If Timesplitters sucks then Shiznit is the queen of england.

Back on topic, I would be interested in this... If it was out on PC, for now ill go with the orange box.

Cool thing is so can XBox 360 owners and PS3 owners.

it's lots of fun

Game is fun, lots of fun. Back with more later.

Going to try to pick the game up at some point today. Is it too much to hope that the one game store in a town with thousands of college students didn't sell out?

Well, I'm enjoying it. My local Best Buy had a line wrapped around the back of the store, way more people than I expected. Still got my copy, though (and a free t-shirt, crappy headset, and some kind of Halo 3 wall decal).

Anyway, my friend and I played MP until 7:30 AM, so I think it's safe to say that it's quite fun. I agree with those who said there aren't any major changes, just a ton of little ones. The changes that they did make are quite enjoyable.

We'll probably tackle some SP co-op this weekend.

Got in line at 9 at our Gamestop. SECOND in line. Only 30 people showed up there. 50 or 60 showed up at one in the mall where another friend was. He got stuck in the middle of the line even though he'd been waiting since 5.

Came home and had to take care of other crap before I could play... so all in all, I played from 2 to 9 30, and finished the Campaign.

It was all I expected, and less than I expected. If that makes sense... Campaign just never felt.... right. Always just a little off. Like it was Halo... but it wasn't. I also have MAJOR gripes about the Flood levels, one of which I was so lost in I spent 40 minutes walking in circles trying to figure out where the hell I was supposed to go. It didn't appear obvious, everything looked the same, and I had no waypoint marker on my HUD to help. I only knew if I was someplace new if I was getting shot at, smacked around, or if Gravemind and Cortana started talking to me. It's the only Halo game I've ever had mixed feelings about after beating the Campaign as to just how good it was.

Though right now, I'm going to hinge alot of that on how long I was up, and how sleep deprived I was. I'm gonna start a second run through tomorrow and pace it out better.

What are some examples of the 'tons of little changes' they made? I'm very out of the loop when it comes to new features in Halo 3.

Good times? I've decided to wait until post-LSAT to pick it up.

The gravity hammer is like.. the best thing ever.

I love the equipment things they allow you to carry. Especially the gravity spike one...so cool to flip over a truck and then jump on top of it with a turret in hand. Oh right, turrets. You can now rip them off their tripods and carry them around like a badass. Really fun.

I've played a couple levels in the Campaign (just blew up the barracks ) and it's a blast. I just wish I could play on Live, instead of just every Friday with my friends. Regardless, it's still ****ing fun.

Oh, and how I got mine? Well, a couple people went to a city an hour away to go to the GameStop at midnight. My friends that did that got the Legendary Edition (he had to bribe people up front with $20 so he could get near the front of the line and be ensured a Legendary Edition). I just went to Wal-Mart after a friend said they had a ton of copies. And they did...I got there with 2 of the Collector's Edition tins left (which I grabbed) and, i exaggerate not, 45+ copies of the game on its own.

Walmart shopping ftw.

Played around with the whole film thing today (people probably think I'm weird for not having tried Forge or films right away), it's pretty damned cool. I hadn't realized that it would save the game data from your last 25 or so matches. This is awesome because if you and your friends are disagreeing on how something went down, you can go and see from any angle. Not to mention the ability to capture some really awesome clips.

Got it today. It's a lot of fun. Probably the best surpise was the voice acting provided by Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, and Adam Baldwin.

Yay Alan Tudyk!

(Gyaaaaaar!)

(Pansy cakes!)

I still haven't played with Forge. Or gone into Matchmaking. Or looked at the MP maps.

Forge looks stupid.

I was at Target today and they had about 20+ copies. I won't bother buying it until later though, since I've been busy as hell and haven't even finished Bioshock yet.

Holy ****. I'm sold. I'm getting Halo 3 next pay day.

HOLY ****. THAT'S TODAY!

Eh, i didn't find bioshock all that great. Sure it was GOOD.. Just not "Video game savior!" good.

Wanna know what made me scream like a little school girl?

20 minutes of game play was about 3 mb. 3. freaking. megabytes.

My jaw dropped.

Yeah, it's because it just saves the game data, then when you view it it re-creates it with a game engine. Much easier on space than saving actual video. And, as a bonus, you could be playing on an SD TV, but later watch the video on an HDTV at full res.

Oh man, I completely forgot about that. I need to get some awesome videos together now to take over to a friend's house and watch them on his 72" big screen.

The game can only run in 1080p, so 72" is pretty overkill - you'd have to sit quite a distance away from it.

God I wish I had a 72" TV

I'm on the highway level. The campaign is pretty fun, but the matchmaking is insanely good. After a few games I'm playing with people who are pretty much the exact same skill level as me. So far my first 2 days with my 360 have been pretty awesome and I'm very impressed by the way Live! works. Most importantly I haven't heard any pre-pube boys yelling at me over the mic yet. So far so good I guess.

I wish I had a connection that wouldn't lag like an SOB when I played online. And a wireless adapter for my 360 (because $100 is just too much).

I just beat the highway level myself. I've always loved Halo's driving controls, and Halo 3 is just as nice.

Yeah, I love the matchmaking system. Joining a party with my friends and always being on the same team is the way to go, the way Gears handles it is incredibly frustrating (teams are auto-balanced, so if you and a friend join at the same time you'll usually be on opposite teams).

Earlier today my friend and I played and it was taking 5-15 minutes to match up a game, which was ridiculous. I'm not sure if it was because it was during school hours so there weren't many games (though it said there were over 200,000 players online), or if they were just having server problems. A few hours later there were over 300,000 players and games started very quickly.

Forge is actually incredibly utterly awesome. I system linked with a guy at school today and we went nuts on Sandtrap putting all sorts of crap in there that wasn't normally on the map, messing with teleporters, fooling with equipment, and flipping over the Elephant.

Yes, if you didn't know, you can flip the Elephant. Just not in normal gameplay. You have to pretty much spawn a crap load of fusion cores on one side and detonate them, and it'll flip onto it's side. The message changes from "Pres Right Bumper to Flip" to "Press Right Bumper to Flip.... Wait... What? How did you do that!?" Totally worth it just to see that message, and watch your Spartan/Elite flip the damn thing back over.

For anyone that hasn't picked up the game yet, like me, I saw today that Sam's Club has the basic version for $48. I think the Limited Edition was mid 60s.

I just went and flipped the Elephant in Forge.

And then I watched it over and over again.

And then I recorded it, twice. Once from the player view, once from a view where I could watch it flip over.

Then I got screenshots of it at its peak. And I have one that's REALLY badass.

Does anyone know of a way to move screenshots from the 360 to a computer, or if it's possible? Because one of those shots is really freaking awesome and would make a good desktop.

Anyone who thinks this game looks even remotely on the same level as Halo 2 needs a serious slap in the face, new glasses, and possibly a trip to the
optometrist. Especially in HD, it looks way better.

Zloc: you need to take the screenshot, then upload it to the bungie servers. You can then view/download it at Bungie's website for Halo.

I don't have internet hooked up to my 360, I can't do that. I guess I'm out of luck

Speaking of screenshots....

I know it's not THAT impressive, but everyone else in the room thought it was pretty slick. I was playing my instructor (he's in the foreground, I'm in the background) who sucks horribly, yet somehow managed to splatter me with the Ghost in the foreground 3 times in a row. Finally I managed to use the Brute Shot with some level of effectiveness, and just about flipped his Ghost. Instead of flipping though, it turned around and pointed him towards the tunnel. So he goes through the tunnel, I'm launching Brute Shot rounds at him, he jumps off and chucks a grenade right as one of my Brute Shot rounds detonates behind him. The picture is taken from just inside the explosion. No Photoshopping. I stumbled upon it PURELY by accident while going over the save film. The original is obviously about 4 times this size, but I figure no one wants to have it eat their browser window.

This one made for a pretty good video.

I'm the guy under the ATV, and it actually ended up missing me by a few inches.

i just got it tonight, and i played it a little before my girlfriend had to crash. all i can say is you must have a hd tv and surround sound.

i started the campaign and the first thing i said was, "holy ****ing ****." the graphics are ****ing insane in sp, and much better than i remember in the beta. the hud is freakin insane. you feel like you're in master chief's head.

it looks like halo, it feels like halo, it plays like halo -- it is halo. i was so glad to just start playing and have it feel like i've played it before. i lobbed a plasma 'nade like i would've in halo 2, and it landed right where i wanted it to. this has me sold, because i know now that i will have to adjust to some things, but i'm essentially playing the same game that i have been for years.

the turrets make sp that much more enjoyable. you can take down huge mobs of covenant and still keep your 2 normal weapons.

the best thing that bungie did was to put a rough crosshair on the zoom-in for non-scoped weapons. you can at least have a better shot at making a kill. btw -- the new brute shot is ****ing sweet. much better than halo 2's.

i've only played a few levels into the sp campaign, but i'm happy. i'm not going to go out on a limb and say that i expect some profound story line, because halo's storyline has always been cheesy and cliché.

i can't wait for this weekend, because i'm going to be playing some serious co-op with some of my friends.

Geez, after seeing some of the pictures here I guess the graphics are barely Halo 1 quality. In fact, they might not even be up to Marathon standards.

I've got some very short videos uploaded.
http://www.bungie.net/stats/Halo3/FileShare.aspx?gamertag=Stick%20McRunfast

The laser video is the best. I wish I was the guy firing it, but he was on my team. I watched him in the theater after the match. He had the thing most of the round and never missed once.

I somehow didn't kill this guy. I nudged him, then my team (who he's shooting at) ran him down with a Warthog.


Just a coop shot I liked.


How come you can't record or even rewind the campaign videos in Theater? Am I missing something? I'd love to save some parts of the levels so I don't have to fast forward through a half hour of gameplay.



As a Wii owner, I can safely say graphics are not that important to me. This game looks fine. I admit it loses some of it's luster in screenshots, but it looks great in motion.

Ok, in a non-spoilerific way, can someone tell me whether or not they show the Master Chief's face? I can't really find anything about it on teh googlez.

No. They've said forever that they never would.



You're effing blind.



It has to do with how level data is loaded. Multiplayer maps are cashed directly to the hard drive all in one go, which is why you can go backwards. All the map data is there. Campaign maps on the other hand, are loaded from the disc, or cashed to the drive at every load zone, I forget which. Either way, the entire campaign map is never cashed at any given time, making it impossible to go backwards. There's no way around it, that's just how it works according to them. More of a 360 limitation than a Halo 3 limitation.

And while I'm at it, Forge can't be used in Campaign, because it relies heavily on set triggers and events happening, along with the fact that campaign maps are about 100% more complex than multiplayer maps. If you started tossing random stuff around the campaign in Forge, you'd break it in a heartbeat and likely crash the 360.

No, I'm a sarcastic SOB. Get it right, fanboy.

Oh, and it's "cached", referring to your explanation of the movies.

I don't do sarcasm or spelling/grammar at 7 30 in the morning. Congratulations if you do.