I stayed up all night last night playing the campaign after renting it from RedBox. Got through Act IV. Gotta say, I'm impressed. I expected a lot of things to change and suffer from Bungie's departure. But I was pleasantly surprised. It looks and feels like a Halo game. And the story so far is pretty good.

Am I the only one that's bothered by the changes to Cortana, though? The breast augmentation isn't what I'm talking about, either. I'm shallow enough to appreciate that. It's the the basic way she looks that I'm talking about. She looks darker, the computer circuitry thingies that are on her body look different, and her face definetly looks different. It looks a different "person" all together in the face. It keeps taking me out of the game just a little bit.

And the mech-suit vehicle, is so freaking cool! I feel like such a bad ass blowing my way through the Forerunner robot-thingies in that.

But I do miss the classic Halo theme music. Wish they would have kept that.

The music and Cortana complaints aside, this is has been a stellar Halo experience that is worthy of the Halo name. Great controls and lots of action, engaging cutscenes, fantastic graphics, and a good story. It tops ODST and Reach for sure, so far at least. Still not Combat Evolved or Halo 2 level for me, yet. But we'll see if that changes as I progress further into the campaign today.

Quote from PGen98 on November 10, 2012, 16:25
I think they had to change Cortana somewhat, to match the route they're taking with her character. It's different, definitely, but not such that it's distracting for me. The story is great so far, though, loving the darker overall feel to the game, though is it me or are we going through ammo a lot faster? Feels like weapons are running out really quickly for me...

Anyway, great game thus far.

I noticed that, too. I'm constantly on the look-out for ammo or marking in my mind where I dropped that guy with sniper beam so I can go back for it.