Troutmaster

Halo 3

I wasn't planning on buying Halo 3 because I never played Halo 1 or Halo 2, but after reading a few good reviews I decided to go ahead and get it. I was amazed to see that it generated $170 Million in the first 24 hours. Granted that is pre-orders (I ordered mine a few days before it came out) and all walk up sales the first day. But damn, $170M divided by $60 per game comes out to 2.83 M games in the first 24 hours. As I'm sitting here about to start a multiplayer game, there are 474,419 halo 3 gamers online. This game hasn't even been out a week yet. Yikes! The geek side of me wants to know how they are doing the infrastructure for this because it has to be amazing. So the question is what do I think so far? I think it is a good game and I would recommend it IF you like games where you run around and kill stuff. I happen to but just that kind of gamer. The single player campaign mode is pretty good, the gameplay is solid and the graphics are good. The part that separates Halo 3 from other games like it are the multiplayer games. Here are the different options:

Matchmaker - Multiplayer kill 'em all sessions are where the system automatically matches you up with players of similar experience and skill. They don't go into details about the algorithm they use to do this, but from playing several multiplayer games I can vouch for it being pretty good.
Custom Games - You set the rules, types of games, and the players that can get in. I haven't done anything with this yet because I'm still just trying to get used to the controls and everything else that comes with the game, but in theory this is also pretty cool.
Forge - Customize the game map itself. Put weapons and other goodies anywhere you want. Save and share. Makes a great combo with Matchmaker and Custom games.
Theater - Really cool thing that records the entire game that you play. If you are playing multiplayer you can go back and watch the game again from other players' perspective or from any angle. You can then save video clips or screenshots. The screenshot included in this posting is from me playing in solo mode on the campaign. I'm the driver and I'm looking at the camera as the guy with the turret blows away some bad guys.

Overall Halo 3 is a great game and would recommend it. Even if you beat the solo campaign mode pretty quickly you will literally get years of great multiplayer game action out of this game. And the ability to save video and still clips put this game over the top. Finish the fight!

Posted by troutm8 at September 30, 2007 10:12 PM