MEMBER PROFILE FOR MegaHerz X360
Average Overall Score Given: 8.50000 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 4
Reviews
Halo 3
Overall: It wasn't a long time ago, but I still remember all the excitement and fun I had playing my old Xbox. I don't know why, but I never tough of buying an Xbox 360 since now. Maybe it was because of the heat problem or I was probably too busy playing Battlefield 2142 on my PC. But times has past now and my PC is not powerful enough to meet the minimum requirement for game like Bioshock or Oblivion, so I decide to buy an Xbox 360 and get back in the best community and gaming experience I had in my life. The reason I bought and Xbox 360 was Halo 3. I so wanted to finish the fight that I spend nearly 800 $ on an Xbox 360 just to play this game. The result was really disappointing. Don't get me wrong, the Xbox 360 is a master piece of hardware technology, but I think that Bungie failed to demonstrate that Halo is an epic trilogy with the last chapter. Overall, Halo 3 offers a good visual engine and an amazing soundtrack, but falls short in leaving you with a fresh experience and give us one poorly encoded multiplayer.In Halo 3, you are John 117, also knows as Master Chief, an advanced bio-genetic soldier. In this third chapter, you need to find the Ark and stop The Prophet Truth from activating the remaining halo.
Gameplay: I want to apologize for every spoiler I will say in this review. First, let is talk about the collector edition of Halo 3. Your bonus material for the additional fee is really nice, but does not worth the ten dollar you must spend for it. I had fun watching the video where we are seeing Bungie's employee working and playing the warthog mini game, but some part of the bonus disc is totally useless and not fun at all. As an example, the Nat/Router video is worthless and never helps me with the lag problem. Finally, when I bought my first Halo collector edition, the game disc was unstable inside the metal box and it became unreadable by my Xbox 360.
Now, we are going to talk about the single player. The campaign is a ten hour experience that included nine levels, who are also playable in cooperative. Personally, I think it was a huge let down. Anybody beside me think that those brutes are not fun to kill compare to the elites ? In my mind, they should have never made the change in Halo 2. If we are talking about the level design, I can say that most of them are tedious and boring. I had so many difficulties to find friend to play on co-op for the Cortana, Tsaro Highway and Floodgate level. Those levels add only a glimpse of explanation to the story and they are short and uninspired. At least, we got excellent and challenging level like The Covenant and The Ark. Does anyone also agree with the fact that Halo 3 race at the end is too much like the first Halo ? I think the last level feel completely rushed. They must have been out of idea by the time they reach the end of the game. The end was also a cliff-hanger. I personally cry at master chief's funeral. A hero who sacrificed himself for earth is the biggest hero ever been created for a video game. But the after-credit cut scene ruined everything. They also used the scarab so many times in the game that I became sick of seeing it. Of course, two scarabs on the same screen was awesome, but the fact that you beat four of them in the campaign reduces the fun of killing one of them.
Does it is me or Bungie focussed too much on vehicle for the entire game ? I spend most of my time driving from point A to point B with stupid teammate who don't know how to shoot or drive. In fact, Halo 3 delivers the worst artificial intelligent ever been created, but only for your allies. I know that we are the last hope of humanity, but when you saw those marines in action, you will completely understand the whole sentence. They always dies for nothing, they are useless except if you want some action and you can't let them drive if you want to survive. The arbiter was a major plot in Halo 2, but he is nothing more than a punching dummy for the covenant in the third chapter. He should be you alter-ego, but he is truly lacking of skill in this sequel. Otherwise, the enemy artificial intelligent is nearly perfect. In many moments, you are going to see the enemies flank between your safe positions, or if they are in danger, they will retreat and regroup.
A nice feature is that you can do the whole campaign with four player co-op. Maybe they should have made the game really much harder, but it's still a nice addition. Did I mention that you can use item in the single player campaign ? In my mind, the bubble shield, the portable shield and the anti-shield are amazing, but they forget to add some of them in the multiplayer and they should really have made more than just 4-5 items. Forge is a weapon, vehicle, object and spawn editor for Halo 3. This is a really good addition to the franchise, but you can only use it in a custom game. I had a blast with this feature and I am proud that Bungie made it. In Halo 3, you can also recorded and share mini-clip from the multiplayer and single player portion of the game. This feature is incredible. In fact, every first person shooter or games should have one, but for now on, Bungie is the only ones who made it. So I gave credit to Bungie for this innovation. I will never get tired of seeing a video with my friend in a killing spree or in a funny moment.
The biggest disappointment for me is the multiplayer. The amount of lag ruined the entire game. I had so many frustrating moments with lag that I put Halo 3 away for a while. Some people were able to kill someone with one battle riffle ammo and others, like me, will take two clips to kill someone even if I shot in the head. Some poor encoding is also a major problem in Halo 3. Most of the time, my sniper shot never kill the target even with a headshot. I saw so many videos on YouTube showing people do 4 to 7 headshot in a row on the same person and he never kills the guy. It is obvious that the sniper rifle is broken. The shotgun aim is also broken. Many times, the guy is not even aiming at you and he will kill you not matter how you aimed. The new melee system is also ridiculous. Who ever got the most health win, no matter who melee first. I really want the old melee back at all cost. Bungie should also include an anti-camping system. In any type of game, people are always camping. The team, who collect the most useful weapon and camp, win almost all the time. All maps have been design with camping spot that are difficult to take by strength or skill. You can also customize your character in Halo 3. The tag is awesome, the armour is really unique and cool. Too bad that colored armor is useless except in rumble pit. On ranked match, it could have been good to put more different weapon. The flame-thrower is only in one map, there is no flame grenade, the mauler is too much powerful and please makes the over shield (aka over-hit) work. Another problem is that you have too many grenades. A total of six grenades can be picking up and most people will throw everything they have on you. There is even people who throwing grenade first and then tried to kill you after. Grenade abuse is a cheap way to play and should be banned or restricted by Bungie.
Graphics: This kind of visual can be easily seen on an old Xbox if you play on a standard TV. On high definition, the game shines, but never outstands or achieves any visual standard. Halo 3 will never redefined first person shooter visual in my mind. I think that Halo 3 is more like Halo 2.5 than a brand new game, even on the gameplay department. There is only more action on-screen and a more decent framerate. I also notice that some cut scenes are horrible. In Cortana beginning scene, you can clearly see a picture as a background. Also, The Prophet Of truth skin is still ugly as hell. Finally, most of the physic collision detection doesn’t work. I get slam by a hammer and I went through the whole map, the warthog can fly with a jumping pad and master chief armour is floating went he died in the water.
Audio: Halo's soundtrack is a master piece. When I hear the main song, I always compare it to Superman or Star Wars main theme, because it will never get old. The possibility to play the whole game in french or IN a different language is amazing. The problem remains in the sense of some sentence because some translations are poorly done. There is also one or two place where there is no sound at all or no translation. Otherwise, the grunt sentence are hilarious, I laugh so many times.
Suggestions: Fix the sniper, fix the shotgun, I want the old melee system back, less lag, more item in multiplayer, anti-camp system, reduce the number of grenade and a brand new campaign in an xbox live update.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
