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Image:Halo3limited.JPG|''Halo 3 Limited Edition'' with all the extras.
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Image:Halo3legendary.JPG|''Halo 3 Legendary Edition'' with all the extras.
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Revision as of 15:30, 22 October 2007

Template:Current product

Halo 3
The box art of the Standard Edition of Halo 3
Developer(s)Bungie Studios
Publisher(s)Microsoft Game Studios
SeriesHalo
EngineProprietary "Halo Engine"[3] with Havok Physics[4]
Platform(s)Xbox 360
Release
[1]
[1]
[2]
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Single player, Co-op, Online co-op, Multiplayer, Online multiplayer, Forge, and Meta-game

Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360. The game is the third title in the Halo series and ends the story arc begun in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued with Halo 2.[7] The game was released on September 25, 2007[1] in New Zealand (which due to its midnight release made it first available for official retail), Australia, Singapore, India, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, and the United States; September 26, 2007 in Europe; and September 27, 2007 in Japan. GameSpot reported that 4.2 million units of Halo 3 were in retail outlets on September 24, 2007, a day before official release,[8] a world record volume release. Halo 3 also holds the record for the highest grossing opening day in entertainment history, making US$170 million in its first 24 hours.[9]

The game features new vehicles, weapons, and gameplay features not present in the previous titles of the series. Halo 3 focuses on the interstellar war between 26th century humanity and a collection of alien races known as the Covenant, who after a decades-long war have begun the invasion of Earth. The player assumes the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier, as he wages war in defense of humanity.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Halo 3 largely builds upon the previous iterations of the franchise. It is a first-person shooter that follows the character Master Chief and his struggle against the Covenant and the Flood. The game's action takes place largely on foot, but also includes segments focused on vehicular combat.

The balance of weapons and objects in the game was adjusted to better adhere to what Bungie Studios Multiplayer Designer Lars Bakken describes as the "Golden Triangle of Halo". These are "weapons, grenades, and melee", all three of which are normally available to a player. Halo 3 also contains the ability to dual-wield, where a player forgoes both grenades and melee attacks in favor of a pair of weapons. All of the weapons available in previous installments of the series, except for the Brute Plasma Rifle, return with minor cosmetic and power alterations. Unlike previous installments, all weapons a player is carrying are visible; weapons not in use are holstered or slung across the player's back. Halo 3 also introduced "support weapons", which are exceptionally large, powerful and cumbersome two-handed weapons such as machine gun turrets and flamethrowers. These weapons drastically limit the player's normal combat options and slow them significantly. In return, they offer greatly increased firepower.[10] In addition to new weapons, Halo 3 added a new class of usable items called Equipment.[11] These items have various effects and functions, ranging from defensive effects (Bubble Shield and Regenerator), or objects which blind or confuse the enemy (Flare[12] and Radar Jammer), to ones which can actually harm and kill (Power Drainer and Tripmine). A player can only carry one of these items at a time. The majority are placed on the battlefield, where they can be destroyed by weapons fire or explosives. Most equipment also has a limited duration after being used.

Halo 3 also features a strong vehicular component, with new vehicles never before seen added in the third installment of the series. Most vehicles can be used by the player, but some are A.I.-controlled. Certain vehicles usable in campaign are not available in multiplayer due to balance concerns.[13]

Campaign

Halo 3's campaign contains nine levels, which complete the storyline of the Halo trilogy. Players can play through by themselves, or play cooperatively with other players via Xbox Live or System Link.[14] For plot reasons, instead of having each player be an identical Spartan as in previous Halo games, the first player plays as Master Chief, the second player the Arbiter and the other two players newly created Elites; N'tho 'Sraom and Usze 'Taham, each with their own backstories. Each player has identical abilities, although the Arbiter and his Elites have different starting weapons.[14] A.I. behavior was improved over Halo 3's predecessors, occasionally drastically changing gameplay; for example, the behavior of enemy Brutes the player faces has been modified, giving them a "pack mentality" when attacking.[11][15] There are also various Forerunner computer terminals hidden throughout the campaign which can be accessed for additional storyline information. After accessing one of these yellow hubs, the player can read translated text for a short time before the terminal redirects them, shutting off the translation and turning the screen red. While they don't serve to propel the story, they fill in background on the forerunner's struggle to contain the flood prior to the first activation of the rings.

Halo 3 features a "campaign scoring mode", called the "meta-game", which introduces a competitive aspect to cooperative play. Players are awarded points for defeating enemies while completing a level in the campaign. Extra points are awarded for stylish moves such as performing headshots or defeating multiple enemies in rapid succession. Players lose points if they die or kill a cooperative team-mate. The player can find hidden gold or silver skulls (based on the Easter egg skulls in Halo 2) on each level which, when activated, cause changes in game-play, such as giving the enemies extra health, changing in-game dialogue, or improving enemy behavior. The Gold skulls provide a multiplier to the score on top of multipliers that are applied for playing on higher difficulties or completing the level quickly and achievements, but the Silver skulls go towards unlocking Hayabusa Armor.[12] Players are awarded gamerscore points for successfully reaching a certain score in each level (15,000 or 50,000),[16] and medals are awarded for specific accomplishments.

Multiplayer

File:High Ground Gate.jpg
Halo 3 multiplayer map "High Ground", from the online multiplayer beta.

Up to four people can participate in multiplayer match on a single Xbox 360 in Halo 3 via a split screen layout. Up to sixteen may participate in a single match over a LAN or Xbox Live. A match may use any of these methods (LAN, Live or split screen) or a combination of all. A public beta test of the multiplayer component of the game occurred between May 16, 2007 and June 10, 2007.[17]

Like most multiplayer Xbox 360 titles, Halo 3 uses a customized version of TrueSkill ranking system for its online matchmaking facilities. Halo 3's matchmaking system is based on two different ranks, skill and experience (based on Rating Points or RP). Skill is the numerical TrueSkill rank of the player in a given playlist, and experience (RP) is a linear measure of experience (1 point for each win in the online playlists) overlaid by a Military rank; a player with a designation of a "General" has played for a longer time than someone who is a "Recruit." The addition of the experience ranking is intended to make the system more fair and to reflect the effect of experience on players' profiles.[18] The RP system also has a mechanism built in to dissuade players from excessive quitting from matches, which became a problem for some players in Halo 2. When players quit from a match before it has finished, they lose 2 RP; players that regularly quit games, leaving their teammates stranded, may eventually end up having negative RP.

The user interface has been redesigned from Halo 2, making it easier to generate a custom game in Halo 3 multiplayer, which can now be saved and shared online with the File Sharing Features. It was promised that players would be able to "advertise" their custom games via Xbox Live Public [18], making it easier to find a multiplayer match to a player's taste without having to link up with friends; this feature was never added to the game. To help players have an enjoyable time online, a new feature dubbed the "A-hole button" allows players to mute annoying players in the game quickly and easily from the in-game scoreboard view.[19] The matchmaking and multiplayer are constantly updated.[20]

Features

Forge

New to the Halo series, Forge is a tool that enables players to insert game objects into existing maps. Bungie considers Forge more a gametype than a tool.[13] Almost all weapons, vehicles, and interactive objects can be placed and moved on maps with Forge.[21]

In games where Forge is enabled, players can switch to the editing mode at any time. While in this mode, a player appears to other players as a Forerunner Monitor and is still vulnerable to being attacked and killed. Objects can be spawned into the game in real-time and parameters such as ammo counts (for weapons) and respawn rates can be altered for each object.[12] The number of objects that can exist in a map at any one time is limited, however, as each object created takes up a set amount of credits from the particular map's limit.[12] Players can remove some of the default objects to regain credits.[22] Altered maps can be saved and then recalled in a normal multiplayer game mode. These altered maps can also be transferred to other players using the File Sharing features.

Saved films

The 'Saved Films' feature allows players to save a copy of multiplayer campaign game data to their Xbox 360's hard drive, so that they may watch it later on. One hundred files can be saved on a hard drive at a time.[23] Though the public beta's implementation was very limited, its functionality is greatly extended in the final game.[24]

Players are able to view the action from almost any angle and any player's perspective (including a free-roaming camera), as well as being able to slow down the speed. Bungie said during the beta that there will eventually be reverse play of films.[24] The saved films can even be edited in game to create a shorter clip of a particularly amazing or special moment.[24] Players can also use the tool to take still pictures from films and upload them to the Bungie website. As the Saved Films are only the game data (not an actual video), this allows the file sizes to be relatively small. A recording for a typical "long" game is in the region of only 6 MB.[24] Films are also be played back at whatever resolution the Xbox 360 is set to, regardless of the resolution at which the player was using at the time of the recording. All games are recreated in real-time on the Xbox 360 using the Halo 3 engine. This allows them to be shared amongst any other Xbox 360 without any compatibility issues because they all run off the same code. The Saved Films feature is described as an "excellent training aid" since players can gain valuable tactical insight into the strategies of other players by viewing the saved films.[25]

File share

File Sharing in Halo 3 is an online storage and sharing service for a range of files that are created in the game, and is an extension of the game's online capabilities. Files such as Saved Films, screenshots, custom gametypes and Forge settings can all be uploaded to the File Share. When the game launches, items stored there then appear on a players Bungie.net Halo 3 profile, with the ability to comment on them and queue items to download for when the player next plays the game online.[12]

Players can view and transfer these files individually to others while they are online, but can also upload them to a central, Bungie run server so other players can then download and view them even when the creating player is not online. Each player has 25 MB of storage space on the File Share. Players are able to purchase additional storage space and slots for 750 Microsoft Points, dubbed "Bungie Pro"; all Gold subscribers get 6 file slots and 25MB of storage. Bungie Pro bumps storage up to 24 slots and 250MB. While players with Xbox Live Silver do not have access to the free file-share, they may purchase Bungie Pro to share their files. Bungie has also extended the file-share to their website; players may "flag" files for download (up to 8) on Bungie.net. The next time a user signs on to their Xbox, it will automatically download the flagged files to their hard drive.[26]

Story

Setting

See also: Halo universe

Halo 3, like its predecessors, is set in the fictional Halo universe, taking place during the year 2553. According to the backstory, humans developed faster-than-light travel and colonized many worlds, before encountering the alien Covenant in 2525;[27] the Covenant methodically discovered and destroyed any human colonies, before stumbling across Earth itself during the events of Halo 2. The game's missions take the player across a wide variety of environments scattered across a few key areas. The first few levels of the game are on an Earth invaded by Covenant, and range from a lush African jungle hiding in an underground base to a ruined highway leading to the industrial city of Voi. After the activation of a massive wormhole-like portal, the action moves beyond the galaxy to the Forerunner-built installation known as the Ark. Like the Halos, it is a vast megastructure harboring diverse, Earth-like environments. Levels on the Ark include a series of desert battles followed by an assault on some structures located in a lush forest. Following a mission into a Covenant spaceship, High Charity, the final level consists of an assault on a snowy complex on a nearby Halo.

Characters

Main article: Characters in the Halo series

The Master Chief and the Arbiter again return as the main protagonists. Master Chief and the Arbiter are controlled by the first and second players during co-op gameplay. Two new characters, N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham, represent the third and fourth players in co-op respectively, but are omitted from cutscenes, making only one appearance in the mission "Floodgate." Supporting characters, such as the wise-cracking Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, Commander Miranda Keyes and 343 Guilty Spark, also return. Filling an alternating antagonistic/helpful role to the player is the large Flood entity known as "Gravemind", who after the events of Halo 2, captured Master Chief's resident A.I. Cortana.

Plot summary

Halo 3's campaign does not begin right where Halo 2 left off. Instead, the comic mini-series, Halo: Uprising, bridges the story gap between the ending of Halo 2 and the beginning of Halo 3.[28]

File:Masterchief company h3.png
The Arbiter and Master Chief join forces.

The game begins with the Master Chief entering Earth's atmosphere and falling to the ground. Sergeant Major Avery Johnson and his squad discover him and, along with the Arbiter, make their way to a UNSC outpost, which falls under attack soon after. The Master Chief receives orders from Commander Keyes and Lord Hood to clear a way into the African city of Voi, and destroy all anti-air Covenant defenses in preparation for an all-out assault on the Prophet of Truth and the Forerunner artifact he is uncovering. Using the opening caused by the ground attack, the last earth ships mount their offensive against Truth's ship, but the Prophet activates the buried artifact and creates an enormous, stable slipspace portal which he and his followers enter. As the human ships attempt to recover from the shock wave, a Flood-controlled Covenant ship arrives via slipspace and crash-lands nearby. Covenant Elite forces, now allied with humanity after a civil war, arrive on Earth, and help glass Flood-infected areas of Earth, neutralizing the threat. The Master Chief, Arbiter, Elites, and Keyes decide to follow Truth through the slipspace portal. Joining them is the Forerunner construct 343 Guilty Spark, who decides to help.

After going through the slipspace portal, the UNSC and Elites find an immense artificial structure – the Ark – which is well outside the Milky Way galaxy. Here, Truth can activate all the Halos and purge the Milky Way of all sentient life; the Chief and company are determined to stop him. But the structure is so immense, they cannot figure out where the Prophet of Truth is. They quickly activate the cartographer and Guilty Spark discovers where Truth is and that the Ark is capable of rebuilding a Halo ring using its foundry, thus 343 activates task sentinels to rebuild it. Guided by Guilty Spark, the Chief and the Arbiter make their way towards the control room of the station. During their journey, a Flood-controlled High Charity arrives by slipspace, and Flood begin infesting the Ark. Johnson is captured by Truth in an effort to activate the rings, and despite the arrival of Commander Keyes, the Ark is activated. The Flood intelligence Gravemind forges a truce with the Chief and Arbiter in an effort to stop the firing. Keyes is killed by Truth, who in turn is killed by the Arbiter, but the installation's firing is halted. Gravemind quickly turns on the Chief and Arbiter, but Johnson flies away while the Chief and Arbiter fight their way out. They discover that the construction of a new Halo structure to replace the one the Master Chief destroyed in Halo: Combat Evolved. The Chief decides to activate the new ring to destroy the local Flood and the Gravemind while sparing the galaxy at large. Before he can activate Halo, he needs an Activation Index, which Cortana had aquired in Halo: Combat Evolved.[29] He saves Cortana from High Charity, and overloads its Main Reactor to destroy High Charity and take the Gravemind and his Flood down with it.

File:Masterchief cortana h3.png
Master Chief and Cortana escape The Ark which is being destoyed along with the rebuilt Installation-04.

Arriving on Halo, Cortana warns that the Gravemind is trying to rebuild itself on the ring. The Chief, the Arbiter, and Sergeant Major Johnson make their way to the control room, where they attempt to fire the main weapon. Guilty Spark explains that the ring is not quite completed, and that a premature activation will destroy it and the Ark.[30] When Johnson ignores his warning, Guilty Spark kills him in order to protect the ring much like in Halo: Combat Evolved, when he tried to stop Master Chief from destroying Installation 04.[31] Master Chief then destroys Guilty Spark, activates the ring, and barely manages to escape with the Arbiter and Cortana to Forward Unto Dawn, a UNSC ship.

Back on Earth, the front half of Forward Unto Dawn crashes into the ocean, and workers cut the Arbiter out of the wreckage. A memorial service is held for the fallen heroes of the war, which includes the Master Chief as he, along with Cortana, apparently did not make it through the slipspace portal with the Arbiter. After the memorial service, the Arbiter boards his ship and departs for his home planet, where the Elites are finally free of the Prophets' hegemony.[32] The game then ends with a close-up of the number "117" (The Master Chief's UNSC given Spartan number) etched into the side of the Covenant War memorial statue, alongside a Master Chief Petty Officer patch. If the player waits through the closing credits, a scene reveals that the Master Chief and Cortana have in fact survived in the rear section of the ship, and are drifting helplessly through space. Cortana activates a distress beacon, noting it might be years before they are rescued. As the Master Chief climbs into a cryo-tube to await rescue, Cortana tells the Master Chief that she will miss him. The Master Chief responds by saying "Wake me... when you need me." If the game is completed on the "legendary" difficulty level, the scene continues and depicts the severed section of the Dawn drifting towards a planet.

Graphics

Halo 3 utilizes a proprietary, in-house graphics engine, often referred to as the "Halo 3 Engine".[3] This engine builds upon the technologies of the Halo 2 Engine (and previously the Halo Engine) and is re-optimized for the architecture of the Xbox 360.

As detailed on the Bungie Studios website, it employs advanced graphics technologies such as High Dynamic Range, global lighting, real-time reflections and depth of field effects within cutscenes.[33] Certain surfaces, including the Master Chief's visor (when visible) and the armor of a Ghost, will have real-time reflections (these were not present within the Beta). Most of the dynamic objects in the game cast real-time shadows on themselves and the environment around them, including the game's plant life. Halo 3 uses normal, bump, and parallax mapping to give surfaces more detail without dramatically increasing the number of polygons. Players can see distances of up to ten miles away, all fully three-dimensional.[34]

After the game was released, speculations arose that Halo 3 did not natively render at true HD resolution (at least 720 lines of vertical resolution).[35] In a Bungie Weekly Update, it was confirmed that the game was rendered at 1152×640 resolution instead of the usual 1280×720 (HD) resolution that most Xbox 360 games use.[36] The choice for this design was conscious on Bungie's part, due to the fact that Halo 3 uses two frame buffers instead of the usual one, and that this choice would allow Bungie to preserve as much as the dynamic range as possible for the game's lighting, as well as maintaining a smooth frame rate. The picture could be upscaled all the way up to 1080p by the Xbox 360.[36]

Audio

As with all titles on the Xbox 360, Halo 3 fully supports 5.1 surround sound audio. In the game, there are over 50,000 pieces of audio, with nearly 40,000 of those being NPC dialogue.[12] This is many more than in either of the preceding Halo titles; Halo 2 had over 15,000 pieces of dialogue. The AI controlling this dialogue is designed to ensure the exchanges flow naturally and convincingly.[34]

Separate recordings have been made for nearby and distant gunfire to make for a more believable sound experience. Distant gunfire sounds, which may first seem like prerecorded ambient sound, may often be the result of an actual firefight happening somewhere in the game. Marty O'Donnell again composed the original score. Some pieces of the game's music are produced with a much larger real orchestra than anything in the prior two games. For example, the music for the announcement trailer was recorded with a 60-piece orchestra and a 24-piece choir.[7] Halo 3 is the first game in the series to feature custom soundtracks, allowing players to replace in-game music with their own choices.[37] Voice actors returning to reprise their roles in Halo 3 include Jen Taylor as Cortana, David Scully as Sergeant Johnson and the Elites, and Steve Downes as the voice of Master Chief. The game also features new voices, with Terence Stamp and Justis Bolding replacing Halo 2 voice actors Michael Wincott and Julie Benz for the characters Prophet of Truth and Miranda Keyes respectively. Additional voices include celebrity presenter Jonathan Ross,[38] Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk, Katee Sackhoff and John DiMaggio. Members of the Halo machinma Red vs. Blue (Burnie Burns, Gus Sorola, Matt Hullum, Jason Saldaña, Geoff Ramsey and Joel Heyman) were also featured.

The full soundtrack for Halo 3 is scheduled to be released on November 20, 2007. [39]

Development

Initial conception for Halo 3 was done before the game's predecessor, Halo 2 was released in 2004. For a period after this, much of the staff were still preoccupied in making extra content for Halo 2, while others continued with the groundwork for the development of Halo 3. Bungie remained almost completely silent as to what their new project was for the next year and half, occasionally leaving comments in their weekly update alluding to a "new project." Due to the cliff-hanger ending of Halo 2, many observers correctly speculated that Bungie's new project was indeed, Halo 3.

The game was officially announced with a real-time cinematic trailer at E3 2006.[7]

Marketing and release

Main article: Marketing for Halo 3
File:GAME FUEL version of Mt. Dew.jpg
Mountain Dew Game Fuel.

Various marketing techniques have been employed in promoting the release of Halo 3. This has included various trailers of the game; real-time cinematics, recorded gameplay sequences, pre-rendered CGI, and even live action film. Throughout the course of development several "developer documentaries" were released, which explain the processes behind creating parts of the game. A large scale multiplayer Beta test was played on Xbox Live with many members of the public being able to take part and experience the game for themselves. Beginning in June 2007, Iris, an alternate reality game, began on the internet, designed to create hype for the game while involving players in slowly revealing some background information for the game.

In addition to high profile events, Bungie often talked about the game in its Weekly Update, occasionally releasing media of the game on their site. Numerous interviews with Bungie staff have been conducted by many gaming press establishments, covering a vast range of subjects. Magazines and journals also occasionally ran stories revealing new information. Pepsi-Cola have announced a new line of soft drink, a variant of Mountain Dew named Game Fuel. The packaging reflects Halo 3, sporting images of Master Chief.[40] Much of the advertising to date has focused on appealing to the general public, rather than just hardcore fans of the game. Some 7-Eleven stores advertised Halo 3 and sold specialty cups and copies of the game.[41] On September 12, 2007 the "Believe" Halo 3 ad campaign, focused on the epic nature of the story and heroism told through dioramas and third party accounts of Master Chief's service, began with the video "Museum".[42] The same video which aired as the second Halo 3 commercial during NFL football on September 16 2007.

More than two weeks before Halo 3 was due to be released, full retail copies of the game complete with photographs of the open game box started to appear on the internet auction site eBay.[43] A week before Halo 3 was due for release, major UK catalog retailer Argos accidentally released some of their final retail copies of Halo 3. Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division were quoted as being "disappointed that it happened" but that "it was just an honest mistake" and that Microsoft had no intention of punishing Argos for the error.[44]

Months before the release of Halo 3, the game's final testing copy before its gold release (codenamed Epsilon and confirmed by Bungie to be 99.9% complete)[45] was leaked to the Internet. Microsoft reacted to this leak by having the Xbox Live accounts of gamers caught playing the Epsilon copy banned until the year 9999.[46] Halo 3's final retail copy was leaked online over a week before its official release. The 6.14 gigabyte file of the game was hacked and downloaded by "thousands" of people within 24 hours of the leak.[47] Videos of the ending of the Halo 3, obtained from the leaked copy, were captured and posted on popular file sharing sites, such as YouTube.[47]

On September 23, 2007, Microsoft released the game manual online, to promote its new browser plug-in, Microsoft Silverlight.[22][48]

A few weeks after the game was released in Australia, the Australian premier motorsport series V8 Supercars at the Bathurst 1000 had the top of the mountain track under the sign of "Mount Panorama" had the sign red vs blue (a satirical viral series based around the Halo universe). Sport video website bigpondsport.com has a video with a unknown person in Spartan armor painting the slogan into the ground. Current champion Rick Kelly is currently campaigning a helmet similar to Master Chief's helmet.

Versions

Features Standard Collector's Legendary
Game Disc & Manual Yes Yes Yes
Interactive Xbox 360 Disc No Yes Yes
Beastiarum No Yes (book) Yes (DVD)
Legendary DVD No No Yes
Master Chief Helmet replica No No Yes

Halo 3 was released in three separate versions. The Standard Edition contains the game disc and a manual. The Limited Edition, contained in a metal case, contains the game disc, manual, interactive Xbox 360 bonus disc with several featurettes, and "Beastiarum", which is a hard cover bound collection of information and art covering the species, cultures and civilizations of Halo 3. The final version was marketed as the "Legendary Edition", which contains the game disc, manual, interactive bonus disc, Beastiarum (on one of the DVD discs), Legendary DVD containing special content exclusive to the Legendary Edition, and a scale replica of the Master Chief's helmet as a case for the three discs.[49] Gamestation stores in the UK also offered a limited edition Master Chief figurine only available to the first 1000 pre-orders.

There have also been some early reports that in the Limited Edition version of Halo 3, the hub that is supposed to keep the game discs in place is faulty. This may lead to scratched game discs. Microsoft has confirmed the problem and offers to replace scratched Halo 3 game discs free of charge until the end of 2007.[50] However, this does not appear to be a problem in either the Legendary Edition or the Standard Edition.[51]

Sales

Bill Gates sold copies of the game at the launch in Seattle.

According to Microsoft, first-day sales of Halo 3 reached $170 million in the U.S., setting the record for highest gross of an entertainment product within 24-hours of its release. The performance beat the previous record setter, predecessor Halo 2, which earned $125 million within 24-hours after its launch.[52] Halo 3 has beaten other records as well; more than 1.7 million copies of Halo 3 were pre-ordered in the U.S., making it the fastest pre-selling game in U.S. history.[53] Worldwide more than US$300 million worth were sold in the first week, helping to more than double the sales of the Xbox 360 when compared with the weekly average before the Halo 3 launch.[54] In the U.S., Halo 3 sold 3.3 million copies in its first 12 days on sale.[55] On October 4, 2007, Reuters UK estimated that Halo 3 may have sold up to 5.2 million copies worldwide.[54] The game also drew over a million Xbox Live members to play online in the first 20-hours, making it the biggest day for Xbox Live gaming in history.[56]

On October 15, 2007, Advertising Age reported that movie studio executives were convinced the release of Halo 3 harmed box office receipts; the week's take was 27% less than the previous year's yield.[57] While some executives decided the disparity in estimated and actual gross for films like The Heartbreak Kid was due more to the film's poor reception, other analysts believed that "the audience on [Halo 3] is the 18-to-34 demographic, similar to what you'd see in cinemas."[58]

Critical reception

Publication Score
Game Rankings
93
MetaCritic
94
GameSpy
5 of 5
1UP.com
10 of 10
Edge
10 of 10
Eurogamer
10 of 10
Official Xbox Magazine
10 of 10
Game Informer
9.75 of 10
GameSpot
9.5 of 10
IGN
9.5 of 10
Famitsu
37 of 40

Critical reception of the game has generally been positive. On the review aggregator Game Rankings, the game has an average score of 93%, based on 68 reviews, making it the fourth best reviewed 360 game to date.[59] On Metacritic, the game has an average score of 94 out of 100, based on 62 reviews.[60]

Pro-G assured readers in its review that Halo 3 lived up to the hype, saying that the game "is everything we hoped it would be, and much, much, more".[61] Eurogamer stated, "The best game yet in one of the best FPS franchises of the era,"[62] while Games Radar reported, "The single player is bigger and brawnier than anything that's been attempted on a console before."[63] Most publications agreed that multiplayer was by far one of the best features; IGN decided that the multiplayer map lineup was the strongest of the series,[64] and Gamespy decided the multiplayer offering will make "Halo [veterans] weep big sloppy sobs of joy".[65] The Forge level editor and saved films features were also singled out as particularly strong features,[66][67] in addition to superb voice acting and Martin O'Donnell's rich score.[65][68]

Reception of the single-player aspect varied greatly. Pro-G argued that while the cliffhanger ending of Halo 2 was disappointing, the campaign of Halo 3 "is anything but";[61] Gamespot concurred.[67] GameSpy, meanwhile, thought that the single-player was too short, especially on easier difficulty levels.[65] IGN was highly critical of the eighth level, stating "the penultimate chapter is so bad, just thinking about it puts a rotten taste in my mouth." The New York Times said the game had a "throwaway" plot[69] and Total Video Games said the single-player aspect was ultimately disappointing.[70]

Other complaints focused on the artificial intelligence; critics noted that the intelligence of the player's allies was far poorer than that of enemies.[67][11][71] While giving a mostly positive review, Bryan Vore of Game Informer said that human faces and some textures were just "embarrassing".[68] IGN and Cinemablend.com both felt that a part of the story was lost by not having the Arbiter featuring as prominently as the character was in Halo 2.[72][11]

Downloadable content

Bungie has stated that downloadable content for Halo 3 is "inevitable". The company's development team is already working on new maps to be available for download via Xbox Live. No release dates have been determined.[73][74]

References

  1. ^ a b c Luke Smith (Lukems) (2007-05-15). "Finish the Fight on September 25, 2007" (HTML). Bungie Software. Retrieved 2007-05-16. On September 25, 2007, players will be able to finish the fight they started in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued in Halo 2. Halo 3 will release in Europe on September 26, 2007 {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Microsoft Games Studio (2007). "Halo 3 Page Xbox Japan" (HTML) (in Japanese). Xbox.com/ja-JP/. Retrieved 2007-06-15. 発売日: 2007/09/27
  3. ^ a b Kathleen Sanders (2006-05-09). "E3 2k6: Halo 3 Trailer Impressions" (HTML). IGN E3 2006 Coverage. IGN.com. Retrieved 2007-06-25. ...rendered in real-time on the Xbox 360 using the current version of the Halo 3 engine. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "Havok comes to you with Halo" (HTML). Havok. 2007-03-10. Retrieved 2007-10-10. To create the immersive game environments, Bungie once again chose Havok Physics {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "Halo 3 BBFC Rating Page". Retrieved 2007-08-24.
  6. ^ "HALO 3 Game (Multi Platform)". The Classification Board and Classification Review Board. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
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  8. ^ Brendan Sinclair. "Analyst: 4.2M Halo 3s already at retail". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
  9. ^ Blake Snow. "Analyst: Halo 3 shatters retail record; sells $170M in 24 hrs". GamePro. Retrieved 2007-09-26.
  10. ^ Goldstein, Hilary (2007-08-10). "Burn, Baby! Burn!". IGN.com. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
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  12. ^ a b c d e f Edge (UK) (2007). "Finish the Fight". Edge. September 2007 (179): 66–77. ISSN 1350-1593. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |laydate= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |laysource= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |laysummary= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  13. ^ a b Bungie Studios (2007-08-03). "podcast". Retrieved 2007-09-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) Cite error: The named reference "Bungie-podcast082707" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  14. ^ a b Luke Smith (Lukems) (2007-07-31). "The Tru7h About Co-Op in Halo 3" (HTML). Bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-08-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ VidDoc here
  16. ^ Bungie Studios (2007-06-19). "Halo 3 Achievements" (HTML). Xbox360Achievements.org. Retrieved 2007-07-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Frank O'Connor (Frankie) (2007-04-10). "Inside Bungie: Multiplayer Madness!" (HTML). Bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-04-17. The Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta will go live on May 16th at 12:00 AM PDT and run through June 6th at 11:59 PM PDT {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ a b Luke Smith (2006-11-24). "The Five Best Things About Halo 3" (HTML). 1up Halo 3 Coverage. 1up.com. Retrieved 2007-04-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ "Halo 3 gets shutup button". Retrieved 2007-04-28..
  20. ^ Smith, Luke (2007-10-09). "Halo 3: Matchmaking Playlist Update 1". bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
  21. ^ Frank O'Connor (2007-08-03). "Bungie Weekly Update: 08/03/07". Bungie.net. Archived from the original on 2007-08-04. Retrieved 2007-08-05. [...] placed a RIDICULOUS number of exploding fusion cores [...] respawn times set to as close to "instant" as Forge allows [...] {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ a b Halo 3 Manual (Silverlight), available online from Microsoft.com.
  23. ^ Smith, Luke (2006-09-02). "HBO". halo.bungie.org. Retrieved 2007-09-02. Players will be able to save up to 100 total films (this is also referenced to in a podcast that it is all items, so 100 films, or 20 "forges" and 80 films, et cetera
  24. ^ a b c d O'Conner, Frank (2007-05-15). "Saved Films and File Share". Bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-05-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ Atkin, Denny (2007-05-11). "Hands-On: Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta". xbox.com. Retrieved 2007-05-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ Smith, Luke (2007-08-17). "Bungie Weekly Update: 08/17/07". bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-08-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  27. ^ Bungie. "Ancillary: Halo Story Timeline". Halo.Bungie.Org. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
  28. ^ Bungie Studios (2007-06-14). "Halo: Uprising On Halo3.com". Halo3.com. Retrieved 2007-06-22. ...the miniseries will bridge the gap between Halo 2 and the upcoming release of the highly-anticipated Halo 3 video game...
  29. ^ Cortana: The activation index, from the first Halo ring. A little souvenir I hung onto, just in case. - Bungie Studios (2007). Halo 3 (Xbox 360). Microsoft. Level/area: Cortana.
  30. ^ 343 Guilty Spark: Oh, hello! Wonderful news, the Installation is almost complete! / Johnson: Terrific (sarcastically). / 343 Guilty Spark: Yes... Isn't it? I have begun my simulations. No promises, but initial results indicate that this facility should be ready to fire, in just a few more days. / Johnson: "We don't have a few more days! / 343 Guilty Spark: Bu-bu-but! A premature firing will destroy the Ark! / Johnson: Deal with it. - Bungie Studios (2007). Halo 3 (Xbox 360). Microsoft. Level/area: Halo.
  31. ^ 343 Guilty Spark: Will destroy this Installation... (Guilty Spark suddenly turns red and shoots Johnson with his Beam) - Bungie Studios (2007). Halo 3 (Xbox 360). Microsoft. Level/area: Halo.
  32. ^ Rtas 'Vadum: "Things look different. Without the Prophets' lies clouding my vision. I would like to see our own world. To know that it is safe. / Arbiter: Fear not. For we have made it so. - Bungie Studios (2007). Halo 3 (Xbox 360). Microsoft. Level/area: Halo.
  33. ^ Klepek, Patrick (2007-03-19). "Bungie Says Halo 3 Graphics are coming Together". 1up.com. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
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  42. ^ "Watch the new Halo 3 ad: "Museum"". joystiq.com. 2007-09-12. Retrieved 2007-09-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  43. ^ Marcus Yam (2007-09-11). "Early Copys of Halo 3 Sell on eBay" (HTML). dailytech.com. Retrieved 2007-09-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  44. ^ Phil Elliott (2007-09-20). "Microsoft won't punish Argos" (HTML). gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved 2007-09-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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  48. ^ http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/h/halo3/launch/newyorkcity.htm
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  50. ^ "XBox Disk Replacement Program". Microsoft. Retrieved 2007-09-25. {{cite web}}: Text "date2007-09-25" ignored (help)
  51. ^ "Early Halo 3 Limited Edition Owners Plagued by Scratched Discs". DailyTech. 2007-09-22. Retrieved 2007-09-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  52. ^ Peter Henderson (2007-09-27). "Microsoft "Halo 3" 1st-day sales hit $170 million". Reuters. Retrieved 2007-09-28.
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  55. ^ Brendan Sinclair (2007-10-18). "NPD: Halo effect helps Sept. sales hit $1.3B". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-10-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  56. ^ McDougall, Paul (2007-09-27). "Halo 3 Sales Smash Game Industry Records". Information Week. Retrieved 2007-10-03.
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  58. ^ Akner, Claude (2007-10-15). "Bad Box Office? Blame 'Halo'". Advertising Age. Retrieved 2007-10-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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  68. ^ a b Vore, Bryan (2007-10-01). "Game Informer: Halo 3". gameinformer.com. Retrieved 2007-10-03.
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  70. ^ Wilcox, Jon (2007-09-27). "TVG Review: Halo 3". Retrieved 2007-10-03. {{cite web}}: Text "wortotalvideogames.com" ignored (help)
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  73. ^ http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/13/bungie-talks-halo-3-downloadable-content-in-game-baseball/
  74. ^ http://www.1pstart.com/halo-3-downloadable-content-inevitable/

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