[Official] Halo 3: ODST


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Such a terribad excuse for those defending the game. It's a 5-6 hour expansion pack at ?30. Of course they should take it in to consideration.

All of the (amazing) Halo 3 multiplayer, Halo: Reach beta, the campaign, firefight, Sadie's Story (which required almost as much voice work as the campaign itself, and which Bungie has stated people who complete the whole story will get a reward), and also 3 new maps. I want them to review that, not how much of it is worth $60, they review the game - they are not my financial advisers.

I really just wish retail stores would think like that. Pretty sure all the stores of ODST now. They are just waiting on the date for release.

That's because part of them getting the games involve an agreement with the publishers that says "We will not sell the game before this date". If they did, many stores would lose business because they didn't get copies before others.

To that end, if a store sells a game early, it's liable to get prosecuted by the publishers. I believe this happened to a large chain of stores in the US (Target, maybe? I'm not sure). They had to pay a large fine and were banned from selling newer games until a month after release date (Which will have probably cost them millions alone).

No, they shouldn't. They're reviewing the game. The price has no effect on the game. They should review the game and let the reader decide if it's worth the price based on the review.

Yes they should, if you own Halo 3 already, all the DLC and may well be buying it for the SP and Firefight. I'd like to know if it's worth putting 30 notes down for.

Yes they should, if you own Halo 3 already, all the DLC and may well be buying it for the SP and Firefight. I'd like to know if it's worth putting 30 notes down for.

I was in that same predicament but I bought it knowing it would only be for firefight.

Master Chief had its time until he goes to Halo 4 on the Xbox Shazam Shaba 720

No, they shouldn't. They're reviewing the game. The price has no effect on the game. They should review the game and let the reader decide if it's worth the price based on the review.

-Spenser

yes it should. It completely should. A part of the review should be what you are getting back for your money. ODST should have been DLC at the most. It should have been 15-20 bucks US/Canadian for firefight and the mini campaign. I can't beleive how good this game is getting reviewed, it makes no sense. And it's not like i'm a halo hater either, i loved the first three.

Then don't buy it at the full RRP. You have every right and ability to wait for the price to drop to what you're willing to pay for it. This is Halo we're talking about, 6 months after Halo 3 was released you could find it used for ?9.99, 12 months later you could get it brand new for that price. If you really think ODST isn't worth $60, then don't pay $60, pay what you're willing to pay for it.

Then don't buy it at the full RRP. You have every right and ability to wait for the price to drop to what you're willing to pay for it. This is Halo we're talking about, 6 months after Halo 3 was released you could find it used for ?9.99, 12 months later you could get it brand new for that price. If you really think ODST isn't worth $60, then don't pay $60, pay what you're willing to pay for it.

The people that buy it are in it for the MP and everyone knows the best fights and moments are during the release of a game where everyone is trying out MP.

The MP is Halo 3's MP, nothing more. It just has all the DLC. Firefight may be an exception, but there's no matchmaking so it doesn't make a huge difference, 6 months from now you'll still be able to get a bunch of friends together to blast it, probably more so if the price drops enough.

The MP is Halo 3's MP, nothing more. It just has all the DLC. Firefight may be an exception, but there's no matchmaking so it doesn't make a huge difference, 6 months from now you'll still be able to get a bunch of friends together to blast it, probably more so if the price drops enough.

Just firefight.. really?

I'm glad I didn't have any expectations. I was thinking 2 discs.. it has to be revamped w/ loads of awesome but from the way you're telling me that's not the case.

The people that buy it are in it for the MP and everyone knows the best fights and moments are during the release of a game where everyone is trying out MP.

Not really I'm buying it for single player also; I want to play someone other than MC. I do however like the maps they include in the second disc though, I didn?t buy any of the map pack since I didn't touch the one I bought for Halo 2.

So this is really good for me since not only I'm getting a game which I can play 6+ hours of SP game but all have all the map included which would?ve cost me 1400 MS points.

Just firefight.. really?

I'm glad I didn't have any expectations. I was thinking 2 discs.. it has to be revamped w/ loads of awesome but from the way you're telling me that's not the case.

2 discs, combined the 2 disks offer 6 hr + campaign, Firefight, complete Halo 3 multiplayer + all DLC + 3 new maps, Sadies Story (hidden audio files that took as much voice acting as the campaign itself, and if you get all of them it will have a reward) and last but not least Halo: Reach beta.

The people that buy it are in it for the MP and everyone knows the best fights and moments are during the release of a game where everyone is trying out MP.

Um, I'm buying it for the new singleplayer. It sounds more interesting than Halo 3's singleplayer IMO.

EDIT:

Buy Halo 3: ODST at Toys R Us and get a free action figure and $20 gift card (only valid for 2 months):

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/20/toys-r-u...purch/#comments

Good thing there's a Toys R Us on the way back from where I work. I'll then be using that gift card on Modern Warfare 2 :)

Um, I'm buying it for the new singleplayer. It sounds more interesting than Halo 3's singleplayer IMO.

EDIT:

Buy Halo 3: ODST at Toys R Us and get a free action figure and $20 gift card (only valid for 2 months):

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/20/toys-r-u...purch/#comments

Good thing there's a Toys R Us on the way back from where I work. I'll then be using that gift card on Modern Warfare 2 :)

You know what. I completely lost touch with my feelings about the campaign

When I first saw the trailer for ODST I really thought the campaign was going to be more interesting than Master Chief's campaign.

Gift cards are so awesome when you use them, you get real happy! :laugh:

yes it should. It completely should. A part of the review should be what you are getting back for your money. ODST should have been DLC at the most. It should have been 15-20 bucks US/Canadian for firefight and the mini campaign. I can't beleive how good this game is getting reviewed, it makes no sense. And it's not like i'm a halo hater either, i loved the first three.

Yes, but a person should be able to decide that for themselves based on a review of the game. The reviewers shouldn't have to state anything about the price, and shouldn't do so.

And you can't believe it because you're not everyone else. I'm fairly certain many people are going to like the game a whole lot more than you do. It's just an opinion - its going to be different for everyone.

-Spenser

Sadies Story (hidden audio files that took as much voice acting as the campaign itself, and if you get all of them it will have a reward)

:sleep:

What he means to say is it's a glorified audio book which you have to wander about the streets trying to unlock.

sleeping.gif

What he means to say is it's a glorified audio book which you have to wander about the streets trying to unlock.

It's a back story made by the same people that have created the Halo viral campaigns and such, they are brilliant and tend to be VERY interesting.

With each iteration of the Halo video game franchise, there has been some form of extended experience, viral campaign, or ARG. For Halo 3 it was Iris. Bungie even produced their own relatively localized mysteries, such as the Cortana Letters leading up to Halo: Combat Evolved, and other strange A.I. users posting and interacting on the Bungie.net forums like The Smuggler and The Superintendent. Bungie had created a diverse, dynamic, and vast universe in which many stories could be told beyond the video game genre.

Sure enough, Halo 3: ODST will have a unique extended experience of its own. Or rather, an embedded tangential experience, for lack of a better term. Within the game, players will be able to uncover bits and pieces of a separate story arc throughout the campaign. This story is being called ?Sadie?s Story?. Created by Fourth Wall Studios in partnership with Bungie Studios? Joe Staten and Ashley Wood, it?s an audio drama (not unlike the radio drama revealed in I Love Bees) that utilizes comic-book style story-telling and will reveal an exciting mystery throughout the campaign, told from the perspective of Sadie- a New Mombasa civilian, and her experience through the ordeal leading up to New Mombasa?s destruction. It?s reported to contain even more voice acting than ODST itself. Fourth Wall Studios is a company spawned from 42 Entertainment, the creators of I Love Bees. Founded by Elan Lee, Sean Stewart, and Jim Stewartson, they?re no strangers to Halo and immersive experiences. Also under their belt are a number of interactive promotional projects, including ?6 Minutes to Midnight? created for the movie Watchmen, and ?Eagle Eye: Freefall? for the movie Eagle Eye. They are certainly worth checking out if you haven?t already!

You just don't want to see anything good with this game do you?

In other news:

Well, it's decided - i'm keeping my reserve and i will play the HELL out of this game. The IGN video review really reaffirmed my resolve Halo 3: ODST Review

Ars review

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2009...tm_campaign=rss

The Good

New campaign missions adds to the Halo story

New multiplayer maps, two new weapons in single-player

Good voice acting, with some funny lines

All released Halo 3 multiplayer content on one disc

Firefight mode is a blast

The Bad

Short campaign

Sub-par graphics

Rehashed multiplayer

Cheesy music

Set pieces lifted from past games

Linear game play in missions

Hub level used to pad length

Low value for the money

Co-op that breaks the game's internal logic

The Ugly

The fanboys reaction to a panned Halo game, on both sides of the fence

Microsoft learning it can get away with charging $60 for $30 worth of new content

EDIT:

Buy Halo 3: ODST at Toys R Us and get a free action figure and $20 gift card (only valid for 2 months):

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/20/toys-r-u...purch/#comments

Good thing there's a Toys R Us on the way back from where I work. I'll then be using that gift card on Modern Warfare 2 :)

Is the Toys R Us deal only in the USA?

It's a back story made by the same people that have created the Halo viral campaigns and such, they are brilliant and tend to be VERY interesting.

You just don't want to see anything good with this game do you?

The thing is- I've listened to her story because I have the game. I know it's boring and consists of one girl going to try to save her dad each ending with a bad mini cliffhanger.

So while the virals TEND to be good, this is not. :)

Edited by Colin-uk
The thing is- I've listened to her story because I have the game. I know it's boring and consists of one girl going to try to save her dad each ending with a bad mini cliffhanger.

So while the virals TEND to be good, this is not. :)

Use the spoiler tags :s damn it. I get it that you didn't like it but you don't have to spoil it for others.

I know that typical answer is to stay away from these threads but a little courtesy will be appreciated.

Edited by Colin-uk
:sleep:

What he means to say is it's a glorified audio book which you have to wander about the streets trying to unlock.

Jeez, that's a very negative way of looking at it.

It's a comicbook by one of the industry's best, at worst it's going to be something visually interesting to look at and fun to find, at most it's going to be a fascinating back story to the main game.

There's no point in trying to put the game down for the sake of it.

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It must be noted that the Security Advisor still contains (in my opinion) a pretty major bug in that if you enable SPC and then do the required rebooting, the Security Advisor still says that SPC is disabled. TerraMaster provided the following statement about it: It is disappointing that TOS 7 has been in beta since December, and this OOBE issue is still there. Shutdown option has moved Instead of a Taskbar option to manage the NAS, all of these options have been moved to the Control Panel, initially I did not see it and my contact had to show me how to power off the F4-425 Pro. To logout, reboot or power off you can find those controls at the top right of the Control Panel. It is also possible to power off through the TNAS mobile app beta. Storage setup Above, you can see the steps I took to create the Storage Pools and Volumes. I made a second Storage Pool using TRAID on two 4TB MP44Q SSDs (which, in this instance, is similar to RAID 5), and finally, I added the 250GB 970 Evo Plus drive as Hyper Cache on Storage Pool 1 in Balanced mode. Registering If you decide not to lock down the F4-425 Pro in Security Isolation Mode (blocking all external connections), then you could set up a TNAS device ID through the Remote Access setting in the Control Panel (which must be unique). This works in combination with an online TerraMaster account. TOS 7 TNAS Online Creating a TerraMaster account and linking the device online activates the warranty when you provide proof of purchase and the serial number, but it also gives you access through the TNAS mobile app, which allows you to complete certain operationsб including powering off and restarting the NAS remotely. A TNAS mobile update is required to gain access through TOS 7, and this is provided on the TerraMaster website, as it is not yet on Google Play. The app is evolving all the time and has made leaps and bounds since I first started reviewing TerraMaster devices almost three years ago. It is not quite there yet if you are comparing the likes of Synology, which, sadly, a lot of users online do all the time. OpenClaw setup One of the main selling points of the new F4-425 Pro is the inclusion of OpenClaw, with TerraMaster claiming that it is "powered by the world's first AI-native TOS 7 OS, supporting local-first smart workflows and independent data control." However, I immediately ran into problems trying to enable OpenClaw. After waiting 20 minutes at the "Enabling" message of the OpenClaw app following installation, I decided to do some searching online and discovered that it couldn't complete the installation process due to SPC being enabled, which is something TOS 7 immediately recommends to be enabled on first boot. SPC for NAS (TOS 7) is basically the same principle as UAC in Windows; it blocks executables from being launched by non-Super Users. After reaching out to my contact about these issues, I received the following response: Anyway, this only became clear when I closed the OpenClaw app screen and clicked on the OpenClaw icon in the taskbar; that is when I saw the message about disabling SPC. I think, due to the fact that this is a requirement, this should be a prompt during the installation process, not when closing the App Market and then trying to launch OpenClaw. There's also no 'Getting started' guide for people like me who have never used OpenClaw. I tried to add an LLM and discovered the tutorial led nowhere. That's when I started looking around the official TerraMaster forums, and I found a guide that helpfully explains that you won't get anywhere with OpenClaw unless you have a paid plan, which is disappointing because I imagined there would be an option to use a local LLM as I do in SubtitleEdit with Whisper-XXL. In addition, with the marketing imagery on the official site, it says that the OpenClaw feature is "all processed 100% locally for absolute privacy." which led me to believe that I could install a local LLM, not one that required paid tokens. In any case, TerraMaster does not provide guidance for this new feature, which was also a selling point of the F4-425 Pro! My contact also provided clarification about the above points I raised with TerraMaster Since it is not in the scope of the review to add paid services, I'll leave that to the people who are more qualified with OpenClaw. F4-425 Pro Surveillance App TOS also comes with a Surveillance app, which is not installed by default; it can be found in the App Market recommended section. In addition, after installing, it doesn't drop a shortcut on the Desktop or top taskbar, but you can "Send to Desktop" from the App Market listing for the app for a quick way to open it. Adding my Reolink POE doorbell camera was painless. TerraMaster doesn't appear to have a repository of preconfigured cameras; instead, the camera must be added using ONVIF or RTSP. No mobile Surveillance app TerraMaster still doesn't have a dedicated Surveillance app, although from searching online, Surveillance can be used and managed through the TNAS mobile app. I tried this with the updated TNAS mobile app beta in combination with TOS 7 and got a message that Surveillance was "Only accessible through web browser," so I reckon this must be limited to the stable versions of TOS 6 and the mobile app. More quirks In addition, whenever I minimized the Live View window in the browser Surveillance app, the feed appeared to switch to the Low-bandwidth stream, and there was no way to get the High-quality stream back. To get the High-quality stream back, I had to close Live View and then reopen it. Benchmarking A pretty cool feature of the TOS 7 is that it allows you to install directly to the NVMe M.2 SSD. In order to do that, you would have to leave out any HDDs during initialization, and even then, the system partitions are always written to two HDDs when they are eventually added. With three NVMe slots, this also gives an interesting scenario where you could build a TRAID storage Pool for installing all your apps and Docker on, and keep the third for SSD cache on the HDD pool. Limitless options! SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 A CrystalDiskMark test on a mapped network drive from within a Windows 11 25H2 PC (image above) connected over a 5 GbE hub was well within acceptable ranges. Although the read result on SATA was a little less than with the F4-425 Plus, for some reason, while writes were generally better. SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 I also ran the NAS Performance tester, which tests the link speed performance. As you can see, it pretty much maxes out the 5GbE connection. Of course, you can also opt to bond the two 5 GbE connections for a bit more umph, but I didn't do that. TOS 7, which, as of testing, is still in Beta, comes with an App Center that has a bunch of handy programs you can install right off the bat, such as Emby, Plex, Docker, as well as in-house Backup and Surveillance solutions. As you can imagine, any media streaming services you would want to host off the F4-425 Pro will work great, thanks to the Intel Core N350 CPU and its 16 GB of DDR5 memory. Accessing from mobile is only possible if Security Isolation Mode is disabled, which can put your NAS at risk from external sources, so there was no way to access it from the TNAS Mobile app. It's also quiet. I had this sat next to my computer on my work desk for the past week, and I did wonder if the noise I was accustomed to with NAS devices would annoy me, but all I could hear was a soft whirring of the rear fan (which was a little annoying) when the disks were not actively copying or reading data. Conclusion So what have I learned? Unfortunately, this release raises a few important questions and concerns that I feel haven't been adequately addressed. What I didn't like Our variant shipped with TOS 7 beta, and it's advised not to use it in a production environment. I feel that's a bit limiting on an $800 device. The mobile app is also still in beta and does not support some of the first-party apps, like Surveillance, and it still has quite a few bugs. I am a bit confused about the OpenClaw marketing along with the F4-425 Pro. I feel like that if it's going to be a main selling point, then offer official guidance on how to get started with it. TerraMaster recommends enabling SPC, but then markets the NAS for use with OpenClaw, which requires disabling SPC to be able to use it, opening up genuine security concerns for the NAS; and that's before you get into the security concerns of OpenClaw itself. Of course, the above issues won't be a problem if you decide to install something else on it, or even go back to the stable TOS 6. I wish TerraMaster had just given TOS 7 as opt-in rather than shipping with it. TOS 7 has been available as a preview since December 2025 (so well before my last TerraMaster review), and according to a thread on Reddit where a user shared a screenshot from the TerraMaster Facebook page, it is scheduled to launch today, June 23, but there's nothing about that in the TerraMaster news blog. My contact confirmed over email that TOS 7 exits beta today. The rubber feet also deserve a mention as they continue to be a problem, with them coming unstuck the moment you shift the F4-425 Pro anywhere on your desk. What I liked What it comes down to, though, aside from what I already mentioned, you are still getting a quality, affordable device here, so recommending it will depend on the individual's use case. If you're just looking for a relatively small NAS device to manage virtual machines on, backup your files, and take care of your home theater streaming, then it is a great device that will certainly futureproof you for some time. It provides good performance, takes up little space, and is, on the whole, very quiet. Four bays afford proper redundancy using TRAID or RAID 5, and you can even expand on storage capacity by adding the 2-bay D5, or 4-bay D8 Hybrid DAS over a USB 3.2 (10Gbps) link. Considering the 2024 releases were more about power, with the likes of an Intel Core i5-1235U high-end laptop CPU under the hood, I asked my contact last time if we could expect more of the same in higher-end models and was told: It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N350 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the F4-425 Pro is intended for, media streaming and backup. The only downside is still the clear lack of community and even staff support on the official forums. In the past, I have had topics go unanswered for days, or there would be generic-type "we've noted this and passed it onto our developer team" type responses. Along with the other things I mentioned, it all ends up costing it a couple of points. If you are comfortable with the command line, Docker, and setting up TrueNAS or Unraid, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. In TOS, the apps are a bit lacking, and things don't always work as expected.\ AI NAS?! What has become clear to me this year is that we are going to start seeing all kinds of "AI NAS" come to market, and while that might be good for us consumers, be diligent and research these claims. Although the F4-425 Pro technically comes with AI, it is really using a cloud service that is externally sourced off-device through the third party OpenClaw app. My colleague did review a newcomer to the NAS space earlier this year, and it includes a local AI assistant inside the Zettlab D4 NAS, and they do not even use AI in the product name, check out Chris' review here. Where to buy and a discount coupon However, it does not change the fact that this is truly a great entry-level home media-class NAS that you can buy right now. TerraMaster is having a 20% off launch discount, plus you can also still apply our unique 10% off coupon on checkout, which only works on the official website. So here is a breakdown of the pricing that is only valid on the official TerraMaster website. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $575.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $503.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £525.59 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £460.79 Use NEOWIN coupon code during checkout for 10% discount Over on Amazon US and UK, the F4-425 Pro also gets a 20% launch discount, but here, the above 10% coupon cannot be applied. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for $639.99 at Amazon US (was $799.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for $559.99 at Amazon US (was $699.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for £583.99 at Amazon UK (was £729.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for £511.99 at Amazon UK (was £639.99) As an Amazon Associate, when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.
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