How come you can't play public custom matches? What a shit-load of cock! Who the hell has enough friends on Live to be able to coral enough people together for a specific private match at a specific time? Like R6:V, they should let you browse existing custom matches and have the option to leave them open so you can join one, or have others join yours. I wanna play Infected, dammit, and I can't get enough people together to do so when I want to do so. They better fix this bullshit in an update, and soon!

The helmet is a lot bigger than I expected. I was thinking it would be like those mini NFL helmets. It's probably 3 times the size of those. Very nice quality too. I haven't checked out the extras discs yet. Played a little campaign but mostly multil-player.

I completely agree with you. The multiplayer function of the game is a complete step down from what Bungie accomplished with Halo 2. I want to be able to join a 16-player game at ANYTIME with ANY option I want.

Agreed. While the online is smoother, and the matchmaking better at matching like-skilled players, the 'joinability' is lacking severely. I'm SICK of shotty snipers on Narrows. SICK.

Campaign = solo game = single player

The Legendary has the game in one DVD case, while the two bonus discs are in a separate case. I imagine the 2 disc set is packaged in one DVD case.

All I played last night was custom matches and random people kept popping in all night.


Like slop said, it is all about balance and refinement. They playtested this game like no other* to get everything perfect. Ever play any other FPS where everyone sticks to 1-3 of the weapons? Not in Halo, you stand a chance with pretty much any weapon. You mention KOTOR but not the sequel. Same with Katamari. Not exactly apples to apples. Try comparing KOTOR2 or any of the Katamari rehashes to Halo 3. What new did KOTOR 2 bring to the table?

Halo has the best matchmaking system out there. No other game has come close to Halo 2's system in three years and Halo 3's improves upon it. How about four player co-op through the campaign? What about game films on a console? What about a synergistic experience with an online community like Bungie.net. You can log on and see every match you played. Even pull up a map of where every kill was made by who. The big cheese stands alone.

If nothing else it separates itself from it's FPS brethren as the game that has a great single player mode and a great multiplayer mode. Nearly every other game fails at providing both at a qualtiy level. One will have a great single player but have a tacked on MP that no one plays. Another will have a killer MP mode but a shitty campaign mode.

It's easy to dismiss, but beneath all the marketing nonsense, Halo is a quality experience that most games strive to attain.

*there was a large article on the playtesting process and a link around here somewhere, I'll see if I can find it.

I just spent all day playing a heroic campaign with my friend Dan over XBL and we are on the last level before we had to call it quits early last night. I played some online games, and you can set the XBL options to Open so basically anyone whose on your friends list, or on anyone in the rooms friends list can join.

Alrighty. Done responding, now my thoughts. Fun! Halo's back! I largely gave up on Halo 2 once the 360 came out. I played the beta, but playing Halo is like riding a bike, despite the new controls.

- I'm glad they fixed the voice communication from the beta to where you don't have to "push-to-talk" through the whole game


- also glad they somewhat refined the call-sign since then and you can see the player name, not just the 3 letter call-sign.

- Zanzibar. Fuck Zanzibar. Time to move on people. It was fun for the first 1,000 matches, not so much anymore.

- Weapon balance is amazing. I'm truly loving the Halo 1 style combat that they reverted to(gun, grenade, melee) instead of the over emphasised and overpowered dual weilding nonsense of Halo 2.

- the maps are great. Loving them all so far, except maybe Sandtrap. Right now it seemed to easy for a player to get on top in the middle with a sniper/spartan laser and rule the map. Seems impossible to take that person out due to how high and far you have to run up to that point. You get picked off fairly easy.

- I think all the new equipment is pretty useless in slayer but works great in team modes.

- only played with forge for a few minutes but looks promising.

Question: Is it true that a level must be played in one sitting to get the achievement? (I was probably a minute away from the end of level 2 when my wife insisted on being amorous.)

As Corvin said, i was in an open party (eg. not invite only) doing custom matches and had people popping in all evening. Also, if you can't get enough people to fill a party from your friends list - then you need more friends. All evening i had between 28 and 31 people on my friends list online. All but 3 of them were in Halo 3. Silly Pixy and his Eternal Sonata.

You can join games (well up to 12 players right now, in a few weeks when the server information populates the cap will be raised to 16) anytime you want. Choose your playlist and start.

Also, to echo what Corvin said, the integration with the Bungie website is like no other console game. It tracks a sick amount of statistics. That in and of itself is groundbreaking on the console front. Nothing like browsing custom maps at work and flagging them to download when i log online with my 360 at home that evening. Extremely nice.

You guys that go the legendary set. I will buy you extra 3rd disc for $50 that's all I want out of it. I can send you $40 now via Paypal, and the rest in the mail when I get the disc if any of you are up for that? Mike Corvin, no msg from you yet what did you decide?

Oh, sorry Brew. I meant to get back to you last night and got caught up playing instead. I think I'll just hang on to it. Sorry to get your hopes up.

Has anyone else been having the same problem Ive been getting? I have all my voice settings, both in my GamerTag profile and the in-game Halo settings as Headset Only - how come the voice is coming through my speakers and headset?

Agree on all but one of these. Weapon balance is incredible. Sandtrap i need to explore more but right now i can easily see how someone could just dominate with a sniper in the center.

I disagree entirely on the Zanzibar bit though. Zanzibar was getting a little stale. The new huge Zanzibar map though is sweet and i love it.

Amen brother. Shotty Snipers is beyond annoying.

So when you play coop on the same console with two player split screen how do you get the picture to fill the TV? I can't find the settings anywhere? Why do they do this? I bought a 46 inch HDTV not a 32 inch 4:3 like it converts too in splitscreen.

I got a NAT warning when launching my first online game....although, the online matches played extremely smoothly...no lag at all.

How do I fix NAT issues? What are they? The 360 is connected hardwired to my router.

Apparently you can't.

Why Bungie? Why?

I don't think so.

Had some good games last night with beandip, Martin5 and a few other dvdtalkers. I noticed that the majority of people on my list were doing the campaign.
You all need to finish that up asap and join us in some multi-player. I need some variety...I beatdown beandip so many times I was starting to think that I was Ike Turner.

I played very briefly last night. I couldn't quite figure out how to jump into a multi-player game and ended up starting up a multi-player campaign game.

Anyways -- does it always take 60seconds or so to load a multi-player game? And if you just want to play a deathmatch, where do you go for that?

I had played partially through level 1 alone, then exited to the main menu, and started a co-op campaign with raven...we started where I left off, and played through level 1 and 2, and neither of us got the achievement for beating level 1, but both did for beating level 2. We are partially through level 3, so we'll see if we get the achievement for beating it.

I was having the same problem in the COD4 Beta. I haven't tried any online Halo 3 yet. I played for a couple of hours in the single player mode, and knocked out of couple of chapters. I can't really say that I am blown away by Halo 3. It really just seems more of the same. Don't get me wrong, it's a very cool game, but I like GoW and GRAW better, and CoD4 looks like it will be awesome. Maybe I just need to give it more time. I'll also try to find some time (maybe tomorrow night, since the wife will be out of town) to try some online multiplayer. I expect to have my ass handed to me.

I got the same thing.

I upgraded to this router because it was recommended by Live (using a Linkseys WR54G - although the version i bought is v. 8.0 which Live doesn't mention) and now when i do the Live test it comes back as being Moderate on NAT. I know for a fact it used to be Open - and none of my settings have changed. It wouldn't let me join a party with Jalth because of the NAT.

My 360 is also hardwired to my router.

I thought I'd check the 360 voice website to see the top 10 games played stats from yesterday (among those registered). Here they are:

1: Halo 3
11,696 games ( +10,639)

2: Gears of War
3,410 games ( -1,044)

3: BioShock
1,840 games ( -794)

4: Guitar Hero II
1,805 games ( -552)

5: Madden NFL 08
1,517 games ( -313)

6: Forza Motorsport 2
1,489 games ( -399)

7: skate.
1,417 games ( -314)

8: Rainbow Six® Vegas
1,361 games ( -557)

9: Stranglehold
743 games ( -257)

10: NHL® 08
716 games ( -180)

Definitely not. I played through level one in two sittings and got the achievement.

By the way, can I just go on record as saying that the Gravity Hammer kicks about 27 different kinds of ass. I love that thing.