Biggest Gaming Event in History: Halo 3 has arrived

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
There are no good games for it. Plus the controls suck.

Wiives are like that.

[Wiglaf]

The reviews on Amazon are significantly negative, giving Halo an average of 3.4/5. Some good reviews, echoing some of the complaints here about the single player:

As a longtime fan of Bungie (going back to the original Marathon) it's very hard for me to say this, but like HALO2, HALO3 is a letdown. That said, it's a much better game overall than HALO2, so with that out of the way, let's get cracking.

CAMPAIGN: In a word, crap. In a sentence: fight your way towards a mission objective, push the button, then fight your way right back out the way you came. Repeat for for 6 to 7 hours. That's it. To be fair, the story arc manages to wrap itself up nicely (not that there's anything in HALO3 story-wise that couldn't have been done in HALO2, which I guess just illustrates how useless the second game was). The Arbiter campaign is dropped completely; instead, he's either your buddy or an AI player who simply follows you around (a la Dom in GEARS OF WAR). The first couple missions, set in Africa, fighting the Brutes, are pretty intense and fun. After that, the game does it's obligatory "let's jump to a new Halo ring and rehash the original game's campaign." Seriously disappointing. That said, you can now kill Scarabs (the big walker things) and Phantoms (the Covenant dropships) if you've got the time and willpower, which can be entertaining.

GRAPHICS & SOUND: It depends. If you're playing by yourself, in HD, then the game reveals some impressive texture work, awesome lighting, and slick particle effects. If you're playing in split-screen, the game tones back the effects for the sake of keeping the framerate up and the game looks like HALO2. Seriously. My roommate came in and thought it was HALO2. Not good. Granted, it's a lot cleaner than HALO2, without any of the awful draw-in and texturing nightmares, but the models are pretty much straight from the last chapter. Still, while the environmental textures and lighting are excellent, the game can't help but look dated next to GEARS OF WAR and the Unreal Engine. Sound is about what you'd expect. Marty O'Donnell returns and hammers out as many variations as he can on the HALO theme, from soft piano to rockin' guitars for the big battles.

So the campaign sucks and the graphics don't impress. Does this game do anything right, you might ask? The answer is multiplayer.

Another:

I'm not a huge fan of the Halo series, but since Halo 3 seemed like THE one defining game for the 360, I picked it up. I haven't played Halo in about 2 years, and my first impression is that it looks, plays, and feels exactly the same as I remember it when Halo 2 came out. Sure there's new maps and some new weapons, but overall it just doesn't scream innovation. The graphics are decent, but they really look more like a really good XBox 1 game rather than a pure next-gen 360 game. Compare this with GRAW or Gears of War and you see what I mean. Thats not to say its not a fun game at times...of course its the one game that everyone plays online, the co-op is cool and the solo campaign are fun to mess around with. And its always fun to splatter alien bad guys. But I guess they either hyped it up too much or I expected too much, because while its enjoyable at times, it just doesn't make me want to play it for any considerable length of time because it doesnt offer anything that I haven't seen before. Maybe its just shooter burnout, and Halo has become another bland franchise in the genre it helped to popularize. Wait until it goes platinum and pick it up for half price. Despite any not helpful votes from braindead fanboys, its not worth 60 bucks IMHO.

[Wiglaf]

I managed to rent this game yesterday. Besides the multiplayer over XBox Live, what else is there to this game that hasn't been made better on the PC or even another game? Nothing. This is a niche game, along with the second one, to a huge crowd of non video game players who like to play Halo 2 over X-Box Live. You know the type, they bought the X-Box 360 just for this game, they've more than likely never played any other game outside of the FPS genre, and they're also likely to 'love' a game before they even play it, thus removing any criticisms for when they do play it. (the latter being similar to the insane Final Fantasy crowd, but that's a different story)

However I must say something surprised me after this game came out: the reviews online for Halo 3. Besides reviewers giving 9.9s and all that jazz, their reviews usually imply a much lower score; and, hilariously enough, in many cases the reviews were given by those who have already shown themselves as being in the 'Halo' crowd. Money, hype, and biases are clearly at work in giving reviews and thus, how this game has been marketed as 'the best game ever and never will be beat'.

In summation, if you're looking for a good story, a great single player campaign, and a time consuming and complicated FPS then why are you reading this review? This 'game' is almost exactly like the other two.

[DrSpike]

Certainly some valid points there I think (from the PS3 fanboys omg )

[Wiglaf]

What do you think of the game?

[Asher]

I managed to rent this game yesterday. Besides the multiplayer over XBox Live, what else is there to this game that hasn't been made better on the PC or even another game? Nothing. This is a niche game, along with the second one, to a huge crowd of non video game players who like to play Halo 2 over X-Box Live.

How can you even post a review that starts like that?

The first view I find legit, the second one starts off with a pseudo-political rant about PC vs console gamers from a guy who managed to "rent" the game the day it came out (highly unlikely for a variety of reasons, the blockbusters here don't even have stock?). He also says he didn't like the first two games, yet he rushed out to try to rent Halo 3 on the first day? Yeah, right. He doesn't even discuss the game, it's just a rant about the review hype. That one is clearly a fake.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Asher
[Yeah, right. He doesn't even discuss the game, it's just a rant about the review hype. That one is clearly a fake.

Is the point about the review hype wrong? can one judge whether a review number is consistent with review text without actually playing the game?

[Patroklos]

Its Halo 2.5, I've played two and a half levels and am so underwhelmed I have not picked it back up in over 24 hours after spending sixty bucks on it.

In contrast I spent thirty bucks on Project Sylpheed and played it through twice nonstop over two days. The reason? It was new, Halo 3 is old. I love Halo, but this is the same game as 3 years ago.

[Asher]

Here are some more reviews you neglected to post, including the top rated review by one of Amazon's Top50 reviewers.

One of the best FPS' to ever see the light of day

To call Halo 3 eagerly anticipated is saying it quite lightly. Thanks to Bungie, the game has been more than worth the wait, and the end result is undoubtedly the best first person shooter to hit the Xbox 360 yet, and maybe ever. Picking up after the cliffhanger ending of Halo 2, Master Chief is in pursuit of the Covenant, who is hell bent and heading to Earth. You'll be happy to know first and foremost that Halo 3 improves on everything that has been seen in the previous two installments of the series, from the game's epic story to the overall gameplay mechanics. The story provides enough closure and answers many of the questions raised in Halo 2, and nicely ties things up while leaving enough room open if there ever are any more installments in the series. As for the gameplay, which is the reason enough to pick the game up even of the story were a disappointment, is everything you could hope for and more so besides. The single player campaign is lengthy enough to satisfy jaded gamers angry at the incredibly short length of Halo 2, but what even makes it more enjoyable is the four-player co-op mode, which can even be taken over Xbox Live. And yes, speaking of Xbox Live, the multiplayer options is where the real meat and potatoes of Halo 3 is to be had, but you already knew that. Besides the standard deathmatch modes, there are some new options, most notably Infection, which involves zombies trying to convert you. New map modes and options really let the player let loose with creativity as well, and result in an incredible amount of replay value that an FPS hasn't seen in quite some time. There are new weapons, brilliant graphics, solid voice acting, and the game isn't hard at all for new gamers to the series to pick up either. Yes, Halo 3 is finally here, and it's quite simply the best FPS to hit the Xbox 360 yet. Whether or not you'll prefer it over Gears of War is another story entirely, but needless to say, there is plenty here to keep you occupied for quite some time.

Halo 3 is a remarkable game. The story's lost a lot of its originality (go to alien world number 3, blow up Halo number 3), but the campaign regains that sense of... "epicness" that you took from Halo 1. Every level has something unique and fun about it, which means its always fun to go back on Legendary with a friend.

The battles are just massive. Instead of Halo 2's concept of "2 Brutes, an elite, and 3 grunts are plenty!" Halo 3 walks you unsuspectingly into a room filled with 8 brutes, 10 grunts, and 20 bugs. This was intimidating at first, but the health of enemies has been drastically decreased since Halo 2 meaning that you can empty an assault rifle clip into any enemy and you're pretty much guaranteed to kill it.

This brings me to my next point: weapons. Unlike the previous games where you had your pick of the "useless weapons," you know the ones you pick up because you ran out of rockets and can't really kill elites with a pistol so you have to kind of settle on the "better than nothing" needler; Halo 3's arsenal is useful against any and every enemy. The assault rifle from Halo 1, for example, isn't just a means of stunning your enemy until you can get close enough to bash them anymore. It actually takes down 3-4 grunts per clip if you use it correctly. On top of this, there is a new grenade type (stick grenades) that, when thrown, travel in a fairly straight line attaching themselves to whatever they hit. This is useful when attacking vehicles as the arc that the plasma grenades travel in can be hard to calculate. On top of that, there are now "powerups" you can pick up for use in combat. You can carry only one at a time and deploy them at any time using the X button. These powerups include portable plasma shields, trip mines, regenerators (heal your shields quickly), flares which blind your enemies, and several more.

Vehicles! It's just not halo if you can't blow people up with a tank and laugh at them helplessly fly through the air (like genocidal fireworks!). Bungie brings back all of the old classic vehicles (the ghost, the warthog, etc.) and adds several new ones. There's a modified version of the warthog that now carries 5 marines, there are new deadly Covenant "motorcycles" called choppers which can take out an enemy vehicle in one hit if hit head-on, and there's a new ATV version of the warthog as well designed to carry a driver and a passenger (at one point they deploy 5 of these with passangers wielding rocket launchers to take down a scarab tank--FUN!).

Overall a great product and fun game. I understand why people would be disappointed, but I never expected it to live up to its hype. It's still a great game and worthy of at least a rental.

You see what's different about this review and your second review? These people have clearly played the game.

FWIW, Halo 3 just set an entertainment industry record: $172M in revenue in the first 24 hrs.

[Asher]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
Is the point about the review hype wrong? can one judge whether a review number is consistent with review text without actually playing the game?

One cannot review the game without playing it. I don't care if you want to argue otherwise, you can do so with yourself.

[Asher]

Wiggy, is this your Halo 3 review? This is one of the gems who gave Halo 3 1/5:

All I can say is.....microsoft failed me for the last time. With all the hype surounding this game I felt like I was going to be part of history, playing halo 3. I was part of history the history of a crappy halo 2.5. The graphics are the same as halo 2 even worse at some times because the humans look like drugged out mutants. The gameplay is no different from halo 2 except for the equipment, and de-powering of nearly every human weopon. The pistol shoots as slow as the shotgun. Way to go bungie make the good weopons crappy and the crappy weopons better. What in the world is a mongoose???? The vehicles are just plain ridiculous and unpractical. I guess I'll drive my mangoose around hoping no one shoots me because I can't retaliate at all. True hardcore gamers will complete the campaign mode in less than 5 hours even on legendary mode. What a joke@!!! Lets make halo 3 shorter than halo and halo 2 smart huh???? The multiplayer is a joke. The maps are worse than the previous halos. Maps are uninspired and a chore to be in. So let's evaluate here shall we: the halo 3 graphics are even worse than halo 2 graphics, the gameplay is the same, the new weopons stink, pointless vehicles, and terrible multiplayer. Whom.....that gives halo 2.5 a 1 out of 5. I guess charging 60 dollars for a rehashed worse halo2 is a good proposition for some. But, I'm not a microsoft tool like them. I am a real gamer(one of the last few) who buy quality games. All in all I will throw my 360 at a bus so I can finally get entertainment watching it fall apart. Better than playing halo 3 atleast.

I wonder why the average is skewed?

[Wiglaf]

From that top 50 reviewer:

And yes, speaking of Xbox Live, the multiplayer options is where the real meat and potatoes of Halo 3 is to be had, but you already knew that.

Overall a great product and fun game. I understand why people would be disappointed, but I never expected it to live up to its hype. It's still a great game and worthy of at least a rental.

Everyone knows that single player Halo is not a good reason to buy the game. It is a rehash. Most amazon reviewers agree. Some posters here have already agreed. I agree based on the hour of it I saw. IGN agrees. IUp agrees. You are crazy to not agree.

Multiplayer is of course more debatable, but you're fooling yourself if you think single player is the awesome experience. You've seen it before. Dozens of times.

[Wiglaf]

I wonder why the average is skewed?

The game gets a lot of 5/5 from people who are just riding the hype, too.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Asher

One cannot review the game without playing it. I don't care if you want to argue otherwise, you can do so with yourself.

that wasnt my question. Of course a review without playing it is silly, I agree with you.

Im wondering if one can at least take issue with other reviews, that appear inconsistent between their rating and their text, without having played the game in question.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
Everyone knows that single player Halo is not a good reason to buy the game. It is a rehash. Most amazon reviewers agree. Some posters here have already agreed. I agree based on the hour of it I saw. IGN agrees. IUp agrees. You are crazy to not agree.

Red herring. WTF Wiglaf?

Halo 3 is the sum of all parts. You don't buy one part and not the other.

Multiplayer is of course more debatable, but you're fooling yourself if you think single player is the awesome experience. You've seen it before. Dozens of times.

I've NEVER said single player is "the awesome experience" or anything like it.

YOU are the one that made the statement that the majority of people buy Halo for the SP. I laughed at that, remember?

Get your arguments consistent.