Monday, June 4, 2007

Halo 3

I bought crackdown the day it came out, and so I was one of the lucky people that was eligible to play the Halo 3 beta. Unfortunately the majority of the Beta period was the time in which I was moving, and I THOUGHT that by the time I came back from visiting Natasha's relatives in Boise, the beta was over. But I just found out today that it was extended a tad bit longer, so I downloaded it.

I went in without expecting much either way. I loved Halo but thought Halo 2 was only so-so. I wasn't sure what to expect. But after playing about five matches tonight, I have to say it looks like Bungie is at the top of their game.

The flow of multi-player is amazing. The weapons are various, fun, and well balanced. The maps are nicely designed, and some of the not-so-useful but still fun things add some spice, such as the ability to pick up machine gun turrets and carry them as a weapon, and the nifty ATVs which are useless on High Ground (it's so small, why add transportation) but still throughly fun to drive. Dual-wielding has been toned down, the assault rifle is here and behaves like it should, the carbine is as much fun as ever. And the we have the spiker guns - those things are mutherfucking glorious!

But the real evidence, I think, that Halo 3 will live up to expectations are the little things. The game is fairly pretty to look at, but when the action revs up it really has it where it counts. The bullet effects are intense - seeing bullets fly in front of your nose is now as scary as the rocket launcher in Halo 1&2 - and the splash effects of bullets and grenades are top-notch. The explosions? They're the best I've ever seen. And what's even better is that the sound effects go along with it. A close-call sounds as scary as it looks.

So I'm excited about Halo 3 now. I certainly like the multi-player a lot better than the boring Gears of War. My only concern is the single-player. The plot of Halo 2 was inane. Hey, let's add in a talking Venus Fly-trap! Let's make a Gorilla the villain! Let's give the Covenant a player character exactly like the Spartan! Not to mention the ending. Ugh. It was still decent in spite of these problems, because no one knows how to make a level epic quite like Bungie, but I really hope they shape up the plot for Halo 3, because they have a lot of shit to resolve.

Anyway, I've got to go cap some bitches.

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