I’m playing it on console. Back when I played Halo 1, I played the piss-poor PC port. The game was really not calibrated for that sort of interface – it felt “thin”, lacking weight and impact. I also played it too long after it was released for consoles – by the time I played it, Halo 1 had no features that stood out to me, which was a massive disappointment especially given the hype. The only thing that initially attracted me to the game was the pretty, colourful surroundings, and by the time The Flood was introduced, I completely lost interest and stopped playing.

The level-design is quite open. Okay so it’s not Deus Ex or The Elder Scrolls. The levels are overall quite linear and take you from point A to B. It’s not a railroad, however, it’s more like a string of arenas. Halo 2 felt very constricted in terms of level design. There were a few branches, but it seemed like a much more traditional linear shooter than Halo 1. I find that I enjoy Halo 3′s level design more than I enjoyed Halo 1′s, let alone Halo 2′s. In Halo 3, you move into an arena full of enemies to tackle, and when you’re done, you move on. It’s a very simple formula, but it’s pretty effective. Without the other factors listed, it wouldn’t be enough to win me over though.

I’m playing it in co-op. This is the big one. Halo 1, I played in singleplayer. Halo 2, I largely played in singleplayer except a few select portions I played with friends until losing interest. Halo 3, I’ve played in co-op with Nick and for a while today also Larry. Co-op makes all the difference. Instead of driving a car, I’m driving a car while my friend is up back gunning. Instead of charging forwards with crossed fingers, I’m hanging back, providing cover for the two twitch gamers up front. Occasionally, magic happens, such as when Nick drives me up behind an enemy Wraith-tank so I can board it and take it out, or when I provide a distraction so Nick and Larry can flank a shielded enemy position from different directions. We haven’t had an opportunity to ride 3 players in one Warthog yet, but I can’t wait to try it out.

I’m playing it on higher difficulty. In by far most games I have, the lowest difficulty is perfect for me and provides lots of fun. In the Halo games I need to play on at least Normal to enjoy it. Higher difficulties turn the game from a dumb rush shooter to a more tactical, cautious experience. Halo 1 and 2, I played on the easiest setting. It was very easy and may have contributed to my not enjoying those games. In Halo 3, I played Normal on my own, Heroic with Nick, and Legendary when Larry joined in. Legendary would be amazingly frustrating playing solo, but when there are three players, one can simply hang back and serve as a mobile spawn point. Furthermore, when you’re playing co-op, death is far less frustrating and more – hilarious.

I’m a sucker for achievements. Halo can be played in a linear or nonlinear fashion. Like Call of Duty 4, there is a level menu where you can choose which mission to play, but unlike CoD4, Halo 3 lists the highest difficulty you’ve completed each level on in SP and in co-op, and rewards a complete playthrough on each difficulty level with an achievement. This plays to a sort of collector’s instinct that makes me really want to complete every mission on Legendary, and thanks to the inclusion of up to 4-player co-op, that’s actually an attainable goal, unlike the idea of 5-starring every song on Expert in Guitar Hero 3.

There’s no doubt that the co-op really makes the difference. Thanks to co-op, I can play Halo 3 on the hardest difficulty without having a heart-attack, and I can enjoy the Warthog the way it was meant to be played. And the Xbox’s built-in voice chat is the final touch that seals the deal, making Halo 3 co-op the perfect social gaming experience, easily rivalling Guitar Hero’s or even Gears of War‘s brilliant co-op.

Oh and the dual-wielding system is bloody ace.

Multiplayer achievements is the worst idea I’ve encountered in a long time.

For a while, I was somewhat ashamed of my fondness for collecting achievements. To me, their appeal is similar to collectible card games and the likes: I enjoy having them and looking at them. It’s like collecting stamps, except you can’t sell your collection expensively when you get tired of the hobby. But I wasn’t really sure why I found them so enjoyable to hunt for in my games until Nick described why he found them amusing: When done right, they encourage you to play the game in a way you otherwise wouldn’t have.

Progress achievements are alright. They’re not really that great, because as long as you complete the game, you’ll get them all. Everybody always has these, too, so they’re not much fun to compare. Their only real merit is that they provide an extra incentive to complete a game that you’d otherwise just sort of stop playing in favour of something else. Grind achievements are rarely very enjoyable either, I feel – 10 lousy gamerpoints and another icon in my achievement list is hardly worth the boredom of trying to kill 200 enemies with grenades, or whatever silly task the developers have come up with.

The really good stuff is the achievements that make you explore every corner of the map, finding details a regular playthrough wouldn’t have revealed, or use every weapon or ability or combinations of same, such as the companion-related achievements in Mass Effect (although it’s kinda crazy that you have to play the game 3 times to get them all). The special zany achievements most games seem to have are also usually quite a hoot, such as Guitar Hero 3′s Tone Deaf achievement or the Paleontologist achievement in Stranglehold.

But the MP achievements just annoy me. First of all, they greatly contribute to the feeling of missing out on half the game. I like to try to get as many achievements as possible when I play a game, for largely the same reasons that I always explore every corner of each map and talk to every NPC in the game, so when half the available achievements are tied to the multiplayer, I get a little annoyed with myself and that in turn makes me annoyed with the game. Secondly, for some reason, MP achievements tend to be grindy in nature. Win 50 rounds, win 20 rounds with a shoutout, kill 150 enemies, etc. How is that fun?

How is that fun!?