GamesRadar: Okay, so you arrive in Bungie's hometown of Kirkland, Washington. What happened next?
Fran: I get to Bungie's studio at 9:00 AM in the morning. It's such an unassuming building with absolutely no signage that it took me a few loops around the neighborhood to finally realize I had passed the right building twice. Ryan drives up right when I get out of my car and then we go through security.
Frank O'Connor (Writing Lead for Bungie Studios) shows up and then escorts us into a quiet room with four monitors in it. It's basically a meeting room, but it's somewhat cozy and pretty much had everything we needed for playing the game.
At this point, I was both really excited (this is Halo, after all, right? And I had no idea what to expect from single player...) and really nervous. Was it going to be fun? Was it going to suck? Was I going to be able to take it all in? My brain was kinda frazzled. Then Frank basically had us create new profiles to play as, gave us controllers and left the room. No hubbub, no drama, just me and Ryan and two setups with Halo 3. I turned off the lights, and we were off and running.
GamesRadar: Halo 3 starts... you choose "New Game" and fade to black. What's going through your head?
Fran: God, I don't know. I think I was pumped full of adrenaline when I first started up the game. As much as you think you know a game series, when you're put in the position to play through and review something as gargantuan as Halo 3 - you kinda feel the importance of it weighing on you. It's kind of like sitting down to take the S.A.T. or something - but fun and your future won't be shaped by it if you make a wrong turn or get killed. You just hit "continue."
GamesRadar: How long did you spend playing the single player campaign?
Fran: Um, I kinda don't want to spoil that here. Sorry. But rest assured, it's not like only 4 hours long.
GamesRadar: How many missions were there?
Fran: I can't really go into any detail on this stuff because all of what we saw and played is currently under embargo, but I would say that there's a LOT of variety between missions.
GamesRadar: Did you die often? How difficult is it?
Fran: God, yes. I'm not claiming to be some incredible five-star Halo savant or anything. But then again, for the first run through, both Ryan and I played on Heroic difficulty. Hardcore!
