Halo 3 Impressions (No Spoilers)

[disarm]

just thought i'd take a second to start up the thread now that i've just started the game...through the opening cutscene and just got control, so i'll post impressions later.
i picked up my copy up at the BestBuy right across the street...also got a free Halo3 t-shirt and cap, so it wasn't a bad deal for only showing up 20 minutes before midnight

now i just wish i didn't have to start a 24-hour shift at work in five hours...

[Canuck]

What's this "Halo 3" you speak of?

[Roscoe]

What's this "Halo 3" you speak of?

Ever since I picked up Eternal Sonata I haven't had time for anything else... is Halo 3 like it? Do all the characters have big round eyes? Are there fairies?

[Mystic95Z]

What's this "Halo 3" you speak of?

Ever since I picked up Eternal Sonata I haven't had time for anything else... is Halo 3 like it? Do all the characters have big round eyes? Are there fairies?

No, nothing quite that gay lol 

I played through about an hour of the campaign on heroic last night and I like it pretty well so far, just gonna take a little getting used to with the slightly different button layout. Graphics wise its very pretty, not quite as pretty as GoW, but very good none the less. Lots of detail in the environment as well. Hopefully I'll get some more time on it this evening if the heathens will behave long enough for me to play lol.

[Roscoe]

Probably the best Halo 3 review so far....

http://www.actiontrip.com/comics/at_comic220.phtml

[CeeKay]

   sounds like some forum members around here.

[kathode]

We just played through the first little section at work to check it out.  Very nice looking.  My advice though - Don't fall in the water

[El-Producto]

After about 2 hours of multiplay only, haven't touched the SP.  I'm waiting to play it through co-op with some friends.

It's a hoot.  Keep in mind, I played SP of Halo1 and Halo2, no multiplayer.  My kind of games are usually the tactical shooter type, Vegas, Graw, etc.  Action is fast and furious, and in the 4 player matches, although I sucked I still managed to get enough kills to make it fun.  I could feel my skills getting better as well, and with the stat tracking etc.  they have one addictive bitch of a game.  They seem to track everything, and you get medals for tons of things, even little things like ending someone's killing spree.

I may be off base, but the graphics are very good, but not revolutionary by any means.  I have a feeling though that gameplay came first when they were designing this.  The framerate is good, and the few maps I've played were a lot of fun, except for the winter one which was way too big for 4 players.

Anyway, my 2 cents.

[TheMissingLink]

Played it for a few hours last night...

First, I got the regular edition, and the case was broken.  The little green plastic nubbies used to keep the disk in place?  Broke.  My disk was rattling around and has little scratches.

The game itself is what I expected.  An enhanced version of Halo.  It's the same game, same rules apply as they did before, and that isn't a bad thing necessarily, because at its core Halo is just a fun experience.  The single-player has shown some cool situations, as well as nice storytelling not found in the first or second Halo.

The graphics though, overall, are a tad disappointing.  What Bungie did right was the bloom lighting.  Yowza, looks great.

Theater options are great.  Took a screenshot from a replay, uploaded it Bungie.net via my 360, went to Bungie.net on my computer and downloaded it; and it is now my desktop picture.

Looking forward to some multiplayer time with the game, but I want to breeze through the single-player first.

[PeteRock]

I've seen in game clips the use of what looks to be my favorite pistol from the original Halo, which Bungie so unceremoniously took away from me in Halo 2 (there was no zoom function in the new pistol).  Do my eyes deceive me, or has my favorite weapon made its triumphant return?  Even though I enjoyed the sword in Halo 2, the basic pistol from the original Halo has always been a personal favorite, especially in MP matches, and I hope to be reunited with my trusty sidearm once again.  Seeing the return of the assault rifle has made me optimistic, so hopefully they brought back two classic weapons.

[PeteRock]

Just saw this in the interactive manual online:

Campaign: 
Continue the adventure of the Master Chief, taking on the might of the Covenant alone or with friends for cooperative combat.  Co-op matches can be played splitscreen with two players on one Xbox360 console or with up to 4 players through Xbox Live or system link.

BOOOOOOO!  I had hopes of playing 4-player co-op in my living room with a bunch of friends like in GRAW, but again I'm limited to just two-player co-op unless I play online.  I'm at least hoping that with two Live accounts both my wife and I can play online with friends (like in Gears of War), or else I'm really going to be pissed about how often the limitation of just 2-player co-op on one local Xbox (like in R6:Vegas) takes away from my enjoyment of a game.  At least a group of us will able to kill each other in my living room, just like the old days with the first Halo, but I had been looking forward to getting together with my wife and two friends and tearing through the co-op campaign.  This is a big disappointment for me.  But hopefully she and I will be able to find two Friends online to play with, making it possible for me to play co-op with my wife with more than just the two of us.   

[Turtle]

You have to realize, co-op is a lot more system intensive than adversarial multiplayer.

There's actually two pistols in Halo 3, just like there's two human rifles.  They put back in the magnum but with no zoom.  Then there's a pistol with zoom, but I don't know its properties.

Finally got my 360 to work, albiet unpredictably, using the towel trick despite my system having a different problem than the red rings.  So I managed to play a few hours last night with only one reboot due to a pixelated feeeze error.

I tried playing on heroic and I found that it just wasn't fun.  Way too many snipers in maps and I'd step out of cover for a second and get my shields knocked out by one sniper, then killed by the other.  This means gameplay turns into hiding behind rocks and shooting from a distance, unable to get up close and fight, which is not what I was looking for in a Halo game (I bought Halo 3 for run and gun, Killzone 2 will be for cover based shooting).  Difficult games can be fun, but I'll stick to normal mode.  I think I'll do heroic in co-op though.

Part of the issue here is the scale of the fights now.  There's a lot more enemies on screen, same with friendlies.  In fact you're seldom without friendlies fighting with you, which means they up the enemy count to balance things out.  The problem is it takes a bit away from the personal combat feel.  Although I suppose it's not too hard to let your allies thin out the crowd a bit before charging in.  They're actually pretty effective in this game, but like all AI they have stupid moments.

[PeteRock]

You have to realize, co-op is a lot more system intensive than adversarial multiplayer.

They made it work in GRAW.  I understand that there's a visual degradation, but I've played 4-player co-op in other games, and have these same expectations of games like Halo 3.  But alas, I shall be limited to online MP.  I just hope that my wife can play with me with her own account.

There's actually two pistols in Halo 3, just like there's two human rifles.  They put back in the magnum but with no zoom.  Then there's a pistol with zoom, but I don't know its properties.

I think it was the Magnum in Halo 2 that pissed me off when I found out it had no zoom.  If my zooming pistol is back then I'm thrilled.   

[Turtle]

They made it work, but it suffered from more than visual degradation.  The framerate was just terrible, which then made the controls sluggish.  Not to mention the game had less enemies on screen with simpler AI.

Heck, this is the first game where I noticed issues with 1080i screen tearing/stuttering so when I go to play it again sometime this week I'll probably switch my 360 to 720p.

[Brendan]

I'm at least hoping that with two Live accounts both my wife and I can play online with friends (like in Gears of War), or else I'm really going to be pissed about how often the limitation of just 2-player co-op on one local Xbox (like in R6:Vegas) takes away from my enjoyment of a game. 

This is totally possible; I was playing co-op yesterday in this configuration (two on one box, two others on their own via XBL).  She doesn't need her own account - she can play as a guest, if you only have one live account between the two of you.

For extra co-op fun, make sure to turn on scoring in the campaign options screen.

[PeteRock]

I'm at least hoping that with two Live accounts both my wife and I can play online with friends (like in Gears of War), or else I'm really going to be pissed about how often the limitation of just 2-player co-op on one local Xbox (like in R6:Vegas) takes away from my enjoyment of a game. 

This is totally possible; I was playing co-op yesterday in this configuration (two on one box, two others on their own via XBL).  She doesn't need her own account - she can play as a guest, if you only have one live account between the two of you.

She already has her own account.  She wanted one back when she started playing the Live Arcade games and then picked up Viva Pinata and wanted to share pinatas with her friends.  But it's nice to know that we can also play online with one guest as other friends will be over and may want to get in on the action.

For extra co-op fun, make sure to turn on scoring in the campaign options screen.

This is one of the features I'm really looking forward to.  It adds a nice sense of friendly competition as we all play together through the campaign.

[Brendan]

There's actually two modes of scoring even:  team and free-for-all.  So, if you're cooperative and collaborative, you choose the former.  If you're cooperative and competitive, the latter.

I love that my first achievment was needler related.  I heart the new needler.

[PeteRock]

There's actually two modes of scoring even:  team and free-for-all.  So, if you're cooperative and collaborative, you choose the former.  If you're cooperative and competitive, the latter.

I love that my first achievment was needler related.  I heart the new needler.

That's another thing.  I've become obsessed with achievements (although nowhere near as obsessed as my wife, who is still playing Zuma for hours on end to get those last two pesky achievements), and whenever I load up an original Xbox game (like Halo or Halo 2), or play my PS2 (RE4, God of War 2) I'm always disappointed when I finish a level or do something unusual and don't hear the achievement "plink" sound.  I can't wait to play Halo with achievements, and I've read that you can earn them while playing co-op as well, so those Legendary achievements will be more.....um.....achievable.

[Arclight]

Rented from Blockbuster: Same old same old....Not much innovation going on here so far. Graphic's are ok, not Gears great, but passable to be sure.

Glad I rented.

[ATB]

After less than 15 minutes of playing time, here are my initial impressions:

Cut scenes are great.

Sound is great with the exception of the front center speaker. Seems that what's going on in front is somewhat muted. For example, the report of my initial weapon is quite quiet.

The weapon (again the initial one) seems very underpowered and lacking any oomph.  Some forcefeedback would be nice.

The menus are not so great: how do I start a new game? How do I adjust the sound settings?  Can't find em.

The environments aren't particularly interactive- and by that I mean you walk through a plant and nothing on it moves. You just sort of move through it.

No judgement call yet.

[leo8877]

I think this came up in a thread before, but there is actually a 48 Live Gold trial card in the box.  This is in addition to the 48 hours of free Gold to everyone thanks to Best Buy this weekend.

[Purge]

But hopefully she and I will be able to find two Friends online to play with, making it possible for me to play co-op with my wife with more than just the two of us.   

Good luck asking your wife to bring in a third and fourth.
Send me an invite; you can have up to 4 players (with max of 2 per xbox) in the coop mode.

[depward]

If I may add -

You peoples need to link your Bungie.net account to your gamertag.  I'm having a whole lot of fun seeing pictures & queuing video that friends have made.  I've noticed that a lot of GTers haven't done that on my friend list.  ThyMissingLink & Sparhawk seem to be the only ones (right now anyway)...

[TheMissingLink]

...And check out the picture I grabbed from my time in the single-player campaign at my page!

http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Halo3/Default.aspx?player=ThyMissingLink

[Jarrodhk]

The rocket race mp game type looks like it will be a lot of fun.

[Destructor]

...And check out the picture I grabbed from my time in the single-player campaign at my page!

http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Halo3/Default.aspx?player=ThyMissingLink

So, how did you get the camera to take a shot like that? That's pretty cool.

And I had a friend who also said that the gun sounds seem muted. And all he has is standard TV speakers (no 5.1 and such). Could this just be normal?

[wonderpug]

...And check out the picture I grabbed from my time in the single-player campaign at my page!

http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Halo3/Default.aspx?player=ThyMissingLink

So, how did you get the camera to take a shot like that? That's pretty cool.

And I had a friend who also said that the gun sounds seem muted. And all he has is standard TV speakers (no 5.1 and such). Could this just be normal?

An easy one to check off of the troubleshooting list is to make sure he doesn't have surround sound set in the game or his TV.  The gun sounds might be trying to come through a nonexistant center speaker.

[Roscoe]

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!  The display fills my entire LCD widescreen while using the VGA adapter. Recently almost every game ended up with horizontal bars, but Bungie figured out how to make it work. Most happy... 

[denoginizer]

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!  The display fills my entire LCD widescreen while using the VGA adapter. Recently almost every game ended up with horizontal bars, but Bungie figured out how to make it work. Most happy... 

What games do you have issues with?

I have been using VGA with widescreen TVs/Monitors for years without a problem.

[Brendan]

This is one of the features I'm really looking forward to.  It adds a nice sense of friendly competition as we all play together through the campaign.

The Bungie guys just posted a guide to how the scoring works.  I have yet to find a skull, but I'm looking forward to it...

[PeteRock]

If I may add -

You peoples need to link your Bungie.net account to your gamertag.  I'm having a whole lot of fun seeing pictures & queuing video that friends have made.  I've noticed that a lot of GTers haven't done that on my friend list.  ThyMissingLink & Sparhawk seem to be the only ones (right now anyway)...

I'm trying to link my gamertag and the instructions on Xbox.com make absolutely zero sense.  WTF? 

Does anyone have any valuable advice that might make an ounce of sense?  Every time I click on what is supposed to be a helpful link, I am just taken to another site with no directions on how to actually link my tag.   

EDIT:  Nevermind.  Apparently Bungie.net finally figured out that I already HAVE a Micro$oft profile.  While I was searching for a way to link my gamertag it all of a sudden showed up on the Bungie site when I refreshed the page.   

[TheMissingLink]

...And check out the picture I grabbed from my time in the single-player campaign at my page!

http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Halo3/Default.aspx?player=ThyMissingLink

So, how did you get the camera to take a shot like that? That's pretty cool.

And I had a friend who also said that the gun sounds seem muted. And all he has is standard TV speakers (no 5.1 and such). Could this just be normal?

Completed the act via single-player, jumped to the theatre, watched the replay and took a screenshot.

Then jumped back into theatre and uploaded the picture to my Bungie profile

[SuperHiro]

So how many of them custom Spartan armors are there?

[PeteRock]

Well, my wife and I just loaded it up on our 16:9 screen. The lobby and everything is 16:9, but when we start a co-op game it goes to a 4:3 image, split-screen, so a large chunk of the screen isn't used. If this is how they implemented same-screen multiplayer, I'm going to be furious. I can't find any options to change it either.

With 4 players it uses the full screen. With 2 players it uses a 4:3 window only. With 3 players it uses the full screen for the bottom half where 2 players play, but the top half of the screen has the image centered, but uses only the width of a 4:3 image.

I'm not pleased.

Can anyone here verify if this is in fact true, or if there is a settings issue that needs to be corrected?  I'd really hate to see my MP experience with my wife to be marred or rendered completely unplayable by such a poor design flaw. 

[Sarkus]

Some early impressions, based on completing the first section and watching the cutscene that starts the second:

- graphics are pretty good; looking at my HDTV at a distance of six feet the non-cutscene character models seemed at least on par with HL2. 
- as someone who usually has to adjust brightness I was kind of annoyed that we have two brighter than normal options and no slider.
- cutscene quality seemed to vary.  The second cutscene, I was not impressed with how the officer lady was modeled.
- combat was what you would expect.  AI seemed pretty decent, but not all that agressive (normal setting). 

There sure is a lot of hate for a game that is pretty much what you would expect it to be. I don't get wanting the series to go in a completely different direction.  The pile on effect is rampant; an impressions thread on another board already contains several "I hated the first two so I don't know why I'd get this one" comments, as if that's appropriate.

[Ridah]

There sure is a lot of hate for a game that is pretty much what you would expect it to be. I don't get wanting the series to go in a completely different direction.  The pile on effect is rampant; an impressions thread on another board already contains several "I hated the first two so I don't know why I'd get this one" comments, as if that's appropriate.

It's like I said in another thread, people are going into this game looking for reasons to hate it just because it's Halo 3. Those who actually expect any game to live up to this enormous amount of hype is seriously on dope.

On another note, I was about to buy the game today when I saw that GameFly had actually shipped my copy today. That surprised the shit out of me because I had put the game in the queue as a joke, not thinking I would receive it any time soon. So I should be playing it by friday or saturday. 

[Kevin Grey]

Obviously some Firefly fans on the team.  Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, and Adam Baldwin all have voice credits.  Katie Sackoff (Starbuck in BSG) is also in there with some other recognizable names. 

[TheMissingLink]

The single-player campaign is getting better and better.

[jblank]

Some early (and I do mean early) impressions:

I'm much better at Call of Duty/MoH/Rainbow 6: Vegas than I am at Halo.....online.

I'm seeing a lot of inconsistency with hits online. I flat out blasted a guy with a sniper rifle, right in the head, and it hit, but not killed him, he then 1 shot kills me. That isn't right.

Melee attacks seem to have a bit of a hit detection issue online. Again, it seems like when I melee someone it isn't hitting with the same force as someone else.

Graphics are good, not great.

Control is SILKY smooth.

[ATB]

I think I'm almost to the end of chapter one.  It's decidedly meh so far.

The weapon variety is great, but the sound seems to be hit or miss.

Jumping doesn't feel right as this 1000 lb guy just floats up and down and then can barely get out of his own way when running.

It's not compelling me to take my 360 on vacation....