Halo 3 reviewed

[kathode]

I think if it were really so terribly repetitive and mundane you wouldn't see scores like that across the board.  Gamespot had no problem giving Zelda a sub-9 score, so I disagree with the notion that anyone is morally or contractually obligated to give Halo 3 a high score.  I think the sites themselves would love the publicity.  The simplest explanation is that the game is actually quite good, even though perhaps if you take one single part and look at it in isolation, it might not hold up to the best example of that particular thing in all of gaming.  But even only having played the beta, I think it would be hard to argue that the game isn't firing on all cylinders.  I think Tom Chick just wants all shooters to be Bioshock from now on

[Chaz]

I decided on Saturday that I should finally finish Halo 2, since I only got up to the Delta Halo section when it first came out.  Fired it up on the 360, and remembered that my 360 playthrough was still just before the Scarab in New Mombasa.  Spent a chunk of Saturday and Sunday getting through to Delta Halo again.  Hopefully I'll get a little more playtime in tonight, but there's no way I'm finishing this before starting in on Halo 3 with friends tomorrow night.

I have no idea what you're describing there...which is indicative to me that Halo2 was wholly forgettable.

I remember one awesome earth mission that lasted far too short of a time and then it all blurs into lame arbiter gameplay and giant talking venus flytraps.

It may also just mean that your memory sucks.

I thought Halo 2 was decidedly better than Halo 1.  Halo 1 was blatant about sending you through the same room over and over and over again.  Halo 2 still did that, but it seemed to me to do it less.  Granted, since I haven't gotten through to the end, maybe it winds up sucking, but if I've already seen the best Halo 2 has to offer, I can say that I like it better than Halo 1.

[denoginizer]

....The simplest explanation is that the game is actually quite good, even though perhaps if you take one single part and look at it in isolation, it might not hold up to the best example of that particular thing in all of gaming. 

I'm sorry but that cannot possibly be true.

Tom Chick appears to have gone into Halo 3 expecting them to reinvent a game that has sold 14 million copies.  That simply is not going to happen.  The franchise has been a mega seller for a reason.  Bungie put out a game that appeals to the masses.  Sometimes gamers (myself included), think just because a game is popular it can't possibly be a good game.  Maybe it's not a good game.  Maybe Tom is right and all of the other reviews are wrong.   I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

[hepcat]

i think i've been spoiled by Bioshock...   

[metallicorphan]

will there be a Gaming Trend review?

cant see it on the front page,and i would be interested in it

[Larraque]

Inquiring minds want to know - Is the Flood back in H3?

[Kevin Grey]

Inquiring minds want to know - Is the Flood back in H3?

Spoiler for Hiden:

Yes

[Larraque]

Spoiler for Hiden:

[Caine]

Spoiler for Hiden:

well nuts then.  my least favorite part of h1.  it was fun for the first bit after it happened, but after a while, i was left wanting the us vs. them feeling of the earlier parts of the game.  the 2nd pass through the level was also fun for a short while and then became monotonous. 

oh well.  i have this pre-ordered.  if i end up hating the mp, then i'll likely end up with decent trade bait for mass effect. 

for me, the biggest part of this will be mp coop.  i had a ton more fun playing coop back in h1 than i ever did going through the sp on the pc version.  h2 was overlooked as i didn't have an xbox and i wasn't overly interested in going through it too recently. 

[depward]

nvm

[Calvin]

I think Tom Chick just wants all shooters to be Bioshock from now on

Of course he does, because as long as it's got some art deco, a twist or two in the story, we can simply ignore the fetch quests, the repetitive gameplay, the 3 different types of enemies and proclaim that this is the future of games (no, not for you stuck in Halo 1 era teenagers-forever-"Mr....." Chick doesn't like you.) No, this one was easy for him to bash (and the full text of his review reads much much worse than the snippet here) as it undoubtedly could never have met his gargantuan and sophisticated tastes.

[ATB]

Mine copy has shipped. Now if only I was going to be in town to receive it.... 

[Caine]

snip..

Thanks for the spoiler H3 info   

dude, sorry man.  seriously.  i'll edit the badness out for future generations.

[Farscry]

Sorry but Goldeneye 64 is even more overrated than Halo

Whoa there! Speak for yourself; Goldeneye was the first game to show that a console-based FPS could be truly awesome. They really took their time to do it very well. Sure, pc-based shooters have always been a step ahead of console-based ones; they're a little better suited to the mouse-control format.

Goldeneye was truly great though. It was the game of choice in my college dorm for nearly two years. We played the crap out of that game. I still have it and pull it out for a spin every once in a while just for fun, and it's aged surprisingly well despite the limited controls.

I think the hype and fanboyism for Goldeneye did go overboard though. I suspect the same is true of Halo. I've played and had fun with Halo 1 & 2, but I really have a hard time understanding the rabid borderline-fanboy enthusiasm so many people are giving towards Halo 3. Gears of War is more inventive and interesting in my experience and even Gears 2 wouldn't be deserving of this kind of hype.

[denoginizer]

I think Tom Chick just wants all shooters to be Bioshock from now on

Of course he does, because as long as it's got some art deco, a twist or two in the story, we can simply ignore the fetch quests, the repetitive gameplay, the 3 different types of enemies and proclaim that this is the future of games (no, not for you stuck in Halo 1 era teenagers-forever-"Mr....." Chick doesn't like you.) No, this one was easy for him to bash (and the full text of his review reads much much worse than the snippet here) as it undoubtedly could never have met his gargantuan and sophisticated tastes.

Posted by Mr Chick at QT3 forums:


"And, yeah, it's a bit weird to have what I wrote considered a review. Given that Halo 3 is primarily a multiplayer game, I'd say it's about 1/3 of a review. Plus, it doesn't have a number on it, so there's no way it could be a review."

[wonderpug]

oops!

Thanks for the spoiler H3 info   

dude, sorry man.  seriously.  i'll edit the badness out for future generations.

Thanks, but needs another round of editting!

This reminds me of when they showed a clip of that Japanese epileptic seizure TV show on the news and induced a 2nd round of seizures.

[Caine]

posting brain not talking to the editor at the moment.  i must be contact high from the cube dweller behind me.  sorry.

[Purge]

Inquiring minds want to know - Is the Flood back in H3?

Of course they are; they're connected to the HALOs, forerunner and Gravemind. I thought the Flood in H2 was 1000x better than in H1; they were "stoppable". You could use the fire cannons to torch bodies to prevent reanimation, for instance.

I hope H3 lets us continue this.

[Dreamshadow]

Halo was, and is, a thoroughly generic FPS.  It just happened to be on what was the 'hot' console at the time (the Xbox), and was the first actually decent shooter to show up on a console other than Goldeneye 64.  Combine that with multiplayer over Xbox Live, and people went nuts.  This continued with Halo 2 and now Halo 3.

I can't agree with that.  Halo 1 had some pretty influential mechanics.  In particular the recharge health has become a FPS standard these days.  Also, limiting the inventory to two weapons has also become quite popular.  While it was obviously an interface limitation it actually changed the gameplay since it forced you to vary your play tactics depending on what weapons were on hand and what ammo you had.  One button grenade tosses as well- before Halo the standard grenade mechanic was to switch to it like any other weapon and then throw, then switch back. 

All of those have had enormous impact on the FPS genre since on both console and PC. 

Also- Xbox wasn't a "hot" console at all.  It got out of the gate very slow and the PS2 had the spotlight with the Cube even getting off to a better start.  Halo is what made the Xbox, not the other way around

exactly, lol

I have no f'in clue what the hell Zarkon is talking about saying the xbox was a 'hot' console

and then combine that with the fact that he is so insistent in trying to criticize the Halos that he can't even get his facts straight with regards to xbox live/MP, and it's pretty obvious that he's just trying to troll.  either that or he's just dumb if that's what he really thought

Actually, when Halo 1 was big, people were putting some serious system link parties together (at least in the Dallas/ Ft. Worth area), and all people were talking about was the latest CTF match they had in Blood Gulch and other maps.  I do agree that Halo is what made the Xbox, but I don't think he's trolling.  Halo multiplayer was big, just not over Live.

[metallicorphan]

from teamxbox...apparently 4.2 meeeelion have already been shipped

Gamespot reports that projections from Goldman Sachs analysts Sarah Friar and Frederick Grieb indicate that Microsoft has shipped 4.2 million copies of Halo 3:

In a company update on Microsoft today, Goldman Sachs analysts Sarah Friar and Frederick Grieb predicted that Microsoft will have shipped a mighty 4.2 million copies of Halo 3 into the retail channel by the end of the month. That's a big-enough launch shipment for more than a third of the Xbox 360's 11.6 million global user base to pick up a copy.

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/14626/Analyst-42M-Copies-of-Halo-3-Already-in-Store-Shelves/

[BiggerBoat]

There is just something about H1 and H2 coop campaign gameplay for me. I've played both titles through with my son a couple of times, and they've been a heck of a lot of fun. I'm not sure why exactly. The AI is always kind of dumb, levels are repetitive, and there isn't much variety. I acknowledge all of these things but for some reason H1 and H2 are easily in my top 10 console experiences.

I look forward to H3.

[metallicorphan]

New Zealand starts already




looks like 25th september is Australia and New Zealands release date as well.....and with them being 2 weeks in front of us,or something like that(in the UK its released on the 26th)

[Daehawk]

Whats Legolas doing playing Halo 3?

[CeeKay]

I pass by the local Gamestop on the way home to work everyday and the geeks were already lining up outside.  I overheard two of them arguing who was better, MC or Samus.  I bet the fun will really start when the frat boys start turning up at the bars across the street 

[Destructor]

Whats Legolas doing playing Halo 3?

That bastard!

[JuniorDan]

I pass by the local Gamestop on the way home to work everyday and the geeks were already lining up outside.  I overheard two of them arguing who was better, MC or Samus.  I bet the fun will really start when the frat boys start turning up at the bars across the street 

Holy crap....... On my way home from work I passed my local Gamestop and the frat boys were already lining up outside. I overheard two of them arguing who was better, Samus or MC. When I went into the bar, the nerds the had already turned up and brought a spiker, a mauler, and a plasma cannon to rob the frat boys when they came out with their copies Halo3. 

[naednek]

Well I got it pre-ordered.  It's only going to cost me $25 after the block buster deal and my trade in.  Then I get a $10 gift card to use on a different purchase.  I know I'll get close to full price off of Ebay if I don't like it.

[Calvin]

I pass by the local Gamestop on the way home to work everyday and the geeks were already lining up outside.  I overheard two of them arguing who was better, MC or Samus.  I bet the fun will really start when the frat boys start turning up at the bars across the street 

Holy crap....... On my way home from work I passed my local Gamestop and the frat boys were already lining up outside. I overheard two of them arguing who was better, Samus or MC. When I went into the bar, the nerds the had already turned up and brought a spiker, a mauler, and a plasma cannon to rob the frat boys when they came out with their copies Halo3. 

There were three kids in lawnchairs outside the gamestop where I went to preorer this afternoon-at 230!!! Seriously, thats out of control. The kids inside working there were like "wow they are stupid".

[Ridah]

There were three kids in lawnchairs outside the gamestop where I went to preorer this afternoon-at 230!!! Seriously, thats out of control. The kids inside working there were like "wow they are stupid".

I don't see how it's any more stupid than the people who waited in line for the iPhone not to long ago. At least waiting in line for games can be fun. I waited in line with a buddy of mine for WoW: Burning Crusade, it was actually a lot of fun talking to all the WoW nuts about the game.

[denoginizer]

There were three kids in lawnchairs outside the gamestop where I went to preorer this afternoon-at 230!!! Seriously, thats out of control. The kids inside working there were like "wow they are stupid".

I don't see how it's any more stupid than the people who waited in line for the iPhone not to long ago. At least waiting in line for games can be fun. I waited in line with a buddy of mine for WoW: Burning Crusade, it was actually a lot of fun talking to all the WoW nuts about the game.

The difference is that the IPhone was supposedly in limited quantities.  I'm pretty sure there will still be a bazzilion copies of Halo 3 laying around tomorrow evening, and for the following weeks to come.

[Calvin]

There were three kids in lawnchairs outside the gamestop where I went to preorer this afternoon-at 230!!! Seriously, thats out of control. The kids inside working there were like "wow they are stupid".

I don't see how it's any more stupid than the people who waited in line for the iPhone not to long ago. At least waiting in line for games can be fun. I waited in line with a buddy of mine for WoW: Burning Crusade, it was actually a lot of fun talking to all the WoW nuts about the game.

Well I think waiting in line for an iphone is stupid too. Its stupid because you can get the game at about 12:20 AM if you just wait for the line to dissipate a little bit man-thats why I think its stupid its just unnecessary. I mean whatever works for you, but I would rather have fun like, uh, doing something else.

[Destructor]

Well, at my local Gamestop, there's about 40 people outside (with 2.5 hours to go), out of just over 500 preorders (according to the crew there anyway). And here's the funny part - they dragged out the PS3 kiosk and they're using it to show Red vs Blue to the masses.

[CeeKay]

hell, I was too busy playing Hitman Blood Money that I didn't even notice Midnight go by.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have some rednecks to kill.

[ATB]

There were three kids in lawnchairs outside the gamestop where I went to preorer this afternoon-at 230!!! Seriously, thats out of control. The kids inside working there were like "wow they are stupid".

I don't see how it's any more stupid than the people who waited in line for the iPhone not to long ago. At least waiting in line for games can be fun. I waited in line with a buddy of mine for WoW: Burning Crusade, it was actually a lot of fun talking to all the WoW nuts about the game.

Well I think waiting in line for an iphone is stupid too. Its stupid because you can get the game at about 12:20 AM if you just wait for the line to dissipate a little bit man-thats why I think its stupid its just unnecessary. I mean whatever works for you, but I would rather have fun like, uh, doing something else.

It's cooler than waiting 3 months for a star wars prequel.  But not by much.

[Kevin Grey]

Well I don't know if they were out at 12:01am last night but I can confirm that my local 7-11 had copies available this morning. 

[CeeKay]

Well I don't know if they were out at 12:01am last night but I can confirm that my local 7-11 had copies available this morning. 

I'll have to check my 7-11 later.  The guy working there yesterday didn't know if they had copies of it- he didn't even know 7-11's were going to be selling it, but from the look on his face I'm sure he went looking after I left 

[jblank]

After reading this entire thread (which has been interesting), I hope that hating on Halo 3 isn't becoming the "cool" thing to do. Sure, maybe it isn't the perfect game, but some of the comments about perceived negatives with the game make me kind of chuckle when you consider some of the real crap that gets released, that we all end up buying.

[Larraque]

Inquiring minds want to know - Is the Flood back in H3?

Of course they are; they're connected to the HALOs, forerunner and Gravemind. I thought the Flood in H2 was 1000x better than in H1; they were "stoppable". You could use the fire cannons to torch bodies to prevent reanimation, for instance.

I hope H3 lets us continue this.

Hrm. Having been 3-4 years since I played Halo 2 (Don't remember when it was released), I don't really remember the story anymore. Only three things stick out in my mind:

1. The awesome AI of the Covenant
2. The charge at you til you die AI of the Flood
3. The ending.

This of course bias-es me against Halo 3, as 2 of these three things were bad. To be honest, it's been SO long since I've played H2, I could easily be remembering the flood parts in Halo one, and remembering hating it when they showed back up in halo 2.

Well I think waiting in line for an iphone is stupid too. Its stupid because you can get the game at about 12:20 AM if you just wait for the line to dissipate a little bit man-thats why I think its stupid its just unnecessary. I mean whatever works for you, but I would rather have fun like, uh, doing something else.

As someone who waited in line at midnight for the last Harry Potter book, I can safely say that it's not the game that people are waiting for, it's the experience of the line that people want. Years from now, when I think of Harry Potter again, I'll be thinking about how cool it was to be hanging with friends waiting for the release of a book, and looking at all the other people, some in costumes, also waiting for the release of a book.

[Kevin Grey]

After reading this entire thread (which has been interesting), I hope that hating on Halo 3 isn't becoming the "cool" thing to do. Sure, maybe it isn't the perfect game, but some of the comments about perceived negatives with the game make me kind of chuckle when you consider some of the real crap that gets released, that we all end up buying.

It's all relative though, isn't it?   I don't think Halo 2 is a bad game by any means but I found it very disappointing and also a step down from Halo 1.  Considering how important this franchise is to Microsoft as well as the huge talent level at Bungie then I certainly expect a lot more from a Halo game than I would from a lower budget game from a lesser developer. 

[jblank]

After reading this entire thread (which has been interesting), I hope that hating on Halo 3 isn't becoming the "cool" thing to do. Sure, maybe it isn't the perfect game, but some of the comments about perceived negatives with the game make me kind of chuckle when you consider some of the real crap that gets released, that we all end up buying.

It's all relative though, isn't it?   I don't think Halo 2 is a bad game by any means but I found it very disappointing and also a step down from Halo 1.  Considering how important this franchise is to Microsoft as well as the huge talent level at Bungie then I certainly expect a lot more from a Halo game than I would from a lower budget game from a lesser developer. 

Well I think we all do, but some, and I do stress some, people seem to be VERY quick to jump off the game, based on one guys semi-negative review. I hardly think we're looking at a dud here, and I dare say that the multiplayer part alone is worth the entry fee.