Alert: Don’t HD Install Halo 3!

Normally we at GameHounds Central don’t bother to report on general news. But some stories are so important to diseminate that we just have to some devote web space.

Consider this a Public Service Annoucement, of sorts, for the NXA.

If you are thinking of installing Halo 3 onto your Xbox 360 hard drive, don’t. Apparently there’s some serious problems with doing so, not the least of increased loading times and, in some cases, completely breaking your game.

While we’ve heard rumors for the last 24 hours or so about such problems, today Bungie issued an official statement that confirms these problems, with a very long and detailed explanation. In short, Halo 3 was never meant to be loaded onto a hard drive, and thus when you do so very bad things happen.

Several websites have reported the results of tests to gauge how some games perform after being installed to the HDD for Halo 3 and their tests indicate that in some cases, the load times are significantly longer. Our own internal investigations have yielded similar results.

Bungie makes no mention of busting the game, however given that there are loads of complaints and a confirmation that the process does create problems for it, we at GameHounds think you should just play it safe and don’t install it. And if you have, don’t attempt to play it. Remember, games are like sex: Better safe than sorry.