I have the game since yesterday and posted some impressions on the forum. I like it a lot, depending on the last bits of the story it very well may end up being my 2nd fave Halo close after Halo:CE... and I practically didn't touch firefight. Already had one of the best encounters of any game I've ever played.

Playing at daytime is a lot like the previous Halos, you just have to be more tactical, but it's the night time that really sets the mood. Brilliant music is a plus.

The only let down is the horrible German localisation. I mean the dubs were bad in Halo 3, but this is on a whole new level of crapieness, at least they could have included the original voices, now I'm not only missing out on the whole Firefly cast but I get this shit.

awesome...a really high quality title...good thing i preordered

I'm having a hard time understanding why this is getting such good reviews. It's only 7 hours of game if you really take your time. Even if it's stellar for that whole time it's still a very brief experience and the online only adds one more mode with "firefight".
What's the big deal?

About as long as COD4, which was easily worth buying for it's SP alone.

That said, I probably wont buy ODST, since the only part of the Halo games I care for is the single player (little kids tend to hurt the online experience.) I might rent it overnight to beat the campaign, but that's about it.

@Heydemon

Lets be honest we're not mad at the game or the review which i personally think is suspiciously high, we're mad that Bungie expect us to pay full price for a fucking expansion this should cost $30 max and no more i dont care how good it supposedly is the price i think could hold this game back ALOT an IMO its overrated it gets high scores just because its written Halo on the front case, and MS are bribing websites for a good review.

Why are you judging the game before playing it? It's quite telling when Halo gets flac for its length when 95% of the shooters, even the most popular, are around the same length or even shorter, not offering 4 player Coop (not even 2 player). And people finishing it in 4 hours? When you DON'T want to appreciate it, then you simply WON'T. End of story.

Firefight is the best horde mode I've played in any game, and that says something since GoW2s horde was awesome. Simply put it's the campaign action ten fold and non stop.

The price is the only point where I agree is not what you'd expect. Full price is just too much for a game that was basically done by a small team in a year. No matter how you put it, there is just less effort when the engine is up and running and assets ready to be used. 40 bucks would be the sweet spot, luckily here in the EU we have that price (for a change). For €40 it's awesome value.

firefight mode looks the most promising part of this EXPANSION.. but limiting me in that because theres no matchmaking for it.. meaning i cant simply play it whenever i choose to, seems silly to me... and is actually enough to put me off from buying it at its over priced rrp tag. Which at the end of the day is over double that that expansion packs with just as much contents have come in at - GTA4 dlc, HL2 episodes, Oblivion expansion packs ect regardless how long you personally take to complete the ODST campaign

The price really is my only problem as others have said. Regardless of what Bungie and the possibly payed off reviewers might have you believe this is still just an expansion, even if it is a very good one.
Still, I guess it does it's job which seems to be to take Halo in new directions.

Thank you beatbox for your insight. That's a real eye opener. The reviews fooled me to into believing the game is good, but it isn't now that I know the scores were rigged. The evil MS put these thoughts into my brain, time to put on the tin foil hat.

only a couple of days to go. then it's our time to drop...

really looking forward to this. should fill a gap till MW2 comes out :)

Surprise surprise... Same old trolls you find on every big 360 exclusive. If only MS would just offer bribes to you all, then the fans of the game can actually discuss it constuctively without having to scroll through countless embarrasing sdf posts.

Btw, the art style on this game is sublime as usual, really does look great. The reviews suggest that the new campaign is going to be an absolute blast, cant wait!!

Is the game region-locked or something, or can I play the English version of the game on my German machine?

P.S. its really is a shame that Halo3 and this dont give you the option to choose between the languages of voice acting... Gears 2 had at least 4 different languages on the DVD.

I think games like this bring into question just what an expansion game is anymore. Look how many games get sequels today and are listed as 3, then 4, but are very rarely more than just what most would consider an expansion (sports games are most guilty). Look at Left 4 Dead 2. That shit is an expansion and because they are titling it as a full sequel they are getting hell for it. I bet if they had titled this game Halo 4 and they didn't talk honestly about it just building off of 3, it would be the same situation. Unfortunately the matter of price still remains.
As the video game industry gets more popular and profitable we are going to be victim to a system that is hungry for money. This relates a lot to our situation here in America and around the world. We're going to get scammed more and more in the future and there's nothing that can really be done until something happens to the game industry (looks toward Nintendo).

In regards to this game, whether it's just an expansion is debatable. Clearly there are new guns, and dual wielding is gone. This requires a new level of mechanics and a slight downgrade in complexity which I welcome (I think Halo 3 is a bit too complicated sometimes). Player models are completely different for unique characters, although the enemies remain the same. All new stages with new ways of navigation have been created on a level that had yet to be reached in the previous Halo games it would seem. Immersion looks better and feels more alive this time. Also if anyone has watched production videos for Halo, we know Bungie uses a full orchestra to create music for its games in house. So the score is completely new for this as well.
So this game dances a line that is really thin. I think this could have been priced either way and there isn't a clear enough answer to create a high amount of outrage the way L4D2 does. You can credit that mostly to the honesty of Bungie though.

Nobody so far has actually said the game is bad, I for one like the Halo franchise but this should have been released as an expansion and priced as such. I have no allegiance to one particular company be it Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. All that matters to me is the quality of the games.

The game is region-free, like any other Halo besides Halo: CE.
:)

I'm not sure you can even judge whether it should be released as an expansion unless you've played through all facets of the game. Viginti has the game and hasn't even played all of it yet

Perhaps your right, but if it is only 7 hours on heroic then it's just not worth the money imo. I guess I'll wait until someone I know has played it.

For comparison's sake - COD4 took me just under 5 hours on Hard difficulty, on the first playthrough and I don't remember as much discussions about the game's value... Surely COD4's MP mode more than makes for its disastrous campaign mode, but some people don't touch competetive multiplayer.

Besides, the game is full priced only in the US, I payed 60% of a normal console game for ODST, so the value discussion is completely irrelevant for us Europeans IMO.

Yeah perhaps there is another reason why the price is full here in America since the EU version is at an expansion price

Could also have to do with the rise in piracy and modded 360's