Halo 3 Alpha Build Leak Shows Leaning Feature That Supports Corner Aiming

This Christmas seems to be a special one for the gaming community. With a number of holiday sales and exciting news about upcoming games, leaks are being continuously hailed, and those too of the big names in the industry, including early builds of Prey from 1995 and Duke Nukem Forever 2D build from 1996.

The latest one is the infamous “Pimps at Sea” alpha build of Halo 3.

The Halo series’ legacy is not unknown at this point. While every game in the series left its forever prints on the players’ minds, Halo 3, the third installment in the Halo franchise took it to another level. The first-person shooter is a sequel to Halo 2 and concludes the original Halo trilogy.

Major Takeaways:

• Halo 3’s fabled “Pimps At Sea” alpha build leaks online.
• The build shows a number of features including the ability to lean while aiming around the corners.
• An older tweet by Halo’s lead designer states the reason why the “lean” feature was cut out of the game.

Halo 3 is developed by Bungie Studios and published by Microsoft. The game was first revealed on September 25, 2007, and grossed US$300 million in just the first week of release. More than one million people played Halo 3 on Xbox Live in the first twenty hours.

Coming to the focus of our article, it appears that a Twitter user has dug up on the earliest build of Halo 3. For those unaware, the so-called “Pimps At Sea” is a very early build that features cut content and placeholders from Halo 2. Looks like the build is from November 17, 2006, making it the earliest build of the game that can be accessed currently.

The video below shows a complete preview of the build:

While the preview shows a number of thrilling features, the leaning feature has caught good attention. This feature shows the players being able to lean while shooting. It shows good support for effective aiming around the corners. 

Have a look at the feature below.

The Halo 3 Alpha build leaked today and it includes a leaning feature to aim around corners. Do you think Halo should have more movement features such as leaning?
Video source: https://t.co/yVdYtWBTRe#Halo #Xbox pic.twitter.com/E4Lx7x1Doo

— Rebs Gaming (@Mr_Rebs_) December 26, 2022

A lot of us might consider the feature too cool to be cut out of the game. The lead designer of Halo 2 and Halo 3, Max Hoberman said something in a Twitter thread back in 2016, that might be considered as a reason why the lean feature did not make it to Halo 3.

I always felt crouch jump was the secret reason H2 was so successful. That and the fact that we did NOT do lean/peek!

— Max Hoberman (@MaxHoberman) October 14, 2016

In case you’re not familiar, the crouch jump technique involves jumping, followed by a squat in midair. You should be able to access previously unreachable locations with the feature. When you crouch, you can jump to somewhat higher places or from higher ones while taking less damage.

Both the features together could be a banger but a lot of fans still think otherwise for the lean feature. Going through the replies in the Twitter thread some fans suggested that the lean feature could be unfit for a fast-paced shooter like Halo 3, or that the slide option already fills the role.

 Anyways, if you want to get your hands on the “Pimps at Sea” alpha build, you’ll be needing an Xbox 360 JTAG/RGH/devkit. You can also boot it on the Xenia emulator, but it won’t get past the menu.

You can download this leaked build from here. 

Furthermore, as leaks keep the Halo fanbase alive, possibly removed/upcoming Halo Infinite weapons were also leaked recently. Weapons like the Scattershot, Incineration Cannon, Suppressor, Boltshot, and Splinter Turret have been found inside of Halo Infinite.

What do you think of the lean feature? Do you plan to download the “Pimps At Sea” build? Tell us in the comments below.