Halo 3 (Xbox 360)
The Dynamic Du… erm… Quadro Halo 3 has been built from the ground up as a multiplayer title. Every single part of the game (save the settings screen) can be accessed with a group of friends, be it the single player campaign which then becomes a co-op campaign or the custom map building tool. Even the movie section, where you can play back any of the saved recordings of your games and watch them with your friends. You can edit these recordings if you want to, and then send them to other Halo 3 players for bragging rights. The feature might not sound like much fun, but it is very cool and can help you grab some amazing screenshots of your single player, coop or multiplayer matches. At long last I've mentioned the multiplayer. Going by the success of the Halo 3 MP beta and how popular the Halo 2 multiplayer has been, this is the aspect of the game that many will spend the most time with. I won't delve into details, as there are far too many maps and game modes to list them all. I'll just say that Bungie once again managed to create an insanely fun online experience that is unrivalled on consoles and to some extent even on PCs. All of the new vehicles and weapons fit in perfectly with the old classics, resulting in a frag-fest that is hard to match. Online lag is minimal even when playing cross-continent and at least for now there aren't any game-ruining exploits known. Next-gen experienceBungie stated several times that they weren’t trying to push the Xbox360 to its limits with Halo 3, so the game's graphics wouldn’t be ground-breaking. Even though several internet forums are filled with posts claiming that Halo 3 doesn't look any better than Halo 2, things are hardly that bad. Sure, compared to Gears of War the game doesn’t have that gritty realistic look, nor does it push the same amount of polygons on the screen, but it has a certain charm that is hard to negate. All of the characters, be it humans or aliens are a lot more detailed than they used to be, though admittedly the human faces could do with at least double the poly-count. The animation is as always superb, as are the physics running behind every single object interaction. The environments are still just as big as before, so at first glance they might look similar to those from Halo 2.
A closer inspection reveals a lot more terrain detail, grass sprites, dozens of placables in sight at any given time and more. Perhaps the most advanced part of the game is its lighting system. Resulting in painfully obvious missing AA, the lighting implementation is amongst the best we have ever seen. HDR in Source engine games might be more realistic, but it is hard not to be impressed by the way terrain glares when looking at it from inside a dark building or how different materials reflect the light in different ways. According to Bungie this is also the main reason the game is actually rendered at 640p and then upscaled to 720p/1080i/1080p. I personally wasn't bothered by it, but I'm sure some will find the low resolution and lack of AA a big problem.
My personal favourite in Halo games is the music. The way the different tunes affect the experience is amazing. From the low-key "creepy" music to the Halo-themed choir music that plays when monumental events take place, every single piece of score is perfectly suited for the occasion it plays in. If you liked the music in the previous Halo games you are bound to enjoy it this time as well, both due to its quality and the familiar sound. Hand in hand with the high quality of music are the professional sounding voices of all characters in the game. All of the old voice-actors are back and so are the Master Chief's gritty voice and his legendary one-liners. There are also tons of combat dialogues to be heard, and even after playing through the game twice I still haven't heard a single line more than twice per game.
Related Stuff Games: Halo 2 for Windows Vista
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