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Ten Things We Love About Halo 3...
Four-player online co-op:
Four-player co-op would've been great. Online co-op would've been excellent. But four-player online co-op? Way to go, Bungie. You just blew our minds. The fact that this feature is born of necessity doesn't dampen our enthusiasm for it. Let's face it, the Master Chief won't be able to scratch his ass without it somehow being compared to Gears of War -- and without offering online co-op (largely regarded as Gears' most redeeming feature) Halo 3 wouldn't stand a chance with the peanut gallery. That Bungie isn't simply matching Gears' strength but exceeding it should help level the battlefield for the ensuing fanboy wars. Oh, and it should be a lot of fun to play, too.
Campaign Scoring:
Especially when you start making use of Campaign Scoring -- aka the metagame -- to tweak your co-op settings. Four players versus the Covenant seems a bit unfair to the poor aliens, even on Legendary -- but when you start collecting skulls and activating their gameplay mods, things will get interesting. Sure, you and your pals can make short work of Legendary...but how will you fare when everyone is invisible, absorbs twice as much damage, and attacks with grenades only?
Forge:
As much as we're looking forward to tweaking the Campaign, Halo 3's true potential for greatness may rest in Forge, the Garry's Mod-like map editor. Even with Campaign Scoring active, the single-player game is ultimately a known quantity...but Forge? Forge is limited only by the inventiveness of its users. Folks at Bungie admit that they ultimately have no idea what players will be able to achieve with Forge -- and considering that they were doing cool things with the series before it was open for customization, Forge could keep the Halo 3 community thriving well into the next Xbox's lifetime.
Bungie Recommends:
The second blow in Forge's one-two punch is Bungie Recommends -- the company's way of recognizing and promoting players' most creative creations. Sure, you could take the crapshoot approach and try random user-made Forge content...but with Bungie Recommends, you're guaranteed to see the ones that meet the developer's exacting standards.
Saved films:
In a similar vein, the saved-film feature has amazing potential as well. Speed runs and time attacks have long been a favorite of gamers, and Halo 3 doesn't simply build that function into the game -- it allows players to exert tremendous control over the results. It promises the obvious benefits, whether petty (zoom in on that rocket that smacked your buddy in the face for bragging rights) or practical (watch a tense pro match from the perspective of every player). But we're sure people will put it to good use in other ways, too...showing off hilarious glitches, or making their own machinima without even leaving the game.
The Gravity Hammer:
In sheer gameplay terms, we're looking forward to trying out the game's new arsenal. But nothing's going to rock quite as hard as the Brute Gravity Hammer. It's a perfect weapon for those who weren't fans of the finesse required to use Halo 2's Plasma Sword: A big, smashy bludgeon that can crush a foe, stun them with a shock wave, and send a vehicle flying. Of course, it's good for finesse, too -- with the right timing, you can hit a foe's grenade right back at them.
Greatly improved A.I.:
And even the solo game changes a lot, a fact that can be ascribed largely to the improved artificial intelligence of your enemies. The Brutes in particular are considerably cannier this time around -- sure, they're still violent and strong, but they behave more like Elites. Unlike Elites, though, they're willing to wield all manner of weapons, so it's harder to predict how a given scenario will pan out. In fact, we played through a few Campaign levels multiple times and found that every single major encounter was totally different every time -- and that enemies on normal difficulty behave more like they did in Halo 2's Heroic mode.
Better level designs:
Much as we like the series, it's hard to deny that the Campaigns can sometimes be a letdown. Halo was repetitive; Halo 2 was stiflingly linear. But what we've seen of Halo 3 assuages our concerns -- its missions seem to offer the variety of Halo 2 and the more open format of the original Halo. Big battles can be approached from many different directions, further adding to the gameplay variety. But there's no copy-and-paste level design....
Subtlety:
In fact, Halo 3 has some of the nicest graphics we've ever seen. In a side-by-side comparison with, say, Gears of War, the game might not seem quite as detailed. But what it might lack in hyper-obsessive texture information, it makes up in an overall sense of beauty. Bungie has focused less on tiny details and more on getting the general feel of the game right -- Halo 3 employs some of the best HDR (high dynamic range) lighting we've ever seen, avoiding the excessively glossy look of other high-definition games. Where most developers get carried away with surface effects and end up creating a world that looks to have been built of modeling clay slathered in grease, Halo 3's visual surfaces behave like the things they're mimicking. Rocks and wood and grass are dull, metal surfaces have luster but don't go overboard with reflectivity, and everything looks "lived in." Good graphics aren't just about detail, but about art direction -- and we like the direction Halo 3 has taken.
...And 5 We Don't.
No dedicated servers for multiplayer:
It's possible this might change, maybe. But for the time being, Halo 3 multiplayer hosting is all client-side. Which means a big advantage for the host player, and lots of potential lag for large matches. Meanwhile, we hear Frontlines will be offering dedicated multiplayer servers -- so why no love from Microsoft for its biggest game this year?
No clan support:
The loss of Halo clans is a huge blow to, well, pretty much anyone who likes playing with people of their choosing rather than the random jackasses who seem to comprise the bulk of Xbox Live users. Bungie threw up some smoke and mirrors about friends lists serving the same function, but...no. Friends lists and clans are two totally different creatures, and Halo without clans just won't be the same.
The gulf between newbies and pros:
The biggest discouragement for newcomers to online play is that the people who take Halo seriously take it really seriously. And while Bungie has made an admirable effort to keep the hardcore separate from the easy prey (including a training division for complete newbies that locks experienced players out by gamertag), Halo 3 multiplayer is still going to be a dark and scary place for casual players.
More playable races, please:
Spartans? Cool. Elites? Great. Custom armor? Brilliant! But why can't we approach multiplayer from the perspective of Halo's other races? Nothing says "challenge" like taking on the world as a Grunt. Case in point: We saw an official version of the fan-favorite Infection game in the works, which is cool...but it's just Elites and Spartans running around with swords. Meanwhile, the Campaign mode features an entire race of zombies, the Flood. How awesome would Infection be if infected players were Flood? Answer: so awesome.
Too short?:
OK, so it's too early to complain about the game's length, but we admit to being a little concerned. We blasted through two missions -- nearly a quarter of the Campaign, if rumors are to be believed -- in a little more than two hours. Later missions will undoubtedly be longer and more challenging -- but even so, we'll be a little bummed if we clear the Campaign in just 10 hours. It's just that Halo 3 plays so well -- it's such a refinement of the series -- 10 hours just doesn't seem like enough. Ah, but maybe we're just being selfish...especially when you factor in multiplayer. And Forge. And saved films. And Bungie Recommends. And...you know what? Never mind.
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