Halo 3 - now coming to Xbox One. MC Collection.

[Dave White]

That's such bullshit. It's till better than the vast majority of FPS. Get some perspective.

With ya there

[Mr.Crowley]

Maybe I'm exaggerating, but Halo CE is miles better in most respects.

[Qazimod]

Halo is to Halo 2 what Halo 2 is to most other shooters.

[Stanley]

Halo 2 is gamings Phantom Menace.

Not really. A better analogy would be Matrix Reloaded - heaps of hope, more effects, bigger budget, falls short of the original. I expect Halo 3 will be a Matrix Revolutions.

[Snowman]

I expect Halo 3 will be a Matrix Revolutions.

O ye of little faith

[Lerschumbo]

Bungie are going to be very disappointed if people call the game Matrix Revolutions, after all, they said that they wanted this to be a Return of the King.

[Eats hoops and leaves]

If the boss battles weren't in there, Halo 2 would have been incredible. But they are, and they tarnished the whole thing. Big dirty stains that spread out and destroyed the consistency and coherency of the game's universe. Bah.

[Chaz]

I don't know why everyone whines about the boss battles so much. They were still fun, which is more than can be said for about the last half of the campaign, which was utter, instantly forgettable shite. Seriously, I went back to Halo 2's campaign recently, and when I looked at the list of levels, I actually remembered nothing about the last half of them, except that I found them tiresome and irritating in the extreme.

[Stanley]

The thing that puts me off is glaringly obvious; dual-wielding. The game lost all balance. Multiplayer Halo was fantastic, but in Halo 2 was ruined by dual-wielding. It's as though they'd willfully dumbed the game down to shoehorn the feature in. It detracts from the experience from than enriches it. The plasma sword was highly annoying too. I had to bow out of Halo 2 multiplayer in the end for fear of needing anger management therapy.

The latest trailer (showing game play footage) looks more Halo 2 than Halo, hence my Matrix Revolutions analogy; more of the same, not worse, but not better, and certainly nowhere near approaching the greatness of the original.

I'd love to have my expectations well and truly exceeded of course.

[dan_tm]

The thing that puts me off is glaringly obvious; dual-wielding. The game lost all balance. Multiplayer Halo was fantastic, but in Halo 2 was ruined by dual-wielding. It's as though they'd willfully dumbed the game down to shoehorn the feature in. It detracts from the experience from than enriches it. The plasma sword was highly annoying too. I had to bow out of Halo 2 multiplayer in the end for fear of needing anger management therapy.

The latest trailer (showing game play footage) looks more Halo 2 than Halo, hence my Matrix Revolutions analogy; more of the same, not worse, but not better, and certainly nowhere near approaching the greatness of the original.

I'd love to have my expectations well and truly exceeded of course.

Well Bungie recognise your issues seemingly, in one of their first promotional videos for Halo 3 they say that dual-wielding broke the game. Admitting that it breaks the core of Halo's gameplay: grenades and melee, because you can't use either while dual-wielding.

There was still dual-wielding in the H3 beta but it was fairly useless most of the time. In the open a grenade and a burst of the BR was better, in enclosed spaces a melee and a quick hosing down with the AR was more than enough in most cases.

[Eats hoops and leaves]

I don't know why everyone whines about the boss battles so much. They were still fun, which is more than can be said for about the last half of the campaign, which was utter, instantly forgettable shite. Seriously, I went back to Halo 2's campaign recently, and when I looked at the list of levels, I actually remembered nothing about the last half of them, except that I found them tiresome and irritating in the extreme.

They were undignified. Up until then, the series was a step above other videogames for not introducing such lazy, cliched elements. Somehow a game about aliens and space marines had managed to come across as quite articulate and fresh.

[Stanley]

Well Bungie recognise your issues seemingly, in one of their first promotional videos for Halo 3 they say that dual-wielding broke the game. Admitting that it breaks the core of Halo's gameplay: grenades and melee, because you can't use either while dual-wielding.

There was still dual-wielding in the H3 beta but it was fairly useless most of the time. In the open a grenade and a burst of the BR was better, in enclosed spaces a melee and a quick hosing down with the AR was more than enough in most cases.

Well it's encouraging that they recognise it, but it's still in Halo 3!? Just get rid of it Bungie, there's still time.

[scottcr]

I don't know why everyone whines about the boss battles so much. They were still fun, which is more than can be said for about the last half of the campaign, which was utter, instantly forgettable shite. Seriously, I went back to Halo 2's campaign recently, and when I looked at the list of levels, I actually remembered nothing about the last half of them, except that I found them tiresome and irritating in the extreme.

this more than anything... The campaign, beyond the scarab fight - was completely forgettable. I never even finished it - but it got to the point where I had no idea what I was doing and why. Changing characters was a novelty at first - but it got to the point where I began to really hate the arbiter levels. With a vengance.

and I hated the flood as well.

The only problem with Halo is the Library - it's a dull level. Halo 2 almost feels like an entire game of Library levels.

[Mr.Crowley]

I don't know, I enjoyed the Library.

[Stroker Ace]

Bungie are going to be very disappointed if people call the game Matrix Revolutions, after all, they said that they wanted this to be a Return of the King.

"Halo 2 didn't give you an ending, but in Halo 3, you get TEN ENDINGS!"

[Beertiger]

The only problem with Halo is the Library - it's a dull level. Halo 2 almost feels like an entire game of Library levels.

Legendary, Library, Shotgun. Anything but dull.

Also anyone moaning about Halo 2 being rubbish obviously never took it online with friends.

[Chaz]

this more than anything... The campaign, beyond the scarab fight - was completely forgettable. I never even finished it - but it got to the point where I had no idea what I was doing and why. Changing characters was a novelty at first - but it got to the point where I began to really hate the arbiter levels. With a vengance.

and I hated the flood as well.

The only problem with Halo is the Library - it's a dull level. Halo 2 almost feels like an entire game of Library levels.

Exactly. There are loads of levels near the end which just look exactly and play almost exactly the same - Regret and Delta Halo, whilst quite good levels, come to mind. Then there were a couple set in the alien spaceship which were incredibly similar, and to make matters worse both used repeated corridors again and again. Then there were a couple inbetween which mainly featured the Flood and the Sentinels, which I can barely even remember playing. All I remember were loads of Wraiths and Flood, two of the most irritating things to have to deal with when you're on foot and holding shit weapons.

[Tom_B]

Also anyone moaning about Halo 2 being rubbish obviously never took it online with friends.

Isn't is a well-known phenomenon that even the shittest games magically become fun if you play them in multiplayer with friends?

[Eats hoops and leaves]

Also anyone moaning about Halo 2 being rubbish obviously never took it online with friends.

I know I didn't, because that isn't what I bought it for.

[Angles Morts]

Exactly, biplanes on the Amiga was amazing with a few friends, completely pointless on your own.

I'd say Halo 2 was crap as a single player FPS, but then I don't like a lot of FPS that others seem to love (Prey, Rainbow 6 Vegas).

[dan_tm]

Also anyone moaning about Halo 2 being rubbish obviously never took it online with friends.

Only silly people make that argument, not everyone likes multiplayer and most people bought it for the campaign.

Even sillier people say the campaign was rubbish, it was just a disappointment compared to the mammoth expectations.

[Chaz]

Exactly, biplanes on the Amiga was amazing with a few friends, completely pointless on your own.

I'd say Halo 2 was crap as a single player FPS, but then I don't like a lot of FPS that others seem to love (Prey, Rainbow 6 Vegas).

People love Prey?

Wow.

[Lorfarius]

Only silly people make that argument, not everyone likes multiplayer and most people bought it for the campaign.

Even sillier people say the campaign was rubbish, it was just a disappointment compared to the mammoth expectations.

I bought the game for the single player. I really wanted to see the story too and was very disappointed. In fact I didnt think it was worth high praise that was until one drunken night online with several mates. It blew me away and suddenly made a whole lot more sense. The multiplayer made it something special and theres been nothing like it since. Yes it was disappointing but for me and a lot of people the MP more than made up for it.

[Beertiger]

Isn't is a well-known phenomenon that even the shittest games magically become fun if you play them in multiplayer with friends?

Tell that to the people playing Vampire Rain online.

[Tom_B]

Tell that to the people playing Vampire Rain online.

Well, you can pick obscure examples which you know I won't have played, let alone online with friends, but that doesn't disprove The Rule. In fact, the really bad games become even more fun with friends as random bugs strike down players with hilarious consequences (actually an intentional feature in some of the recent Mario Party games), and everyone is bitching about the crapness of it all.

Of course, the Halo multiplayer is something more than a crappy little glitchy game, and you can take it to a super-hardcore level and discover all its little touches and fight against equally competetive clans, but to me it stops being about 'fun' at that point. That's not to say you're not enjoying it - I know first-hand the perverse satisfaction you can get from total mastery of a game, but to me that's a totally different feeling from having 'fun' with Bomberman after a few beers...

Uh, but getting back to your original statement... To me, at the level I play it, there's little difference between my fumblings online with Halo and any other online FPS I've dabbled with. Except my life expectancy is a hell of a lot shorter in Halo as everyone is so Goddamn amazing at it, which I supposed made it less fun...

[Hass]

Uh, but getting back to your original statement... To me, at the level I play it, there's little difference between my fumblings online with Halo and any other online FPS I've dabbled with. Except my life expectancy is a hell of a lot shorter in Halo as everyone is so Goddamn amazing at it, which I supposed made it less fun...

Matchmaking still struggles to match poor players effectively with each other because you inevitably get bunched up with someone who's played Halo's 1 & 2 to death but has just bought Halo 3. It's a really tricky one

to resolve that too, I guess you could possibly try and make assumptions based on the previous similar games a noob has played?

I think the 'Recreational', 'Pro' gamer type settings were supposed to address this type of thing but it hasn't really worked unfortunately.

[Beertiger]

Matchmaking still struggles to match poor players effectively with each other because you inevitably get bunched up with someone who's played Halo's 1 & 2 to death but has just bought Halo 3.

It's worse than that, it's the fact that you get little pricks abusing the match making system and de-levelling so they can beat people easily. It's supposed to eventually peak at your ideal level so you win as many as you lose but oh no everyone has to win all the time and be the hero (the reason a lot of people hate Dead Rising too). So it's not the system that's broken it's the shitty people that play it.

Hopefully with the two different rankings Halo 3 will go some way to reach online perfection. I'm guessing not though.

[Hass]

It's worse than that, it's the fact that you get little pricks abusing the match making system and de-levelling so they can beat people easily. It's supposed to eventually peak at your ideal level so you win as many as you lose but oh no everyone has to win all the time and be the hero (the reason a lot of people hate Dead Rising too). So it's not the system that's broken it's the shitty people that play it.

Hopefully with the two different rankings Halo 3 will go some way to reach online perfection. I'm guessing not though.

It does suck. But it's better than the lobby system IMO

[Lorfarius]

It does suck. But it's better than the lobby system IMO

None of it really matters if you can find a big enough group of mates to play with. Big group matches etc

[The Cactuar Cat]

Well, you can pick obscure examples which you know I won't have played, let alone online with friends, but that doesn't disprove The Rule.

It was released a couple of weeks ago on Xbox 360 across the world.