A few poor elements hold it back from being the best it could be, like the overall lack of many story elements that were hyped during its creation. Also, it does seem as if a few elements have been purposefully left out, either from lack of development time, or holding them back for a PC and Mac release. Still, these items are more annoyances than anything and most certainly don?t keep it from being an amazing title. In the end, there?s really only one sentence of this review that you need to read to understand my point.

If you have an Xbox, purchase Halo.

The overall score was 97/100. Another review – at Entertainment Depot – was less positive; Halo got an Editor’s Choice award, and was described as a ‘thoroughly enjoyable title’… but some of the later levels soured the single-player experience for the reviewer in their repetitiveness and overwhelming ‘shoot everything that moves’ feeling. There seems to be a typo somewhere in the rating system; in one place, the game is given a 7/10 overall (while being described as a ‘damn fine game’), but in another section it’s given an 8.5 and and ‘Excellent’ – far more consistent with the subscore breakdowns. We’ll assume the 7/10 is wrong. Both of these have been added to our Reviews page. (Thanks to Blue’s News for the heads-up.) Update: Ryan N., from Entertainment Depot, confirms that the 7 was a typo – it’s been corrected.

the ambient life was an important key to understanding the purpose of halo… unfortunately we didn’t have time to implement all the AI and animation for them, so there are certain plot points that just don’t hang together well enough. oh well.

The more we hear, the more we realize the Halo story is deeper than it looks…

The gamestate right before the cutscene begins almost always remains unchanged (with respect to dead bodies, dropped weapons, decals, etc.) for the duration of the cutscene. In some instances we chose to purge scenes of “garbage” (dead bodies, et al) in order to solve performance issues, but I’d say this occurs in maybe 5% of Halo’s cinematics.

The only consistent gamestate “error” during the cinemas is the fact the “Cinematic Chief” only shows up with the assault rifle rather than whatever the Player is carrying. Unfortunately, it would have taken some special code and scripting to rectify this error, and other things were more important–like making our ship date :’)

This information (and Marty’s information yesterday concerning sound quality on stereo TVs) have been added as footnotes to HBO’s Halo review, so that people can see Bungie’s response to our concerns.

[…] some dialog in the game makes me think that the Master Chief’s appearance on Halo is beyond coincidence. I’m refering to comments by 343 GS in more than one location in the game. Once you return to the control room with the Index [sounds an awful lot like Codex doesn’t it ;)] and Cortana reveals to you the true purpose of Halo, 343 says something odd. I can’t remember the exact phrasing off-hand but he said something along the lines of, “Well of course that’s the purpose of Halo…But you already knew that…I mean, how couldn’t you?” At this point the camera zooms in for affect installing a sense that there’s someting peculiar about his comment. He also says something about “the last time you were here” but we’re fairly certain the Chief has never been to Halo before.

Furthermore, in the last level of the game, on-board the Pillar of Autumn, when you’re running around the engine room trying to trigger a Fusion explosion, 343 keeps referring to you as “Reclaimer”. He also mentions something along the lines of, “this is not the plan”.

This lead me to two possible conclusions:

1. 343 is mistaking you for someone – or something – else.
2. You are in fact who 343 thinks you are.

If 2 is true, then how is this possible? How could you be part of a plan for a ring construct which you’ve never been to before and never even heard of? One possibility comes to mind but it is, of course, only conjecture: perhaps we’re dealing with a Time Paradox. Perhaps at some point in the Chief’s future, he enters 343 GS’s past. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Of course, it’s just as likely that 343 is mistaking you for someone else but that raises other questions: How could he mistake you for someone else? I think he knows you’re human. Also, if he is mistaking you for someone or something else, who or what is he mistaking you for? A Forerunner, perhaps? Questions, questions and more questions….

Good stuff… comments are always welcome. Once again, it looks like it’s time for a Halo Story section (either forum or moderated pages)…

I’ve heard people say it’s too short. That’s a hard case to argue – in fact, quite the opposite is true. This is a game that feels as though it was unduly lengthened by committee, affixed to some perverse device, warped and stretched to near infinity. I’d put forth that a game is only too short when you still want to play it by the end. [slight spoiler snipped – go read it at PA] I’ve never actually groaned before when a game’s protagonist implies there will be a sequel. That’s something I can’t say anymore.

Thanks to R.net, for catching this one first.

I’ve been to Bungie’s new studios inside Microsoft. They’re filled with Macs. And, they’re also filled with people who love the Macintosh. Please be assured that Microsoft and Bungie plan to bring Halo to the Macintosh. They love the Mac just as much today as they did before being acquired by Microsoft.

It’s short but a nice read. Pax.

“This is most likely your last chance to get out of this alive,” said Kent in a commanding voice. Edwin didn’t respond; he just continued to sit against the wall, staring wildly around the room, and whimpering between his rapid breathing.

Our first Fan Fiction submission in two weeks, Aragorn819’s Prologue to ‘The Sceptre’ is now available in our Fan Fiction section. Check it out!