Zero Punctuation: Halo 3

[Tenabii]

First of all I'd like to say that personally I love the Halo series. I think it is fun and exciting and when playing the flood parts in the dark, it is a bit scary.

But that is not to say it is perfect. No game is perfect and no one should expect it to be.
To get the full experience of Halo 3 you need to know the storyline of the previouse games because Halo 3 is just tying up the loose ends. I do think it is the weakest of the games (not being that interested in online multiplayer myself) but it is not bad. It is, and Yatzee said, average. It probably is confusing if you just get dropped in at Halo 3 but then so are games like Half life 2. I played half life 2 before the original and I was completely lost. Halo 3 is not best on its own as it was not designed to be on its own.

For me I thought it was awesome. It was fun and funny and brilliant. But that is probably just my biase towards it because it is part of my most favourite games ever, the Halo Fanchise. I only started playing Halo because of watching red vs blue, so in a way I was not effected by the hype of the first two games, I loved them because I could understand them and play around with them. And the same is applible for Halo 3.

Halo 3 is not as good as its hype. That is a fact. But so what. That doesnt make it bad. A game does not need to be marked down for not meeting the media's bloated hype-machine. I didnt expect it to be and it wasnt. Also it is a console game. Dont judge it by PC standards because consoles have less options with controls and there fore cannot be judged the same. They are very different. Halo 3 is simple to use and that just makes it better. Even Ametures like me can pick it up and get to the end, and high skill people can have a challenge on legendary. Its for everyone.

You just need to judge it on its own merits. It may not be up to your standards and thats ok. You dont need to go round bashing people who like it. Halo 3 is fun, and that is all it needs to be. Its a game people, and as much as I love it, you dont need to take it so seriously.

Oh and Great review Yatzee, even if I did disagree with some points.

 

[JamBob]

List ten of these quote "Great FPS games"!

Off the top of my head...

Deus Ex
Bioshock
Halflife
The Orange Box
Call of Duty 4
Metroid Prime 3
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Crysis
Battlefield 2
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

 

[schiz0phren1c]

God damn I fuckin love you Yahtzee(not in a gay way you cock mongler!)...
your reviews bring joy into my mean spirited-stone cold,spiritually void life ,
but I do have to point out something that(if you bother your hole to read this) may have you cursing my handsome hide...
EDIT!bloody hell! I should say I WAS going to make such a comment,a really astute,clever,witty,shitheaded comment,along the lines of this

"your line "Its hard to take things seriously when all the guns look like they were made by mattel" ignores the basic fact that Mattel actually manufactured the M16 rifle"

BUT...while doing my research on something that I had accepted most of my life as fact(and I am a confirmed gun nut who should know better) I discovered that this cherished fact of mine is in fact just a bloody urban fucking leg-end and in fact Mattel had FUCK ALL to do with the M-16,there goes my smarmy arsed know it all comment.!
Fuckin Snopes! http://www.snopes.com/military/m16.asp bastards!...
oh well,sorry Yahtzee, keep up the good work and feel free to kick me in the bollocks if we ever meet!
Schiz0phren1c(the original one...or two)

 

[entropy3ko]

jackolantern: right but Zero Punctuation has been, to my mind, about pointing out truths through perspicacious use of The Funny. There was still The Funny here but as it was less concerned with pointing out truth than as with bear-baiting it's all the less perspicacious for it.

That wouldn't be a problem but for the fact that the piece starts with Yahtzee calling all other game reviewers in the world 'cock eaters' (is that actually funny?), implying that he is the great, single rational mind in a critical community otherwise drunk on hype. Exaggeration to make a point is fine but it needs to be mostly true to properly work.

I thought it was funny and it did not give me the impression he was saying "I am the best", simply he was commenting on how so many reviewers have given perfect scores at a game which does not deserve them

Well often most reviewers are idiots. There are a LOT of games that get 'good' or 'great' reviews and then you buy the game and then it 'sucks bullocks' (citing Yahtzee here )

I must say I often wonder how much do game companies bribe reviewers to make them say that their game is great.

 

[beddo]

List ten of these quote "Great FPS games"!

Off the top of my head...

Deus Ex
Bioshock
Halflife
The Orange Box
Call of Duty 4
Metroid Prime 3
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Crysis
Battlefield 2
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

LOL - I meant in the current climate, not in the history of games! Most of the ones you have mentioned would be barely mediocre by today's standards.

Deus Ex - An RPG/FPS hybrid; not truly in the same genre and far too old to be considered by today's standards.

Bioshock - Agreed, Fascinating, exciting, engaging and original. Better than Halo 3

Halflife - A great game but not so much by today's standards

The Orange Box - Half Life 2 to is not better than Halo 3 (see my comments from earlier post). Episode 1 was boring, couldn't be bothered to play more than an hour. Episode 2 was good but far from great, relate it back to my HL2 comments. Portal was great, but short. TF2, not a great deal of content, I found it do be rather dull.

Call of Duty 4 - Entertaining fps, great but difficult to compare; graphically weaker, on par with atmosphere but the plot was a touch cliché. Play it on hardened or veteran, spawning enemies show the weakness of enemy implementation and breaks the reality and tension. I mean seriously, how many people were in the TV studio!?! Play it on veteran, I'm surprised the US army get anywhere given how well armed the 'terrorists' were! Can't go two seconds without three grenades simultaneously appearing at you feet! Sniper bit was awesome.

Metroid Prime 3 - Not played it

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl - B.O.R.I.N.G the so called sprawling maps didn't manage to deceive the linearity. How can we put boundaries in, I know, radiation! Poor AI, especially from the NPC's. Graphically speaking it looked awful.

Crysis - Dream on, it's just far cry again. Found it boring, only played the demo though.

Battlefield 2 - Class based combat - meh, riddled with cheaters, uninspired levels, and poor vehicle implementation.

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter - I hope you're joking; not strictly an fps and so boring, bad combat, slow, just plain nause.

 

[CMadness]

Blind fanboyism for the win. Halo:CE was not innovative in the slightest. If you actually played games like Rise of the Triad, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Team Fortress Classic, and many others you will find out that everything in Halo had already been done. Saying Halo 3 is better in Half-Life 2 is just laughable and completely reeks of "Teh Halo Love".

Well I guess it's easy to label someone as a 'fanboy' because they challenge your ideas of thinking, it gives you an ill conceived reason to ignore them. Your response is stereotypical of l33t PC gamers who dismiss decent games through a bizarre form of gaming elitism.

Actually I did play, over my earlier years, the aforementioned games apart from Team Fortress Classic. They didn't really innovate anything, mostly just tried to improve on Wolfenstein and Doom, apart from a leap into true 3d I can't think of anything particularly memorable about them, save perhaps dual wielding and the somewhat peculiar and rather ineffective melee kick in Duke Nukem 3d. Perhaps you're tragic enough to believe that paying strippers in a game can be equated to 'innovation'.

I quote you as such;

"Halo:CE was not innovative in the slightest"

How then do you explain self-regenerating shields in some form or another in almost every FPS and in many action games since its inception in Halo?

Moreover, are you suggesting that the inclusion of Vehicles in Half-Life 2 has nothing to do with a knock on affect from Halo?

Well firstly, you need to know how to express yourself as what you wrote; "Halo 3 is better 'IN' Half-Life 2" clearly isn't what you meant. I quite clearly said in my opinion Halo 3 is better than Half-Life 2, I can re-iterate if you like; in my opinion Halo 3 is better than Half-Life 2; especially concerning online multi-player. If you wish to contradict me you could give an argument rather than try to destroy my spirit with your savage use of 'Teh Halo Love', lolzor; w00t, I can g33k speak too, Beddo ftw!

Still reeking of Halo fanboyism I see, regenerating health was done before, in fact TFC had passive regen on medics, vehicles? Tribes, Operation Flashpoint, Red Faction, the list goes on. Hell you say that Rise of the Triad wasn't innovative even though it was the first game to introduce weapon limits, same with some of the other games, yet you praise Halo for being innovative for the same reasons mentioned that you say the other games didn't innovate in. Yes I will contradict your opinion when you try to praise Halo for being something that it is not. Halo 3 is nothing more than an average shooter.

 

[beddo]

Blind fanboyism for the win. Halo:CE was not innovative in the slightest. If you actually played games like Rise of the Triad, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Team Fortress Classic, and many others you will find out that everything in Halo had already been done. Saying Halo 3 is better in Half-Life 2 is just laughable and completely reeks of "Teh Halo Love".

Well I guess it's easy to label someone as a 'fanboy' because they challenge your ideas of thinking, it gives you an ill conceived reason to ignore them. Your response is stereotypical of l33t PC gamers who dismiss decent games through a bizarre form of gaming elitism.

Actually I did play, over my earlier years, the aforementioned games apart from Team Fortress Classic. They didn't really innovate anything, mostly just tried to improve on Wolfenstein and Doom, apart from a leap into true 3d I can't think of anything particularly memorable about them, save perhaps dual wielding and the somewhat peculiar and rather ineffective melee kick in Duke Nukem 3d. Perhaps you're tragic enough to believe that paying strippers in a game can be equated to 'innovation'.

I quote you as such;

"Halo:CE was not innovative in the slightest"

How then do you explain self-regenerating shields in some form or another in almost every FPS and in many action games since its inception in Halo?

Moreover, are you suggesting that the inclusion of Vehicles in Half-Life 2 has nothing to do with a knock on affect from Halo?

Well firstly, you need to know how to express yourself as what you wrote; "Halo 3 is better 'IN' Half-Life 2" clearly isn't what you meant. I quite clearly said in my opinion Halo 3 is better than Half-Life 2, I can re-iterate if you like; in my opinion Halo 3 is better than Half-Life 2; especially concerning online multi-player. If you wish to contradict me you could give an argument rather than try to destroy my spirit with your savage use of 'Teh Halo Love', lolzor; w00t, I can g33k speak too, Beddo ftw!

Still reeking of Halo fanboyism I see, regenerating health was done before, in fact TFC had passive regen on medics, vehicles? Tribes, Operation Flashpoint, Red Faction, the list goes on. Hell you say that Rise of the Triad wasn't innovative even though it was the first game to introduce weapon limits, same with some of the other games, yet you praise Halo for being innovative for the same reasons mentioned that you say the other games didn't innovate in. Yes I will contradict your opinion when you try to praise Halo for being something that it is not. Halo 3 is nothing more than an average shooter.

Wolverine: Adamantium Rage had regenerating health back in 94, five years before Team Fortress. It's not necessarily an original feature that makes innovation; it's the effect of its integration on gameplay.

The weapon limits in Halo are so different to ROTT. In Halo you don't have a 'levelling up' of weapons where you get better ones as you progress. In Halo almost all weapons are available from the word go, almost effective in their own way, you choose which ones to use based on the scenario you're in, that's innovation.

I still quote you; "Halo:CE was not innovative in the slightest". Halo had innovative features; Seamless FPS Co-op play, shield regeneration, limited ability to carry weapons, no boss characters in an action FPS, effective melee hit, hot-keyed grenades. Some of the features may not be exclusive but their subtle implementation and effect when used together formed Halo's innovation.

Gamerankings; 93%, Metacritic; Halo 3 94 Critical Acclaim. Go look up the definition of average.

You may try to label me a fanboy but at least you're taking what I say seriously. In your reply you may choose to rely on the strength of what you say rather than falling back on pathetic stereotypes and insults to dismiss my argument. Although this is essentially pointless as neither one of us is going to agree with the other.

 

[_daxter_]

Yathzee definitely needs to play more multiplayer. This seems kind of unfair. If it starts to take up unreasonable amounts of time as I think it will as a multiplayer disinclined, just keep on doing the vlog. It's not worth it. ))

 

[JamBob]

LOL - I meant in the current climate, not in the history of games! Most of the ones you have mentioned would be barely mediocre by today's standards.

8 out of the 10 games I mentioned are 'current gen'. The other two are so exceptional that they are still remarkable to this day.

Half-life's pacing and story telling has very rarely been matched since and certainly not by Halo 3. Deus Ex's non-linearity might never be matched again - the developer has stated that the attention to detail needed to produce the game nearly drove him to a nervous breakdown.

You really should give TF2 another try. In a clan game situation, the depth of the tactics involved really elevates it above its peers. It's easily the best team-based deathmatch game around at the moment.

 

[Indrid Cold]

A note concerning the "multiplayer is the reason for Halo 3's existence and Yahtzee is stupid for not a) recognizing this and b) caring about multiplayer in the first place" argument. Halo 3's marketing campaign focused solely on its wrapping up the Halo "saga," such as it is. The posters, TV spots and Gamestop ads didn't say "Go online and capture the flag." They said "Finish the fight." That being, one assumes, the fight against the Covenant, not other players on Xbox Live. There was something else about Master Chief being remembered in generations to come for...something heroic, I don't recall. Regardless, nowhere in Microsoft's marketing campaign did I see Halo 3 sold on anything but its plot. The problem is...there isn't much of one, even taking the previous games into account. Marathon's storyline was much better, not to mention considerably more esoteric. I have to agree with Yahtzee on this one. Halo 3 is a competent shooter, nothing more or less. If you want a better FPS, play Bioshock. If you want a better story, play Mass Effect. If you want better multiplayer, play Call of Duty 4. Halo 3 has its merits, it deserves some praise, just...not as much as it's getting. It's unusual to me that the series has carved out such a niche for itself that any criticism of its flaws is automatically considered pretentious and confrontational.

 

[Vaupell]

halo 3 is crap face it,
just milking a llready dry cow.

fanboy only. im ashamed i got the game.

thank god i got pacman and minesweeper.

 

[sepchill]

as much as it was really funny and you did pick on a lot of true factors to halo 3, yes it should have had better lighting and maybe less bright colors but you really need back story on it to have fun i know way too many people who don't care for the game only cause they never played the first one or read the books. that always helps too the books are about more than the games they give you the backround story of the spartan programs and let you know that he's not the only one in mjolnir armor.

 

[sepchill]

and Vaupelle its not being milked you idiot its being finished if you didn't notice by the comercials or by the end of the game that is if you finished it.

 

[Kronopticon]

there's books :O

dear, god. alright, i admit the first one was good, but it just got stupidly more complicated and tedious from there. that was the only one where master chief didnt seem so arrogant, and maybe cos i didnt go on live at the time, i sortof avoided hating anyone who played as him, and they are kinda milking it, you'know, the same way nintendo does, with toys an stuff, CMON, ive seen action figures, plasma rifles(life size) and even a glowing saber... tragic... but its expected of a large company like microsoft; aside from nintendo, they are the masters of milk, milking it until every last fanboy is sick to death of it, and then bringing out something so ridiculously slowly that most fanboys will pre-order just under the weak promise of great improvements.

honestly, this video happened quite a while ago now, stop, and sepchill, learn how to edit posts, not double post.

 

[k_rafftry]

List ten of these quote "Great FPS games"!

Off the top of my head...

Deus Ex
Bioshock
Halflife
The Orange Box
Call of Duty 4
Metroid Prime 3
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Crysis
Battlefield 2
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

LOL - I meant in the current climate, not in the history of games! Most of the ones you have mentioned would be barely mediocre by today's standards.

Call of Duty 4 - Entertaining fps, great but difficult to compare; graphically weaker,

You have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! what age are you 4?? Call of duty 4's graphics are incredible, halo 3's are as yahtzee said just a spew of colour. In fact if you woke up timred one morning and turned on halo 3 you could be forgiven for opening your xbox/pc disk tray and maker sure someone hasn't swapped in halo 2

 

[Easykill]

...... Amazing. How many posts was that, anyways? Also, let dead flames die.

 

[beddo]

You have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! what age are you 4?? Call of duty 4's graphics are incredible, halo 3's are as yahtzee said just a spew of colour. In fact if you woke up timred one morning and turned on halo 3 you could be forgiven for opening your xbox/pc disk tray and maker sure someone hasn't swapped in halo 2

Call of Duty 4 does have good graphics. I said it was graphically weaker in comparison to Halo 3. I stand by that opinion.

While they haven't greatly updated the protagonist's character models they put a lot of work into the environments (The flood level notwithstanding), animation and brute character models.

 

[WillPG1212]

FERPECT REVIEW

thanks alot yahtzee, glad to see u dint join the millions of imbeciles who worship HALO 3

 

[Lord Doomhammer]

Yahtzee you charismatic stallion, you seem to have played the whole series of many other games you reviewed, why have you neglected to do so for Halo 3? I would advise you play through the first two games of the Halo series and then retry Halo 3, I think you would enjoy it a lot more if you at least knew the story.

 

[katsabas]

You know, for me, a game that is a sequel and does not care about newcomers is really stuck up its own ass. Halo 3 did not explain anything about the previews Halo storylines and that is one of the reasons I will not try this one. Why try it? To get a FPS experience but that will be completed only with the other two Halo? I think that Microsoft is rich enough without me. Also, having a game with a single player campaign that is only up to 12 hours max is not worth BUYING for the simple reason that not everybody can afford an Internet connection. Burnout 3 lasted about twice as long without multiplayer or online races and stuff. A perfect game should have no excuses and this one has very many things to be sorry about. Single player, story, a bit on graphics sbout the face textures, NPC that are not very smart, no backstory telling. Bioshock is definately better.