Halo 3

[ascender]

Not having any stutters or audio drop outs here. The fans are blowing hard on my Elite though.

Am just loving this, every level at the moment is so different to the last and there's some stunning scenery. Took a while to remember how to drive the warthog though.

Weapon of choice with any of the big guys at the moment is the melee attack. Definitely seems to be the most effective way of taking them down.

[ChrisF]

->Open Spoiler<-

Gravity Hammer

FTW, quite frankly

[angelox]

Alright - so I clocked the game in about 9hrs give or take in heroic. Ok, so im going to make this spoiler free but if I make a mistake..... dont ban me!

The good: Best FPS gameplay this year, best Halo, one of the better paced games ive played in a long time. If you have played the other two, then great. If not, then you should becasue you are unable to get the emotional payoff in the latter 2/3 of the game. While im sure many people will disagree with me, I felt the gameplay is great for newcommers - the story isnt, there isnt a re-cap of events for you to enjoy, its all new. After being blown away by Bioshock, I wasnt expecting Halo 3 to top it. It doesnt, but its got a lot more story to it than the other 2 combined, just dont expect a 30min cutscene explaining everything to you. Its actually quite solid, theres more than enough cutscenes and the dialogue is well acted. You will notice that the game takes some ideas from HL2 in terms of story telling.

Bad: Jaggies. Equipment during fights is somewhat cumbersome, its hard to tell immediatly which equipment is good and what is just junk in the trunk. Finally - aimed shot jacks are nerfed, but the heavy weapons have been buffed. Ive never seen a tiny grunt pump so much damage into a group of friendly NPCS in my life, this can sometimes lead you to stay in cover for 5-6mins taking pot shots unless they die.

In the end: If you played Halo 1/2, the gameplay/story will be well worth the price of admission. If not - then you have 1 week to complete them both ^^.

[ChrisF]

Agree with your points there angelox. I definitely think they've made 3 with people who've played 1 and 2 in mind. It's certainly not game you could, or would really want to, go straight into if you wanted to get the most out of it. I mean, you could go into the game without having played 1 or 2, but you'd be missing out on a whole heap of plot.

Also a lot of things like the weapon system etc.. are taught to you over the first few, where as you're just dumped into the thick of it here. Great for Halo fans, not so good for everyone else. But that's probably how it should be tbh!

Graphics wise, I'd say that it's alright. Some parts are very good looking, but its quite a solid effort. It's no GoW beater, but what's there is very in keeping with the Halo style so fans won't be disappointed. It's all nice n high res too.

Found a few snags with it so far unfortunately. My initial audio drop outs don't seem to have re-occured, but there was one point where the music started, then I moved and it stoped, then I moved back to where I was and it started up again which seemed really odd. But not only that, the voice over stopped/started as well... Not right surely?

Also, I managed to get stuck in the scenary by using a gravity lift! Suffice to say I didn't last long before being shot up

Anyhoo - First 2 chapters down, and loving it so far. Hopefully have it dusted off for when they switch on the matchmaking servers

[ascender]

Is there anywhere to get a brief re-cap of the plot as it stands going in to this episode as I'll be damned if I can remember much tbh?

[EvilBoris]

I did my own brief one for them here

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showthread.php?p=1202050#post1202050

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showthread.php?p=1202096#post1202096

[Soi]

The Wiki pages have good plot summaries too.

The whole story (the games only touch on what is in the novels) is actually genuinely quite good.

[Rossco]

Onto the third level now and loving this!

Its just classic Halo that we all know and love. As someone said before, melee attacks are the order of the day and really help in knocking down the big dudes! And the Gravity Hammer, oh my is that good!!! I hate the guy that carries it though, he's a monster, when I'm fighting him its a blundering mess with me backing into every corner as far as way as possible while chucking the odd random grenade or bullets his way! Excellent stuff.

Playing it on Heroic and its going well, nothing too hard just yet but you can tell the AI is good and always proves a challenge.


Thoroughly enjoying this just now.

[ezee ryder]

Just finished the epic that is Halo 3 on normal, took me about 9 or 10 hours I think and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Where do I begin eh?! The game has been hyped up so much, I tell you what it deserves all the hype and then some. This is superb FPS gameplay and storytelling woven into one. Halo for me is all about the big set pieces and with this iteration Bungie have got it spot on. You constantly feel like you are part of a big sci-fi blockbuster movie, well for me anyway. As one the guys mentioned before the cut-scenes are done extremely well, the transition from gameplay to cut-scene is seamless. I remember while watching one particular cut-scene I was thinking "wow" and literally had goosebumps! This also has to one of the first FPS games in which I used every weapon that was available. Usually I try out a few and have couple of favourites that I stick with, that wasn't the case with Halo 3. Every weapon is valuable and has a use, so in most cases you don't feel like you are using an inferior weapon to your foe. I know I only played on normal but special mention must go to the AI, it is by far some of the best I have witnessed in an FPS. I pointed out one spoilered example before, that was just the tip of the iceberg. The enemy AI is great but surprisingly the AI for friendlies is top notch too, they are not just cannon fodder!

The only real 'bad' point would that some people would say graphically it is a little underwhelming. The first comparison that will be drawn is with Gears of War, yes it doesn't look as good but both games have their unique look/feel and it works for both of them. Bungie probably could have added a little more polish to the graphics but by no means is the game 'ugly', far from it infact.

I will definately go on to finish the game on Heroic and Legendary on co-op, which will probably enhance the experience even more. Oh and there is even the superb multiplayer to come yet but for now I have indeed finished a superb fight.

[ascender]

I did my own brief one for them here

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showthread.php?p=1202050#post1202050

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showthread...96#post1202096

Thanks very much Boris.

[Charlie]

Little concerning that folk are completing it in 9, 10 hours. Can't remember how long it took to run through the others but I presume this is the shortest of the three?

[IanE]

Halo 2 was about the same length.

[ChrisF]

S'all about the multiplayer isn't it really? Not that the matchmaking servers are switched on yet... and you can't compare achievements with your mates on xbox.com yet either.

[EvilBoris]

You can compare them in the guide though

[Charlie]

Much more interested in the single player/co-op campaign myself as I'm not a huge fan of Halo 2's multiplayer and, as the Halo 3 Beta proved, little has changed in terms of gameplay and mechanics. But anyway, if the campaign's only three quarters as good as the original's then I'll be happy.