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5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is the collectors edition of Bungie's Halo 3 game for the Xbox 360.
Like most of the previous collector's editions, this one will likely include an extra DVD with various "Making of" documentaries, and other goodies for your Xbox 360 console, like themes and gamerpics.

If you are into that kind of thing, then I would reccommend the extra $10 bucks for it.

Hype there is NO HYPE ITS THE REAL DEAL, and 1080P OMG!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 33 / 46
Date: September 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Since people are not reading the BOTTOM, I said Credit goes to X3F For this REVIEW, Just wanted to give people a review asap.

It's not often that we here at X3F get a chance to review a high profile title like Halo 3 before it hits store shelves, and it's an opportunity I'm not taking lightly. I've spent the last 48 hours (give or take a few hours for the requisite food and sleep) embedded deep within Halo 3, doing my best to categorize the experience as I went along. In this endeavor I have more or less failed. That's not to say I didn't enjoy what I played, because I absolutely did. It's just that with as many features as there are in Halo 3, there's so much stuff to test that 48 hours really isn't enough time to glean enough information and condense it into a review. Still, review it we must. Read on for a (hopefully) defining glimpse into Microsoft's great green hope.

First and foremost on any Halo fan's mind is the campaign. Even fans admit that Halo 2's campaign didn't quite get the attention it deserved. Even beyond the cliffhanger ending and the divisive inclusion of the Arbiter as a playable character -- which, for the record, I loved -- the campaign just didn't seem quite finished. So, Halo 3 has a lot to answer for. I won't spoil the story, but Halo 3 picks up exactly where Halo 2 left off: Cortana (the Master Chief's AI) is missing, the Prophet of Truth is leading an attack on earth, and the Master Chief is rocketing towards the planet on an ancient Forerunner ship. Again, we had to rush through it a bit to get it finished, but by the time the game draws to a close, all loose ends have been tied and questions answered. Old friends and enemies are reunited, alliances formed and broken, and plots are twisted. It's the stuff you'd expect in the closing chapter of a trilogy, with a few special tidbits thrown in for dedicated fans. Also, for those that are interested, locating the secret terminals throughout the game fleshes out the story of the Forerunners and the first firing of the Halo rings. The terminals are optional though, so if you're more interested in blasting baddies, feel free.

But how does it play, you ask? I plowed through the campaign on Heroic (with a few snippets of 4-player co-op on Legendary), and I can assuredly tell you that enemy AI is much improved, and sometimes a little scary. Brutes, ape-like monstrosities introduced in Halo 2, are definitely not the bullet sponges they used to be. This time around they are smart, mean, and, appropriately enough, brutal. One of their most fascinating behaviors is how they use equipment to their advantage. More than once, I found myself launching ordinance towards a pack of Brutes only to see one of them deploy a bubble shield before my shot had landed, rendering it useless. Oh, and watch out for Brutes with gravity hammers. They tend to carry equipment that makes them invulnerable for a few seconds. An invulnerable Brute with a gravity hammer is the stuff of nightmares.

Don't think that the Brutes are the star of the show though, every enemy, in one way or another, can be pretty terrifying. You see, not only are enemies smart, but they use sound tactical thinking. So, if you clear out a pack of Brutes and Grunts, don't celebrate right away, because there's a very good chance you're about to be sniped by a Jackal that you overlooked. Hell, even a pair of Jackals with carbines can be a pain, especially if you thought it would be a good idea to pack a short-range arsenal. And yes, believe it or not, even Grunts can put you away if you're not careful. Oh, and remember what I said about Brutes and nightmares? There is one Grunt behavior that's worse. I'll leave you to discover what exactly the behavior is, but rest assured you'll know it when you see it.

And then there's the Flood, the body-snatching enemy that's threatening to devour all life in the galaxy, Covenant and human alike. Now, I'm not saying one thing about the Flood. Nothing. You play. You find out. I'll just say this ain't your Granddaddy's Flood and leave it at that.

Honestly, my biggest complaint about the campaign is that it's over too quickly. It's not like the game has a bad ending, far from it, but I wanted more. Don't misunderstand, the game isn't too short, I just didn't want it to end.

Fortunately, the campaign is far from the end. This time around Bungie has included plenty of incentive to go back through the campaign multiple times. Of course there is online co-op, but there are also skulls to be found, campaign scoring achievements to be earned, as well as finding terminals you may have missed. Campaign, to put it simply, has been done right. Now, let's look at everything else.

Unfortunately, online matchmaking wasn't activated at the time of this review, but I did get to mess around with some local multiplayer. Those who participated in the beta have a good idea of what to expect. More or less, Halo 3's multiplayer is a refinement of the multiplayer in Halo 2. Certain things have been tweaked, most notably the re-invention of the assault rifle. Given a decent starting weapon, multiplayer is no longer about a mad dash for a better weapon the second you spawn. Sure, there are great weapons to find, but the assault rifle is a competent weapon in most situations. Another addition is the ability to edit all kinds of traits in the game. Traits can be given to all players or the team / player in the lead. How you use this is up to you. Want to boost everyone's shields, increase running speed, reduce gravity, and give everyone a gravity hammer and a Spartan laser? Go for it (it's pretty fun, actually). Multiplayer is now (literally) what you make of it, and it's a blast.

Now, if you really want to control how a game plays out, there's the Forge. Succinctly, Forge is some of the stupidest fun you can have with a game. At least, that's what it is at first. Forge allows players to create map variants by placing, deleting, and editing objects. These objects include simple things like scenery, weapons, and vehicles, but you can also edit more complex things like spawn points and CTF capture points. Inevitably though, your first instinct will be to find a flat surface, pile it with fusion coils, and launch a Mongoose to the moon. Follow that instinct. Follow it hard. You won't be disappointed. In fact, why not cue up the film of my first attempt right now? No, really, you can click here, find the movie titled "Boomtastic-X3F", click "Download to Halo 3", and once you pop Halo 3 into your 360, it will begin downloading automatically.

And that brings us to saved films. Basically, every game of Halo 3 you play, be it campaign, multiplayer, or Forge, is automatically saved as a film. Once you wrap up a game, simply head into the theater lobby and load it up. The game caches your recent sessions, but you'll have to manually save them if you want them permanently. During a saved film, players have complete control over the camera, allowing them to frame the best view of the action. If you see a particularly cool piece of action, you can record it as a smaller clip. Also, players can take static screenshots of the action on screen. In fact, every screenshot in this review was taken in game using the saved film feature.

And that, as briefly as I can put it, is Halo 3. Honestly, as long as this review is, it's really not long enough. Regardless of how players receive the story's conclusion, the amount of content contained in the Halo 3 package is just staggering. With campaign co-op, multiplayer, Forge, and saved films, the game offers plenty of bang for your gaming buck. Many will claim that it's not as pretty as Gears of War, and arguably they'd be right, but it was never meant to be.

I never intended to write a review filled with nothing but praise for Halo 3, but it's just damned hard to criticize. Sure, there are things I could point out that are disappointing. The graphics aren't perfect. You can't save clips in campaign. The story will be confusing to newcomers. Yeah, I can pick nits all day if I wanted to, and doubtless many Halo detractors will do just that, but the game is good. The conflicts are huge, the levels are vast, and the gameplay is solid. Not only that, but the extras ensure that players will still be playing Halo 3 for a long time to come. Love it or hate it, Halo is back on top, and it's probably there to stay.

credit goes to 3xf, but In 1080P from my own personal exp ITS JUST INSANE!

expected more

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 21
Date: September 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

this sure smacked me with disappointment. graphically its lingering in about 2005 or late 06(which makes sense cause it was delayed) and gameplay was the same as the first two. microsoft we love halo but i sure expected more salt in the soup this time.

AWESOME!!!! Just what the fans wanted!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 16
Date: September 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Forget the sniveling sour grapes Sony lovers posting their grievances. This game is soooo much fun. It is Halo as Halo fans want to experience it. Beautiful, fun and perfectly paced. Spent all night playing and will play again and again. So many ways to approach each level. Multiplayer options that blow anything you've ever seen away. Worth the wait, worth every pennny. A+++ game.

Damaged companies deliver damaged games....

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 18
Date: September 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Badly scratched limited edition does not even play....brought it back to Wal-Mart...every limited edition that they have is badly scratched.....heard that Microsoft know about this and they did nothing...just delivered a damaged game to the trusting public. When are we going to hold Mocrosoft accountable.

Halo 3 Years

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: September 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Halo 3, practically a gamer's messiah. Halo has been one the most important video game franchises since 2001. Yes, we know that. and now after all of those late night frenzies in Halo and 2, the finale is upon us...

Obviously expectations were high. The Xbox 360 riding on this thing, and the whole marketing campaign and all. Anyways, when it all cam down to it, after taking my disc out of the collector's edition case (Middle edition), I put it in, and it worked. Phew. Then we get to the menue. it's slim and organized. Campaign, multiplayer, map editor, filmaker, that's it. So I start campaign...

The cutscenes weren't that good, but they weren't that bad. and we see the same Halo we've played for years, and it's well... Raher cartoonish! The graphics are good, don't get me wrong, but they just have an airless artificiality about them. And it feels like your playing a port of Halo 2, rather than a Halo game, it just is "okay." That's really the only way I can describe it. The new weapons and vehicles are fun, but the level design it both campaign and multiplayer let me down. The campaign has poor level design, with linear small areas, and the controls are changed, as is the HUD, making the expereince a little more difficult. And the multiplaer levels, are just better looking, less maneuverable counterparts of Halo 2 ones, minus a few. so there are many obvious things that bring it down.

And for all their efforts, the story is presented as well as Halo 1 (but better than 2).

Still, it is a game that can give you many little bits of fun. Xbox Live will let us enjoy it for years.

Overall, Halo 3 is good, for the most part a superb version of halo 2 (+ more) that just turns out to be a bit of a letdwon. For once I can't support a Halo title for game of The year.

Return of the King

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Halo 3 - Circa 2007

GOOD:
- Four-player online (or offline) co-op Gameplay allows two; three, or four players play through the game from start to end. A co-op player can come into the game at any time and leave at any time (note only one of you will play as the Master Chief, while another will play as the Arbiter, and the other two players will be Elites that work with humans)
- Great looking graphics and animation, that look even better then Halo 2, F.E.A.R. and just as good as Bioshock, while these graphics might not look as good as Gears of War do to some people these graphics still are some of the best seen to date.
- Intense multiplayer action online through Xbox Live with matches as small as one on one and as big as 16 players (and offline with out using Xbox Live using either spilt screen, or system link). Halo 3 is set up similar to Halo 2 in the sense that you're given a rank when you play multiplayer (this rank can go up or down at any time) this rank is representative of your skill and your matched with others of your skill type, that way new unskilled players and hardcore veterans will not often play against one another, unless they make a special match themselves that ignores rank.

BAD:
- Confusing plot to new players of this franchise - Playing Pervious games and read the Halo Novels will fill you in on the details, if you are incline to learn them.
- No Clan Support (like in Halo 2) - This might get fixed in a future patch
- Game is considered short to some (Campaign Story Mode).

IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- A Sci-Fi First Person Shooter with quick pacing and vehicle combat.
- Co-op and online versus/team games is the big draw here.
- NEW MODE: Forge is a mode that lets you edit all the maps in Halo 3, while you cannot rebuild the maps themselves you can in this mode, add and take away any and all of the objects from vehicles and guns to spawning points and flag zones. This is all done in real time and you can invite friends to this mode while your customizing the map(s), they can play a multiplayer game while your doing this (instead of just waiting for you) and if you want you can forgo editing the map and join the game at hand as either a player or the map editor (who looks like 343 Guilty Spark), while playing as the map editor you can still add and take away any and all objects from vehicles and guns to spawning points and flag zones any time you want.
- NEW MODE: Theater Mode is a video editor that lets you record and play back any and all matches from Campaign, Multiplayer, and Forge modes from the point of view of any player either in first person or third person (even in a orbit-cam where the camera circles around the player) all in real time (you can also pause this at any time as well as fast forward and rewind), even use your camera to fly around the match and see the match from any angle you want, Don't forget you must save your videos before you turn off the game or you will lose said videos. Also you can take a picture at any time and save it to your Xbox 360 then download your picture at Bungie.net

GAME ITS MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- Halo 2 (Xbox)
- Halo (Xbox)
- Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
- Bioshock (360)
- Gears of War (360)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- There are bonus items scattered through the Campaign Story Mode called Skulls getting these "Skulls" will make the game harder (by doing things like turning off radar for the rest of the Campaign Mode your playing it) but will also greatly increase your meta game score for the Campaign Mode.
- There are two different limited collectors editions of this game. One is called the limited edition, which comes in a metal tin and has a bonus disc (with behind the scene videos and such) and also comes with an art book. While the other limited edition (called Legendary edition) you will find an art book a mini poster two bonus DVDs (with behind the scene videos and such as well as a collection of all the cut scenes form Halo and Halo 2 and themes you can download to your 360) And the it comes with a plastic Master Chief Helmet to keep your DVDs in (Helmet as big a volley ball).
- At Bungie.net you can sign up and pay a small fee to upgrade your Halo 3 account (default is free) to hold more space on their serves for your videos/pictures/clips that you made.

To respond to all of Bungie's inveracities would take up too much room and time.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 8
Date: September 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I would like to address the most malicious ones, though. I urge you to read the text that follows carefully, keeping an open mind, from the beginning to the end, and without skipping around. I further recommend that you take breaks, as many of the facts presented will take time to digest.

We must let Bungie know, in no uncertain terms, that it has done inestimable damage to everything around it. Those who claim otherwise do so only to justify their own contemptible conclusions. If we are powerless to make some changes here, it is because we have allowed Bungie to keep a close eye on those who look like they might think an unapproved thought. My vision that some day, people everywhere will say "no" to Bungie's irritating roorbacks is an inspiring dream. Unfortunately, reality always awakens me and reminds me that I've heard Bungie say that you and I are inferior to mindless lumpenproletariats. Was that just a slip of the lip or is Bungie secretly trying to render unspeakable and unthinkable whole categories of beliefs about power? The complete answer to that question is a long, sad story. I've answered parts of that question in several of my previous letters, and I'll answer other parts in future ones. For now, I'll just say that it has been said that those who think that it has the trappings of deity should think again. I, in turn, claim that it is doing everything in its power to make me abandon all hope. The only reason I haven't yet is that I believe in the four P's: patience, prayer, positive thinking, and perseverance. Lastly, for those who read this review, I hope you take it to heart and pass this message on to others.

gameplay- 0/5

sound- 1/5

graphics- 1/5

replay value- 0/5

I BELIEVE!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 16
Date: September 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Since the days of Halo 1 & 2 on the original Xbox, I have found the Halo series slightly over hyped and somewhat boring. Especially when compared to other online FPS's such as Counter-Strike / Quake / Unreal. So you can rest assured, this review was not written by a Halo "fanboy" or fanatic.

Now in 2007, Halo 3 is finally upon us and all I can say is I now do "believe" this is the best in the Halo series and will live up to its hype.

Pros:
I think the absolute number one feature for Halo 3 is the online play A SOLID 10/10. It is incredibly stable, easy to use and it just plain works! Within 10 minutes of inserting the game disc, my buddy and I were squaring off in battle over XBOX live along with nearly half a million other players! Voice over IP is loud and clear with an occasional echo, no lagging or stalling even on release day! The interface is absolutely beautiful. I'm sure things will be even further improved over time by online patches and updates.

The graphics are a 9/10. I have seen better effects & textures (BioShock, BF 2142, etc.) but all in all, I am very pleased. (Note: I am running an Xbox 360 elite w/ HDMI on a LG 32" 1080i display)

I give the sounds effects and music a 8/10, nothing really mindblowing.

Fun factor is a perfect 10/10! It really is addicting.

Single player story mode works great too. Although it is not the true "focus" of the game, single player mode will provide great entertainment when you're seeking a change of pace. It's somewhat short, but has excellent replay value. And YES you can play to story mode online with friends!

Cons:

I honestly haven't yet found many flaws in the GAME itself. If I were to be picky, I would say the graphics and sound effects "could" be improved further. Also, due to numerous reports of scratched discs in the Limited Editions, Microsoft was careless in its packaging method. I would say 95% of all the LE versions have loose discs and are scratched. (my copy was perfect though because I purchased it locally at Be$t buy and gently shook all the cases to listen for loose discs.)

Halo 3 is a true winner for noobies and veterans of the Halo series period. I think this game will offer endless entertainment for quite some time and the Limited Edition is $70 well spent. You get quite a few extra goodies with the LE, such as a metal case, mini-hard cover book, and lots of extras on the bonus disc. For a mere $10 additional dollars, it is well worth it.

Just remember, you may want to purchase the Limited Edition in a retail store so you can listen for loose discs. With some careful searching, you can find one that does Not contain scratched discs.

Goodluck everyone and game on!
5 stars!

I Finished the Fight with a smile on my face!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: September 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game truly re-captured the spirit of the first game's campaign mode. If you were let down by Halo 2's campaign, fear not, HALO 3 makes up for it in spades! Playing campaign with 3 friends is also amazing. Also, if you're in it for the multi-player, you won't be disappointed. The new maps are great, and the weapons are well balanced and it seems like they might have a new solution for laggers with a "new host select" option when it starts to lag a bit. So far it's been great! Okay, off to collect more skulls and finish it in Legendary mode.

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