If you have PLAYED Halo 1/2 AND PLAYED MP3, need your thoughts on 2 things

[kn]

I just played it for about 20 minutes. They had a copy running at my local gamestop. I got irritated right out of the gate so I'll be renting to see if it grows on me. For instance, I'm trying to get to the damn bridge. No obvious way to get there at first -- finally realized to shoot the two red arrows. Got the ramp to drop. OK, figured I'm good to go... Nope! Now you have a computer with a security code you need. Ok, hunt (albeit short) and find the code. Ah, I have it. Open the door. I'm on the bridge! Nope, not yet. Scan, interact and turn the handle to open the chamber. Walk in. FINALLY! Nope! Get scanned.... Waiting... What now... Crap, had to get back to work.

/RANT If they knew I was coming (and they did!), why did I have to go through all that crap to get to the bridge? Why not just let me go there speak to the man in charge and get the damn mission going? Also, the engineer tells me the "walkway" isn't working -- something is jamming the gears. He then just stands there. I hesitate to use the word stupid, but he's the damn engineer and he can't figure it out? And the "solution" is to blast a pair of rotating arrows above his head? At first I wandered around trying to find "gears" to see what was jamming them. I finally gave up, went back to the room and noticed the "auto-target" gray looking thingies and realized the game was telling me to blast them... Honestly, this is what makes a 15-20 hour game a 50-100 hour game because of the multitude of small, tedious tasks that are required. I will admit that a couple of the "tasks" I encountered in the game were kind of cool in terms of Wiimote interaction but over time those types of things coming at me constantly drive me nuts. I guess I DO like more linear games... /rant

The animations were very smooth though they had it on a Samsung LCD and I don't like the looks of the Wii on an HD TV via component cable. It sharpens the jaggies too much. I prefer the "softer" look of component feed via SD. Since I didn't make it very far (obviuosly) I can't truly vouch for the graphics other than to say, at the moment, they are rather Halo 2 ish quality wise. I read somewhere that after you get off the station and get going that the graphics really start to shine.

In closing (I bet you thought it would never come, lol) I'll still give it a chance. As long as the "tasks" are no more than what they are now -- i.e. more or less simple ones -- I'll be fine with it and might even enjoy it... I'll report back when I've had a chance (as if anyone was actually waiting on my opinion).