Halo 3 Planet

The “Prepare To Drop” trailer is filled with hidden clues about the upcoming Expansion Pack for Halo 3. We’ve put together an analysis of important frames so you don’t have too.

Right from the start, we see a covenant cruiser flying somewhere in New Mombosa. It’s assumed that this is just moments before Regret makes his jump in New Mombasa in Halo 2. Several seconds later, we see a huge explosion which may be caused by the slipspace rift.

Confirmation that this is in fact New Mombasa, and it has been evacuated.

We see a series of drop pods closing in on New Mombasa, coming in two different directions. The Super Intendent AI targets the ones dropping to the right, and displays a message “AUTH.NEGATIVE”.

In the same few frames as above, the message, ‘ACTIVATING SUBROUTINE “VERGIL”‘ and “WARNING! DATA LEAK ON LEVEL 9!” are displayed. These messages show up several times in short intervals throughout the teaser.

After the huge slipspace rift, everything goes dark, and a sequence of messages display very rapidly on the screen. “Maddie, Where are you?” is one of the messages.

“Danger.Flood Zone” is another one of the messages.

Following these messages, we find a possible release date for Halo: Prepare to Drop. Hidden in some meaningless text is a date that reads 01/06/09.

A lone drop pod emerges at 53 seconds. There is no indication why emphasis has been put on it, but it could perhaps contain our protagonist(s). Could it be the chief? We doubt it since it wouldn’t seem to make sense with the timeline.

Rather, we like to believe that the first series of drop pods were all wiped out by the slipspace rift. In response, a team is deployed, but only one (perhaps the only one that remains?)

This fits in nicely with the recent posts by the Super Super Intendent on Bungie.net:

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Listen. We have a report of core data corruption.” Corrupted by the blast?

[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “We’re sending a team, alright?” Officer is sending team to the corrupted SI?

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Empty archer pods six through twelve!”…
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “It may have passed us, Lieutenant, but it’s still in range.”…
[EXPLOSION (2.3482s)]
[STATIC (3.8761s)] Pods are deployed — the ship is still in range (on Earth) — then a long explosion and static. Coincidentally, the Explosion and static is nearly precisely the same amount of time the explosion and static for the slipspace rift lasts in the trailer.

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Alright, Captain. You’ve got your squad.” After the explosion, an additional squad is confirmed.

Prepare to Drop seems to be the name of the expansion.

Did we miss anything?

Bungie will be announcing a new game with a video teaser on Thursday, September 25th through the Xbox Live Marketplace and Bungie.net.

Members of the Bungie.net forums A member of the Bungie.net Forums found a notification that was not intended to be revealed until the anniversary of Halo 3. The notification (which will seemingly pop-up when you boot up Halo 3 sometime on Thursday), simply states that the teaser for the next Bungie game is available on the XBL Marketplace and Bungie.net.

The messages were quickly taken down, and a countdown timer has been reinitiated on Bungie.net. This same countdown appeared during E3, but was later canceled by Microsoft. The timer currently counts down to 7:07 a.m. PST.

Arguably Halo: CE’s most popular map, Chill Out was put on display last night by Bungie at the MLG San Diego event, the second stop on the 2008 MLG Pro Circuit. The new map - dubbed ‘Cold Storage’ - was displayed by Luke Smith and Shishka in an exhibition match against two MLG stars. The boys from Bungie made no mention of the intended release date.

MLG has kindly hosted some images from the event. Follow this link for the gallery.

We’ll be keeping you updated on the new maps as they are announced, and we might even help a few lucky readers pay for the pack.