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Halo 3 (Xbox 360) | 
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| From: Microsoft
Category: Video Games
List Price: £49.99
Buy Used: £10.99
You Save: £39.00 (78%)
New (12) Used (25) from £10.99
Rating:  284 reviews
Sales Rank: 48
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: sci-fi-action-games
Media: Video Game
Age: 11 - 18 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: HALO3XBOX3
UPC: 882224482424
EAN: 0882224482424
ASIN: B000E87WFO
Release Date: September 25, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Very rarely played, left in storage. Non-smoking and clean product.
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Product Description
The epic saga continues with Halo 3, the hugely anticipated sequel to the highly successful and critically acclaimed Halo franchise. In this third chapter of the Halo trilogy, Master Chief returns to finish the fight, bringing the epic conflict between the Covenant, the Flood, and the entire human race to a dramatic, pulse-pounding climax. Halo 3 represents the third chapter in the Halo trilogyan international award-winning action series that grew into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 14.5 million units worldwide, logging more than 650 million hours of multiplayer action on Xbox Live, and spawning action figures, books, a graphic novel, apparel, an upcoming film adaptation, and more
Amazon.co.uk Preview
The Halo games were always the best reason to by an Xbox and now the final part in the initial trilogy of ground breaking first person shooters is set to raise the bar for all Xbox 360 games. Well known for their secrecy, Bungie have officially revealed little about Halo 3, but what is known is that the new game features an Earth completely overtaken and controlled by the Covenant, as they seek a secret hidden Forerunner weapon. Although little is known about the single player mode, more has been seen of the multiplayer, with various beta testing schemes going on in both secret and in public. A number of new weapons and vehicles have already been revealed including a new assault rifle, the new Spartan laser anti-vehicle weapon and a new hand held shield device for Master Chief that can create a far more effective protective shield around you. New vehicles include the ATV-like Mongoose, a new variant of the Warthog and the new, more powerful, Brute Ghost. Of course the most important new feature that every new fan is interested in is the graphics, and they are looking predictably fantastic. With lots of technobabble, new features like high dynamic range lightning and pre-computed radiance transfer means the game will not only play great but looks amazing too.
HARRISON DENT
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| Customer Reviews: Read 279 more reviews...
 Disappointing September 1, 2008
Kp Campkin
I'm going to make this brief, because I have a feeling I will be re-treading the same ground and bringing up the same issues that many reviewers before me have already highlighted.
The original Halo was 'Combat Evolved' but this feels more like an inbred throwback. As far as I am concerned, Halo 3 isn't just a bad Halo game, it is a bad game full stop.
Where do we start? It's too short. Much too short. The plot really suffers for this as well; in fact the plot has been steadily unravelling since the original Halo. The ending is marginally better than Halo 2, but that isn't exactly high praise. The levels are far too linear, with none of the wide expanses of the first Halo, or the urban environments of Halo 2. And for a lot of the game, the Arbiter tags along. No real reason is given as to why he accompanies you; perhaps he is bored. This is a shame, as the switch from the Master Chief to the Arbiter was one of the highlights of Halo 2.
There's too much reliance on vehicles; you spend a good quarter of the game driving about with infinite ammo. The set pieces are contrived once you know they are coming. The audio on the voices, particularly the Elites, is dreadful - you can barely hear what is being said and as a result, you are missing out on huge chunks of the flimsy plot. The weapons sound like pea-shooters.
The enemy A.I has been dumbed down since the first game, and the ally A.I is unacceptable. Really unacceptable. I used to just wait until they had massacred themselves through blind stupidity and take their guns to replenish my ammo. That was their sole use to me. Enemies no longer react to being shot; they no longer grab body parts that have been hit and stumble back. They just charge at you as if the bullets are made of paper mache.
I'm not being brief at all, am I..?
The flashback sequences are deeply irritating. There is a ridiculous boss battle towards the end that has clearly been crowbarred in. It is as if Bungie were going down a checklist of character loose ends and suddenly thought "Damn! We forgot about him!" So you have a boss battle, in which you are tossed the most powerful weapon in the game and it is over in seconds.
And then there is the infamous level called 'Cortana'. Now, I like a challenge as much as the next gamer. I used to love being flanked by hordes of intelligent Elites in the first game. I accepted death with a wry smile knowing that occasionally I had been overpowered or outwitted by a computer game engine. The level where you have to rescue Cortana was not fun. It was deeply frustrating, to the point where I almost didn't bother completing it. I almost got rid of it before I had finished it. That bad.
To be honest, the only thing that got me through the game was a desire to see the trilogy out until the end. I mean, Halo 3 is very pretty. The music is stirring and perfectly matched to the settings. And, despite Bungie's best attempts, there are still moments where the Halo magic peeps through, like sunlight viewed through a dirty window pane.
It just feels rushed. Bungie had all the time and money in the world, but on the evidence of the end product, it feels as though they made it in a fortnight for shillings and sixpence. It almost seems like a game that Bungie didn't want to make. Perhaps, under pressure from Microsoft, they were frogmarched into the office and forced at gunpoint to produce it. It is the only explanation for such a nosedive in form.
So, to sum up, Halo 3 is bad. It isn't so bad as to be unplayable. It just doesn't hold up against its' previous installmments. I've bought it, completed it, and now I'm going to sell it. And I'm going to carry on playing the first Halo, and remember when the series was the definitive FPS.
You need Xbox Live to really get your money's worth. August 26, 2008
S. Harding (England)
When you buy Halo 3 I seriously recommend having a subscription to Xbox Live set up or in the process of being set up. I promise you that you will become bored of story mode very quickly after fanatically completing it on Normal, Heroic, Legendary and Metagame for the gamerscore (if you are a gamerscore whore such as myself). Halo 3 story mode is no different from any other Halo. It is just as mediocre as Halo 2's campaign in my opinion.
The addition of cool new features like Forge and Theatre mode offer players huge oppertunities to play the game they want and that's no just me kissing up to Bungie. You could spend hours altering maps, adding your own touch to the pre-programmed maps as well as the downloadable content or taking cool screenshots and video clips from both story and online gameplay, allowing you to look back at past games and (if you are very enthusiastic about your style) analyse your games and where you keep making mistakes. Halo 3 is also provided with excellent online backup from Bungie.net allowing players to view their character on the site as well as their online stats such as percentages of weapon usage, medal chests displaying the number of medals earned online and Heatmaps showing players where their kills are made and where they die the most in games online.
Online gaming is what really makes Halo 3 one of the best games ever though. Although there are plenty of other games with online capablities Halo has a certain feel about it that just sets it apart from other games in the genre. Maybe it is the huge variety of playlists (new ones added for weekend events), the chance to play Social matches in which players are allowed to have upto 3 guests all playing through one Xbox online or the huge appeal to many to earn the rank of General in Ranked playlists I do not know but one thing I do know is that without Xbox Live I would have gotten rid of Halo 3 months ago.
 failo 3! August 14, 2008
Tom 360 (England)
in my opinion this game is missing something and i just cant get engrossed. although i havent played halo 2 and halo 1 i imagined i would be writing a 5 star review right now.before i got an xbox 360 my mates were creating so much hype around this game and i personaly just cant see why. i have completed 6 levels but since i have purchased some other games halo has taken a back seat. but dont get me wrong this game is definatly worth purchasing and still has some major appeal and, after all it is the game you associate with the mighty xbox 360... Tom
 Halo 2.5 August 8, 2008
Mr. J. Taylor (Bath UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When I first got my Xbox back in 2002 it came with a game called Halo. To this day Halo: Combat Evolved is one of the best FPS games I have ever played and comes in my top ten of best games ever. Halo had it all! Great story, amazing graphics, hard core AI, fantastic level design etc etc you get the idea of where I am going with this.
Then Halo 2 came along in 2004 and to say I was hyped for this game would be a gross understatement but unfortunately when I got my hands on the game it turned out to be utter crap! Maybe utter crap is a little harsh because it did have it's moments but it just seemed like a huge step down. The level design was poor, the AI seemed basic, the story was a mess and overall it just felt like I was playing any run-of-the-mill FPS game.
Now we get onto Halo 3 and where do I start? First I would like to say I can not believe how many people are giving this game glowing reviews! When I picked up my copy I had doubts that it would be any good after the mess that was Halo 2 but I thought Bungie may have learned from past mistakes and maybe this would even surpass Halo 1. I thought wrong! The game has the same flaws as Halo 2 but this time with better graphics. The story is laughable with plot holes my 5 month old son can see through, The AI is basic, The level design is so bland and boring it makes me feel sick, the graphics are very very poor and really in a nut shell this game just sucks. IT has the same faults as Halo 2 so really the Halo 3 is just Halo 2 with a lick of HD paint. Halo 3 also has a online multiplayer mode but the less said about this the better as every match is full of young cocky kids shouting there mouths off and letting you know how much you suck. Buy Halo 3 at your own risk
More of the same, but still lacking something August 3, 2008
Happy_Shopper (UK)
Okay, so I've played Halo:CE and Halo 2 to death since launch, and waited in anticipation for Halo 3 after the disappointing cliffhanger at the end of Halo 2. Unfortunately, the game doesn't feel like it was worth the wait.
The graphics in Halo 3 are actually very good, they still look great next to graphical powerhouses such as Gears of War but it's important to remember that fancy graphics can only take you so far. Halo 3 really doesn't feel like anything massively new; sure, there's nice new pieces of kit such as the Bubble Shield and Power Drainer, but these just feel pointless and irrelevant when you view the rest of the game in context. It's like Bungie just slapped more icing on top of the same, bland cake with the dull recipe that you've eaten thousands of times before. The single player campaign is good (albeit linear and, as some have argued, a tad too short although I didn't find it so) but be warned; without giving any spoilers away you'll have a nasty feeling of deja-vu when you reach the final mission and play through that and you may end up joining me in gaining the impression that Bungie have got lazy.
However, Halo 2's excellent little addition, the online multiplayer... well, that's still there in Halo 3 but I can't say it's really improved. Granted there are less people modding, cheating and hacking as well as using glitches, but the whole experience just feels stale, dated and the default maps are just plain awful. It's no wonder that, out of the seven brand new downloadable maps that are now available, about five or six of them are remakes from the older Halo games because those maps were just plain better. Another glaring problem is that there were balance issues from Halo 2... well, Bungie have listened; the weapons are now so balanced that it's nearly impossible to kill anyone with anything at all, no joke. The whole game revolves around fire assault rifle, run in, beat down, rinse and repeat, the fast paced, frantic action from Halo 2 has been replaced with a simple matter of running around until you see an enemy and then cross your fingers. Bungie even released a patch for the melee system so that there is now no way of predicting whatsoever who will actually die first (if at all) and what will happen afterwards, it's a complete cop-out and ruins everything. The overbalanced weapons are mitigated by the ludicrously overpowered UNSC rocket launcher which will kill anything in a ten-billion mile radius in one indirect hit, or the just-plain-annoying Energy Sword - as the other weapons aren't powerful enough, it's near impossible to kill anyone who's carrying said sword because the sword attack allows for an epic, unavoidable lunge forward; the sword kills in one hit, so I think you can see where this is leading. This was a problem in Halo 2 as well but at least the exciting variety in weapons and maps somehow made it less irritating.
Also, the matchmaking and ranking system isn't as solid as Halo 2. Halo 3 will happily churn out the same gametypes over and over and over again, people will use the newly added veto option and the game and map combination will be rejected. However, it'll immediately be replaced with something ten times worse; it would be nice to be given both options at the same time and pick one of them, the option with most votes wins. Failing this, at least a simple preview of what the next selection post-veto will be would be nice. The gametypes on Halo 3 are none too impressive either seeing as half of them involve sniper rifles, it gets very boring and very old very quickly indeed, added to this the Lone Wolves ranked free-for-all playlist is the worst FFA playlist I have ever seen in all my long years of gaming. The ranking system is also not as solid, it is easier to level up but at the same time the new skill system is brutal; it takes you about six or seven won matches in a row to level up, but it can take you back down the same level after losing just one. It's horrible, unfair and uncompetitive and I don't quite know what Bungie were trying to do here besides creating an n-tier system.
In conclusion, this game is a step forward in single player, but the multiplayer may leave you a good bit disappointed, I'm afraid to say.
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