PlayStation 3 | Dragon Age Updated Preview - Rage of Mages

You say you want to cast magic missile? You're attacking the darkness? Fine, fine, there's an elf in front of you, and he's going to explain how magic works in Dragon Age.

Dragon Age: Origins is the upcoming fantasy-themed game from our friends at BioWare, a wholly owned subsidiary of Electronic Arts and the Canadian studio responsible for such role-playing games as Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Mass Effect. It's also a game we haven't had a chance to cover very often here on GameSpot, so we're happy to finally have a chance to post a new preview story covering the use of wizardry in the game. In Dragon Age, you can choose to play as a mage class, which starts off with the mage tower origin story that we've covered previously and then leads to a tale of sorcery-powered high adventure and zapping bad guys with nasty zappy spells.

Pardon me, but have you seen any mages around here?.

While Dragon Age's list of skills is universal for characters of all professions (including such abilities as conversational coercion, potion-brewing herbalism, thievery, and combat training), the game has a unique set of "talents" for mages. Mage characters have a single line of mage-specific skills that include a basic attack spell, an arcane bolt, an improved ability to zap people using a magic staff, personal shielding magic, and an overall boost to wizardly power. This basic line of skills never seems like a bad choice to spend talent points in as you gain experience levels, except that there are four other talent lines (or "schools of magic," if you prefer) with plenty of other interesting and useful spell abilities that are worth exploring.

The four additional talent trees for mages are primal (elemental damage spells); creation (healing and protective magics); spirit (which focuses on countermagics and controlling enchantments); and entropy (which focuses on hindering magics). Primal, for instance, includes four different talent lines for fire, ice, lightning, and earth, each of which has four levels of abilities, including the classic fireball, lightning bolt, and cone-of-cold spells you may remember from BioWare's previous Dungeons & Dragons-based games. However, the primal talent group also includes certain spell abilities with combinatorial effects. For instance, the most powerful talent in the earth line, petrify, briefly turns an enemy to stone and makes that enemy vulnerable to instant death by shattering if attacked with a concussive spell, such as the earth line's stonefist spell. As it turns out, certain spells from the ice talent line can also freeze enemies solid, rendering them similarly vulnerable to being shattered. The primal line also contains two different weapon enhancements for all characters in your party; the fire line causes weapons to deal fire-based damage; and the ice line causes weapons to deal cold-based damage. The remaining spells in the primal talent lines are generally powerful damage-dealers with large radii that can also damage your teammates if they get in the line of fire. Careful micromanagement (or combinatorial strategies, discussed later) is crucial in using these talents, lest you blast your own party to smithereens.

Participating in fighting the Blight is only half the story in Dragon Age. The other half: nerdy magic spell strategies.

The creation line of talents is a straightforward set of healing and protection (or "buffing") spell abilities, including on-the-spot healing and over-time regeneration, and full-party regeneration, as well as offensive and defensive team boosts and the Dragon Age version of "haste"--which makes you and your team attack more quickly but drains away your character's energy. The creation line also includes a set of "glyph" spells that affect a small chunk of territory with various magical properties, including defensive skills like canceling magic or increasing your teammates' defenses, and offensive glyphs that can repel or paralyze enemies that stumble into the radius. Finally, the creation talents also include a miscellaneous line of spell abilities that enhance endurance regeneration and include a precious few attack spells, including an "insect swarm" spell that continuously damages its target, and a "grease" spell, which, just like in Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, causes an area of ground to be covered with a slippery grease that hinders movement. However, in Dragon Age, an area affected by the grease spell can also be set alight by fire spells, burning up any enemies or friendlies in the area.

The spirit line of spells also contains four sets of talents, each with four abilities. The spirit line is focused more on canceling magic and draining "mana" (magic energy) from your foes, though it also has some powerful attack spells. Among others, spirit includes a line of talents to protect against or dispel hostile magic; a line of talents that interferes with your enemies' mana and limits their ability to cast spells of their own; and a line of talents that deals with death by magic and replenishes spent energy from corpses, animates fallen enemy corpses as allies, and includes a "walking bomb" effect that causes an enemy under effects of the spell to explode if killed, damaging everyone in the radius. The spirit line also has a psionics-based set of talents that lets casters enhance their parties' weapons, psychically blast a single foe, encase a single target in a protective bubble (similar to Baldur's Gate II's Otiluke's Resilient Sphere), and contain an enemy in a cage of crushing force that will also shatter any frozen or petrified foes. The spirit line seems to be the most subtle of all the mage's talent trees, and from what we've played of the early game, it won't necessarily be needed to dispatch the enemies you encounter at first.

How about a little fire, scarecrow?

Finally, the entropy line of talents includes a series of debilitating spell abilities, including a set of talents that weaken or paralyze foes; a set of "hexes" that curse any enemies in range with a specific affliction; and a set of nightmare-based abilities that can freeze enemies in their tracks and that includes powerful analogues to Baldur's Gate II's sleep, horror, and chaos spells, which immobilize enemies in slumber, cripple them with fear, and completely confuse them into performing random acts, respectively. As it happens, sleeping enemies who are then targeted by a horror spell suffer maddening nightmares that deal severe damage to them, instantly killing most weaker foes. The entropy talent line also has a set of death-magic-based spell abilities that drain an enemy's health or summon a damaging noxious cloud to hang over an area, not unlike the classic cloudkill and acid fog spells of Baldur's Gate II.

Each of these talent groups has powerful, useful abilities, but it seems that BioWare didn't intend for players to fully specialize in any individual one, and in some cases, except possibly creation (which will set you up as a solid combat healer with good protection spells, a minor hindrance spell, and a single damaging spell), you'll actually limit your mage's overall ability if you focus on only one school. Considering that you won't be able to take every single spell talent in the entire game in a single play-through, you'll most likely want to do some experimenting and then think about focusing in a certain direction. In addition, since several spell abilities have combinatorial effects with other spells or other professions' talents, it pays to start thinking and get strategic.

A puissant wizard stands over the obliterated corpses of her foes. Take that, you...wolves.

For instance, properly specialized mages are excellent at controlling individual enemies as well as crowds, using such talents as the spirit line's force field or primal's petrify to remove a single enemy from play, while using other talents such as entropy's sleep, horror, and paralysis spells or creation's glyphs of repulsions and paralysis to render groups of enemies helpless. This kind of strategy seems useful not only to stop an enemy charge, but also to divide and conquer--when facing a paralyzed battalion of enemies, you and your troops can pick off and eliminate choice targets one by one. In addition, fighters who are specialized in two-handed weapons can learn the "indomitable" warrior talent, which makes them immune to talents and spell abilities that would otherwise knock them off their feet, so concussive spell talents like earthquake and glyph of repulsion are a great setup for a party packing two-handed weapons, since the fighters can rush right into the area of effect, immune to the magic, and begin hacking away at the monsters lying on their backs.

Alternately, proper talent selection can make your mage a strong support character that softens up tough bosses for your fighters. Abilities such as the entropy line's hex spells and creation's glyphs can reduce these formidable foes' resistances to damage; the spirit line's talents can eliminate any boss character's protective magics or drain them away; and both primal and spirit have weapon-enhancing spells that can help you deal additional damage. The spirit line's walking bomb talent (and its upgraded version, virulent walking bomb, which spreads the effect of making foes explode when they die to any nearby foes) works especially well against large groups or bosses with smaller minion critters. And of course, when fighting powerful bosses, it's important to keep your team up and running with the creation line's various healing and buff spells.

One virulent walking bomb, coming right up.

Another very viable way to specialize a mage in Dragon Age is to focus on controlling territory on the battlefield by first entrapping enemies and then bombarding them. (If you've used the web spell followed by area-damage spells such as cloudkill in Baldur's Gate II, you'll know what we're talking about.) Several of the mage's different talent lines have large-radius abilities that can incapacitate your enemies--the creation line's grease spell and glyphs of repulsion and paralysis, and the entropy line's mass paralysis and sleep spells--and nearly all of the primal line's ice spells can make sure a group of enemies in a certain area either get stuck or are forced to move extremely slowly. From here, you can have your party's archers either feather your enemies with arrows or start bombarding them with magic. Dragon Age has several high-end bombardment spell abilities, such as the primal line's high-end fire-based inferno or cold-based blizzard and the entropy line's high-end death cloud.

But be advised that snag-and-slag isn't as easy as it was in previous BioWare games, since many incapacitating spells can affect only enemies within a certain distance from where you're casting them, though you can at least lay down the glyph spells off in the distance and then lure your foes into them. Also, be advised that even though magic is extremely powerful in Dragon Age and casting spells really does get results, it isn't the rapid-fire experience it was in BioWare's previous fantasy games. As we've mentioned in our previous coverage, the way Dragon Age's spell abilities work is much closer to how magic spells work in a massively multiplayer game such as World of Warcraft. Your mage has a set amount of mana in a bar that gets expended with each cast of a spell, and several spell abilities are modal--that is, they are toggled on or off and provide a persistent effect, such as enhancing your party's weapons--at the cost of constantly draining mana. Also, every time a spell is cast, it has a cooldown time that completely restricts you from spitting it out again, and the most powerful, high-end spell abilities in the game generally have the longest cooldown times. Finally, all of the most powerful combat damage spells (inferno, blizzard, and so on) deal "friendly fire" damage to nearby teammates, so you have to take great care to line up spells carefully without zapping your teammates, and this can be a lot more challenging than it might seem, since most enemies, if not incapacitated, will make every effort to sprint out of range.

Welcome to death cloud. Population: You.

That's our in-depth look at the different talent trees available for the mages and at some of the higher-end strategies you can use in Dragon Age: Origins. Stay tuned to GameSpot for any additional updates--considering how little we've covered of this game so far, there may indeed be lots more to come.

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"PlayStation 3 | Dragon Age Updated Preview - Rage of Mages" was posted by Andrew Park on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:52:07 -0700

Xbox 360 | Halo 3: ODST Preview - The Weapons of Halo 3: ODST

Get caught up with Halo 3: ODST's arsenal in our latest report.

Throughout the Halo series, we have been introduced to some of the most distinctive weapons of the first-person shooter genre. Whether it was the potent pistol of the original Halo, the energy sword of Halo 2, or the spartan laser of Halo 3, each game has featured a variety of ways in which to battle the Covenant. And now with the next chapter in the series, Halo 3: ODST, set to launch in the near future, we wanted to take a moment to explore the game's many weapons, some of which are new, others of which are returning from previous games. We'll provide not only an overview of each one, but tips on how to properly wield them as well.

[ Watch Video ]

New and Returning Weapons for Halo 3: ODST

Auto-Mag
Many longtime fans of the Halo series have fond memories of the pistol in the original Halo. It was loud, powerful, and deadly accurate. Some might even say too deadly. As such, Bungie significantly de-powered it in the sequel, reducing its firepower and most importantly, removing the scope, much to the chagrin of the fans. They attempted to rectify this in Halo 3 with the Magnum, but even that wasn't enough.

Thankfully, it's practically back in ODST in the form of the Auto-Mag. But don't let the moniker fool you--this is the true successor to the original pistol. It's powerful, accurate, and retains the scope that made it famous in the first place. As such, it is now a formidable weapon for both close and long-range combat, enabling you to pull off headshots with ease. Also, it's now equipped with a silencer, making it ideal for stealth kills when exploring the quiet streets of New Mombasa.

Silenced Submachine Gun (SMG)
Although functionally similar to the SMG in Halo 3, the new silenced SMG is now equipped with a suppressor--like the Auto-Mag--making it ideal for battles in New Mombasa without giving away your location.

Though capable of rapid-fire, the weapon has a noticeable amount of recoil, resulting in a significant loss of accuracy the longer the trigger is held. Its firepower also isn't particularly strong, but this is mostly mitigated by its large clip, which lets you fire continuously for quite a while before reloading. And since the weapon also reloads quickly, this high-capacity gun makes for an ideal backup weapon.

Brute Plasma Rifle
The brute plasma rifle returns after its absence from Halo 3. It's functionally identical to the standard plasma rifle, only significantly more powerful, allowing it to rip through enemy shields like a hot knife through butter. There is one drawback--the weapon heats up quickly, so make sure to let up on the trigger periodically to let the weapon cool before it overheats--otherwise, it'll be out of commission for several seconds.

Let's just say that knowing which weapons pack the most punch for the right situations will be helpful to you in Halo 3: ODST.

Returning Campaign Weapons

Assault Rifle
This high-capacity automatic rifle can fire up to 32 rounds per magazine before having to reload, but each round only inflicts a small amount of damage. And if you attempt to fire for too long you'll also lose a lot of accuracy. As such, you should fire in short, small bursts, enabling you to hit enemies a good distance away. But on higher difficulty levels, you'll probably want something that does more damage. On heroic difficulty or above, you can use the assault rifle to take out enemy grunts, particularly when they're fleeing, and drones, who have pretty low health. But mostly, we suggest only retaining this weapon until you can find one more useful.

Sniper Rifle
The sniper rifle is a powerful single-shot weapon that's designed to quickly eliminate foes from a distance, although it can be used at closer ranges. Each clip holds four bullets, and you can hold up to 24 bullets in total. The rate of fire isn't great, but again, this should be a one-shot kill on most enemies. Headshots are important for most weapons, but with the sniper rifle, you really want to learn how to nab them, especially at long range. On heroic difficulty, anything up to and including a jackal should be a one-hit kill, even if you hit them in the body, but brutes and hunters are a bit more resistant. Low-level brutes (the blue ones) will still perish in from a headshot, but the upper-level brutes will probably require at least one headshot to knock off their helmets before you can kill them.

Shotgun
The shotgun won't be found very often in the game, and even when you do encounter it, you probably won't want to use it very often on heroic or higher difficulties. While it inflicts plenty of damage at close range, its effectiveness is reduced exponentially the farther away an enemy is. The shotgun particularly effective when used against unshielded enemies and can be useful for pounding the rear sides of hunters when they turn around. Apart from that, you probably won't want to keep it in your inventory very often.

Certain weapons will work better in enclosed areas.

Rocket Launcher
The rocket launcher is a dependable weapon for dishing out the pain--especially to enemy vehicles--but because the rockets themselves are fairly slow, it's not a weapon you'd use for any situation. Still, they pack quite a punch, and is sure to be a highly desired weapon in multiplayer maps, so learn where they spawn and get used to checking the location every once in a while. The launcher can hold only two rounds of ammo at a time, so missing your target can feel like a painful mistake, since the weapon takes a while to reload after firing. Get your shots on target and make sure they stay there by firing at medium-to-close ranges, at least when going after vehicles.

In multiplayer, you can open fire on stationary vehicles without too many problems, or simply use the rocket launcher as an antipersonnel weapon. Its splash damage is wide-reaching enough to kill almost anyone nearby. Just like in the classic id Software game Quake, you'll get the best results by aiming at your enemies' feet, not at their bodies. That'll increase the likelihood that you'll get them with splash damage, even if you happen to miss them. Don't even bother trying to hit someone unless you can see their feet--no shooting at people on ridges above you. If they move away from you, you'll usually end up missing and wasting one of your precious rockets.

Spartan Laser
One of the major weapons returning from Halo 3 is the spartan laser, a powerful beam weapon that can toast just about anything in the game in one blow. It's arguably the most powerful hand-held weapon in the game, but requires a lot of skill to use properly--even more than the sniper rifles.

Others will work better against groups of enemies.

One of the most distinctive features of this weapon is its significant firing delay--it must first charge for five seconds before firing. The arrow on the aiming reticule moves upward the more it's charged--when it reaches the top, a wide and very powerful laser will fire, toasting anything in its path. This'll be a one-shot kill on any moving target, and will also destroy most vehicles except Wraiths or other heavily-armored targets. Thankfully, those move so slowly that following up with a second shot shouldn't be an issue.

So basically, the Spartan laser is a super-powered beam rifle that requires five seconds to charge. The catch is that your target has to be in your view at the end of that countdown. If someone seems you aiming at them, they'll probably duck under cover, which will waste your shot. You can always just let go of the button to stop the countdown, but that will cause the arrow to revert back to its starting position, meaning that you'll have to charge it all the way up before you can fire again. The countdown makes this weapon basically worthless for close-quarters combat in multiplayer, unless you can completely get the drop on an opponent; any decent opponent will close in on you when they see the laser in your hands, and will be able to stick you with a grenade or otherwise kill you before you can fire. (In these situations, though, you can always try to use a melee swing; like most big weapons, the Spartan deals a heavy punch in melee combat.) Nevertheless, in maps with lots of open space, if you can find a laser (it's pretty rare, as you might expect), you can wreak havoc with it. Try firing it on high-priority targets like the slow-moving flag carrier or a Warthog that's loaded up with your enemies. Since your range is virtually limitless, it's also great for taking out opposing Wraiths or Scorpions that are sitting back and shelling you from afar.

Plasma Pistol
The plasma pistol is the most basic weapon in the Covenant armory. Each individual bolt inflicts a light amount of damage, making this default firing method useful only against weak enemies like grunts. However, if you press and hold the trigger, you can charge the plasma pistol and fire a supercharged burst of energy. This can be used to instantly drop the shields on a target, allowing you to finish them off by switching to a more powerful weapon, like the Auto-Mag. A charged shot also has light homing capabilities, so it will usually hit an enemy unless they actually try to dodge it. You can keep the trigger depressed as long as you like, but the longer you hold it down, the more energy you'll drain from the battery reserves. This doesn't result in a super-charged weapon; it just means that you lose ammo. Each charged shot automatically drains 10 ammo from the weapon anyway, so if you can't fire these charged shots quickly, you'll probably only manage to get a couple of them off before running out of ammo.

In many cases, you'll have to contend with enemies that have shields.

Carbine
As far as light weapons go, the carbine is a decent tool for taking down lightly armored enemies from a distance. There isn't much to say about it. The weapon is quite accurate at practically any range, and you can fire it while scoped. Unfortunately, the carbine inflicts relatively little damage, so you'll need to score a lot of hits to take down anything hardier than a grunt. The rate of fire is also somewhat limited, so if you have the choice, you'll probably want to use a battle rifle instead of the carbine during multiplayer matches. If you need to lay down some fire at a distance, and nothing better is available, the carbine makes for a good addition to your arsenal.

Plasma Rifle
Another iconic Halo weapon, the plasma rifle will be a trusty weapon in the hands of any soldier. It rapidly fires plasma bolts at your targets, causing their shields to fall just as rapidly. It won't deal as much damage against flesh as a bullet-based weapon would, but it'll still finish them off quickly, especially if you can find a pair of them to dual-wield in multiplayer. Just keep in mind that firing them for too long will cause them to overheat, and you'll have to wait a few seconds for them to cool down before you can fire again, leaving you quite vulnerable.

Brute Spiker
The spiker is a baby version of the brute shot, at least in appearance; it has the same curved blade on the underside. However, it fires in a much different manner. Instead of firing grenades, it fires spikes which pierce your foes and deal damage. The spiker has a high rate of fire, and can be dual-wielded in multiplayer, making it the Covenant counterpart to the USNC submachine gun, and it has enough rounds in a clip (40) to fire continuously for five to six seconds without needing a reload. It's a decent weapon, but requires you to be pretty close to your targets to hit them, due to the spread of gunfire.

The Covenant are back, and fortunately, so are their weapons.

Needler
The needler is back in Halo ODST and as powerful as ever, at least in the campaign mode. The needler fires small, explosive spikes that will home in on a target if fired in their general direction. These spikes do a bit of damage on impact, but then explode a few seconds later, causing a great deal more damage to the target and anyone nearby. One of the prime benefits of this method of firing is that you can unload an entire clip of needles pretty rapidly, letting you fire on a brute before ducking back under cover. This weapon's rate of fire and reload rate are both very fast, meaning that you can unload a lot of damage pretty quickly with it, but you'll also run out of ammo equally fast.

The needler is a bit more useful in single-player than in multiplayer, since your enemies are more likely to remain stationary and be easy targets. In multiplayer, you will probably only want to use this in close-range combat against enemies that have nowhere to hide, which is a situation that won't occur very often. Note also that the needles will burn themselves out after a hundred feet or so, making this weapon useless at long ranges.

Brute Shot
The favored weapons of the brutes, the brute shot is a portable grenade launcher that can deal explosive damage over a small area of effect when fired. Unfortunately, the area of effect is very small, so you can't expect to take out multiple enemies with this weapon unless you're firing into a group of grunts. Against larger enemies, brute shot grenades can be useful to blast the armor off of brutes, but it can be difficult to hit enemies at any decent range due to the slowness of the grenades in the air.

The vast streets of New Mombasa will require smart use of weapon swapping to defend.

If you must use the brute shot, try to aim down at enemies below you to ensure that they have a better chance of taking splash damage from it. Note that although the grenades appear to fly in a straight line, they actually dip into a slight arc if fired at extremely distant targets. The brute shot also possesses a mighty blade attachment that will let you kill almost any enemy in one melee blow (except brutes themselves). If you find yourself in a melee situation, this isn't a bad weapon to have handy, but keep in mind that firing grenades at short range will damage you as well, since you'll be in the area of effect.

Gravity Hammer
The gravity hammer is a rare weapon, and is only dropped by powerful brute chieftains. But if you manage to pick one up, you can swing it into the ground by tapping the right trigger, which will deal damage to all nearby foes. If you manage to hit an opponent with a swing, you'll usually instantly kill them, although of course high-level brutes and hunters will be the exception to this. You can also use this weapon to increase the height of your jump by jumping normally, then immediately swinging the hammer into the ground to give yourself a boost.

Beam Rifle
The Covenant version of the sniper rifle is the beam rifle. Unlike the sniper rifle, it doesn't use ammo, so it requires no reloading, but it does have a finite number of shots in it (20 if you find a fully-charged weapon). It also can't be fired very quickly, and if you don't take it easy, the beam rifle will overheat and require a few seconds to cool down before it can be fired again. Apart from that, it's a fine weapon for taking out your enemies from a distance.

Mauler
The mauler is a simple, single-handed shotgun that can be dual-wielded. However, its firing range has an enormous amount of spread, which means it's impossible to hit anything that's not right in front of you. It also doesn't seem to pack the same punch as other weapons. If you're fighting in extremely tight corridors, the mauler can be useful to finish off a foe after you drop his shields, but apart from that, you probably won't want to bother with it.

At close quarters, you can always melee.

Fuel Rod Gun
The heaviest weapon in the Covenant arsenal is the fuel rod gun, which acts as a slightly weaker version of the rocket launcher. When fired, the fuel rods quickly accelerate, but they're still somewhat slow and when they're still in flight, they can be dodged. What's more, they're easy to see coming, since the projectiles are large and green. Most enemies will have little trouble dodging them if you use this against them at medium distances or longer. That, and the fact that the FRG can hold five rounds of ammo in a clip, makes it best used as an up-close anti-personnel weapon. The splash damage is extensive, but not as high as the rocket launchers, making it less likely you'll damage yourself with it. You can fire the rounds fairly rapidly to finish off wounded foes without a problem. However, the slow speed of the projectiles makes it difficult to take out moving vehicles unless you're at close range or approaching from behind.

Machinegun Turret / Plasma Turret
When you spot a turret in the game world, you're able to use it, sure, but that's for plebeians. Real men rip the damn things right off their moorings, then shove them down their enemies' throats, cleaving their bodies in two. Well, sort of. You can, in fact, rip a turret off of its base by pressing the right bumper to use it, then tapping the B button. Some turrets will also be found on the ground, or in the hands of brute chieftains. Using a turret in your hands will let you dish out a lot of firepower, but it will greatly decrease your ability to move, so you'll be easier to hit while you wield one. You also won't be able to make a melee attack or throw a grenade until you drop the weapon.

Missile Pod
The missile pod is intended to be your anti-vehicle weapon. When you pick it up and aim at a vehicle, it'll instantly lock on, so that you can rapidly fire homing missiles at your target. Missile pod shots are quick enough to take down banshees, but they excel when used against ground vehicles.

Multiplayer-Only Weapons

Battle Rifle
Shot to the dome! The battle rifle returns and is as desirable a weapon as ever during multiplayer matches. The USNC counterpart to the carbine, this little guy will let you bust out three shots in a tight grouping with great accuracy at long distances, making it perfect for nabbing headshots.

Magnum
The magnum is similar to the pistol, except that it lacks a scope, making it near-useless for only long-range encounters. You can still nab headshots with the magnum, but you probably won't want to use it if you have any better weapons available.

Energy Sword
The energy sword, long a favorite in close-quarters multiplayer matches, can only be found in ODST's multiplayer mode. When you have this weapon equipped, you can kill pretty much anything in one blow, whether you use it with a melee attack (B button) or attempt to use the charge maneuver that's bound to the right trigger. The charge is most helpful, especially on smaller maps, since it'll let you close in on a target before he sees what's coming. But since this weapon is so powerful, and since it has such short range, wielding this bad boy will make you a priority target in multiplayer. Don't be surprised if it suddenly makes you the center of attention.

See you in New Mombasa. Be sure to bring guns.

Flamethrower
The flamethrower launches flammable gel a few meters from your position, causing instant and extreme damage to most foes that you manage to hit with it. Unfortunately, since it slows you down so much, it's difficult to use well on mobile enemies. The flames stick around for a few seconds after hitting an enemy or the ground, so you also need to be wary of using it if you think you might be walking through the flames; they'll burn you just as well as your foes.

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"Xbox 360 | Halo 3: ODST Preview - The Weapons of Halo 3: ODST" was posted by Matthew Rorie and Andre Segers on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:44:08 -0700