bit-tech Shopping: Microsoft Halo 3 Collector's Edition (XB360)

• Action/Adventure
• First Person Shooter (FPS)

• 1080i (HDTV)
• 1080p (HDTV)
• 480p (EDTV)

Rating: 8

Time with product: 3

Strengths: It is Halo Universe

Weaknesses: Scratched discs due to its poor packaging

Summary: I love Halo series, mainly because its tight storyline and its great gameplay. This edition has an additional disc which includes some behind story stuffs which are related to Halo series and Halo 3 development stories. its a nice addition to standard edition. But this edition's big problem is its scratched discs coming from its poor package. When I opened it, both discs had some scratches, but they are playable. Other people complained this situation a lot, so MS decided exchange defective discs for new ones. But remember you have to pay shipping and wait about a month to get a new disc.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 5 Months

Strengths: Great multiplayer, Forge is a nice touch, some interesting extras on bonus DVD

Weaknesses: Packaging quality

Summary: Halo 3 is an excellent entrance of the Halo franchise to the current generation of consoles. Too bad it's also the end of the series. It has a solid campaign, multiplayer to keep you playing a while down the road, and playing around in the Forge, plopping things down wherever, can be fun. The only thing about the Collector's Edition is that its packaging is bulky and of inferior quality, especially when compared to the packaging of the Perfect Dark Zero Collector's Edition. Three months after first getting the game, the disc suddenly became unreadable. Luckily, Microsoft has the disc replacement program in place, and I was able to resume gaming barely two weeks later.

Rating: 6

Time with product: 20

Strengths: fun muliplayer

Weaknesses: kinda slow game play

Summary: Game started out great, but after a while its getting kind of boring. The online play is fun with the vehicles and such. the original halo was much better. this one just seems like its missing something...

Rating: 6

Time with product:

Strengths: Fun multiplayer

Weaknesses: Game is losing interest

Summary: The Halo series has been a fun and entertaining one. I've logged many hours with Halo 2 online, but Halo 3 just doesn't seem to draw me in. I've tried playing a few times, but I get bored for no longer than 10 minutes. It seems that Call of Duty 4 seems to appeal to me more. Nonetheless, Halo 3 has great graphics and it has great gameplay, something that might appeal to other gamers.

Rating: 6

Time with product: 15 Days

Strengths: Excellent graphics (need HDTV) and sound, fluid game play, good multi-player/online playing value

Weaknesses: Graphics not optimized for non-HD TV, so-so (somewhat short) single-player story line, buggy bumper jumper controller mode, POOR PACKAGING: SCRATCHED DISKS DUE TO DVDs COMING LOOSE AGAINST METAL BOX

Summary: The most anticipated game of the year--Halo 3 delivers in its graphics/sound and game play (especially multi-player/online play). Although the single player story line is somewhat short and disappointing, its multi-player/online play more than make up for this lack thereof. New weapons and vehicles also add fun and variety. This game is not without defects, however. The first thing I noticed when I opened the box was that the disks came loose from the disk holders and were already scratched (quite heavily) against the inside of the metal box. The scratched disks still play, but imagine getting this for a gift! (BTW, I found out Microsoft provides free scratched disk replacements till February 2008, so I sent them in: but it has been 2 weeks and I still have not received the replacements yet). Secondly, the graphics need to be tweaked and viewed on HDTV in order to be good: it seems like Microsoft/Bungie did not optimize this game for normal (non-HD) TVs. Finally, the bumper jumper controller mode appears to have some bug: the reload button does not work. I ended up switching back to default controller mode. All in all, a good game that lives up to its hype, but poor packaging and quality control.