Halo 3 Impressions/Reviews

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 4:37 pm

Rodster wrote:The graphics looked like a tweaked version of the Xbox game with jaggies.

You must not have an HDTV or if you do, be sure to set your output cable from standard def to HD.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 4:59 pm

mixdj1 wrote:Fshguy, Teal, Zeppo, and I just finished it on Heroic in about 7 hours.

You know, I'm in the same boat as sportsdan, (father, not a lot of gaming time, etc) but I think it's cool that some folks are that crazy/excited enough about a game that they play it with their buddies pretty much straight through on day one, before lots of other first day buyers have even cracked the package!

Congrats, and I hope you had a blast!

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 5:03 pm

Yeah, by circumstance I'm in the same boat as some others, limited play time (I'm only like halfway through Bioshock!)... but I would have LOVED to have played straight through in co-op mode. Jealousy abounds!

mixdj1 · Post by **mixdj1** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 5:09 pm

I have very limited gaming time myself. But I was heavily invested in the Halo storyline having read the novels and played the games multiple times so I decided to take a vacation day to "Finish the Fight". I do have to admit I got some funny looks when my co-workers asked what I was doing for my day off on my birthday and I replied "Playing Halo 3 ... all day."

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 5:09 pm

Spooky wrote:
Rodster wrote:The graphics looked like a tweaked version of the Xbox game with jaggies.

You must not have an HDTV or if you do, be sure to set your output cable from standard def to HD.

Nope, i'm running the game on a 27" HDTV Flat Panel in 1080i mode. I should have said "slight jaggies". I have no doubt this is a tweaked graphics engine of the Halo 1 & 2 because I think Halo 2 ran in 720p mode.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 6:09 pm

greggsand wrote:Bungie suggests if u EVER played a halo game, u start on Heroic. Legendary for any Co-op action....

My only Halo experience was playing some co-op campaign in Halo 1 back in 2003, but I chose Heroic difficulty because the menu said it's the way the game is meant to be played.

So far, I'm finding it really tough. I beat the first chapter, but man did the snipers kick my ass. I died well over a dozen times on that bridge crossing. I'm getting better at the Halo style of play, using grenades, different weapons, but I'm currently stuck at the room full of brutes on chapter 2. I take them all out but then the big dude charges me and kills me everytime. I'm sure I'll figure it out though.

I guess long story short, I'm pretty happy playing the game on a demanding level for my skill. Just a little worried about the later levels though.

greggsand · Post by **greggsand** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 6:18 pm

I know in H2 you can always change your difficulty prior to loading a chapter. If it it's gets too crazy, you can dial it down a notch.

1 hour & counting before I'm on....

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 6:19 pm

The game is clearly meant to be played through multiple times. I know I'll enjoy doing some of the missions more than others, but the combination of being able to do co-op with different friends, the fun and never-the-same behavior of the enemy AI, and the 'get a high score' factor, what with the time-based score multipliers and such, makes it a game that I want to play through more than once. Also, I should note that I missed out on missions 3, 4, and 5, and came back at the very end of mission 6. The other guys were going on and on about 'Whoa, you really missed some crazy s***! Holy cow! Wow!' I'm looking forward to doing my missing chapters with those same guys, or with other guys, or whatever.

The campaign is definitely quite a bit shorter than I think it should be, but by the same token the missions seem to be very polished and thus very re-playable, and if one is getting the game for the campaign alone, I think that's pretty clearly missing the point. MP is incredibly deep. Although I don't know if I can stand another game of team slayer.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 6:22 pm

Ya no more slayer. I had to back out becuase of an important call not because that mode sucked.

skinsfan · Post by **skinsfan** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:32 pm

Rodster wrote:
Spooky wrote:
Rodster wrote:The graphics looked like a tweaked version of the Xbox game with jaggies.

You must not have an HDTV or if you do, be sure to set your output cable from standard def to HD.
Nope, i'm running the game on a 27" HDTV Flat Panel in 1080i mode. I should have said "slight jaggies". I have no doubt this is a tweaked graphics engine of the Halo 1 & 2 because I think Halo 2 ran in 720p mode.

Halo2 was in 480p only,but had 16:9 mode.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:50 pm

Rodster wrote: I have no doubt this is a tweaked graphics engine of the Halo 1 & 2 because I think Halo 2 ran in 720p mode.

If by 'tweaked,' you mean the addition of particulate atmospherics, fog and smoke and haze, the addition of clouds of minute bugs, lighting that ranges over more than 2X the total dynamic range of the previous version (maybe more than 3X), the addition of lushly polygonal foliage, increased resolution of textures, elimination of the Xbox-special texture pop-in, exponential increase in character polygons, and so on, then I would agree with you that it is a tweaked version of the previous games' graphics engines. Bubble shield? The green smoke of the shield enhancer? Footsteps in the snow? Persistence of dead bodies?

It clearly shares a similar style and design, but I would challenge you to pop in Halo2 and compare it directly, and then try Halo in its 480p 4x3 glory.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 9:04 pm

webdanzer wrote:
mixdj1 wrote:Fshguy, Teal, Zeppo, and I just finished it on Heroic in about 7 hours.
You know, I'm in the same boat as sportsdan, (father, not a lot of gaming time, etc) but I think it's cool that some folks are that crazy/excited enough about a game that they play it with their buddies pretty much straight through on day one, before lots of other first day buyers have even cracked the package!

Congrats, and I hope you had a blast!

We did. It's a great story, and a very good ending to a great series. I'm not the biggest fan of the MP play, in terms of adversarial, but even I can find some fun in it...at least until Call of Duty 4 gets here!

And the cool thing is that there's a great deal of reason to go back and play the story multiple times, not the least of which is the teamwork and comraderie. Ubisoft could learn something from Bungie by not hacking up the story just to get 4 players in the game.

Really well done, lots of variety, and just plain fun.

macsomjrr · Post by **macsomjrr** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:59 pm

How come all the spooky aliens in Halo speak english?

Leadfoot5 · Post by **Leadfoot5** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 12:10 am

macsomjrr wrote:How come all the spooky aliens in Halo speak english?

Babel Fish?

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 1:19 am

Had a lot of fun with MP tonight - thanks, guys. Still don't understand that multiple territories thing though....lol

LAking · Post by **LAking** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 1:32 am

Picked it up and have only played MP so far. Not all that impressed. No matter what game I was playing it seemed like total chaos. Graphics in MP were adequate and nothing more. I'm feeling a bit of buyers remorse already but I know i need to give it some more time, especially the single player campaign. I am looking forward to some co-op with some of my co-workers.

I'm hoping a good old fashioned game of CTF might be more fun than the other modes i've tried so far. I remember some fun matches of CTF back when Halo 2 first came out and everyone around here was giving it a shot. There was some actual team work in those games.

I would also like to share my somewhat strange experience at gamestop today. So i walk up to the counter, ask for Halo 3 and she asks me if i preordered it. I say no and then she gives me this "oh no we're sold out" type look. But then she says she can sell me a copy but it would be technically someone else's pre-order that she's selling me therefore i would have to put money down for another pre-order in order to buy it. So I would have to pre-order and put $5 down on some other game just so she can sell me a copy of Halo 3 that technically belongs to someone else. And she says she shouldn't even be doing this. I smell another typical gamestop/EB Games scam.

Why the hell would she be willing to piss off a customer who already pre-ordered the game just to sell it to me? Do these employees get some kind of grand reward for selling pre-orders? Do they get dragged out back and beaten senseless if they don't? If i'm not mistaken they don't get any kind of commission for the pre-orders so why are they so damn willing to disregard any kind of ethical retail conduct just to sell a freakin pre-order?

I ended up just putting $5 down on Assassins Creed because i'm not one to try and embarrass some employee who's just giving me the company line to save her minimum wage job, but it irked me a bit.

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 1:41 am

Pfff i would just have walked out LA and gone to target, i hate that, i shouldnt be doing this bs, either sell it me or not and keep your trap shut no need to waffle on its such a line ans most times i havnt the time of day for those people. I do the same at best buy when some moron who hasnt a clue what hes doing starts looking at his clip board, or classic let me go check in back, when they get back im gone plenty of other stores with the game.

greggsand · Post by **greggsand** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 1:54 am

Until I learn the maps, the multiplayer is COMPLETE chaos...

macsomjrr · Post by **macsomjrr** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 1:56 am

I just called around and asked "do you guys have any non pre-order copies of Halo 3?" Of course the first store I called had a ton (It was a Game Stop)

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 7:43 am

LAking wrote:Picked it up and have only played MP so far. Not all that impressed. No matter what game I was playing it seemed like total chaos. Graphics in MP were adequate and nothing more. I'm feeling a bit of buyers remorse already but I know i need to give it some more time, especially the single player campaign. I am looking forward to some co-op with some of my co-workers.

I would also like to share my somewhat strange experience at gamestop today. So i walk up to the counter, ask for Halo 3 and she asks me if i preordered it. I say no and then she gives me this "oh no we're sold out" type look. But then she says she can sell me a copy but it would be technically someone else's pre-order that she's selling me therefore i would have to put money down for another pre-order in order to buy it. So I would have to pre-order and put $5 down on some other game just so she can sell me a copy of Halo 3 that technically belongs to someone else. And she says she shouldn't even be doing this. I smell another typical gamestop/EB Games scam.

Why the hell would she be willing to piss off a customer who already pre-ordered the game just to sell it to me? Do these employees get some kind of grand reward for selling pre-orders? Do they get dragged out back and beaten senseless if they don't? If i'm not mistaken they don't get any kind of commission for the pre-orders so why are they so damn willing to disregard any kind of ethical retail conduct just to sell a freakin pre-order?

I ended up just putting $5 down on Assassins Creed because i'm not one to try and embarrass some employee who's just giving me the company line to save her minimum wage job, but it irked me a bit.

Yeah first off i'm not that impressed either with the game. It's very good with high production values but not earth shattering. It could be because i'm more of a sports and racing gamer.

Secondly wrt your Gamestop experience you are not imagining things. I have friends who are managers at Gamestop. They were former EB employees before the name change. Gamestop requires them to sell 2 preorders per day. Their job performance is based on how many preorders they push. Gamestop figures if you preorder something from one of their stores you are more likely to buy the game their. On the flip side they don't make a commission for the preorders they sell anyone. If an employee wants to move up in the company those are some of the numbers they look at.

Again on the flip side it's not all bad if you are a valued customer at Gamestop. Because after the buyout they do make exceptions to returns if you have been labled as a VIP customer. A repeat customer can simply walk into their usual Gamestop and say this game SUCKS, let me get something else, no problem here you go. A VIP customer is something you get from them when they see fit and not something you can ask for because they will tell you it doesn't exist. They try and crack down on the abusers.

Recently I purchased Nascar 08 for the 360. After two weeks I figured out it was pretty bad and I did not want to get stuck with the game. So I went to my local Gamestop and said this game sucks. They laughed and told me, "we told you so". I asked for another game and they gave me a sealed copy of another game I wanted.

It's just a little insight into how Gamestop operates.

pigpen81 · Post by **pigpen81** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:24 am

LAking wrote:Picked it up and have only played MP so far. Not all that impressed. No matter what game I was playing it seemed like total chaos. Graphics in MP were adequate and nothing more. I'm feeling a bit of buyers remorse already but I know i need to give it some more time, especially the single player campaign. I am looking forward to some co-op with some of my co-workers.

I'm hoping a good old fashioned game of CTF might be more fun than the other modes i've tried so far. I remember some fun matches of CTF back when Halo 2 first came out and everyone around here was giving it a shot. There was some actual team work in those games.

I would also like to share my somewhat strange experience at gamestop today. So i walk up to the counter, ask for Halo 3 and she asks me if i preordered it. I say no and then she gives me this "oh no we're sold out" type look. But then she says she can sell me a copy but it would be technically someone else's pre-order that she's selling me therefore i would have to put money down for another pre-order in order to buy it. So I would have to pre-order and put $5 down on some other game just so she can sell me a copy of Halo 3 that technically belongs to someone else. And she says she shouldn't even be doing this. I smell another typical gamestop/EB Games scam.

Why the hell would she be willing to piss off a customer who already pre-ordered the game just to sell it to me? Do these employees get some kind of grand reward for selling pre-orders? Do they get dragged out back and beaten senseless if they don't? If i'm not mistaken they don't get any kind of commission for the pre-orders so why are they so damn willing to disregard any kind of ethical retail conduct just to sell a freakin pre-order?

I ended up just putting $5 down on Assassins Creed because i'm not one to try and embarrass some employee who's just giving me the company line to save her minimum wage job, but it irked me a bit.

I would have said "Forget it, I'll buy it at 7-11 instead".

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:38 am

Well I had a great time... I spent 20 minutes afterwards looking at films from the matches and taking screenshots. It's totally a keeper, so long as there are sane adults in the world to play with.

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:04 am

Gamestop pushes pre-sells because they make interest on the $5. That doesn't sound like much but if every employee at each store meets their 2 pre-sells per day that's a ton of money.

My impressions of the game is that it is fun as hell in all aspects. MP, co-op, and SP were all a blast to play yesterday. Rodster, you're on crack if you think Halo 3 is Halo 2 with a fresh coat of paint. Try throwing in Halo 2, it's not even close.

Playing through the first level with Zep and Spooky was great fun and something I can see doing more than once. All games should have 4-player co-op online damnit.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:26 am

ScoopBrady wrote:Gamestop pushes pre-sells because they make interest on the $5. That doesn't sound like much but if every employee at each store meets their 2 pre-sells per day that's a ton of money.

That too, but they also have the numbers to back it up that those who preorder from their store are more likely to buy it there as well. It's a win-win for them by getting you to preorder from them, for sure.

ScoopBrady wrote:Rodster, you're on crack if you think Halo 3 is Halo 2 with a fresh coat of paint. Try throwing in Halo 2, it's not even close.

I still stand by what I said Scoop. Maybe it's because i'm not a huge Halo fan. Like I said before it's not even close to a bad game but I just view it as another shooter. I'm more of a Sports and Racing gamer.

I'm glad your digging it.

grtwhtsk · Post by **grtwhtsk** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:31 am

I am loving it! Popped it in last night, thought I'd give it a spin right before bed. Two hours later, and I finally dragged myself off to sleep.

Guys, it's confession time. I have never plaid MP in anything before. I've never wanted to get in the way of you guys. I love gaming, but I'm not very good at it. Maybe I'll get the chance to try some MP action with ya sometime soon. Sounds like a lot of fun!