Rocket Racing
While CoD4 holds all of my shooting-people-in-the-face thrills, its Halo 3’s vehicles that give it an edge in some ways over CoD4.
And it’s Rocket Race that makes me come back to Halo 3 every now and then. I don’t enjoy playing Team Slayer, and I don’t enjoy Grifball. I don’t enjoy Slayer, and I don’t enjoy Forge much either. Rocket Race is where it’s at.
If by now you’re scratching your head and wondering what the hell Rocket Race is - here’s the brief. Up to 4 teams of 2 people each compete to race around a map, getting checkpoints. Both team members sit on a Mongoose, with the VIP forced to sit on the back (he can’t drive) while the other teammate drives. No one can die (unless you’re lucky enough to smack someone over the back of the head) and your Mongooses can’t explode. And everyone has rocket launchers.
Carnage ensues. And if Rocket Race is the one thing that typifies Halo 3, it’s fun. From the most amazing down-to-the-wire moments, to the feeling of dread you feel as a rocket streaks through the air towards you, and to the euphoria of victory - all are moments of hilarity. This is fun.
Whether with a buddy over Xbox Live or with one sitting right next to you as a guest on XBL, Rocket Race is fun. Shouty, screamy, hair-pulling, hilarious fun.
If you’ve long since given up on Halo 3 and moved onto pastures new, go check out the Rocket Race playlist under Social Games in Matchmaking. Just one warning - don’t go it alone. Paired up with a stranger who might be uncommunicative or downright uncooperative can mean the guaranteed loss of a game.
And if you do fancy a bit of Rocket Race, give me a message on Xbox Live. Although don’t expect much out of me from next Tuesday onwards. I’ll be in Liberty City.
I’ll leave you with an awesome screenshot I took using the ever-useful Theatre mode on Halo 3, from a game myself and a friend played. The theatre mode comes into it’s own when combined with Rocket Race. Now you can go back and see every moment from every angle, see where you went wrong, see where that rocket came from and see how you made that awesome jump over a impossible gap with rockets flying all around.
