A few things have happened since I last blogged; you know, little things such as the birth of my fantastically cute son!
He's a noisy bast, but he brings my wife and I so much joy. When he greets me with a big smile, it melts my butch, macho man heart. Awwww. But more on my baby son some other time.
In October, I was whinging on about Waitlo 3.
I've only just now gotten to play through the campaign on Normal. Initially, I got the Asian version (because I have a JP Xbox 360) a couple of days after launch day from Play Asia, thinking it would be in English like Halo 2 was. Well, you would, wouldn't you? It turns out Microsoft decided to turn things on their head, initially only releasing a Chinese language Asian version. After a month of waiting, umming and ahhing by Play Asia, they finally gave me most of my money back on credit (they took $5 for shipping - which is supposed to be free!) which I used to get an American version. M$ didn't region lock the US version for once - who knew??!! I guess when you import you're going to get burned sometimes.
So I got my US version in late October/early November. I'm not a Bungie über-fan, but I like the Halo series a lot. I've read the first 3 books, played Halo CE on Legendary co-op a few times through with friends. I enjoyed Halo 2, although I was disappointed by some of the stages and that ending. But the Halo universe still excites me, so I eagerly put my Halo 3 disc into my 360. The initial cinematic of a fire in the sky over a jungle... and freeze. My 360 crashed! I rebooted my 360 and... RRoD! Arrrrgggghh! So Halo 3 killed my 360. I thought my trusty launch day 360 had avoided all the Red Ring of Death bollocks, but I guess RRoDs are just like death: they catch up to us all eventually. And just when Microsoft had built up some cachet with me (I'm a Mac user specifically because my friends and brother continually seem to have problems with their Windows PCs), too.
Anyway, luckily, Microsoft saw it my way and got my machine repaired. It came back in a week and half, which, fair dos, is pretty fast. Powered it up, everything looked fine, except... my controllers wouldn't sync with the damn machine! After a reboot, I tried again, still nothing, then after a few seconds - RRoD! GODDDDAAMMMIIIT! Even after a repair the machine wouldn't work - and I hadn't even put Halo 3 in yet. So back to M$ my 360 went. In the meantime, I was getting pretty pissed with not being able to play Halo 3. I'd anticipated it since that cliffhanger ending 3 years before just as much as everyone else, so why was this happening to me? Desperate to make sure I could play my frickin' game, I sent my game disc (which was a little scratched) to America for a replacement on the advice of Microsoft's Japanese and American support lines, just in case the disc was the problem. Because of the whole different territories thang, I figured it was a long shot, but god-smegging-damnit, they owed me a free replacement after all this.
My 360 came back around Christmas Day, and I gingerly switched it on, fearing the worst again. Da-daaaa! It worked! It fucking worked! But it didn't get much play time because I was busy playing with my good as new 2nd hand PS3 that I'd just bought Uncharted on Crushing for the win, by the way!). After I beat Uncharted, I started on Onechanbara vorteX, which had been on my Pile O' Shame for months. But, last Thursday, after 2 - 3 months of waiting, my replacement Halo 3 disc arrived! WA-HOO-HOO-00T! It had been so long that I thought M$ had decided to fuck me over again and just kept the disc. So thanks for the free replacement, Microsoft. Though if your machines and discs had worked in the first place, I wouldn't have needed to send off for a replacement... *grumble, grumble, whinge, mutter...*
It's really good! Playing it was like putting on your old favourite sweatshirt. Comfortable, great to wear, but not a lot's changed. But it was really fun. I played it on Normal, fearing Legendary on single player. Yeah, I pussied out, so what? *stares you out* Halo CE on Normal when I first got it was a pretty stiff challenge for me, so I thought it would be cool this time, too. But I rattled through the game in only a few hours. I think I only played it 3 times for 2-3 hours each and I beat it on Normal. I didn't exactly feel that it was short, more that I just blew through everything really quickly. Guess I should've gone with Legendary. So I guess it's easy, rather than short. But the fact that I dropped Onechanabara so easily for this and just kept on playing should tell you that playing Halo 3, even for a short breeze through on Normal, is pretty damn fun. Just the drum rumble as the Bungie logo appears makes you feel, "This game is quality."
I couldn't wait to see what happened next, so the addictive gameplay is there. It's better than Halo 2 to play. There're more sandbox bits, more vehicles to play with (yay Hornets!), huge battles and a general sense that there's more going on in the world than just your fight. But the story suffers. Halo 2 hinted that there was a lot more to Gravemind, Truth, and the Forerunner-Human connection. But it's all very simply laid out for you. Too simply. Truth barely makes an appearance and Gravemind doesn't appear at all. Sorry, a disembodied voice babbling deep-sounding but ultimately meaningless poetry/threats and a couple of tentacles don't count. And what the hell is the point of using 4 levels just to get near to Truth's ship? There could have been a lot more story told there, fun as those levels around Mombasa are.
Truth Lands on Earth... 
Attack of the FRENCH!!!After all the depth that had been established with the books, the mystery of the Forerunners and the Covenant in Halo CE, Truth's Machiavellian plotting and revelation that humans are connected to the Forerunners in Halo 2, Halo 3's story felt like a Star Trek two-parter style cop out. The penultimate Cortana rescue level felt like a step down to sub-Doom 3 at times, too. But hey, it's done, the bad guys are dead and we'll probably never know what might have been. It's still a fun game, but I get the feeling that Halo's campaign design has perhaps, since the 2nd game, been waylaid at least in part by an emphasis on multiplayer, which is not something I'm big on.
Random things I like about Halo 3 (SPOILARZ MODE ACTIVATE!):
The sound and art direction. Great music, fantastic surround sound and I love the voice acting. The first marine comment I got was Jonathan Ross in his inimitable tone saying, "Haven't you got something better to do than look at me?" Being a Wossie fan, that gave me a good chuckle. I couldn't recognise any of the other celebrity voices, though. Sorry, Adam Baldwin (^_^)
Wossie in the game:
The vehicles. So many vehicles to use, plenty of battles to use them in, maybe more than the previous two games. The Brute Chopper is awesome. And that's the only time you'll see me say I like choppers in public!
The weps. Sooooo many weapons in this and most of them are fun to use. And aw yeeeeah, the return of the Assault Rifle of Awesomeness. Thank you Bungie for putting it back in. I never really liked the battle rifle.
Plenty of Sgt. Johnson wisecracking and generally being prominent in the game. Maybe even more than the Arbiter! I liked the Arbiter, but after his role last time, all he does is just shoot bad guys and kill Truth. He deserved better this time around. I think Arbiter's story in the last game and this would have made a nice side campaign that you could say, unlock after you beat the main campaign.
Watching brutes get turned into Flood in real time. Was that in the previous games? I don't remember it, and it surprised the hell out of me when I first saw it here.
And a whole lot more that I've forgotten...
Random stuff I didn't like (still in SPOILARZ MODE!):
Johnson dies! How could you kill that wiseass son of a bitch? He was one of my favourite characters! So much for the Sgt. Johnson spin-off game...
And to a lesser extent, Miranda dies! The Keyes family are one bunch of unlucky people *sniff*
No dual wielding for needlers. They nerfed it too much!
Brute Chieftains with gravity hammers - they're tough bastards, especially when they have an entourage! I died a lot taking out the shield barriers in the "Trident" stage.
How come Truth changes from conniving codger in Halo 2 to religious zealot delusional in this game?
Once you clock how to fight the scarabs, awesome as they are, they're too easy to take down.
If you're now the world's only person to not have played Halo 3, check it out. It's totally worth it. Just play it on Heroic or Legendary. I'm looking forward to replaying it on Legendary, hopefully with online co-op!
