Halo 3 Super Hyped Awesome Wow Impressions!!1!11

Maybe not the best game ever, but it's pretty damn fun. I haven't really played the campaign much yet, but I tried out the first level with 3 other people. It was cool but started lagging really badly. I sheepishly realized later I forgot to turn off bittorrent. The problem with playing with 4 people is trying to follow the story with 3 people talking into your ear. Even when noones talking it can be annoying to hear someone elses TV through the headset. Graphics are very nice in the campaign as opposed to regular multiplayer which is still very much a sharper looking Halo 2. The AI is awesome as always and the one liners are still hilarious.

A majority of my time with the game so far has been on regular multiplayer with 3 other friends. The game is still fast, fun, and extremely addictive. One of the reasons I think Halo multiplayer is praised so much is because Bunjie is so talented with map design. The maps may not be as detailed as a Call of Duty or Rainbow Six map but they are extremely well balanced. It's nearly impossible to get cornered or find a cheap place to camp because there is always another way in-or-out of every room or crevice. They seem simple at first, but the maps are actually very well conceived.

I missed out on the beta and haven't yet fully grasped all the nuances of the weapon balance, but I have faith that we are in good hands with Bungie. The new weapons and deployables are really cool but there is a bit of a learning curve with the latter. I've clocked about 8-10 hours in already and still don't use the deployables very often. The new items are auto pickup and I rarely notice that I have one in my inventory. I think they add a lot of depth to the game so I hope I get used to them.

I'll play the campaign in coming weeks so expect impressions on that soon. From what I've seen in gameplay footage, the game looks like it will be filled with plenty of "WOW" moments. Can't wait.


(edit) I forgot to mention the fun of Forge mode. It really does have a slight Little Big Planet feel to it. You can edit stuff in the world while playing in it with other people. Pressing up on the d-pad turns you into one of those floating robot eyes or whatever from the first Halo game. You can seemlessly jump from player character to this edit machine all very rapidly. The floating eye can fly anywhere in the map but is still very much killable. You really have to mess around in there to understand the fun of it, but dropping a Scorpion tank on an unsuspecting player is friggen sweet. There really are a ton of options and Bungie put of some example game types they created in forge mode. If you get a lot of people together "Pirate Ships" mode is extremely fun. I definitely see Forge mode greatly extending the life of this game.