Halo 3

[Wedgy]

The epic saga continues with Halo 3, the hugely anticipated third chapter in the highly successful and critically acclaimed Halo franchise. Master Chief returns to finish the fight, bringing the epic conflict between the Covenant, the Flood, and the entire human race to a dramatic, pulse-pounding climax.

Taking full advantage of the power of Xbox 360, Halo 3 expands on everything that has made the Halo franchise great, adding a wealth of graphical, technical and gameplay advancements, as well as offering a whole new level of online gameplay.

Published by: Microsoft
Developed by: Bungie Software
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Number of Players: 1-16
Release Date:
US: September 25, 2007
Japan: Unreleased
Europe: September 26, 2007
Australia: Unreleased
MSRP: GBP £49.99

ESRB Content Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Violence

Features: 16:9 Support, 720p Support, Dolby Digital 5.1, Xbox Live, System Link / LAN, Memory Unit, Custom Soundtrack, Downloadable Content



Why it will Rock
It’s Going to Have a Real Ending… We Hope
We’re not going to rag on Halo 2’s cliffhanger ending, as that’s been done hundreds of times over the last three years. Instead, we’re taking an optimistic approach here: Halo 3 is finally going to wrap up the Halo storyline. Halo 2 left us all wanting to know what was going to happen to Earth, Master Chief, the remaining Halos, the Arbiter, the Covenant and the Brutes, among other things. So many questions remain in regards to the Ark, the Forerunners, Earth’s fate and the Chief’s fate. Halo 3, we expect, will answer these and more. We hope.

4-Player Co-op
The first time we played Halo: Combat Evolved co-operatively six years ago, we thought, “Damn, it’d be awesome to play co-op with four people.” Leading up to the release of Halo 2, we, as well as many others, expected the game would support four-player co-operative play. Unfortunately, time restrains kept Bungie from including such a mode. Thankfully, though, the studio is shipping Halo 3 with not only four-player co-op but four-player co-op over Xbox Live, to boot. Two-player Halo is always a blast, so shouldn’t four-player co-op be twist the blast? We think so.

The Multiplayer Will Rule Xbox Live
Thousands already had a chance to experience the upgraded multiplayer in Halo 3 this summer and see for themselves exactly why it’s so awesome. While the multiplayer isn’t radically different from Halo 2’s, this much is for sure: it’s a big improvement. The developer has re-worked weapon balance so that just about every weapon is worth using. Dual wielding now has a stable existence in multiplayer – it’s not the name-of-the-game, but it’s not useless, either. Everything about Halo 3’s multiplayer feels improved over Halo 2’s. From what we’ve played, it feels like the multiplayer of Halo 2, only more polished and done “right” – the way its creator originally wanted it to be. Now that Bungie’s had the kind of time it needs to pull it off, we’re getting that experience.

The New Equipment
When Bungie first unveiled the concept of deployable items and equipment, like the bubble shield, a lot of people were skeptical. We admit even a few of us weren’t too sure of Bungie’s new scheme. However, turns out, the team knows what it’s doing. Deployable items like the bubble shield and gravity lift spiced things up in the multiplayer beta we played this summer, and new equipment like the flare, portable shield generator and radar jammer look to be nothing but great additions to the arsenal.

The Forge
Perhaps one of the coolest new features in Halo 3 is “The Forge.” The separate multiplayer mode lets you edit weapon placement, spawn points, vehicles and more in real-time during the middle of multiplayer matches. While editing levels on the fly, you’ll take on the shape of a monitor (think Guilty Spark from Halo: Combat Evolved), so you’ll still be vulnerable to attacks from other players, and thus you’ll have to play smart and carefully. Even cooler, you can create your own power-ups and place them anywhere you want. For instance, if you want to assign attributes to a power-up that lets you kill in a single shot and move at five times the speed you normally do, you can do it. Indeed, “The Forge” is awesome and will change the way we play Halo forever.

Saved Films
Saved Films is a Halo 3 feature that was once planned for Halo 2. Much like with four-player co-op, Bungie was unable to implement Saved Films in Halo 2, however. Instead, we’re getting a much more advanced version of the feature in the third and final Halo title. You are able to save entire matches to your Xbox 360’s hard drive using the Saved Films feature. However, the file that is saved is not that of a movie file. Instead, Halo 3 saves the actual game code, so that when you watch the replay, the game is actually being replayed second-by-second the way it originally happened right before your very own eyes. This keeps file sizes small (lengthy matches clock in at about 6MB), thus they can easily be shared over Xbox Live. While watching Saved Films, you can manipulate the camera and watch from any angle you prefer – whether it’s in first-person or via free-roaming third-person. Additionally, you can slow down the replay, speed it up and take pictures whenever you want.

Meta-game: Scores in Campaign
If you’re the kind of gamer who loves to replay single-player campaigns – either in single-player or co-op – you’re going to love the meta-game option in Halo 3. Essentially, once enabled, you will earn points, which will go towards your overall “score” in the game. Points are awarded for playing well, getting kills, performing stylish kills, such as headshots, and so forth. And because the mode is available in co-op play, Halo 3 will mix elements of cooperative play with competitive play, as you’ll have to work together with each other to progress, but simultaneously, you’ll want to have the highest score.

File Sharing
Halo 3 lets you share saved films, screenshots of your games, custom Forge settings and custom gametypes by simply uploading these things to a save slot on your Gamertag, at which point each becomes accessible to players on your friends list. Your friends can then download the data to their own Xbox 360s. What’s more, you’re able to upload all these things directly to a Bungie server, which will make the content available to your friends even when you’re offline. In other words, you can now easily share all those no-scope clips and running riots with your friends directly over Xbox Live. How awesome is that?
http://360.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=11325

Ign Preview of first level
Well, E3 is officially here, and the first big night kicked off with a solid showing by Microsoft at their press conference, where they made some moderately big announcements before finishing the evening with a brand new Halo 3 trailer that showcased some of the game's single-player moments. Once the event ended, the majority of the journalists on hand streamed into the warm Santa Monica night, heading back to their hotel rooms to write up what they saw. However, for a lucky handful the night was not over... it was just beginning. We strolled down the street to The Viceroy hotel, where Microsoft is showing off many of the year's most anticipated titles behind closed doors, then proceeded to bum-rush said doors to get a glimpse of what the company has in store for the holiday season.

The first game on my plate? Halo 3, naturally! As I headed into the room where Bungie's Frank O'Connor and Brian Jarrard were waiting, my fingers were crossed with the hope that I'd be seeing some single-player action. Not only did I get to see the campaign being played, I actually got to check out a sizable chunk of the game's first level. Before the action began, we found ourselves in the "Campaign Lobby" where players will be able to set up the game, selecting both the levels and the individual segments that make them up. All of the game's modes will start in a lobby of sorts, be it Campaign, Theater, or Multiplayer.

After a brief loading screen (during which particles come together to form a halo), we were thrown into the game's first level, which will be called Sierra 117. Jarrard was playing on the Heroic difficulty, starting at what was being referred to as "Rally Point Alpha." We were told that the part we were seeing was actually about a third of the way into the level, as they didn't want to ruin the opening for us. What we did notice right off the bat was the fact that while we were playing as Master Chief, our old buddy the Arbiter was fighting right alongside us and had a green arrow above his head that allowed us to spot him at any time. We asked Frankie about the, ahem, possibility of playing with a friend who was controlling the Arbiter, and he mentioned that, yes, that sure would be cool. Damn you Frankie!

If you've got any qualms about the visual fidelity of the single-player game, let's just put those to rest right off the bat. The segment we saw took place in a lush forest, where tall trees cut off a good deal of the sunlight and moss grew on just about every available surface. The foliage and textures looked excellent, as did the "god rays" that beamed down through gaps in the canopy. We came upon a number of napping Grunts, and Jarrard quickly and quietly beat them to death with the butt of his Battle Rifle (this was the starting weapon in this demo, with the pistol acting as the player's secondary weapon).

Of course, sneaking around isn't really necessary when you're 7 foot hulk in some badass armor, so Jarrard decided to have a little fun by capping the nearest grunt from a few meters away. Suddenly, gunfire erupted from all around, as the rest of the Grunt, Jackals, and Brutes leapt into action and began attacking Master Chief and his crew. The fighting was intense, so it was no surprise that we took a few hits. We noticed that when Master Chief is hit by enemy fire, his shield briefly comes into view as a grid pattern before disappearing as it recharges.

Another thing that we noticed (it was pretty much impossible not to) was the amount of battlefield chatter going on around us. The Grunts and Jackals were obviously afraid, screaming in terror as "the demon" came for them. The Arbiter gave some instructions as we progressed through the level, offering Master Chief advice on how to best decimate the enemy's ranks (Grenades? Oh, you think so, doctor?). The best chatter, however, came from the UNSC guys, who threw out classics like "Killing time, you punks!" and "We're gonna send you back to Planet Jackass, Jackass!" Sure, the battlefield banter is totally ridiculous, but it's also awesome.

After battle our way through literally dozens of Grunts and Jackals, we headed through a cave strewn with red flares to a riverbank, where a Pelican dropship fired on Covenant ground troops. The battle intensified, as Master Chief and The Arbiter had to fight off several Brutes. Suddenly, a Phantom appeared from between the trees, firing its plasma bolts at the Pelican, which crashed somewhere over a nearby ridge. Master Chief ran up to a nearby mounted chain gun, grabbing it and yanking it off of its moorings. The action then switched to third-person (just as it did during the multiplayer demo), and Master Chief blasted away until the Phantom finally hightailed it out of the battle zone.

Ign preview of map Editor
This might be the coolest addition to Halo 3. We've seen the map editor, and it was great. Four-player co-operative play online is a big plus. But the Forge has us picturing a Halo 3 with limitless possibilities. At the Leipzig Games Convention, Bungie's Brian Jarrard showed us this Forge, Halo 3's tricked out map editor. He also showed a few other things we hadn't seen yet and talked more about the campaign scoring system. But first, we have to talk about the Forge.

The Forge isn't a map editor like you've seen in other games before. This editing tool doesn't allow you to warp the terrain or move major objects; those will stay just where Bungie put them. Rather, the Forge allows you to drop in any of the weapons, objects, vehicles, spawn points, or tools present in the Halo 3 world. If you think a map needs a flamethrower in a specific place and it's not there yet, the Forge will grant you your wish. If you want all of the spawn points for one team to be located within a small building, the Forge can make that happen. To keep things from overtaxing the memory, each map has a maximum amount of dollars that can be spent on it. Likewise, each object you can drop has a cost associated with it. A gun might cost $2 while a large vehicle up to $40.

That's pretty simple. Of course there's more.

The Forge is also a multiplayer game. Up to 8 players can hop into a Forge session at one time and fight on teams against each other. When you go into the editing mode, you become a monitor, just like Guilty Spark. You're still vulnerable in this state and can't attack, but you can drop or move any object you want. You can also delete objects the enemy has laid down. See that guy running towards a Warthog…whoops! No more Warthog. The currency limit on the map is shared between the two teams, according to Jarrard, making the rush to create objects for your team and delete them from others seriously intense.

We asked. You can't delete a vehicle while someone is in it. Nor can you delete a tail end of a series of warp nodes to trap opponents in limbo. But you can do some pretty cool things that might not initially be considered options. Dropping fusion coils from a large enough height will cause a nice explosion. Dragging a teleporter through the air as your teammates pop out of it (while the teleporter is carried over a wall!) can create a nice element of surprise. The options are essentially limitless. If things get too crazy, the party leader can limit the people who can edit the game to him or herself or leave it as global.

This demo of the Forge naturally led into several other bits and pieces of things we hadn't seen first-hand before. First, Brian Jarrard showed us several weapons and vehicles for the first time as he spawned them throughout the map. First, we saw the now common knowledge Brute Chopper, with the added comment that it can rip straight through Warthogs. Cool. Then, we saw the Prowler, a Brute version of the Warthog that is sleek, sexy, and can carry four people at once.

Next we saw the flamethrower in action for the first time. The fire looks cool as it toasts the ground, burning for several seconds before extinguishing itself. These tools don't have a long enough range to be effective against a good number of ranged weapons. We also saw the fire bomb, with its napalm-like effect. The Mauler, a pistol variant that behaves like a spiker crossed with a shotgun was pulled out next. This gun has quite a kick. Then we saw the gravity hammer, the Brute's melee weapon of choice. This baby is like a plasma sword, but it packs a punch. A single hit will likely be good for a kill and it also sends out a shockwave. If a vehicle is too close, your gravity hammer swing will send it flying.

Tools were up for grabs as well. A piece of deployable cover, which we spoke about
yesterday, is a one-way plasma shield. Your shots go out; theirs don't come in. Enough firepower will take it down, however. There's also a flare that sends out a burst of light, blinding all within range.

It gets better.

You can edit a lot more than just the weapon placement on maps. You can also edit the rules of the game to create custom game types. We know, you could do that in the original Halo: Combat Evolved. But not like this. You can edit just about every option imaginable. Gravity, scoring for each and every action, rules for status changes the leader gets, and a whole host of victory conditions are just a few of the options we saw as Brian Jarrard scrolled through the list. If you happen to create a particularly cool set of rules that everyone loves, Brian told us Bungie would likely add it to their global matchmaking lists.

You can even create your own custom power-ups. Want a power-up that gives you an overshield, turns your avatar blue, and makes you deal twice the normal amount of damage? You can make it and then drop it into one of your custom Forged levels. Damage and attack, gravity, speed, health regeneration, shield effects, duration and a whole lot more can be tweaked, stacked, and then packaged into one nice little power-up to use in the game.

There's more yet.

Now, placing all of these weapons meticulously around a map and customizing the rules wouldn't be much fun if you couldn't share it. And since Halo 3 is aimed at those wanting fun, you can do just that. Just like sharing a movie, you can put one of your edited levels up for the world to see in your shared items slots. From there, the world has access to it in several different ways. Friends can just take a look at what you've got. They can also send your shared items to friends of theirs that you might not have in common, who can then pass it further along.

There are other ways to find content, too. On Bungie.net, you'll be able to find a list of "Bungie Recommends" content. The team will meticulously search for the best movies, edited levels, rule sets, and screenshots (when you save a screenshot from within a movie, it exports the image in a higher resolution than the game is displaying to both your hard drive and Bungie.net) to share with the world. They're also looking to include a voting system where shared materials can be made popular by the players themselves with the top vote getters getting the most exposure. Then, just like movies, you'll be able to flag rule sets and edited maps on Bungie.net to be automatically downloaded the next time you log on.

This may sound like a lot, but Bungie wasn't done showing us things we hadn't seen or heard about yet. Next, we went back to Tsavo Highway, the third level in the Halo 3 campaign. First, Brian talked about the scoring system. You get points for things like head shots, grenade sticks, and many of the other actions that award medals in the multiplayer game. You can also turn this into a competitive contest. In a 4 player co-op game, you can play the scoring game 2 vs. 2. Things get interesting when you add in the fact that even though you're playing against each other, you're still on the same team. Hop in front of a grenade toss that the other "team" tossed and you can get a team kill…for them. It's a nice way to subtract from their score and improve your status.

Brian Jarrard played through part of Tsavo Highway on the normal difficulty, which he admitted was rather weak. In fact, he went so far as to say, "Normal and Easy are not recommended for people who have played Halo before." Then he added that Heroic and Legendary have been made significantly more difficult. One way that is done is by actually adding more enemies to Heroic and Legendary than what you'll see on Normal or Easy.

Then he capped off the demonstration by showing us a saved movie from the campaign and zooming all around the level, showing that things you can't see from the ground are still being rendered in hi-res. The 12-minute movie was just 1 MB in size.

Wow.

Achievments
1. Landfall Finish the first mission of the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary. 20 Points
2. Holdout Finish the second mission of the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary. 20 Points
3. The Road Finish the third mission of the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary. 20 Points
4. Assault Finish the fourth mission of the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary. 30 Points
5. Cleansing Finish the fifth mission of the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary. 30 Points
6. Refuge Finish the sixth mission of the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary. 30 Points
7. Last Stand Finish the seventh mission of the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary. 40 Points
8. The Key Finish the eighth mission of the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary. 40 Points
9. Return Finish the final mission of the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary. 50 Points
10. Campaign Complete: Normal Finish the Campaign on Normal. 125 Points
11. Campaign Complete: Heroic Finish the Campaign on Heroic (unlocks achievement for Normal, if not earned). 125 Points
12. Campaign Complete: Legendary Finish the Campaign on Legendary (unlocks achievements for Normal and Heroic, if not earned). 125 Points
13. Iron Finish the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary, then find and claim this skull. 10 Points
14. Black Eye Finish the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary, then find and claim this skull. 10 Points
15. Tough Luck Finish the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary, then find and claim this skull. 10 Points
16. Catch Finish the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary, then find and claim this skull. 10 Points
17. Fog Finish the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary, then find and claim this skull. 10 Points
18. Famine Finish the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary, then find and claim this skull. 10 Points
19. Thunderstorm Finish the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary, then find and claim this skull. 10 Points
20. Tilt Finish the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary, then find and claim this skull. 10 Points
21. Mythic Finish the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary, then find and claim this skull. 10 Points
22. Spartan Program Recruit Win your first game in matchmaking to sign up for the Spartan Program (Online). 10 Points
23. UNSC Spartan Earn your Sergeant rating to be recognized as a true Spartan (Online). 15 Points
24. Spartan Officer Advance to the Spartan Officer ranks (Online). 25 Points
25. Two for One Score a Double Kill with a single spartan laser shot in a ranked free for all playlist (Online). 5 Points
26. Too Close to the Sun Destroy an enemy banshee with the spartan laser or missile pod in a ranked playlist or in campaign. 5 Points
27. Triple Kill Kill 3 enemies within 4 seconds of one another in a ranked free for all playlist (Online). 5 Points
28. Overkill Kill 4 enemies within 4 seconds of one another in a ranked free for all playlist (Online). 5 Points
29. Lee R Wilson Memorial Score 5 grenade sticks in any ranked free for all playlist (Online). 5 Points
30. We're in for some Chop Destroy an enemy vehicle with equipment in a ranked playlist or in campaign. 5 Points
31. Killing Frenzy Kill 10 enemies without dying in any ranked free for all playlist (Online). 5 Points
32. Steppin' Razor Score a Triple Kill with the sword in a ranked free for all playlist (Online). 5 Points
33. Mongoose Mowdown Splatter an enemy with the mongoose in a ranked free for all playlist (Online). 5 Points
34. Up Close and Personal Kill 5 enemies by melee or assassination in a ranked free for all playlist (Online). 5 Points
35. Fear the Pink Mist Kill 5 enemies with the needler in a ranked free for all playlist or in campaign. 5 Points
36. Headshot Honcho Kill 10 enemies with headshots in a ranked free for all playlist or in campaign. 5 Points
37. Used Car Salesman Destroy a vehicle that has three enemies in it in a ranked playlist or in campaign. 5 Points
38. Marathon Man Locate and access all Terminals in the Campaign. 40 Points
39. MVP Earn the MVP in any ranked playlist (Online). 5 Points
40. Maybe Next Time Buddy Board the same vehicle within 10 seconds after being boarded in any free for all playlist (Online). 5 Points
41. Demon Score over Points in the Campaign meta-game on the second mission. 10 Points
42. Guerilla Score over Points in the Campaign meta-game on the first mission. 10 Points
43. Cavalier Score over Points in the Campaign meta-game on the third mission. 10 Points
44. Askar Score over Points in the Campaign meta-game on the fourth mission. 10 Points
45. Exterminator Score over Points in the Campaign meta-game on the fifth mission. 10 Points
46. Ranger Score over Points in the Campaign meta-game on the sixth mission. 10 Points
47. Vanguard Score over Points in the Campaign meta-game on the seventh mission. 10 Points
48. Orpheus Score over Points in the Campaign meta-game on eighth mission. 10 Points
49. Reclaimer Score over Points in the Campaign meta-game on the final mission. 10 Points

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/halo3launch/

Reviews
Famitsu 10/9/9/9

Coming soon...

[Wedgy]

Ign give it a 9.5/10
8 Presentation
Epic blockbuster stuff. The soundtrack is an 11th man, lending authority, excitement and gravitas and it’s all pulled off with expected aplomb.
8 Graphics
Make no mistake, this is next-gen eye candy. But we expected better graphics from Microsoft’s number one men.
9 Sound
Exemplary. From shell casings bouncing on the ground and dislodging fresh pebbles to Marty O’Donnell’s iconic and amazing soundtrack, it’s a genuine highlight.
9.5 Gameplay
What Halo does best. Solid. Professional. Has the touch.
10 Lasting Appeal
If you play over Xbox Live, this game is going to gobble your life like a cancer.

Gamespot also a 9.5
The Good

* Satisfying storyline that simultaneously provides closure while making you wonder what will happen next
* Four-player online co-op is a lot of fun
* Forge mode map editor lets you do some extremely crazy and unexpected things
* Web integration makes sharing new maps and custom modes easy.

The Bad

* Rewinding saved films doesn't work quite like you'd expect it to
* AI-controlled Marines can't drive to save their lives (or yours)
* Inevitable flood of prepubescent online players sure to hamper your enjoyment of the online modes.


Gametrailers has a video review here: 9.8

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/25485.html
Don't forget to add this video to TF Tube and see others there.

Yeah so pritty average game reviews

[Mankind]

Good review that, cheers

[X-Buster!]

Didn't expect anything less.

[emma roids]

just finished it on normal setting, fkin awsome i gotta say.

and the online is the biz. big team battle in sandtrap ftw, its so much fun but anoys me when peeps take it too serious, i play online for fun not to win games.

cracking game .

heres me about to get pooned.


i dunno what happened to this guys body lol.

[Achilles]

I played it through no normal and havent yet been online, but its a great game. Made the mistake of trying out world of war hammer at the same time and got a bit stuck into that, dont have too much free time for games so few and far between i get to play all of them!!!

[Detomah]

If you would like a Halo 3 gallery section adding, please let me know and i'll make one, so people can share their piccies for the game, same applies to any other game for that matter.

[draganess]

You seen the halo concole they are selling in toys R us? shame the game dont come with it. Its a shame they dont pop the game in for a cut price, probably would sell better.