Seriously thinking of leaving Ciao now, just too many problems, too often......off by crimbo, you wi...
Seriously thinking of leaving Ciao now, just too many problems, too often......off by crimbo, you will find me on another well known site, same member name.
Member since:22.06.2004
Reviews:153
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Halo 3 is, believe it or not a sequel to Halo and Halo 2. The original Halo was fantastic, no doubt about it, the 2nd was good but not great, so when my 13 year old son persuaded me to buy Halo 3 I was a little dubious that it might be 'more of the same'. Well, it is, but sooo much fun.
Halo 3 starts off with the usual cinematic clip, and nice it is to and we see 'Master Chief ' on his way back to Earth for the final fight to save the planet and Cortana. Don't worry the characters, whilst from previous Halo's soon become familiar. This time around we also see a previous 'baddy' the Arbiter joining forces with the Master Chief. Their mission, simple, kill the 'Flood' (aliens) and save the Earth.
There are several main characters which you soon become familiar with. The Master Chief is the main man, an all conquering, almost indestructible hero in a cool protective suit who can drive anything, fly anything, and use any weapon.....you are he. He has a couple of marine freinds, Sgt Johnson and Miranda who you see a fair few times throughout in helpful roles. The Arbiter is leader of a previously hostile alien race that have now thrown their lot in with humans. Cortana is, well, she's like a hologram and a friend/guide for Master Chief, kind of like HAL with funky clothes and a sexy voice, not to mention a figure to die for, even if she is a only a few inches high. The Prophet the boss of the Covenant (more aliens, baddies).
Game play: Simple, listen to the instructions at the beginning
of each 'chapter' and do your stuff, which generally means killing all baddies in your path, changing weapons and being crafty, and sometimes driving/piloting vehicles. The game is quite linear, you get through each chapter on the way to finding and saving Cortana who has been captured, then you kill all remaining aliens and get the F**K out of there. It is hard, of that there is no doubt, save often, be warned. There are also a fair few bits that make you jump. The AI is pretty good, especially in the more advanced settings, the enemie hides, gangs up and even tricks you. The controls etc. are very easy to pick up.
Aliens: Grunts, dead easy to kill, but there are loads of them, they are also quite stupid but make some cool noises when attacked and have some great sayings. You nearly always get brutes and brute captains with grunts, bit faster and harder to kill, no great shakes though. Jackals, are a bit harder to face as the 'snipe', not to well, but they take a fair bit of damage and have shields to boot. There are bizzare mosquito like robots called 'drones', easy to kill, but very agile and come in hoards so can literally overwhelm you, alone they cause little damage, when there are hundreds you are in trouble. Hunters are really hard to kill as they are tough, have lots of armour, better weapons and are very aggressive. The 'Flood' are kind of zombies that evolve into different creatures, from big lumbering characters that are easy to kill, though 'heads' and 'eggs' that explode sending hundreds of annoying and damaging eating like little creatures at you to these kind of wall huggers that fire damaging 'bolts' at you. Oh yea, and there are horrid spider/scorpion things.
Just as well that there are loads of Weapons: In order (I think): Pistol Assault rifle Combat/battle rifle Machine gun Shotgun Sniper rifle Rocket launcher (my favourite) Spartan Laser There are also 3 types of grenades: the bog standard freag grenade, plasma grenades that stick to folk, and spike grenades which do pretty much the same.
These are just the weapons at your disposal as a human, there are also lots of alien weaponry which I could, but won't list as you will get the idea that I am a bit of a psycho. Many of the weapons can be 'dual wielded' (one in each hand) and you can carry a max of two weapons.....unless you get to a turret which you can detach and use as well, there you go I AM starting to sound like a psycho.
And there are vehicles that you can acsess and drive/fly: Mongoose Warthog Hornet Scorpion Ghost Banshee Chopper W raith Shade This for me is so much fun, piloting a Hornet (basically an attack helicopter) is just brill', and of course, apart from the Mongoose, they all have weapons!!
Also, I need to mention that there are various objects and 'power ups' to use from the invisibility sphere which, surprise, surprise can render you invisible for a short time, to various other 'newbies' like a 'bubble shield', all good stuff.
Fantastic, realistic graphics and sounds: Blades of grass, shadows, chinks of light, rippling water, blood, the graphics are phenomenal, really, they blew me away, and I thought the graphic on Halo 1 were good, this is special. Sounds are very good too, clunks and bumps where they should be, explosions, ripping flesh and plenty of 'comedy' moments and sounds. The overall scenery is breathtaking and not just close at hand. With the 'scope' on sniper rifles and the like one can see a fair distance, and the close effects lose none of the detail.
Multiplayer (live) is great too, though I have only tried it once or twice at a friends house, many people bought Halo 3 just for this and I can see why, you just, join in'. Personally I prefer split screen battles with my son at home on one of the many maps, okay he generally wins, there are many 'ways' of playing from 'slayer' where you just set out to kill each other to 'capture the flag', do I need to explain that?
Okay, my verdict. I love/loved it. The game itself took me three weeks, at a daily play of no less than an hour, to complete. I am still playing quite a lot on multiplayer with my son, and I understand there will be a new 'map pack' soon which will give us more to do.
There is a nice ending which makes it possible (betcha!) that a Halo 4 will be released one day.
Game play 9/10. Would have got a 10/10 except the last scene/chapter which is a little long for my liking. Graphics 10/10 Sound(s) 9/10 Weapons 10/10 AI 8/10 (could improve a bit) Vehicles 11/10, what fun. Cinematics 9/10
Play, but be prepared to lose hours, days, weeks of your life.
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E from me. i think i have lost closer to months/years of my life playing halo/2/3. They are amazing, especially on live. The storylines for the games could do with some work. Great review, i bet your son was pleased!!
TheWizardsSleeve 24.02.2008 15:05
great review Paul
tom1clare 23.02.2008 16:09
Top notch review (though you don't really need to list weapons/vehicles - just mention the important ones). Never played a Halo yet as I don't have an XBox or 360 - sounds ace, though I'll have to remain contented with TimeSplitters 3 for now ;-) tom
The Halo games were always the best reason to by an Xbox and now the final part in the ... more
initial trilogy of ground breaking first person shooters is set to raise the bar for all Xbox 360 games. Well known for their secrecy, Bungie have officially reveale...
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The Halo games were always the best reason to by an Xbox and now the final part in the ... more
initial trilogy of ground breaking first person shooters is set to raise the bar for all Xbox 360 games. Well known for their secrecy, Bungie have officially reveale...
Postage & Packaging: £1.94 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: So many features! Best Multiplayer ever. Great single player Disadvantages: Xbox Live really recommended. Graphics not as good as Gears of War.
petebrolly 03.10.2007 (21.10.2008)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Halo 3 (Xbox 360)
Advantages: Great Campaign, new fee of the game, Firefight Mode is Awesome, Brilliant soundtrack, No flood Disadvantages: Damage Indicators are Irritating, AI system a bit wonky, New Gameplay isn't For Everyone,
Moscardino 27.09.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Halo3: ODST (Xbox360)
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Feb 22nd, 2008
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