Halo 3 Trial Download

By Nathan Jones

The release of Halo 3 was fervently anticipated, as the video was the third in the original trilogy of the Halo videos. Therefore, the Halo 3 free download was one of the most downloaded game demos in the history of the Xbox 360. But what many people don't realize is that the Halo 3 trial download helped make another game ie Crackdown.

What does the Halo 3 trial download have to do with another video game? Well, it has a great deal to do with the distribution and promotional work for a video that was originally meant for playing on the Xbox system. Microsoft had become worried that Crackdown would not sell well.

And so they employed a marketing gimmick, the one of bundling Crackdown with an access code to the Halo 3 trial download. And it worked a treat because Crackdown sold 1.5 million copies within the first six months of its release. Those aren't Halo 3 figures, which sold 8.1 million copies in just over a year, but for a lesser well-known game that's absolutely fantastic.

Microsoft had resorted to the Halo 3 trial download tactic because of adverse reports about the game from the game testers. They found the unusual nature of the game off-putting, often leaving them asking themselves what they were meant to be doing next.

As a result of this, the powers that be thought that something had to be done or the game would be a dud. It may seem shady practice at first to attempt to push sales of a game that's expected to be unpopular, but in retrospect people love the game and it was a good thing that they were able to get the chance to play it.

In Crackdown, and that includes the version bundled with the Halo 3 free download, people play the role of an agent who is assigned to defeat the kingpins or leaders of different gangs. To do this they utilize various superhuman powers such as super strength and super agility. In order to obtain these powers, players have to build up experience by defeating enemies who then release experience orbs. The interesting idea in the system was that the kind of orbs released was reliant on the manner in which the agent killed the enemy. For example, a firearms orb appears if the enemy was wiped out with a gun.

So, although at first sight this game bundled with the Halo 3 free download seems to be no more than a veiled marketing trick, in reality, it exposed gamers to an exciting new gameplay world. - 29968

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