are you ready? Less than 24 hours until the gaming event of the decade.

I just read a couple of reviews. Needless to say its getting high praise. Ign has a neat video review (its 17 minutes) and I highly recommend downloading it if you're not sure. I'm slightly disappointed by what they had to say about the campaign though. From the sound of it, seems like they were too worried about pissing off the casual fanbase and went with the mainstream "Master Chief rulez" campaign. Some people didn't like Halo 2's campaign, but I thought it was awesome and had much more depth than Halo 1's in terms of narrative. It's unfortunate that the Arbiter's story apparently doesn't just take a back seat, it's in the very far back seat. I'm sure it'll still be good though, but a lot of reviews are saying they'd pretty much give Halo 3 a perfect score if the campaign wasn't partially disappointing.

I still can't wait to play this though. I was holding back on getting a gold account, but after seeing the videos, I think I'm going to have to get it.

Quoteare you ready? Less than 24 hours until the gaming event of the decade.

Good god yes! I've been losing sleep from the anticipation. :wacko:

QuoteI was holding back on getting a gold account, but after seeing the videos, I think I'm going to have to get it.

I pretty much got the Gold account just for this game. 4-player online co-op is the big selling point for me.

I'm not too worried about the campaign, as long as the AI is still challenging and fun. As for the actual plot, I just want some closure.......whatever that may be.

Quote from: TheMarvell on September 23, 2007, 11:11:23 PM
Ign has a neat video review (its 17 minutes) and I highly recommend downloading it if you're not sure. I'm slightly disappointed by what they had to say about the campaign though.

I got to watching that, the reviewer towards the end says that the 2nd to the last level is horribly designed, thats not good news if there's only 9 levels. Besides that, the reviewer absolutely loved the game. I'll probably write up my own review and post it here on Wednesday.....after I'm done beating the campaign first. :P

Okay, I just finished the Single Player campaign on Heroic. So I'll review it at that difficulty setting. I won't get into details, this is just more of a synopsis.

Storyline (NO SPOILERS) - Nothing amazing, but still enjoyable. You will indeed, "Finish the Fight" ;)
note: After beating the game be sure to let the credits role as there is another ending sequence.

AI - I'm truly amazed by the tactics and teamwork the Brutes use. While one alone is not as difficult as a single Elite in the first two games, together they become a lot more tactical.
Grunts are a force to reckon with simply because of their grenade tactics. Jackals have a bigger arsenal now making them a bit more formidable, but they aren't insane with the sniper rifle like they were in Halo 2.   Hunters are for the most part the same thing.

Humans can hold their own and they're good for support. They aren't going to win a fight without you but they can last at lot longer because they're a bit more tactically sound then the previous games. Contrary to belief, the Arbiter is not a moron in this game, he more then holds his own and in fact, saved me a few times throughout the campaign.

The Flood........ <_< They just run after you. This is pretty much the reason why this game isn't perfect to me, coupled with the second to last level.

Levels - A lot of variety, but also some backtracking. The backtracking doesn't bother because the Covenant are such a blast to fight against. But if it's a Flood level I'm backtracking I get a little disappointed. The varieties and balance of vehicle and on foot level design really stands out to me and it keeps things fresh. Keep in mind that the first two levels have no vehicles though.

Graphics - Not Gears of War, but it's still very pretty.

Quarrels - The Flood and the 8th level. The Flood do present a challenge but not in a fun way, they just go after you.
The 8th level starts off as a long corridor that you through then back track and fight your way back to the beginning of the corridor. Linear, literally. It then turns into a tight honey comb cave maze with Flood just continually go after you and without the proper weapons you will be defeated time and time again. It becomes extremely annoying. I also got lost numerous times.

Not a perfect game, but I still love it and it's well worth the price just for campaign.

I'll give my thoughts on Multiplayer and Co-Op when I play them a bit more.

I'm playing on Hard mode. I've only managed to get to the third level or so because of school and work, but I have to say that I agree with most of the reviewers when it comes to your allies AI. Enemy AI is really good, but it seems like my allies are total noobs. The Arbiter has done some pretty cool things sometimes, but more often than not, I see him run head straight into battle and take a massive beating. For every time he does something good, he dies about 7 or 8 times. I like having him around because sometimes he does save me, and he does offer a nice distraction sometimes too, but overall, just from playing the first two levels, the ally AI is pretty crappy.

so far that's the only bad thing I can say about it, but I'm sure I'll hate that second to last level. The campaign plays pretty much like Halo 2 and the Brutes are fun to kill this time.

ok, so I just finished the game. I think it goes without saying the games is awesome. The desert level, which I think is 5 or 6 or so, is probably the best level in any of the Halo games together. I haven't played multi-player yet, but just from the campaign, its just as awesome as you know it is.

In terms of my complaints from my previous post, I'm retracting what I said about the Arbiter's AI. For the first 3 or 4 levels, it was terrible. He constantly got his arse handed to him, but later on, especially once the flood showed up, the Arbiter started doing great. It's actually a huge contrast, and I'm not sure if that was just my experiences, or if it's actually in the game that way. Either way, Arbiter gradually got better. However, when it comes to your AI driving vehicles, you'd swear they were blind. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever let a marine drive a warthog. It's certain death.

Story wise, I honestly found Halo 3 to be simultaneously simple, yet confusing. It seemed like I was constantly saving Sgt. Johnson shortly after I already rescued him in the last level. I also wished you got to control the Arbiter for a least a few levels. His story more or less finishes in Halo 3, but there were several opportunities that players could step into the role of the Arbiter and see another angle of the story. But of course, this one's all about the Chief.

I'd like to talk more about the game, but I'd be stepping into spoiler territory so I won't go there yet. I think it's safe to say that all 3 games in the franchise maintain a high level of greatness as well as a few things not so great. All 3 games have that one level that's such a chore to get through - in Halo 1 it was The Library...and yes, in Halo 3 it's the 8th level, which makes you feel like you're inside a bee hive. While not as bad as I was expecting, I think it's safe to say it's easily the worst level of not just the game, but the entire franchise. But...you DO finish the fight.

all in all I'd say it's worth getting a 360 for, especially if you're into multiplayer. I haven't tried it yet, but if it's anything like Halo 2 or better, it goes without saying.

Just saw this in yahoo:

Halo 3 just broke sales records and here are the other best-selling game franchises of all time

Online multiplayer is pretty much what you'd expect it to be: wicked fun. If you've played Halo 2, you pretty much know exactly what to expect. They've updated the ranking system and what not, but all in all, it's the same. By going up in rank and finding new achievements, you can unlock new pieces of armor to wear in multiplayer. Yes, it's definitely fun.

Now to nitpick. I couldn't help but notice right away a problem with melee attacks. There has been WAY too many times where I would have sworn to God himself I killed a guy with a melee blow, only to find my corpse fling across the room and read "[xplayerx] beat you down". Normally I'd figure this would happen now and again, where I see on the screen me hitting another player first, but I end up dying. This could be due to lag or other latency issues, but my connection is good. Maybe I just don't get it yet, but melee attacks are jacked up. It's almost as if it's purely out of luck and it pisses me off when it happens time and time again when I melee a guy and I flippin die. Then I saw this video:

http://gameroom.mlgpro.com/view/vizOE75lK1k.html

Tell me that's not messed up.

Second nitpick is match types themselves. Sometimes I just don't care about CTF or other objective games, so I join a team deathmatch (slayer) game, only to have about 3 out of 5 games be team snipers. Sometimes all sniping can be fun...if you're on a good sniping map. But the small group team slayer games are on small to medium maps which makes sniping really annoying and not fun. In fact I usually find myself using my secondary shotgun to play because I suck at sniping so bad, and especially on small maps. I don't think there's a way to filter those types of games off, otherwise I definitely would because that's one of the reasons why I stopped playing Halo PC online - all the games were either all snipers or all heavy weapons. Ugh. Those types of game matches are only fun in SMALL doses, otherwise I find it annoying as hell.

Other than that, the game's a blast. But the melee thing is either bad luck on my end or something I hope Bungie addresses in a patch. How do you guys feel about online?

Nope, you don't suck. The melee thing is a huge problem. That "too many" sniper matches is a problem as well. Halo 3 is a super insane fun game but it has a few technical flaws. Another one is, when you earn an achievement that's supposed to unlock some armor pieces it ends up not unlocking them. :banghead:

Nothing Bungie can't fix with an update. ;)

Okay, finally played this game a few days ago... and it's only one of the greatest games ever!

I played on the campaign with a friend on legendary... it's freakin' hard. It's harder then what you might expect... It's harder then probably Halo 2's legendary. But yet still manages to be fun.

The multiplayer is freaking insane. Even with just four people playing, it's still fun. Maybe not as much fun as online, but still really fun. I love pretty much everything about the multiplayer, all the new weapons and maps and vehicles... it's all just added beauty to such a fantastic game.

Gah, now I need to buy it so I don't have to keep on going to my friends house!

...

then I need XBOX live...

Quote from: murs47 on October 04, 2007, 08:24:25 AM
Nope, you don't suck. The melee thing is a huge problem. That "too many" sniper matches is a problem as well. Halo 3 is a super insane fun game but it has a few technical flaws. Another one is, when you earn an achievement that's supposed to unlock some armor pieces it ends up not unlocking them. :banghead:

Nothing Bungie can't fix with an update. ;)

Yeah, I noticed this last night when I was looking over the achievements. I've definitely gotten a triple kill before, both with general guns, and with the sword, and I've also splattered a guy with the mongoose, yet I didn't unlock anything.

so my buddy and I were playing co-op on legendary when we battled the first scarab on The Ark level. As we were driving around in the warthog, the enemies inside had thrown down two bubble shields on the left and right. The placement was perfect and symmetrical, giving the image that the scarab had an enormous set of jimmies.

I know it's immature, but it made us laugh pretty hard. I mean what are the odds? This happen to anyone else? XD

I'll get pictures up as soon as I have enough time to get them. It took us nearly 3 hours to finish the level (we were looking for skulls, terminals, and just messing around a lot) and the theater's fast-forward feature isn't very fast at all. Per every half hour of fast-forwarding is an hour of gameplay so it's going to take me a good hour and a half roughly to get the pictures, which I don't have that much time to waste right now, lol.

Hasn't happened to me, but sounds like I'll get a little kick out of it. Can't wait to see it.

Too bad you can't create a clip out of it, that is one feature I wish campaign replay had.

pics of the jimmies

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/GDsAlbum/6041453-Full.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/GDsAlbum/6041221-Full.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/GDsAlbum/6041169-Full.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/GDsAlbum/6040513-Full.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/GDsAlbum/6040494-Full.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/GDsAlbum/6040485-Full.jpg

The first pic says it all. :lol:

Thanks for sharing. :thumbup:

Np :)

ok, why is the word "ballz" replaced with the word "jimmies??" XD

I'm in the interior of the flood's gravemind, right now. I hate this level so much.

I watched my brother beat the game. No spoilers, but that has to be the most bittersweet end to a video game I've ever seen.

Quote from: Sword on October 20, 2007, 12:51:11 PM
I'm in the interior of the flood's gravemind, right now. I hate this level so much.

I watched my brother beat the game. No spoilers, but that has to be the most bittersweet end to a video game I've ever seen.

Did you watch the rest of the ending after the credits?

Quote from: Sword on October 20, 2007, 12:51:11 PM
I'm in the interior of the flood's gravemind, right now. I hate this level so much.

I watched my brother beat the game. No spoilers, but that has to be the most bittersweet end to a video game I've ever seen.

It is pretty bittersweet, but I've seen bittersweeter (if that's even a word, lol). Shadow of the Colossus' ending immediately comes to mind, along with Metal Gear Solid 3 and Soul Reaver 2 (and to a lesser extent, Legacy of Kain Defiance).

Anyone have the new maps or getting them soon?