Wired points out that Halo 3's minute flaws-- if such they are-- do not detract from its essential values.
Halo hype has been with us for so long that the backlash is already upon us, even before the new game's launch. If you're a gamer, you've heard the carping: What's the big deal about Halo? The graphics are middling, it's just another first-person shooter, the story arc is huge and trilogy-tastic, but hey -- lots of games have all that these days.
Heather Newman, the gaming blogger at the Detroit Free Press, played through Halo 3 on easy. The result? Why, the game is too short!
Hardcore Halo fan Quint at Ain't It Cool News tells his story of his Halo love affair and how he got to play Halo 3. It's not so much a review, but he does have this to say:
The graphics are great, too. The landscapes are massive and incredibly detailed. It’s not as stylistic as something like Bioshock, but if it had been it wouldn’t have felt like Halo. Here you get a look at future African landscape, war-torn and under invasion and then a little later on you get more traditional alien levels.
Australia's PALGN rates Halo 3 highly and calls it marginally better than Halo 2, with some of the oft-repeated gripes about ally AI and graphics:
Geek.com opines that if you liked Halo and Halo 2, you'll like Halo 3. However, they also like the Flood, which casts aspersion on their judgment:
The enemy A.I. is unrelenting, particularly The Flood. Somehow the developers were able to take one of the most terrifying arch-evil forces and make them even more numerous, gross-looking, and straight up frightening. If there’s ever a jump out of your seat moment, it is during a pitch black encounter with The Flood.
Halo 3 is now news for nerds and stuff that matters:
Does it meet expectations? In a word: yes. It's not the best game ever made, and it may not even be the best game this year. Will it make the fans happy, and deservedly sell thousands of Xbox 360s? Very much yes.
Slashdot gives Halo 3 four out of five points. Also, I think they like Yes. Who doesn't like Yes?
Here's a nice non-review of Halo 3:
You can go elsewhere to read how good the game is (though, to finally answer some of the commenters on my recent "Halo"/"Halo 2
A big title for a small subject really, but it's a recurring thought I've had on and off for the past couple of years and I haven't seen mention of it elsewhere. So, to get it out of my head (and scavenge a last-minute opportunity before Halo 3's release to appear to be a seer of tru7h) I'll scribble it down here.
Why, specifically, do Covenant creatures refer to the Chief as "Demon" or "Devil"? What part of their dogma led to this? Was it the Prophets labelling Humanity's greatest defenders as unwholesome abominations?