Halo 3 Opinions

Panzer Grenadier · Post by **Panzer Grenadier** » 2007-09-27 12:55pm

Did you guys notice that you could also climb on top of that crane and jump straight onto the scarab without shooting the legs in that part? Way easier than waiting for your marines to get a lucky shot.

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2007-09-27 06:51pm

Yes but nowhere near as awsome.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2007-09-27 06:55pm

ray245 wrote:This sucks...I hate being a one man army FPS, I rather have more scripted armies being around me, makes the battles nicer to look at.

That's very much Not Halo though. The concept of the one man army is so deeply ingrained in Halo that it is expressed at the core of the design concept, making the player a literal super soldier among the grunts.

Darksider · Post by **Darksider** » 2007-09-27 08:23pm

Did anyone else notice that the marine voiced by Adam Baldwin sometimes shouts "Say Hello to Vera" before engaging the enemy?

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2007-09-27 09:24pm

Yeah, also the character Nathan Fillion voices says "Shiny" on occasion (on seeing the chief or blowing things up. The character name, apparently, is "Sergeant Reynolds".

Also, whilst it's not a reference, Alan Tudyk's lines (He does the whole "Tank beats Ghost, Tank beats Hunter, Tank beats EVERYTHING" line is very Wash.

There are other cameo voices as well. Katee Sackoff voices a marine, and all the voices from Red vs. Blue are in it.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-09-27 09:36pm

The RvB crew are easter eggs. They have different lines depending on what difficulty you play on, and they're hidden at the start of Crow's Nest.

DrMckay · Post by **DrMckay** » 2007-09-28 03:14am

just played the first coupla levels. Mal as a Space Marine is fucking awesome!

sooo, is it just Fillion, Tudyk, Baldwin, and Sackhoff? or are there more sci-fi goodies for me?

Oh. yah, and the RvB password sequence:

PURE GENIUS!

Laird · Post by **Laird** » 2007-09-28 05:01am

So I am guessing none of you have located the terminals on the ark? They reveal more back story on the flood, humans, the forerunners, AI constructs etc..

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-09-28 12:18pm

Laird wrote:So I am guessing none of you have located the terminals on the ark? They reveal more back story on the flood, humans, the forerunners, AI constructs etc..

I found about four terminals, but I'm going to try and find them all on my next play through.

With the replay feature, I'll be able to screen cap them all and figure out the proper order for them.

Laird · Post by **Laird** » 2007-09-28 01:33pm

There are 7 terminals in total; 6 on the ark, and 1 on halo.

[R_H] · Post by **[R_H]** » 2007-09-28 02:19pm

I just got Halo 3 today, and started playing as soon as I got home. I'm on the way to Voi now, but it has been awesome so far. The deployable equipment adds a new dynamic to the game, something that I haven't seen in any FPS (deployable equipment). The Brute weapons are a lot of fun and the lighting and effects look much better than in Halo2. It's nice to be able to carry 3 (or is it 4?) different types of grenades but it's annoying that you can only carry 2 of each. Couldn't they have left it at 3 of each, that would only make 9 grenades total, instead of 8. I like having the bumpers for reloading, as it seems to be faster than the X button. I'm surprised that they didn't add more functions for the D-Pad, just the light (what's with the Arbitor not having a cloak anymore). It would be nice to have nightvision or infrared etc. And what's with the Brutes always using bubbleshields and jetpacks, bubbleshields just seem so un-Brute like, I expected them to be a lot more aggressive.

The Gravity Hammer is the shit though.

All in all, I'm finding it excellent.

Death from the Sea · Post by **Death from the Sea** » 2007-09-28 02:33pm

where are the skulls at and what do you have to do with them?

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-09-28 03:03pm

[R_H] wrote:I just got Halo 3 today, and started playing as soon as I got home. I'm on the way to Voi now, but it has been awesome so far. The deployable equipment adds a new dynamic to the game, something that I haven't seen in any FPS (deployable equipment).

Lots of games have had deployable equipment. That's not to say HALO isn't being smart by doing it, but don't let this become another "Halo Invented Dual-Wielding" thing. Team Fortress, Perfect Dark, and a lot of other games had things you could set up. Generally they were just defensive guns. The Briefcase Gun was always a bit hit.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-09-28 05:24pm

Death from the Sea wrote:where are the skulls at and what do you have to do with them?

The skulls are just that- skulls. You can find them hidden in various places in the levels.

You pick them up like you would any weapon and carry them with you to the end of the mission (obviously setting them down to deal with enemies). Then when you start a campaign mission later on, you can select to turn any skulls that you have unlocked on- they all have some effect that greatly increases the difficulty of the campaign, but also adds bonuses to your score for the meta-game.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-09-28 05:33pm

Covenant wrote:Lots of games have had deployable equipment. That's not to say HALO isn't being smart by doing it, but don't let this become another "Halo Invented Dual-Wielding" thing. Team Fortress, Perfect Dark, and a lot of other games had things you could set up. Generally they were just defensive guns. The Briefcase Gun was always a bit hit.

Amazingly old games like Tribes had full equipment vending machines and electronic warfare deployments. I wonder if there's a list of things Halo 'invented' going around?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2007-09-28 07:40pm

Stark wrote: Amazingly old games like Tribes had full equipment vending machines and electronic warfare deployments. I wonder if there's a list of things Halo 'invented' going around?

I hear Halo invented the genre now known as "FPS". Also, it then evolved it for more win.

True story.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-09-28 07:55pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
Stark wrote: Amazingly old games like Tribes had full equipment vending machines and electronic warfare deployments. I wonder if there's a list of things Halo 'invented' going around?
I hear Halo invented the genre now known as "FPS". Also, it then evolved it for more win.

True story.

It was co-developed alongside the Internet, with Al Gore supervising both projects. Bill Gates paid Al Gore a stipend in order to take his name off the project.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2007-09-28 10:55pm

Stark wrote:
Covenant wrote:Lots of games have had deployable equipment. That's not to say HALO isn't being smart by doing it, but don't let this become another "Halo Invented Dual-Wielding" thing. Team Fortress, Perfect Dark, and a lot of other games had things you could set up. Generally they were just defensive guns. The Briefcase Gun was always a bit hit.
Amazingly old games like Tribes had full equipment vending machines and electronic warfare deployments. I wonder if there's a list of things Halo 'invented' going around?

Does Tribes predate Perfect Dark? That game had the Laptop Gun autoturret.

Not too effective, but oooh so much fun to use. ^_^

Panzer Grenadier · Post by **Panzer Grenadier** » 2007-09-28 11:24pm

Yep tribes did predate perfect dark. Also tribes had vehicles, which is another thing people sometimes mis attribute to halo. Two real innovations I think halo had though

*rechargeable health: Reduces the need for health packs and thus streamlines the action allowing you to worry about the best part of an FPS which is shooting the crap out of stuff. (Halo didn't totally have rechargably health but the trend got popularized with it)

*A dedicated button for grenades: This has become almost a standard for a lot of newer FPS games. I don't know about you but I would rarley use grenades in a game like half-life because it force me to be totally vulnerable for 3-5 seconds changing to grenade and back. This added a whole new dimension to the firefights of halo.

Huge leaps? No, but it really made halo stand out IMO

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-09-29 12:23am

Nah, other games had done grenades as 'inventory items', so you'd pick your 'item' with [ and ] and then just press enter to use them. Same with portable health packs etc. Having them as separate weapons as FPS's used to do was retarded.

Death from the Sea · Post by **Death from the Sea** » 2007-09-29 05:04am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:
Death from the Sea wrote:where are the skulls at and what do you have to do with them?
The skulls are just that- skulls. You can find them hidden in various places in the levels.

You pick them up like you would any weapon and carry them with you to the end of the mission (obviously setting them down to deal with enemies). Then when you start a campaign mission later on, you can select to turn any skulls that you have unlocked on- they all have some effect that greatly increases the difficulty of the campaign, but also adds bonuses to your score for the meta-game.

we found the gold skulls. we didn't have to carry them to the end of the mission. the achievement was unlocked right away when we picked them up.

Beat the game on Legendary, co-op online with 3 people

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2007-09-29 11:27am

Yeah as soon as you pick them up they're unlocked, you don't even have to do anything beyond that. You can just pick them up and quit to the next mission.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2007-09-29 12:06pm

Is it true that they eliminated split-screen coop?

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2007-09-29 12:57pm

Molyneux wrote:Is it true that they eliminated split-screen coop?

No. However, you can't get all four players on split-screen. You can still do two player co-op however.

I do believe you can even have two people on the same system, split screen, go online, and find another two.

So relax.

seanrobertson · Post by **seanrobertson** » 2007-09-29 02:38pm

EDIT: Ah, fuck. I'm not even gonna try to format that little diagram correctly. Just picture a large space between the large walls, and large spaces to either side of the thin ones.

My impressions, in no particular order:

*great graphics. I was favorably impressed from the get-go, but the visuals seem to get better the more I see 'em. Part of that's me: I've slowed my game down (beat Normal; currently in next-to-last level on Heroic) and am being more careful, which affords more time to stop and enjoy the scenery, smell the roasted Grunt flesh, etc.

*the campaign's a little short for my tastes. Playing through on Legendary might change my mind, but I would've liked at least one level set in space -- say, boarding a Truth-loyal Covenant cruiser right before landing on the Ark. (The idea there would be to create confusion amongst Truth's fleet, bolstering the Elite fleet's chances. Or somesuch.)

*I was extremely disappointed that Arbiter wasn't playable at some point. His missions were by far my favorite in Halo 2 ("Me hunt, you KILL!"

). I think this could've been done seamlessly enough. He could've been the one to board an enemy ship above the Ark.

*What happened to the rest of the Covenant?

Maybe I should rephrase that question: is Truth in command of all non-Elite Covvie forces?

*I wanted to see half of Africa glassed, damn it!

*I wanted to see Gravemind. It didn't have to be a stupid Doomish boss battle, but a closer look would've been nice.

*Detachable turrets = awesomeness.

*I wish my favorite weapons ...

-- Forerunner laser
-- Covenant sniper rifle
-- USMC sniper rifle
-- plasma rifles

... were available just a bit more often. I get utterly sick of scouring enemy remains only to find those stupid damned plasma pistols.

And yes, I'd gladly take on plenty more Hunters, Brute commanders, Jackal snipers -- you name it -- to offset the advantages said weapons would afford me. I just have a blast using them

*Again, I've yet to play the thing on Legendary, but the enemy AI is still disappointing. It seems as if every time I face off against a group of Brutes indoors, this happens:

--------> Brute chief stands waaay back here, flanked by two blue armors

[ wall ] [ wall ]

some blue armors will lumber up to this area, occasionally taking cover

[ wall ]

[xxxxxxxxxx] [xxxxxxxxxx]

[xxxxx]

[xxxxxxxxxx] [xxxxxxxxxx]

[xxxxx]

--------->me, shooting the Brutes at range and taking cover behind the thin wall/partition immediately in front of me.

I can hang back and easily pick these guys off one-by-one until I advance enough to get that prick chieftain off his ass and moving. He'll charge and do his gravity hammer thing, which is always tricky; but if I'm fast enough, I can just pull back into the room behind me and keep pumping him full of ordnance 'til he drops.

I know Brutes aren't the most subtle warriors, but hot damn almighty. Toss more grenades at me, at least. Make me want to abandon my cover!
If only half of the Brutes in any one of those rooms quickly closed to PBR, I'd be fucked. Instead, they just waffle in and out of cover, vainly trying to pick me off at range :-\

*the ending. What's there's okay but it's way too short, the Le Morte Darthur bit included.

*a note on my expectations, nitpicks and so on: I'm grilling this game as hard as I can only because I really like the series. And I still think 3 is a very solid game. Had it somewhat better enemy AI, one more level to play and afforded us some time in the Arbiter's boots, I'd give it an almost perfect score.

As it is, I give it ... oh, 94% or so. I'd only rank my all-time favorites higher. Those favs are literally a handful, so that's saying something