, one can set it so that the object then can't be de-spawned just as quickly. One resolution would be creating a block over the terminal, but that's just ugly.