Halo 3

[Uli]

as for the Halo rankings, i suggest to split between Halo MP and SP.

campaign:
1. Halo
2. Halo 2
3. Halo 3

multiplayer is the opposite:
1. Halo 3
2. Halo 2
3. Halo

personally i still don't get how any long term Halo fan could like Halo 3's campaign better than the original. Halo 3 is lacking in so many departments compared to the previous games:

- general lack of challenge and OMG-situations - especially on Legendary!
- dull indoor combat
- "balanced" weapons like handgun, Assault Rifle, shotgun and Sword are less useful now
- Brutes are the less interesting enemies compared to the smart Elites
- "Cortana" sucks, Library rules! simply because the combat is enjoyable!
- "boss" fight is pathetic
- the final level is unimaginative and not worthy of completing this trilogy
- poor story telling - they should have consulted Nylund!
- level design and atmosphere is not quite up with the best levels of Halo - but this is a matter of taste in the end

[EvilBoris]

The sword was balanced.............
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA HAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAH AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA HAHHAHAHHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHH

[El Leone]

- general lack of challenge and OMG-situations - especially on Legendary!

Can agree with this to a degree, skulls can really change the difficulty (such as teh iron skullz, lolz). I find Herioic pretty fun.

- dull indoor combat

There wasn't really that much indoor combat, but what we had I had no problem with.

- "balanced" weapons like handgun, Assault Rifle, shotgun and Sword are less useful now

Balancing was good. Infact, this is the first time in Halo where there isn't a single weapon thatactually destroys the weapon hieracy (hello H1 pistol, h2 BR, sword rocket launcher) Of course, anyone who holds Halo 1 as what 'balancing' should be will obivously disagree.

Brutes are the less interesting enemies compared to the smart Elites

Debatable but definantly do see where you're coming from.

- "Cortana" sucks, Library rules! simply because the combat is enjoyable!

Cortana is definantly the weakest level in Halo 3, but I enjoyed it. Actually, after you get past the difficulty curve of the first part of the level, the second half is pretty funky.

- "boss" fight is pathetic

I think the definition of a pathetic boss battle would be found in Halo 2. Halo 1 didn't really have any bosses.

- the final level is unimaginative and not worthy of completing this trilogy

I won't argue with this as I know where you're coming from, but personally I found it fun.

- poor story telling - they should have consulted Nylund!

The only problem with the story telling in H3 is that it pretty much kicks anyone in the balls who has't played the previous Halos. Apart from that, its good and pretty consistant, and teh amount of detail found in the terminals clears up alot of the big questions.

- level design and atmosphere is not quite up with the best levels of Halo - but this is a matter of taste in the end

Big question mark about the level design. Considering that level design has always usually been the most critisied aspect of Halo, I was pretty glad to see that they had sorted it and got rid of the copy and paste that we got in Halo 1 and to a lesser degree Halo 2, and the boring level design we got in Halo 2. Personally though Halo 3 was packed with alot of atmosphere, level 5 especially.

I hate making big internet posts

[Uli]

i did not say Halo 3 hasn't got good level design... or atmosphere, or good combat. of course it has, lots of it. it's all just comparative.

Halo doesn't feature a real "boss" but it has a truly great end battle where you have to blow up the UNSC space frigatte's drive chambers in order to stop the ring from firing. and while at it you had to battle lots of Flood. i consider this a boss fight of some sort.

oh, and regarding the story... have you read the Nylund books?

[El Leone]

Yes. They were pretty good.

[Malc]

Anyone else having problems getting the ranked free-for-all achievements?

I've got to get 4 kills in 4 sec's, 2 kills at once with the spartan laser and 3 kills with the spartan sword...

It's annoying, as I only have them 3 left and then i've got them all.

[egparadigm]

I think the weapons were balanced pretty much to perfection in CE, myself. They started adding bits and pieces that just were not required.

Also - I wish they'd brought back the old pistol - it was so cool! I also wish that you could kill the hunters in one shot. Maybe they could have upped the difficulty of hitting the spot, rather than requiring more hits.

[Malc]

I agree with you on the balancing in CE, but the pistol... one of the most unbalanced guns ever created. Taking an enemy in multiplayer down with just 2 head shots! (I still love the pistol though)

[EvilBoris]

There were barely any weapons in Halo CE by comparison, and most of them were rendered totally useless as you had that pistol.

Pistol
Assault Rifle (Would lose to the pistol every time)
Shotgun (You could kill someone with your pistol before they killed you with this)
Rocket Launcher (You can't go wrong with a Rocket)
Sniper Rifle (might as well use pistol)
Plasma Rifle(Useless)
Needler (Useless)

[Malc]

I think every gun in CE lost to the pistol. It even had 120 rounds to hold.

I must play halo: CE again.

[El Leone]

The thing about Halo:CE was that I actually thought it had good weapon balancing. The problem was that when you introduced the pistol, that weapon balance was wrecked and everything became redundant like as EvilBorris said.

[Mardigan8]

In all honesty though, it is probably exactly what a pistol would be like in the future 400 yard head shots from the hip

[Malc]

In all honesty though, it is probably exactly what a pistol would be like in the future 400 yard head shots from the hip

Then why doesn't the assault rifle act like it would be in the future..?

[Mardigan8]

Then why doesn't the assault rifle act like it would be in the future..?

Because all ONI and UNSC funding went into developing the pistol they had nothing left for the other weapons.

[Malc]

Because all ONI and UNSC funding went into developing the pistol they had nothing left for the other weapons.

Damn, You've got me there.