The Forge
Another new feature that is going to dramatically change the landscape of online games as well as give the game a much longer shelf life overall is the Forge editing tool. The Forge allows you to edit items and weapons and vehicles and a bunch of other things on multiplayer maps. You can place vehicles and weapons and equipment as well as items such as fusion cores and gravity lifts and teleporters wherever you want. You can then share these custom maps and game types with other people through a file sharing system built into the game. You can play this map edit mode with other people, and it is pretty cool and funny when everyone can spawn their favorite weapons and vehicles at will. The Forge also allows you other fun besides just putting together your dream deathmatch map. You can also do things like play baseball with rocket launchers and the gravity hammer, or set up nifty vehicle jumps with the gravity lifts. The potential of the Forge is only limited by your imagination because there are tons and tons of items and options to play with, but you will also likely find ways to exploit things in ways the developers never intended. I am a big fan of being able to make my own fun in games and come up with new ways to have fun, and the Forge is a great tool that is certainly going to get a lot of use among my friends.Graphics
Microsoft
The presentation in Halo 3 has always been an area of slight concern among fans as screenshots haven’t really shown much compared to other next-gen games. Now that we finally have the game in our hands, I would have to say the graphics are actually quite a bit better than I, and most people likely, anticipated. The first thing you will likely notice is that the game world is not shiny. Games of the 360 and PS3 generation have been highlighted by ridiculously shiny looking graphics. Halo 3 doesn’t have that. Instead, the graphics are just as detailed as any other game, minus the shine, which creates a far more realistic look. Master Chief’s armor, for example, is kind of flat and dull looking, but when you look closely at it you see all of the pits and wear and little details and it makes sense that it isn’t all shiny and perfect looking like the characters in most games. Another area where Halo 3 really excels is in the lighting. When you go from a bright area to a dark area, or vice versa, your eyes have to adjust a little in-game which is just amazingly cool. The lighting overall is just really realistic and great looking, and when you couple this with the realistic but not flashy textures and details on everything else, the game has a surprisingly nice and realistic look. Now, the game isn’t really trying to be realistic, and it definitely has the same artistic style and look as the other Halo games, but there is just something about the visuals here that is really appealing that a lot of other next-gen games lack.
Sound
The sound in Halo 3 is every bit as good as the graphics. The music from is as great as it was in the first two games and matches the familiar signature Halo score with some new tunes to really give the game a big and epic feel. The voice acting is also absolutely spot-on, not just for the main story characters but for all of the combat dialogue that both friendly and enemy soldiers yell out during battles. I also have to say, and this isn’t a spoiler since you should have expected them to be back, but the Flood in Halo 3 sound absolutely horrifying and are really scary this time around.Bottom Line
Microsoft
Ultimately, it is the combination of all of these different aspects that really make Halo 3 stand out as one of the best games on the Xbox 360. Most games get by with having just a solid single-player, or solid multiplayer, or great graphics, but Halo 3 offers all of that along with new things like the Forge and the ability to save screenshots and movies and view them online via Bungie.net to form an amazingly polished complete package that will keeping coming back for more. Paying $60 for it seems like such a small investment because you will be playing this game for months and years to come. Halo 3 is a great game and I highly recommend it for all Xbox 360 owners.
