Halo 3

The Flood quickly spreads throughout the entire city. As the Human forces attempt to fight the infestation, many are infected by the Flood. The Covenant Separatists lead by Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum, arrives at Earth and assists the struggle against the infestation. The Elites inform Commander Keyes that a UNSC construct is aboard the crashed Flood ship, and identified it as Cortana. After retrieving Cortana, SPARTAN-117 returned to the Shadow of Intent to oversee the repairs made by 343 Guilty Spark. However, it is only a recorded message from her. Cortana informs that the Gravemind is coming to Earth with an army of Flood, and that on the other side is a solution to the Flood infestation, without having to fire the rings. Lord Hood questions Cortana's plan, assuming that it could be a Flood trap, but SPARTAN-117 firmly tells Hood that he trusts her.

Forge
Forge is an "object editor" that can be used to edit multiplayer maps. It does not allow as much freedom to edit/make maps as a PC map editor, such as the Halo: Custom Edition and Halo 2 Vista editing kits. You can, however, edit objects, spawn points, weapons, teleporters and properties of objects on the map, etc. And, when playing a map on forge, players may take control as a monitor (very similar to 343 Guilty Spark) and will obtain the ability to spawn weapons, vehicles and objects in-game, as well as move/adjust them too. You can also get more forging items if you get any of the new map packs from Bungie.

The Forge may not allow as much "freedom", but makes it easier to adjust levels. Allowing you to make things with "simple" objects much easier.

Theater
The Theater mode allows players to save films from the Campaign, Multiplayer, and Forge, and also get film clips and screen shots. This feature of Halo 3 has been exploited for making Machinima videos and Montages.

Films
Saved Films allow a player to view any game, campaign or multiplayer, from any angle. It uses game data to re-create the games, which makes file sizes very small (5 MB for a 15 minute multiplayer match). In the film, you can either watch your own player play through the entire mission or you can use a different way: bird's eye view. You can go anywhere you want, but they will limit your movement so that you cannot fly as high as possible or go very far from your character. You can also fast forward or rewind the film so that you can relive the parts you missed. On Campaign you can't rewind the film. Only your previous 25 games will be saved under the recent films category on your console. Older films will be deleted. (Note: If you haven't received the February Auto-Update, after your first 25 film slots are filled, about 1 out of the 3-5 films in future will only be saved due to a glitch. The AU fixes this glitch, but not entirely however, as all games played on Local area Network on the 360 still mostly have this problem.)

Clips
When playing a film you record a particular part of the film from any angle you want. Doing this allows you to look back at your greatest moments without having to watch the entire film, however, sometimes the HUD will not show up in a first person view, or the time bar showing the elapsed time appears, which is normally a problem because it normally can't be removed or the HUD can't be brought up for the start of the clip. If you would like to make a clip in FPS mode, but you accidentally get out of it, or switch to another player, you can just click on the right thumbstick to return to FPS mode. You cannot record clips of campaign films, but you can take screenshots. If you are in a party viewing a film, you will not be able to record clips, nor take screenshots.

Screenshots
Screenshots can be taken in any sort of film; all screenshots taken by Xbox Live players are sent to Bungie.net via the Internet. You must be in single-player theater or film to take a screenshot. If your screenshot is favored by many and also Bungie employees they may put it on Bungie Favorites. The favorites link can be found here

Soundtrack
The Halo 3: Original Soundtrack was composed by Martin O'Donnell with the help of Michael Salvatori and was released on November 20, 2007. It is a two-disc set featuring all the music heard in-game, in order of appearance. As the Halo: Original Soundtrack, the music is in more of a medley format. However, similar to the Halo 2: Original Soundtrack Volume 2, tracks are divided into 'suites' corresponding to each level in the game. A number of bonus tracks and a third-party song will be contained on the second disc of the album: 'LvUrFR3NZ' by Princeton.

Previews of the Halo 3: Original Soundtrack can be heard on the official site.

Viral Marketing
On June 11th, 2007, at 10:26AM PDT, a viral marketing campaign for Halo 3 started, called "Iris".

Halo 3 Announcement Trailer
At E3 2006, Bungie released their announcement trailer. It required long hours and hard work from many, many Bungie staffers, and utilizes real-game assets, fiction and locations from parts of the "real" game. It shows John-117 walking through some wreckage of the New Mombasa space elevator with Cortana appearing at several intervals to give her lines. He then stops at the edge of a cliff where the Covenant forces are hovering over a Forerunner structure (the portal to the Ark). The trailer ends with the Forerunner structure opening and firing a beam of light.

The Trailer fueled speculation about what was going to happen in the game, particularly Cortana's last line in the trailer: "This is the way the world ends," which references the first of the Cortana Letters. The line itself refers to T. S. Eliot's The Hollow Men, which ends:


 * This is the way the world ends
 * Not with a bang but a whimper.

Cortana's emphasis on "this" implies she is rejecting the poem, and that the world will end with a bang - likely referring to the Halo installations being activated.

Starry Night Trailer
Starry Night Trailer was released on December 4, 2006 with its format designed for TV Ads. It shows two children staring at the stars talking about whether there are aliens before switching to a dazed Master Chief recovering from some form of blast. Once he gets back on his feet, he picks up his helmet and then he uses a Bubble Shield to defend himself from an incoming Wraith's plasma mortar and then charges forward, eventually jumping over a cliff into a swarm of Covenant Loyalists. It has been rumored that the two kids are John and Kelly when they were young.

Halo 3 E3 2007 Trailer
The final trailer for Halo 3 was released during E3 2007. Unlike the others, this trailer focused on showing various gameplay and movie clips. While the trailer did little to further knowledge about the Halo 3, it confirmed many speculations about the game, the least of which was that the Arbiter and the Master Chief will fight alongside one another in the game at some point.

Believe
Believe is a Microsoft marketing campaign for Halo 3.

It features the word "Believe" as a tag line, and appears to be honoring the legacy of SPARTAN-117, citing him as a hero of the United Nations Space Command Defense Force whose brave actions inspired other servicemen during the Human-Covenant War. It has also been cited that it has been linked to the popular message board Neogaf. Its been noted that the Believe trailers took place about 50 years after Halo 3's storyline.

Landfall
Halo: Landfall is a trilogy of short films designed to promote Halo 3 as well as test the potential for a live-action Halo Movie.

Versions
Halo 3 was released in three separate versions. The Standard Edition contains the game disc, manual, and a small poster with the game's control-map and artwork.

The Limited Edition, contained in a metal case, contains the game disc, manual, poster, interactive Xbox 360 bonus disc with several featurettes, and a hard cover bound "Bestiarum", which is a collection of information and art covering the species, cultures, and civilizations of Halo 3.

The final version was marketed as the "Legendary Edition", which contains the game disc, manual, poster, interactive bonus disc, Bestiarum (on one of the DVD discs), Legendary DVD containing special content exclusive to the Legendary Edition, and a scale replica of the Master Chief's helmet as a case for the three discs. The slip-cover packaging unfolds into a large heavy-stock poster of Master Chief. Gamestation stores in the UK also offered a limited edition Master Chief figurine only available to the first 1000 pre-orders.

Products and Collectibles

 * Halo 3 Spartan Edition Controller
 * Halo 3 Covenant Edition Controller.
 * Mountain Dew Game Fuel is a new version of Mountain Dew soda which was released on August 13th, 2007 and was available for 12 weeks.
 * Bungie has worked with Jasman Toys and they will be showcasing the new Halo Laser Tag Replica Guns.
 * Todd McFarlane's line of Halo 3 Action Figures.
 * There is a Halo 3 edition of the Xbox 360. It was released on September 16th, and has other items in the box like a wired Halo 3 headset, however it only has 20 gigabytes of hard drive space.
 * The Halo 3 Zune is a Zune in a Halo Trilogy-theme. It features Halo content in many media formats. Included in the Zune, are trailers, music, and artwork, from the critically acclaimed Halo series and a special Red vs Blue episode.
 * Halo 3 scale replica weapons. These are just ornaments and are not toys.
 * Burger King announced a Halo 3 Promotion from a Microsoft press release on August 9th, 2007 including limited edition FRYPODS and 42 oz drink cups.
 * Halo ActionClix including special figures like Jump Pack Brutes, Master Chief with dual Spikers, Brute Stalkers, and a few others.

Halo 3: ODST
ODST is a campaign extension that covers events leading up to Halo 3. The trailer opens up on a security camera in New Mombassa. It shows several scenes of destruction before turning upward and showing several HEV Pods fall towards the city. It first appeared on Bungie.net. It now has circulated through YouTube and other video hosting websites. You take control of an ODST soldier, and survive through the Covenant-controlled New Mombassa. Campaign will be similar to normal Halo games, but since you are no longer a Spartan nor Elite, you will have to choose your battles carefully. Bungie recently stated that the expansion is set to be released in the end of 2009.

Reviews and Reaction
Halo 3 has received mainly positive reviews from both the online gaming sites and country specific magazines. Each review has praised it, stating "the winning formula is still apparent" with "multiplayer constantly surprising and engaging", while new features of Forge and Saved Films were singled out as particularly interesting new features.

Halo 3 has won a number of awards from its first release date:


 * Spike TV Awards: Best Multiplayer Game, Most Addictive Video Game Fueled by Dew
 * TIME: Game of the Year.
 * Geezer Gamers: Geezer Game of the Year, Multiplayer Game of the Year.
 * Gametrailers: 2007's Best Xbox 360 Game of the Year.
 * X-Play Presents "G-Phoria": Game of the Year.
 * EDGE: The Edge Award For Interactive Innovation

Trivia

 * At precisely 6:36pm PST on the 28th of February 2009, in a three minute and nineteen second game of Infection on Foundry, four players participated in Halo 3's one billionth match. In comparison, Halo 2 has to date only had 798 million games played.
 * For Christmas 2006, Microsoft and Bungie gave the U.S. soldiers in Iraq a chance to play the Halo 3 multi-player public pre-alpha.
 * On the Cops & Robbers commercial for the Xbox 360 at the Xbox Live Marketplace, one of the license plates says HA LO307, or Halo 3 07.
 * The game has 39,377 lines of dialogue, most of them randomly triggered during game play.
 * The original Halo 3 (before the Auto-Update 2 patch) contains 49 Achievements, which is a seven reference 7x7=49, and these together are worth 1000 Gamerscore points.
 * To date, the Campaign kill count online has surpassed the current Human population on Earth.
 * Argos, a UK retail store, started accidentally selling copies of the game one week prior to the actual release date. All Halo 3 products were removed from shelves when the store realized its mistake. However, a number of copies still made it into the hands of the public and a video showcasing the ending made it onto YouTube.
 * Halo 3 multi-player was shown at the Penny Arcade Expo as the final round of the Omegathon and showed the level Guardian before its release date.
 * Halo 3 game play footage can be seen in an episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles as well as in the feature film Jumper, Knight Rider, and CSI: Miami, although in Jumper and CSI, an original X-Box controller is used. Also, Halo 3 game play is featured in the music video for the song Beggin' by Madcon. In addition, in the new movie Eagle Eye, the two main characters venture into a Circuit City, where they receive shocking news. In the background before they enter a room, you can see a Halo 3 promotional poster behind them.
 * Halo 3 was released on the 25th of September, this is most likely a seven reference (2+5=7).
 * Forge is one of the new features not seen in previous games. Along with Theater mode, these two allow things not available in other games. Forge is accurately described as a object editor, allowing the player to customize many aspects of the game from scenery to weapons.
 * Before and during the launch of Halo 3, 7-11 sold 3 different Halo 3 cups to advertise the game.
 * Mountain Dew came out with a new drink called 'Game Fuel' for the Halo 3 launch.
 * As of 1st March 2009, the total amount of online Matchmaking time accounted to 2,023,153,340,764 seconds, equal to 64,109 years of playtime.

Internal

 * Changes in Halo 3
 * Halo 3 Credits
 * ViDoc: Et Tu Brute - a 7 min documentary about the Brutes
 * ViDoc: Is Quisnam Protero Damno
 * ViDoc: Cinema Paradiso
 * Halo 3 Beta
 * Halo 3 Epsilon
 * Halo 3 Zune - A limited edition Microsoft Zune.
 * Halo 3: The Cradle of Life
 * Halo 3 Official Strategy Guide

External

 * Halo 3 Website - The Official Halo 3 Website
 * Halo 3 Trail Commercial
 * halowiki.net - Halo 3 Multiplayer Strategy

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