Not just posting to rub it in (LOL) but I also wanted to share some relevant info. I just played multiplayer on two maps and watched Frankie play campaign (just up to the first battle with the Covenant on the Forward Unto Dawn.) Also attending were Louis Wu and Mig from HBO. Talked to Frankie for a while too. Good times.
First multi-player:
-Frankie said the build was a month old but had some patches in the meantime.
-We played on two maps- Warhouse and Wraparound (according to Wu)
-It looks excellent. Whatever they did to the engine appears to have increased sharpness and resolution considerably.
-Sound was a bit wonky in this build, but game play was already pretty solid.
-Having sprint as standard totally makes sense.
-Look sensitivity is higher now. It defaulted to 5 and I had to knock it down to 3.
-Had loads of fun with the DMR. It made me feel like a halfway decent player for a moment, before several of the NFL guys who were there got into the game and destroyed me. Don't get too close with it though or it becomes unwieldy.
-I found movement and weapon control to be very fluid. Wu had more problems for some reason. Possibly because he kept pressing crouch by accident! LOL.
-This Promethean Vision thing is a gas. Not sure how much it helps see through walls etc. but it looks great. Machinima uses will abound. Mig called it "Moebius Vision" (after the recently departed sci-fi graphic novel artist/writer.)
And campaign:
Can't say too much about this as Frank only played the first 10 minutes. The opening is beautiful. As you probably know, we start on the Forward Unto Dawn where we last saw MC and Cortana hunkerin' down for a long wait. It's 4 years later and she is panicking and wakes him up. He's all grumpy and has to go fight a bunch of Covvies who have boarded.
There are some cool player controlled bits like climbing a ladder rung by rung with the ability to jump over to other places on the way to avoid falling debris. Very cool. Then the familiar battling of grunts and elites, all of whom got nice armor upgrades in the interim.
Cortana looks quite different and far more human. A little less glowy and maybe slightly younger.
Go check Louis Wu's write up. I think he said a lot of the same stuff but probably with much more knowledge than I have!
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=37308753&postcount=8769