Halo 3 | 
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| From: Microsoft
Category: Video Games
List Price: $59.99
Buy New: $49.00
You Save: $10.99 (18%)
New (28) Used (16) from $35.99
Rating:  430 reviews
Sales Rank: 50
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: adventure_games
ESRB: Mature
Media: Video Game
Edition: Standard
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 5.3 x 7.5 x 1
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: 9UE-00001
Model: 9UE-00001
UPC: 882224444477
EAN: 0882224444477
ASIN: B000FRU0NU
Release Date: September 25, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Expands on the franchise and adds a wealth of technical and gameplay advancements | | • | Unparalleled first-person shooter experience and the most compelling story of the trilogy | | • | Builds upon the social multiplayer experience and innovative, evolving, online gameplay of Halo 2 | | • | Loaded with high-definition visuals, enhanced AI, an advanced lighting engine, new weapons, characters, and challenges |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Halo 3 is the third game in the Halo Trilogy and the thrilling conclusion to the events begun in Halo: Combat Evolved. 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. The Covenant occupation of Earth has uncovered a massive and ancient object beneath the African sands - an object whose secrets have yet to be revealed. Earth's forces are battered and beaten. The Master Chief's AI companion Cortana is still trapped in the clutches of the Gravemind - a horrifying Flood intelligence, and a civil war is raging in the heart of the Covenant. It's all been building to this -- a desperate, final war that leads to a soul-shattering climax of epic proportions. Take control of Master Chief to defeat the Covenant and destroy the Flood to prevent the annihilation of the human race.
Amazon.com Product Description
Adding to Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, the epic saga continues with Halo 3, the amazingly 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. 
Get ready. The Chief is back. | 
HDR lighting, self-shadowing, and more make Halo 3 look and feel realistic. View larger. | 
Mystery abounds with the return of Cortana. View larger. | 
Earth is conquered. The Covenant is everywhere. Halo 3 promises to be an epic journey. View larger. | Game developer Bungie announced that Halo 3 will be released for Microsoft's Xbox 360 sometime in 2007. The game was revealed to the world at the Microsoft press conference held at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, CA in May 2006. To gamer's delight, the announcement was a complete surprise. The rumors have been abound for the past year, as everyone wondered when the next installment would be ready. Bungie and Microsoft did a stellar job keeping their lips sealed, and fans benefited from their first glimpse of the hallowed third and final installment. The short presentation was delivered in real-time on the Xbox 360 using the current version of the Halo 3 game engine. That's right, no studio production video, Bungie and Microsoft delivered the real deal: what they showed at the announcement is what gamers will see when they play Halo 3 in 2007. The HDR lighting, self-shadowing, GPU-run particle system and many other effects are rumored to show up in full effect in the final game. Needless to say, the gaming community is salivating. CJ Cowan, Bungie's director of cinematics discussed one of the most startling moments of the presentation: the return of Cortana. "Given the variety of character and story arcs at the end of Halo 2, we wanted to boil down our announcement to a few key threads. Cortana and the Chief being a galaxy apart is a situation we haven't seen before, and is something that is a powerful component to Halo 3. We are using her transmissions in the demo to give the viewer a few subtle clues to her situation and state of mind, without revealing any specifics we want to save for the game itself." Graphically, the game closely follows in the tradition of Halo 2, although it has been upgraded to take advantage of the Xbox 360's more prodigious visual abilities. As art direct Marcus Lehto explained, "[The presentation] was intended to be an understated announcement of Halo 3 -- the tone is that of mystery and suspense -- the calm before the storm. I wanted to make sure that we reintroduced the Chief, showed that Earth was thoroughly conquered, with Covenant everywhere, and that there is a glorious, ancient artifact buried under the Earth's crust which will provide Halo 3 with the epic journey which we all want." Taking full advantage of the power of Xbox 360, Halo 3 expands on everything that has made the franchise great, adding a wealth of technical and gameplay advancements. The game design has evolved with next-generation, high-definition visuals, enhanced A.I., an advanced real-time lighting engine, and, of course, new weapons, characters, and challenges. Halo 3 promises an unparalleled first-person shooter experience and, in the end, the most compelling and engrossing story in the franchise's history. Last, but certainly not least, Halo 3 builds upon the unique social multiplayer experience and innovative, evolving online gameplay of Halo 2. Rest assured, you'll still be able to run with your clan and battle with (or against) your buddies from coast to coast.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 A Must-Own - But Not Perfection September 30, 2007
Lisa Shea
61 out of 76 found this review helpful
Halo 3 was, in a way, doomed before it was released. No matter how well it did, people are going to judge its "wow factor" against how amazing the original Halo felt to play back when it first came out. Now that we are used to the weapons, races, environments and plotline, nothing is as cool as it was that first time. It's the same issue that plagues any series, be it Dune, the Matrix, Star Wars, etc.
Halo 3 does get a boost in that it is released for the 360, so you get an automatic upgrade in abilities there. We're playing on a high end HD TV, and yes, it looks really nice. The backgrounds look like a painting in motion, with swirling clouds and dancing dust storms. From the light glinting off the metal surfaces to the detailed shadows in the rocks, it can be really gorgeous. Is every detail as beautiful as every detail in, say Gears of War? Maybe not. Different developers focus on different items. There are always trade-offs for speed and visual appeal reasons. For a Halo world, I think they did a good job.
The sound and dialogue are really great. I like the background music, and I find much of the dialogue hilarious. There are some conversations that have me laughing out loud. This is a good game to play with your surround sound stereo system hooked up, and of course the subwoofers.
I hated the ending of Halo 2. I dislike it when a story finishes with a "and now wait a few years to find out what happened." They can at least have you feel like you achieved something, and ended a chapter. For that reason alone it's good to have Halo 3 here to wrap everything up.
Unfortunately, with all the time they spent in development, this third outing is a bit predictable. I really enjoyed the multi character play in Halo 2. I thought that was a great touch. They completely removed it for Halo 3, setting you back into a Master Chief only mode. To be honest, I really thought we'd get THREE races this time around, and get to play as the Flood too. Why reduce ourselves to just one?
Also, while there are a lot of "missions", some of them are maybe 5 minutes long. That's a bit on the short side. I realize you can go back and replay on harder and harder levels to challenge yourself - but they could have put more depth into the basic story line.
Now, all of those things being said, the key to any game in modern times is its multiplayer ability. No matter what single player game you play, it's pretty much a limited time game. Multiplayer is completely unlimited - and you're not stuck with the formulas built into the AI brains. Halo 3 is definitely the best multiplayer experience of the three games - the most balanced, the most fun, the best graphics. You could literally play this for years and not get bored of it.
So to summarize - if you don't have XBox Live, you could rent this game for a week, get through it and have a lot of fun. You'll be able to see how the story ends, get your Halo fix in and be happy. But if you do have XBox Live, you'll want to own this. Between replaying the base game on harder levels to improve your skills, and playing multi-player in a variety of maps and set-ups, you'll be happy for a long, long while.
There are many games we write a walkthrough for that we have to push ourselves to get through, but when we did our walkthrough for Halo 3, we really did have fun :) So that's always a good sign!
Review for Non-Gamers September 27, 2007
Greeper (Washington DC)
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
I'm not a gamer, just a regular 30something who wants an easy way to take out my frustrations. This review is probably most helpful to middle aged men like me, not hardcore gamers.
I have tried many other games but Halo is the only one that doesn't tax me too much with choices and complicated controller requirements. I give the Halo franchise 5 stars because it is so simple, one mission, kill everything in sight. You don't need to investigate, open your pouch, choose between a million weapons, read maps, or think for even a second. It's the only game I've found which I can stand for more than 5 minutes and which is completely uncomplicated. And you can skip the story and all that nonsense by just hitting the main button.
As compared to other Halos: I'm not crazy about the weaponry. The needlers run out of ammo and the other guns don't do much. You also need to press a button to reload some weapons, it seems, whereas before they would reload if you walked over the same kind of weapon. THere are 3 kinds of grenades, which is unnecessary and just harder to switch between. You can also only carry 2 of each instead of 4. Since the new grenades stick like the plasmas, they don't add much and just add another layer of choice and button-pushing. Too complicated. Also, the little bonus things like flares and landmines are gimmicky and add too much comlpication. Again, advanced gamers probably love it, but I'm too old to learn all this new stuff. Just give me a gun and some grenades.
In previous games you'd come across more types of things to do, like a lot of sniper rifles so you could sit on a hilltop picking off aliens or use other strategy. In this game you don't find a lot of useful weapons, so there's a lot more direct hand to hand, on the ground type combat. I've also found that it's easier to kill things and easier in general to solve the levels. Also, it uses the "follow me" arrow and the voice gives you suggestions if you seem to be missing the point, which I like, since in previous Halos I've spent hours wandering around wondering what I'm supposed to be doing. No such problems here. They've sufficiently dumbed it down.
I've had a few graphic glitches in this one, which has never happened before. I've also gotten stuck and unable to get out of things twice. THe sound and graphics are great, of course. I've never paid any attention to the story, unless it required me to, so I can't comment on that. Kusdos to Bungie for making it easy to skip over.
Overall, this is the same experience as the others, though it seems easier than Halo2. As little thought as that required, this one requires less. I've not had to think at all about weapon choice, strategy, or anything, Just pull the trigger and kill! I wish there were more FPS games like this -- fast-paced, completely intuitive hand controls, easy storyline, simple mission, and FUN.
Fun September 26, 2007
L. Oliver (United States)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I am sad to see so much useless halo bashing on this page. A lot of these reviews do not specifically target anything and seem to only bring the rating down. My review however will be short and sweet as well and will cover only one thing. And that is how much fun I had playing the game. It was a blast, Bungie gave me the ability to finish the story of halo with three other friends, as well as switch over to multiplayer for an almost neverending online experience. The main thing was that I had fun and am glad I purchased a 360. So five stars it gets. I also recommend Bioshock for people who enjoy FPS as I recently got it and was shocked by its quality of gameplay. If you like Halo get this game, if you did not then dont worry about it.
P.S. Will someone please silence the PC fans who bash every console and console game, it is very annoying.
Return of the King September 25, 2007
Michael Corona (New York City)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Halo 3 - Circa 2007
GOOD:
- Four-player online (or offline) co-op Gameplay allows two; three, or four players play through the game from start to end. A co-op player can come into the game at any time and leave at any time (note only one of you will play as the Master Chief, while another will play as the Arbiter, and the other two players will be Elites that work with humans)
- Great looking graphics and animation, that look even better then Halo 2, F.E.A.R. and just as good as Bioshock, while these graphics might not look as good as Gears of War do to some people these graphics still are some of the best seen to date.
- Intense multiplayer action online through Xbox Live with matches as small as one on one and as big as 16 players (and offline with out using Xbox Live using either spilt screen, or system link). Halo 3 is set up similar to Halo 2 in the sense that you're given a rank when you play multiplayer (this rank can go up or down at any time) this rank is representative of your skill and your matched with others of your skill type, that way new unskilled players and hardcore veterans will not often play against one another, unless they make a special match themselves that ignores rank.
BAD:
- Confusing plot to new players of this franchise - Playing Pervious games and read the Halo Novels will fill you in on the details, if you are incline to learn them.
- No Clan Support (like in Halo 2) - This might get fixed in a future patch
- Game is considered short to some (Campaign Story Mode).
IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- A Sci-Fi First Person Shooter with quick pacing and vehicle combat.
- Co-op and online versus/team games is the big draw here.
- NEW MODE: Forge is a mode that lets you edit all the maps in Halo 3, while you cannot rebuild the maps themselves you can in this mode, add and take away any and all of the objects from vehicles and guns to spawning points and flag zones. This is all done in real time and you can invite friends to this mode while your customizing the map(s), they can play a multiplayer game while your doing this (instead of just waiting for you) and if you want you can forgo editing the map and join the game at hand as either a player or the map editor (who looks like 343 Guilty Spark), while playing as the map editor you can still add and take away any and all objects from vehicles and guns to spawning points and flag zones any time you want.
- NEW MODE: Theater Mode is a video editor that lets you record and play back any and all matches from Campaign, Multiplayer, and Forge modes from the point of view of any player either in first person or third person (even in a orbit-cam where the camera circles around the player) all in real time (you can also pause this at any time as well as fast forward and rewind), even use your camera to fly around the match and see the match from any angle you want, Don't forget you must save your videos before you turn off the game or you will lose said videos. Also you can take a picture at any time and save it to your Xbox 360 then download your picture at Bungie.com.
GAME ITS MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- Halo 2 (Xbox)
- Halo (Xbox)
- Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
- Bioshock (360)
- Gears of War (360)
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- There are bonus items scattered through the Campaign Story Mode called Skulls getting these "Skulls" will make the game harder (by doing things like turning off radar for the rest of the Campaign Mode your playing it) but will also greatly increase your meta game score for the Campaign Mode.
- There are two different limited collectors editions of this game. One is called the limited edition, which comes in a metal tin and has a bonus disc (with behind the scene videos and such) and also comes with an art book. While the other limited edition (called Legendary edition) you will find an art book a mini poster two bonus DVDs (with behind the scene videos and such as well as a collection of all the cut scenes form Halo and Halo 2 and themes you can download to your 360) And the it comes with a plastic Master Chief Helmet to keep your DVDs in (Helmet as big a volley ball).
- At Bungie.com you can sign up and pay a small fee to upgrade your Halo 3 account (default is free) to hold more space on their serves for your videos/pictures/clips that you made.
All around greatness September 26, 2007
M. Allen (Seattle, Wa United States)
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
The original HALO is what caused me to trade in my Sony for an XBOX, HALO was that good. HALO 2 on the other hand was traded in on the same day it was released, the graphics were simply old and no good. However, I played HALO 3 yesterday for 3 hours on co-op, and the game is truly great. Are there better graphics in other games, yes, but overall they improved the graphics on this game to keep me happy. The action as always is intense and so far the game has not let me down. I'll be finished with the story by this evening, but this game is a keeper.
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