I completed yet another Halo 2 chapter tonight (four left to go, I think), but after getting the achievement it then told me “Sorry, Please insert the original Halo 2 disc”, even though I thought the activation scheme isn’t supposed to need the disc post-install. Then it dumped me back to the main menu, and when I tried to resume the campaign, it told me that I had an “invalid checkpoint” that did not match the one on XBox Live, and I could either restart the level or continue without achievements. No matter which one I picked, it dumped me back at the start of the chapter I just finished, though. Ugh.
Fortunately, I discovered that I can go back to the main menu, reselect the character profile, and then use the ‘start a level’ option instead of ‘resume the campaign’, and then I can choose the next level. It had me worried for a bit there, though.
As for this last chapter, there was tons of vehicle-piloting, including my favourite, the Scorpion. At one point it wanted me to board an ally’s much weaker vehicle and he’d take me to the next area, but screw that — I stayed on board just long enough to trigger his movement there, and then jumped off and ran back to get another Scorpion again. It only takes two or three shots from its cannon to take down the larger Librarians, instead of the multiple clips of conventional weaponry.
At the end was yet another elevator ride where me and my allies were attacked by waves of Flood. I kept dying a lot as groups of them overwhelmed me, but soon discovered that I could stick to one spot and I’d only have to deal with them one or two at a time, which was easy with a Plasma Sword.
Don’t feel like you’re missing much in Halo 3. Finished single-player last night, and I gotta say from that point, the early reviews are overrated — especially if you don’t have a decent audio setup. I think the story line was good, but I can’t really tell, as it doesn’t seem to be possible to replay cutscenes: even if I could, it probably wouldn’t matter because you can’t hear the center channel (voice, of course) during a cutscene worth a damn. It felt like bloody pantomime all the way thru. Only voices I heard were the Prophet of Truth’s, and Gravemind’s… but I could have done without the latter. He’s annoying. :-)
SP is short, yes, but this is the first (and probably only) game I bought knowing full well it was designed for multiplayer so I don’t feel too let down. Except for the unintuitive menus. And bad documentation. And no non-expensive-home-stereo-setup support. And perhaps mostly the lack of waypoints / directions / indications of where to go when you’re running for your life in areas with confusing twists, turns, and textures.
…and the fact that the lovely energy sword is now limited by charge like every other energy weapon. Might not seem like a big deal until the final chapter. Then you’ll see why I’m not happy ’bout it. ;-)
I’ve been hearing that the H3 single-player is pretty much ‘average’, but people seem to love the multiplayer. Sounds like there’s a zillion different game types and customizations you can make, and a ‘photo mode’ to tinker with. Looks like it’ll still be a little while before I find out for myself, though. :(
The plasma sword has charges in the PC version of Halo 2 too, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually used it long enough to run out. Maybe it just drains a lot faster in 3.
Not sure about the audio problem, it seems like a strange oversight and haven’t heard anything else about it. Double-check all your console and game settings, I guess.