Something went wrong. Try again later

SHADOWINFINITE

http://www.comicvine.com/profile/super_man_23/reviews/ -- is my comicvine profile/reviews

621 26284 56 23
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

Misc Objects, Characters, People and Milk

What you see is what you get. This list will always be expanded, and have new things all the time.

List items

  • My Name is John Marston

  • The Ninja of Death

  • IGN's Weekly News

  • The Dark Knight

  • Remake of an Original game

  • Batman's most praise worthy game

  • Don't let the games title fool you. Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard

  • With a grand campaign adventure, as well as a finely-tuned, balanced, and highly competitive multiplayer component, Halo: Combat Evolved managed to simultaneously renovate and innovate the console first person shooter genre -- making the original Xbox a viable console option for gamers of a new generation.

    Overview

    Halo: Combat Evolved is a first-person shooter, created by Bungie Studios, a subsidiary of Microsoft Game Studios at the time. It was released as an Xbox launch title on November 15, 2001. It is one of the most popular video games for the Xbox, with over five million copies sold. Its sales are rivaled by its sequel, Halo 2, and later by Halo 3. It has been available as an Xbox Original title since December 4th, 2007, allowing users to download the game on Xbox Live Marketplace for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15).

    Story

    Halo: Combat Evolved takes place primarily on an artificial ring world called Halo or Installation-04, created by an extinct, technologically superior race known as the Forerunners. You play as

    "Into the belly of the beast"

    Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan John-117, a super soldier, with both genetic and surgical enhancements, created by the UNSC (United Nations Space Command). The game begins with your ship, The Pillar of Autumn, exiting "Slip Space" near the Halo. However, you soon find out you were followed by a genocidal race of alien fanatics known as the Covenant. These aliens have declared war on humanity, moving from world to world eradicating the human race. You crash land in an escape pod carrying the ships A.I., Cortana, given orders to protect her at all costs. You later discover your C.O., Commander Keyes, has also survived the crash, but was unfortunately captured by the Covenant and is being held prisoner on one of their ships, The Truth and Reconciliation. So, Master Chief, Cortana, and some of the marines that survived board the ship and rescue him. Afterwords, Keyes orders Master Chief to find the map room, also known as the Cartographer, and discover the Halo's purpose while he searches for a cache of weapons. Meanwhile, the Covenant releases the Flood, a parasite that devours everything in its path, both Covenant and human. As you fight a two front guerrilla war on the Halo, its purpose is revealed as a giant weapon to eradicate all possible Flood hosts, eliminating all sentient life in the galaxy. You spend the rest of the game trying to find an alternate solution while being assailed by the Covenant, the Flood, and even the robotic keepers of the ring who wish to activate it to contain the outbreak of the Flood. After the game came a book whose main contents were the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, which was called "Halo: The Flood", and is the second book in the Halo book series.

    Gameplay

    Mechanics

    Halo is a pretty standard first person shooter, in the controls department, on the console you use the two joy sticks to move and aim, while on the PC you use the keyboard and mouse. It differs from most others at the time in the damage system, you have the standard health bar with eight bars which decrease if your hit while your shields have failed (can be replenished with health packs). As opposed to picking up an "armor power up" the player always has shields which slowly take damage when hit like a secondary health bar, if hit enough they fail and your health begins to decrease, and if you keep your head down long enough they recharge. Halo made this style of health regeneration popular within many games made today, and this reason is one of many of why Halo was so revolutionary. Along with popularizing health regeneration Halo also popularized restricting the player to only carrying two weapons at a time. It is also remembered for it's extremely tight controls which made it the first great feeling FPS, on the console.

    Weapons

    SPNKr Rocket Launcher

    The weapons are separated into two categories, Covenant and Human. The human side is fairly standard, with futuristic looking versions of the classics ( assault rifle, shotgun, sniper, etc.). The covenant technology is all energy based weaponry that fires charged bolts of plasma, or needles/crystals. The plasma rifle and plasma pistol both make use of the bolts of plasma, which you never reload but your gun does over heat and run out of plasma. The needler uses the plasma type crystals to hit and stick to the enemy doing average damage, but when many are stuck to the target it causes them to explode causing heavy damage. The plasma grenade is much like the frag grenade except it sticks to an opponent if they're hit with it. The final weapon is the awesome energy sword which in this game cannot be wielded by the player. Power ups include over-shields (essentially just extra armor), health packs, and active camo (invisibility).

    MA5B Assault Rifle

    In the PC port of the game, done by Gearbox Software, two additional weapons were added to the multiplayer arsenal, the UNSC Flamethrower and the Covenant Fuel Rod gun. Both of these weapons did not make a major appearance in Multiplayer until Halo 3.

    Multiplayer

    Halo: Combat Evolved's multiplayer, gameplay-wise, is arguably the best of the entire series by many of the veteran Halo players who have been with the series since its debut in 2001. While Halo 2 and Halo 3 each had seamless online play, a multitude of custom options, and additional new features, Halo: CE's multiplayer component was a culmination of excellent design decisions and all around balanced gameplay. With a truly enormous skill gap separating new players from the battle-hardened pros, an abundance of maps that rewarded player movement and inventive decision-making, and a weapon sandbox that was uniquely well-balanced, Halo: Combat Evolved was not only a fun game to play with a large group of players in a casual environment, it was also an extremely deep, competitive experience.

    Since the platform did not exist at the time, Halo: CE did not have online multiplayer. This "issue" was resolved with the PC port, adding full on 16 player online multiplayer to the game, multiplayer Banshees, and additional maps created from scratch by Gearbox. (Danger Canyon, Death Island, Gephyrophobia, Ice Fields, Infinity and Timberland)

  • Overview

    An example of the game's multiplayer mode

    Developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft on November 9, 2004, Halo 2 went on to become the best selling game for the Xbox, selling 6.3 million units in the United States and 8 million around the world. In this installment, the player splits time between two roles: the Master Chief and the Arbiter, a disgraced Covenant Elite. The two protagonists have minor differences. The game opens with two simultaneous story threads. The Master Chief and Sergeant Major Johnson are receiving a commendation for their actions in the original Halo. Meanwhile, the Arbiter is answering for his failure to defend Halo from Earth's attack. During all this, the Covenant attacks Earth and the Master Chief is called into battle once again.

    Editions

    Ordinary

    Standard box art (MC dual-wielding SMG's)

    Standard game disc

    Standard Manual (With MC on cover)

    Limited Edition Halo 2

    Limited Edition Halo 2

    Tin Halo 2 box (Plain silver with Halo 2 symbol)

    Standard game disc

    Extra making-of DVD

    Standard Manual (with Arbiter on cover)

    Plot

    The game is the sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, and takes place in the same universe. The first cut scene is of a Covenant Elite's trial and judgment by the Covenant hierarchy. It then cuts to the Master Chief on one of the newly built planetary defense platforms (the Cairo to be specific). After receiving a new suit, the Mark VI, the Chief is led by Sgt. Johnson to an award ceremony. As the honors are presented, it cuts back to the Elite, as he is publicly tortured and branded. As the brand is applied, the scene cuts back to the ceremony as the station is attacked by a small Covenant fleet. After fighting his way through the station to help Cortana disarm a bomb brought on board by the Covenant, the Chief follows the last remaining Covenant ship to the surface of the Earth (specifically New Mombasa) to capture the Prophet of Regret reportedly aboard. However, the ship jumps away, taking the player's ship and part of the city with it to another Halo, where the player lands and continues to pursue the Prophet. This installment also has a second story path in which the player takes control of the Arbiter, the disgraced Elite from the opening cut scene. At first the Arbiter continues to serve the Prophets' whims, but soon discovers their lies and betrays them in order to prevent the activation of the Halo and save all life in the galaxy.

    Gameplay

    Halo 2 has a lot of updates over Halo: Combat Evolved. Under the new system, once shields have been depleted, the player can only take a few hits until death, but once shields recharge, health resets. This is explained through the new Mark VI suit, which injects bio-foam directly into the wearers wounds. Active Camo has been removed as an item. Instead, the Arbiter has a rechargeable version of Camo, instead of a flashlight like the Chief. Another new addition is dual wielding certain weapons, including the pistol, the new SMG, the needler, the plasma pistol, and the plasma rifle. When dual wielding, weapons take longer to reload and the ability to throw grenades is taken out. Another newly added mechanic is the ability to board enemy vehicles when they are near the player and traveling at low speeds.

    The most noticeable change in the weapons is the absence of the iconic assault rifle. It is replaced by the new battle rifle; a three shot burst weapon with a 2x scope. The Covenant equivalent of the battle rifle is the carbine; a semi-automatic weapon that also has a 2x scope (the carbine uses ammo instead of battery power). In addition to the battle rifle and carbine, there is now the SMG (a small compact fully automatic weapon), a new pistol with no scope, the brute shot (Covenant grenade launcher), a brute plasma rifle (which fires faster), an improved rocket launcher (which locks onto enemy vehicles), and the energy sword (which can now be used by the player).

    The change in HUD

    Halo 2 is supported on Xbox Live and was one of--if not the most--popular game played online, all the way until the release of the 360 and Halo 3. Instead of the players picking the map and game type, a new matchmaking system was introduced in which the player chooses a playlist, which then generates random games under set criteria. This system also attempts to match only players of similar skill, to keep games fair. Certain aspects found in the campaign have been removed to keep things fair; for example, the fuel rod cannon is not found on normal maps, and the Banshee's fuel rod cannon is removed.

    Mulitplayer

    Halo 2 was the first Halo game on Xbox to feature online play through Xbox Live. The game had many advanced features including matchmaking, voice chat, and rankings. There was also some customization implemented into the game as well, which created a lot of user created content. Many games came out of these customization options, such as Tremors, Troy, Vehicle Wars and the most popular being Zombies which grew so popular Bungie saw fit to put it into Halo 3. Players really enjoyed the customization options and kept many players sticking around even after getting their fill of matchmaking. The match making games were very competitive in Halo 2 due to the intensive ranking system . The way the ranking system in Halo 2 works is when you first start of playing the game you start with the level 1 and as you win matches your level increases. If you lose enough matches you can drop levels. These ranking were taken very seriously by the Halo 2 community. The color of the level a player had was very important to most Halo 2 fanatics. You can see what the levels look like in the picture below.

    Levels 44-50 were "secret" levels -- they were picture of various things, such as the moon or the halo ring.

    The Halo 2 ranks.

    Halo 2 had 24 maps the people could play online and was the most played game ever on Xbox Live. Even after the Xbox 360 was released Halo 2 still remained the most popular. The first game to top the amount of online players Halo 2 had each month, was the original Gears of War.

  • Halo Wars Overview

    Larger scale battles than have been seen in Halo before

    Halo Wars is a real-time strategy game set in the Halo universe. The game was developed by Ensemble Studios, the development unit best known for the Age of Empires series. The game is being developed exclusively for the Xbox 360, and the development team took extra care with the game's controls to ensure that the often-complex actions of an RTS are easy to deal with on the Xbox 360 controller. The developer also worked very closely with Bungie, the creators of the Halo series, to ensure the game retains the proper look and feel. Halo Wars is set 20 years prior to the first game in the series, around the year 2531. The game will focus on the beginnings of the war between humanity and the Covenant, which erupts after Earth's UNSC stumbles upon an ancient Forerunner artifact. The campaign mode focuses on the UNSC side of the conflict, specifically the crew of a ship called the CFV-88 Spirit of Fire. A group of Spartans is aboard the Spirit of Fire and can be called into battle and used as units in the game. Mission objectives are delivered by the ship's AI, Serina.

    Plot

    Halo Wars is set in 2531, prior to the events of Halo: Combat Evolved (which is itself set in 2552). It follows the story of a UNSC ship, CFV-88 Spirit of Fire, under command of Captain Cutter, and their command to liberate the planet Harvest from the Covenant. The player will be allowed to control the forces aboard this massive warship, and receive instructions and commands from its AI, Serina. The UNSC sends a massive force to retake their colony planet, Harvest, from the Covenant who have occupied it. The Covenant have been digging in the polar regions of Harvest, and have uncovered an ancient Forerunner artifact. What this artifact is is unknown, but the humans decide it is worth investigating and dispatch a force. It was revealed during Microsoft's TGS 08 press conference that the Flood will be in the Halo Wars campaign in some capacity, although whether or not they will be playable remains unknown. This revelation appears to present a massive hole in the continuity of the series, as both humanity and the Covenant's first contact with the Flood was on Installation 04, Alpha Halo, during the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. How this new story thread will be woven into the overarching canon has yet to be seen.

    Gameplay

    A covenant base is hit with a MAC cannon blast.

    When asked whether it would be possible to play as the Covenant, Ensemble's official response was affirmative, although there will not be a covenant campaign so you can only use the covenant in skirmishes. 1UP.com has published an article that mentioned the inclusion of The Flood but Ensemble has avoided confirming or denying the inclusion. Forerunner structures and Sentinels will appear in the game as a neutral party that can be captured and used as units, as well as other life forms. It is now shown in their FAQ section of their website that it is possible to play as the Covenant. As of E3 2008 it has been confirmed that the Covenant will be a playable faction. It has also been confirmed that the UNSC and the Covenant will be the only two playable factions. Ensemble studios has said that the game will have everything an RTS needs, with loads of units, buildings and brilliant well thought out maps.

    Abilities

    Like most RTS games, Halo Wars features character abilities. Ensemble studios have said that every character will have special abilities although not all will be game changing. Only some units abilities have been confirmed but Dave Pottinger (Halo Wars lead designer) has gone in to great detail about the spartans ability on the official halo wars website. In short the spartans hijack enemy vehicles upgrading them and making them their own with a couple of back flips for effect. Although most units special abilities won't be as good as the spartans they should provide a certain amount of additional strategy. Although this makes spartans look over powerful Ensemble studios has clearly said that with the right strategy and focus spartans can be killed.

    UNSC Leaders

    Captain Cutter:

    Leader Power: MAC Blast - Magnetic Accelerator Cannon blasts an enemy target.

    Unique Unit: Elephant - A mobile infantry trainer

    Super Upgrade: Marines can upgrade to Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs) and then drop from Orbit anywhere on the map.

    Economy Bonus: Cutter's bases start with more building sites.

    Sergeant Forge:

    Leader Power: Carpet Bomb.

    Unique Unit: Cyclops - A multipurpose powered exoskeletal suit.

    Super Upgrade: Grizzly - A superior version of the Scorpion tank.

    Economy Bonus: All Supply Pads on Forge's bases start as Heavy Supply Pads.

    Professor Anders:

    Leader Power: Cryo Bomb - Freezes enemies in place.

    Unique Unit: Gremlin - Uses an EMP to stun enemy units.

    Super Upgrade: Hawk - a laser beam upgrade to the Hornet.

    Economy Bonus: Cost and research time for unit upgrades reduced by half.

    Covenant Leaders

    The Prophet of Regret:

    The Prophet starts with a Plasma Cannon attack and the Cleansing ability (which calls down an enerfy beam for an orbiting vessel).

    Special Unit: Elite Honor Guard.

    Combat Upgrades:

    Blessed Immolation: Upgrades to fuel rod cannons for damage increase.

    Ancestral Perversion: Dual protector units hover near Prophet and defend him.

    Divine Absolution: Upgrades chair so Prophet becomes a full-fledged flying unit.

    Special Upgrades:

    Regret's Sentence: Medium cleansing beam which does more damage.

    Regret's Doom: Large cleansing beam for even more damage.

    Regret's Condemnation: Increases damage of beam.

    Brute Chieftain:

    The Brute Chieftain starts with Gravity Hammer and Vortex ability (a damage field that can further explode for additional damage).

    Special Unit: Brutes and Brute Chopper

    Combat Upgrades:

    Inheritance: Adds passive stun ability to normal attacks.

    Birthright: Chieftain can pull enemies to him during combat.

    Destiny: Adds an area of effect (AOE) stun to Gravity Hammer.

    Special Upgrades:

    Tsunami: Increases Vortex damage and AOE.

    Hurricane: Increases Vortex damage and AOE.

    Singularity. Increases Vortex damage and AOE.

    The Arbiter:

    The Arbiter starts with dual energy swords and Rage special attack.

    Special Unit: Suicide Grunts.

    The Arbiter

    Combat Upgrades:

    Fiendish Return: Arbiter armor reflects a portion of incoming damage back to attacker.

    Vicious Blades: Adds damage to attack and increases damage reflected.

    Ghastly Vision: Permanent cloak enabled and damage reflection increased.

    Special Upgrades:

    Defiant Rage: Health partially restored with every inflicted fatality.

    Spiteful Rage: Rage mode costs less to maintain.

    Blinding Rage: Rage damage massively increased, also increases the attack power of surrounding allies.

    Controls

    Halo Wars will allow you to play as the Humans or the Covenant.

    In the past, real-time strategy games have been ported to consoles, examples being StarCraft for the Nintendo 64 and recently Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II and Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for the Xbox 360. While controls have been steadily improving, particularly with Electronic Arts' recent Command and Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath stand-alone expansion, Halo Wars promises to revolutionize RTS on console controls, much the same way the original Halo did for First-Person Shooters.

    Left-stick - Moving around

    Right-stick - Zooming In & Out

    A button - select a Unit (hold down to select with a circle)

    A button (Double click) - select all units of the same type

    X button - target enemy, move units

    Y button - Alternative Fire

    Right Bumper - select all units on-screen

    Left Bumper - select every unit on map

    D-Pad- Each direction on the d-pad is mapped to a somewhere with one direction cycling through your bases, one cycles through your troops, another shows you all known enemy units, and the last calls brings up the leader powers menu or if playing as Covenant goes directly to your command unit.

    Halo Wars Maps

    There will be 14 maps available in Skirmish, and likely more to come out sometime after the release of the game. The maps are as followed:

    Chasms (available to play in the demo of Halo Wars as of 2.5.09) {1v1}

    Blood Gulch {1v1}

    Pirth Outskirts {1v1}

    Release {1v1}

    Tundra {1v1}

    Beasley's Plateau {2v2}

    Crevice {2v2}

    The Docks {2v2}

    Labyrinth {2v2}

    Repository {2v2}

    Terminal Moraine {2v2}

    Exile {3v3}

    Fort Deen {3v3}

    Frozen Valley {3v3}

    Halo Wars Limited Edition

    In addition to the standard edition of the game being sold in stores, a limited collectors edition will also be available. The package, which will retail for $79.99, includes:

    The Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3, which contains the maps Orbital, Sandbox, and Assembly

    Halo Wars: Genesis, a graphic novel about the Spirit of Fire's campaign against the Covenant

    A unique, in-game Honor Guard Wraith

    Six "Leader Cards" with pictures and information about major characters in the game

    A Spirit of Fire crew patch... which is more of a rubber coaster.

    Announcement and Release

    Halo Wars was officially announced on September 27th 2006 at Microsoft's X06, and was released in Japan as well as Australia on February 26th 2009, in PAL territories on February 27th, and in North America on March 3rd; contrary to when Robbie Bach misspoke during CES keynote 2009, saying that Halo Wars would be released on February 28th. Microsoft closed Ensemble Studios before the games release, but Robot Entertainment(founded by former Ensemble employees) continues to support Halo Wars through updates and DLC.

    Playable Demo

    During CES Microsoft announced that a playable demo of Halo Wars would be coming out before the general release of the game. During late January and early February 2009 codes to allow the demo to be downloaded were given out through gaming blogs and as prizes in competitions. On Febuary 5th the demo was released to the public via Xbox Live and Xbox.com. The demo includes two campaign missions, where you and a band of UNSC soldiers fight the Covenant forces to rescue your stranded troops, a Tutorialm and a Skirmish mode. In Skirmish you can play as either the UNSC (Captain Cutter) or the Covenant forces (Prophet of Regret) on Easy, Normal, or Heroic difficulties. Only one map is available in the demo, which is a snow map called "Chasms." There is no online multiplayer available in the demo. The demo set a Xbox Live record for having 2 million downloads. The previous record was set by the Resident Evil 5 demo with 1.8 million downloads.

    Downloadable Content for Halo Wars

    Despite the fact that Halo Wars is the last game by Ensemble studios, Robot Entertainment have confirmed that they will continue to support the game and have DLC planned for release. The first DLC for Halo Wars is the "Strategic Options" pack which includes three new Game Modes and four new Achievements. The Strategic Options DLC was released on May 19th, 2009.

    The three new Game Modes are:

    Keepaway Mode: In this adaptation of Capture the Flag, teams battle it out to capture and hold a free-roaming Forerunner Sentinel to score points before the other team. The number of Sentinels needed to win scales with the number of players.

    Tug of War Mode: Players must build a stronger army than their opponents to succeed. Defeating enemies is essential, but success is determined by a combination of the army, buildings and resources left standing in the end.

    Reinforcement Mode: Players must adapt their tactics and use the ever changing set of units to outwit and outlast the enemy, all the while facing successive waves of incoming enemy units.

    The four new Achievements are:

    One and Done (30 points): Score the winning point on a game of Keepaway against the Legendary A.I.'s

    Pull Hard, Pull Deep (20 Points): Win and never trail in a Tug of War game

    Freak on a Streak (20 points): Gain at least 15 population from a single wave in a Reinforcement game

    Living Loving Bug (30 points): Obtain a Scarab during a Reinforcement game

    Halo Wars Soundtrack

    A Halo Wars soundtrack is available to buy. It contains a soundtrack CD, and a bonus DVD. The CD contains the following songs:

    Spirit Of Fire

    Halo Wars OST

    Bad Here Day

    Perspective

    Money Or Meteors

    Flollo

    Just Ad Nauseum

    Unusually Quiet

    Flip And Sizzle

    Put The Lady Down

    Six-Armed Robbing Suit

    Action Figure Hands

    Staus Quo Show

    Part Of The Plan

    Work Burns And Runaway Grunts

    Freaked Out

    Rescued Or Not

    Best Guess At Best

    One Problem At A Time

    De Facto The Matter

    Part Of The Problem

    Fingerprints Are Broken

    Out Of There Alive

    Through Your Hoops

    Under Your Hurdles

    Insignificantia (All SloppyNo Joe)

  • Story

    Master Chief in Halo 3

    Halo 3's single player campaign contains nine missions which complete the storyline begun in Halo: Combat Evolved. The game picks up immediately after the cliffhanger at the end of Halo 2, with the Master Chief crashing into a tropical forest on Earth. The Covenant has splintered into two factions: The Prophet of Truth, with his army of Jiralhanae ( Brutes), and Unggoy ( Grunts), Kig-Yar ( Jackals), and even Hunters; against the Arbiter and his race, the Sangheili ( Elites), who have allied themselves with humanity. After recovering from the fall, the Chief first escapes Covenant patrols in the jungle and goes to a nearby base. He then escapes again as the base is attacked by a large Brute force, followed by yet another escape to the town of Voi, destroying all Covenant resistance in his path. After regrouping, the combined Elite and Human force launch an assault on Truth's main base of operations where he is excavating a huge Forerunner structure under the ruins of New Mombasa. After providing a hole in Truth's anti-air defenses, the last remaining human ships began a devastating bombardment of Truth's main ship (a highly advanced Forerunner ship). However, just as the bombardment commences, Truth activates a portal to the Ark; a mysterious Forerunner structure of immense size. After receiving a message from Cortana hidden in a crashed flood ship hinting at a permanent solution to the Flood problem, the Chief and a large Human/Elite force give chase through the portal in a desperate attempt to end the war once and for all.

    Gameplay

    Mechanics

    A Multiplayer Armor Permutation

    The gameplay in Halo 3 has undergone some significant changes compared to its predecessors, including simple tweaks to make it more cohesive. You may now carry "equipment," which can range from a gravity lift, allowing the player to lift himself into the air, to a bubble-shield, which will spawn a clear, protective bubble around whoever decides to throw it down, as well as deployable cover, which projects a small blue defense shield, as well as many others. Bungie has assigned these special abilities to the "X" button, which was previously used to reload. Players now use the RB (right bumper) to reload the main weapon and LB for the secondary weapon if they are dual-wielding, although they can decide to use a different, pre-made control scheme.

    The Load Out

    Bungie has added a different version of the original Assault Rifle (it has about half the clip size of the version in Halo: Combat Evolved, but it deals a little more damage and has better accuracy), strengthened the Needler (though it can no longer be dual-wielded), and also included some new weapons like the Spikers (Brute sub-machine guns) and the Gravity Hammer (the Brute counterpart of the Elite Sword). There are also 2 new grenade classes: The Spike Grenade and the Incendiary Grenade (AKA the firebomb grenade). The former is a Brute-themed grenade that sticks to objects, and the latter a UNSC weapon especially useful against the zombie-like Flood. Bungie also reduced the load out on each grenade from the previous four, to two, allowing players to carry a total of eight grenades and switch between the types with the left bumper (when not dual-wielding). A player may also pick up turrets and flame-throwers, but by using them he/she will switch into a 3rd person view, in which movement will be slightly restricted and ammo will become limited. There are also a few new vehicles like the Mongoose, a quadbike with two seats, the Hornet, which is the human equivalent to the Banshee, and the Chopper, which resembles the Ghost in that it has only one seat and can fire front-mounted cannons.

    Multiplayer

    Multiplayer gameplay on the Mythic map, 'Assembly'

    Halo 3's campaign can be played cooperatively and over System Link and Xbox Live with up to 4 players, although only 2 players may play on a single Xbox 360. In addition, Halo 3 can also be played competitively through a matchmaking service or in custom, user-created games. In matchmaking, players are matched with up to fifteen other players based on their rank and skill level in the individual "playlists", which are categorized into two groups depending on their overall purpose. Ranked playlists are used to match players based on their Trueskill rating. Social playlists allow players to play with others with no ranking system involved for each playlist, although Experience and overall skill still determines player match-ups. Few of the original achievements work in social matches, but the DLC achievements all are unlockable in social playlists. One can also still earn Experience for the playlists, as well as global and playlist-specific Experience points (EXP). Finally, every weekend, Double Experience Weekend begins that focus on a very specific playstyle or gametype, including Grifball and Infection. The playlists are:

    Ranked

    Lone Wolves-Matches include 6 players and use free-for-all game modes, like Slayer, Swords, Slayer BRs, Crazy King, and Oddball.

    Team Slayer-Matches are team-based and usually include 6 or 8 players in 3-on-3 or 4-on-4 games. Modes played are Team Slayer, Team BRs, Team Snipers, and Shotty Snipers.

    Team Doubles- 2-on-2 matches with both Slayer and Objective gametypes, including Team Slayer, Team BRs, Team Snipers, Team Oddball, Team Crazy King, Multi-Flag CTF and One Flag

    MLG- A playlist using MLG-created maps and MLG versions of Team Slayer, Team Ball, Team Hill and Multi-Flag.

    Squad battle 6-on-6 matches with slayer and flag variants

    SWAT-A hardcore playlist involving the use of no energy shields and no motion trackers, and using only Battle Rifle/Magnum combos, just Magnums, or just Shotguns. Most games are simply SWAT, SWAT Magnums, or ShWATguns, but as of an update, SWATball and 2-flag CTF are also used as gametypes.

    Team Snipers-3-on-3 and 4-on-4 games in Slayer-based gametypes such as Team Snipers, Shotty Snipers and Team Splasers.

    Social

    Rumble Pit-Much like Lone Wolves, but in a social setting. Uses Slayer and "Fiesta" variants such as Slayer, Hammerzeit, Swords, Juggernaut, Oddball, Crazy King, Ninja Ball and Mosh Pit.

    Social Big Team-Uses 5-on-5 and 8-on-8 matches. Gametypes played include Team Slayer, Multi-Flag CTF, One Bomb, VIP, Territories, Big Splockets, Land Grab, and 2 Flag Heavy CTF.

    Social Slayer-5-on-5 and solo gametypes, such as Team Slayer/Slayer, Team Rockets/Rockets, Team Duals/Duals, and Team BRs/Slayer BRs.

    Social Skirmish-4-on-4 and 5-on-5 non-slayer matches. Gametypes are One Flag CTF, Multi-Flag CTF, One Bomb Assault, Neutral Bomb Assault, VIP, Territories, and Land Grab.

    Multi-Team- Uses four teams of 2 in gametypes like Team Slayer, Team Hammers, Team Swords, VIP, Team Oddball, and Team Crazy King.

    Gameplay of multiplayer map, 'Avalanche'

    Action Sack- Random 8 player matches offering 0 EXP

    In custom mode players can play multiplayer matches using custom game modes, settings, and maps. All modes and maps are available to play on and can be changed between matches by the party leader. Players must invite friends to play these games, however.

    Ranks

    Reaching different ranks requires the player to gain certain amounts of EXP and, for officer ranks, reach different skill levels. Skill levels are increased when the player wins ranked games. EXP is gained from simply winning games which can be either ranked or unranked. One EXP is gained from winning a game, zero is gained from loosing a game and one EXP is lost for quitting out of a game early. The Ranks in increasing order are:

    Recruit grade 1

    Apprentice Grade 1, Apprentice Grade 2

    Private Grade 1, Private Grade 2

    Corporal Grade 1, Corporal Grade 2

    Sergeant Grade 1, Sergeant Grade 2, Sergeant Grade 3

    Gunnery Sergeant Grade 1, Gunnery Sergeant Grade 2, Master Gunnery Sergeant

    Lieutenant Grade 1, Lieutenant Grade 2, Lieutenant Grade 3, First Lieutenant

    Captain Grade 1, Captain Grade 2, Captain Grade 3, Staff Captain

    Major Grade 1, Major Grade 2, Major Grade 3, Field Major

    Commander Grade 1, Commander Grade 2, Commander Grade 3, Strike Commander

    Colonel Grade 1, Colonel Grade 2, Colonel Grade 3, Force Colonel

    Brigadier Grade 1, Brigadier Grade 2, Brigadier Grade 3, Brigadier General

    General Grade 1, General Grade 2, General Grade 3, 5 Star General

    Competitive Popularity

    Halo 3 is widely accepted to be one of the most popular competitive games to date. Halo 3 has a huge competitive fanbase and is the flagship game for most gaming tournaments and leagues. Many people adore this game for its balance, fun factor, and overall longevity. Leagues like Major League Gaming have used Halo 3's Forge abilities to make their own gametypes and maps for the game. There is even an MLG playlist (see above) in Halo 3 for all the competitive players out there. MLG maps can be downloaded from the Gamertag MLG Gametypes. In MLG Halo 3 players start out with a Battle Rifle instead of an Assault Rifle, have no radar, and they are a bit faster and stronger. MLG has currently 7 maps to play on (Guardian, Construct, Narrows, The Pit, Onslaught, Amplified and Lockdown) and use only 6 weapons ( Battle Rifle, Carbine, The Plasma Pistol, Sniper Rifle, Rocket Launcher, and Mauler). These changes were made to make it more competitive.

    Battle Rifle Frustration

    The Battle Rifle has a 66% random spread. Although gamers have contacted Bungie, asking for a change to the spread, Bungie has responded that they will not be fixing what they do not consider to be broken.

    User-Generated Content

    Forge

    With the addition of Forge any Halo 3 owner can completely customize every Halo 3 multiplayer map. From vehicle and weapon placement to fusion coils and equipment placement, just about everything the player can use and interact with on a map can be moved, tweaked, and adjusted to the player's liking. Once completed, all forged maps can be put on the player's file share and uploaded to Bungie.net were other players can download, comment, tag, and share their creations over the Internet. The recent maps Foundry (From the Heroic Map Pack) and Sandbox (From the Mythic Map Pack) were made specifically to cater to users of Forge. Many forging communities have arisen in the wake of these two maps releases, creating a massive number of user-generated maps. Bungie has recently taken notice of this user-generated content and has incorporated several Forge maps created in Foundry and Sandbox into both Ranked and Social matchmaking. Bungie has also regularly featured maps created by the community in their weekly updates and included interviews with their creators. A few special features of the Forge have been included in recent map packs as well, from different color affects to the Killball.

    Theater

    The Theater is a powerful tool allowing the viewing and saving of previously played campaign missions and multiplayer matches. The system used to create the video allows the video to maintain a size of mere kilobytes. The Theater can be used to take screenshots, save film clips, and save whole films. The camera in the Theater is not limited to a body either. The camera can be moved to any player or free-floated anywhere in the map, allowing for interesting angles and screenshots.

    User Created Screenshot

    Screenshots

    With the use of theater mode, users can take screenshots of their favorite moments and upload them to Bungie.net. There players can also comment, rate, and download other users' screenshots. Bungie has used screenshots uploaded to Bungie.net in their Weekly updates.

    Saved Films

    While watching a match in Theater, people can save entire custom and matchmaking games or cut out specific parts to make video clips. These videos can then be watched through Theater by anyone who has downloaded the file from the user's File Share. Plus, as the Theater records gameplay information and not video, matches can be viewed from any angle.

    File Share

    The File Share is available for every Halo 3 user and allows them to upload their files for others to view and download at no cost. These slots can include Films, Film Clips, Screenshots, Map Variants, Gametypes or any combination. The standard capacity for the File Share is six slots and 25MB, although this can be upgraded to 24 slots and 250MB via Bungie Pro (see below).

    Bungie Pro

    Bungie Pro enables a number of premium features to the Halo 3 user, including an expansion of storage for your Halo 3 File Share (see above) and the ability to use Bungie Pro Video (see below). A 12-Month Bungie Pro subscription can be purchased over Xbox Live for 750 MS Points. At the end of the subscription, you'll be asked to whether you want to renew or your subscription or not. For a limited time, a trial of Bungie Pro was given as a gift to people who downloaded the Legendary Map Pack or Mythic Map Pack. The trial lasted roughly 4 months.

    Bungie Pro Video

    As of now Bungie Pro comes bundled with Bungie Pro Video. Bungie Pro Video allows you take your game film clips (which, as they are purely game data, require Halo 3 to be viewed) and turn them into videos you can watch on your computer using the wmv format. Users are allowed 5 render minutes a month, which expire at the end of the month. Bungie has stated that users will soon be able to buy render minutes using the File Share menu at 10 minutes for 100 MSP ($1.25).

    Skulls

    Skulls have various effects on the Halo 3 campaign. Bungie has expanded the original skulls Easter egg from Halo 2. Now when you find a skull you can turn it on and off at

    A Halo 3 Skull

    will as opposed to having to start a new save to turn it off. There are 4 silver skulls which don't give an achievement but go towards unlocking the Hayabusa armor, and 9 gold skulls which each have their own achievement and go towards unlocking the Hayabusa armor.

    Silver Skulls

    Cowbell Skull - Makes explosions larger.

    Grunt Birthday Party Skull - When grunts are shot in the head their head explodes and confetti flies out. There is also the sound of children cheering.

    IWHBYD Skull - Opens up new, often humorous dialogue in the game.

    Blind Skull - Removes your reticule, shield bar, ammo count, etc. from your HUD.

    Gold Skulls

    Catch Skull - Makes enemies use grenades more often and also drop more when you kill them. Friendly units will also throw grenades more often.

    Iron Skull - If playing the campaign single player, death will send the player back to the beginning of the level. In co-op, the death of a single player takes all players back to the last checkpoint.

    Black Eye Skull - Your shields don't recharge unless you melee attack enemies.

    Tough Luck Skull - Enemies are better at dodging explosions and vehicles.

    Fog Skull - Removes your motion sensor.

    Famine Skull - Makes dropped weapons supply you with less ammo. This does not include weapons on weapon racks or certain weapons "planted" by Bungie for the player to use.

    Thunderstorm Skull - Enemies ranks are higher. Higher ranked enemies take more damage.

    Tilt Skull - Enemies are more resistant to certain weapons. Shielded enemies will take dramatically less damage from bullet weapons and unshielded enemies will take dramatically less damage from plasma weapons. This includes vehicle weapons, such that a Plasma Rifle can take down a Brute's shields before a Warthog LAAG turret can, but this is much less noticeable in a tank.

    Mythic Skull - Enemies have double health.

    Look at the guide section to find out where to find them. Additionally, 6 more skulls will be added with the release of the Mythic Map Pack and the 3 maps to be packed in with Halo 3: ODST, with one skull per map. These skulls do not affect the Campaign, and their only benefit is the Vidmaster achievement for finding all of them (and are therefore required to achieve the coveted Recon armor).

    Multiplayer Map Skulls

    Assembly Skull - This skull is located in the center of the map, up top, in between the big purple arm and the middle post. As with all the Mythic skulls, you must be in Forge to obtain it.

    Orbital Skull - This skull is located above the pit in the middle of the map, it is a few floors up and hidden under and overhang. As with all the Mythic skulls, you must be in Forge to obtain it.

    Sandbox Skull - This skull is located at the back of the dunes, in between the guardians towers. There are many custom maps you can download with the towers shut off so you can just fly out and grab it. As with all the Mythic skulls, you must be in Forge to obtain it.

    Citadel Skull

    Heretic Skull

    Longshore Skull

    Downloadable Content

    Halo 3 has seen four Map Packs released for the game since it's September 2007 launch, which are the Heroic Map Pack (free), Legendary Map Pack (600 MS Points), Cold Storage Map Pack (free), and the first half of the Mythic Map Pack (800 MS Points).

    Heroic Map Pack

    The Heroic Map Pack was released on December 11th, 2007 and included 3 new maps:

    Foundry - A medium-sized map with a focus on team-based gametypes, made from the ground up for Forge, as every object in the level can be deleted and rearranged in innumerable combination's.

    Standoff

    Rat's Nest

    Foundry

    Rat's Nest - Based on Crow's Nest, the second level in Halo 3's campaign, Rat's Nest is a medium-sized symmetrical map with a focus on vehicular combat and large-scale objective gametypes.

    Standoff - A medium- to large-sized map, set near a Satellite Base in New Mombasa, ideal for medium-sized objective games.

    Legendary Map Pack

    The Legendary Map Pack was released on April 15th, 2008 and included 3 new maps:

    Avalanche - A large, heavily vehicle-based map inspired by Halo: Combat Evolved's Sidewinder, Avalanche is set on a snowy shelf of the partially completed Installation-04.

    Ghost Town

    Blackout

    Avalanche

    Blackout - A small, asymmetrical map that is a remake of Halo 2's Lockout. Made, like Lockout, specifically for FFA and small team-based gametypes. Bungie took great efforts to make Blackout an exact recreation of Lockout, even going as far as to recreate the ability to launch the Sniper Rifle across the map via shooting the nearby fusion coil.

    Ghost Town - A medium-sized base-assault map, set in the jungle of Sierra-117, the first level in Halo 3's campaign.

    Cold Storage Map Pack

    The Cold Storage Map Pack was released on July 7th, 2008 and included only one single map. It was a gift for Bungie to it's fans for Bungie Day '08 (July 7, 2008). Cold Storage is technically considered Legendary tier, meaning to play it in matchmaking you must have the Legendary map pack also.

    Cold Storage

    Cold Storage - A faithful remake of Halo: Combat Evolves Chill Out, Cold Storage is a small, claustrophobic map used primarily for Slayer and Oddball gametypes.

    Mythic Map Pack (First Half)

    First alluded to in the achievements Title Update 2 added, the Mythic Map Pack consists of 6 maps, with 3 bundled in with the Halo Wars Limited Edition and released onto Xbox Live Marketplace April 9th, 2009, and 3 to be bundled with Halo 3: ODST, along with every other map. Unlike with all other multiplayer maps, the Mythic Map Pack will contain 6 hidden skulls, with 1 per map. The skulls go toward unlocking the "Vidmaster" achievement. Bungie has said that once all the Vidmaster achievements are unlocked, Recon Armor will be unlocked. The last Vidmaster Achievement will be achievable when the other 3 maps of the "Mythic" Map Pack release with Halo 3: ODST.

    The first half of the Mythic Map Pack, which first shipped with the Limited Edition version of Halo Wars and came to Marketplace April 9th, 2009 consists of:

    Assembly - First shown off at PAX '08, Assembly is a small, symmetrical arena-style map made to cater to small, team-based gametypes and FFA. Previously known as Purple Reign internally, Assembly has been one of the longest referred-to maps by Bungie, via their Bungie Weekly Updates.

    Sandbox

    Orbital

    Assembly

    Orbital - A close-quarters, asymmetrical map, tailored for 8 player, 1-sided gametypes. The map takes place aboard the Quito space tether, an orbital docking station used as an Earth-based space port. First referenced as Moonbase Alpha, Orbital, along with Assembly, have been the longest referenced DLC maps by Bungie.

    Sandbox - A map made from the ground-up with Forge in mind, similar to Foundry. Sandbox is unique as it features 3 separate "planes" of play. The ground level, made completely from Forge objects and using a floor of sand. The "sky bubble", a free-floating level hundreds of feet from the ground, uses an invisible "kill-barrier" to allow the creation of maps similar to "Guardian" or "Blackout". And the "crypt," an underground room, accessible via the ground level, made to accommodate Grifball matches, though it, like the ground level, can be completely customized via the level's almost endless array of Forge objects.

    Mythic Map Pack (Second Half)

    First referenced to in the achievements Title Update 2 added to the game, the Mythic Map Pack's latter 3 maps will be bundled in with Halo 3: ODST as maps exclusive to that package. Little to no information is known about these maps other than that, along with Halo 3: ODST, they will be the last additional content added to Halo 3. On Bungie Day '09, Bungie revealed the first screenshots and descriptions of Citadel, Longshore, and Heretic.

    Citadel - " Citadel may be a long abandoned Forerunner stronghold, but its small, symmetrical confines are far

    Heretic

    Longshore

    Citadel

    from secure. Two opposing bases offer little safety for players looking for solace. Instead, Citadel forces small squads to stay in constant communication, keep their heads on a swivel, and be prepared to adjust combat tactics in close quarters." - Bungie.net

    Longshore - "Longshore lacks the commercial ships that once made it a lucrative port for Old Mombasa, but it still bustles with activity. Designed for large scale combat and well suited for smaller affairs, Longshore’s multitude of industrial buildings, elevated walks, and open inlets conspire to create a complex battleground tailored for multiple combat scenarios." - Bungie.net

    Heretic - "Heretic returns players to familiar ground as the Halo 2 arena “Midship” makes its long-rumored debut in Halo 3. The stark interior of the Pious Inquisitor might appear austere on first glance, but Heretic’s symmetrical spaces require players to execute complex strategies in order to outplay their opponents." - Bungie.net

    Halo 3:ODST

    A standalone campaign expansion to Halo 3: ODST (formerly known as Halo 3: Recon), will be available as a disc-based product Fall 2009. The game will be bundled with the second half of the Mythic Map Pack (Citadel, Longshore and Heretic) and will feature every multiplayer map from the retail Halo 3 as well as every DLC map up to and including the Mythic Map Pack.

    For more information, check out the ODST game page.

    Recon Epidemic

    RECON

    With the addition of armor to Halo 3's multiplayer fans would be able to customize their online characters to their liking. All armor is acquired in game via achievements, completion of levels, and the capturing skulls, except for Recon armor. Once community members found out they could not unlock Recon armor a full scale epidemic started on the forums. People contently spammed threads asking for "Reconz" when they finally figured out only Bungie could unlock it for them. Bungie finally had to put a stop to all the Recon madness by posting this thread on the pinned topics list, saying this " Any thread about Recon Armor will be met with a stern ban." The full thread can be found here. The topic went on to explain that the only way to acquire Recon armor is to do something that makes a big enough impression on Bungie and/or the Halo Community to "make us think 'Hey, this guy deserves Recon.'" However, this will all come to an end with the release of Halo 3: ODST which will provide a chance at unlocking recon armor by unlocking the Vidmaster achievements in it as well as those found in Halo 3.

    Development, Release, and Reception

    Halo 3 launch event at the NASDAQ building in New York City

    Halo 3 was officially announced at E3 2006 with the first cinematic trailer, and Bungie continued to throw the groveling masses bits of information on its weekly updates up to the games release. Halo 3 was developed using an in-house engine commonly referred to as the Halo 3 Engine. The engine utilizes advanced graphics tech including High Dynamic Range, Global Lighting and depth of field effects in the cutscenes, Motion Blurring was added in the main game but wasn't in the beta. Halo 3 uses normal, bump, and parallax mapping to increase the detail of models but keeping the number of polygons down. Halo 3 has over 50,000 pieces of audio (40,000 of them being NPC dialogue) a drastic improvement over the previous two games (Halo 2 having about 15,000). In fact, separate recordings for both distant and near gunfire were made and if the player were to hear distant gunfire it might actually be an NPC shooting and not just ambient noise.

    Voice Actors

    Steve Downes as Master Chief

    Jen Taylor as Cortana

    David Skully as Sergeant Johnson and the Elites

    Keith David as the Arbiter

    Tim Dadabo as 343 Guilty Spark

    Ron Perlman as Lord Hood

    Robert Davi as Rtas Vadum

    Along with several voice acting cameo appearances from Red vs. Blue and Joss Whedon's Serenity characters.

    Halo 3 was advertised using every marketing technique imaginable, including viral ads, game trailers, pre-rendered CGI, four Developer Diaries, real-time cinematics, Beta tests, product tie-ins, even live action film. Also, before and after the release, many interviews with Bungie personnel were conducted by the gaming press along with many magazine stories. In addition to the astounding amount of advertising money poured into the launch, Halo 3 was plagued by leaks, including a leak of the games test Beta before it's gold release (confirmed to have been 99.99 percent complete), Microsoft has responded by banning the gamertags of people caught playing it until the year 9999. In the weeks leading up to the game many pre-release (pirated) copies were seen for sale on E-bay, and a catalog retailer accidentally released copies of the game for sale a little early - this was confirmed as an honest mistake, and Microsoft is not punishing Argos (the retailer) for the error.

    Halo 3 received favorable reviews from many critics, and with an average of 94% in reviews - the sixth best reviewed game on the 360 - according to Metacritic. The single player aspect though, had mixed reviews, some saying it was too short, others going so far as to say certain levels left a rotten taste in their mouth, while others saying it was anything but disappointing. The favorable reviews along with multiple record-breaking sales numbers fueled the games popularity as sales skyrocketed all the way up to the release of the map packs. Halo 3 has received several awards from several sources, including game of the year awards, runner ups for best shooter, best multiplayer, most addicting game of the year, and several more.

    Mountain Dew Game Fuel

    Promotion

    The summer prior to Halo 3's launch, Pepsi released a new Halo specific Mountain Dew called Game Fuel. The flavor was a mix of Code Red and Live Wire, and the drink was discontinued early November. This may be due to the fact that the drink had a reputation for a horrible taste. Halo 3 also had an ad campaign in association with Burger King prior to the game's release.

    In addition to these promotional tie-ins, 7-11 stores across the United States were equipped with a variety of Halo themed merchandise including three collectible Slurpee cups and posters. The game was also sold in 7-11 stores for a limited time, even featuring a pre-order program. There were a variety of problems with this initiative, however, including the fact many staff members were unaware of the promotion as well as shipping issues on launch day.

    Soundtrack The soundtrack to Halo 3 was once again composed by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori and was released a few months after the game in a 2 CD set.

    Versions of Halo 3

    Halo 3 was released in three separate versions. The Standard Edition contains the game disc, manual, and a small poster with the game's control-map and artwork.

    The Limited Edition, contained in a metal case, contains the game disc, manual, poster, interactive Xbox 360 bonus disc with several featurettes, and a hard cover bound "Bestiarum", which is a collection of information and art covering the species, cultures, and civilizations of Halo 3.

    The final version was marketed as the "Legendary Edition", which contains the game disc, manual, poster, interactive bonus disc, Bestiarum (on one of the DVD discs), Legendary DVD containing special content exclusive to the Legendary Edition, and a scale replica of the Master Chief's helmet as a case for the three discs. The slip-cover packaging unfolds into a large heavy-stock poster of Master Chief. The helmet that came along with the Legendary Edition could not be worn by a person, but some noted that it could fit on the head of a cat. Many journalists coined the Master Chief helmet as being the "Halo Cat Helmet".

    Upon release, some of the Limited Edition versions of Halo 3 were found to have a defect in the hub that kept the discs in place, which could lead to scratched discs. Microsoft confirmed the problem and offered to replace scratched Halo 3 Limited Edition discs free of charge until the end of January 2008.This was not a problem in either the Legendary Edition or the Standard Editions

    Tracklist

    Soundtrack Box Art

    Disc 1

    Luck

    Released

    Infiltrate

    Honorable Intentions

    Last of the Brave

    Brutes

    Out of Shadow

    To Kill a Demon

    This is Our Land

    This is the Hour

    Dread Intrusion

    Follow Our Brothers

    Farthest Outpost

    Behold a Pale Horse

    Edge Closer

    Disc 2

    Three Gates

    Black Tower

    One Final Effort

    Gravemind

    No More Dead Heroes

    Keep What You Steal

    Halo Reborn

    Greatest Journey

    Tribute

    Roll Call

    Wake Me When You Need Me

    Legend

    Choose Wisely

    Movement

    Never Forget

    Finish the Fight

    Title Update 1

    Melee

    In Bungie's first mandatory Title Update they fixed what many players where complaining about at the time, the melee system. Previously, if both players melee'd each other at the same time, the player with the more shielding would die and there was a two second window that the system considered "same time." Due to the high level of complaints, Bungie came up with a new Melee system. The "same time" window was closed to about a second and the kill would often go to would hit first, but if the game determined that both players hit at the same time, both players would die, ending in a somewhat humorous death as both players flopped backwards.

    Armor

    Prior to this update the there was an issue with the Elite shoulder pieces of the armor permutation "Commando" not unlocking, even after players had gotten the required "Overkill" achievement. The update granted every player the ability to use the "Commando" shoulders regardless if they had the achievement for it or not.

    Title Update 2

    Ranking

    In their online Weekly Update for August 1st, 2008, Bungie unveiled a new addition to the online ranking system to be implemented in the second mandatory Title Update for Halo 3. The post included a chart illustrating EXP progression in various matchmaking playlists. The update offers players another visual representation of their progress in the online game, and serves to display precisely how many victories they have earned in any given matchmaking playlist.

    This is achieved by adding a new layer of specificity to the tracking of player EXP (EXP is a value that serves to illustrate how seasoned a player is in matchmade games). While a player's online Service Record still reflects their total EXP value, under the new ranking system, the player also has a visual EXP value (in the form of the same military ranks that previously existed in the online game) for each individual playlist. To clarify, this means that as a player wins more games in a particular playlist their overall EXP value responds as it normally would, but they also progress through the Halo 3 military ranks specific to that playlist. An example: A player may fancy the Team Slayer hopper over all others, and after some time and enough wins, obtain an EXP rank of General in the playlist -- however, if said player has only been competing in the Team Slayer playlist, they will have a playlist military rank of Recruit in the other playlists that they've been ignoring.

    A common misconception among Halo fans after the announcement of this news was that the hard-fought rankings that they had toiled away for since first setting foot online would be made meaningless after the release of the update, because now any player who invested enough time in a certain playlist would reach the esteemed upper ranks in a much easier fashion. This concern was later proven to be immaterial, because no aspect of the previous ranking system was being modified, and the individual playlist rankings were not to be reflected in a player's Service Record.

    Back-End

    Aside from the addition of the new ranking system, the second Title Update adds several "under-the-hood" fixes and updates. The details of these "invisible" changes were not explicitly fleshed-out, but the general overview given of the modifications indicate that they increase the functionality for auto-detecting malicious behavior and cheating over Xbox Live.

    Map Variants

    The Title Update also introduced four new variants of existing maps, out of Epitaph came Epilogue, and out of Snowbound came Boundless. While Epilogue is entirely without shield doors, Boundless still has those in High and Low base middle entrances (to counter the possibility of grenade spamming). These new maps will replace the existing ones; they will appear in matchmaking simultaneously, however in the long run Bungie hopes to have these maps become the dominant set. In addition to these two, Sand Tarp is now a version of Sand Trap without the Elephant vehicle and with new flag capture spaces. Pit Stop is a new version of The Pit with the upper spawn areas now inaccessible. These same matchmaking policies apply to these two as well. These maps are treated as Forge variants by the game, and can therefore be played normally and saved to an Xbox 360 Hard Drive.

    Rumors

    While initial rumors and speculation ran wild with the release of Bungie's Edge acceptance speech, they have calmed the outcries of bots and campaign forging by definitively stating that these things will not be appearing in multiplayer or Forge.

    Xbox 360 Game Installation

    Halo 3 requires 6.3GB of space to be installed on an Xbox 360 HDD. However, Bungie has asked players to not install the game to the HDD. Due to the optimizations made to the game so that it can be played without a hard drive, installing to the HDD actually causes longer loading times when playing multiplayer.

    We have 1215 Halo 3 images

    General Information Edit

    Game Name Halo 3

    Platform(s)

    Xbox 360

    Publisher(s)

    Microsoft Game Studios

    Developer(s)

    Bungie Studios

    Genres

    Action

    First-Person Shooter

    Themes

    Sci-Fi

    Original US Release Sept. 25, 2007

    Aliases H3

    OFLC

    OFLC: M

    CERO

    CERO: D

    ESRB

    ESRB: M

    PEGI

    PEGI: 16

    BBFC

    BBFC: 15

    Guides Create

    Mythic Map Skull Locations

    A quick guide (with pictures!) to locating and claiming the hidden skulls on Assembly, Orbital, Sandbox, Citadel, Heretic, and Longshore.

    Halo 3 Achievement Guide

    Enemy Guide

    A descrition of every enemy in the game *SPOILERS*

    Armor Permutations

    A guide to get the different Armor Permutations in Halo 3 Multiplayer.

    Top Rated Lists Create a list

    Thousand Master

    a list of 115 items by 5parrowhawk

    Games most deserving for an Uwe Boll movie.

    a list of 10 items by Metal_Gear_Sunny

    Games I've Beaten

    a list of 225 items by Vito_Raliffe

    Related Games Edit

    similarfranchisesgames in franchise

    Battlefield 2142

    BlackSite: Area 51

    CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars

    Crysis

    Crysis 2

    Frontlines: Fuel of War

    Half-Life 2

    Haze

    Killzone 2

    Metroid Prime

    Perfect Dark Zero

    Prey

    Quake 4

    Resistance 2

    Section 8

    Star Wars: Republic Commando

    TimeShift

    Turok

    Unreal Tournament 3

    Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior

    Related Pages Edit

    charslocationsconceptsobjects

    343 Guilty Spark

    Arbiter

    Cortana

    Gravemind

    Master Chief

    Miranda Keyes

    N’tho ‘Sraom

    Prophet of Mercy

    Prophet of Truth

    Rtas 'Vadum

    Sergeant Major Avery Junior Johnson

    Terrence Hood

    Thel 'Vadam

    Usze 'Taham

  • Overview

    The new protagonist, known as 'The Rookie'.

    Halo 3: ODST will not feature Master Chief as past installments have. It will feature a nameless Orbital Drop Shock Trooper referred to simply as, " the Rookie, the silent protagonist of ODST." The game is set during and after the Halo 2 campaign level of Metropolis, as ODSTs' fight in New Mombasa, which has been ruptured by the Prophet of Regret's carrier jumping into slipspace.

    Missions are presented as flashbacks, triggered by visiting certain points in the game's main hub. The game requires players to employ more stealth and discretion than in other Halo titles, although it is still "a Bungie Halo game," as Bungie's Community Manager Luke Smith puts it; but the one-man-army feel of the Halo games will be lessened due to the ODSTs' weaker armor and abilities in comparison to the Master Chief. However, the city's municipal AI, the Superintendent, looks to provide aid to the ODSTs in their fight, via manipulation of electronic billboards and other methods.

    The game's multiplayer component will be identical to Halo 3's, with the exception of the new Firefight mode and three ODST-exclusive maps. The game will sell for $60, a $100 edition will have a Halo-themed controller. The game does have a lower RRP of £40 in the UK, as opposed to the normal RRP of £50.

    Story

    Mombasa destroyed

    In the ending cut scene for "Metropolis," the Prophet of Regret performs a slipspace jump inside the city of New Mombasa, almost destroying it. The trailer for Halo 3: ODST shows this explosion affecting massive numbers of orbital drop pods, including the one containing the Rookie. The Rookie's pod crashes into a dark alley, knocking him unconscious for six hours. Covenant forces arrive in the area, but the Rookie wakes up and avoids detection. He observes the Covenant presence, loads a silenced variant of the series' traditional submachine gun, and begins to leave the area. A nearby sign flashes a message from the Superintendent, New Mombasa's municipal AI, showing the Rookie which direction to take and advising him to proceed with caution.

    Because of the tremendously hard landing of his pod (the Superintendent, watching through municipal surveillance cameras, estimates a 99.99% chance of fatality), the Rookie remains unconscious for six hours after the initial drop; while he is passed out in his drop pod, the rest of his squad is out fighting the alien invaders in the city. The Rookie wakes up at night, and sets out in search of his lost squad mates in New Mombasa. Whenever the Rookie discovers a "beacon", an object related to a specific squad member, a playable flashback occurs, which will detail the story that happened while the Rookie was out of action.

    The Superintendent serves as your guide and AI companion through the campaign, but in a far more passive way than Cortana has appeared in past Halo games.

    The Squad

    The gang's all here.

    The player is a member of a 6-man ODST squad, dropped on New Mombasa right before Regret's carrier jumps to slipspace. The player's character, the Rookie, will be attempting to discover what happened to his teammates after their drop went wrong. Four times throughout the game, the Rookie will discover objects that hint as to what his teammates have done. Whenever one of these objects is encountered, a playable flashback occurs, with the player taking the role of another man in the squad, for a thirty-minute or so scene detailing what happened to that particular squad-member. The December Game Informer issue detailed two of these characters, and gave the names of the other two. Bungie has also released an article on its forums entitled Meet the Squad which gives a more personalized run down of the squad members and the character you play.

    The Rookie

    The silent protagonist of Halo 3: ODST. Little is known of the rookie, all the player knows is that he is newcomer to the squad and everything that precedes after that that. The rookie is knocked unconscious for six hours after his drop and seems to to be the only human left in the city. The rookie moves around the city looking for clues of his lost squad mates and learns of their fate through the eyes of the Superintendent.

    Dare

    Captain Dare is the only female member of the mission, and wears Recon armor as opposed to standard ODST gear. It is implied that Dare had a romantic relationship with Buck as some point. She isn't actually an ODST--instead she's coming along as part of the secretive Office of Naval Intelligence, better known as ONI. She is voiced by Tricia Helfer, of Battlestar Galactica fame.

    Dutch

    Dutch is a large character who carries heavy weapons to take on vehicles and stronger enemies. Rockets and Spartan Lasers are the sorts of equipment Dutch loves wielding. Dutch’s former life as a road-train driver on Mars did well to prepare him for the arduous tasks of a heavy weapons specialist and driver in the ODSTs. Behind the death’s head rictus, jolly roger, and layer upon layer of black and gray armor is a man of deep spiritual convictions and respect for those he serves alongside. He is voiced by Adam Baldwin.

    Romeo

    Romeo is the squad sniper, whose attitude is said to get on the squads nerves at times. Bungie's Josef Staten describes Romeo as "kind of a dick". Romeo believes his true vocation is to be a ladies’ man. But just because he’s a lover doesn’t mean he can’t be a fighter—and a damned fine one at that. He keeps his gear clean, his suit looking sharp, and his body lean and strong. He may not be a shining example of the UNSC off the battlefield, but on it he is a consummate professional. He is voiced by Nolan North.

    Mickey

    Mickey loves being an ODST. More than he did being a pilot. More than he did being a crew chief on a Pelican gunship. He is no stranger to battle and has a fair number of notches in his belt, but he is unique amongst his ODST brothers in that he has never seen absolute ruination visited upon a human colony-world by the Covenant. He is voiced by Alan Tudyk.

    Buck

    Buck is the squad leader. His rank in the UNSC is Gunnery Sergeant (E-7) or GySgt or Gunny. Buck is a career Marine that has seen more than his fair share of this war. He has had the dubious honor of participating in many of the wars’ most vicious battles; including both the liberation of Harvest and the fall of Reach. That he has survived at all speaks volumes. Truly, if he was any better he’d be a Spartan. He is voiced by Nathan Fillion.

    Gameplay

    VISR mode in action

    Halo 3: ODST's single-player campaign will play quite differently than the other games in the Halo franchise. The game sets the players in a partially open city with the goal of finding and investigating the last known locations of your four ODST squad mates and fighting off the Covenant forces in the area. Once you reach one of the last-known waypoints of your four teammates you will find an object related to your teammates or evidence of their presence--such as a sniper rifle hanging from a street light--and enter a flashback to earlier that day, where you'll control the squad member for an entire level. Through the 30 minute flashback, which is said to play more like a traditional, linear, Halo level, you will discover the fate of your teammate and unravel the mystery of the events that occured in New Mombasa. The game will continue after you activate all four waypoints, but how it will progress is unknown. The New Mombasa "open world" is comparable in function to the hub world from a platformer; although the city in Halo 3: ODST will be fairly large, its design and structure is not to be compared with that of Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto III or other traditional sandbox-style open world games. Even though the scale may not be the same, the impact the city's look has and the time difference between flashback sequences and the rookie's current situation are big parts of the game. Because the Rookie is shorter than the Master Chief's towering 7' height, all enemies and vehicles will seem slightly larger. The heads-up display will be different from previous games since the player views the world from inside a standard-issue ODST helmet instead of a suit of Mjolnir armor,

    In addition to the new progression method, players will have some new tools at their fingertips:

    ODSTs have access to a silenced M7 SMG and a silenced magnum pistol, allowing them to move about the city surreptitiously. Both of these new weapons have distance scopes.

    ODSTs have access to VISR Mode, a kind of night vision that outlines friendlies, hostiles, and points-of-interest in glowing neon.

    ODSTs have access to a PDA, which can provide them a 3D map of the city at all times, and allows them to set personal waypoints.

    However, with the switch to a non-Spartan protagonist, some abilities that were previously Halo staples are now gone:

    ODSTs do not have a motion tracker.

    ODSTs use stamina rather than shields and must use medkits to heal their injuries.

    ODSTs are slower, shorter, and less agile than the Master Chief.

    ODSTs cannot dual-wield weapons.

    ODSTs are unable to throw grenades as far as Master Chief.

    FireFight

    FireFight mode has a total of 10 maps; these maps are as follows:

    Crater

    Lost Platoon

    Rally Point

    Security Zone

    Alpha Site

    Windward

    Chasm Ten

    Last Exit

    Crater (Night)

    Rally (Night)

    FireFight mode utilizes the unlockable skulls found in Halo 3, so they do not need to be unlocked in ODST. As you move through the waves of a FireFight match, more skulls will automatically turn on.

    Multiplayer

    Recon Armor

    Halo 3: ODST's online multiplayer is completely identical to that of Halo 3. Players playing multiplayer on ODST will be able to play with people on Halo 3. After many rumors and speculation as to what the mysterious Vidmaster achievements would reward players with, Bungie confirmed in an article with Game Informer that players who achieve all of the seven Vidmaster achievements will be rewarded the Recon armor permutation. All of the multiplayer maps from the Halo 3 disc and all three DLC packs will be included on the ODST disc, as well as three new maps: Heretic, Longshore, and Citadel. Once players have finally completed all of the 7 Vidmaster achievements, they must actually visit bungie.net and 'turn Recon on' via a button on their stats page.

    Access to the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta will also be included on the ODST disc. The date for the start of the beta has yet to be announced.

    Mythic 2

    Alongside all of the previously-released Halo 3 DLC maps, ODST features three new maps (collectively known as "Mythic 2") that are exclusive to the game and not available in downloadable form.

    Citadel

    Citadel

    Set in the same Forerunner structure as another Halo 3 map, Epitaph, this mid-sized arena features a handful of tight peripheral corridors that converge in a large with an exposed central platform. A symmetrical map with a focus on close-quarters combat, Citadel is best suited to games with smaller team sizes of 2v2 or 4v4.

    Longshore

    Longshore

    An abandoned Fish Processing Plant in the heart of Old Mombasa is the staging ground for the large-scale asymmetrical map, Longshore. The map features large buildings and an extendable bridge that provides some variety to the combat when activated. With similarities to past maps such as Hang 'Em High, Last Resort, High Ground, and Headlong, Longshore provides a familiar style of Big Team carnage. Due to the asymmetrical geometry of the map, one-sided gametypes such as 1-Flag or 1-Bomb Assault are ideal.

    Heretic

    Heretic

    A remake of the classic Halo 2 map Midship, set within the bowels of the Covenant ship Pious Inquisitor. Heretic is a nearly perfect re-creation of Midship in terms of actual geometry and design, but the aesthetic appearance of the map has been given a large upgrade to take advantage of the new Halo 3 engine. Dedicated Midship fans from Halo 2 will be happy to find some classic elements from the map have been faithfully carried over to Heretic, including the ability to reach "P3" at the top of Pink Tower. Also, players spawn with Plasma Grenades by default (instead of Frag Grenades) just like in Halo 2. Heretic, being a re-make, is suited for all of the same gametypes as Midship -- small team games of 2v2 or 4v4 work well, as do Free-For-All gametypes.

    Similarities to Firefly

    The majority of the main characters in Halo 3: ODST are voiced by the cast members of Firefly a television program that was aired on Fox back in 2002.

    Nathan Fillion voices Edward Buck, Alan Tudyk voices Michael Crespo and Adam Baldwin voices Taylor Miles. All of these characters show striking similarities to the characters that these actors played on the television show Firefly. Such as personality traits and back story.

    Such as Nathan Fillion's character Edward Buck for example. Nathan Fillion describes his character in a interview saying that he is "a bit hardened and a bit cranky ", that is a dead on description of the character he played in Firefly.

    The Score

    The Musical Score was once again composed by Martin (Marty) O'Donnell, however it has a very unique sound. The game abandons the previous halo themes almost completely, there is no choral music.

    The Music is a quieter more jazz-influenced sound. The "smoky jazz", as it's referred to, can be heard during The Rookie segments of the game as he investigates New Mombasa at night.

    O'Donnell said that since the game tells "a human story, not a cyborg story (The score should be) "more intimate and personal. Two of the game's three hours of music are packaged in a two disc soundtrack releasing September 22nd.

    Most of the music was recorded in the late winter and spring of 2009. Orchestra sessions were led by Stan LePard and performed by the Northwest Sinfonia, at studio X in Washington State.

    ODST Soundtrack

    Disc 1:

    01. Overture (5:39)

    Halo 3 ODST OST

    02. The Rookie (7:30)

    03. More Than His Share (5:49)

    04. Deference for Darkness (6:39)

    05. The Menagerie (6:10)

    06. Asphalt and Ablution (6:03)

    07. Traffic Jam (5:52)

    08. Neon Night (5:37)

    09. The Office of Naval Intelligence (8:50)

    Disc 2:

    01. Bits and Pieces (7:05)

    02. Skyline (7:02)

    03. No Stone Unturned (3:23)

    04. One Way Ride (6:51)

    05. The Light at the End (7:52)

    06. Data Hive (6:04)

    07. Special Delivery (10:23)

    08. Finale (8:12)

    Halo 3: ODST Special Edition

    In addition to the standard $60 package, Halo 3: ODST will also be available in a $100 Special Edition. The Special Edition contains no extra game content and has the same boxart, but instead comes with an exclusive Halo 3: ODST-styled controller. Along with the special edition, as a bonus, if you pre-order the game from selected retailers, you unlock Sgt. Johnson as a playable character in Firefight mode.

    Development and Announcement

    Halo 3: ODST began development and production only a few months before its official unveiling at Tokyo Games Show 2008 where it was unveiled under the more pleasing, but less explanatory title Halo 3: Recon. ODST was finished in approximately a year and a half, as opposed to the three-year development cycle that characterized previous Halo titles. According to Brian Jarrard, Halo 3: ODST is slightly smaller in scale than Bungie's usual products, due to the fact that it wasn't intended to be a full game. It started out mostly as an expansion but grew into a full scale game as time went on. After Halo 3, Bungie had several concepts for expanding the Halo universe past the story of Master Chief, one of which was to play as an ordinary soldier in a slightly darker, grittier setting. Bungie self-admits that it is "a risk" to step away from the Master Chief, but they felt that they could do so in an expansion. This concept was eventually settled on and became Halo 3: ODST, which, while not a true sequel, Bungie compares to traditional expansion packs like Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne in terms of content and changes from the original. Because of the inclusion of the full Halo 3 multiplayer (including all map packs) and Forge, as well as the new Firefight mode, ODST will go for the full title price of $60.

    An image similar to the ones featured during the Superintendant promotional campaign.

    ODST has proven to be a contested subject among Microsoft and Bungie before. In the days leading up to E3 2008, Bungie promised a "big reveal" to their fans by running a small-scale alternate reality game on the Bungie.net website and forums featuring "the Superintendant", a small, cartoonish figure holding a plunger, who was later revealed to be the municipal A.I. of New Mombasa, who will figure prominently into the story of ODST. In addition to cryptic news and forum posts, roughly a week before E3 2008, a countdown timer appeared on Bungie.net's homepage, superimposed over an image of the Superintendant. The countdown clock was supposed to end during the Microsoft press conference, but a day before E3 a message appeared from studio head Harold Ryan apologizing to fans, saying that their announcement was canceled due to their publisher pulling the plug on them. This is highly speculated to be because Microsoft had secured Final Fantasy XIII for the Xbox 360, and they did not want two big announcements in the same press conference. Bungie was quite incensed about the cancellation of their announcement, and no further information was had until September 25th, 2008, the one-year anniversary of Halo 3's release.

    A teaser trailer was released on Bungie's website, hinting at the involvement of orbital drop shock troopers and a setting in New Mombasa. A date was found in this trailer of January 20th, 2009, which many speculated to be the release date of the new project. This has been since proven false, and the date was either a deliberate red herring or something yet unknown. Speculation ran rampant until Microsoft's press conference at Tokyo Game Show 2008, where an extended version of the teaser trailer was unveiled, and the project was officially announced as Halo 3: Recon, with details provided.

    Name Change

    After the unveiling at TGS 08, Bungie released only a small amount of information on Recon. The December issue of Game Informer ran a cover story on Halo 3: Recon, further detailing the game. However, on November 25th, 2008, Bungie suddenly put a release up on their website saying that Halo 3: Recon had been renamed to "Halo 3: ODST", along with assets for the game being updated. According to Bungie,

    "This new title is a more straightforward account of the experience that awaits and the role you will assume as you explore the streets of New Mombasa."

    Bungie has stated that the Halo 3: ODST expansion will be the last element in the Halo trilogy that they are developing, although being technically the fifth game in the Halo series, Bungie's language does seem somewhat notable. The exact statement from the October 10, 2008 Weekly Update is:

    "We're not ready to discuss the other projects underway within the studio right now but Halo 3 : Recon does represent the final basket of goodness that we will be delivering for the Halo trilogy. There are no more offshoots or side stories in the works."

    With the announcement of Halo: Reach, it is clear that Bungie meant ODST would be the last game in the time frame of Halo: Combat Evolved through Halo 3 they would be developing, with Reach being a prequel to the original Halo.

    Advertising Campaign

    Prior to the release of ODST, Bungie created a short film featuring the story of one particular trooper. The film was split up into smaller pieces that were then used as short commercials for the game online or on television.The clip begins at a funeral, which is followed by a flashback detailing the exploits of the trooper, named Tarkov. The video moves on to boot camp, where Tarkov gets his hair cut and is forced to crawl through mud while being screamed at in what seems to be Hungarian.

    The clip then moves forward to the Tarkov dropping in from above, and landing in a war zone. After running through a realistic representation of a battle in the Halo universe, Tarkov fights a brute and receives several gashes in his face. The movie then flashes forward to an older Tarkov, performing a funeral service for a fallen trooper, and proceeding to move out in formation with the rest of the squad.

    Xbox 360 Install Size

    Installing Halo 3 ODST on your hard drive takes up about 3.5 GB of space. Installing ODST will not adversely affect performance like installing Halo 3 did.

  • One of The Guys who Started Ps1 with it's first game

  • Ripa'Morame is a Arbiter who does not want to say things twice

  • In the Street Fighter series Chun-Li was an Interpol investigator who had been searching for clues to the recent death of her father. Getting into a friendly spar with an old teacher of hers and friend of her father, Gen, he gives her a lead into who may have killed her father—the mysterious crime syndicate Shadaloo. Finding its leader, M. Bison, she demands he tell her what happened to her father. To her surprise, Bison attacks and basically makes quick work of her, then flies away, laughing at her and telling her if she attacks him again he will kill her just like he did her father. With tears in her eyes, Chun-Li swore vengeance.

    Fan art by Tea

    Chun-Li teamed up with an United States Air Force member, Charlie, to try to track and take down Shadaloo. She then ran into someone she would not have expected at all. It was Charlie's good friend and fellow lieutenant, Guile. Telling Guile he should not get in over his head and to leave the two be, Chun-Li learns he has orders to bring Charlie back. Attempting to use force to stop him, she instead finds herself defeated; nonetheless, she insists that she and her partner be left alone, to which Guile replies that he will never abandon friends in need. Eventually, learning that Bison tricked the Air Force into canceling the planned bombing of the main Shadaloo base, she rushed over to the two soldiers to tell them they were tricked and would have to destroy the base on their own. Chun-Li proceeded to plant bombs about the base as Charlie and Guile headed inside to destroy the Psycho Drive, but Guile then came rushing out, grabbing Chun-Li and telling her Charlie had urged both of them to get away. Along the way, Chun-Li saw a young girl escaping with several others (who turned out to be Cammy leading the dolls away from the base). Despite being distraught over the initial lack of evidence to prove Shadaloo's crimes, Interpol and Chun-Li managed to shut down much of the evil crime empire.

  • Sakura made her first appearance in Street Fighter: Alpha 2, where she participated in Street Fighting after being influenced by Ryu, who won the first World Warrior Tournament. According to the backstory, Sakura and her best friend Kei Chitose were harassed by a group of boys. Sakura fought the boys, but got beaten up. Wanting to become stronger, she began to idolize Ryu and started to train herself to fight like him. One day, she decided to find Ryu, so he can train her to be strong like him. In search of Ryu, she met a number of interesting people along the way. She eventually met Ryu, who told her that he could not train her due to him having much to learn himself. However, he did spar with her for a bit, and she was able to take a picture of him to remember him by.

    By Street Fighter Alpha 3, she was still training, and once again decided to travel the world in search of Ryu. She started off in Japan, where she met and fought the sumo wrestler E. Honda, who mentioned Ryu was going off places such as India and Thailand. She also fought a rematch between Karin Kanzuki, a rival of hers. Karin won the fight, although strangely admitted that Sakura was the better of the two and she learned then that winning was not everything. Sakura also met Blanka, and was promised a match with him. Continuing her search, she eventually found Ryu's rival and close friend Ken. Ken and Sakura found Ryu in Thailand, where he was being brainwashed by M. Bison. Ryu took on Sagat, and both Ken and Sakura took on Bison. Ryu's mind control was snapped due to Sagat pressuring such an occurance, and Sakura being injured by Bison, and Ryu forced Bison into retreat. He then told Sakura that he was not ready to fight her or train her just yet.

    She appeared once again in the console version of Street Fighter IV.

  • Next Street Fighter Game

  • In the original Final Fight, Cody's girlfriend Jessica (the daughter of Mayor Haggar) is kidnapped by the gang MAD GEARS which leads Cody to join Mayor Haggar in his quest to take revenge on the gang and rescue Jessica. As a friend of Jessica and Cody, Guy joins Cody and Haggar as well. Cody is not a playable charcter in the Final Fight Series after the first game. His absence from the second game was explained that he has married Jessica and is on his honeymoon with Jessica.

    Cody in his prison clothes from Street fighter Alpha 3

    He is seen in Guy's background in Street Fighter Alpha 2 with Jessica and the rest of the Final Fight Cast. Cody's appearance in Street Fighter Alpha 3 was a surprise to most fans as his life has suddenly taken a downward spiral and his is now an escaped felon. During the events of Final Fight Revenge Cody is framed by the remaining Mad Gear gang and sent to prison. It is also revealed that Poison has feelings for Cody, who comes to visit him, but knows his heart belongs to Jessica.

    In terms of playing style, Cody is the most well-rounded fighter with average speed and attack power. He is famous for being skilled with knives, and he can stab with them faster than either of his two companions should he pick one up during a level. This skill with knives is alluded to when he becomes a playable character in Street Fighter Alpha 3, as he can pick up a knife in the middle of a bout and continue to use it until he takes a hit or throws it.

  • Guy has mastered the art of ‘Bushin’ style ninjitsu and isn’t afraid to use it. Teaming up with his sparring partner Cody and Mayor Haggar in Final Fight, the two set out on a brawl across to save the former's girlfriend and latter's daughter respectively from Belger, the leader of the Mad Gear gang. Guy justifies the challenge as a way to put his skills to the test.

    In the original Final Fight, Guy is the speediest playable character. His quick attacks and movement can be used by the player to their advantage, covering up his weakness as least powerful of the three. An off-the-wall jump can catch thugs off guard, launching Guy towards them with a long range kick. Guy is also a specialist with the katana and can attack faster with the blade than either of his two companions should he pick one up. His special attack, the Bushin Whirlwind Kick, is an airborne spinning kick that makes quick work of nearby enemies.

    Guy is also a fighter in the Street Fighter Alpha series (pictured above), on a quest to find the greater evil, M. Bison. His constant incentive is to become a stronger fighter, seeking out his master in order to become the next Bushinryu leader. His supers are different here; the Bushin Hassoken is a combo of different punches followed up with a kick, and the Goraikyaku, an aerial combo which takes the opponent upward then a kick back down to earth.

  • Nothing is really known about Alex Corde's past, except that he has lost many loved ones throughout his entire life. Corde was first introduced in the Finish trailer, where he was injected with a in-flight stimulation. In-flight stimulation do nothing to him except, make him see visions of the past, visions that he tries to forget, but can't. Because Alex tries to forget his memory of the past, it makes him more ruthless in the heat of battle. Ironically, he is always known for being calm before war, but because of his apparent swings of complex emotions, it makes him more psychotic and more ruthless. The first vision Alex has is when he is 7 years of age and is at the table with his family. He then has a 2nd vision when he is riding his bike down the street, but the Sky crane pilot voice interrupts his vision and says "3 seconds to drop".

    At the start of the game, his squad is wiped out by the forces of the Arm of Orion's leader, Commander Soren. After this Corde pledges vengeance against him, destroying Arm operations throughout various worlds, rising through the ranks of Section 8, and indeed, ultimately finish off Commander Soren.

  • In the original series called "Ben 10", Gwen shares a hate/love friendship with her cousin Ben. Through the entire show, Gwen usually insults Ben just because they share the same birthday. Gwen uses her computer to find out any weird or strange people that they may come across, during their adventures. She is trained in gymnastics and has some training in martial arts.

  • Talia Al Ghul is the daughter of the Eco-terrorist Ra's Al Ghul. Ra's met Talia's mother at a festival in china, they soon got to know each other more and eventually got married and had Talia. Talia's mother ended up dying overdosing on drugs. When that happened Ra's took his daughter on trips, so that she can defend her self. Ra's Personally taught her Hand-To-Hand combat and swordsman ship. When Talia was a full grown adult, she became 2nd in-command of her father's league of assassins. She is said to be the most dangerous non-meta woman on the earth.

  • Born to a family of acrobats, Dick Grayson lived an exciting childhood while growing up in the circus. His parents were John and Mary Grayson, and as a family, formed "The Flying Grayson's," famed trapeze artists and acrobats.

    These happy times would soon take a turn for the worst, as the mafia had begun targeting the circus. At eight years old, Dick witnessed mob boss Anthony Zucco threaten the circus owner, demanding insurance for the safety of his performers. The owner vehemently refused the extortion and Dick went along his way. Unfortunately, Zucco decided to use the headlining act- which happened to be The Flying Graysons- as an example. Young Dick was helpless as he watched his parents die.

    As the Graysons plummeted to earth, hundreds of spectators watched in horror. Among them was millionaire Bruce Wayne (also known as Batman). Feeling empathy towards the boy's loss, Bruce decided to take the boy in as his legal ward.

    It was only a matter of time before Dick realized what his mentor was doing all those late nights, and eventually choose the same life as well. It was decided that with the boy's extensive training in acrobatics and his sense of justice, he had just what was needed to become the Batman's partner. After rigorous training from Bruce, Robin, the Boy Wonder, was christened.

    EARLY ADVENTURES

    A teen-age Dick as Robin

    Dick enjoyed his first year as Robin describing it as an adventure; he fought villains such as Penguin, Joker, Mr. Freeze and Scarecrow. His so-called adventure would turn into a hellish nightmare when Two-facekidnapped the new District Attorney and Batman, each suspended from a hangman’s noose in a double gallows death trap. Batman told Robin to save the D.A, Robin obeys Batman and throws a batarang that cuts the rope holding the D.A, it works, but Robin dose not take into account Dents obsession with killing the D.A, it was a two-flod trap and the floor gives way before Robin can get to him, Robin jumps into the water after the D.A but is pulled out by Two-face. Robin is surprised by this and received a very savage beating from Two-face as a restrained Batman watch’s in horror. Batman eventually is able to free himself and stop Two-face. However this event haunts Dick to this day [ Dick would go on to badly beat many times as Robin and Nightwing], this would also scare Batman so much that he suspended Dick for a time.

    Dick would come back to crime fighting much stronger and smarter than before. Dick would go to university but would drop out after one term due to his responsibilities as Robin.

    Teen Titans

    Robin and the rest of the Teen Titans. (Cyborg, Raven, Beast Boy, Starfire)

    After several years of fighting by Batman's side, Robin was ready to fight by others his own age. Upon meeting Kid Flash, Aqualad, Wonder Girl, and Speedy, they joined forces, becoming the Teen Titans. While Robin was the only member of the team without traditional superpowers, he was equipped with both experience and intelligence, making him a natural leader.

    Once the Titans disbanded, Dick chose to attend Hudson University, studying law. However, he's soon kicked out of school and falls back into fighting crime.

    The end of the Dynamic Duo

    Soon, the Titans are once again reunited with some new players. Robin resumes his role as leader and eventually comes into conflict with his mentor, finding he could now leave the nest.

    Robin realized at that point that he had grown up: He no longer relied on Batman and, in fact, he found out he could indeed solve crimes and fight on his own, he and the Dark Knight disagreed on crime-fighting methodology.After he was "fired" by Batman,

    Nightwing's first costume

    Dick's newfound independence and Titans' duties left less time for his former commitments in Gotham City. He also dropped out of Hudson after only one semester.

  • Zatanna is the daughter of a Powerful Wizard, Zatanna is a Defender Of the Dark Arts.

  • The Huntress is a common name in the DC Universe. The Most famous are the Crime fighter versions. One is Helena Wayne, Bruce Wayne's Daughter, and the other is Helena Bertinelli, the daughter of a Gotham mafia boss. A crossbow is her main weapon.

  • Kokoro is a character that appears in the Dead or Alive series. She uses the Ba Ji Quan fighting style.

  • Omnitrix user

  • The Future Knight

  • raging inferno

  • The Hot red head

5 Comments

Avatar image for big_jon
big_jon

6533

Forum Posts

2539

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 18

Edited By big_jon

I dont understand this list but hey good list?

Avatar image for bogitt
Bogitt

214

Forum Posts

10

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By Bogitt

Indeed there is some mighty text work going on here, well done man

Avatar image for tehmaxxorz
TEHMAXXORZ

1190

Forum Posts

4491

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 2

Edited By TEHMAXXORZ

Yeah, the thing is.... you don't type out the entire story and added detail of secrets within the campaign when writing a list. Just type something witty, if possible.

Avatar image for solidejake
solidejake

527

Forum Posts

82074

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

Edited By solidejake

You sir, have a fine piece of list!

Avatar image for shadowinfinite
SHADOWINFINITE

621

Forum Posts

26284

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 3

Edited By SHADOWINFINITE
@solidejake said:
You sir, have a fine piece of list!
Thanks