14 DAY TRIAL // 
A couple of notes before this interview gets down; I'm Re (Reviewer), while Master Chief is MC (not a master of ceremony anyway). I may have talked to the fellow, I may have talked to the actor voicing him or... I may just be Cortana in a human shape. Who knows? Care to see what Master Chief has to say? Read on Spartans!
Re: How does it feel to be part of a phenomenon that sold $170 million dollar-worth copies in the first 24 hours after its official launch?
MC: Well, first of all this is not a sellout! If Bungie gathered all the neurons and karma from the universe in order to create the perfect scenario for a blockbuster, so be it! However, I'll never turn into a sellout. It's just that this is the end of the trilogy and that helmet of mine had to come off at some point. Yes, the mystery is finally unveiled and what I can say is that Halo fans will surely miss me...
Re: How is it like to fall a couple of miles from the sky straight onto the bare ground?
MC: You must be talking about Halo 3's intro sequence... Well, I don't remember much, except for the fact that Sergeant Major Avery Johnson and his team found me and I almost attacked the Arbiter, but realized that he's gone friendly now. Hmm... I wonder? Well, he'll prove loyal later in the story, you'll see. After dispatching some Brutes and escaping the jungle, I was sent to the Voi, an African town with the sole purpose of destroying the anti-aerial Covenant defenses.
Re: Covenant?
MC: Yes, they're those nasty aliens we encountered while colonizing many galaxies back in 2525. I have won many battles against them, so I'm quite famous (and probably the most wanted soldier) on the Covenant's current enemy list. They aim to conquer the Earth and have sent a lot of ships here, prepping for major combat...Sadly, we're outnumbered....
Re: So, I see that you've fought well against them, killed hundreds perhaps... What's the catch? Who or what are you in fact? Do you use enhancements?
MC: I'm Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, but I go by the name of Master Chief and you can consider me a Clint Eastwood type of guy. Basically, I'm a silent protagonist (so you're really bugging me with this interview), who leads the battle of mankind against alien forces. You might think I'm a mechanical beast, like most of the futuristic soldiers you've seen, but although I am encased in heavy armor there some feeling inside this tin can. I honor and value my fellow Spartans, as you'll see by playing Halo 3 and its prequels. I value them so much that I'll gladly risk my life in order to save them. Also, you might want to know that I'm part of the UNSC (United Nations Space Command) and that I've been a member of the Spartan-II supersoldier training program. Your previous assumptions were right, as I've been biologically and cybernatically enhanced due to a pretty risky procedure that got me the reputation of "freak" among the UNSC members. Not many survived this.... I couldn't care less about all these enhancements, because all I need right now is Cortana, a form of artificial intelligence that appeared during one of my training sessions.
Re: What's the deal with Cortana anyway? She keeps popping up during the game and causing flashbacks...
MC: She assists me during missions and she's taken the shape of a female AI, built from the cloned brain of the person who fathered the Spartan-II Project, Doctor Catherine Elizabeth Halsey. Cortana can adapt and learn, becoming creative, sometimes too creative, as she can take over any security system and do what she pleases with it. Sadly, her lifespan is no less than 7 years, as her intelligence will slowly but surely end her existence.
Re: How many levels we'll be playing in Halo 3's single player mode?
MC: Well, there's 9 of them and you'll probably enjoy traveling from one location to another, ranging from dense jungles to Covenant-infested bases, the Ark and finally Halo.
Re: What about the controls? Supposing that this is my first Halo 3 experience, will I have a hard time adjusting to the control scheme?
MC: The Xbox 360 joystick was never used better, I'll tell you that! It's pretty basic, just press the right trigger to fire your weapon or the left trigger to throw a grenade or shoot your left-hand weapon in case you're in dual-wielding mode. The left thumbstick is used for moving around and strafing and when you click it, you'll crouch. Click the right bumper in order to reload your weapon, hold it to pick up a weapon, exchange combat gear or enter vehicles. The joystick's right thumbstick is extremely useful when using a weapon that includes a sniper scope, as by clicking it, you'll activate the scope and zoom as much as you want. Other than that, there's the Y button, used for changing weapons and the B button, ideal for some head to head melee combat.
Re: I've heard that the in-game vehicles are pretty tough to control... Is this true?
MC: Yeah, you're not far off... Sadly, although they're beautifully designed, I'd rather walk on foot than toy around with a jeep and its poor handling. There's also the option of being the gunman of the vehicle instead of its driver. Since you've mentioned vehicles, let me remind you that you can drive or fly tons of them, like the Covenant Banshee, Ghost, Wraith of Phantom Dropship or the UNSC Elephant, Hornet Gunship or Pelican Dropship.
Re: What's the deal with this new "Forge" feature I've been hearing about?
MC: Forge can be considered some sort of object editor, allowing you to edit any multiplayer map you please. You can edit the spawning locations, weapons, properties of the items on the map, altering the multiplayer experience as you please. The other players also gain access to the Forged map's editable content, performing modifications of their own if they want to.
Re: I've heard that there's a Halo movie coming out. It is true? Are you going to be a cinema star?
MC: (probably smiling from underneath the helmet): No, the project seems to have been called FUBAR, but there's a Saved Films feature in Halo 3 to be used as a consolation prize. It allows you to check out any campaign or multiplayer match from all the camera angles you could imagine. Also, you share them with Bungie.net and become a star.
Re: Since you're the star of an Xbox 360 masterpiece, you must be familiar with the Achievements system, right?
MC: My greatest achievement is being able to defeat the Covenant, but yes, you players can win up to 1000 GamerPoints by completing all the 49 achievements. There's even some neat Ninja Gaiden content for you once you get 1000 points. Just wait and see!
Re: Killing alien lifeforms is your job, so you must be very keen on the means of mass destruction made available by the game producers. What's your favorite weapon and why?
MC: I'm not very fond of the standard weapons provided by the UNSC, so I'd rather get my own, specially those cool Covenant Plasma grenades, the Carbine, or the Gravity Hammer. The dual-wielding Spiker Carbine is also a ball to use, but I usually run out of ammo in no time, since it's too much fun to shoot. From time to time I enjoy deploying an energy shield to take cover from those nasty aliens, in order to replenish health and admire the splendor of the energy field. In case the Brutes manage to really get me angry, I'll rip off a turret from the ground and start running and gunning, third person-style.
Re: Can you customize your helmet and armor?
MC: Yes, but only in multiplayer mode and you'll have to unlock new content before starting the customization process. As long as you keep completing achievements, there will be tons of content to use. Just completing campaigns is an excellent way of unlocking some of the permutations of armor you can perform. You'll see me wearing the Elite Combat Armor, the Elite Flight Armor, the EVA Armor, the MJOLNIR Amor or the Rogue Armor, plus many many more.
Re: How's the multiplayer game? Still kicking a*s?
MC: You can say that again! It provides countless hours of fun, either in split screen mode or on the Xbox Live. You'll have a rank to stick on to, while playing online, so you'd better start making a name for yourself. The maps you can play on are Construct, Epitaph, Guardian, Isolation, Narrows, The Pit, Valhalla and a couple more that you'll discover by yourself. Players can set up custom games or choose one of these entertaining game types: Assault, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, Oddball, Juggernaut, Slayer, Territories, VIP or Infection. While some of them have been featured in FPS game for the past decade, others bring a new flavor to the multiplayer experience.
Re: Can you customize options in multiplayer games?
MC: Can Master Chief kill a Brute in three seconds? Of course I can! Change the damage resistance, add infinite ammo in the mix, speed up player, choose to use vehicles or not and choose the shield recharge rate, only to trigger massive destruction. There are endless combinations of customizable options, armors, helmets and profiles so you'll never play the same deathmatch twice and the Xbox Live folks are very keen on creating unique characters instead of the standard Master Chief clones.
Re: Is Halo 3 all single-killing and no co-op?
MC: Of course there's a little co-op action included, a 4 players co-op to be more precise. However, players can't all be Master Chiefs, so one of them will control me and the other three will control The Arbiter, N'tho 'Sraom and Usze 'Taham . Those two characters have a biography of their own, but they won't influence the story as much as the Arbiter and I do. One thing is for sure: co-op sure makes campaigns seem more fun to play, but that split screen can become frustrating at some point, eating up all the good-looking details of the map.
Re: Are there checkpoints in the game? And what's the deal with those skulls?
MC: Yes, Halo 3 features checkpoints after every major combat sequence, so in case you're killed by those nasty Brutes you can return to the last checkpoint you've reached. The skulls are point multipliers that will allow you to get more achievement points, but they'll make the game more difficult, so there's a price to pay for everything in Halo 3.
Re: How's the AI of the game? Would you rather play against human opponents?
MC: The game offers you a choice of difficulty setting in the beginning, and even the easiest of them manages to give you a hard time when you're taking on 10 Brutes at the same time. You're not Rambo and even I Master Chief, need to carefully plan my attacks before taking on the AI. They'll protect main objectives and send a couple of critters ahead to stall you, while one of the Brutes fires from above and one of the bosses surprises you by launching rockets in your direction. The AI uses clever strategies and knows when to run, hide, pull off a full attack, hit you in the face, dodge a hit or melee attack. You may try to sneak behind a Brute's back and smack it in the head by pressing the B button, but it's useless, as its comrades will be on the spot immediately. They'll use energy shields to protect themselves, grenades to hit you from the distance and they'll fire without prejudice each time you put out that pretty skull of yours, ripe and ready for the taking. Do you know what's really cool? It's the fact that while you're shot you can't crouch or use the sniper's scope, clearing away the unfair advantage featured in most of the recent years' shooters.
Re: Talk to me about Halo 3's visuals, will you?
MC: Imagine somewhat of a combination between the apocalyptic world of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and its decaying cities and the projection of Heaven in your mind. It's not the average religious heaven, it's a technological heaven crawling with Brutes and filled with ruins of a once prosperous civilization. Millions of colors are featured on-screen at the same time, as lasers burst, the sky gets lit while space battles rage up there and you keep walking on the deserted fields searching for a means of transport to hijack. Be aware that your first visual contact with Halo 3 will be a disappointing one, because the game tends to seem just a copy of the visuals we've seen till now in titles pertaining to the FPS genre. As you progress and enter vast locations, the Xbox 360 unleashes its real potential showing you the beautiful graphics that made Halo what it is: a gaming cult.
Re: You praised the graphics... What about the soundtrack?
MC: There's no reason to start looking for famous bands in the game's credits, as all of you gamers don't need some well-selling artist to set the trend. Halo 3's symphonic music is spine chills-inducing and it's an experience of its own, each vibe reaching the brain separately, being decoded into information and being perfectly associated with the graphics and the storyline. The dialogs are worth-listening too, unlike 95% of the FPS titles' dialogs, that are nothing but rubbish stuffed between missions in order to make the game look more fun. UNSC soldiers are never quiet, constantly commenting upon what's happening around them, taunting the enemies, requesting for backup and expressing fear, terror or any other emotion that they'll sense during battles. I'm not much of a chatter, but that's part of my personal charm ...
Re: Will we ever see a Halo 4 being launched?
MC (laughs out loud): This is the end of a trilogy... That's all I can say for now.
Re: What's your favorite game?
MC: ... Halo 3, what else?
Re: The motto of the game was "Finish the fight!". Well, is it finished?
MC: As long as there's a Master Chief left out there in the universe, there will always be a fight to finish. I might as well go clean the mess up for other gaming characters like Solid Snake or even defeat that annoying Sephiroth from the Final Fantasy universe. And while I'm there I'll nuke all of the Resident Evil zombies and clean up Silent Hill.
Re: Bold as ever I see... Thank you for the Inter(e)view!
MC: You're welcome! Want to see my face?
Re: Yeah!
MC: Finish Halo 3 and you will...
