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The Official Halo 3 Thread

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electricpirate said:
Simply summed up? there's a variety of ways to handle any situation, and no single correct answer.

While the game is quite linear, each set piece battle can be approached in an number of different ways and positions. For example, in the the indoor levels you can almost always choose to approach battles from a couple of different vectors. For example, If playing alone you can go with your AI companions, or break off to take another approach (generally you can find a high approach, or tunnels for flanking). The equipment you have, or choose to pick up is well balanced to the point that there are many organic, intelligent solutions to every fight. I could grab a sword and a bubble shield, charge in, and plant myself in the fray, and go to town with fury. Or I can grab the invisibility and a brute shot, and sneak around the barricade my enemies have set to start off with superior position.

The true brilliance comes when you cannot possibly have enough equipment to win a fight easily. When you see so many enemies that the wepon you brought has run out of ammo and the nades have run dry, or you just don't come with the right equipment. You load up on close range weapons only to find a tank and snipers. Now you have to assess the situation, and quickly adopt a new tactic. Maybe you target the chieftan so you can take his heavy weapon, maybe you try to jack a vehicle? Or maybe you just backtrack to get that RL you dropped because you thought you were going to be fighting room to room.

That's the kind of organic freedom that Halo offers, that's the freedom that makes me love the game. It's not like "Ohh, hit A to take the right path, or B to take the left." It's having to make series of tacticle decisions, of which there is no right answer. Plenty of wrong answers though, just no golden key :D
Click to expand...


You summed it up perfectly, while the levels are linear, there are so many options and tactics you have to take to be successful, it feels very open ended.
 
So without reading any of the previous posts, because I don't want to be teh spoilzored, I'd just like to say that Halo 3 graphics are amazing.

As a matter of fact I'm gonna start over today just to get a look at the first level again. I was more blown away by Halo 3 than I ever was with Gears. Granted, gears probably has better environments... but Halo is SO crisp and clean compared to that. I was literally speechless during cutscenes as well, I haven't been this impressed in a long, LONG time.
 
mysticstylez said:
You summed it up perfectly, while the levels are linear, there are so many options and tactics you have to take to be successful, it feels very open ended.
Click to expand...
It is a fucking sin that you can't make video clips of campaign, just because this game has so fucking many "scrape by on the hair of your chin" moments where you simply have to try anything you can think of to make it through.
 
WTF, why can't I play any of my Films? I saved the ones I played in Single Player Campaign. But is says,
"Unable to start because a player in your party is restricted from playing with user-created content."

What is this shit?
 
Son of Godzilla said:
That is correct, you are not seeing it. How many times do you have to read that the differences are so incredibly drastic before trying it for yourself? Normal mode is downright boring.
Click to expand...

I've beaten both Halo and Halo 2 on legendary, so I'm aware of the difference in difficulty between legendary and normal.

But let's say that the AI suddenly improves a vast amount when I switch to legendary -- it's still not gonna give me more possibilities of the kind I've mentioned earlier, which I think makes a game a lot more fun.
 
Son of Godzilla said:
It is a fucking sin that you can't make video clips of campaign, just because this game has so fucking many "scrape by on the hair of your chin" moments where you simply have to try anything you can think of to make it through.
Click to expand...

Had a moment like this today, on Tsavo highway. Me and my mate only had limited ammo on very unhelpful weapons, and had to take out a Wraith.
Took a fair few deaths, but having to use different tactics and scraping through was the best feeling.
 
Edwood said:
WTF, why can't I play any of my Films? I saved the ones I played in Single Player Campaign. But is says,
"Unable to start because a player in your party is restricted from playing with user-created content."

What is this shit?
Click to expand...
Dashboard --> System blade --> Family settings --> Content Settings --> make the appropriate adjustments regarding user created content.
 
I'll give you another example of using different strategies, when you meet the
second scarab, I went up to the top of the ramp, dropped an airlift, and landed on the scarab. I could of stayed on the ground and kept shooting him till I was able to take out the core.
 
I'm sure others have seen this, but i found this cool / weird easter egg in the first level. I've uploaded a screen of it to my file share:

http://www.bungie.net/stats/halo3/default.aspx?player=BadAss84

^_^

I enjoyed the first level (on heroic), and am currently up to that 1st brute pack in the warehouse on lvl 2, they're pretty tough!

I also played a couple of mp games to finish off for the night, it's just so much fun, brings back lots of fun memories from the beta :D

Can't wait for work to be over tomorrow so i can play some more :)
 
*wow* Finished the campaign early this morning (solo heroic) and just got caught up on this thread. Well as much as anyone can when you have 40+ new pages of posts to skim through. Geez. some of you are posting maniacs.

I've unlocked some armor permutations and went ahead and customied myself with some of them. I went with a new color scheme for myself this time (brown just seemed appealing somehow) I've only played a few Training matchmaking games though. So far every single one of them has been snowbound :-(

I'm going to start fooling around with the bonus content now, though I'm going to make myself available to play co-op with my brother if he decides he doesn't want to go solo anymore.
 
Tieno said:
Dashboard --> System blade --> Family settings --> Content Settings --> make the appropriate adjustments regarding user created content.
Click to expand...

I never created a child account. Everything is at default, wide open access. Checked and double checked again.

Any other ideas?
 
Edwood said:
I never created a child account. Everything is at default, wide open access. Checked and double checked again.

Any other ideas?
Click to expand...
Somewhere in your settings you must have unflagged user created content.
 
Vyse The Legend said:
So, I found this second skull on the 8th level (
Cortana
)that seemingly does nothing. It doesn't unlock IWHBYD, but there must be something special that has to be done to activate it.

In my file share, you'll find a video (and picture of its location) showing me running through the level to pick it up, then finishing it, while carrying the skull. If anyone has some suggestions or theories to try, please let me know.



http://www.bungie.net/stats/Halo3/FileShare.aspx?gamertag=FallenOne666
Click to expand...

Yup, I found it also. No idea what it does or if it's related to IWHBYD. I guess I just need to wait until someone figures it out.
 
mysticstylez said:
I'll give you another example of using different strategies, when you meet the
second scarab, I went up to the top of the ramp, dropped an airlift, and landed on the scarab. I could of stayed on the ground and kept shooting him till I was able to take out the core.
Click to expand...

When I met
the second scarab encounter with 2 of them, I took a warthog and drove it off a cliff jump and landed on the scarab to the right. Got out, destroyed the core, got BACK IN and drove off the back before it exploded.
So many options.
 
Just played like the 1st hour of campaign and the 360 crashed. Now i cant even get to the dash. No RroD. it just "hangs". Maybe overheated, dont know.

I got the RroD like a month ago and got fixed but seems didnt last long :(. Why oh why did it have to crash again precisely today?
 
I figured it out, Member Content under Privacy Settings. I had everything turned off before because I was paranoid of getting spammed with spoilers.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
It never dawned on me
to take the missle launcher up to higher ground in the elevator.
Smart.
Click to expand...

I did the same thing. My buddy was trying to attack from the bottom but nothing seemed to work. then I saw the
crane
and thought to myself, no way can I attack from there. But it looked like you can and I went there with the turret. Took me awhile to find its weak point though. Damn, if it wasn't for the fact that this is a pretty major battle and could spoil it for people, I'd show you the pics I took of MC taking the plunge. If you guys want to see the pic, its on B.net, sn=Zen Warrior24.
 
ItsInMyVeins said:
Among other stuff, yes. I think it should be mandatory by now. And a sprint button. And being able to aim down the barrel. And maybe even being able to order people around a'la Freedom Fighters?



There's a lot of talk but I'd like an example of what it is that makes it so much deeper. The more open areas? Yeah, that's not doing it. The AI? It's good, but lacking at times. Sure the enemies take cover, just waiting there staring into a wall while you go behind them and knock them down. Nothing I consider special six or seven chapters into the single player. It might get better at legendary or hero though, I don't know. Right now I'm playing normal.



I'm not seeing it, sorry :)

Change of tactics is something I see in a lot of other games too, both playing COD4 online and in Rainbow Six for example.

I mean, I'm enjoying it, but it doesn't feel fresh at all if you ask me. I know I'm saying "COD4" over and over again, but it was such a huge positive surprise -- shooting through walls, UVA's, Air Strikes, helicopters, different perks and possibility to customize weapons and suchs.
Click to expand...

And there is your problem. Go play on heroic at least and see if the enemy just stands behind a corner.
 
ItsInMyVeins said:
I've beaten both Halo and Halo 2 on legendary, so I'm aware of the difference in difficulty between legendary and normal.

But let's say that the AI suddenly improves a vast amount when I switch to legendary -- it's still not gonna give me more possibilities of the kind I've mentioned earlier, which I think makes a game a lot more fun.
Click to expand...
I don't understand what you are wanting then. More gimmick stuff like airstrikes and such? There's tons of warthog nonsense and the flood levels are secretly platformers in disguise if that's what you are in to.

Seeing as how we are into this omgmoment topic,
Final area to clear the Dawn's landing zone. Was in a Ghost, had 3 rounds in a sniper scope, and like 20 BR rounds. Had to snipe the first wraith's gunner, use the ghost to kill it and the shade next to it. Then snuck up and melee'd the grunt on the turret, took his plasma pistol to stop the Brutes on ghosts now charging at me. After killing them hopped on the turret to kill brutes heading across the bridge to reinforce the landing zone. Sniped grunt on turret, had to use Ghost to dash across to it's platform, and jump on turret while a bunker of brutes raining hell. I felt fucking proud when I finally finished that.
 
BadAss84 said:
I'm sure others have seen this, but i found this cool / weird easter egg in the first level. I've uploaded a screen of it to my file share:

http://www.bungie.net/stats/halo3/default.aspx?player=BadAss84

^_^

I enjoyed the first level (on heroic), and am currently up to that 1st brute pack in the warehouse on lvl 2, they're pretty tough!

I also played a couple of mp games to finish off for the night, it's just so much fun, brings back lots of fun memories from the beta :D

Can't wait for work to be over tomorrow so i can play some more :)
Click to expand...


Where in the hell was that? That is cool!!!
 
Son of Godzilla said:
Every Phantom that shows up basically allows you to trade a clip of Brute Shot for a Plasma Cannon. I actually went through the level using nothing but BR/Carb/Brute and turrets/cannons after the first few groups.
Click to expand...
Please elaborate. Are you saying you can somehow take a cannon off of a Phantom and use it? Or are you just somehow jumping up and borrowing that side cannon that the grunt fires?
 
Ding said:
Please elaborate. Are you saying you can somehow take a cannon off of a Phantom and use it? Or are you just somehow jumping up and borrowing that side cannon that the grunt fires?
Click to expand...
You blow up the grunt, it'll fall off the Phantom for you to use.
 
Son of Godzilla said:
I don't understand what you are wanting then. More gimmick stuff like airstrikes and such? There's tons of warthog nonsense and the flood levels are secretly platformers in disguise if that's what you are in to.
Click to expand...

It's only gimmicks if they don't really add anything more to the game.

The point is; the gameplay feels exactly the same as in the two last Halos, with some minor differences.
 
Cocopjojo said:
Don't highlight the second paragraph until you've watched after the credits.

They activated the Halo in order to wipe out the Flood. The Gravemind and the Flood had followed the humans and the Elites through the Portal to try and stop Truth. The Halos eradicate all life by each firing and destroying life within its radius. That's why it takes seven to cover the entire galaxy. So, by firing only one, it just killed everything within its radius - and yeah, the portal had taken them to the edge of the galaxy, so there was nothing there except the Ark and everyone that had come through the portal. Remember the scene with the humans and Elites gearing up for battle before going through the portal? And Lord Hood was arguing that their last stand should be at Earth, not through the portal? And the Cartographer that you hunted down showed our galaxy where it was pointed out how far away the portal had taken everyone. The Halo did kill all sentient life in the area - there was just nothing there except the Flood (since the humans and Elites escaped through the portal).

If you watched the cutscene after the credits, then you'll have noticed that the Chief survived. Cortana explained that the Halo shook itself to pieces as it fired (since it wasn't complete). So the Chief just got lucky that it malfunctioned, I suppose, and happened to be in an area that it didn't fire towards. But as far as we know, the Flood and the Gravemind were destroyed in the firing.
Click to expand...

But aren't there Flood on every halo, if Chief blew up one halo what about the other halos with flood on them!
Also what about the Brutes... did they give up or something.
 
ItsInMyVeins said:
It's only gimmicks if they don't really add anything more to the game.

The point is; the gameplay feels exactly the same as in the two last Halos, with some minor differences.
Click to expand...



When Halo and Halo 2 had such awesome gameplay, why change a winning formula. They just expanded on it.
 
Guys I just got the game I would really want to experience 4 player online coop! reply if you guys wanna get to it now!
 
neoism said:
But aren't there Flood on every halo, if Chief blew up one halo what about the other halos with flood on them!
Also what about the Brutes... did they give up or something.
Click to expand...


Well
The Truth was dictating them and they believed in him, and when he died, no reason to follow his beliefs
 
g23 said:
Guys I just got the game I would really want to experience 4 player online coop! reply if you guys wanna get to it now!
Click to expand...

I'll throw my hat in. QVT on Live.

Lets get a legendary four player game going and beat it, it's hard alone :(
 
slasher_thrasher21 said:
Holy fucktard thats alot of bitching! If these problems are legit, I'm sure Bungie will fix it. The fact that half your friends want to do co-op and then sell it is just straight up retarded.
Click to expand...
Believe. From what I read here, I am starting to lose faith.
And about my friends, well, what's the point about keeping a game after finishing the story if the multiplayer piss them off ? I can't even argue with them since I perfectly understand the problems.


DoctorWho said:
Maybe from where you're standing.
Click to expand...
Don't misunderstand me, the gameplay is fantastic, really. Maps are generally good or excellent (personally I prefer outside maps with vehicles, I think there is too much "arena maps", but that's a minor point).

But how to put it... I am complaining about what I call basis. For playing with friends.
Push-to-talk system = fail No need to say more. Even in our custom games with could not find any option about it.
Now for the other points, we can manage to create our own party and invite people from our list. It's disappointing to not play against new people but it's a minor comparing to the liberty to choice the type of game we want to play.


Aside that, for playing against strangers, I don't really give a fuck about these problems. I won't speak with them and personally it doesn't matter so much to me to play VIP or others.
But I was planning to play this game with my friends. Damn, we gave a fucking good group system in Halo 3, it's a waste !




Really I am disappointed about GAF. There can be a fucking debate on 20 pages or more about fucking aliasing or whatever technical problem and no one cares about simple basis of multiplayer.
 
I thought the ending, while good lacked a HUGE punch.

When you're leaving the newly-built Installation 04 at the end with the Arbiter in the jeep, I thought: "Yeah! We've destroyed the Flood and the Prophet of Truth!.....but what about the Brutes, the Grunts and the Hunters?!

Then I realised that THAT must be the BIG BATTLE that we've been informed of in these Halo 3 Ads with the miniatures and the War Veterans. I imagined an epic scaled battle on the remains of Africa with the Brutes trying to avenge the deaths of their prophets like they were some kind of martyres which would've rocked my cock! Alas, it wasn't the case. :-(
 
joelseph said:
shotty/sniper = worst variant ever.
Click to expand...


wtf? I think it is a wonderful variant. You have long range capabilities like team snipe, but you don't have to melee a bunch or use plasma snipe. Just shotty, Yo Gotti.
 
Some impressions. Spoilers follow.

Great story, I'll need to replay it again when I'm more awake (I played through 2 player coop on Heroic, took us 5 and a half hours or so.), since I had gone to the midnight launch about 7 pm, stood in line, got the game, came home, played the entire way through, then went to school. Hardest day ever. Anyway, moving on.

Sierra 117: Excellent level, especially as the opening one. Its the first 'first Halo level' that has managed to actually be open in its encounters.

Crow's Nest: I was seriously down on this level until I got farther into it. I was like "why do i have to return to the ops center three times?! adlfjadfjj," but then the level started getting really good, so whatever.

Tsavo and The Storm were great, especially the Scarab encounter. Really amazing.

Floodgate has taken the mantle of "Flood introduction level that I hate the least." Great atmosphere, melees actually work on the flood now!!!, and the surprisingly cool corpse infection made for some great encounters.

The Ark and the Covenant are possibly my favorite levels in the game at this point. Open ended, vehicle centric with some great infantry battles, everything I could want from a game.

Which brings me to this. Cortana. What? This level was mind-numbingly horrible. I don't know what about it I hated so much, but I know that I will not be playing that level for fun ever again. Which is sad because it has some of the biggest plot elements in it, with Cortana showing signs of rampancy, echoing her letters from 1999, and leaving you to speculate just what the Gravemind has done to her. But level design, not so great. I just don't think the whole "organic building" thing works so well, because it makes me think that I can do things I can't, or something. Rambling, moving on, etc.

Halo: You could not imagine the excitement I had when I entered the canyon with the Control Room tower in it. The happiness of nostalgia rushed through me like crazy. I wondered: "Where's my banshee up there that I can knock down? There are supposed to be two ghosts here, but I don't even care!" I wish it hadn't been completely Flood, but I'll take what I can get, I guess. The Monitor fight was weird, but didn't feel like a boss fight since it was so easy (I wish I had had a laser two games ago though). At that point, I trusted the Monitor a ton, even after what he had done in the past. I did not expect him to just go off like that. After that came a part that I really wasn't too sure what was going on (why are there random platforms sitting here and that I can drive on? I understand the Halo is still being built, but uh...it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me why half of that stuff was there. Which really echoes the first game, in which there was a Warthog obstacle course on a starship, one that could not actually fit into the confines of the ship if tested (and someone did, Stephen Loftus over at HBO). The ending was fantastic. I haven't finished it on Legendary yet, so I'll have to wait on those comments.

Additional stuff: New flood forms were interesting, but I'm not sure they added a whole lot. Mostly they annoyed me by peppering me with spikes from a billion miles away. Or ignored my shotgun blasts for whatever reason. Meh.

I guess that's that. I'm definitely not disappointed, since I haven't even touched half of the features in the game yet. Looking forward to some more playtime.
 
Really I am disappointed about GAF. There can be a fucking debate on 20 pages or more about fucking aliasing or whatever technical problem and no one cares about simple basis of multiplayer.
Click to expand...
Most people are assuming most problems will be fixed, promptly. Stuff like turrets spawning on Team Swords is a bit of an oversight. I could have sworn the push to talk was an option in your voice settings too. Did they re-redo it or something?

Also you seem to be trying to do a custom game from matchmaking. You should be able to move your entire party over to the custom room.
 
ItsInMyVeins said:
I mean, I'm enjoying it, but it doesn't feel fresh at all if you ask me.
Click to expand...

Was anyone asking you? You enjoy it, so just enjoy it, lets not focus on negatives, we all know its not a new genre or anything, thats why its Halo 3 instead of Next Gen Game 1.


Do you have to find a skull and complete the level with it to get the achievement?
 
Oh wow. Bungie weren't kidding when they said you should play Heroic. Last night, someone told me about a skull on the 4th level, so in order to get it before I went to bed, I put it on Normal.

Oh wow. That stuff is just boring. There's a big difference in the amount of enemies. You get maybe half of the encounters, most of which are impossibly easy. Honestly, to the five or so people in the world who haven't played the campaign yet, play on Heroic.

On the topic of skulls, I've gained four so far, but I've only unlocked the
Scout
body piece, which I think was from the
Iron
skull. The other three I've picked up haven't done anything (I've looked at both Spartan and Elite models). Do I need to finish the level in order to unlock the armour?

Cheers in advance.
 
Ding said:
OMG, Bungie is ripping off Larry Niven confirmed!!1

Just kidding, but Niven's classic Ringworld series of books feature both a really, really big "Halo", and a main character who has been bred for luck.

Somehow I doubt that I'm the first one to notice that. Probably not even the first in this thread. :D
Click to expand...
MC wasn't bred for luck. Read the books, the whole "I know how to pick them" and "MC being lucky" are just metaphors to the fact that there are limitations as to what the computer abilities of Cortana are, however she has a "human" instinct. All Spartans in the original program went through the "luck" test of Dr Halsey, is just that MC is the "luckiest one". In the sense that he survived. However, nobody can be so lucky, meaning that MC is truly special and he is able to accomplish things other soldiers can't
 
Jackl said:
Thats where the problem is though I think. Is if you play easy or normal those situations never really happen. People can just get by with run and gunning it. There such a huge gap between normal and heroic in terms of gameplay. There is less enemies, they die easier, they miss more, you have more ammo, you can take more damage. Your friendlies are near invincible.

You just don't get pushed into a corner like you do in the harder settings, giving a stale feel. When the opening statements on the difficulty settings says "This is how halo is meant to be played" Thats not fluff text, they mean it.

Edit: My grammar r horriblez.
Click to expand...
Easy and Normal were made for people who haven't really played Halo before. If you're running and gunning through it, then it should be played on a harder setting. I don't think Bungie should be faulted for providing a range of difficulties. In fact, I think they went above and beyond regarding difficulty. I played through Bioshock on both Normal and Hard, and the only difference was the amount of damage enemies take and deal. Here, entire encounters play out differently, the AI is more sophisticated, and everything is just crazier.

So far, Herioc is kicking my ass, but I'm loving it. It's a good kind of hurt. :lol
 
ItsInMyVeins said:
Cause now it feels old.
Click to expand...
I think they would have taken a much greater risk by changing several key aspects, in order to gain a few brownie points from the minority. When your massive, fanatical fanbase expects the same familiar gameplay elements that they've grown accustomed to, you don't tinker with the winning formula.

Doom 3 is a prime example.
 
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