Bungie must have been listening to the complaints of their players because they have released an update only 3 weeks after the game came out. Pretty good turnaround. Here is a summary of what they did and a link here to the actual report.

• Big Team Battle matches are now 16-player affairs.
• In the Team Slayer playlist, the appearance of Shotty Snipers has been greatly reduced.
• Now, when players veto Shotty Snipers, the game that results from the veto will not be Shotty Snipers.
• In one-sided VIP matches, the attacking team will now see a waypoint for the VIP they are hunting.
• In Lone Wolves, Slayer game types will appear more frequently.

Not a bad start. Not bad at all. I expect some DLC coming very soon.

So Halo 3 has been out now for 2 weeks and I am sure everyone has gotten a chance to check this out in some way shape or form, so now it’s time to tackle a review. Halo 3 is Bungie’s follow up to its two predecessors Halo 1 and 2 and picks up right where they left off. After months of advertising and hardcore marketing now gamers get a chance to put Master Chief into action and judge just how good this behemoth really is?

Presentation and Graphics: Halo 3 is polished, not light years beyond Halo 2, but you can see the difference when viewing the game on an HD screen, especially during the cut scenes. Master Chief’s visor never looked so shiny! A nice new distinction now is that you can customize your characters appearance for multi player matches, now you don’t have to always use the same Spartan armor and can actually get the Ninja Gaiden helmet if you collect all the skulls. 4 out of 5

Sound and Music: Halo 3 in 5.1 surround sound does extremely well; there is enough Gregorian chant and inspiring orchestra music to fill a room at any time. From the opening credits the familiar sound of Halo comes booming out of the speakers and carries all the way through. The music plays a big part in the game in that when you hear the inspirational music begin you know you are headed up to a big encounter or cut-scene. AI commentary is pretty funny too, a few times I found myself laughing after hearing grunts yell out that I killed their brother. 4.5 out of 5
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Microsoft issued a press release this morning to let us know that Bungie will “embark on a path to become an independent company“.

“This exciting evolution of our relationship with Microsoft will enable us to expand both creatively and organizationally in our mission to create world-class games,” said Harold Ryan, studio head for Bungie. “We will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft^® platforms; we greatly value our mutually prosperous relationship with our publisher, Microsoft Game Studios; and we look forward to continuing that affiliation through ‘Halo’ and beyond.”

Microsoft will retain an equity interest in Bungie, as the continue to develop games in the Halo franchise to be published by Microsoft Game Studios.

So what does this all really mean? We’re not exactly sure. It does mean Bungie now has the opportunity to make multi-platform games, but not Halo. When and how they choose to reveal these projects is still up in the air.

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Microsoft today released word that the Halo 3 franchise has topped off $300 million in sales since launch. MS have dubbed it the “fastest-selling video game ever and already one of the most successful entertainment properties in history.” This is hard to argue with as the boys at Bungie and MS really marketed it well and made sure everyone got a taste of the hype train. Kudos boys.

There is one part of the press release I don’t agree with, where MS states “Xbox 360 has the greatest lineup in the history of video games and is the only console where consumers can play all the year’s biggest blockbusters.” I think this is far too over zealous to state, the lineup is looking good, but the best in history, wow that is a tough call.

There have been some great lineups in the days of the NES, Xbox, PS1 and 2, which paved the way for what we have today in video games. MS has definitely the bankroll to show for their current success, which is also attributed to the fact that video gaming in the years of old was more of a underground cult, where gamers were a minority. Today video games have become a huge industry and I doubt we will diminish in size as all those kids that played the old consoles are now grown up and spending their hard earned money on games. I think their best in “history” is a bit over the top and minimalizes what the other older consoles have done to get games to this point.

It is impressive that about one third of all Xbox 360 owners have gotten a copy of Halo 3, I actually figured this statistic to be higher and will probably reach a lot more people during the holidays.

From the press releasse:

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 4, 2007 — Interactive entertainment will never be the same, with the launch of one title that has changed the way the world thinks about video games. “Halo® 3” has captured the attention of consumers worldwide and has made history as one of the biggest entertainment launches of all time.
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Some users have emailed me asking just how the ranking system works because bungie was a little vague. Here is the deal:

There are 2 rankings: Skill and Exp. Note, you need to play ranked matches to have these boosted.

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This seemed like only a matter of time. Bungie has become a juggernaut in the game development world. Seattlepi reports that Bungie and Microsoft are no longer a famiy. A confidential news source sent this email to the news site:

“Apparently MS just wants Bungie to make Halo for the rest of their natural days, and Bungie doesn’t like how MS is constantly trying to “handle” everything they do; the way they market their games, the way they interact with their fans (basically the fact that they do appreciate their fans), and how stingie they are with the profits (comparable to the rest of the industry). So as of today they are their own independent entity. They’ll probably make Halo 4 for Microsoft, however hey are also free to create new intellectual properties for whatever system they want. (Even though they prefer the xbox platform)”

You know what this means. Halo 4 is inevitable. Since Microsoft is no longer bounded to the Master Chief, could we see him come to the PS3?? That would be the ultimate way to stick it to the man. Again, this is not confirmed true yet, but it may be a reality. More to come.

In the weekly Bungie update, Luke Smith confirmed that Halo 3 does in fact run at 640p natively, which is then scaled up by the Xbox 360 to every resolution it supports. Luke let everyone know the reason for this lower resolution: the lighting engine. To keep up with a good frame rate and still have their HDR (high dynamic range) lighting system, Bungie had to make the game run in two buffers of 1152×640, a very unconventional resolution.

This ability to display a full range of HDR, combined with our advanced lighting, material and postprocessing engine, gives our scenes, large and small, a compelling, convincing and ultimately “real” feeling, and at a steady and smooth frame rate, which in the end was far more important to us than the ability to display a few extra pixels. Making this decision simpler still is the fact that the 360 scales the “almost-720p” image effortlessly all the way up to 1080p if you so desire.

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Word around the interwebs right now is that Halo 3 only runs at 640p and is scaled by the Xbox 360 to 720p and higher. Beyond3D forum member Quaz51 did some tests to show this.

He tested several edge images in the game using 1:1 mapping on his Samsung 1080p set to come up with his conclusion of 640p. The image above is the edge of a sniper rifle in the game. Quaz51 tested “approximately sixty X360 games (and lot of PS3 games too ), all are 720p except two 1080p (VT3 and NBA street), two 600p (PGR3 and Tomb Raider) and Two 640p (Perfect Dark and Halo3.” He’s very credible over there, so I’m going to believe his results.

So what does this mean? It might explain why some people don’t think the graphics in Halo 3 looks that great. I wonder if Bungie will confront this issue.

Well everyone foretold of the coming of Halo 3 and we all saw the fierce campaigns and marketing strategies, looks like they paid off big. Halo 3 is now the big daddy of entertainment, kudos to MS and Bungie, they have de-throwned Spider Man and Harry Potter.

Halo 3 pulled in a record $170 million in 24 hours, now that is one impressive statistic and shows the reach that video games and gamers have now a days. Yesterday when I was on Halo3 there was an impressive 600,000 people playing at the same time and this does not count those people playing offline, just think that all those people made up only $36 million of that reported $170, so there are a lot of peripherals, consoles, controllers, etc. flying off the shelves.

From the press release:

Microsoft today announced that the Xbox 360 exclusive game “Halo 3” has officially become the biggest entertainment launch in history, garnering an estimated $170 million in sales in the United States alone in the first 24 hours. The Xbox 360 title beat previous records set by blockbuster theatrical releases like “Spider-man 3” and novels such as “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”
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So of course with all the Halo 3 related news the good old big apple would not be outdone so they had a huge event at Best Buy for the Midnight Launch of Halo 3, complete with guys dressed up as marines riding around on quad bikes. The crowd was ridiculous as they awaited the arrival of Halo 3 as if the New Year were being rung in. There was even a pretty convincing looking Master Chief walking around, I wonder how much that would cost for Halloween? All and all a huge success in NYC.

Hit the jump for some more pics.
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