[Deepblue]

*Cough-bullshot-cough*

Anyway, yeah, I was playing on normal. The logical thing to do, really, and yet i've heard that they dumbed down normal to such a degree that i've now effectively ruined my gameplay experience by having played through on a lacklustre setting. Not happy, Jan.

And if you're wondering, the campaigns have been going downhill since the get-go. The campaign in Halo: CE was fan-****ing-tastic all-round, while Halo 2 saw a pretty good campaign weighed down only by the cheap ending. Halo 3 continues this trend, with an average campaign that's just piss-poor in comparison to its progenitors. Obvious even to the layman of the shift of effort to the multiplayer aspect while leaving us singleplayer fans out in the cold.

Er... Howsit a bullshot?

But yeah, from what I've heard the campaign is severely stunted on normal. Other people I've asked love the campaign the best out of the three because of the more varied environments and such, but I guess I'll have to see for myself.

[Hippo]

thats an actual picture. i'll see if i can get a bunch of mine to upload

[Deepblue]

Got any impressions you want to share Hippo? The wait is killing me. It better be in the mail when I get home...

[Hippo]

sheer amazing. storyline was the most important part to me, and it's all more or less fufilled. gameplay was second, and there's that feeling of a constant battle going on with large enough battles to give you a sense of importance, but smal enough to make it so you're the deciding factor. multiplayer is awesome, but i've not whored myself out to it yet, as i'm doing co-op with friends now

[Nuke]

that has got to be one of the most hideous uses of normal mapping in a game. ive seen better normal mapping in doom 3 mods

[Inquisitor]

Only played for about an hour, but so far I like it. Its not "amazing" but it is solid. From what I have read about the story, I'll be satisified with its "conclusion" and the acting is still top shelf. The Cortana moments feel a little borrowed from the action/horror games, not scary at all, just very reminisecent of flashbacks in some other games.

I like the scavenging of turrets, that makes the whole thing feel more interactive, and the new gadgets add some depth to the SP game. I love the return of the staple automatic rifle from Halo 1.

It so far is "more of the same" and I do not at all mind that. I think if you take the series as a whole, rather than any one game in it, your perspective might change. As a whole, the story is decent (if more than a little derivative), the acting is sold, the gameplay is consistent and fun, and if you want to play through "Halo" you have what, 20-30 hours of playtime, all of it coop-able in some way?

Gonna fire up XBL next week when i get back and try some coop and some multi. Beta was decent, so I expect few if any surprises. Not sure it will supplant Gears or Rainbow, but its got a shot at it, given how many people are STILL playing Halo 2.

Halo is best with friends

[NGTM-1R]

And if you're wondering, the campaigns have been going downhill since the get-go. The campaign in Halo: CE was fan-****ing-tastic all-round, while Halo 2 saw a pretty good campaign weighed down only by the cheap ending. Halo 3 continues this trend, with an average campaign that's just piss-poor in comparison to its progenitors. Obvious even to the layman of the shift of effort to the multiplayer aspect while leaving us singleplayer fans out in the cold.

Halo 2 really comes into its own in co-op play, which isn't quite the same thing as shorting the single-player experience to my mind. There are games that obvious had single play added as an afterthought, the Battlefield series comes to mind. Good co-op is vastly better than having focused it on player against player, if not quite as good as having a good single player experience.

[Deepblue]

Well crap. I have to wait till at least tomorrow.

[Deepblue]

And this is the best screenshot ever.

http://xs119.xs.to/xs119/07393/155323-Full.jpg

Along with these:





Hype. Rising. Damnit.

[Inquisitor]

Damn short game on an easier difficulty.

I am satisfied, story wise.

Good stuff.

[Hippo]

ledgendary is rough in single player, but a lot of fun in co-op. you and 2 or 3 friends can easily kill things as long as you work together, but if you seperate or egt caught alone, you get eaten alive

[Roanoke]

Couldn't beat Halo Co-Op, back in the day. Never bothered with multi-play Halo2. Most of my best memories of multi-play are from Halo (1). That, the original Counter-Strike (even though I was ****) and UT2004.

I was more enthusiastic about games back then, though

[phreak]

Heroic is hard enough, probably going to co-op with my brother on legendary once we both beat the game, but with him at school and me full time working, it'll take a while to arrange something.  Maybe once the weather gets crappier

[Deepblue]

So I've gotten through to the Scarab fight on the Storm, and wow. I love that entrance.
.

[Dark Hunter]

Finished the campaign on Normal, now going through on Heroic. Very fun, very satisfying. I don't see why people are compaining that it is not as good as they thought. I'm not going to go overboard and proclaim it "the greatest masterpiece in all of gaming", but it is a solid title that delivered exactly the kind of gameplay and challenge I expected.

I have not yet tried multiplayer. I've been slow to do so because I absolutely hated Halo 2's multiplayer. So: to those of you that have played it, is it the same lame kind of matchmaking Halo 2 had or does it actually allow you to choose which game you play? I don't want to waste money on renewing XboxLive if I'm not ever going to use it.

[Mefustae]

The Master Chief revealed!!



Anyhoo, i'm actually starting to get into the game now. Finished Heroic on Saturday, and Legendary is proving quite the challenge. Just got all the skulls, and the terminals scattered through The Ark, Covenant, and Halo are actually pretty damn interesting. It seems that a rampant AI is active in the Forerunner mainframe... or something. Would anyone know how I go about taking screenshots, given that something (or someone) scrambles that terminal data before I can read it all?

[Hippo]

watch the films in the theatre and you can go to first person and view it paused. its also only the first page taht get scrambled, the other 2-10 pages are advanced by pressing a or x

i found all the terminals, but i apparently forgot to read some pages of 2 of them so i cant get the acheivement


the IWHBYD skull is awesome to play with because you get obscure hilarious comments from marines and covanent you'd never hear otherwise

[Mefustae]

watch the films in the theatre and you can go to first person and view it paused. its also only the first page taht get scrambled, the other 2-10 pages are advanced by pressing a or x

i found all the terminals, but i apparently forgot to read some pages of 2 of them so i cant get the acheivement

I'll try that, but when the first part is scrambled, it automatically moves on and you can no longer view the yellow/orange text at all without restarting the level. Also, you should have the achievement for just activating the terminal, not viewing every page.

the IWHBYD skull is awesome to play with because you get obscure hilarious comments from marines and covanent you'd never hear otherwise

Would that include "Say hello to Vera!" that an Adam Baldwin-voiced marine just yelled while I had the skull on?

[Hippo]

if you run out of time reading them, press B while the alarm is going off and you'll exit the terminal and can start it over, but its been confirmed online that you need to read every page (or at least flip to) untill you see "//fragment ends" on the last page, but 2 of them didnt seem to have one, so i'll have to try again (they were the ones in tower 1 and 3 of the covanent)... also, when you play on legendary there's a few additional pages in each

and yeah, iwhbyd makes all the more rare comments more common

[Roanoke]

I still find the Marines come up with some new comments (both Halo & Halo2) even now.