1) First issue is if you try to install it anywhere but on a c: drive expect issues. The program does not appear on the start bar, the desktop or in the games explorer in Vista (32).

All these issues can be fixed by a c: drive install.

2) Once installed, don’t expect it to run easily- you start it from the Play button fired up from the DVD menu. Then it tells you to insert a valid disc in the drive! A work round for this is to run up the menu but don’t hit play, eject the dvd and insert dvd 2 inthe drive, this seems to then work oddly. However thats not a permanent fix.

The real fix for this is to install a Vist Hot fix available from the kaos website. However you need to install the 1.0.1 vista patch first and as the game won’t load you might be stuffed as it auto updates- though see bodge round in point one. The solution is to copy down the hotfix and the 1.0.1 patch to your PC as exe’s before installing the game- do a clean install then patch it then hotfix it.

This seems to sort all these issues out.

3) Finally if you have a Nvidia graphics card you may experience the game freezing every 20 seconds or so between bursts of running smoothly. As my sons PC is base don Nvidia GT8800 in SLI mode it might be an SLI problem only- I don’t know, however the fix for this is to grabe the Nvidia beta drivers for vista from the Nvidia website version 169.28

CHARLIE DON’T SURF

The TV station: When you get into the TV station figth your way through to the technical area, and enter into the main office. You only have a few seconds before the enemy arrives so turn immediately right and run right up the side to the end of the aisle, there is a cupboard with an open door- go in.

You can now fight from this angle, taking out the RPG on the balcony and numerous other enemies, you will be grenaded frequently but just keep lobbing them back. Eventually the shooting will quieten down and you can exit to take out the remaining bad guys. The rest is easy.

THE BOG

You can get pretty stuck here, however I played this different on Vet than I did on Regular, where from the wall I went left to the buildings and fought through to the AA gun. In vet, in the dark head to the wrecked car near the entry point and then over the berm on the right- edge your way along, shooting any obvious targets util you can see the AA gun behind the house. Shoot until you kill the gunner. Its quieter now so you will find locating and killing the bad guys dead easy and you can destroy the gun. The rest is pretty much as on easler settings.

ONE SHOT ONE KILL

The fair ground: Getting to the exfil point is hard but not impossible, however waiting for and then extracting to the Chinook is tough. Before droppin goff the injured officed at th epoint he asks you to, put him down and run round and put claymores round the perimeter of the ferris wheel area. Go move the officer to the location asked and he should give you more clays. Lay these round the dodgems on the right. Now go behind the dodgems and wait for the bad guys to arrive, make sur eyou have an automatic rifle of some sort as well as the sniper rifle.

Again grenades will come thick and fast keep lobbing them back, and you will get through. When the chopper arrives run for the officer- there are at least two bad guys who appear from the grass to get you – shoot them as you run . Once you have the officer, you need to be pretty unlucky to die so head straight for the chopper. This I reckon is the second hardest level in the game.

HEAT

This is a tough level on any difficulty, but like a lot in COD4, approach it latterly and sometimes a better way emerges.

At the farm where you have to hit the tanks with the Javelin, deal with the tanks then hea dover to the hut on the right. Enemies approach through the field in to the hut. Kill as many as you can and get out the door intot he field on the right- keep as far over right as you can. Call in an air strike on the main field to the front to let your team advance. At the back of the house, you will reach take out the enemies, and start calling in strikes , bring one in just below your position to hol doff nearby enemies then start bringing them in a down the hill to the left- you can call in multiple strikes. Strike heading down behind the wrecked cars over the road and all the time hitting the houses further down the hill. The secret is to keep going, time is against you but you will get check points if you go quickly, Near th chopper use a last strike then run for it, its actually quite easy when you get it right.

ALL IN

Entering the silo complex.

There are two easy routes in this level, the first, after meeting up with the snipers outside the base- head left away from where the battle is going on and where you can see the tanks. Follow the fence round left to find a pick up truck and a wall with a flashing C4 symbol on. Blow the wall after retreating tot he pick up- getting an RPG from the back. You can shoot the BMPs out from the pick up- much easier than C4′ing them.

Fight through to the inner compound where the Captian blows the fence. you are supposed to C4 the next two tanks or RPG them but finding RPGs is hard. Easier is to go back inside the outer compound and locate the building over looking the inner compound, near the rear of the gatehouse. head onto the roof, you will find a Javelin launcher- its easy from here!

NO FIGHTING IN THE WAR ROOM

This level is mental hard. Speed is everything, as you won’t get the checkpoints unless you are fast.

Drop through from vents and turn right into right corridor. Shoot the enemies ahead and flash the entry on the right. Head forward and watch for the bad guy coming fromt he kitchen store ahead- head through behind the kitchens. Shoot through the serving counters and grenade until shooting dies down. Head through for first check point at glass wall.

Round wall into corridor there are bad guys in the dark- be quick to shppt them out moving forward to a store room wher eit gets a bit messy but a grenade or two clears them out shooting the rest. Now your top of the stairs withthe big star, head down. As long as you are at no less than 7:20 you will checkpoint.

Reload, and flashbang right up the middle, two bad guys appear- ignore them and run as fast as you can- dodging side to side, wath on the right for a cut in with missiles in racks head in ther eand right again behind the crate. Start shooting at youre 11 o’clock taking out everyone that appears- at least four bad guys. Dodge out and take out a bad guy on the opposite side of the crate accross the corridor, if you don’t he will get you. The capt should have passed by now, throw a grenade to the 11 p’clock and as soon as it goes off run forward to the space beyond. Shoot any strays, and then run for the corridor right ahead , at this point sometimes you make it sometimes not, there are 2 bad giys in the corridor you need to run and shoot them. If you make it you will check point at about 6:20.

This bit is really hard- make sure you have the SOPFOR  and a shot gun, run forward reloading, Shoot into the corridor where the bad guy runs, whne he reappears on the right, take out a further 2 who appear on the left, there are two bodies behind you at the wall- collect more flash bangs while taking cover behind crates and reloading, the team will have caught up by now. Flash bang into the corridor and run forward tot eh right sid eof the blockade, ther eis a cut in, start taking out all the bad guys down the central corridor, use no grenades, shoot everyone all the way down. Now reload and prep ‘nade launcher. Come back to the cross roads of the first two silos. Stay the blockade side of the tunnels and grenade launch down the left hand tunnel (left coming from the way in- you can see down it if your careful) Fire twince ensuring you got the two bad guys int he silo. Now turn and fire down the other side , once ies enough if you did it right, run forward, about 3/4 way down a bad guy appears on left in thte silo- make sure you get him before he gets behind missile.

Run forward and flash into the next tunnel, then shoot any stunned bad guys, if you are fast there will be a near by guy and one at the far end, try shooting them both, swap to launcher and fire a grenade either side of the missile at the back. Ready the rifle again and edge forward, there is usually one guy who jumps out.

As you ente rthe second silo do the same again, flash shoot then from behind missile fire your launcher all the way up the tunnel, if your working fast, don’t get to oworried about time, allow yourself to recover from any injuries before exposing yourself to more fire. You will be about out of nades for the launcher by now so be ready to shoot any of the two or three remaining guys at the end of the tunnel. As soon as you do run forward, and the team will reappear as if by magic (great help they were) and you will get tot he door with about 2 mins 40 on the clock, two more checkpoints will be given. The rest is dead easy you just need to wait on the door opening, kill about 5 bad guys inside the room and blow the hole in the wall. I stopped the missiles with about 20 seconds spare.

Have now decided to venture on line, much as I really enjoy gaming, I am a bit crap in competitive online games, of aany type to be frank but probably moreso on the console. I seem t lack the required finesse in my movements, usually over shooting the ideal position so missing my targets. Noen the less got off to a reasonable statr online in Halo3. Won a handful of games in the training matches, though was seriously humped in a few too. Have now ventured onto the ranked matches and so far done OK. Came second- nearly winning one match and  mid placed in a couple of others.

A cool feature with HALO3 is the ability to upload images to bungie which you can then pull off on your PC, So for a starter- here is me with a spiker in campaign mode. I really only uploaded this to see how it came out- I will try get some more imaginitive ones for the blog later.

Had a game of team survival on Rainbow 6 Vegas and the guys playing were very cagey about me ( a relative noob- only pfc rank) hitting the A button. However in what was an otherwise reasonable game I discovered they were playing on a glitch that allows the host to keep everyone in the ranked match but to repetitively restart the game thus getting everyone loads of experience points and rankups.

I am not going to detail how its done as other people have more detailed write ups than I could provide- try here- this is about as explicit a posting of how it works…. enjoy your new rank ups! Having been through this once I benefited slightly I am now rank: Specialist but don’t think I could be bothered with doing this all the time, plus it rather defeats the point of the game.