Less was More?

Despite the grumpy and dissatisfied tone I seem to have established in this blog, in vilifying various Bungie design decisions, I certainly don't regret the time I've spent playing, reading, thinking and writing about the Halo series. Now that the trilogy is done, however, and we've had time to digest Halo 3, I think it's time to start putting the whole experience into some kind of perspective. In previous entries I've talked mainly about technical factors in level design, gameplay and story construction.

Oh Bungie, can I have some decent maps?

I've said it once and I'll say it again. Halo 3's maps plain suck. They're bad in just about every way. With the soon to be released DLC I'm hoping and praying that Bungie can redeem themselves and even get me interested in Halo 3 again. So what do I think is wrong with Halo 3's maps? Well read on.

There has to be some attention given to the make up a Halo game here. It's an interesting thing to consider Halo 1 maps in relation to those that had vehicles. Only the two big maps (Blood Gulch and Sidewinder) had them and the rest of the maps played without vehicles.

Building Better Bosses

I'm returning to a fundamental theme of my first entry: the tension between the need (or desire) to tell a story in a particular way, and the need to keep the player involved and immersed - by maintaining the consistency and believability of the game-world. Once again I have specific Halo examples in mind - the boss-battles in Halo 2, and Halo 3. Obviously, this means Halo 3 Campaign spoilers, so stop reading here if this is a problem for you.

---

1-Up!

Well, I just got Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii, and figured out that Nintendo still uses the life system. Now, I don't really support this system for a couple of reasons, which I will tell you. Firstly, let me describe how Galaxy's system works, this being a primarily a halo forum. Basically, you get an extra life (1-Up) by getting either green mushrooms, or, 50 of the game's currencies, Star Bits and Coins. You lose all Coins when you die, but you don't lose any Star Bits.

Catch skull

Im sure all of you halo 3 fans have gotten al the skulls, well i havent! and thats becuz i cant figure out how to get the catch skull. Ive spent freaking like 3 houre doing every atempt to get the skull, if you HAVE gotten the skull plz send me the directions clearly, and well spoken, TYVM

Scylla, Charybdis and Atropos

An article entitled [url=http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/482/how_halo_3_changed_game_.php]"How Halo 3 Changed Game Development"[/url] has recently drawn some (rather sceptical) attention [url=http://halo.bungie.org/news.html?item=21601]at HBO[/url] and here [url=http://rampancy.net/story/bungie/10/01/2008/Did_Halo_3_Change_Game_Devel... Rampa

Pages