Halo 20X6

warning: minor spoilers

Ok, so Halo 3 is now out, and I've actually finally had a chance to play it. The question is, though, does it live up to the hype? Was all the money Bungie and Microsoft spent on it well spent? Short and sweet: yes and maybe.

Does it live up to the hype? yes. The game, as far as I've played, is pretty rivetting. I've done a decent stint on the online multiplayer, where I played about 4-6 different types of games on some beautiful maps. The multiplayer rules actually bypass several problems in the old system, such as when in capture the flag unorganized teams fail because the organization of offense vs defense is not balanced. In this case, they make you take turns. In one half of the round your entire team is defending, in the other half its attacking. The concept was so good they applied it to several other multiplayer game types. The single player, though I am only partially through it, is very well done. So far I have simply been doing coop with my roommate, but the graphics are definitely better than in the old halo games, the AI seems better, the voice overs are hilarious (the little covenant shouting "you shot my friend!" or "Oh no! our leader's been killed" in their little voices, or the lone soldier crying in a corner, sobbing about how the flood infected his whole platoon, and even though they died they got right back up and started talking to him, and he had to kill all of them...) Cinematically they overlay some great footage of Cortana over the play screen for some key moment that really help add to the drama, as they are very offsetting and out of character for her, and you/I have yet to find the source of these visions, and I call them that because Cortana is not actually with you, so she can't be giving them to you directly.

Is all the money well spent? maybe. I was reading Wired while on a mind numbing 7 hour plane ride, and I came across an article about the halo play-testing facility. IT IS ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS. They monitor key strokes, 5 minute location time stamps, lifespan, heart-rate, location of deaths, what you kill most, what kills you most, and lots lots more. The amount of data they collect is astonishing. Is some of it useful, of course, and they back that up in the article. Is all of it? no. True, some of metrics collection is simply collecting all the data you can and finding what information you can extrapolate from it, but I think they took it to a whole new level, and an almost disturbing one. You have to wonder how much money they put
into that facility, and whether it was justified by the returns. As for the rest of development... I can't say I know the exact man power/money that was put into it, so I can't comment as much on that, but maybe some reader will know something to that respect. If you know something about the subject, by all means post it as a comment.

All in all its a pretty amazing game, definitely worth the money. They only issue I'm finding is that when I tried to set up 2 player co-op on the same machine, and then partway through the 2nd mission we lost our internet connection, and it booted us from the game. A completely LOCAL game. The internet accessability should have had no effect on that what-so-ever. A minor bug in an otherwise fairly spectacular game. I'm sure I'll have more to say about it when I finish the missions.

(Hope someone gets the reference in the title...)