I just have to get some Halo 3-hate off my chest. I can't stand the music, I can't stand the story, and most of all I can't stand the constant shoving in my face that this game is the best thing since "peanut!butter!jelly!". Seeing Halo 3 receive this award made me feel a bit better, but this quickly wrecked that feeling. They're not even using the actually cover art! "...using an arsenal of long- and short-range weapons, plus grenades and hand-to-hand moves" is one of my favorites. As far as I know, every goddamn FPS I've played has a somewhat similar formula, I would say. If I was to say something about my game of the year, I'd prolly go for an argument thats a little bit more substantiated.

I hate Halo 3, but I think it's a good game. Let me explain:

First, the good

Now, I have played 5 chapters of the singleplayer campaign and done some matches online, so I haven't spent half my life playing this game, but a fair amount to at least give it my honest opinion about it. Its good. Halo 3 is a good game. How does it rate? Between 7 and 8. The amount of polish is unbelievable. An incredibly solid game that runs smooth, has almost no glitches, and frankly has some very smart combat situations that are not too complex nor too shallow or unsubstantial. The way that the AI behaves differently so that you have to implement new strategies further up the difficulty ladder is quite impressive. The multiplayer mode is perhaps the deepest I've seen, and the matchmaking system actually works. Forge is cool, noting more. Save films are also cool and a step forward for online interactivity.


Now, the bad

Halo is a boring game. Both singeplayer and multiplayer are incredibly boring. This is, of course, very subjective, but I'm used to games that grab me by the balls and doesn't let go. Halo just feels like something that's there, "and hey look, you can just play that game if you want. It's there. Pick it up. Play. Lay it down. Come back when you feel like it. Doesn't matter, really. You know, whatever." That's the feeling I get playing Halo. Most of that is because it's so slow. I feel like I'm high playing it. And not in a good way high.

The story is completely uninspired. I get better story out of Quake or Rainbow Six than this. The way everything is presented to you is just so American. The whole game just smells like stars and stripes, and thats something that most games don't. Even the most American ones. I feel like I'm the quarterback for my high-school football team when playing Halo. It just, has this very banal and "fabricated" epic feel thats so transparent. Its plastic. The game is plastic. Just because you put a munk choir on your pretentious melody doesn't make it "epic". This isn't Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. You want epic? Look deeper than the main theme.

And the worst thing about Halo 3, is the marketing. The way they shoved this incredibly mediocre experience down my throat like it was Jesus' cock (yes I said it) disgusted me to the degree that I will never be able to experience Halo 3 with an empty canvas. It will always be tainted with my hate for the franchise and with the utterly disgusting fabricated plasticness (my word, I made it up).




/wrist


PS(p)
I'm playing Silent Hill Origins on PSP, and I'm liking it so far. Never played a Silent Hill game before, but I can see why it has got the following its got. Looking forward to Silent Hill 5.
PS(out)