How To Get Halo 3 On Pc

It is no exaggeration to say that the $39.99 Halo: The Chief Chief Collection has been fraught with issues. The compilation'southward many games have been released piecemeal since late 2019, and every championship thus far has had its share of problems. Halo 3's release begs the question: What'due south incorrect this time? The answer, quite surprisingly, is very little. Halo 3 is hands the best game released in the MCC, 1 that retains the same visuals and assets from the Xbox 360 original while pushing the resolution and frame charge per unit. Plus, Halo three'south activity holds up shockingly well, making it easily worth the meager $9.99 request price if purchased as a standalone PC game.

Finishing This Fight

Halo 3 picks up immediately after Halo two'due south cliffhanger ending, with Master Master and the Covenant landing on Earth. Master Chief and Globe's UNSC forces scramble to defend themselves from the Covenant invasion, while also pursuing the Covenant leader to forbid him from activating the Halos. Cortana is still missing after she and Chief parted ways during Halo 2's climax, and the parasitic Alluvion'southward machinations are an unknown, looming threat to all parties involved.

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Master Chief is your playable character throughout Halo three's entrada. The Arbiter fights alongside you during most of the game, merely the story never switches to his perspective every bit it did in Halo 2. Instead, Halo 3 introduces new weapons to keep the experience interesting, including the fiendishly powerful Gravity Hammer, adhesive Spike Grenades, and vehicle-piercing Spartan Laser. A new gameplay mechanic comes in the course of personal equipment, one-time use items strewn beyond each map that grant defensive effects. One creates bullet-screening bubbles, for instance, while another drops a rapid shield-regeneration zone. Just 1 personal equipment item tin carried at a time, but they are reasonably abundant and testify incredibly useful during intense burn fights.

These additions, while seemingly minor, radically change how you tackle sure situations, as these boons embolden advances or strengthen defence. Factor in Halo'due south penchant for hiding powerful weaponry throughout each level, and you have many ways to tackle missions.

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Dual-wielding returns in Halo three, too, albeit with some limitations. Halo ii let yous double-fist damn near anything that wasn't a large rifle, but at the cost of restricting your grenade lobbing. In Halo iii, dual-wielding is express to calorie-free weaponry, such equally pistols, SMGs and plasma guns, which heavily limit the mechanic's usefulness. Dual-wielding has its moments, such as when y'all face swarms of provender Grunts and bug-like Drones, but I leaned much more heavily on singular weapons this time around. I never thought I would be nostalgic for dual-wielding Needlers, but the inability to do then in Halo three made me miss information technology dearly.

Multiplayer is solid overall. Halo 3 launches with all of the original game's maps, every bit well as the map-editing Forge tool, and then nothing is amiss. Yous can relive the original game's multiplayer madness once over again, though yous'll need to grind for your cosmetics again. Halo 3'due south multiplayer is much more lively than the by few releases, but it comes with a few downsides. AFK players grinding for XP are all besides mutual, as are quitters who drib matches for whatsoever reason and handicap their team. These aren't the game'south fault, though information technology would be nice if developer 343 Interactive patched in a style to bring together in-progress matches. Halo 3's greatest multiplayer flaw is its wonky hitting detection. Sometimes shots seem to connect, yet practise non properly register. It doesn't always happen, merely 343 is enlightened of the matter and working on a ready.

The Await and Feel of Greatness

On the visual front, Halo 3 is a breath of fresh air when compared to the flat textures, odd lighting, and altered artistic flourishes seen in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Halo 2 Anniversary. Halo 3 is the first game in the collection that is significantly improved over the original game by being on PC. The Xbox 360 version was a practiced looking game for sure, simply information technology ran at 640p resolution and xxx frames per second (with its visuals capable of beingness upscaled to 1080p).

Halo 3 on PC is quite a different animate being compared to its console predecessor. It runs at a native 4K/60fps, and with the option to unlock the frame charge per unit to achieve staggering smoothness. Many of Halo 3's avails are surprisingly high resolution, just they couldn't be adequately displayed due to the Xbox 360's hardware limitations. This is no longer the case on PC, so the game's visuals actually pop and give the world a shocking amount of life and personality. Surfaces and objects showcase dumbo and detailed textures, such as veins in a foliage, scratches in walls, and pockmarks in soil. They've always been in that location, simply on PC we tin can truly appreciate how much work went into Halo iii's graphics.

Thankfully, frame interpolation is a not-issue in Halo iii. All previously released MCC games suffered notable animation or effects problems when played at high frame rates. Plasma shots and energy swords, for example, would update at 30fps, despite the game running at 60fps or greater. This resulted in jittery, distracting visual furnishings. This isn't the case in Halo 3, so all effects animate at 60fps or better. Explosions expect fantastic, particles are wonderfully detailed, and animations are great beyond the board.

In addition to the flat resolution and frame charge per unit improvements, you can adjust the field of view slider to widen your general viewing range from the original'south narrow default. Halo 3 too boasts the same enhanced graphics choice every bit the other games in the MCC, though here the difference is not quite equally noticeable. The only real improvement is an increment in draw distance, which lets your PC render effects and details from further away than normal. It is nearly noticeable with grass and dead bodies, just is not pregnant enough of a visual boon to continue on if your PC doesn't have the horsepower to smoothly run it.

Lastly, Halo 3 brings with it improvements to previously released MCC games. Most notably, Halo: Reach has finally gotten its audio mixing fixed, making in-game sounds much more than faithful to the original game. Halo: Combat Evolved Ceremony also received a surprise update to its weapon textures, which increases the resolution and smooths pixelated details.

All Systems Go

To play Halo iii at a bare minimum, yous need a PC that has at least a Windows 7 operating system, 2GB or RAM, an i7-975 or AMD A12-9800 APU CPU, and an AMD Radeon R7 or Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 GPU. With this baseline, you can play on Performance mode at 1080p/30fps.

On a desktop calculator equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics card and AMD Ryzen five 3600 CPU, Halo 3 ran at 1440p/60fps, with no frame rate dips or issues whatsoever. Halo iii performs extremely well, and with an uncapped frame rate the game runs at more than than 150fps. Like the residuum of the MCC games, Halo 3 offers controller support, cardinal remapping, Steam Achievements, Steam Trading Cards, and online multiplayer play.

The Fable Lives

Halo 3 is a must-own shooter. Information technology'due south easily the about polished Master Primary Collection game released to date, offering excellent shoot-from-the-hip action, cool new weapons and mechanics, and a dramatic decision to Halo ii'south conflict. Plus, Halo iii looks better than ever, so if you lot observe yourself itching to replay information technology, or if you lot never had the run a risk to do then earlier, consider the game a fantastic buy.

For more Steam game reviews and previews, bank check out PCMag's Steam Curator page.

Halo 3 (for PC)

Cons

The Bottom Line

Boasting beautiful, detailed graphics, numerous high-powered weapons, and an uncapped frame rate, Halo 3 is easily the best game released in the Principal Chief Collection.

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