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Halo 3 Scoops Edge Award for Interactive Innovation
At the Edinburgh Interactive Festival today, Bungie beat competitors such as Nintendo and Rockstar to win the Edge Award For Interactive Innovation for Halo 3.
We hand out this accolade to the title released in the last 12 months that does most to further the creative culture of gaming – in other words, to mark out new directions for the form.
This year’s Edge Award For Interactive Innovation was a closely fought affair, Bungie proving victorious in a shortlist that also included Grand Theft Auto IV, Portal, Rock Band, Super Mario Galaxy and Wii Fit.
Ultimately it is the integration and coherence of Halo 3’s online content that makes the game stand apart. From its Theater mode to Forge, and the way a party playing through Live can seamlessly manoeuvre between them, here is an experience that demonstrates an unparalleled understanding of the potential for console online play. Outside of the game, Bungie.net has been engineered to become a remarkable resource for Halo 3 stats and communities, providing life for the game even when your Xbox 360 is switched off. Halo 3, just as Halo 2 did before it, presents a roadmap for the way online will be integrated in videogames in the coming years.
In the light of its incredible success and the number of fans it has attracted, it’s easy to overlook all of the ideas that are present in Halo 3 and the remarkably robust manner in which they are implemented, but we hope that this award serves to help credit Bungie for its achievements. Naturally, congratulations also go to the makers of the games that also made the shortlist.
Have you ever done something amazing in a game and told your buddies about it and weren't believed? Have you ever had your friend tell you something that just seemed so impossible that you didn't believe him? How many times in a game did you do something you wish you could show people? The theatre mode in Halo 3 offers you that very opportunity. Its not perfect, but it more than gets the job done. That should be a standard feature in every game, like multiplayer is now. Halo has continually set the bar (on consoles any way) for what multiplayer games can achieve and they've yet again set the bar as far as feature sets go. I shot a banshee down from at least a couple hundred yards away with a charged plamsa pistol bolt, (and it was a teammate no less, so no lock-on/homing assistance) an impossible shot. It was after a cutscene and the arbiter stole a banshee from a brute and chased after a drop ship, I shot him as he was flying away but because of his speed it didn't hit him for quite a while until he flanked left then right and the shot clipped the tail of the banshee and disabled the ship EMP style. Any other time no one would believe me, but I have the campaign level vid to prove it. Go to you tube, there's probably thousands of once-in-a-lifetime shots, or jumps, or whatever that now have life beyond stories you tell your friends, and to me, that's innovation. And that's just ONE thing they added to Halo 3. I'm sure most of the people who posted on this story haven't even played Halo 3, or even own a 360.
Yes, quite a lot of technological innovation on Bungie's part. Arguably. And what a sad state of affairs for videogames when technological progress is considered the most inspiring thing that can be done. Do you suppose the color camera won any cinematography awards when it was invented? Is Photoshop hanging in an art gallery somewhere?
As an enthusiast of fine arts, I don't believe technology is anywhere near as important as what you do with it. The gaming industry's obsession with it seems to me dull and unimaginative; the mindset of a culture incapable of creative thought. As if making things look shinier can make you forget that you have nothing of value to show.
I think you're being a bit unfair on the award. It's an award for interactive innovation, not necessarily for the most inspiring game. So you could argue that there should be an award for the best/most inspiring game, but this time the focus was in interactivity.
The technology and use of it in art angle is very interesting. I agree that the tool is but a tool, it's the artwork or game as an experience that counts. But with new media, the technological development and the art created with it tends to follow closely in the first phase of development. If we look at movies, much of the techniques and technology has been developed to create a certain artistic effect, or a new development has inspired a new way of storytelling. Eg. the use of steady-cam in The Shining, Kubric could have long, flowing takes that were impossible with dolly tracks. Most viewer probably didn't reflect on it, but it gave the movie a unique and new look.
It's much the same with games. Higher resolution textures and higher polygon count is of little interest until someone utilises them. But without technological development we wouldn't have games at all, and certainly not narrative pieces of genius like BioShock and GTV IV.
How much did Microsoft pay for this "award?"
Too all you people bitchin and cryin about gameplay and what not LEARN TO FUCKING READ. The award says INTERACTIVE INNOVATION, not GAMEPLAY. So stop bringing gameplay into this also. For the idiots that say Halo 3 hasn't changed since the first one. What the hell do you call all those new weapons, duel weilding, equipment, map editing, film viewing and saving, different online variants of games. I know all that wasn't in HALO one. So please stop and think which I know most of you can't do anyway, because your favorite game more then likely has been done before in a different way and its just maybe a re-hash of a previous with added features. Thats what a game that is a sqeuel will do, otherwise changing the whole game would not make it a game in that series, but would be considered a NEW GAME.
Well MR.Caps Lock, all of this has been done with PC games for ages so that finally consoles manage to implement this in their games doesen`t make it innovative at all you douche...
This isn`t a discussion about halo 3 kicking arse or not, this is a discussion about the game getting an award for content that has been available for ages by other platforms and aren`t that innovative at all..
That`s why this award is bollocks.
Halo 3's greatest achievement is how effortless everything feels; taking a step back and looking at the implementation of its ideas reveals just how polished and well integrated the innovations are.
This is a game whose community has continued to grow not on the back of the franchise, but instead through the unparalleled work Bungie has put towards nurturing its fan base. Halo 3 was always going to be huge, it was always going to feature in the Xbox Live Top 10 for a long time, but it stills sits atop the mountain nearly a year since release, despite continually being nipped at the heels by all newcomers.
Take Grand Theft Auto 4 as an example: admittedly, it is a game whose single-player experience is the focus, but the multiplayer numbers have declined alarmingly. Here is a game whose sales were astronomical, it is part of arguably the biggest franchise in the industry, but the online community is sinking. This is a trend with a huge number of games at the moment, and Bungie have shown the industry how to progress away from this.
Halo 3 will build a legacy through the integration of its ideas in other console games. If that is not innovation, then what is?
EDGE should receive an award for most ridiculous award 2008. congratz.
Editing maps, and uploading replays to a designated website; WOW!!! THAT`S NEVER BEEN DONE, LIKE EVER!!
Just shows how unserious this award is really.. Portal was a short singeplayergame but hell of a lot more innovative than Halo 3, get your heads out of your asses fanbois, Halo ain`t that great.
YouTube Is Just Low-Quality Version of QuickTime...
... at least, that's what you must think if you don't appreciate the innovations Bungie made.
Halo 3's Saved Film, screenshots, online File Share, records tracking are pretty innovative. There's so much extra value and features that arise from the way Bungie integrated their website and Halo 3's Live experience.
It's something that could be applied to pretty much any game type, and I think it was extraordinarily innovative.
Everyone just sees that Halo 3 wins an innovation award and groans, but I think they are failing to consider the pretty innovative stuff Bungie did with Bungie.net integration. It's not "just a dumbed down map editor" or replay saving. That would be like saying YouTube is just a low-fidelity version of QuickTime.
Bungie created an entirely new way to enjoy a game -any game really.
I wonder what EDGE magazine thinks of Garry's mod over STEAM...., being that Halo's forge mode/map editor/community aspect are "innovative". Just curious, unless this is a console specific award.
@Mikail Yazbeck and several other posts, read it. The Award is NOT for gameplay, art etc......
I just lost much faith in the Edge publication, Now we see what it takes to be an "innovative" title.
You would think an artistically innovative game, Bioshock, that actually moves the industry forward in many ways would be up for the award.
Or what about Portal, a game that creates a new gameplay experience for users?
I guess lobby systems, a poor map editor, and no lag is referred to as innovation.
Some One PLEASE give me back Next-Gen magazine over here, you wouldn't see poor choices being made by that staff.
Oh, good call. You guys should totally give a lifetime achievement award to the Internet for being such an innovative videogame.
EDGE is spot on - Halo's online experience is exceptionally good. I find myself wondering why Bungie's competitors haven't just copied Halo effortless multi-player functionality. There are still none that compares a year after Halo3 release in terms of match making, lag handling, keeping friends together. Eg. Bad Company which at it's best offers a brilliant experience, but if often marred by lag, unbalanced teams and an inability to keep the squad you created together.
It's true that Halo3 doesn't offer anything conceptually new to the genre, it's still very much like Doom - connect and shoot other players. But that would be like saying that there hasn't been any innovation in the car industry since Daimler put a petrol engine on a cart. Innovation is just about making small steps forward, building on previous efforts, as it is to revolutionize. Eg., lag - for the player, there is little difference between Doom and Halo in terms of network communication - except when it fails. But I suspect that there is a tremendous amount man-hours and innovation behind Halo3 arguably rock solid networking model.
Kudos to Bungie!
Halo 3 shouldn't get an award for a map maker that is as limited as Forge is, Timesplitters has a built in map designer that is easy to use and fun to mess with. The stats system is nothing new, and has been done since Day of Defeat on the PC. As with the communities part of the award, you have to realize that most of the features are available in it are available to Xbox Live as a whole.
Should the Super Mario Bros games win innovation awards because its the best selling video game franchise in history? probably not, and neither should Halo.
Saying a game isn't good because it only introduces one single gun (Portal) is a stupid reason to talk bad about it, especially because it introduces a brand new concept that hasn't been done before.
The Wii Fit just extends what the Wii was created to do, which the Wii itself should win an award for, not Wii Fit.
GTA4 has a good story, and the cell phone was used really well, but the gameplay is just more of the same.
My vote would have gone to either Rock Band for making a game genre famous for nerds become more of a socially acceptable and fun for everyone, or Portal for bringing the phrase "the cake is a lie" to comical phrase that is still uttered and makes people laugh.
http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/halo-3/videos/g-2005000000000000000350...
That’s a video of Bungie saying thanks for the award, some very cool hints in it as well.
Dear god I am so sick of stupid people who don’t read and just jump in and hate Halo for no reason. Kotaku posted this and it’s got loads of comments from people who just did not read the story. Anyone who has played Halo 3 will know it deserves this award hands down. I am a massive Bungie fan and am glad to see the hard work paying off.
Grat's Bungie on this latest award and I am sure we are all very excited to see what you guys are working on at the moment. I know I am.
Mat
Congrats to Bungie. (back to reading the whining and crying on this thread)
Menu systems? Functionality? The game hasn't changed in any significant way since the first one! And as for the creating of new maps ingame and playing them live, Starsiege Tribes had that back in 1998! It's patently ridiculous to say that Halo 3 is innovative in any way that really matters to a game. Give it to Portal, a game that actually deserves it.
We're talking about console games here and not third rate games from 10 years ago.
Halo 3's customization is far more in depth than anything out their and like I said before. The award is for innovation and Portal doesn't deserve the award just for introducing ONE new weapon that you can only use by your lonely self.
Halo's come a long way since the first one and with each new game that came out was something new and better. This is why Halo 3 is typically the top played Xbox 360 game each week.
Halo has less customisation than Quake 1 which is no surprise since it's less fun as well. Only a Xbot would find Halo 3 innovative because their attention span is short enough not to remember the previous Halo games and they don't play games on other systems because they want to get as much use out of their 360 before it rrod on them.
HA HA, toadwarrior thinks that Portal should have won. Aha ha, that's really funny. The only thing INNOVATIVE about Portal is the portal gun and that's it. They definitely don't deserve the award for making level one the same as level 20. The level concepts are all the same and their isn't anything more to it. It's like playing Mario Bros--keep doing the same thing by yourself.
Why don't you try reading the article.
It's not innovation for gameplay, it's innovation for menu systems, functionality, community support and new ways of playing games, ie. creating new maps with each other.
Sorry but it's not that innovative and menus don't mean shit compared to gameplay.
How can a title that could have easily been called Halo 2.5 win the award for innovation? There is nothing there that hasn't been done before. You can give it an award for being fun but an award for innovation is taking the piss.
Of those titles, Halo 3, GT4 and, to a lesser extent, SMG are the least innovative. There is no reason those shouldn't have went to Portal.