Author: Trafficblast

Halo 3 is remembered fondly by many Halo fans. Originally released in 2007, the game remains a fan-favorite to this day, in part for what is considered by many to be Halo’s best multiplayer offering to date.

Everyone who enjoys Halo probably has their own story about what Halo 3 meant to them. And this includes developers from 343 Industries, the new stewards of Halo after taking over the franchise from Bungie in 2007. Twenty-two developers from 343 Industries shared with us their memories of Halo 3 and why it was so special to them.

Halo 3 represents a bygone era for Halo and FPS games overall. There was no sprinting. No loadouts. No perks. No XP grind. Whereas newer entries in the Halo series–and across the wider industry–have focused on engagement through things like battle passes, microtransactions, and live events, Halo 3 kept you playing because it was damn fun and all your friends were playing it. Plain and simple. No gimmicks.

It feels surreal that a game from 2007 still performs and looks so good in 2020, and remains all kinds of fun thanks to Halo: The Master Chief Collection. But Halo 3 isn’t done growing yet. The game is finally out now on PC through The Master Chief Collection, and it’s a big deal because–unlike Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2–Halo 3 was never released on PC. Coming to PC opens up a new audience for the beloved game, and it offers another opportunity for existing fans to revisit the game on a new platform with crisper and more fluid gameplay.

The developers tell tales of late nights playing Grifball and Duck Hunt; of cultivating family and personal relationships through the game. They are stories of putting in the work and earning your first 50. One developer, Sean Cooper from the Master Chief Collection publishing team, tells a story of playing the Halo 3 public beta while he was serving overseas in the military to pass the time when he wasn’t on duty.

Halo Infinite multiplayer designer Fernando Reyes Medina says he didn’t have enough money to buy an Xbox when he was living back at home in Mexico City. So Medina went to an internet cafe and rented an console for $1 per hour to play Halo 2. The story only got more interesting when Halo 3 came out in 2007

“The owner of the cafe that was surprisingly not very tech savvy asked my group of friends and I to set up Xbox Live so people could play Halo 3 there online. We set the whole thing up and my first online match was just magical,” Medina said. “Playing with people from all over the world made me realize how impactful games can be in terms of bringing people together, because no matter who you are or what part of the world you were in, when you were in game you were just another Spartan. That moment was the eureka moment for me where I decided to become a game developer because I wanted to bring people together that way through my own games, and here I am now, 10 years later, as a multoplayer designer on Halo Infinite.”

You can check out all of their testimonials down below.

We also have some brand-new screenshots of Halo 3 on PC for you to feast your eyes on. The first is immediately below, while the other two follow further down the page.

For more on Halo 3 and the new Season 2 update for MCC, check out the full patch notes here.

The next Halo game is Halo Infinite, and it’s due for release later this year as a launch title for the Xbox Series X. Microsoft will showcase the game during the Xbox 20/20 event on July 23.

Lisa Barber | Environment/World Building Artist, Halo Infinite

“Halo captured my imagination more than any other game I’ve played, and Halo 3 really opened my eyes to exploring creativity and community in games. Being able to utilize Theater mode and Forge mode let me express myself in a really innovative new way. It also was the first ever title I got to play on Xbox Live, and I still have long-time friends I made during that time. Not to mention, countless nights staying up playing custom maps like Duck Hunt and Grifball with my best friend! My love for Halo has never stopped, and I’m really proud to be a part of 343 and help bring Halo Infinite to life. ”

Tyler Ensrude | Multiplayer Designer, Halo Infinite

“This game changed my life forever. Besides the incredible Campaign and multiplayer suite, there was an additional way to play the game through a new mode called Forge. This allowed players to go behind the multiplayer curtain and create their own experiences within the game. While I didn’t know it at the time, this was the very beginning of my journey into game development. In fact, 10 years later, on the anniversary of Halo 3, I was offered a position on the multiplayer team to develop ‘Halo Infinite.’ I’ve spent thousands of hours playing Halo 3 over the years, and it has given me so much in return. I owe my greatest friends, my relationship with my brother, and my entire career to this game. I’m honored to have the privilege of working on this franchise, and I hope that Halo continues to inspire a whole new generation of people, the way it inspired me.”

“This game changed my life forever.” — Tyler Ensrude, Multiplayer Designer, Halo Infinite

Ben Madlena | Sandbox Quality Analyst, Halo Infinite

“Halo 3 holds a lot of special memories for me because I played it as a kid and before I had Xbox Live, so it was usually just my brother and I playing split screen together. Halo 3 was a big deal for us because it introduced Forge mode – we used to spend countless hours making 1v1 maps and different custom game modes. The Sandbox being opened up in Forge really made the game seem endless, and it’s one of the reasons I grew to love Halo so much and wanted to work on the Halo team someday. It’s really fun to see how Forge has continued to evolve over the years – my brother and I mainly keep in touch via Xbox Live these days and we love playing all the unique maps/modes made by the community on Halo 5: Guardians!'”

Nick Bird | Forge Quality Assurance, Halo Infinite

“Halo 2 is where I started, but Halo 3 Forge is where I flourished. Every day I would get online with my friends and either mess around in Forge or play some crazy custom game we constructed. There are countless memories and stories to share of the fun we had, ranging from driving a warthog through an obstacle course to games of random weapons with superspeed and low gravity. I spent hundreds, probably thousands of hours in Forge, so much so that I had to create a second profile just to keep additional maps I created. Even then I would get friends to come into the session to save a map so I could figure out what to delete to clear some space. My time in Forge and the Forge community eventually led me to pursue a career in the industry, and ultimately landed me a position to work on what I love in a franchise I love.”

Hunter Young | 3D Environment Artist, Halo Infinite

“From 2007 to 2012, I played Halo 3 nearly every single day. 291 campaign missions, 2521 ranked matches, 5374 social matches, and a whopping 10197 custom games. Halo 3 was not just a game to me – calling it a game would be a disservice to what it meant to me. It was a way to talk and hang out with some of my best friends. It was also a sport – and one that showed me that I could actually be good at something. It was a story that I could re-live as much as I wanted, and it was a creative tool letting me forge bases with friends and share them with the community. Halo 3 was not a game – it was my entire life.

While I played and loved both Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, Halo 3 was the perfect storm of an experience. Looking back, it let me escape everything that was going on in my life at the time, but most of all ‘Halo 3’ introduced me to real friends. Even then, I knew game design was exactly what I wanted to do in my life. My only goal was to make games one day, so that I just had to put my head down and get through the difficult times

After a short time went by I started my own Halo 3 clan – FSC: Fire Stealth Courage. I made a ranking system, hierarchy of power roles, multiple squad-based tier systems that revolved around different areas of the game and more. We grew to 210 members with a competitive team, forge team, screenshot team, and my 7 officers that served below me to help administrate the entire clan – all headed by me, some 8th grade kid from Tennessee. I had a legitimate double-life. Despite having a hard time in school, I could go home and be a leader and someone that 210 people looked up to. Starting that clan was the best thing that I could have done. While we were incredibly active with a litany of activity and contents, most of all FSC and ‘Halo 3’ paved the road for many life-long friendships with some of the best friends that I’ve ever had. We made real friendships that went beyond the screen.

Although I spent my entire time from 2007 to 2012 playing Halo 3 every single day, it didn’t take me away from life, Halo 3 GAVE me a life. It gave me something to look forward to every day, paving the road to where I am now. I look back on those days as being some of the best years of my life, and it was all because of Halo 3.”

Richard Meier | Associate Producer, Halo Infinite

“Between Halo 2 and Halo 3, I’ve played over 14,000 matchmaking matches and custom games. Halo 3 released the year that I graduated high school, so it was an awesome way for my high school friends and I to stay in touch and continue to game together. I remember finishing college classes or work, hopping on Halo 3 and gaming well into the following day. Some of my best friends today are people who I’ve never actually met – but are people who I played Halo 2 and Halo 3 with. Between different Forge Maps and Modes and ranked MLG and TS, Halo 3 was the perfect combo of social and competitive gaming. The Halo franchise is what inspired me to work in games. I vividly remember the LAN parties, late night custom games, and earning my first 50. Halo gave me an opportunity to hang out with my friends, even when life pulled us in different directions, and it connected us to so many more awesome people. I’m truly blessed to be able to work on the franchise that provided me with countless memories and I’m excited to be able to try and deliver the same experiences to both the old and new generations of Halo players.”

Patrick Wren | Multiplayer Modes and Systems Designer, Halo Infinite

“I had played a lot of Halo 2 and couldn’t be more excited for Halo on the next generation console at the time. Halo 3 brought so many memories with it and in ways I couldn’t even imagine. I played everything from Campaign, to competitive tournaments, to wacky minigames. At this point in time I knew I wanted to get into game development, but Forge pushed that desire to a whole new level. I tried to create in Halo 3 as much as I played, hounding my friends to test my creations. Years later I am now working on ‘Halo Infinite’ and can’t wait for people to get their hands on it. Halo 3 created many late nights of laughing with friends, that I can’t wait to play again on PC.”

Sean Cooper | Software Engineer on the 343 Publishing Team, The Master Chief Collection

“2007 marked many firsts for me. First time living overseas. Hit my first full year in the military. First time playing the beta version of a Halo. Any time that I wasn’t on duty, I was trying to log some time in the Halo 3 public beta. It was a great way to checkout, forget about things for a while, and just have fun with my friends, many of which were thousands of miles away. Many years later, I’ve been fortunate enough to land a job not just working on Halo, but working on the original Halos. I’m on a team that’s keeping them alive and bringing them to PC. So now I’m the developer. I’m helping fans of Halo, both new and old, have an outlet that lets them play with their friends, whom they might not have seen for many months now.”

Turner Sinopoli | Technical Environment Artist on the Campaign team, Halo Infinite

“Back when Halo 3 came out I was in middle school and my dad took me to the midnight release. It was a big deal because A) it was a school night so I got to be up WAY past my bedtime and 2) my dad did not care about video games at all so it meant a lot he would take me. We sat out for hours with chairs in line and then finally checked out with Halo 3 and a case of that sweet Mountain Dew game fuel in tow. When we got home, we played split screen Campaign for hours and it was the first time I really played video games with my dad. It’s one of my favorite memories I have with him and the thought of creating moments and stories like that for others drives me to help ‘Halo Infinite’ be the best it can be and hopefully make a lot more warm and happy Halo memories. ”

Eric Richter |UI Artist, Halo Infinite

“The online friends that I play with today all found each other over 10 years ago, when Halo 3 launched in 2007. Our earliest memories together include territory battles on Valhalla, custom games in Sandbox, and playing (and replaying!) such an amazing story together. Once our community had gained enough members, we organized forums to stay in touch, and created a ‘Risk’-like gameboard comprised of all the multiplayer maps, splitting into red and blue armies to vie for control of the galaxy. This structure provided the basis for years and years of scheduled play sessions and kept us together through our toughest times. The re-playability of ‘Halo 3’ was the perfect catalyst and proving ground for our friendship, giving us endless ways to interact, unwind or get competitive, and have fun together above all else.”

Tahir “Tashi” Hasandjekic | Lead Esports Producer

“College wasn’t a great time for me, but it’s the memories of playing Halo 3 with my closest friends at the time that I still look back fondly on.” – Tahir “Tashi” Hasandjekic | Lead Esports Producer

“At the end of 2006 I moved away from home for the first time ever as a freshman in college. I didn’t know anyone except for my friends on Xbox Live and kept to myself most of the time. In the Spring of 2007 I was lucky enough to be invited into the Halo 3 Friends and Family Beta a week before any Crackdown players got in, and I’m pretty confident that I was probably the only one in the whole school who was playing Halo 3 early. So, I decided to leave my dorm room open in hopes of luring in potential friends. Sure enough, some folks came in to check it out, some of which would later become my best friends in college. We played Halo 3 quite often as a group and even ran through 4-player co-op together the night Halo 3 launched later that fall. College wasn’t a great time for me, but it’s the memories of playing Halo 3 with my closest friends at the time that I still look back fondly on. I even had the chance to reconnect with one of them at the 2018 Halo World Championship in Seattle for the first time in almost a decade where Halo once again brought us together.”

Fernando Reyes Medina | Multiplayer Designer, Halo Infinite

“Back home in Mexico City, my friends and I didn’t have money to have a proper console at home, so we would go to an internet/gaming café where we would rent a console for a dollar per hour and we would play Halo 2 in LAN for hours. But when Halo 3 came out, the owner of the café that was surprisingly not very tech savvy asked my group of friends and I to setup Xbox Live so people could play Halo 3 there online. We set the whole thing up and my first online match was just magical. Playing with people from all over the world made me realize how impactful games can be in terms of bringing people together, because no matter who you are or what part of the world you were in, when you were in game you were just another Spartan. That moment was the Eureka moment for me where I decided to become a game developer because I wanted to bring people together that way through my own games, and here I am now, 10 years later, as a Multiplayer Designer of ‘Halo Infinite’ ”

Alex Bean | Multiplayer Designer, Halo Infinite

“I had been a Halo fan since playing Halo: Combat Evolved co-op for the first time at a friend’s house, but Halo 3 was a turning point in my relationship with games. Leading up to its September 2007 launch, I was fascinated by Bungie’s willingness to give insight into the game’s development through the release of mini documentaries (‘ViDocs’), the multiplayer beta, and Bungie.net community interaction. When the game released and delivered on my immense expectations, the limited-edition bonus disc contained behind the scenes content that further detailed the making of the game. The depiction of immensely passionate creators working together to craft the game that I loved had a profound impact on me. By the end of that year, at age 14, I was determined to become one of them.”

Ben Frazier| Character Artist, Halo Infinite

“Halo 3 truly shaped my love for online gaming. Whether it was climbing to max level in ranked modes, or just playing custom games like Infection, the replay-ability seemed endless. The gameplay was tight, the graphics were great, and the social interaction had me consistently itching to join my friends for ‘one more game.’ Forge and the replay system were also super innovative. They brought me tons of fun, and this gem of a screenshot. Calculated.”

Kaleb Nekumanesh | Campaign Level Designer, Halo Infinite

“Halo 3 was the first Halo game I played and I was instantly hooked. The experience of playing with all my friends was an amazing experience. With the innovation of the new Forge and Theatre modes, we were able to continue inventing new ways to have fun such as making levels, game modes, and short films. Playing Halo 3 with my friends for days at a time was one of the most fun memories I have from that period of my life. I’m super excited to be able to relive those memories and share them with a whole new group of players.”

Paul Bronowski | Game Editor Developer, Halo Infinite

“A long time ago, in conference rooms far, far away, we used to play a ton of Halo 3. Those were some very late nights. We had to hunt for conference rooms to play on that were on the same sub-net when sys-link play packets were restricted, and we were often reminded to return the room wiring to the state we found it. We had suitcases and backpacks with our hardware and Can-Am pizza on speed dial. There may have been adult bevs involved. In 2007, DevDiv held a Halo 3 tournament for the giving campaign and we decided to form a team. I wasn’t the strongest player on the team, but we somehow took first place.”

Allen Wilson | Campaign Level Designer, Halo Infinite

“When Halo 3 released I was fourteen years old and it was the only game I cared about at the time. My entire network of friends pretty much revolved around Halo 3, and it was a daily routine to hop online the second I got home from school. Halo 3 connected me to a community, not just within my group of friends, but also to people overseas! Which now-a-days doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but when you’re growing up in a small town like I was, it was a life changing experience. Going from a community member to actually working on and contributing to the next big Halo title in the series is an actual dream come true. Huge thanks to the MCC team for bringing a masterpiece to PC, can’t wait to get into some custom games!”

Daedra Christopher | Campaign Level Designer, Halo Infinite

“I have always had a special place in my heart for Halo, especially when my youngest son told me his new name was Green Armor. The Halo franchise for me has always been a part of my family whether it was my eldest annihilating me in almost every match or my husband laughing at me when I called the Elites, whoop whoops. My boys and I would play Halo 3 together and have a blast. When I left my native Texas to join 343i, it was difficult leaving my kids behind, even if they are no longer mom’s little boys. I know working on their favorite franchise of all time makes them proud every day. I am proud not only to be a part of Halo, but to be part of such an amazing, talented team of people who believe in what we stand for: hope, heroism, wonder, and community. We make Halo.”

John Louis Wilson | Environment Artist, Halo Infinite

“Halo 3 was the first Halo game I owned on an Xbox console. I always had to play Halo 2 at friends’ houses and I annoyed my mom with how much I’d play the ‘Halo: Combat Evolved’ trial on PC during the school day. It was the game that taught me that the best memories don’t come from what you do but the feelings you have while doing it. When I was playing Fat kid, duck hunt or Jenga in a lobby full of people I’ve never met before, we’d be laughing and creating moments that I want others to have and share with the games I work on! It’s always so satisfying when you can say ‘I did this and that’ and it would instantly click in the mind of the person you’re talking to and they get it and can share that feeling!”

Kolbe Payne | Campaign Level Designer Halo Infinite

“When Halo 3 launched, I was in middle school. I will never forget the excitement of getting home after a long day at school and playing Halo 3 all night with my friends. Most of the time I would ‘forget’ that I had homework that was due the next day and would rush to get it finished in the morning before classes. ‘Halo 3’ was the start of my late-night gaming sessions that I still have every night. To think back then that I would be a Campaign Level Designer on ‘Halo Infinite,’ my younger self would absolutely lose his mind.”

Noah Benesch | Product Marketing Manager – Halo on PC

“I think everyone remembers the first video game they really engaged with. The first experience you simply couldn’t put down, the thing that made you realize the promise of gaming. For me, that game was Halo 3 because of the virtually limitless experiences it had to offer. From the astounding story, to nail-biting SWAT games, to the chaos of a Mongoose racetrack, Halo never could manage to leave me bored. In fact, Halo 3 was the first title I attempted to achieve 100% completion on –- though beating the game on legendary proved an insurmountable challenge at the time. Now, some 13 years later, I’m looking forward to completing that challenge on PC.”

“The first experience you simply couldn’t put down, the thing that made you realize the promise of gaming.” — Noah Benesch | Product Marketing Manager – Halo on PC

Amity Mathews | Senior Data & Applied Scientist, Halo Infinite

Back during Halo 3, there was an internal beta available to Microsoft employees. Being a long-time fan, I jumped at the chance and filed a number of issues. Unbeknownst to me, the top 16 bug filers across Microsoft would be invited to put Halo 3 through its paces in a weekly on-site playtest… and I made the cut! For several months, we would play Campaign, Customs, and have dialog with the engineers about why we felt a certain way or work with someone to repro an oddity that had just happened. This occurred in the cryptically unmarked (and no longer standing) building at 434 Kirkland Way.

My favorite story from that time: It happened on Isolation; a multiplayer map covered in vibrant vegetation. It would take the community a few months to discover that vegetation slowly withers over the course of a match as it becomes infected by the Flood. Our evenly matched teams were tied 49-49, as I faced off against someone with Rockets with my Shotgun. We both fired at the same time, and both our shields were knocked out. I was too far away with the shotgun, and he… was livid. ‘Point blank rocket didn’t kill him! WTF?!’ Tension mounted. He fired again, right as I meleed… and neither of us were damaged. ‘WHAT THE *%!*’ Because I’d meleed, I had a faster cycle time and clutched the win with my second melee, laughing. I had no clue how I’d survived. A Bungie employee promised they’d look into it as they saved off the film with the new playback feature.

Later, we both received screenshots… and an explanation that it was technically ‘by design?’ ‘Halo 2’ rockets used a ray (a line, shooting right from the tip of the rocket forward) to determine collision. At the precise moment it passed me, it managed to fit right through the few-pixel gap of my Spartan’s thighs. That made some sense, but what about the second, point-blank rocket?! It truly didn’t seem to fire. There was certainly no explosion. But, zooming out there was. Against a far wall of the map and behind the guy with rockets. As it was explained to me, early in development rockets had a habit of exploding in the rocket tubes. The rocket was originally armed immediately upon firing, and if you spun too fast the rocket tube would clip the ray and it would explode. Thus, the rockets were changed to be launched kinetically, then arm as they left the tube. There was a one or two frame window of time, in which I could swat the rocket onto a new trajectory. Which is precisely what happened! I immediately recalled the moment in The Fall of Reach where Master Chief deflected a Scorpion missile with Cortana’s help. The moment still brings a smile, not to mention wonder at the depth and nuance of the franchise. I’m honored to be a part of this legacy.

If you’re looking to upgrade your gaming setup, Amazon’s Deal of the Day offers a great opportunity to do so. For today only, select Razer PC gaming products are majorly discounted, with some seeing markdowns of up to 50% off. The sale includes one of the best gaming mice we’ve tested, the Razer Viper, which is down to $100 from its usual $130. You’ll also find fantastic deals on the BlackWidow mechanical keyboard, which features a supportive wristpad and colorful RGB lighting. The Elite version is on sale for $103 (normally $170), while the more compact tenkeyless keyboard is just $70 (normally $140).

The popular Razer Kraken gaming headset features in the sale as well, including the green Tournament Edition with THX Spatial Audio, a retractable noise-canceling microphone, and cooling gel ear cushions. It’s down to just $65, normally costing $100. You’ll also find a couple of mouse pads for just 10 bucks each along with the Razer Tartarus v2 gaming keyboard with mecha-membrane key switches for $50 (was $80).

Below, check out the best Razer PC gaming accessories on sale as part of Amazon’s Deal of the Day, and remember: These deals will be gone by the end of today, with the possibility of selling out earlier.

Grant Imahara, best known as the MythBusters roboticist co-host, died suddenly Monday evening at 49. No details about Imahara’s death have been given, but the Hollywood Reporter is reporting he had a brain aneurysm.

Imahara’s co-hosts, including Kari Byron and Adam Savage, have taken to Twitter to offer their statements.

The Discovery Channel also issued a statement, reading: “We are heartbroken to hear this sad news about Grant. He was an important part of our Discovery family and a really wonderful man. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”

After MythBusters, Imahara co-hosted Netflix’s White Rabbit Project with fellow MythBusters alumni Byron and Tory Belleci in 2016. The show was a sort of spiritual successor to the popular MythBusters, and one that tried to “sleuth the truth” about “topics as diverse as jailbreaks, superpower technology, heists, and crazy World War II weapons.”

Before a career in TV, Imahara worked for Lucasfilm’s THX division and later joined Industrial Light and Magic. He worked there for nine years on movies including George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels, The Matrix Reloaded, Van Helsing, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

In a 2008 MachineDesign profile, Imahara said he was attracted to an engineering career because he “liked the challenge of designing and building things, figuring out how something works and how to make it better or apply it in a different way. When I was a kid, I never wanted to be James Bond. I wanted to be Q, because he was the guy who made all the gadgets. I guess you could say that engineering came naturally.”

Fellow MythBusters presenter and jet-car racer Jessi Combs died at 36 in August 2019 trying to break a speed record.

If a youthful obsession with Japanese samurai cinema and an audiobook version of Musashi have taught me anything, it’s that if you want to be a great swordfighter, having a connection to nature is important. Skill with a weapon isn’t purely driven by physical strength and technique, but also by the acuity that comes from observing trees, mountains, and rivers. Something like that.

While I can only make guesses as to how inspirational the rural areas of feudal Japan would have been, the scenic island portrayed in Ghost of Tsushima, an open-world 13th-century samurai epic, is one that often stirs something inside me. Beyond being a game centred around flashy sword fights and the journey of Jin Sakai to becoming a proto-ninja, Ghost of Tsushima invites you to lose yourself deeply in its grasslands, forests, and mountains. And though the tasks you’re given often aren’t as brilliant as the colour of the leaves, there’s certainly something wonderfully humbling about just riding your horse through this beautiful environment and taking it all in.

And what an immediately beautiful world it is, full of bold, saturated colours, grandiose weather effects, and an overabundance of windswept leaves, petals, butterflies, and other small particles that make every location feel alive. The island of Tsushima is a painter’s palette; vibrant red and yellow forests sit atop inviting green hills by day, blinding sunsets soak everything in a deep orange. At night, bright white moonlight glistens off dark blue lakes and waterfalls to illuminate everything around you. The game has an option to turn everything black and white in order to mimic the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa, but using it forgoes Tsushima’s own distinct visual identity.

At times, it almost feels as if art direction is trying a little bit too hard to draw attention to itself. And Ghost of Tsushima certainly makes a concerted effort to try and absorb you into its radiant world even further with its deliberate lack of navigational information. There’s no option for an on-screen minimap or a compass to see which way you’re going, and objective markers are barely there. Instead, the game features an in-world device called Guiding Wind, in which the game’s plethora of organic particles will subtly fall towards the location of whatever objective you need to reach. A swipe of the DualShock’s touchpad will magically and visibly summon a strong gust that kicks up even more particles in an almost comically self-indulgent way, which acts as a more obvious nudge in the right direction.

It’s a great system. Without anything to draw your eyes away from your character and the world, the Guiding Wind pushes you to pay more attention to your surroundings, to let you more quickly internalise key landmarks that help you to get your bearings more easily later on, or just to feast your eyes. Other in-world devices, like plumes of smoke, flying songbirds, foxes, Torii gates, talkative non-player characters, and more help to guide (or rather, distract) you toward new activities.

A lot of these activities also work in service of making sure you see Tsushima’s good side. Foxes will invite you to follow them down charming paths to nearby Inari shrines. Torii gates will lead you to simple but daring-looking platforming challenges that reward you with spectacular vistas. Haikus ask you to sit down and reflect on your picturesque surroundings. Singing crickets will unlock songs for Jin’s flute, which let you magically command the dramatic weather at will. You get equipment early on that helps you track down the game’s myriad collectables through the Guiding Wind and controller vibration, and some convenient touches like a generous and very quick-loading fast travel system help make Tsushima be an incredibly pleasant place to move through, especially when armed with the game’s robust photo mode to take screenshots with.

While you do need to enter a menu-based world map if you want to go somewhere specific, without a marker to constantly signal your next objective’s location, you definitely get a little less obsessed with taking the most direct route, and feel more naturally inclined to just follow winding roads around mountains and along river banks. Guiding Wind creates a flow that gives you plenty of opportunities to drive your own curious exploration. As an open-world device, it also succeeds in masking the feeling that you’re simply being strung along by objective markers, even though that’s still exactly what you’re doing.

That feeling does still come up, unfortunately, when Ghost of Tsushima’s quests (referred to as Tales) take hold of the reins. Tales fall back on rote open-world quest structures, where you do things like follow a quest giver to an objective, perhaps having a chat on the way, and veering off the assigned path here isn’t allowed. Sometimes you’ll be asked to survey or examine an environment, activities which have the ability to devolve into meticulous hunts for interactable hotspots. Some early Tales have you chasing macguffin after macguffin to the point of being silly, making you wonder if anything is going to happen at all. Anytime you’re not engaged in combat, a lot of these quests, especially side quests, can feel like a drag.

The cutscenes that host conversations between Jin and other characters, which give context to these Tales, largely feel stilted, which further underscores the tedium. That’s not the fault of the acting–Ghost of Tsushima has some passionate and strong-sounding Japanese voice work, at least to my non-speaker ear, though there is a visible disconnect with character lip-syncing, which retains the mocap performances of the (notably all-Asian) English cast. Even though I preferred the Japanese voice audio, the two tracks do offer some differences in regards to their overall tone.

The voice work is largely let down by a noticeable lack of bodily expression in the almost motionless character models, meaning you’re basically just watching a couple of talking heads most of the time. That’s not uncommon to see in titles of this nature, but it is a significant low point in a game that otherwise hits so many stylistic highs. The cinematography, which frames the characters in pleasing ways within the gorgeous scenery, instead does the heavy lifting to make sure these regular moments are at least somewhat pleasing to the eye–though wide shots do draw more attention to the fact that two conversing bodies are standing perfectly still. This means that a lot of the game’s emotional arcs and vibrant characters don’t hit as hard as they should. Ghost Of Tsushima clearly aims to evoke golden-age samurai cinema in many ways, but it doesn’t manage to capture even a tiny amount of their vigor when it comes to exposition–Mifune-level gusto is completely out of the question here.

There are some exceptions to this. The primary story quests give the characters involved a bit more freedom to move, and naturally benefit from hosting the more interesting plot threads: that of Jin’s inescapable metamorphosis from a by-the-books samurai square to something a lot more unscrupulous for the greater good, and how this change affects the relationship with his loving but uncompromising father figure. The combat encounters here also benefit from some great set pieces, heightened by a strong musical score that helps construct those rousing blockbuster moments that always seem to be able to pull at your emotions, no matter how impartial you’re trying to be.

Character-specific Tales have a little more to offer too, and see Jin assist his closest allies with their own dire issues. These multi-part questlines can feel like wild goose chases, especially at the beginning of the game, but they all offer their own interesting (and violent) stories of familial bonds, one of the game’s major running themes.

Mythic Tales are Ghost Of Tsushima’s most interesting quest offering, though they are few in number. These are explorations into the slightly more supernatural elements of the world, featuring their own special animated introductions. They attempt to pull away from the direct point-to-point structure of the other quests by asking you to do things like look at a hand-drawn map and use your own deductive exploration to find the objective location, or perform an activity with a simple mechanical twist. They can still feel like wild goose chases, but the rewards for the more involved nature of them are significant–aside from the main questline, this is your other avenue for earning new types of weapons, armour, and abilities, usually after a climactic one-on-one boss duel.

Those duels, and Ghost of Tsushima’s combat in general, is where the game does successfully evoke samurai cinema. Jin’s katana remains your primary weapon throughout the whole game; it can fell enemies in a few quick slices, but likewise, Jin can also die quickly after a few good hits from opposing blades. This means blocking, parrying, and dodging are the main skills you need to learn how to both use and overcome properly, and though there is more leeway than something like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, battles can still be over in seconds if you make blunders. This gives every fight in the game a degree of heart-pounding tension, from the game’s first fight to its final, whether it be a lowly bandit or a master swordsman, even in the otherwise rote quests, and no matter what difficulty you’re playing on.

Combat does a fantastic job at approximating the highly-stylised version of one-versus-many sword fighting as seen in films like Harakiri or the Samurai trilogy, where long standoffs and quick, flourished movements mark the ebb and flow of suspense and excitement. Most encounters can be initiated by triggering a one-on-one standoff, a tense game of chicken where you need to wait until your enemy has committed to an attack and then counter it in the split second afterward, dispatching them in one quick fell swoop. Once that formality has passed, enemies will often try to surround you and attack in tandem, and decisive success often depends on patiently waiting for a clear opening for attack, lest you get interrupted by a follow-up blow. Perhaps you might need to wait for an advance so you can perfectly deflect it and counter, or break someone’s guard to stagger them with some decisive heavy strikes–indiscriminate flailing will see you thrown off balance quickly. A Resolve meter, charged by defeating enemies, earns you opportunities to perform devastating special attacks or heal yourself, creating small risk-reward decisions to think about. Regularly changing your active fighting stance (each unlocked after encountering enough enemy leaders) to better handle the different kinds of weapons your opponents are wielding adds to the many considerations you need to make, as do ranged opponents and the extra tools you’ll eventually have at your disposal as Jin begins to learn more deceitful methods of combat.

Unlike the game’s quest cutscenes, Jin’s suite of animations, along with the gore and foley associated with combat, do a lot to make the act of sinking a katana into flesh feel meaningful. Flourishes like how Jin returns to stance after a kill, and the graceful movements that accompany a successful parry give everything an observable flow. Switching stances (which slows down time) just before dodging a hit and responding with an advantageous technique feels really good. Taking a step back and watching a video of a good fight you might have just recorded can be like witnessing a well-choreographed action scene. In addition to exploring the world, combat is where Ghost of Tsushima’s most transcendent moments lie.

But it’s not without flaws; combat is sometimes let down by a couple of major factors. When fighting on uneven terrain like staggered rock formations and inclines, the tightly-interlocked cause and effect of parries and blows starts to unravel, resulting in holes where animations occur but their effects are not passed on. The camera can also be an issue; it should be noted that Ghost of Tsushima does not feature an enemy lock-on function as part of its toolsuite. Presumably, this is because enemies are constantly attacking from all directions, and you should always have the ability to react quickly. But continually having to worry about the camera in order to keep an eye on every enemy within attack range, while also thinking about parrying, executing attack strings, switching stances, dodging ranged projectiles, and keeping your health up so you don’t die on the next hit can sometimes be a little much–your right thumb will be moving back and forth between the analog stick and the face buttons more than usual.

When you’re fighting in an open, grassy field, and the camera actually pulls back a bit to frame the dozens of enemies closing in on you, Ghost of Tsushima’s sword fighting is absolutely sublime. But conditions aren’t always perfect. The biggest camera issues regularly arise when fighting in tight spaces indoors, or in cluttered areas like enemy encampments (of which there are many) where tents, fences, crates, and other such environmental objects exist. Too often you will find yourself in a situation where a solid object will be blocking your vision of Jin, your enemies, or more importantly, your enemy’s weapons. All enemy attacks have a visible tell, and in the case of stronger, unblockable attacks, they have distinctive red glints moments before they occur. But much like Ogami Itto’s Suio-ryu Wave Slicer in the Lone Wolf and Club series (which begins with Itto lowering his sword beneath water–please bear with me here), if you can’t see what your enemy is doing with their weapon, there is very little you can do to prevent your imminent death–and that can be incredibly frustrating.

To be fair, you’ll also kill people without them ever seeing what you’re doing. When Mongol invaders turn up on the coasts of Tsushima, Jin and his honour-stricken samurai cohort find that their new enemies don’t play by their overly-formal rules of warfare. Jin very quickly learns to accept that he’ll need to adopt more deceitful and vicious tactics to combat the overwhelming occupation of the island, meaning he’ll have to get used to hiding in the shadows, stabbing people in the back, and using a variety of tools to give himself an unfair advantage–warfare tactics that were reportedly unheard of in 13th-century Japan.

A viable option in most scenarios, stealth is a relatively uncomplicated affair in Ghost of Tsushima. Enemies are often placed in convenient locations and are hard of hearing (nearby neutral NPCs will, hilariously, react dramatically to your actions while enemies stand motionless). In the beginning, it also feels basic to a fault–I remember lamenting the fact that there was no way to hide bodies, even though guards are alerted upon discovering them.

But as you quickly earn new Ghost Tools to use and upgrade your Tanto blade for quicker takedowns, it becomes clearer that it isn’t a stealth game focussed on barely slipping by unnoticed (though there are a number of annoying instant-fail stealth and tailing quests), but one where you want to see how quickly and viciously you can take down everyone in the vicinity. That ended up justifying the inability to hide bodies, on top of explaining why Jin’s footsteps are silent to begin with, and how he managed to already be a fearless climbing master. Even after I had completed the game’s main quest, I gained a lot of enjoyment from using the remaining enemy encampments as playgrounds to terrorize soldiers. I’d get creative with distraction tools, use more environmental kills, turn enemies against one another with hallucinogenic darts, and hone my super long-range grenade throwing arm from the safety of a dark rooftop I clambered onto with a grappling hook.

Ghost of Tsushima’s story hits hard in the game’s third and final act, and ends in spectacular fashion. It left me with the same kinds of strong emotions I felt at the end of all my favourite samurai film epics, and had me eager to watch them all again. The game hits a lot of fantastic cinematic highs, and those ultimately lift it above the trappings of its familiar open-world quest design and all the innate weaknesses that come with it–but those imperfections and dull edges are definitely still there. Ghost of Tsushima is at its best when you’re riding your horse and taking in the beautiful world on your own terms, armed with a sword and a screenshot button, allowing the environmental cues and your own curiosity to guide you. It’s not quite a Criterion classic, but a lot of the time it sure looks like one.

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