Many players look at Halo Wars as a pushover. But Think Again, Halo Wars has many new units at your disposal, including, cyclops, cobras, wolverines, grizzlies, hellbringers, vultures, and vampires. I’ll let you figure out what each unit is capable of.

Halo Wars takes place 20 years before the Halo event. There are three leaders you will learn of, Captain Cutter, Sgt. Forge, and proffesor Anders

Campaign:

The game is lacking in its campaign. The campaign does not have enough depth to it. Its too short and easy to go through to really be able to get into the game. So if your looking for a long campaign mission don’t go for this game. I personally only play the multiplayer but i have completed the campaign. In multiplayer you also get to play as the covenant, there only new unit was the vampire. There’s also the flood and the rebels which are in multiplayer but you cant play as them.

One of the best things about the game in my opinion are the cinematics. They are very enjoyable to watch and it makes you itching at the bits to see the next one.

I’m a big Age Of Empires fan, but personally Halo Wars is much better made. The multiplayer makes it to where you can have endless hours of of fun and its much easier to use than a computer game. Halo Wars doesn’t copy the strategy of Age Of Empires. It has its own unique gameplay.

Emergence Day has come and gone, and now the Halo 3 release is over. The question remains though, which of the next generation HD multiplayer games is superior. This is my take, I have spent may hours with both games so I will be blunt and making sure not favoring any title. Before I begin, those of you who say that I cannot compare gears with halo 3 because one is a 3rd person shooter while the other is a 1st… well, I have something to say to those people: shut up! I am comparing them now, Ha! Anyway, I am going to compare the multi-player side and not really the campaign or single-player side, because these games are what they are becuase of thier great multi-player characteristics.

Comparison Format:
I am going to compare the major elements of video games and also some characteristics and nuances that each game has that the others lack.

Graphics:

Gears of War: The graphics in GoW are freakin amazing! Even though it came out in November of 06, the graphics are bar none! Everything has a real feel from the look of the humans to the look of the aliens (I’ve seen them in real life) to the look of the weapons. The particle effects of grenades exploding to bullet holes piercing the surrounding structures. On the downside, to get that realism, the GoW team felt that some of the motions had to be animated, thus there is some serious glitchyness. When trying to chainsaw someone on the ground, they automatically stand-up while being chansawed. So, there are a bunch of cookie cutter animations that are really akward looking when you put them in a different context. If only there was more light in all of the levels to see the great level detail!

Halo 3: The graphics in Halo 3 are also amazing! The textures of the levels are very revealing. Every plant and blade of grass has a realistic feel. The lighting is wonderful from the shadows to the sunlight to the manufactured light, all very real and add a huge amount of realism. Although master chief loooks great, the other characters models are frankly pretty cheap. They look blocky and not quite human. They still look good, but they feel also very cartoony, and not realistic.

Conclusion: The graphics in Gears of War are simply better. There are less bugs in the graphics in Halo 3, like the camera jumping behind walls and other wierd places they should not be, but overall, although a lot of the animations are static in gears of war, they just look better.

Playability and Controls:

Playability here is multiplayer playability. Playability encompasses the objectives of games and how well they accomplish thier task. Generally, playability can be summed up into, how fun the game is.

Gears of War: First the controls for gow are great. It reacts as it should and the 3rd person view is great to combat in. But frankly, there are times that the controls get frustrating! I really do not like that the “duck and cover button” is the same as run. The walls endup somehow reaching out and grabbing you. You have to be a skilled driver in order to navigate your character around objects. But over all, the controls are good. Now the playability is just ok. Don’t get me wrong, I really like shooting people in the game, but I wish there were more objectives. I really think some sort of capture the flag or other type of skirmish style of gameplay would have been awesome!

Halo 3: This is where Halo 3 just takes the vote! The controls are awesome! 90% perfect. From shooting to jumping and throwing grenades, all of it is perfect. But there is one HUGE flaw. Why in the heck did they change the “talk” button? It used to be “LB” but now it is up on the direction pad. So unless you have 11 finger or three hands, you cannot run and talk at the same time. I think that is horrible design. I cannot believe the game got released in this fashion. Oh well. The playability of Halo 3 is truly perfect. There is a type of game for everyone. For those who just wish to kill, slayer, for purpose oriented or goal oriented, you have land grab, CTF, and others.

Conclusion: Halo 3 is just a little bit better. Less weirdness and it just feels a little better. Although I think gears pulled it off awesome as well, this is just comparing gold and platinum.

Audio and Xbox Live Communication:

Gears of War: Great! Communication is easy and the Audio sounds online are great! Nothing to complain about here.

Halo 3: Honestly, they were so close to perfect. It’s just that they made theat dumb direction pad the freakin talk button. That is strait up dumb. I hate it!

Conclusion: Gears takes the vote because Halo 3 is stupid with its dumb talk button.

Online Weirdness: Bugs, Lag, Host, etc.:

Gears of War: GOW is first of all horrible at matchmaking. It takes forever and it is tough to get a full room. Especially a full room of committed players. That is because it does no matchmaking. It bugs me that a game this awesome could have this big of a flaw. Either way… the online weirdness is barely tolerable.It takes weeks of playing to finally figure outwhy when your host you are so much better. So when you are not host, you have to play with a different frame of mind. In other words, the host has a big advantage. BIG! And when you are not the host, you have to predict where the player is going to be in the next 10th of a second. And if your the last one on your team vs. the host, do not expect to win a sniper of shotgun battle.

Halo 3: Overall, online, Halo is superb. It is tough to tell who is host, and even if you are, the advantage is only slight, albeit there is still an advantage. The whole matchmaking is SUPERIOR to gears of war in every way. In fact, Halo 2 was superior in multi player matchmaking than gears of war.

Overall Pro’s and Con’s of each Game:

Gears or War: Pro’s

1. Graphics: The graphics are freakin’ amazing
2. Realism – If you like realism, this is the place! It reminds me of the movie fargo when you use that chainsaw.
3. Balance – Very balanced. It comes down to skill and knowing when to use the right weapon. Teamwork also helps.
4. Originality – No game ever like it. Brilliant Cliff, simply brilliant.
5. Communication – Easy to communicate online, simple. That is what is needed here.

Gears of War: Con’s

1. Host Advantage – The host advantage is just too great!
2. Animation – the chainsaw animation and “downed” animations make it too cookie cutter. There are a lot of bugs that happen in those two states, and that makes it not realistic and very frustrating.
3. Multiplayer Matchmaking – Frankly, unless you have 10+ friends online playing GOW, then you will not have a full room for at least 30min, and the chances of finding one are even slimmer. They need to fix that in “Gears of War 2″.

Halo 3: Pro’s

1. Online Matchmaking – Whether you go online, it will always find a match that you want to play, and people stay on even if they are losing by a lot. They way the system was built is just genious! How you can veto a map, or take your party to join another, or create matches on the fly. All if it is simply the best!
2. Balance – This game is extremely balanced. And considering the plethora of vehicles and weapons you can use, it is very balanced. It all comes down to the relative skill on each team, and even then it balances it for you. But, Halo 3 depends moreon teamwork than GOW.
3. Matchmaking options – ctf, territories, land grab, slayer, doubles, all of it just makes sense! What ever you want to play, you can find it.
4. The Forge – It is a blast! Edit maps on the fly and play with them with others edit. Great idea!
5. Co-op – 2-4 players, that is just fun!
6. Stats and more Stats – I love the stats, they are everywhere, including on the bungie website. It is amazing!

Halo 3: Con’s

1. The freakin talk button! I hate it…
2. Load times – it seems like everyonce in a while it takes WAY longer than it should to find a match or load a map.
3. Teamwork – Also a plus, if the team you are on is not working together, but if they are not… it just sucks and you can get very frustrated, becuase you keep losing.

Conclusion:

After lookin at all of the pros and cons, it is difficult to declare a winner. But at this point I would have to say Halo 3. It is tough for me to say that because I am a huge Gears fan! But becuase of the team game style and how unbalanced gears can be at times, I’ll have to give it to Halo 3. But just barely.