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Halo 3  | 
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| From: Microsoft
Category: Video Games
List Price: $59.99
Buy Used: $39.00
You Save: $20.99 (35%)
New (36) from $48.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  447 reviews
Platform: Xbox 360
ESRB: Mature
Media: Video Game
Edition: Standard
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 5.3 x 7.5 x 1
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: 9UE-00001
Model: 9UE-00001
UPC: 882224444477
EAN: 0882224444477
Release Date: September 25, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Expands on the franchise and adds a wealth of technical and gameplay advancements | | • | Unparalleled first-person shooter experience and the most compelling story of the trilogy | | • | Builds upon the social multiplayer experience and innovative, evolving, online gameplay of Halo 2 | | • | Loaded with high-definition visuals, enhanced AI, an advanced lighting engine, new weapons, characters, and challenges |
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Product Description
Halo 3 is the third game in the Halo Trilogy and the thrilling conclusion to the events begun in Halo: Combat Evolved. 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. The Covenant occupation of Earth has uncovered a massive and ancient object beneath the African sands - an object whose secrets have yet to be revealed. Earth's forces are battered and beaten. The Master Chief's AI companion Cortana is still trapped in the clutches of the Gravemind - a horrifying Flood intelligence, and a civil war is raging in the heart of the Covenant. It's all been building to this -- a desperate, final war that leads to a soul-shattering climax of epic proportions. Take control of Master Chief to defeat the Covenant and destroy the Flood to prevent the annihilation of the human race.
Amazon.com Product Description
Adding to Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, the epic saga continues with Halo 3, the amazingly 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. 
Get ready. The Chief is back. | 
HDR lighting, self-shadowing, and more make Halo 3 look and feel realistic. View larger. | 
Mystery abounds with the return of Cortana. View larger. | 
Earth is conquered. The Covenant is everywhere. Halo 3 promises to be an epic journey. View larger. | Game developer Bungie announced that Halo 3 will be released for Microsoft's Xbox 360 sometime in 2007. The game was revealed to the world at the Microsoft press conference held at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, CA in May 2006. To gamer's delight, the announcement was a complete surprise. The rumors have been abound for the past year, as everyone wondered when the next installment would be ready. Bungie and Microsoft did a stellar job keeping their lips sealed, and fans benefited from their first glimpse of the hallowed third and final installment. The short presentation was delivered in real-time on the Xbox 360 using the current version of the Halo 3 game engine. That's right, no studio production video, Bungie and Microsoft delivered the real deal: what they showed at the announcement is what gamers will see when they play Halo 3 in 2007. The HDR lighting, self-shadowing, GPU-run particle system and many other effects are rumored to show up in full effect in the final game. Needless to say, the gaming community is salivating. CJ Cowan, Bungie's director of cinematics discussed one of the most startling moments of the presentation: the return of Cortana. "Given the variety of character and story arcs at the end of Halo 2, we wanted to boil down our announcement to a few key threads. Cortana and the Chief being a galaxy apart is a situation we haven't seen before, and is something that is a powerful component to Halo 3. We are using her transmissions in the demo to give the viewer a few subtle clues to her situation and state of mind, without revealing any specifics we want to save for the game itself." Graphically, the game closely follows in the tradition of Halo 2, although it has been upgraded to take advantage of the Xbox 360's more prodigious visual abilities. As art direct Marcus Lehto explained, "[The presentation] was intended to be an understated announcement of Halo 3 -- the tone is that of mystery and suspense -- the calm before the storm. I wanted to make sure that we reintroduced the Chief, showed that Earth was thoroughly conquered, with Covenant everywhere, and that there is a glorious, ancient artifact buried under the Earth's crust which will provide Halo 3 with the epic journey which we all want." Taking full advantage of the power of Xbox 360, Halo 3 expands on everything that has made the franchise great, adding a wealth of technical and gameplay advancements. The game design has evolved with next-generation, high-definition visuals, enhanced A.I., an advanced real-time lighting engine, and, of course, new weapons, characters, and challenges. Halo 3 promises an unparalleled first-person shooter experience and, in the end, the most compelling and engrossing story in the franchise's history. Last, but certainly not least, Halo 3 builds upon the unique social multiplayer experience and innovative, evolving online gameplay of Halo 2. Rest assured, you'll still be able to run with your clan and battle with (or against) your buddies from coast to coast.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 442 more reviews...
 No BS, just an opinion September 25, 2007
126 out of 196 found this review helpful
As a longtime fan of Bungie (going back to the original Marathon) it's very hard for me to say this, but like HALO2, HALO3 is a letdown. That said, it's a much better game overall than HALO2, so with that out of the way, let's get cracking.
CAMPAIGN: In a word, crap. In a sentence: fight your way towards a mission objective, push the button, then fight your way right back out the way you came. Repeat for for 6 to 7 hours. That's it. To be fair, the story arc manages to wrap itself up nicely (not that there's anything in HALO3 story-wise that couldn't have been done in HALO2, which I guess just illustrates how useless the second game was). The Arbiter campaign is dropped completely; instead, he's either your buddy or an AI player who simply follows you around (a la Dom in GEARS OF WAR). The first couple missions, set in Africa, fighting the Brutes, are pretty intense and fun. After that, the game does it's obligatory "let's jump to a new Halo ring and rehash the original game's campaign." Seriously disappointing. That said, you can now kill Scarabs (the big walker things) and Phantoms (the Covenant dropships) if you've got the time and willpower, which can be entertaining.
GRAPHICS & SOUND: It depends. If you're playing by yourself, in HD, then the game reveals some impressive texture work, awesome lighting, and slick particle effects. If you're playing in split-screen, the game tones back the effects for the sake of keeping the framerate up and the game looks like HALO2. Seriously. My roommate came in and thought it was HALO2. Not good. Granted, it's a lot cleaner than HALO2, without any of the awful draw-in and texturing nightmares, but the models are pretty much straight from the last chapter. Still, while the environmental textures and lighting are excellent, the game can't help but look dated next to GEARS OF WAR and the Unreal Engine. Sound is about what you'd expect. Marty O'Donnell returns and hammers out as many variations as he can on the HALO theme, from soft piano to rockin' guitars for the big battles.
So the campaign sucks and the graphics don't impress. Does this game do anything right, you might ask? The answer is multiplayer. HALO3 is 100 percent multiplayer focused. Almost every change, from weapon tweaking to the new control scheme (which feels very weird for the first few hours, but makes sense after that), is geared towards the fast-release, twitch-kill nature of the multiplayer arena. And in this area, HALO3 absolutely rocks. To be honest, HALO2's multiplayer was pretty terrible in terms of balance and level design. It was simply the only HALO that went online, so people played it. Now that HALO3 is here, there isn't literally a single reason to play HALO2 (except maybe the map Lockout, which sadly wasn't included). From items that you can deploy, like Bubble Shields and Radar Jammers, to more balanced weapons (the battle rifle is no longer quite so dominating, and the classic assault rifle from the first game is much better suited for creating a nice balance between gun, grenade, and melee attacks), HALO3 is noticeably more even and polished. The maps, in particular, are a serious step up from the dredge offered last time around. Almost every single map is more interesting, more complex and more fun to play than anything has given us before. Coupled with the weapons tweaks and new deployable equipment, HALO3 rises up as the premier multiplayer console first-person shooter. Forget RESISTANCE, QUAKE4, or CALL OF DUTY. In multiplayer, this game owns.
Ironically similar to MARATHON: INFINITY, HALO3 is a disappointment from a single-player standpoint, and wouldn't stand out at all were it not for the franchise name. Still, with the addition of the Forge Editor (which allows players to create custom game modes and make changes to the maps) and the replay theatre (which allows you to share and re-live your greatest game moments) atop of all the necessary, but subtle, improvements to the overal online mechanics, HALO3's lasting appeal is almost infinite. It really is a great game.
So long as you have people to play it with.
 A Must-Own - But Not Perfection September 30, 2007
64 out of 81 found this review helpful
Halo 3 was, in a way, doomed before it was released. No matter how well it did, people are going to judge its "wow factor" against how amazing the original Halo felt to play back when it first came out. Now that we are used to the weapons, races, environments and plotline, nothing is as cool as it was that first time. It's the same issue that plagues any series, be it Dune, the Matrix, Star Wars, etc.
Halo 3 does get a boost in that it is released for the 360, so you get an automatic upgrade in abilities there. We're playing on a high end HD TV, and yes, it looks really nice. The backgrounds look like a painting in motion, with swirling clouds and dancing dust storms. From the light glinting off the metal surfaces to the detailed shadows in the rocks, it can be really gorgeous. Is every detail as beautiful as every detail in, say Gears of War? Maybe not. Different developers focus on different items. There are always trade-offs for speed and visual appeal reasons. For a Halo world, I think they did a good job.
The sound and dialogue are really great. I like the background music, and I find much of the dialogue hilarious. There are some conversations that have me laughing out loud. This is a good game to play with your surround sound stereo system hooked up, and of course the subwoofers.
I hated the ending of Halo 2. I dislike it when a story finishes with a "and now wait a few years to find out what happened." They can at least have you feel like you achieved something, and ended a chapter. For that reason alone it's good to have Halo 3 here to wrap everything up.
Unfortunately, with all the time they spent in development, this third outing is a bit predictable. I really enjoyed the multi character play in Halo 2. I thought that was a great touch. They completely removed it for Halo 3, setting you back into a Master Chief only mode. To be honest, I really thought we'd get THREE races this time around, and get to play as the Flood too. Why reduce ourselves to just one?
Also, while there are a lot of "missions", some of them are maybe 5 minutes long. That's a bit on the short side. I realize you can go back and replay on harder and harder levels to challenge yourself - but they could have put more depth into the basic story line.
Now, all of those things being said, the key to any game in modern times is its multiplayer ability. No matter what single player game you play, it's pretty much a limited time game. Multiplayer is completely unlimited - and you're not stuck with the formulas built into the AI brains. Halo 3 is definitely the best multiplayer experience of the three games - the most balanced, the most fun, the best graphics. You could literally play this for years and not get bored of it.
So to summarize - if you don't have XBox Live, you could rent this game for a week, get through it and have a lot of fun. You'll be able to see how the story ends, get your Halo fix in and be happy. But if you do have XBox Live, you'll want to own this. Between replaying the base game on harder levels to improve your skills, and playing multi-player in a variety of maps and set-ups, you'll be happy for a long, long while.
There are many games we write a walkthrough for that we have to push ourselves to get through, but when we did our walkthrough for Halo 3, we really did have fun :) So that's always a good sign!
Halo has LIVED upto the HYPE! 1080P IS JUST CRAZY September 25, 2007
45 out of 71 found this review helpful
Since people are not reading the BOTTOM, I said Credit goes to X3F For this REVIEW, Just wanted to give people a review asap.
It's not often that we here at X3F get a chance to review a high profile title like Halo 3 before it hits store shelves, and it's an opportunity I'm not taking lightly. I've spent the last 48 hours (give or take a few hours for the requisite food and sleep) embedded deep within Halo 3, doing my best to categorize the experience as I went along. In this endeavor I have more or less failed. That's not to say I didn't enjoy what I played, because I absolutely did. It's just that with as many features as there are in Halo 3, there's so much stuff to test that 48 hours really isn't enough time to glean enough information and condense it into a review. Still, review it we must. Read on for a (hopefully) defining glimpse into Microsoft's great green hope.
First and foremost on any Halo fan's mind is the campaign. Even fans admit that Halo 2's campaign didn't quite get the attention it deserved. Even beyond the cliffhanger ending and the divisive inclusion of the Arbiter as a playable character -- which, for the record, I loved -- the campaign just didn't seem quite finished. So, Halo 3 has a lot to answer for. I won't spoil the story, but Halo 3 picks up exactly where Halo 2 left off: Cortana (the Master Chief's AI) is missing, the Prophet of Truth is leading an attack on earth, and the Master Chief is rocketing towards the planet on an ancient Forerunner ship. Again, we had to rush through it a bit to get it finished, but by the time the game draws to a close, all loose ends have been tied and questions answered. Old friends and enemies are reunited, alliances formed and broken, and plots are twisted. It's the stuff you'd expect in the closing chapter of a trilogy, with a few special tidbits thrown in for dedicated fans. Also, for those that are interested, locating the secret terminals throughout the game fleshes out the story of the Forerunners and the first firing of the Halo rings. The terminals are optional though, so if you're more interested in blasting baddies, feel free.
But how does it play, you ask? I plowed through the campaign on Heroic (with a few snippets of 4-player co-op on Legendary), and I can assuredly tell you that enemy AI is much improved, and sometimes a little scary. Brutes, ape-like monstrosities introduced in Halo 2, are definitely not the bullet sponges they used to be. This time around they are smart, mean, and, appropriately enough, brutal. One of their most fascinating behaviors is how they use equipment to their advantage. More than once, I found myself launching ordinance towards a pack of Brutes only to see one of them deploy a bubble shield before my shot had landed, rendering it useless. Oh, and watch out for Brutes with gravity hammers. They tend to carry equipment that makes them invulnerable for a few seconds. An invulnerable Brute with a gravity hammer is the stuff of nightmares.
Don't think that the Brutes are the star of the show though, every enemy, in one way or another, can be pretty terrifying. You see, not only are enemies smart, but they use sound tactical thinking. So, if you clear out a pack of Brutes and Grunts, don't celebrate right away, because there's a very good chance you're about to be sniped by a Jackal that you overlooked. Hell, even a pair of Jackals with carbines can be a pain, especially if you thought it would be a good idea to pack a short-range arsenal. And yes, believe it or not, even Grunts can put you away if you're not careful. Oh, and remember what I said about Brutes and nightmares? There is one Grunt behavior that's worse. I'll leave you to discover what exactly the behavior is, but rest assured you'll know it when you see it.
And then there's the Flood, the body-snatching enemy that's threatening to devour all life in the galaxy, Covenant and human alike. Now, I'm not saying one thing about the Flood. Nothing. You play. You find out. I'll just say this ain't your Granddaddy's Flood and leave it at that.
Honestly, my biggest complaint about the campaign is that it's over too quickly. It's not like the game has a bad ending, far from it, but I wanted more. Don't misunderstand, the game isn't too short, I just didn't want it to end.
Fortunately, the campaign is far from the end. This time around Bungie has included plenty of incentive to go back through the campaign multiple times. Of course there is online co-op, but there are also skulls to be found, campaign scoring achievements to be earned, as well as finding terminals you may have missed. Campaign, to put it simply, has been done right. Now, let's look at everything else.
Unfortunately, online matchmaking wasn't activated at the time of this review, but I did get to mess around with some local multiplayer. Those who participated in the beta have a good idea of what to expect. More or less, Halo 3's multiplayer is a refinement of the multiplayer in Halo 2. Certain things have been tweaked, most notably the re-invention of the assault rifle. Given a decent starting weapon, multiplayer is no longer about a mad dash for a better weapon the second you spawn. Sure, there are great weapons to find, but the assault rifle is a competent weapon in most situations. Another addition is the ability to edit all kinds of traits in the game. Traits can be given to all players or the team / player in the lead. How you use this is up to you. Want to boost everyone's shields, increase running speed, reduce gravity, and give everyone a gravity hammer and a Spartan laser? Go for it (it's pretty fun, actually). Multiplayer is now (literally) what you make of it, and it's a blast.
Now, if you really want to control how a game plays out, there's the Forge. Succinctly, Forge is some of the stupidest fun you can have with a game. At least, that's what it is at first. Forge allows players to create map variants by placing, deleting, and editing objects. These objects include simple things like scenery, weapons, and vehicles, but you can also edit more complex things like spawn points and CTF capture points. Inevitably though, your first instinct will be to find a flat surface, pile it with fusion coils, and launch a Mongoose to the moon. Follow that instinct. Follow it hard. You won't be disappointed. In fact, why not cue up the film of my first attempt right now? No, really, you can click here, find the movie titled "Boomtastic-X3F", click "Download to Halo 3", and once you pop Halo 3 into your 360, it will begin downloading automatically.
And that brings us to saved films. Basically, every game of Halo 3 you play, be it campaign, multiplayer, or Forge, is automatically saved as a film. Once you wrap up a game, simply head into the theater lobby and load it up. The game caches your recent sessions, but you'll have to manually save them if you want them permanently. During a saved film, players have complete control over the camera, allowing them to frame the best view of the action. If you see a particularly cool piece of action, you can record it as a smaller clip. Also, players can take static screenshots of the action on screen. In fact, every screenshot in this review was taken in game using the saved film feature.
And that, as briefly as I can put it, is Halo 3. Honestly, as long as this review is, it's really not long enough. Regardless of how players receive the story's conclusion, the amount of content contained in the Halo 3 package is just staggering. With campaign co-op, multiplayer, Forge, and saved films, the game offers plenty of bang for your gaming buck. Many will claim that it's not as pretty as Gears of War, and arguably they'd be right, but it was never meant to be.
I never intended to write a review filled with nothing but praise for Halo 3, but it's just damned hard to criticize. Sure, there are things I could point out that are disappointing. The graphics aren't perfect. You can't save clips in campaign. The story will be confusing to newcomers. Yeah, I can pick nits all day if I wanted to, and doubtless many Halo detractors will do just that, but the game is good. The conflicts are huge, the levels are vast, and the gameplay is solid. Not only that, but the extras ensure that players will still be playing Halo 3 for a long time to come. Love it or hate it, Halo is back on top, and it's probably there to stay.
credit goes to x3f, but I have played it in 1080P, WOW
One of the best FPS' to ever see the light of day September 25, 2007
45 out of 90 found this review helpful
To call Halo 3 eagerly anticipated is saying it quite lightly. Thanks to Bungie, the game has been more than worth the wait, and the end result is undoubtedly the best first person shooter to hit the Xbox 360 yet, and maybe ever. Picking up after the cliffhanger ending of Halo 2, Master Chief is in pursuit of the Covenant, who is hell bent and heading to Earth. You'll be happy to know first and foremost that Halo 3 improves on everything that has been seen in the previous two installments of the series, from the game's epic story to the overall gameplay mechanics. The story provides enough closure and answers many of the questions raised in Halo 2, and nicely ties things up while leaving enough room open if there ever are any more installments in the series. As for the gameplay, which is the reason enough to pick the game up even of the story were a disappointment, is everything you could hope for and more so besides. The single player campaign is lengthy enough to satisfy jaded gamers angry at the incredibly short length of Halo 2, but what even makes it more enjoyable is the four-player co-op mode, which can even be taken over Xbox Live. And yes, speaking of Xbox Live, the multiplayer options is where the real meat and potatoes of Halo 3 is to be had, but you already knew that. Besides the standard deathmatch modes, there are some new options, most notably Infection, which involves zombies trying to convert you. New map modes and options really let the player let loose with creativity as well, and result in an incredible amount of replay value that an FPS hasn't seen in quite some time. There are new weapons, brilliant graphics, solid voice acting, and the game isn't hard at all for new gamers to the series to pick up either. Yes, Halo 3 is finally here, and it's quite simply the best FPS to hit the Xbox 360 yet. Whether or not you'll prefer it over Gears of War is another story entirely, but needless to say, there is plenty here to keep you occupied for quite some time.
 I don't get all the halo hysteria... it's a very average game. September 25, 2007
32 out of 106 found this review helpful
I'm not sure if diehard Halo fans were created near the time of the first release, when the genre was young, and when Halo was really something of an innovation. But be that as it may, I am not one of those folks.
I first played Halo 2 (never played the first) after playing a lot of contemporary first- and third- person shooters (Gears of War, Rainbow Six, etc), and I never really could understand the appeal of the game. It seemed cartoonish, with lackluster graphics, so-so weapons, and a floaty, sluggish feel to game play. Somehow this combination of elements fostered an unimaginable allegiance and love for this game that I just don't understand and probably never will.
I picked up this version because the hype has been otherworldly, and I didn't want to be left out of what I thought was going to be a groundbreaking, genre-redefining release. But I was wrong. Halo 3 feels very much like its predecessors, offering little if anything in the realm of advancement in any of the aforementioned areas. I deeply regret buying before renting it.
And to those of you who popped in Halo 1 and 2 and didn't "get it," I assure you, you won't feel any different about Halo 3, however, you will be $65 lighter than you were before. Save your time and your money. Halo 3 profits from the momentum of previous releases and preposterous amounts of fanboy loyalty -- nothing else.
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