1. Umm campaign was not extremely short and story was compelling.
2. Cutscenes were not horrid, they were in engine, and still looked great!
3. Dialogue was very, very diverse, with unlockable bonus dialogue to boot.
4. Graphics were on par with many next gen games today, and although not outstanding, were still pretty amazing in campaign.
5. I guess hooked on phonics didn’t work for you because the title screen says halo 3 and the screen before that has a giant number three on it.
6. Halo 3 multiplayer has many diverse gametypes, with an included (although limited) map editor (allowing for new game variations and new gameplay elements(, and a very efficient ranking system.

SDF….Why?

Why do you try to make everything about the 360 seem bad?
Why are your reviews so biased?
I could write a biased review on Resistance, and you’d know I was wrong, the same way you are wrong.
How about some positive thinking?
You guys talk too much trash on this site.
You sound like 12 year olds playing Halo 2 online.
Shut up and write something nice that will make me want to come to this site more often than once a month.

look at the e3 2006 announcement trailer. even microsoft haters must admit it looks fantastic. everyone was so excited to see our beloved halo franchise in a realistic environment. but then, as time went by, Bungie routinely released worse and worse images of the game. now the texturing and lighting are the only things about this game that are pretty at all. the geometry just plain blows, no depth of field, and lets not even mention the jaggies everywhere. i know anti-aliasing is cutting edge and all… riiiiight.

but graphics don’t make a game right? but what about a game that kills my 360 as soon as i put it in the disc drive? yes, halo 3 gave my (and many people’s) 360 the red ring of death within 6 hours of using it. so i sent it off for repairs for a few weeks, and thats where the story really takes off. having spent only a few hours with my most anticipated game of all time, i was eager for more, and so i turned to the bungie.net forums to see how everything was going.

EVERYONE had problems with this game, from scratched discs to red rings like mine. the only people who weren’t rightfully disappointed were the idiot fanboys who wouldn’t know a quality game if it came up and bit them in the face.

for all the crap haters talk about forge not being a true map editor, its actually a really good idea… or at least it was until you couldn’t place all the weapons and items on all of the maps, thus making it impossible to create what you really want to. the novelty wears especially thin when, lo and behold, the custom games browser (CGB) that was so highly touted failed to be included. instead bungie opted for their queer as folk matchmaking system again. if i am in the mood for capture the flag, i don’t want to play oddball. imagine that.

aside from that,if i want to go into a custom game on one of the user forged maps (some of which are pretty damn cool) i have to first download the map and gametype from b.net, then assemble enough players from my limited friends list that want to play the same thing as me at the same time. try to get 16 out of 100 people to agree on their favorite flavor of jelly bean, let alone want to play the same type of game as you on the same map at any given time… and you see the problem here. every other game has a CGB, but for the sake of being different once again, bungie has screwed us.

this is all annoying, but i could get over it, like i did with halo 2, if the matchmaking was fun. halo 2 was FUN. i mean, i played that heavily all the way up until 11:30 on september 24th. but halo 3 fails at even that. its just frustrating. for starters, the maps are garbage. why, oh why, would you put in shield doors? its halo, not the boy scouts, why are you encouraging camping in a fast-paced FPS? they don’t even make sense; a man can run, but cannot toss a grenade or punch through them? a vehicle creeping along cannot pass? and most obscene is that a grenade or rocket explosion won’t phase a player on the other side of the shield door, but a fusion core explosion or grav hammer has no problem transferring its energy across the threshold? i know this isn’t exactly a realistic game, but could we have a little more consistency and a little less bullspit?

the shield doors are really only a minor part of it, but a great example of poor design. perhaps most glaring is the spawn system, which puts enemy players either directly behind you, or directly in front of you when you are vulnerable from having just dispatched their teammates. it is the most frustrating thing to finish off one or two opponents with great skill and maneuvering, only to be killed an instant later by their teammate who just happened to respawn right on top of you.

wait did i say the most frustrating thing? i meant second most, because number one would be the melee system that rewards the player that is slower on the draw… or at least it seems that way in every instance. not just that, but some players are able to lunge 10 feet with their beat downs, while others won’t even take one step forward. this, coupled with a sniper rifle that just plain fails to cause damage with direct, blood spilling hits, makes what should be a rewarding gameplay experience into an inconsistent, unpredictable crapshoot.

but clearly that is not the fault of bungie’s poor programming, as the forum moderators and fanboys are quick to point out. rather these issues stem from lag, host advantage, and a whole other list of variables that are par for the course in all online games. really? not online games with dedicated servers, dedicated servers that lesser titles on other consoles seem to have, but the flagship, quintessential FPS juggernaut from the most affluent company in the industry seems to lack. apparently the revenue from the most profitable media release in history cannot fund those dedicated servers, ones i’m sure microsoft in all of its infinite wisdom could manufacture cheap enough to still turn a profit, albeit perhaps not as great.

many former bungie/halo fans, myself included, tried at first to post sensible topics on the b.net forums addressing some if not all of these problems. polls which overwhelmingly favored the addition of a CGM were locked. threads about the inexplicable ineffectiveness of the sniper rifle and melees were met with flaming from fanboys claiming we just didn’t know how to use it. and god forbid you start a topic about the sub par graphical quality, lest you be labeled a heretic, shallow, and devoid of appreciation for what really makes a game good. This demeanor is carried not only by the fanboys themselves, but by the bungie moderators and staff, who in the face of such overwhelming evidence that the game has SOME flaws, scoff at our attempts to get these issues recognized and addressed properly. we asked, petitioned, polled and begged nicely. now we are vehement in our conviction that you have lost sight of our best interests. and our disposition is no longer congenial.

listen loud and clear Bungie: just because you made the game, does not mean it is perfect. and since we paid you to make it for us, we have the final say in what we want included. basically you were commissioned by us to make halo 3, our dollars form halo 2 were a down payment, and our franchise loyalty was the contract that you would be compensated for delivering us the product. you gave us nothing, no labor of love, no present to your fans. we paid you, and you failed to deliver. don’t for a second think it was anything other than a business transaction.

so when all is said and done, what do we have? a game with all the potential and every opportunity to succeed. a game that wanted nothing for resources and had an already tried and true formula for success. a game that, despite having everything going for it, forgot to ship with the one thing that is necessary for a title to succeed: reliable, fair fun for its users. a player shouldn’t have to learn to navigate the bull and the cheapness of a game to win. in fact, they shouldn’t even have to be great at the game to enjoy it; as long as the experience is fun, the game has done its job. even when you win at halo 3 MP, the whole process was such a pathetic collection of WTFs and bullspit that you can’t savor your victory. at being fun, halo 3 fails.

If Halo 3 sucks; why do you have so many pics of yourself playing the game on your website?
I too can’t wait for COD4 either that game is gonna rock.

I had Halo 3 a week before it’s official release date, so I was doing a mini-review and posting some in-game pics. – Check the dates on those pics!