Manny Brown

Posts by Manny Brown:

Halo 3: the best of Forge

Manny dips into the cream of Halo 3’s user creations.

Whilst it hasn’t generated the buzz of LittleBigPlanet, or the barrage of impressive statistics that filled the Spore universe, Halo 3 can still hold its own as a champion of user-generated multiplayer content. As we’ve seen with other titles, however, the more popular and accessible your creative toolset, the less easy it is to filter out the dross. Bungie’s community files section, though a fantastic tool in the past, is struggling under the weight.

So that’s where the following list comes in. This is by no means an exhaustive guide to the very best that Forge has to offer, but we’ve compiled from long experience, cherry-picking the maps and game variants that have earned a permanent spot in the FPSG multiplayer hopper. It’s a connoisseur’s selection of carnage. And so, without further ado…
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The Edit Suite: Worst FPS levels

Manny Brown confesses his fondness for shiny sphincters.

It’s 6am, and tempers are fraying. We’ve had a long night, but the eighth (and perhaps finest) level of the Halo 3 co-op campaign – The Covenant – has our four-man party clamouring to recall stories of Silent Cartographer, the crowning glory of Halo: CE.

It’s a sharp reminder of a long-forgotten gameplay rush, a level beloved for green rolling hills and the most prominent of free-form AI hooks on which Bungie hangs its celebrated set pieces. This was the simultaneously nostalgic and progressive experience we were all seeking. This, we declared to one another, was what console shooters were all about.