Halo 3

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Halo 3
Developer(s)Bungie Studios
Publisher(s)Microsoft Game Studios
SeriesHalo
EngineHalo Engine (Proprietary)
Platform(s)Xbox 360
Release
[1]
[1]
[2]
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Single player, Co-op, Online co-op, Multiplayer, Online multiplayer, Forge, and Meta-game

Halo 3 is a first-person shooter developed by Bungie Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360. The game is the third title in the Halo series and ends the story arc begun in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued with Halo 2.[5] The game was released on September 25, 2007[1] in New Zealand (which due to its midnight release made it first available for official retail), Australia, Singapore, India, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, and the United States; September 26, 2007 in Europe; and September 27, 2007 in Japan. GameSpot reported that 4.2 million units of Halo 3 were in retail outlets on September 24, 2007, a day before official release,[6] a world record volume release. Halo 3 also holds the record for the highest grossing opening day in entertainment history, making $170 million in its first 24 hours.[7]

The game features new vehicles, weapons, and gameplay features not present in the previous titles of the series. Halo 3 focuses on the interstellar war between 26th century humanity and a collection of alien races known as the Covenant, who after a decades-long war have begun the invasion of Earth. The player assumes the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier, as he wages war in defense of humanity.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Halo 3 largely builds upon the previous iterations of the franchise. It is a first-person shooter that follows the character Master Chief and his struggle against the Covenant and the Flood. The game's action takes place largely on foot, but also includes segments focused on vehicular combat.

The balance of weapons and objects in the game was adjusted to better adhere to what Bungie Multiplayer Designer Lars Bakken describes as the "Golden Triangle of Halo". These are "weapons, grenades, and melee", all three of which are normally available to a player. Halo 3 also contains the ability to dual-wield, where a player forgoes grenades for a pair of weapons. All of the weapons available in previous installments of the series, except for the Brute Plasma Rifle, return with minor cosmetic and power alterations. Unlike previous installments, all weapons a player is carrying are visible; weapons not in use are hostered or slung across the player's back. Halo 3 also introduced "support weapons", which are exceptionally large, powerful and cumbersome two-handed weapons such as machine gun turrets and flamethrowers. These weapons drastically limit the player's normal combat options and slow them significantly. In return, they offer greatly increased firepower.[8] In addition to new weapons, Halo 3 added a new class of usable items called Equipment.[9] These items have various effects and functions, ranging from defensive effects (Bubble Shield and Regenerator), or objects which blind or confuse the enemy (Flare[10] and Radar Jammer), to ones which can actually harm and kill (Power Drainer and Tripmine). A player can only carry one of these items at a time. The majority are placed on the battlefield, where they can be destroyed by weapons fire or explosives. Most equipment also has a limited duration after being used.

Halo 3 also features a strong vehicular component, with new vehicles never before seen added in the third installment of the series. Most vehicles can be used by the player, but some are A.I.-controlled. Certain vehicles usable in campaign are not available in multiplayer due to balance concerns.[11]

Campaign

Halo 3's campaign encompases nine levels, which complete the storyline of the Halo trilogy. Players can play through by themselves, or play with the help of other players via Xbox Live or System Link.[12] For plot reasons, instead of having each player be an identical Spartan as in previous Halo games, the first player plays as Master Chief, the second player the Arbiter and the other two players newly created Elites; N'tho 'Sraom and Usze 'Taham, each with their own backstories. Each player has identical abilities, although the Arbiter and his Elites have different starting weapons.[12] A.I. behavior was improved over Halo 3's predecessors, occasionally drastically changing gameplay; for example, the enemy Brutes the player faces had their behavior modified, giving them a "pack mentality" when attacking.[9][13]

Halo 3 features a "campaign scoring mode", called the "meta-game", in which a player is awarded a numerical score based on their performance while completing a level in the campaign. Points come from defeating enemies, with extra points being awarded for stylish moves such as performing headshots, and multipliers given for progressing through a level quickly. Finding and activating Skulls, a continuation of Halo 2's gameplay-altering items, allows a player to obtain even higher scores in the meta-game. As it can record individual performance for each player (instead of the usual "team" scoring), the meta-game also introduces a competitive aspect to cooperative play. If a player accidentally commits suicide, dies, or kills a cooperative team-mate they will lose points.[10]

Players are awarded gamerscore points for successfully reaching a certain score in each level,[14] and medals are awarded for specific accomplishments. Campaign play also unlocks even more armor permutations for use in multiplayer.[15]

Multiplayer

File:High Ground Gate.jpg
Halo 3 multiplayer map "High Ground", from the online multiplayer beta.

Up to four people can participate in multiplayer match on a single Xbox 360 in Halo 3 via a split screen layout. Up to sixteen may participate in a single match over a LAN or Xbox Live. A match may use any of these methods (LAN, Live or split screen) or a combination of all. A public beta test of the multiplayer component of the game occurred between May 16, 2007 and June 10, 2007.[16]

Like most multiplayer Xbox 360 titles, Halo 3 uses a customized version of TrueSkill ranking system for its online matchmaking facilities. Halo 3's matchmaking system is based on two different ranks, skill and experience (based on Rating Points or RP). Skill is the numerical TrueSkill rank of the player in a given playlist, and experience (RP) is a linear measure of experience (1 point for each win in the online playlists) overlaid by a Military rank; a player with a designation of a "General" has played for a longer time than someone who is a "Recruit." The addition of the experience ranking is intended to make the system more fair and to reflect the effect of experience on players' profiles.[17] The RP system also has a mechanism built in to dissuade players from excessive quitting from matches, which became a problem for some players in Halo 2. When players quit from a match before it has finished, they lose 2 RP; players that regularly quit games, leaving their teammates stranded, may eventually end up having negative RP.

The user interface has been redesigned from Halo 2, making it easier to generate a custom game in Halo 3 multiplayer, which can now be saved and shared online with the File Sharing Features. It was promised that players would be able to "advertise" their custom games via Xbox Live Public [17], making it easier to find a multiplayer match to a player's taste without having to link up with friends; this feature was never added to the game. To help players have an enjoyable time online, a new feature dubbed the "A-hole button" allows players to mute annoying players in the game quickly and easily from the in-game scoreboard view.[18]

Features

Forge

Forge is a tool that enables players to insert game objects into existing maps. Bungie has stated that this should be considered more a gametype than a tool.[11] Almost all weapons, vehicles, and interactive objects (various crates and barriers) can be spawned, moved and placed into maps with Forge. One of the testers placed many exploding fusion cores in a large vehicle, giving the cores a high rate of respawn. They would explode and come right back, exploding again, causing the vehicle to charge wildly around the map.[19]

In games where Forge is enabled, players can switch to the editing mode at any time. While in this mode, a player appears to other players as a Forerunner Monitor and is still vulnerable to being attacked and killed. Objects can be spawned into the game in real-time and parameters such as ammo counts (for weapons) and respawn rates can be altered for each object.[10] The number of objects that can exist in a map at any one time is limited, however, as each object created takes up a set amount of credits from the particular map's limit.[10] Players can remove some of the default objects to regain credits. [20] Not all objects (especially vehicles) are available in all maps, and a player can hold the X button to learn more about the object and modify its properties on the map. [20]

As well as changing alterations to spawn weapons to assist a player in real-time, altered maps can be saved and then recalled in a normal multiplayer game mode. These altered maps can also be transferred to other players using the File Sharing features. Modifications made by Forge can change the way a map plays quite drastically from its original configuration. Forge was also the name of the editing tools included in another Bungie game, Marathon.

Eight players may use Forge via Xbox Live, while four may use Forge via splitscreen. [20]

Saved films

Halo 3 has a feature called Saved Films. This feature allows players to save a copy of the game data of a multiplayer match or campaign session to their Xbox 360's hard drive, so that they may watch it later on. It is essentially the same as many "replay" features found in driving and sports games, and which has been available in PC games for many years including Bungie's own Marathon. However, the scope of its implementation is largely unprecedented in a console game.

One hundred files can be saved on a hard drive at a time.[21] Though the public beta's implementation was very limited, its functionality is greatly extended in the final game.[22]

Players are able to view the action from almost any angle and any player's perspective (including a free-roaming camera), as well as being able to slow down the speed and also play the recording in reverse,(Although the latter is only available for Forge games, which means once you pass a certain point, you can't go back to it without having to start from the beginning of the film. The Saved Films can even be edited in game to create a shorter clip of a particularly amazing or special moment.[22] Players can also use the tool to take still pictures from films and upload them to the Bungie website.

As the Saved Films are only the game data (not an actual video), this allows the file sizes to be relatively small. A recording for a typical "long" game is in the region of only 6 MB.[22] Films are also be played back at whatever resolution the Xbox 360 is set to, regardless of the resolution at which the player was using at the time of the recording. All games are recreated in real-time on the Xbox 360 using the Halo 3 engine. This allows them to be shared amongst any other Xbox 360 without any compatibility issues because they all run off the same code. The Saved Films feature is described as an "excellent training aid" since players can gain valuable tactical insight into the strategies of other players by viewing the saved films.[23] Alternatively, they could have a look at other games uploaded through the fileshare.

This feature will also facilitate the creation of machinima and other game-related videos, as well as give the creators of such videos advanced tools to enhance the quality of this medium. Video game montage creators can save games to the hard drive of their Xbox 360 console for later use, so they never have to miss a camera shot, while machinima directors and cinematographers will have expanded camera options, instead of having to resort to using a first-person, gameplay perspective.

File share

File Sharing in Halo 3 is an online storage and sharing service for a range of files that are created in the game, and is an extension of the game's online capabilities. Files such as Saved Films, screenshots, custom gametypes and Forge settings can all be uploaded to the File Share. When the game launches, items stored there then appear on a players Bungie.net Halo 3 profile, with the ability to comment on them and queue items to download for when the player next plays the game online.[10]

Players can view and transfer these files individually to others while they are online, but can also upload them to a central, Bungie run server so other players can then download and view them even when the creating player is not online. Each player has 25 MB of storage space on the File Share. Players are able to purchase additional storage space and slots for 750 Microsoft Points, dubbed "Bungie Pro"; all Gold subscribers get 6 file slots and 25MB of storage. Bungie Pro bumps storage up to 24 slots and 250MB. While players with Xbox Live Silver do not have access to the free file-share, they may purchase Bungie Pro to share their files. Bungie has also extended the file-share to their website; players may "flag" files for download (up to 8) on Bungie.net. The next time a user signs on to their Xbox, it will automatically download the flagged files to their hard drive. [24]

Synopsis

Setting

Halo 3 is set in the year 2553. According to the backstory, humans developed faster-than-light travel and colonized many worlds, before encountering the alien Covenant in 2525.[25] Previously, the Master Chief had won several key engagements against the Covenant, but the tenaciousness and technological advantage of the Covenant meant that humans were fighting a losing war.[25] The Cole Protocol was enacted in an effort to prevent the Covenant from finding Earth, but during the events of Halo 2 the Covenant stumble across humanity's homeworld. The game's missions take the player across a wide variety of environments scattered across a few key areas. The first few levels of the game are on a Earth invaded by Covenant, and range from a lush African jungle hiding an underground base to a ruined highway leading to the industrial city of Voi. After the activation of a massive wormhole-like portal, the action moves beyond our galaxy to the Forerunner-built Installation 00, also known as the Ark. Like the Halos, it is a vast megastructure harboring diverse, Earth-like environments. Levels on the Ark include a series of desert battles followed by an assault on some structures located in a lush forest. Following a mission into a Covenant spaceship, the final level consists of an assault on an snowy complex on a nearby Halo.

Characters

Main article: Characters in the Halo series

The Master Chief again returns as the main protagonist, with the Arbiter making several major appearances. Master Chief and the Arbiter are controlled by the first and second players during co-op gameplay. Two new characters, N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham, represent the third and fourth players in co-op respectively, but are omitted from cutscenes. Suppporting characters, such as the wise-cracking Sargeant Avery Johnson and Commander Miranda Keyes, also return. Filling an alternating antagonistic/helpful role to the player is the large Flood entity known as "Gravemind", who after the events of Halo 2 captured Master Chief's resident A.I. Cortana.

Plot summary

Halo 3's campaign does not begin right where Halo 2 left off. Instead, the comic mini-series, Halo: Uprising, bridges the story gap between the ending of Halo 2 and the beginning of Halo 3.[26]

The game begins with Master Chief falling to Earth, where Covenant Loyalists led by the Prophet of Truth, have laid waste to most of the planet. Covenant ships are hovering over an excavation site a few miles from the ruins of New Mombasa, Kenya and have uncovered a large artifact, which is believed to be the "Ark"; at this location all the Halo installations can be fired, wreaking devastation across the galaxy.

File:Masterchief company h3.png
The Arbiter and Master Chief join forces.

With the help of Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, Commander Keyes, and UNSC marines, the Master Chief is sent to disable Covenant anti-air defenses around Truth's fleet. The Earth fleet uses the opening to attack Truth's ship, but the fight is interrupted by Truth. Truth activates the buried artifact and creates an enormous, stable slipspace portal; he and his followers enter. As the human ships attempt to recover from the shock wave, a Flood-controlled Covenant ship arrives via slipspace and crash-lands nearby. Covenant Elite forces, now allied with humanity after a civil war, arrive on Earth, and help glass Flood-infected areas of Earth, neutralizing the threat. The Master Chief, Arbiter, Elites, and Keyes decide to follow Truth through the slipspace portal. Joining them is the Forerunner construct 343 Guilty Spark, who decides to help.

After going through the slipspace portal, the UNSC and Elites find an immense artificial structure– the true Ark– which is well outside the Milky Way galaxy. Guided by Guilty Spark, the Chief and the Arbiter make their way towards the control room of the Ark. During their journey, a Flood-controlled High Charity arrives by slipspace, and Flood begin infesting the Ark. Sergeant Major Johnson is captured by Truth in an effort to activate the Ark, and despite the arrival of Commander Keyes, the Ark is activated. The Flood intelligence Gravemind forges a truce with the Chief and Arbiter in an effort to stop the firing. Keyes is killed by Truth, who in turn is killed by the Arbiter, but the installation's firing is halted. Gravemind quickly turns on them, but Johnson flies away while the Chief and Arbiter fight their way out. They discover that the Ark has constructed a new Halo structure to replace the one the Master Chief destroyed in Halo: Combat Evolved. The Chief decides to activate the new ring to destroy the local Flood and the Gravemind while sparing the galaxy. He first goes to High Charity to recover Cortana from Gravemind. After rescuing her, Cortana reveals that she still has the activation key, the "Index", from the first Halo, which can be used to activate the new ring. The Master Chief overloads a main reactor and destroys High Charity, apparently killing Gravemind in the process.

File:Masterchief cortana h3.png
Master Chief and Cortana escape Halo.

Arriving on Halo, it is discovered that Gravemind is still alive and attempting to reconstruct himself. The Chief, the Arbiter, and Sergeant Major Johnson make their way to the control room, where they attempt to fire the main weapon. Guilty Spark explains the the ring is not quite completed, and that a premature activation will destroy it and the Ark. When Johnson ignores his warning, Guilty Spark kills him. The Master Chief then destroys Guilty Spark, activates the ring, and barely manages to escape with the Arbiter and Cortana to Forward Unto Dawn, a UNSC ship.

Back on Earth, the front half of Forward Unto Dawn crashes into the ocean, and workers cut the Arbiter out of the wreckage. A memorial service is held for the fallen heroes of the war; the Arbiter then departs for his own ship, where the Elites are finally free of the Prophet's hegemony. If the player waits through the closing credits, a scene reveals that the Master Chief and Cortana have in fact survived in the rear section of the ship. Cortana explains that the slipspace portal became unstable from the catastrophic Halo activation, and they are drifting helplessly through space. Cortana activates a distress beacon, noting it might be years before they are rescued, and the Master Chief climbs into a cryo chamber to await rescue. If the game is completed on the highest difficulty level, the scene continues and the severed section of the Dawn is seen drifting towards what resembles the night side of a planet covered with a network of city lights.

Graphics

Halo 3 utilizes a proprietary, in-house graphics engine, often referred to as the "Halo 3 Engine".[27] This engine builds upon the technologies of the Halo 2 Engine (and previously the Halo Engine) and is re-optimized for the architecture of the Xbox 360.

As detailed on the Bungie Studios website, it employs advanced graphics technologies such as High Dynamic Range, global lighting, real-time reflections and depth of field effects within cutscenes.[28] Certain surfaces, including the Master Chief's visor (when visible) and the armor of a Ghost, will have real-time reflections (these were not present within the Beta). Most of the dynamic objects in the game cast real-time shadows on themselves and the environment around them, including the game's plant life. Halo 3 uses normal, bump, and parallax mapping to give surfaces more detail without dramatically increasing the number of polygons.

After the game was released, speculations arose that Halo 3 did not actually play at true HD resolution, with at least 720 lines of resolution.[29] In a Bungie Weekly Update, it was confirmed that the game was rendered at 1152x640 resolution instead of the usual 1280x720 (HD) resolution that most Xbox 360 games use.[30]The choice for this design was conscious on Bungie's part, due to the fact that Halo 3 uses two frame buffers instead of the usual one, and that this choice would allow Bungie to preserve as much as the dynamic range as possible for the game's lighting, as well as maintaining a smooth framerate. The picture could be upscaled all the way up to 1080p by the Xbox 360.[30]

Audio

As with all titles on the Xbox 360, Halo 3 fully supports 5.1 surround sound audio. In the game, there are over 50,000 pieces of audio, with nearly 40,000 of those being NPC dialogue.[10] This is many more than in either of the preceding Halo titles; Halo 2 had over 15,000 pieces of dialogue. The AI controlling this dialogue is designed to ensure the exchanges flow naturally and convincingly.

Separate recordings have been made for nearby and distant gunfire to make for a more believable sound experience. Distant gunfire sounds, which may first seem like prerecorded ambient sound, may often be the result of an actual firefight happening somewhere in the game. Marty O'Donnell again composed an original score. Some pieces of the game's music are produced with a much larger real orchestra than anything in the prior two games. For example, the music for the announcement trailer was recorded with a 60-piece orchestra and a 24-piece choir.[5] Halo 3 is the first game in the series to feature custom soundtracks, allowing players to replace in-game music with their own choices.[31] Voice actors returning to reprise their roles in Halo 3 include Jen Taylor as Cortana and Steve Downes as the voice of Master Chief. The game also features new voices, including celebrity presenter Jonathan Ross,[32] Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk, and John DiMaggio. Members of the Halo machinma Red vs. Blue (Burnie Burns, Gus Sorola, Matt Hallum, and Jason Saldaña) were also featured.

Development

Initial conception for Halo 3 was done before the game's predecessor, Halo 2 was released in 2004. For a period after this, much of the staff were still preoccupied in making extra content for Halo 2, while others continued with the groundwork for the development of Halo 3. Bungie remained almost completely silent as to what their new project was for the next year and half, occasionally leaving comments in their weekly update alluding to a "new project." Due to the cliff-hanger ending of Halo 2, many observers correctly speculated that Bungie's new project was indeed, Halo 3.

The game was officially announced with a real-time cinematic trailer at E3 2006.[5]

Marketing and release

Main article: Marketing for Halo 3
File:GAME FUEL version of Mt. Dew.jpg
Mountain Dew Game Fuel.

Various marketing techniques have been employed in promoting the release of Halo 3. This has included various trailers of the game; real-time cinematics, recorded gameplay sequences, pre-rendered CGI, and even live action film. Throughout the course of development several "developer documentaries" were released, which explain the processes behind creating parts of the game. A large scale multiplayer Beta test was played on Xbox Live with many members of the public being able to take part and experience the game for themselves. Beginning in June 2007, Iris, an alternate reality game, began on the internet, designed to create hype for the game while involving players in slowly revealing some background information for the game.

In addition to high profile events, Bungie often talked about the game in its Weekly Update, occasionally releasing media of the game on their site. Numerous interviews with Bungie staff have been conducted by many gaming press establishments, covering a vast range of subjects. Magazines and journals also occasionally ran stories revealing new information. Pepsi-Cola have announced a new line of soft drink, a variant of Mountain Dew named Game Fuel. The packaging reflects Halo 3, sporting images of Master Chief.[33] Much of the advertising to date has focused on appealing to the general public, rather than just hardcore fans of the game. Some 7-Eleven stores advertised Halo 3 and sold specialty cups and copies of the game.[34] However, many store received shipments of the game well after the release date. On September 12, 2007 the "Believe" Halo 3 ad campaign, focused on the epic nature of the story and heroism told through dioramas and third party accounts of Master Chief's service, began with the video "Museum".[35] The same video which aired as the second Halo 3 commercial during NFL football on September 16 2007.

More than two weeks before Halo 3 was due to be released, full retail copies of the game complete with photographs of the open game box started to appear on the internet auction site eBay.[36] A week before Halo 3 was due for release, major UK catalog retailer Argos accidentally released some of their final retail copies of Halo 3. Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division were quoted as being "disappointed that it happened" but that "it was just an honest mistake" and that Microsoft had no intention of punishing Argos for the error.[37]

Months before the release of Halo 3, the game's final testing copy before its gold release (codenamed Epsilon and confirmed by Bungie to be 99.9% complete)[38] was leaked to the Internet. Microsoft reacted to this leak by having the Xbox Live accounts of gamers caught playing the Epsilon copy banned until the year 9999.[39] Halo 3's final retail copy was leaked online over a week before its official release. The 6.14 gigabyte file of the game was hacked and downloaded by "thousands" of people within 24 hours of the leak.[40] Videos of the ending of the Halo 3, obtained from the leaked copy, were captured and posted on popular file sharing sites, such as YouTube.[40]

On September 23, 2007, Microsoft released the game manual online, to promote its new browser plug-in, Microsoft Silverlight.[20][41]

Versions

Halo 3 was released in three separate versions. The Standard Edition contains the game disc and a manual. The Limited Edition, contained in a metal case, contains the game disc, manual, interactive Xbox 360 bonus disc with several featurettes, and "Beastiarum", which is a "hard cover, bound collection of information and art covering the species, cultures and civilizations of Halo 3. The final version was marketed as the "Legendary Edition", which contains the game disc, manual, interactive bonus disc, Beastiarum (on one of the DVD discs), Legendary DVD containing special content exclusive to the Legendary Edition, and a scale replica of the Master Chief's Helmet as a case for the three discs.[42] Gamestation stores in the UK also offered a limited edition Master Chief figurine only available to the first 1000 pre-orders.

There have also been some early reports that in the Limited Edition version of Halo 3, the hub that is supposed to keep the game discs in place is faulty. This may lead to scratched game discs. Microsoft has confirmed the problem and offers to replace scratched Halo 3 game discs free of charge until the end 2007.[43] However, this does not appear to be a problem in either the Legendary Edition or the Standard Edition.[44]

Records

According to Microsoft, first-day sales of Halo 3 reached $170 million in the U.S., making it the highest grossing entertainment product within 24 hours of release ever. The performance beat the previous record setter, predecessor Halo 2, which earned $125 million within 24-hours after its launch.[45] Halo 3 has beaten other records as well. More than 1.7 million copies of Halo 3 were pre-ordered in the U.S., making it the fastest pre-selling game in U.S. history. The game also drew over a million Xbox Live members to play online in the first 20-hours, making it the biggest day for Xbox Live gaming in history.[46]

Critical reception

Publication Score
MetaCritic
95
Game Rankings
95
GameSpy
5 of 5
1UP.com
10 of 10
Edge
10 of 10
Eurogamer
10 of 10
Game Informer
9.75 of 10
GameSpot
9.5 of 10
IGN
9.5 of 10[9]
Famitsu
37 of 40
GameCritics
3.5 of 5

Critical reception of the game has been positive. On the review aggregator Game Rankings, the game has an average score of 94%, based on 36 reviews.[47] On Metacritic, the game has an average score of 95 out of 100, based on 44 reviews [48], making it the second best rated Xbox 360 game on the site. [49]

Famitsu awarded Halo 3 a "Platinum" review of 37/40. In a leaked review of the Australian wing of Official Xbox Magazine, Halo 3 was again rated with a score of 10.[50] IGN awarded Halo 3 a 9.5 in its review.[51] GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann gave the game a 9.5 rating.[52] UK-based review website Press Start Online gave the game a Gold Award, the first in the web site's history.[53] Dan Hsu awarded Halo 3 a perfect 10 for 1UP.com.[54] The UK videogame culture magazine Edge awarded the game only its sixth 10 of 10 rating in 14 years of publication (the fourth 10 having gone to the original Halo: Combat Evolved), saying that "In substance it's nothing new, merely a magnificent, beautiful monster of an FPS sequel. In concept and execution, though, Halo 3 is the future."

Pro-G claims, "Halo 3 transcends video games. It is a global entertainment experience. Just as Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Spider-Man 3 brought to a close two of the most lucrative and epic film trilogies of all time, Halo 3 brings to a close perhaps the most complete, engaging and downright fun video game trilogy of all time."[55] Eurogamer stated, "The best game yet in one of the best FPS franchises of the era,"[56] while Games Radar reported, "The single player is bigger and brawnier than anything that's been attempted on a console before."[57] Of multiplayer play, IGN praised, "There's no first-person shooter on 360 that can equal Halo 3's blend of cinematic action, adrenaline-pumping shootouts, and male- (and female)-bonding gameplay."[58] The Forge level editor and saved films features were singled out as particularly strong features.[59][52]

GameSpy noted one of the game's shortcomings in its review, "[The] single-player campaign is somewhat short."[60] Hilary Goldstein's review on IGN is also critical of the Campaign mode, stating that "the penultimate chapter [speaking of the game's eighth level] is so bad, just thinking about it puts a rotten taste in my mouth. It's the kind of level where, if playing through Halo 3 again, I might just stop once I reached it and not bother finishing the skirmish, much less the fight." IGN also bemoaned that allies' artificial itelligence was far poorer than that of enemies.[9]

GameCritic gave the game perhaps one of its lowest scores, 3.5 out of 5 (or 70%) noting the game dreads an already well beaten path and that the game play does soon becomes repetitive.

References

  1. ^ a b c Luke Smith (Lukems) (2007-05-15). "Finish the Fight on September 25, 2007" (HTML). Bungie Software. Retrieved 2007-05-16. On September 25, 2007, players will be able to finish the fight they started in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued in Halo 2. Halo 3 will release in Europe on September 26, 2007 {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Microsoft Games Studio (2007). "Halo 3 Page Xbox Japan" (HTML) (in Japanese). Xbox.com/ja-JP/. Retrieved 2007-06-15. 発売日: 2007/09/27
  3. ^ "Halo 3 BBFC Rating Page". Retrieved 2007-08-24.
  4. ^ "HALO 3 Game (Multi Platform)". The Classification Board and Classification Review Board. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
  5. ^ a b c Achronos (2006-05-09). "Halo 3 Announced" (HTML). Inside Bungie. Bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-08-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Brendan Sinclair. "Analyst: 4.2M Halo 3s already at retail". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
  7. ^ Blake Snow. "Analyst: Halo 3 shatters retail record; sells $170M in 24 hrs". GamePro. Retrieved 2007-09-26.
  8. ^ Goldstein, Hilary (2007-08-10). "Burn, Baby! Burn!". IGN.com. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
  9. ^ a b c d Goldstein, Hilary (2007-10-01). "IGN: Halo 3 Review". ign.com. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Edge (UK) (2007). "Finish the Fight". Edge. September 2007 (179): 66–77. ISSN 1350-1593. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); |format= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |laydate= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |laysource= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |laysummary= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
    • On Audio: "- of the 53,595 pieces of audio created by the day we visited, 39,368 were of NPC dialogue"
    • On File Sharing: "Content in players' shared spaces will be shown on Bungie.net, with the ability to post comments and queue clips for download when players next load up the game"
    • On Equipment: "it operates over and above normal combat, [..] that can benefit and disadvantage each side in equal measure."
    • On Forge: "Each object has a certain cost, each map a global budget"
  11. ^ a b bungie (2007-08-03). "podcast". Retrieved 2007-09-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) Cite error: The named reference "Bungie-podcast082707" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  12. ^ a b Luke Smith (Lukems) (2007-07-31). "The Tru7h About Co-Op in Halo 3" (HTML). Bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-08-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ VidDoc here
  14. ^ Bungie Studios (2007-06-19). "Halo 3 Achievements" (HTML). Xbox360Achievements.org. Retrieved 2007-07-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Lukems (2007-07-03). "Way Beyond the Beta: Screenshots Galore" (HTML /ASPX). Bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-07-04. The C.Q.B. (Close Quarters Battle) and E.V.A. (Extra Vehicular Activity) variants of Spartans are two of the numerous permutations players will be able to unlock in Halo 3 {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Frank O'Connor (Frankie) (2007-04-10). "Inside Bungie: Multiplayer Madness!" (HTML). Bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-04-17. The Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta will go live on May 16th at 12:00 AM PDT and run through June 6th at 11:59 PM PDT {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ a b Luke Smith (2006-11-24). "The Five Best Things About Halo 3" (HTML). 1up Halo 3 Coverage. 1up.com. Retrieved 2007-04-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "Halo 3 gets shutup button". Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  19. ^ Frank O'Connor (Frankie) (2007-08-03). "Bungie Weekly Update: 08/03/07". Inside Bungie. Bungie.net. Archived from the original (HTML) on 2007-08-04. Retrieved 2007-08-05. [...] placed a RIDICULOUS number of exploding fusion cores [...] respawn times set to as close to "instant" as Forge allows [...] {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ a b c d Halo 3 Manual (Silverlight), available online from Microsoft.com.
  21. ^ Lukems (2006-09-02). "HBO" (HTML). HBO. bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-09-02. Players will be able to save up to 100 total films (this is also referenced to in a podcast that it is all items, so 100 films, or 20 "forges" and 80 films, et cetera {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ a b c Frank O'Connor (Frankie) (2007-05-15). "Saved Films and File Share" (HTML). Halo 3 Beta Guide. Bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-05-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ Denny Atkin (2007-05-11). "Hands-On: Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta" (HTML). Previews on Xbox.com. Xbox.com. Retrieved 2007-05-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ Luke Smith (Lukems) (2007-08-17). "Bungie Weekly Update: 08/17/07". Inside Bungie. Bungie.net. Archived from the original (HTML) on 2007-08-17. Retrieved 2007-08-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ a b Bungie. "Ancillary: Halo Story Timeline". halo.bungie.org. Retrieved 2007-20-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  26. ^ Bungie Studios (2007-06-14). "Halo: Uprising On Halo3.com". Halo3.com. Retrieved 2007-06-22. ...the miniseries will bridge the gap between Halo 2 and the upcoming release of the highly-anticipated Halo 3 video game...
  27. ^ Kathleen Sanders (2006-05-09). "E3 2k6: Halo 3 Trailer Impressions" (HTML). IGN E3 2006 Coverage. IGN.com. Retrieved 2007-06-25. ...rendered in real-time on the Xbox 360 using the current version of the Halo 3 engine. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ Klepek, Patrick (2007-03-19). "Bungie Says Halo 3 Graphics are coming Together". 1up.com. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  29. ^ Dobson, Jacob (2007-09-28). "Halo 3 not HD: Runs at 640p, Pixel Counters Claim". joystiq.com. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
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  31. ^ Smith, Luke (2007-09-20). "Bungie Podcast: So Long" (MP3). Bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-09-22.
  32. ^ Martin, Matt (2007-09-18). "Microsoft plans star-studded Halo 3 launch in UK". gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
  33. ^ "Halo 3 Box Arrives at IGN Offices". IGN. Retrieved 2007-08-22.
  34. ^ "Reserve Halo 3 at 7-11 TODAY!". Xbox 360 Rally. 2007-08-06. Retrieved 2007-08-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  35. ^ "Watch the new Halo 3 ad: "Museum"". joystiq.com. 2007-09-12. Retrieved 2007-09-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  36. ^ Marcus Yam (2007-09-11). "Early Copys of Halo 3 Sell on eBay" (HTML). dailytech.com. Retrieved 2007-09-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  37. ^ Phil Elliott (2007-09-20). "Microsoft won't punish Argos" (HTML). gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved 2007-09-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  38. ^ Bungie (2007-08-17). "Homestretch" (HTML). bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-09-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  39. ^ "thorsen-ink" (2007-09-07). "Halo 3 Epsilon cheaters banned until 9999 AD" (HTML). gamespot.com. Retrieved 2007-09-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  40. ^ a b Matt Martin (2007-09-21). "Halo 3 leaked online" (HTML). gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved 2007-09-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  41. ^ http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/h/halo3/launch/newyorkcity.htm
  42. ^ Frank O'Connor (Frankie) (2007-06-08). "Three Versions of Halo 3". Bungie.net. Archived from the original (HTML) on 2007-06-09. Retrieved 2007-06-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  43. ^ "XBox Disk Replacement Program". Microsoft. Retrieved 2007-09-25. {{cite web}}: Text "date2007-09-25" ignored (help)
  44. ^ "Early Halo 3 Limited Edition Owners Plagued by Scratched Discs". DailyTech. 2007-09-22. Retrieved 2007-09-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  45. ^ Peter Henderson (2007-09-27). "Microsoft "Halo 3" 1st-day sales hit $170 million". Reuters. Retrieved 2007-09-28.
  46. ^ "Halo 3 Sales Smash Game Industry Records".
  47. ^ "Halo 3 Reviews". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2007-09-26.
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  51. ^ "Halo 3 IGN Review". Retrieved 2007-09-23.
  52. ^ a b Jeff Gerstmann (2007-09-23). "Halo 3 for Xbox 360 Review - Xbox 360 Halo 3 Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-09-25.
  53. ^ "Press Start Online: Halo 3". Press Start Online. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
  54. ^ Dan Hsu (2007-09-23). "Reviews: Halo 3: The fight may never end". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2007-09-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  55. ^ "Pro-G Halo 3 Review". Pro-G. 2007-09-23. Retrieved 2007-09-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  56. ^ "Eurogamer Halo 3 Review". Eurogamer. 2007-09-23. Retrieved 2007-09-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  57. ^ "Games Radar Halo 3 Review". Games Radar. 2007-09-23. Retrieved 2007-09-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  58. ^ "IGN (USA) Halo 3 Review". IGN. 2007-09-23. Retrieved 2007-09-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  59. ^ "Team Xbox Halo 3 Review". Team Xbox. 2007-09-23. Retrieved 2007-09-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  60. ^ "GameSpy Halo 3 Review". GameSpy. 2007-09-23. Retrieved 2007-09-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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