I received my copy of Halo 3: ODST in the mail last week, Bungie’s not-a-sequel but not-an-expansion to Halo 3. I would not say I am a Halo fanboy; I don’t play much online multiplayer and I have barely even played Halo or Halo 2. But I did really enjoy Halo 3 and thought it deserved the generally high review scores it received. A lot of people I encounter on the Internet like to hate on Halo, whether because a lot of 12 year olds play it, it’s the cool thing to hate on, or whatever other reason. I liken Halo on consoles to World of Warcraft on PC: it’s a great game (or in this case games), but the stereotypes give it a bad name. But I digress. I thought Halo 3’s campaign was still really well done and when playing with friends (I don’t come close to matching up with people who play the game online regularly) multiplayer is a blast.

I did not even get into the whole debate about whether ODST was worth the $60 price tag it received. From all the previews I read, it sounded like a good enough experience and that was good enough for me.

So, about the game: it’s great. Since I haven’t played much of Halo or Halo 2, I can’t say whether the campaign is the best, but to me it was an improvement from Halo 3. The game has a hub world which is where you play as Rookie, and takes place at night. When you come across clues for what happened to your squad, you are taken to a flashback sequence and get to play out what happened to them as a different character. While these flashbacks turned out to be the meat of the game, I actually enjoyed the nighttime parts as Rookie best. For me, it was a combination of the environment and the soundtrack. It was also the most different from traditional Halo. There was a lot of exploring and listening to audio logs rather than just constantly killing aliens. While some might say collecting audio logs is just a gimmick, I thought it added a nice element to the story.

That said, remember that it’s still Halo. Don’t go into this expecting a deep and compelling story. Saying the story is better than Halo 3 isn’t saying much. I play Halo games for the gameplay as I think they are the best FPS gameplay on consoles. You’ll see a lot of the same weapons in ODST as you did in Halo 3, but that is hardly a complaint from me. Also, rather than having regenerating health with a shield like Halo 3, you have a health bar with stamina. Your stamina acts like the shield does in Halo 3, and when your stamina is depleted, the screen turns red and you begin to lose health. This further reinforced that you do not play as Master Chief and you have to adjust your gameplay style accordingly.

ODST also contains a great multiplayer mode called Firefight. For this, think Gears of War 2’s Horde mode, where loads of enemies continue to spawn and you try to survive as long as possible while killing them all. This can be played with up to four players co-op which makes it a great experience. It still has some competitive nature as it records who scores the most points on your team but it is not on the same level as Halo 3 deathmatch.

All in all I really like what Bungie did with ODST. They had a very short development cycle and they made the most out of it. It’s great to see they don’t have to rely on Master Chief to make a successful game and it makes me even more excited to see what they have in store for us next with Halo: Reach.

No, I don’t mean over blogging, though obviously I haven’t published anything in a while. A big complaint about a lot of games this generation is that they are too short. $60 for a 6 hour campaign and no multiplayer? That doesn’t seem like a good value. But have you ever thought about it the other way around? If a game has a 6-12 hour campaign, it’s pretty likely that a relatively good percentage of people who buy the game will beat it.

Obviously if I start an RPG, I know what I’m getting myself into. I expect to have to put many hours into the game to get the most out of it. And it’s rare that I find myself frustrated with the gameplay in an RPG, at least the ones I most often play, because it’s very familiar and if things don’t go well you can simply reload. Of course one might become bored with an RPG before the ending, but that is not where I’m going with this. I’ve also had my fair share of MMO experience (WoW) and know all about putting in endless hours and even days (last I checked, my /played time was over 60 days on my main character).

Over the past few weeks, the game I have played the most is Grand Theft Auto IV. I got the game earlier in the year, got to maybe 10-20% completion rate, and didn’t get to play it all summer. I picked it back up and am now quite far in it, probably nearing the end of the main story mode. But each time I boot it up, I find myself taking a break or ending my play session quicker and quicker. The story is excellent, and the overall gameplay is fun, but the frustration that goes along with having to restart a mission completely from the beginning is getting to me. The main problem with this is the lack of a checkpoint system. Let’s look at any of the driving or racing missions. If your target escapes, or you wreck your car, you should start right where the driving part of the mission starts. But instead, as many of you probably know, you have to do everything over. The mission starts like it’s the first time you’ve played it. So when I fail a mission two or three times in a row, I normally just stop playing for a while. I really don’t like to get frustrated from gaming, but with things like this, I can’t help it.

I’ve gotten a little off topic, but where I wanted to go with this was, are games ever too long? In gameplay hours, I have probably logged 20-25 hours into the game. But this does not take into consideration the numerous times I have shut the console off after dying, which easily puts it well over 30 hours. Typically I like it when a game can give me over 20 hours of enjoyment, but I just feel tired of getting frustrated with GTA IV after less than an hour gameplay session, when I could just as easily pop in The Beatles: Rock Band and have a blast. I hope I can eventually beat the main story in the game, and I hope the ending is rewarding as I have really enjoyed following the story. If only some of the more trivial missions had been cut out and I could have been done with the game by now, I’d probably have great things to say. And when I do eventually finish it, I probably will say great things; hell, I already can, the game is damn good. But for now this one is on hold until I am ready to suck it up and power through it.

Games I got to see at E3:

• The Beatles: Rock Band
• Tales of Monkey Island
• The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
• The Old Republic
• LEGO Indiana Jones 2
• Star Wars Clone Wars: Republic Heroes
• Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron
• Alpha Protocol
• Left 4 Dead 2
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
• Mass Effect 2
• Dragon Age: Origins
• Brutal Legend
• Splinter Cell: Conviction
• Red Steel 2
• Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles
• Dead Space Extraction
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii
• The Conduit

And perhaps more that I am forgetting. Also, check out the latest LucasCast if you have not already where we talk more about this stuff. There, I am done with E3 posts for good.

Left 4 Dead 2:

Hit the break for a lot more.

Uncharted 2 multiplayer:

The Harmonix team plays Beatles: Rock Band:

Update: Said post has been updated with a preview of the game. I have also written a preview of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. Go check it out!