Although the title may be misleading, the post itself is not. (Ok... That made absolutely no sense.) To get used to the new Forge editing system in Halo 3, I decided to make some changes to one of my favorite maps, Guardian. Unlike those poorly made maps that some of my friends do; where half the map is blocked off or vehicles and weapons are placed at random places. Small Town is a much more thought-out map, with a balanced layout that puts emphasis on a rapid play-style. Giving you a few seconds at the respawn to stock up on weapons before you're forced to get into battle. I focused on a "rotationary" design, placing a bunch of grenades and "power-weapons" in a pattern that emphasised movement around the map. By the time you have to reload or restock on nades; there's either going to be another weapon or pile of grenades in front of you. Overall there's probably at least one hundred grenades spaced throughout the map. I also added as many firebombs as possible, along with a couple brute shots and a flamethrower, around the map. This, couple with a copious quantity of grenades, makes for a map where a pair of people working together with grenades and weapons can take out a group twice their size. Although the exact opposite of that can also happen; 2 lonely guys getting completely devastated by four guys on the other team. If you're really that interested, download it here. (Or at least set it to download.)

I just had a really bad day on Halo 3 Ranked Team Slayer. Almost every time I was at the bottom of the list for our team, though I feel that I did soften up a lot of the guys for the rest of my team, which is kind of my play style. I really enjoy just jumping into the fray and taking out 2 or 3 enemies' shields, making it easy for my teamies to pick them off, but normally resulting in a death and 0 kills for me. It must have helped some, since 6 out of the 9 games I played this afternoon my team won. Halo 3 Multiplayer I am in love with you! (Headset and voice communication is awesome too.)

Although I got Halo 3 the moment it came out, I haven't had much time to play it. Only just recently I finished the campaign because I've been so busy with other stuff.

The Meat

Now that I'm done with my apology I can get back to the meat of the post, my first impressions of Halo 3.

The Graphics

Must I say more? Unlike previous Halo and Halo 2, the latest installment utilizes the Xbox 360's advanced color and rendering power to produce a truly immersive experience. Although not as fine and detailed as Gears of War (Which definitely wins the anti-aliasing battle.), Halo 3 has a very light and colorful environment that accents the battles. This really perfects the surreal fealing of the environments that I love in the Halo series.

The Gameplay

While Halo 2 felt unpolished, Halo 3 plays like a well-oiled machine, mixing the adrenaline rush of intense combat with the fun of lurking around on dark flood-infested levels, destroying all that comes your way. The weapons are well-balanced and allow you to really get creative with your strategy and attacks; my main gripe is the speed of the pistol, Bungie has been consistently downgrading the power of the pistol; while it was devastating in Halo and still a powerful option when duel wielded in Halo 2. The Halo 3 pistol is a mere mockery of its former self.

The Multiplayer

While similar to Halo 2, Bungie implemented some great new features that can turn a routine game with some friends into a crazy battle on Forge; Theater is pretty fun to use, but it takes too long to load everything and makes it hard to quickly go back and review a game. I personally wish you search for other people's Custom Games or Forge sessions so that you can play with other people on certain maps.

The Summary

While the multiplayer could use some more features, Halo 3 is still a great game; I just wish I could get some more people on my Xbox Live friends list.