To the contrary, his method is quite accurate (and simple). He isn't taking a picture of the game--he is counting the alias stepping. Since aliasing is a well understood and observed phenomina it works out quite nicely.

It is 640p. I don't understand the big whoopdeedoo. Personally, I would have been estatic if they dropped it lower to toss in some AA, and more importantly, MUCH higher levels of AF.

Resolution does you no good if you textures look like crap. Playing Forza Motorsport 2 today and it just rears all the bad memories: 720p with crap filtering is worthless. It is a muddy mess and looks significantly worse than 480p with 8xAF.

To bad everyone bought into the HD bulletpoints.

@ Lebato and mt_sabao

Regardless of why Mcenrono was banned originally is for himself and Deft to sort out via PM.

If you open a new account to argue your cause is just not on. I will max out any new account I see from banned useres and orignall accounts.

On topic:

I love Halo 3....but, I do get the feeling MS and Bungie have milked the cash cow.
Not played any MP yet but may venture on to night whilst drunk :)

Can't say I agree it achieves all those goals at all. Action and music for sure, though. Huge beautiful worlds, scale, immersion? An illusion disrupted by the level design (invisi walls, narrow passages that lead from one loading zone to another, etc).. not to mention it's terribly linear. For me it was a pretty standard FPS campaign with a somewhat better story. And honestly, it pretty much followed Halo 2's formula, only it had an actual ending.

I didn't think it was emotional at all. Unless you cared much about Keyes and Johnson, but it's hard to considering there's next to no character development in the franchise for those characters. The only character that really has any depth is Cortana and I felt they dropped the ball with her, by failing to do anything interesting with her. They toyed and teased with the concept of rampancy and then by the time you get her back -- it's just business as usually -- let's go blow up another ring. The game does have some dramatic moments. The best ones being the intro and outro, imo.

It was good though. I actually think that Marathon has a comparable, if not in some ways better story. The thing is, Marathon has no narrative so it's nice to see Bungie's FPS's grow up in that sense.. but they still have a ways to go before they approach videogame storytelling on the level of a developer like Bioware, for example. Now granted, it's an FPS, so they're at the top of that game in this genre.. although Valve honestly keeps things in perspective for me, because Half Life's story is just as good, and just as well told.

I respect the fact that you think it's the best campaign ever though.. that's cool. I just think there are other FPS that come close, and other games in other genres that surpass it easily.

Regardless, creating another account to carry on with the argument that got him banned is just asking for a permaban (I'm sure he got like, a couple days previously). So just keep that in mind. There's no good reason for someone to take that course of action even if they disagree with the moderation.

Plus, there are much better reasons to state that Halo is overrated, than the graphics (which are perty).That was downloaded off of the bungie's favorites list. There's some good stuff on there. And to think, Phaethon doubted Forge's value AFTER we played Rocket Races!

If I had a 360 I would make some of my Forge modes for you guys to try. Oh well, Grift can steal the ideas!

Just popping in to throw my two cents. Won't read a lot in here, fearing spoilerish stuff for the ending which I'm not quite up to yet. I've played through 80ish percent I would say and I could really have run in here sooner to say;

It's fairly easily the best Halo yet.

Although now I can actually add a bit more to support that, and elaborate further.

Halo 1 is fantastic, it's classic, it's so solid and awesome and great and chocolatey and fresh and surprising and all of the above baked into a marvellous cake, eaten with a gold plated spoon of "being the first of three"-ness. Therefore, no other Halo can quite measure up to that ooh-factor, least of all Halo 2.

Halo 2, seemingly sidestepping being a repetition of the highlights in the first game ended up being incredibly uneventful, unless the game forced you into a stupidly linear situation built to have "enormous cinematic impact!". Here, take this tank.. no I insist.. Man, you don't wanna go there without a tank. COME BACK HERE AND HOP IN THE FUCKING TANK!

No?

*walk on a bridge for a mile with what's essentially shooting gallery cardboard cutout banshees flying around*

In short, Halo 2 didn't just fail to live up to the epic moments of 1, it created situations of sheer annoyance to replace them.

Halo 3 recognizes what was brilliant in Halo 1. Open battles, a bizillion ways to flank and engage enemies. Smart AI that you can *fool* on the fly, creating insanely immersive and frantic firefights that most of all are FUN - FUN FUN FUN.

(I'll be passing out buckets with the word Fun later so you can apply them wherever you feel is necessary.)

It also does away with all the shoehorning of 2, and even when you're tasked with.. let's say TACKLING A GRAND SITUATION, there's a sense of openness to it that is possibly brought on by the extra power used here. So thanks for that I suppose. Halo 3 adds a few new things to gameplay in the way of shields and stuff like that, but the most admirable thing it does is highlight just how fantastic the very first Halo already was. This is that goodness, encapsuled anew, presented in a way that allows it to shine again, not succumb to the stupid design decisions in Halo 2. Halo was never NOT the best FPS, it just had an elephant sitting on its head in 2.

Halo 3 is a fantastic return to form as far as gameplay is concerned, and really that is where my WHOLE concern ends. There are some issues I have that are directly attributed to it being a sequel. It feels like it's going through the motions in terms of its settings a bit. When an enemy is presented.. you.. kinda.. pretty much know what that enemy is already. Some story elements you sort of expect from it, and it's inevitably going to shrink your endless speculation of WHAT IT ALL MEANS to one, rather definitive and restrictive truth. But that's really not important.

What's important is that while not being the least bit hyped for this (WHAT? THERE WERE LIKE CHIEFS ON MOUNTAIN DEW CANS!?) I still almost cried within like.. 30 seconds watching the intro. It has a definite sense of drumming up towards the end of a series that despite my harsh words about its second entry - I and many others have loved to be absorbed by. So many things in this game give hint to so many subtleties that you've collected as a fan through the years that I really can't imagine half of the people playing it will truly pick up on and cherish.

But they're there, and this is it. This is the end of the trilogy, and despite my scepticism and downright lack of enthusiasm going to pick the game up this morning, I can safely say I think it's the best of all three.

And effectively; arguably the finest first person shooter you can put your grubby mits on.

What happened to the custom games browser, anyway? Has it simply gone missing? At that to my list of disappointments in what is otherwise a fine, fine game.

Edit: I guess so.. they make it sound like it was never even discussed, but I distinctly remember news concerning this new feature pre-release:

A little more on this issue.Now, on the other hand.. from 1up's the "The five best things about Halo 3"Make that, "four best things," I guess. It even had a name and everything.

http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=132...

I guess it just boils down to this: what's good about Halo 3 outweighs what's bad and what's missing.. but here's one more example of why this game could be better. I think the focus on MP was lost, trying to satisfy everyone with the campaign -- making sure online co-op was available for launch, etc. That's a shame, since MP is the best, most well rounded component of the game.. and it's the part that will keep people playing for years into the future.

Bummer.Double negatives suck. But hey, if you removed the word NOT that statement would be true!

Vehicle and weapon placement. We get all these new vehicles, and we barely get to use them. No hornets, hell.. no scorpions in BTB. No fire 'nades either. I like Isolation a lot personally, but yes.. Shotty-Snipers comes up way too much. The only map I don't care for is Construct. And I wish Epitaph was in the Team Slayer playlist.. if it's there, I've yet to see it. Guardian should come up more frequently too -- seems like I never get to play my favorite maps.

I do think it (XBL Public) detracts from the game. XBL Public would have elevated the community use of Forge to a whole new level. And it's a fun game but there are plenty of issues across the board.. if we follow the standards that make Halo 3 deserve a perfect review, with little criticism of what is actually wrong or missing from that package, than Edge should be handing out a lot more 10/10's.

XBL Public going AWOL hardly is a deal breaker, but it's still worth discussing. It upsets me that Bungie pretends like the whole concept never existed in regards to Halo 3 -- that this was a decision that was made over four years ago, and not within the last six months of development of this game.

I still think MP is the best part of the game personally (including Forge, and saved films into that package), I just wish it were a little more refined. If you read my other posts in this thread, you'll see that my biggest criticisms have to do with the campaign.. which I do enjoy.. I just think its value or greatness is being a little overstated personally.

It's just an opinion though, I respect the idea that this is the best game ever for some people. My point in the post you're quoting still stands. There's room for improvement and that's not hard to see, but overall the goodness outweighs the badness, and I do think it's easily one of the best games on the platform. I just don't think it's a 10, partially because the campaign misses the mark on some issues important to me, and the MP while great.. could be improved.

As great as Forge is -- XBL Public would have made it that much better. At least there's still hope in the future for a "Crazy Shit" playlist.