Game Title: Halo 3
Developed by Bungie and Published by Microsoft Studios
Third Installment of the Halo Series. (Halo:CE and Halo 2)
First person shooter with online and offline campaign and multiplayer.
Resolution: Although Halo 3 can run on any HD settings it will automatically size down to its native resolution 640
Release: Halo 3 was released on September 25th 2007 where it broke the record for most games sold in one night. Midnight releases for Halo 3 were nation wide. ESRB gave the rating a M17+ for mature audiences due to the violence the game portrayed.

Campaign

Halo 3's campaign contains nine levels, which complete the storyline of the Halo trilogy. The campaign can be played through alone, with two-players on one Xbox 360, or played cooperatively with up to three other players via Xbox Live or System Link.[28] Instead of having each player be an identical Spartan as in previous Halo games, the first player plays as Master Chief, the second player plays as the Arbiter and the other two players control two other Elites; N'tho 'Sraom and Usze 'Taham, each with their own backstories. No matter which character is played, each player has identical abilities.[28] A.I. behavior was enchanced and improved; the behavior of enemy Brutes the player faces was modified, giving them a "pack mentality" that causes the aliens to perform similar actions at the same time and altering gameplay.[18][29] There are various Forerunner computer terminals hidden throughout the campaign which can be accessed and provide background storyline information.

Halo 3's campaign features a scoring method called the "meta-game", which can introduce a competitive aspect to cooperative play. Players are awarded points for defeating enemies while completing a level in the campaign. Extra points are awarded for certain actions (such as performing headshots or defeating multiple enemies in rapid succession), and are lost if the player dies or kills a team-mate. Hidden skulls (based on the Easter egg skulls in Halo 2) can be found on each level and then subsequently activated before future missions to cause changes in the gameplay; such as giving the enemies extra health, changing in-game dialogue, or modifying a specific A.I. behavior.[30] These skulls, as well as the difficulty level and the speed at which the level is completed, provide multipliers to the total score.[19] Players are awarded gamerscore points for successfully reaching a certain score in each level,[31] and medals are awarded for specific accomplishments.

 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3

Setting

Halo 3, like its predecessors, is set in the fictional Halo universe, taking place during the year 2553. According to the backstory, humans developed faster-than-light travel (using a Shaw-Fujikawa engine attached to a regular space shuttle) and colonized hundreds of planets before encountering the alien Covenant in 2525.[37] The Covenant declared humanity an affront to their gods and began destroying human colonies by glassing out the entire planet. Despite efforts to keep the Covenant from finding Earth, a Covenant fleet discovered humanity's homeworld during Halo 2.[38] By the beginning of Halo 3, the Covenant have arrived in full force on Earth, with most human resistance crushed.

The titular 'Halo' refers to massive ringworlds several hundred kilometers in diameter that are scattered across the galaxy. These rings were constructed thousands of years ago by an enigmatic race known as the Forerunners as a weapon of last resort against the parasitic alien species known as the Flood. When activated, the seven Halos would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy, thereby depriving the Flood of its food.[39] The ringworlds were activated once in the distant past, and the Forerunners are believed to have perished.[40] In Halo: Combat Evolved, a small human ship fleeing the Covenant stumbled upon one of these ringworlds, Installation 04. The humans manage to destroy the ring, stopping the Flood once again; the Covenant, unaware of the destructive nature of the rings, attempt to fire another ring during Halo 2 in order to fulfill their religious prophecy.[41] One race in the Covenant, the Elites, learn the truth about the rings, and join forces with their onetime enemies, humanity, in order to stop the firing of the ring. Though they are successful, the unexpected shutdown of the installation triggers a failsafe protocol—all the rings are ready to fire from one single location, referred to as the Ark.[42] Still oblivious to the true nature of the rings, the Covenant High Prophet of Truth and the remaining loyalist Covenant proceed to head to Earth, where they believe the Ark is buried.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3

 

Plot

Taking place shortly after the events of the comic mini-series, Halo: Uprising,[45] Halo 3 begins with the Master Chief entering Earth's atmosphere and crashing to the ground in western Africa, where he is found by SGM Johnson and the Arbiter. The Chief, Johnson, and company fight their way out of the jungle and arrive at a UNSC outpost. Here, Commander Keyes and Lord Hood plan a last-ditch effort to stop the Covenant leader, the High Prophet of Truth, from activating a Forerunner artifact uncovered outside the ruins of the city of New Mombasa. The Chief is ordered to clear a way into the city of Voi and to destroy all anti-air Covenant defenses so Hood can lead the last of Earth's ships against the Prophet. Using the opening caused by the ground attack, Hood mounts an offensive against Truth's ship, but the Prophet activates the buried artifact which creates an enormous slipspace portal. As the human ships recover from the shock wave, Truth and his followers enter the portal, while a ship controlled by the Flood crash-lands nearby. Elite forces, allied with humanity, arrive and vitrify Flood-infected areas of Earth, neutralizing the parasitic threat. Following the cryptic message from the human artificial intelligence Cortana left aboard the Flood cruiser, the Chief, Arbiter, Elites, Johnson, Keyes and a handful of Marines follow Truth through the portal. Joining them is the Forerunner construct 343 Guilty Spark, who aids the Chief as he no longer has any function to fulfill after the destruction of his Halo installation in Halo: Combat Evolved.

Traveling through the portal, the humans and Elites discover an immense artificial structure —the Ark— which is far beyond the edges of the Milky Way galaxy. Here Truth can activate all the Halos. The Chief and company activate the installation's map room to find Truth at the Ark's control room. During their journey, the Flood arrive en masse on the former Covenant Holy City High Charity, and begin infesting the installation. While attempting to gain access to The Ark' Control Room, Johnson is captured by Truth; the prophet needs a human to utilize the Forerunner technology. Attempting to rescue Johnson, Keyes is killed by the prophet, and Johnson is forced to activate the rings. The Flood leader Gravemind forges a temporary truce with the Chief and Arbiter in an effort to stop Truth. The Arbiter, Master Chief, and Flood forces arrive and overwhelm Truth's guards, rescuing Johnson and halting the installations' firing. After the Arbiter kills Truth, Gravemind turns on the Chief and Arbiter, who escape the Flood's grasp.

The Chief, Arbiter and Guilty Spark discover that the Ark is creating a new ringworld to replace the one previously destroyed. The Chief decides to activate only this new ring to eliminate the local Flood while sparing the galaxy at large. Before he can activate the ring, however, he needs an Activation Index. Knowing that Cortana acquired a copy of one on the first Halo, he rescues the AI from High Charity and creates a chain reaction to destroy the infested city and severely damage the Gravemind.

Arriving on the new Halo, Cortana warns that the Gravemind is trying to rebuild itself on the ring. The Chief, the Arbiter, and Johnson make their way to the control room, where they will activate Halo's weapon. Guilty Spark explains that because the ring is not yet complete, a premature activation will destroy it and the Ark. When Johnson ignores his warning, Guilty Spark kills him to protect "his" ring. The Chief destroys Guilty Spark, activates the ring, and escapes the ring's blast on a frigate, Forward Unto Dawn.

Only the front half of Forward Unto Dawn, carrying the Arbiter, makes it through the portal. Believing the Chief and Cortana to have perished, a memorial service is held for the fallen heroes of the human and Covenant war. After the memorial service, the Arbiter departs for his home planet, where the Elites are finally free of the Prophets' hegemony. Meanwhile, the rear half of Forward Unto Dawn floats in unknown space. Cortana drops a beacon, but realizes it may be years before they are rescued. The Chief enters cryonic sleep, telling Cortana to "wake me, when you need me." If the game is completed at the highest difficulty level, the scene continues to show the piece of Forward Unto Dawn drifting towards a mysterious planet.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3

Characters

Halo 3's protagonist is the Master Chief, a surgically enhanced supersoldier who is one of the last surviving members of the SPARTAN Project, and one of humanity's greatest warriors. The Chief fights alongside the Arbiter, an Elite and disgraced commander whose race breaks from the Covenant. Two new Elite characters, N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham, appear as the third and fourth players in co-op play.[43] Supporting characters that were introduced in previous games return; these includes Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, a veteran human commander, as well as Commander Miranda Keyes, who prevents the firing of Installation 05 in Halo 2.[44] The Forerunner Monitor 343 Guilty Spark, who tries and fails to stop the Master Chief from destroying its ringworld in Halo: Combat Evolved, also makes an appearance.[44] Filling an alternating antagonistic/helpful role to the player is the large Flood entity known as "Gravemind"; encountered during Halo 2, the leader of the Flood escapes from confinement on Halo by invading the Covenant mobile city of High Charity and capturing Cortana, a human-created A.I., in the process.[44]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3

 

Master Chief

 

Arbiter

 

Johnson

 

More coming.