Product Description

The epic saga continues with Halo 3, the hugely anticipated sequel to the highly successful and critically acclaimed Halo franchise. In this third chapter of the Halo trilogy, Master Chief returns to finish the fight, bringing the epic conflict between the Covenant, the Flood, and the entire human race to a dramatic, pulse-pounding climax. Halo 3 represents the third chapter in the Halo trilogyan international award-winning action series that grew into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 14.5 million units worldwide, logging more than 650 million hours of multiplayer action on Xbox Live, and spawning action figures, books, a graphic novel, apparel, an upcoming film adaptation, and more

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #786 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Released on: 2007-09-25
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, German
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Preview
The Halo games were always the best reason to by an Xbox and now the final part in the initial trilogy of ground breaking first person shooters is set to raise the bar for all Xbox 360 games. Well known for their secrecy, Bungie have officially revealed little about Halo 3, but what is known is that the new game features an Earth completely overtaken and controlled by the Covenant, as they seek a secret hidden Forerunner weapon.

Although little is known about the single player mode, more has been seen of the multiplayer, with various beta testing schemes going on in both secret and in public. A number of new weapons and vehicles have already been revealed including a new assault rifle, the new Spartan laser anti-vehicle weapon and a new hand held shield device for Master Chief that can create a far more effective protective shield around you. New vehicles include the ATV-like Mongoose, a new variant of the Warthog and the new, more powerful, Brute Ghost.

Of course the most important new feature that every new fan is interested in is the graphics, and they are looking predictably fantastic. With lots of technobabble, new features like high dynamic range lightning and pre-computed radiance transfer means the game will not only play great but looks amazing too.
HARRISON DENT

Manufacturer's Description
The Mission: The Covenant controls Earth. The Flood is unleashed and on the loose. With the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance, Master Chief is the only one who can save the human race. The entire epic story arc has led up to this moment. Master Chief, the last of his kind, is a warrior born for combat and bred for war â€" and is humanity’s only hope.

After stowing away on a Forerunner spacecraft, Master Chief, a genetically altered, cybernetically enhanced Spartan supersoldier, must race back to Earth to stop the Covenant once and for all and save mankind. With his artificial intelligence companion Cortana in the grip of the Flood’s intelligent embodiment, Gravemind, Master Chief and his allies are vastly outnumbered, but the stakes are too high to do anything but face them head-on.

In Halo 3, the third installment of the legendary epic, the war has come to a climax; the Flood continues to grow in numbers and strength, the armies of Earth are scattered and decimated, and the Covenant threatens to activate the Halo, effectively destroying all life in the galaxy. Master Chief’s mission is to stop the Covenant, destroy the impending Flood threat and, ultimately, save mankind.

Customer Reviews

Excellent finale to the trilogy.
My husband and I are fairly avid Xbox gamers and played the original Halo and Halo2 back on the black box. Enjoyed Halo, Halo2 less so. So, I was not expecting brilliance from Halo3 having read some dodgy reviews prior to release.

Luckily, I took the plunge and am glad to say I have not regretted it.

Enjoyment factor: The game is very engaging. The NPC (non-player characters) are varied and well-voice acted. The weapons have been vamped up a little. Some old favourites are there (I personally love the target-seeking needler) and some cracking new BFGs have been added (eg you can rip off turrets & carry them around and there is also a Gravity Hammer which sees off pretty much anything with one close-range swipe).

Graphics: Lovely - no need to say more. Clear as crystal on a good screen. Surprising in much the same way that they were on the original game, even allowing for our new expectations, and with added bells and whistles! There are still the sneaky back ways that let you creep up on the enemy and no issues with lag at all. Very immersive play as the arenas are interesting and large-scale.

Play-ability: excellent. I agree with the comments elsewhere that Normal is for newbies and Heroic for old-timers. I like a reasonable game that I can pelt through a level or so in a hour of an evening and Normal is perfect for that. My husband likes a challenge and Herioc certainly provides one. We have yet to sample Legendary, but even the most hard-core of gamers will find a level to suit their tenacity.

Another excellent feature of this game is that 'save and quit' puts you back to the last checkpoint (which occur regularly in the game). NOT back to the beginning of the level. This means it is great for people who have to get up from their games from time to time - eg to eat with the family. You can rejoin where you were without having to lose hours of gameplay.

I rarely give great marks for games. The last 5/5 was Oblivion. This is a different kettle of fish - but still a 5 star game in my opinion.

Good for those who:
- liked Halo and Doom (in all its iterations),
- don't have lengthy periods of uninterrupted playtime at their disposal,
- play with others present - it's visually a good watch even if you're not playing yourself.

It's good... but
Firstly, I'm quite miffed about the hidden costs...
The game may be only £15, but as you can tell in other reviews and in Halo's reputation, online is where the real gameplay lies.

To be able to play the ranked (serious) versus matches on xbox live, you have to download 1,400 Microsoft points' worth of maps... which requires you to buy 2,100 points for another £16, and to have some left over.
So in reality, to really play the game as it should be paid, it's over £25 still, which for a child who's been bought the game as a present and has no funds left over could be pretty frustrating.

Being an English player online obviously has its frustration too, if you play the matchmaking you'll be forced to use an American host 90% of the time, which gives you a disadvantage (time delay) which causes you to lose a lot of skirmishes that you may well have otherwise won.

Playing this with friends from the UK in custom games, or matchmaking on a good host is brilliant, the second best online fps behind Halo 2. The whole game is slower than the second installation, and a lot less skill based. More often than not, whoever shoots first on this game, wins the fight, making triple kills etc rare even against players far less talented than yourself.

I give this game 4 stars because, once all extra content is downloaded, it can be a lot of fun - campaign on the Legendary setting is challenging enough (although not very replayable, enemies have the same spawns each time, gun placements identical etc) but without interest in multiplayer games, this isn't worth buying, since that's where all of the credit this game deserves lies.

Immense.
I had major trepidations when approaching Halo 3 - I've been gaming since the early 80's and thought that the original Halo was a brilliant game. PC purists might point to other arguably more impressive games but they did not combine key gameplay elements into a cohesive package as well as Halo.

Having been a Sony PS1 and PS2 owner I bought both the original X-box and my 360 primarily for this game. I am naturally suspicious of Microsoft but must say I have been won over by Xbox live and feel they are more responsive to Europe than the other big firms. I own both a PS2 and a Wii so am not biased.

So my first impressions are ones of relief, awe and gratitude.Bungie have done an amazing job here, the game is absolutely immersive - I was up till 2 on heroic trying to 'sort out' a nest of Covenant troops. The feeling of satisfaction when I turned around to survey the smoking bodies cannot be overstated.

Anyway, to help you get a feel for why I rate this game so highly here are my ratings:

Graphics - 9/10 - top notch on my HDTV, its the sheer scale which impresses and the amount of activity in intense situations which amaze, the actual graphics are probably beaten by Gears of War and Bioshock but neither of those games have the variety of environments and scale.

Sound - 10/10 - music excellent again, atmospheric and adds to the filmlike intensity. Squad and Covenant voices really help you immerse into the world - shouts of 'here he is' and 'you are doomed' helped motivate me to kick some serious posterior.

Gameplay - 10/10 Brilliantly balanced the AI is awesome compared to earlier games, play on at least heroic though (Bungie recommend this by the way so ignore the comments from games magazines saying that normal has been dumbed down to help new players - so what, bring em on I say) Getting back into dual wielding was fun, and I found the new weapons balanced well. Can't wait to see the additional features - had fun with a grav lift last night inadvertantly bringing a truck down on my head.

Extras - 10/10 - The forge feature is something I haven't looked into yet but seems very interesting and will give undoubted extra longevity. Have played some intense games online,liked the menu structure and quick matching. Replays brilliant but haven't figured out how to fast forward through in a quick fashon.

To sum up, after criticism of the offline features made me wobble prior to purchase I have to say I think that some magazines went overboard marking the game down in this area. This game is an absolute must have and I'm happy to recommend it to anyone, 360 owner or otherwise.