[Spartan1127]

Originally Posted by wages of sin

@Kona,

You make some valid points that I can get behind in your response, mainly the issues with Halo2.

For me, I didn't have a problem with the story as much as I did with the overall gameplay and technical qualities of the game. I completely agree that MS is to blame for the mishaps of Halo2 and had Bungie had more time, it would've turned out better.

That being said, Halo2 was still better than most shooters that came out in the same timeframe and none of the others held my attention nearly as long.

Now with Halo3 i'm going to have to go against the grain and disagree with alot of gamers and say the only problem that I have with Halo3 is that by the end, I wanted more.

I'll start by saying that the biggest complaint i've heard from people about Halo3 are the graphics.

I'm playing on a 27inch Samsung widescreen HD CRT (1080i) and it, along with all my HD games, looks fantastic. I have friends that have uber tv's that have made similiar complaints and some that haven't.

Sometimes i'll notice little things here and there like in Sierra 117, when you escape from the underground bunker in a Warthog, will driving you come across the wreckage of an orbital lift that has some of it's cables dangling. I noticed some jaggies on the actual cable but nothing to rise too the overall cacophony of gamers complaints about the games graphics. I'm not saying that people are making stuff up, i'm saying that I don't see the big deal.

As beautiful as Cod4 is, I prefer the sci-fi visuals of Halo3.

Infinity Ward has a hard job to be sure. The newest craze in gaming the last few years is photorealism. I must applaud them on getting closer than most developers can even dream of. One could argue that they have the harder job of the two (Bungie and Infinity Ward) in creating a believable world.

We all know what the real world looks like and becuase of that, we as consumers, weither we be gaming or watching the latest Hollywood CGI masterpiece, naturally are going to have a more critical eye towards what we are looking at for we have a frame of reference from which to draw from. This however IMO, is a double edged sword.

Bungie has the harder job I would argue, in that they have to make you believe in what your seeing on screen. What would 7ft. of Mjolnir look like in reality? What would a Scarab look like? How would a Brute animate if it were real? These present just as equal a challenge for Bungie as Infinity Ward has, and I applaud both develolpers for pulling them off. I'm just more impressed with Bungies effort, call it preference if you will.

On a technical standpoint, I think this is where Halo3 really shines. From the lighting, explosions, water effects etc, I think Halo3 achieves more. Again, I go back to what both have to work with as source material. How would a plasma grenade look exploding in the snow, or better yet, stuck to someone (or somethings) back? How about a Scarab exploding, or the motor round from a Covenant Wraith?

As I stated the only issue I had with Halo3 is I wanted more from the single player, namely, I wanted more urban combat in densely populated cities, people fleeing fro their lives kinda stuff. For example, if you read the Marvel comics Halo Uprising comics, you get to see that. People screaming, running for dear life, bombed out buildings etc., thats the only thing I really would've wanted more.

The game play is excellent. As a Halo fan, I got exactly what I wanted, the premiere Halo experience in gameplay. For me, they didn't need to reinvent the wheel or go overboard trying to radically change things. They added just enough new stuff and tweaked and perfected the old. In doing so, Halo3 gameplay wise is the pinnacle of the series IMO, taking what worked from 1 & 2 anding a dash of newness and served it up hot.

In the end, most of all this boils down to preferences. Alot of people set their expectations unrealistically (and unfairly) high, putting Bungie in a damned if you do damned if you don't scenerio. As a hardcore Halo fan (just got my Kotobukiya last week!) I got mostly what I wanted with only a couple gripes here and there, wich is to be expected as nothing is perfect. I hope there is more Halo goodness coming our way as I don't think we've seen the end of the MC just yet.

Can you write my school essays?