Halo 3 reveiw

Well, it's here. I have logged more time then I am willing to admit,mostly on the superb multiplayer mode. I'm two thirds of the way through the campaign. I have ranked up allot. And this game has really impressed me.

One of the thing's that I think really sticks out about Halo 3 is the wealth of features. Out of the 5 or so offered, all of them are extremely great with lots of options variants. The only one that I think drags a little is the film, but it is still pretty good. I can't really reveiw this game normally, so I will just review each feature individually.

campaign

The campaign mode of Halo 3 is one thing short of perfect. It feels unique enough to establish it's own identity in the Halo series, without alienating existing players. The options for weaponry and such are large, but not overwhelming. The enemies have great AI.Now the AI is really interesting in this game. One of the thing's I have always liked about this series is how the enemies interact with each other. The brutes will make ruthless,and often quite lethal, charges once the forces they command have been wiped out. The are often backed by more brutes, and its a great to barely survive a conflict with several groups if grunts and jackals, only to be charged by several ruthless armored gorillas wielding all sorts of spiky weapons once you thought it was over. One of the cool things about this is that you are confronted with a choice every battle: You can try and pcik off the brutes and send the enemy forces into confusion, but you could be picked off by Jackal snipers or overwhelmed by the grunts. Or you can nail the weaker grunts first and then close in a lethal melee on the jackals, then focus on the now enraged brutes.

It's a delicate balance, and one that will have to be made at the start of every encounter. And moire tactical decisions such as these abound in the campaign. Like balancing your ammo, which you will run out of really quick with a Battle Rifle. Ton's of little pieces of strategy are hidden in Halo 3, and it all changes with the truly amazing 4 player online co-op! It is a little on the short side.

campaign rating:9.9 out of 10.

Multiplayer

Muliplayer has always been a key part of the halo experience, and it has not changed in this iteration. up to 16 players can be playing, and the end result is madness. Grenades are being flung, assault rifles are almost always being fired, and cars are exploding. Everything is madness. In just a few short seconds, you could be dead. the weapons are basically the same, but with allot more maulers. One of the coolest things is just how fast everything can go to peaceful and secure to you staring at your own bullet ridden corpse and swearing into the mike.

The gameplay remains the same: Kill enemies while accomplishing cetain objectives and managing your armory. Sound simple? Well it isn't. You start with an assault rifle, which takes takes an entire clip of ammo to take someone out. It has an average melee and is short in range. It's just a peashooter, but works fine against other crappily armed enemie's. From that original spawn in, you have started a never ending quest for weapon. The battle rifle and carbine are useful and much better then an assault rifle, but it's easy to find. The best overall armory is probably a sniper shotgun combo. The sniper is the most effective anti infantry gun, as even a miss can cause jumpy players to stay in cover, letting your teammates flank for the kill. The shotgun is for any enemies sneaking up behind you.

All in all, the multiplayer is well balanced and the maps varied. The one flaw being that the assault rifle (which is almost always the default starting weapon) takes a bit to much to kill someone with. But slightly better weaponry is commonplace, so it's not too much of a flaw.
multiplayer rating: 8.9 out 10
The Forge

The most ambitious of Halo 3's features, The Forge is a map editing tool. While not allowing the user to make maps from scratch, the large amount of maps allow for a a lot of variety, and stuff you can do makes up for that. The amount of item you can put in makes for some maps that really play differently. From adding a few battle rifles to Snowbound, to making a mongoose racing map, the forge is an amazing feature, and already a large community has formed around making these types of maps.
The Forge rating: 9.3 out of 10

Theater
Another new idea from Bungie, the theater allows you to veiw the last 25 games you played, multiplayer or otherwise. You can fly around and stop time, take screenshots, and play things in in slow motion, the they play at a normal frame rate. As if this was not ambitious enough, you can save and send film clips. It's a really nice feature that will finally show if you lying about that triple headshot.
9.5 out of 10

You can even make your own gametypes. I won't spoil all of it, but theres allot of game variants beyond the minimal settings in most other games.

Overall 9.7 out of 10

Halo 3 first impressions

I'm so tired. I waited in a line for two hours to secure my copy of Halo 3, and I played it for seven hours straight in a mix of multi and single player modes. While I am not far enough in to post a review, I can tell you that Halo 3 is,by all means, an amazing game.

Halo 2 had the worst ending ever, but Halo 3 picks up right where that left off. From the second the cut scene ends, any halo vet will feel right at home. The combat is improved with melee's being boosted, but it still feels like the Brutes usurped the elites not only in some of the more trivial duties but also in hoy they move and fire, they just act really similar. The single player mode is really great with four people, and the only real flaw is that it's pretty short.

The multi player mode however, is where I spent most of my time. The mix of twitch gunplay and light strategic elements reeled me in and kept me hooked for 3 or 4 hours. The way the gun's all fit together, with each one having a role, it's one of the best multi player games I have played. It won't vary too much from the beta though, so you might be a bet weary of thiose thre maps.

With all this stuff going for it, Halo 3 is a strong candidate for game of the year, and many other awards.

Halo 3...

is coming out tomorrow! Technically speaking, 2 days from now, but most people will be going to midnight launch parties, so you can look forward to standing in line for three hours! I guees the memories will be better then the game. Actually, no. That game will overwrite all memories of your childhood, and any other treasured things. So here's what's new since Halo 2, in list format.

The good:

New gear! Everyone loves new hardware, and halo 3 has plenty. Just thinking about them makes my head hurt. The standout's are: The Brute Spiker(gun), the Brute Chopper(Vehicle. Imagine what would happen if Brutes owned the show American chopper.),Spartan laser(laser powered ownage), Assault rifle, Spike grenade, the flare and the gravity hammer.

An ending. Need I say more? Gamespot has confirmed that ending is not,in fact, a steaming pile of crap like the one in halo 2.

The brutes. They look really promising.

Forge. For those that don't know, Forge is a map editor that can't edit maps. What you can change is everything else... Teleporters,shotguns, grenades, vechicles, equipment, and just about everything else. Besides the terrain.

And now the half a year or so old stunner: the x-button! For this, there's good and bad. The good is that when you hit x, you throw down a peice of equipment. The bad is Bungie's handling of this secret. They kept the the function of it a closely guarded secret until the beta. No one really used it, everybody was really let down. Maybe it will change in the final game.

skate. style video editing. Now everyone will be able to see your noob combo abuse!

The bad

The players. Halo 2 had so many high pitched little kids flipping out whenever they killed themselves with the rocket launcher, I might as well gouge out my eardrums with a pencil when halo 3 comes out.

The fact that the halo fps games have come to an end. For all of 10 seconds. Bungie will realize that the Halo series is a license to print money and announce another fps halo game pretty soon after the launch of Halo 3. I hope.

platforms

Which platform should I buy the game for? Long has this problem plagued gamers. Last generation, it was x-box if the game was out for it. Superior graphics and superior online play made the x-box a clear choice for multi platform games. But, as of the new gen, the line is blurred. The motion controls on the Wii, when done right, can easily top graphics. The ps3 shines in that... well I can't really think of anything. But in the future, game's on the ps3 will have a significant graphical advantage over the 360, but the online play is less convenient. And motion controls don't work too well on the ps3, but can work, so that isn't really much of an advantage. I'm not saying that motion controls suck, but they ruined Lair. and that game was promising.

So the 360 boasts graphical superiority over all the other consoles for multi platform games.For the time being anyways. And it will almost always boast better online play through live. So what about the pc? Well it's too expensive over a console. But once you consider all the things a pc can do... It doesn't cost too much. Anyway, not as many people have a gaming optimized rig, so we will rule that out for.

My pc can't really handle all that much, so I was rather disappointed when I got oblivion for it. It worked but just barely. I just got it for the 360, and not only was it just better in graphics, it was just quite a bit funner. I'm still pondering why. So what really makes someone prefer a game to a platform over another? Well I'm not quite sure. Graphics make a large differnece if it's between the ps3 and 360, but not as much if a Wii is involved. I think, in the end it comes down to the controls.

That's really the most consistent thing throughout the game, so it's no big surprise. But besides all that, another major factor is just personal preference. One of the interesting things i have observed is the flop of the PS3 oblivion. No one really bought it when faced with the choice of the 360 one. The graphics were slightly improved, but it's barely noticeable. It was the downloads that did it. They weren't available for the ps3 one, so no one got that.

But In the end it all just comes down to personal preference, so this whoel article is pretty much moot.

Antique

I'm in New York city, and I can't really afford to put a console in both houses, and I had a dreamcast laying around so I hooked it up. So I'm now playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater,yes the first one, and having a good time. I thought that my gaming experience in N.Y.C would be a bit more tortuous , mostly because of the fact that I got a copy of oblivion for the 360 laying unopened on my desk, but so far I have been pleasantly surprised. The game's, even through sucky graphics
and Ai, managed to be fun and challenging experiences. While playing through these game's, i really realized just how far gaming has come in just a handful of decades. I really strongly encourage you to look through your collection of games and just look for the oldest one you have and play it through. you will be surprised.

Updates,updates...forums!

Yep. Stranglehold and Medal of Honor: airborne came out. Strangleholds great but wicked short, and Medal of honor:airborne is just sort of... meh. It's longer though. I don't own either of these game's, so don't expect any reviews. Oh and you know what also came out? Bioshock. Commence drooling. Expect a review soon.

On a side note, I just got official the homeschooling gamer forums up and running! Now you can show the world just how much of a fanboy you are! Head on over their and check it out, will you? Please?
http://thgforums.20.forumer.com/
I wuold reccomend getting to it from here, it get's complicated if you don't. So go over to my forums, make an account, and make a couple of topics! The more the merrier!