PurpleRain reviews the Gravity Hammer

[Geo Da Sponge]

God I hated Cortana. Why would you make an AI look like a woman? It makes no sense.
Orson Welles, now that is someone I would like to have as a helpful AI companion. I wouldn't even care if he slowed me down whenever he talked, even if it was in an annoying wax covered termite mount with sphincter doors (seriously, what were with those?)

Becuase she's based off a woman's mind. That's how she manages to have a personality, and most of the scattered comments over the Cortana level are faded memories from her former self.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

annoying wax covered termite mount with sphincter doors (seriously, what were with those?)

Something like a stomach valve.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

the question was why they would have a woman AI? It's a stupid idea.
Cortana had a level?
And what was with those sphincter doors?

Edit: Thank you eldritch warlord

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

the question was why they would have a woman AI? It's a stupid idea.
Cortana had a level?
And what was with those sphincter doors?

Edit: Thank you eldrich something something (I'm in edit and can't see your name)

Because Cortana is basically a copy of a woman's mind.

The level in Flood infested High Charity was named Cortana.

And you're welcome.

 

[PurpleRain]

annoying wax covered termite mount with sphincter doors (seriously, what were with those?)

Something like a stomach valve.

Well we made plenty of goatsy jokes in that level.

Secondly, the whole flood thing. While I cannot remember precisely when it was I found out about the flood, it seems pretty self explanatory if you've played all three games. They are the flood. They eat your brains and control your nervous system. They killed the forerunners, and they now they want to kill you.

Yeah, that's neat and all, but what are they? Are they an alien race? A bloatched experiment? Some form of advanced virus? How long have they been around? Is there a larger force of them?

I realised that the Halo's are ment to kill them from the word go in Halo 1. I do understand the story but so many things in number 3 felt like 'fanboy only' and that's what I wanted to show. Many people have already explained to me these things and I'm greatful. But come on, I was in the dark half the time of the game. What ever happened to the arc anyway? To many questions that should have been answered but never did.

Also the Cortana thing. Excuse me if she got "all up in your grill", but how would you prefer she communicated? Through a series of convenient memoes? By leaving a message on your answer phone? Possibly an FYI email; "Just so you know Master Chief, I have gone completely snooker loopy". They might have given you a couple of extra seconds worth of corridor to walk down instead, and nobody would complain about that. It doesn't waste any more time, but some people really care about this exposition. They like to fish around for hints as to inner meanings and the history of Halo. Please don't take it away from them.

"Ah, Chief. Your non-exsistant girlfriend is in my head again."
I felt it slowed gameplay and was annoying the third or fifth time you had to see it. Especially if you die and have to repeat one of them again and again. Arrgghhh. If they made them cuttable I would have forgiven them.

EDIT:
Wow, this has racked up a lot of talk. Maybe I should review Halo3 more often.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Because Cortana is basically a copy of a woman's mind.

And is, of course, of the same steel and temper [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durandal] as a popular character from an earlier Bungie title [http://marathon.bungie.org/story/durandal.html#12].

Not that that's directly pertinent to the conversation, but I don't see much reference to it around and thought I'd throw it in... to illustrate that there's a lot of story hooks there, if you do some digging.

-- Steve

Edited to add: There's more story buried in the game; go looking for the Terminals in Halo 3, for instance, which explain (indirectly, of course) pretty much all PurpleRain's asking for about the Flood.

 

[PurpleRain]

Edited to add: There's more story buried in the game; go looking for the Terminals in Halo 3, for instance, which explain (indirectly, of course) pretty much all PurpleRain's asking for about the Flood.

Oh cool, thanks. They're a big part of the games (actually the main focus) but never seemed to be explained properly.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Because Cortana is basically a copy of a woman's mind.

And is, of course, of the same steel and temper [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durandal] as a popular character from an earlier Bungie title [http://marathon.bungie.org/story/durandal.html#12].

Not that that's directly pertinent to the conversation, but I don't see much reference to it around and thought I'd throw it in... to illustrate that there's a lot of story hooks there, if you do some digging.

-- Steve

Edited to add: There's more story buried in the game; go looking for the Terminals in Halo 3, for instance, which explain (indirectly, of course) pretty much all PurpleRain's asking for about the Flood.

Really? I never saw any similarities between Cortana and Durandal besides being AI helpers with strange and cool names.

And here's [http://blog.ascendantjustice.com/halo-3/the-terminals/] an amazing site if you're not fanboy enough to interpret the terminals.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Really? I never saw any similarities between Cortana and Durandal besides being AI helpers with strange and cool names.

The personalities are similar, though the motives are vastly different. I think Jones picked the name (and some of the behaviour) for Cortana as a deliberate reference to keep us deep-story divers guessing which way her character would turn out in the end. After all, the Cortana Letters [http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cortana.html] Bungie used to tease about Halo made her seem somewhat ominous as well as helpful.

And here's [http://blog.ascendantjustice.com/halo-3/the-terminals/] an amazing site if you're not fanboy enough to interpret the terminals.

And if your map-searching skillz aren't up to finding the terminals, they've been replicated here [http://haloterms.bungie.org/] (in Flash) for review in a close representation of how they look in-game.

-- Steve

 

[The Iron Ninja]

I just remembered the thing that annoyed me most about halo 3 (I had been supressing the memory apparently), that whiny ***** in the dropship that gets shot down and has to scream into her microphone so everyone can hear "I'm hit, I'm hit (insert annoying scream in an annoying accent here)". Especially when you die and have to hear it again.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

I just remembered the thing that annoyed me most about halo 3 (I had been supressing the memory apparently), that whiny ***** in the dropship that gets shot down and has to scream into her microphone so everyone can hear "I'm hit, I'm hit (insert annoying scream in an annoying accent here)". Especially when you die and have to hear it again.

She has nothing on Foehammer

 

[Hellbent278]

I have to say the return of that stupid librarian thing is bloody annoying.. but as a boss...
overall nice gameplay tbh... awful ending though.

 

[Tomdoodle]

Really good review but i think that if you shouldn't try and compare Halo 3 against COD4 since halo was made first...eaither way good review..

I'm somewhat baffled by that comment...Just because Halo 3 came out, what, a month or 2 before COD4, we cant compare them?

Not really. I always thought that if you were going to reference another game in a review, you'd use one from past games that people will know.

 

[dib_dib_9@hotmail.co.uk]

"C) The ending. So what? He floats around in space until Bungie decide to make Halo 4?"

No... he went either to the home planet of one of the races... or went back in time to start again...is it not obvious?

 

[the monopoly guy]

I found it really, really stupid that a bloody hammer needs ammunition.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

I found it really, really stupid that a bloody hammer needs ammunition.

Well, it does have some manner of power source to produce the anti-gravity pulse (hence, "Gravity" Hammer). And it stands to reason that that power source will eventually become depleted.

 

[the monopoly guy]

I found it really, really stupid that a bloody hammer needs ammunition.

Well, it does have some manner of power source to produce the anti-gravity pulse (hence, "Gravity" Hammer). And it stands to reason that that power source will eventually become depleted.

It also stands reason that you can bop 'em on the head. After all, it is a big hammer.

 

[CrazyBerk]

I liked this review i did! Very funny, good to read and i thought you made some pretty awesome valid points.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

I found it really, really stupid that a bloody hammer needs ammunition.

Well, it does have some manner of power source to produce the anti-gravity pulse (hence, "Gravity" Hammer). And it stands to reason that that power source will eventually become depleted.

It also stands reason that you can bop 'em on the head. After all, it is a big hammer.

I don't know if you tried, but all weapons can still melee attack when they're empty. Even the sword although the blade disappears and you're essentially just bare-fisted punching. And the hammer has a tougher melee attack than most weapons.