Halo 3

Well. This game has kept me busy. It started with my pre-order at BestBuy.com. I ordered the Limited Edition and at 1600-point MS Points card at a discount ($5 instead of $20). I got my game on the day after launch and found the game disc was scuffed up as I expected from the internet noise. Additionally, the metal case was buckled along the edges and the platic sleeve was hard to remove. I took the game to a local Best buy store and tried to exchange it all. The customer service guy was helpful, but had a hard time since all his LE copies were scratched. He opened about 20 LE cases and they were all scratched to some degree. I took the one that was the least flawed. The other issue was that in order to exchange, I had to return my mail ordered copy and re-purchase a store copy, but my MS Points discount was lost on the return. After about half an hour of manager input and my pleading, I got the full refund on the order and left with free MS points. Sweet.

So. The campaign is awesome. I am playing Solo on Heroic, and Legendary with some friends in co-op, which is not too hard compared to the former. I like having all the Achievement options with skulls and medals, because otherwise I would not bother with them. I'm having a lot of fun, with campaign and with multiplayer. Bungie managed to fix the issues with Halo 2 and expanded the breadth of skills and strategies required to progress in MP. I love the shared screens/clips/maps/etc. options. In Halo 2 I would have had to explain my awesome kills and really no one cared and if anyone wanted to share maps settings and game options, I had to set it up myself. Now anything is provable, and I can download anyone's creation.

One other good thing about Halo 3 is that many of my friends are back online and willing to play that same game as me. Before H3, everyone played different games and didn't care to team up too often. Now, everyone's on at some time of the day and I'm making new friends.

I'm not nearly as active on bungie.net as I used to be. However, if I were, I could make some Halo 3 friends there, then have a better chance of getting the b.net-only medal Linktaclular. I like the ability to track my MP medals on B.net too.

What else? Forge is cool, but I haven't tried much with it yet. Customs games are in the same boat, mostly because I'm having fun ranking up and completing the campaign. Hopefully new maps will be available before next summer.

Check me out at Bungie.net