In no particular order…and open for changes.

TOP 5 THINGS ABOUT HALO REACH

1)  Forge & Theater – These two features continue to separate Bungie’s Halo franchise from all similar games. Reach contains a massive forge map of forest, shoreline and mountains that provides players with an endless canvas. Create custom maps and games and let your imagination take control. Theater allows players to save high definition screenshots and videos of epic moments.

2)  Special Abilities – New for Halo Reach is the option to choose your special ability at the beginning of a multiplayer game and after each death. Three examples of the special abilities are sprint, armor lock and jet pack. Each ability provides a certain advantage depending on the map, game type or player’s strengths. It does seem to me that armor lock is slightly too powerful.

3)  Firefight – Basically a holdover from Halo 3 ODST, firefight allows single player or multiplayer fights against AI controlled covenant forces. Firefight can be a fun way to practice, earn medals and earn credits. Unfortunately, little to no teamwork is necessary. It’s more a competition to see who can kill the most enemies.

4)  Credits – Crazy as it may seem to make players earn credits to unlock features of a $60 game, Bungie has introduced a system that encourages loyalty. Credits are earned for finishing games, getting kills and reaching commendations (milestones). Use your credits to buy visual armor upgrades and special firefight voice quotes. Quitting is discouraged because credits are forfeited in regular multiplayer games and rank is lost in arena games.

5)  New Medals – Assist, Stick Sprees, Assist Sprees, Wheelman Sprees and Assassin. The Assassin medal is awarded for performing a special animated assassination on an opponent. This animation is risky for a player because it leaves you vulnerable, but sometimes its really hard to resist.

BOTTOM 5 THINGS ABOUT HALO REACH

1)  The Campaign – The Halo 3 campaign was very disappointing.  Halo Reach was even worse. Halo campaign game play has gotten steadily worse since Halo 2. The campaign was easy to finish with a friend on the legendary difficulty level. No bosses to fight again, no interesting storyline revelations, no scary Flood to fight.

2)  Multiplayer Maps – The multiplayer maps included with the Halo Reach game are disappointing. Other than Countdown and Reflection, I’d rather play on Forge World maps.

3)  New Weapons – I don’t like the Concussion Rifle, the Plasma Launcher, the Grenade Launcher or the Focus Rifle.

4) Invasion – While I don’t dislike the Invasion game type, there is no reason why it can’t simply be an option in Big Team Battle. And I doubt it would get many votes if that were the case.

5)  Worthless Medals – Does anybody really care about these medals? Revenge, Reload This!, Avenger, Killjoy Do they mean anything? I’d like to see a medal for blowing up a vehicle while using Armor Lock or for surviving a stick by using Armor Lock.

I sometimes prefer to write reviews in a Top and Bottom 5 format.  Otherwise, a review of Halo 3 might get long and boring.  Let me know what you think.  I’d be happy to change my top 5′s if you convince me otherwise.

TOP 5 BEST THINGS ABOUT HALO 3

1)  Forge – Bungie continued to stay ahead of the pack with never before seen features like forge.  Allowing anyone to be a modder without getting kicked from Xbox Live, forge allows players to create maps of any design imaginable.  Yes, your imagination is your only limit.  I’ve seen excellent remakes of Halo 2 maps, a pirate ship, fun race tracks, coliseums – to name a few.  Forge also allows you to “escape” Halo 3 maps – something that usually required sword-cancelling in Halo 2.  Last but not least, forge enables some excellent game-play value itself with the god-like abilities players posses.

2)  Theater – Another Bungie innovation, the theater is the first of its kind.  YouTube videos of gamers showing off their best moments or explaining how to find something like a skull were popular with Halo 2 players.  Apparently Bungie took careful notice of this and built the theater service into Halo 3.  The theater allows anyone to go back and watch any finished multi-player game or campaign level.  On top of that, you can save clips from your previous games or capture a high-resolution screen shot of any moment.

3)  Weapon Improvements – There was an obvious need to adjust the strength of certain weapons.  The sniper rifle and sword were the two most obvious weapons that were too powerful.  In Halo 3 the sniper rifle has a slight kickback.  You cannot lunge nearly as far with the sword as you could in Halo 2.  The sword performs multiple lunges and swings at a much slower rate.  A really nice update to the sword is that swings are cancelled out when two players swing swords at each other at the same time.  In Halo 2 I believe the host usually won during such an occurrence.  The plasma pistol has also undergone a necessary overhaul with a significantly weaker tracking effect.  The plasma pistol will also lose its strength as you keep it powered up.  The needler is more enjoyable and more powerful.  The SMG is significantly improved with more power and a nicer sound.  If only we started with this SMG in Halo 2.

4)  Multi-Player Experience – Even after more than two years of Halo 3 multi-player matches, the addition of experience seems to have greatly reduced the frequency of players quitting matches.  In Halo 2 it was possible to play 20 games in a row with a least one player quitting.  Need I say anything about Halo 2 de-ranking?

5)  More Powerful Melee – One punch disables a player’s shield.  This encourages more hand-to-hand combat situations and makes them more enjoyable.  Who remembers when a player would go flying across the map when there was a deadly melee strike?  That garbage is now gone.  Bungie has also improved the simultaneous punching so that players with equal strength will both die.  This went from bad (you’d obviously punch the other player first but die) to worse (both players would always die during punches that were closely timed) to better than the original (both players die only when players with equal shields punch simultaneously).

Honorable mention:  The ability to play campaign with friends over Xbox Live.  The addition of extra medals.  Certain equipment like bubble shields and power drainers.  Cloaking is improved and actually makes you invisible.  The Mongoose.  The Chopper.

BOTTOM 5 WORST THINGS ABOUT HALO 3

1)  The Campaign – The Halo 3 campaign was very disappointing.  I’ll guess that Bungie new multi-player was most important to the continued success of their franchise and chose that area to devote the majority of their resources.  The campaign was short, boring and lacked almost anything new or exciting.  The storyline was bland and hard to follow.  The levels were much more restrictive than Halo 2.  In Halo 2 you could wander off and explore the country side for hours.  There were no bosses to fight.  There were no interesting revelations about the Halo universe.  There were no scary moments deep beneath the surface surrounded by Flood.  The campaign would have been even shorter if they didn’t make you often backtrack through large portions of certain levels.  I guess I’ll stop.  I know I could complain more if I felt like it.  The ability to play the campaign with friends over Xbox Live would have been a major improvement if the campaign wasn’t so awful.

2)  The Campaign Ending – This was so bad that I had to give it special attention.  The biggest cop-out I have experienced in a trilogy finale.  Bungie chose one of the worst possible endings I can imagine.

3)  Multi-player Host – I think Bungie tried hard to fix this one.  The host in Halo 2 was far too powerful.  In trying to fix this problem, it appears that Bungie created annoying glitches (see number 5 below) and game-play choppiness/shifting.  I would prefer the ultra-powerful Halo 2 host.

4) Weapon Mistakes – The magnum has been ruined and shoots far too slowly.  The spiker is worthless.  The missile pod is a very disappointing anti-vehicle replacement for the rocket launcher in Halo 2 that could heat-seek.  The rocket launcher has mostly been turned into a short range weapon.  The SMG is the only weapon worth dual-wielding.  Dual-wielding was a nice upgrade for Halo 2 that is now obsolete in Halo 3.

5)  Multi-player Glitches – Have you ever shot someone in the head 4 times with a sniper rifle and watched them walk away?  Have you heard yourself being shot and not been affected?  Have you stuck someone with a plasma grenade and then watched it disappear?  Have you been sniped through walls?  Is there constant shifting?  Been shot and killed through a bubble shield?

Honorable mention:  The gravity hammer.