here's my problem with halo 3 and with bungie. just underneath the surface there is a fantastic game here in halo 3. unfortunately the surface is filled with bungie's logical fallacies and self-righteous ignorance. they think they know what's best because they created halo 1 and 2. they defined modern console shooters and they defined online console shooters. they sold a -blam!- load of copies of both. regardless if halo 3 was a pet simulator or a tamogotchi, they were going to break sales records. this lead to them having a super huge ego where they think they know whats best. that's why they don't listen to us when we ask them to fix matchmaking issues or logical fallacies like this penalization for example. thats why instead of having team snipers we have pistols and shotguns and power ups. instead of having games ppl want we get stuck with silly ass swords games in lone wolves, somehow a game of this manner determines ur skill level? instead of brs we have assault rifle starts on too big and open for ar maps like pit and standoff? instead of letting the gamers decide whats fun they enforce their opinions on everyone about what they think is fun. like i said, underneath the garbage that bungie created on top, halo 3 is a good game; u just have to get past bungie's self righteous mess to find it (hint: its in customs).

Jeff Gerstmann, the soul of Gamespot (or atleast, what gamespot should be) has been fired, as you are all aware.

BS.

So for "internal reasons" you fire your 98% of your site's credibility??? Regardless of whether it had anything to do with Kane & Lynch, Eidos, or any outside persuasions, the fact that you fired the only person who has any real credibility for reviewing games is sad and pathetic. Jeff Gerstmann was the only credible reviewer left, aside from Brian Ekberg's near nonexistent reviews. How many does he do, like three a year? Obviously no offense to him as he is the only reviewer left that is completely honest and his reviews scaled against each other correctly based on the game's quality, but he rarely even gets to review any sports games. Jeff was the only reviewer qualified enough to review the Halo's, COD 4's, and Crysis's of the gaming world (as evidenced by o'campo's pathetic graphics only review of crysis). I remember back in the day when this site had a legitimate staff. Greg Kasavin was a stringent and harsh reviewer, but against each other, his reviews were absolutely correct and reliable. Jeff Gerstmann was simply universally the best. His reviews and criticisms he leveraged against games were put in the proper context and he properly weighted games he reviewed not only against his other reviews and the others in the genre, but he also had them perfectly weighted against the rest of the gaming landscape. He knew the exact value of a AAA title, or a 6.0 title. He by far held the definitive answer for a game's quality. Now that credibility is gone. No matter what Gamespot says or does, now matter what their reasononing for his termination, can not make up for the fact that they fired (almost) the only honest man left on this site who is a purely objective critic. That is an absolute travesty.

Can I leave Bungie negative feedback for Halo 3? Seriously, who's to blame for some of these achievements? there are several that simply put are not possible to obtain unless u get everyone to comply in trading achievements. steppin razor (triple kill with sword) took three seperate games of ppl being coerced into agreeing while one jackass goes around killing ppl simply to ruin everybodys chance for the damned achievement. that would be fine if this achievement was possible to obtain through legitimate means, but its not in halo 3. only two maps have swords on them in lone wolves and both are way too big to get a triple kill in. not to mention for whatever illegitimate reason u only have 5 ppl in lone wolves!!! so basically in order to get this achievement u have to luckily end up in either one of the least popular and always vetoed ffa maps (construct and the pit), get the sword, bait three ppl into coming into a small area in two of the biggest spread out maps in ffa, then kill 3 of the only 4 ppl AT MAX(!?!) in 4 seconds using a qeapon that can't fire... right... and whats really sad is thats damn near the least asinine of the online achievements.

another patheticaly imagined achievement is the mowing someone down with a mongoose on high ground, which also always gets vetoed! firstoff a kill with a mongoose has nothing to do with luck or skill, and secondly it again can almost never be accomplished without basically giving up the entire game just to have a chance at this achievement.

or how about the insanely idiotic splaser achievement? ti don't even have to tell u how asinine it is to think that u can legitimately get this achievement considering u need 3 /5 maximum ppl lined up perfectly (shooter plus two victims) and willing to stay there for 3 straight seconds before they get lasered.

sadly, we all know these achievements are the only way to receive certain armor permutations, yet u must ruin the spirit and fun of halo 3's online multiplayer in order to get them by degrading it into achievement whoring. whats truly sad is that we all know bungie did not receive any of their achievements legitimately either, because they have been playing ranked with each other before released to the public and essenntially cheating by "trading" these achievements with fellow coworkers around their closed offices. there is no doubt about that.

no, i'm not here because i'm pissed i cant legitimately earn these with my "l33t amount of skill" (seeing as how the above three take cooperation from enemies in a ranked game, not an individual's abilities in play), i'm disappointed that bungie created silly, asinine achievements to get armor that can't be unlocked without getting full cooperation from every random player from across the world in a serious competitive designed playlist, but then essentially cheated in order to get it themswelves. it's just sad...