[Guns_LotsOfGuns]

So, what did you make of Halo 3 then? Post your impressions, and please leave a vote in our poll.

A 10 should only be given for a landmark game that sets new rules, a 9 for a truly excellent game without flaw, and an average game that does things right but nothing special should get a 5 (not a 7 or 8 like some would have you believe).

Please only vote if you've played enough of the game to comment.

[MOD COMMENT] We have had spoiler votes for this game now from people who have no record of playing the game. Infractions may be given for such actions if you are perceived to be poll spoiling.

-----------------------------------------------
Guns:

Finally just finished the campaign on heroic, i wanted to finish it all before i gave an opinion, also wanted the "zomg i got Halo 3 a week early" effect to fade away before i gave a review, but im all done now so here we go.

There will be no spoilers ahead so read on without fear!

When you first boot up the game and hear that music it feels good, real good, ill preface my comments by saying you could probably class me as a Halo fanboy, played all the games read all the books and soaked up every little snippet i could find about the game up until this point. Taking that into account you can appreciatte how hard it is for me to say that at first the word i would use to describe Halo 3 would be underwhelming.

Microsoft have hyped this game to the moon and back, twice! The beginning of the game is quite slow paced, we dont get too much story, its seems as if we are being eased in, which having finished the game and being able to see the whole experience in context makes sense.

To me this game is very much like a movie, Bungie know they have something big here and they are making sure they make it the best experience possible, from the sweeping orchestral score, to the epic battles with multiple enemies.

They have used the last game to completely flesh out all of the Halo canon, the UNSC now have flying vehicles, mongooses and spartan laser, the brutes now have a full ranges of weapons and vehicles, this gives the game a lot of variety in weapons and ways to play.

And the play is what this game is all about, i said i was underwhelmed before, around an hour in i hit a few set peices and i got a nice chunk of story cutscene, and all of a sudden i realised i was sucked in , hours flew by as i wanted to get to the next section, ive found the game to be well paced, with varitions in objectives and missions, you get the FPS, the driving sections, all of it presented in a truly epic way everytime, to avoid spoilers i wont describe any of the set peices, but suffice to say there are many which are satisfying to complete.

Ultimatly its the Halo you know and love with new things to do and very nice graphics, alot has been said about the graphics not looking amazing, i agree they arent Gears of War, but on Gears you never had dozens of enemies, multiple vehicles in huge battlefields, and never once did i notice the frame rate drop or any other technical issues. And it doesnt look bad by any stretch in places i was genuinely impressed, but at the end of the day its no COD4 or Gears and its not trying to be.

When it comes down to it, like the beta said this game is "Love Bungie", this game is made for the fans, its more of the Halo you know and love and i dont think fans will be disappointed, as always those who arent fans but get wrapped up in the hype may not see what is so special, however the amount of game presented here and the amount of polish applied cant but be admired.

That being said new comers are taken into account with an adaptive help system kicking in if you having trouble and frequent checkpoints to make dying less frutrating, i will advise anyone who has played a few FPS to go for Heroic, i managed to complete it comfortably in a couple of days, i have left legendary for coop when everyone else gets the game next week.

Obviously theres a lot more to this game than just singleplayer, i dont need to go through it suffice to say theres alot of game here, they seem to have achieved what everyone wanted, the Singleplayer of Halo 1 (again without spoiling there are alot of nods) and the multiplayer of Halo2.

No doubt i will be playing the multi for a long time to come, and with all the single player options i be getting very familiar with the campaign.

All the way through this review i used the word experience, and thats exactly what this game is, from the menu to the multi, the myriad of options and customisations, this is an experience, one you can create and play anyway you want, from the weapons you choose in single player, to the game and map types you create in Forge.

This truly is a "Best Of" version of Halo, you can replace my underwhelmed with overwhelmed. Halo is back.

10

[scor81]

I haven't quite finished single player campaign yet but I love it, however nothings perfect is it so 9 out of 10 for me!

[mr ooops]

Loving this, single player im loving the level design, Ai seems to be much better this time. only 2 levels in so still along way to go for me.

had a bash on forge, I say bash a quick 30min play with 3 friends ended up being a couple of hour session.

mp, not managed to be on when matchmakings been up and running, but looking forward to it, seems to be more tweeks you can now make to this so should keep MP going for along while.

for me its a 9 out of 10 (so far) if MP is as good aas im hoping that may increase to a 10/10

[Anotherlimey]

Originally Posted by scor81

I haven't quite finished single player campaign yet but I love it, however nothings perfect is it so 9 out of 10 for me!

I think to many times people become to tied up in games hype, If you say a 9 is your respone to the game and reading Guns review im sure we are all in for a treat

The 360 is delivering big style at the moment, So many good games to play and look forward to, I have a PS3 but if im honest its quite dull games wise, Just wish some of the die hard PS3 owners would give the 360 a chance as it really is the gamers choice as we stand

[Tiger Feet]

Its a 9.75 for me. When you take everything into consideration, the single player, multiplayer, map editors (forge), all the video stuff, all the stats on bungie.net, the music etc etc - This is truely awesome!!!




(If Gamespot give this less than 9.0 im writing to my mp! )

[Guns_LotsOfGuns]

Ok everyones allowed thier own opinion, but minineil i would love to hear your opinion on why this game deserves a 2.

Seriously that bad for you?

Again its your opinion and your welcome to it but an explanation would help to clarify your reasons for your score.

[Lateralus]

IGN say their reveiw is gonna be up at about 8pm tonite anyone whos intersted?

[Guns_LotsOfGuns]

Originally Posted by Guns_LotsOfGuns

Ok everyones allowed thier own opinion, but minineil i would love to hear your opinion on why this game deserves a 2.

Seriously that bad for you?

Again its your opinion and your welcome to it but an explanation would help to clarify your reasons for your score.

Actually never mind, silly me i thought people would have actually played the game before giving a score

[Tiger Feet]

Originally Posted by Guns_LotsOfGuns

Actually never mind, silly me i thought people would have actually played the game before giving a score

Muhahahahahahaaaa

[danvitale]

Originally Posted by steveo46

IGN say their reveiw is gonna be up at about 8pm tonite anyone whos intersted?

The press embargo expires at 8pm (mid day Pacific) so most of the gaming sites out there should be having their reviews up from then onwards

[Munkey Boy]

Originally Posted by Guns_LotsOfGuns

Actually never mind, silly me i thought people would have actually played the game before giving a score

Yep, quite right, he's never even played Halo 3. Says alot really and shows you'll get some scores here from people not even interested in playing it. Fair to say, such spoiler scores will be left of of the final reckoning however.

[JagoPlasma]

is forge a map? and is it the only one you can edit? if it is then thats a bit pants

[Anotherlimey]

Originally Posted by Guns_LotsOfGuns

Ok everyones allowed thier own opinion, but minineil i would love to hear your opinion on why this game deserves a 2.

Seriously that bad for you?

Again its your opinion and your welcome to it but an explanation would help to clarify your reasons for your score.

I suggest Minineli is maybe a PS3 fan and therefore is just trying to be controvertial, I too would be interested to here his views if and when he ever does play the game

[Guns_LotsOfGuns]

Originally Posted by JagoPlasma

is forge a map? and is it the only one you can edit? if it is then thats a bit pants

Forge is a mode, within Forge you can edit several maps.

[Munkey Boy]

Forge is the multiplayer map editor - you can edit any of the maps as much as you want, except for the level geometry. There's some good articles over at Bungie.net.

[JagoPlasma]

ah cheers for that, was just looking on bungies site but its not easy to find anything!

[Sega Mega Dave]

I must admit it's a brilliant game and the only other game in recent times to have this effect on me was RS:V.

Visually i think it is superb and the depth of the game is fantastic too.

Will complete single player and then i'll drill the multiplayer until Pro Evo comes out.

Recommend to anyone!

[runam0k]

Whoever gave it a 2 should be banned. lol

[Raoul_Duke]

Originally Posted by Anotherlimey

Just wish some of the die hard PS3 owners would give the 360 a chance as it really is the gamers choice as we stand

More fool them then. I don't want to rag on the PS3 here (seriously I don't) but 6 months (?) after it's release and the best thing that can be said about the machine is "it can play Blu-Ray discs" it's hardly a good enough reason to spend £400 IMO.

[KevD]

Cant really cast my vote just yet as only had an all too short go on a friends disc. Done the first couple of levels on legendary, the graphics are really impressive and the game felt great to play (have to get used to new controls) and the story looks good.

Is it just me or is the game harder than the previous ones, although it was legendary it was more difficult than I remember the first 2 being on the same setting.

Didnt enjoy the multiplayer too much just yet as all new maps leave a little panicy (nothing like the familiaraty of some maps ) but once I rack up a few games on Live I am sure this will be cured

[littlealex]

MiniNeil clearly didn't realise his PS Fanboy troll vote wouldn't be anonymous. Unless he'd care to pop on to here and explain himself.

Personally, I doubt I'll finish campaign for a few months as I'll be playing multiplayer non stop from here on in - if the game had no single player and was twice the price I'd still buy it. From the brief muck about I had on Forge yesterday, I fully expect to give it an 11 once Matchmaking starts up and my friendslist get their copies.

[D@Z]

Seems 'minineil' named his gamertag after his old lad

Can his 'contribution' not be removed as it will ruin the result of the poll for those of us who actually care.

[Munkey Boy]

Originally Posted by D@Z

Can his 'contribution' not be removed as it will ruin the result of the poll for those of us who actually care.

Sadly not - it will not count towards the average score posted in the stickied leaderboard though, don't worry. He got a warning for his poll spoiling too.

[Raoul_Duke]

Originally Posted by D@Z

Seems 'minineil' named his gamertag after his old lad

Can his 'contribution' not be removed as it will ruin the result of the poll for those of us who actually care.

At least he's consistent with his "controversial" views!

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showt...88#post5534188

[CAS FAN]

To be honest, this game more than any other will attract the fanboys who give it a 10 without question (because it's Halo) and the haters who give it a silly low score (say 2 or 3).

Originally Posted by Raoul_Duke

At least he's consistent with his "controversial" views!

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showt...88#post5534188

Indeed, he's clearly just a troll. Obviously he's not a great deal else to do apart from trying to get a reaction from folk on an Internet forum.

[Munkey Boy]

Originally Posted by CAS FAN

To be honest, this game more than any other will attract the fanboys who give it a 10 without question (because it's Halo) and the haters who give it a silly low score (say 2 or 3).

Know what you mean CAS, but they should at least play the thing before displaying their fanboy colours! Voting on a game they haven't played isn't fair game really.

[Shivers]

Lol TeamXBOX review went up for about 4 minutes...then they took it down again because it was too early, It was given a 9.7. At 8pm UK time all major gaming sites are posting their reviews so the official word will be out very soon.

[CAS FAN]

Originally Posted by Munkey Boy

Know what you mean CAS, but they should at least play the thing before displaying their fanboy colours! Voting on a game they haven't played isn't fair game really.

Agree 100% Munks. I think that as far as 360 games go, you should have to have the game showing on your gamercard before you can vote. If not the vote should be classed as void.

[Chiversboots]

Originally Posted by Shivers

Lol TeamXBOX review went up for about 4 minutes...then they took it down again because it was too early, It was given a 9.7. At 8pm UK time all major gaming sites are posting their reviews so the official word will be out very soon.

I'm supposed to be doing a bit of work for next week but I can't tear myself away from the net. Now i've heard the halo reviews are out in 20 minutes i reckon i'll have to wave goodbye to the work!

[Raoul_Duke]

Originally Posted by Shivers

Lol TeamXBOX review went up for about 4 minutes...then they took it down again because it was too early, It was given a 9.7. At 8pm UK time all major gaming sites are posting their reviews so the official word will be out very soon.

How quickly would Rotten Tomatos collate all the reviews for their score, anyone know?