Halo 3 Collector's Edition Review

Master Chief needs an extra 10 bucks.

My father once told me, "Never start a fight you don't intend to finish." Master Chief's pappy must have said something similar to him long before John-117 became a Spartan, because in Halo 3, the iconic action hero does indeed finish the fight. There is no cliffhanger ending that will have you screaming at your television, no doubting that this is Chief's tale and everyone else is along for the ride, and no question that it is a worthy conclusion to the most successful trilogy in videogame history. But just like that girl you dated in college, Halo 3 has some issues. Don't' worry; the good far outweighs the bad. This is Halo 3, and it is indeed the game you've been waiting for the past three years.

When last we left Master Chief, he was headed towards Earth, determined to stop the Prophet of Truth and his cadre of Brutes from destroying the universe in a blaze of zealotry. Cortana had been captured by the Gravemind, a disgusting creature intimately tied to the Flood. The Arbiter and his Elites, once bitter enemies of humankind had made an uneasy truce in order to conquer a greater evil. Frankly, things didn't look so hot for Earth and its inhabitants. For three years fans have been waiting to find out what comes next. Most won't be disappointed, as the story eschews some of the ambiguity of Halo 2 and tells a more straightforward narrative. Events play out like a sci-fi action blockbuster.


Lost, though, is the intriguing side-story of the Arbiter and his Elites. The focus is clearly (and perhaps deservedly) on Master Chief. That means in the single-player campaign you will be Chief and Chief only. The Arbiter is just a dude with a weird mandible and a cool sword. While keeping players locked in as Master Chief is a wise decision on Bungie's part, it's a shame that the Arbiter's story fades so far into the background. That's not to say I want to spend half the adventure following the Arbiter and leaving Chief to twiddle his thumbs, but it would have been nice to see such a prominent storyline from Halo 2 have more weight in the cinematic telling of Halo 3.

Clearly Bungie was listening to the criticisms of Halo 2. Not only is Chief in the driver's seat once more, but the environments are varied enough that each level feels distinct. Though you will still need to backtrack in a few areas, it's not as tedious as in previous iterations. The levels in Halo 3 lend to spectacular pacing that weaves from close-quarters, intense battles with Chief and a few soldiers, to more epic arenas. It does feel as if the marine presence is lighter than it should be, but there's enough chaos in the field to at least make it appear as if Master Chief is part of something grander.

You can rip a turret from its mounting and take it with you.

Most of the nine levels are hunky-dory, but the penultimate chapter is so bad, just thinking about it puts a rotten taste in my mouth. It's the kind of level where, if playing through Halo 3 again, I might just stop once I reached it and not bother finishing the skirmish, much less the fight.

It should be noted that the difficulty level is a bit out of whack, though done purposefully. Bungie has to service an enormous casual crowd who (let's face it) suck at games. There are millions who will play Halo 3 and only Halo 3 this year. All they want is to finish the fight and take a nap on the couch. But at the same time, there are an equal number of hardcore gamers who have become immensely skilled at Halo over the past six years. For these folks, the single-player version of Heroic and Legendary difficulties has been ratcheted up just a tad. Many will immediately jump into Normal difficulty, and never see the more aggressive AI that calls in reinforcements and makes better use of its weapons and equipment. Frankly, Normal on Halo 3 is too easy for the average gamer and that lack of challenge may actually bore some.

Do yourself a favor and test your mettle on the harder difficulties right off the bat. Once again, the Halo franchise utilizes some excellent AI that shouldn't be missed. The Brutes, now the primary focus for your aggression, have a distinct hierarchy and their actions are generally dictated by rank. The Brutes also make liberal use of the new equipment system. By pressing X you can deploy one of several different pieces of equipment that offer a momentary offensive or defensive advantage. You'll often enter a fracas and see a Brute deploy a Bubble Shield (a transparent dome invulnerable to gunfire) or a Regenerator that creates a green cloud which continually heals those within its radius. By their nature, the Brutes are aggressors and can be coaxed from the safety these beneficial pieces of equipment provide. While I wouldn't go so far as to say no two battles are alike, you will certainly illicit some different responses depending on the actions you take.

The enemy AI is generally solid, but the same can't be said for your teammates. It's been said that the world would be doomed without Master Chief. After seeing the other marines in action, that makes a lot of sense. The AI drivers are less like marines and more like Mr. Magoo; support troops are just fodder for the Brutes; and the Arbiter makes me question why the Elites were ever feared in the original Halo. Let's get the Arbiter clear. He's the bad ass "Chief" of the Elites. He should be able to handle his own. In the campaign, the Arbiter and Master Chief are BFF. If you play alone, the AI takes control of the Arbiter and allows him to tag along. Enjoy watching your supposed equal getting shot in the face repeatedly and generally making himself utterly useless. What is the point of sticking you with an AI compatriot if all he's good at is respawning?

You'll face a variety of Brutes in Halo 3.

While Heroic and Legendary single-player offer a good challenge, the same can't be said for co-op. A decent Halo player can get through the campaign alone on Heroic in 10-13 hours. Four decent Halo players can burn through Legendary in 4-5 hours easily. Unlike Halo 2, you aren't penalized for having a teammate die. As long as you aren't amidst a swarm of enemies, your dead buddy will respawn, whereas in Halo 2 if either player died, you were forced to restart from the last checkpoint. But don't worry, Bungie has set up an interesting system to add a bit of challenge and replayability to co-op for those who don't want to be able to obliterate the enemy with ease.

A few truly adventurous souls discovered that there were skulls hidden in the levels of Halo 2. Those skulls were not only hard to find, but often hard to reach. And they could only be acquired in Legendary. The skulls make a return for Halo 3, but have been re-imagined so as to be more accessible to gamers and to make replaying Halo 3 more interesting. The skulls (most of which can be found at Normal, Heroic, and Legendary difficulty), can be activated before a level to increase the intrigue. Most of the skulls make things a lot tougher. One removes your HUD and reticule, another empowers enemies with incredible grenade skills. Some, however, are just for fun. The Grunt Party skull, for example, offers confetti celebrations for head shots. Throwing a fiesta for popping Grunts is an excellent way to assuage a hangover. Well done, Bungie.

You are one ugly...

The skulls play a role in the new optional scoring system. In co-op you can turn on scoring to earn points for kills and other key actions, allowing you to compete for the best score against your teammates. Ultimately, your Metascore doesn't mean a whole lot, except to your ego. Still, both Halo and Halo 2 are games that people continue to play to this day. And it's the little extras, like the Metascore, that add longevity. Even when you've finished the fight, you'll want to start it all over again. Especially if it means jockeying with your buddy (either online or offline) for a chance at bragging rights.

The meat of Halo 3 is its multiplayer. Let's be honest with one another: There's nothing Bungie could do to make everyone happy. And since it's tough enough for me to be ensure my own happiness, I can't really address the individual concerns of the millions who will hop online from September 25, 2007 and play through September 25, 2010. So let's talk about what makes me happy. Halo 3 strikes a nice middleground between the the multiplayer of Halo 1 and Halo 2. For the most part you get the best of both worlds.

The battle rifle has become the default kick-ass weapon of the Halo universe, the M16 of the 26th century. But there are few weapons that, in the right hands, can't put someone to death. There are a few casualties to the tweaks made to weapons. The submachine guns are pretty much obsolete next to the more powerful (and cool) Brute Spikers. And all guns still fall short of the power of a well-placed punch to the back of someone's skull.

One of the more surprising improvements falls to the Energy Sword. Less prevalent in the campaign, the Energy Sword has a new twist in multiplayer. If two opponents swing swords at the same time, the two will clash, momentarily stunning one another, but leaving both alive. It then becomes a furious battle to see who can get in the killer strike as the two clang swords in a clumsy form of swashbuckling. A quick-jab strike with the melee button can often result in a win in such contests. While it's not Soul Calibur, it adds enough of a wrinkle to make Energy Swords seem fresh again.

Welcome back to Zanzibar.

Several swank new weapons have also been added to the arsenal. There's the powerful Spartan Laser, which can practically cut Warthogs in two; the Ruthian Gravity Hammer, which allows you to swat vehicles to the other side of the map; and the aforementioned Spikers, that, when dual-wielded, can bring a quick death to enemies at close range. While all of the new weapons are fun, one stands out. There really is nothing quite like seeing a Spartan walk through a door toting the hefty flamethrower. If you're online and hear a dulcet-toned IGN editor ask, "How you like your ribs," prepare to be barbecued.

The Gravity Hammer and Spikers can feel overpowering at times, but there are limitations to all of the weapons in Halo 3. If you're sick of being knocked 30 feet in the air by a Gravity Hammer, keep your distance from the guy who talks softly and carries a big stick. Besides, balancing weapons doesn't mean they are all equal. It means there is a cost for power -- usually in aim, or recoil, or range.

Really, the multiplayer boils down to one question: Is it fun? Yes. It's a lot of fun. And that's all Bungie needed to do. Create a multiplayer that's fun and addictive and that will satisfy the majority, even if it doesn't necessarily please the vocal minority.

Also added to the mix are some new vehicles. Bungie didn't go overboard by inundating Halo 3 with too many new rides, but there are a few sweet ones. The best of the bunch is the Brute Chopper. If the Fonz followed the Prophet of Truth, this is the bike he would ride. It's fast, maneuverable, and very deadly. It is perhaps more powerful than it should be, but when a vehicle is this cool, you almost need it to be king of the battlefield. The bad guys don't get all the fun toys. The UNSC Marines are given access to the Hornet, a futuristic VTOL aircraft that's likely to see limited use in multiplayer, but is still fun to toy around with. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my personal favorite: The Mongoose. This two-person dirt bike has no offensive capabilities, but it can drive your opponents nuts, thanks to its speed. There's nothing quite like driving circles around the enemy while mocking them.

Sandtrap is one of Halo 3's best maps.

Halo 3 ships with eleven multiplayer maps, though more are expected through downloadable content over the next few years. This is the series' strongest collection of maps to date. There's an excellent variance not only in range, but in layout. The majority of the maps service both long-ranged and close-ranged combat. While larger, more open maps -- such as the desert-themed Sandtrap -- offer the chance for snipers to get in their licks, those who prefer to get their kills up close will find it's possible to stay out of the open and clean up with the shotty. Snowbound and Isolation are both examples of maps that have open upper levels, but more confined subterranean areas.

If you don't dig the layout of a particular map, you can make some adjustments with the Forge. This new addition to the Halo series will keep these eleven maps fresh for years. While you can't alter the geometry of the level, you can make any other adjustments you wish in the Forge. On your own, you can hop into any map using The Forge and rearrange the placement of objects, weapons, power-ups, spawn points, and objectives. You can also access a Counter Strike-style menu and spend money to drop new vehicles, equipment, objects, and more anywhere you like in the map. Then you can save the new map you've created and upload it to Bungie.net for others to check out.

But the Forge offers much more than just some map-editing tools. You can also play games in the Forge while the map is being edited. When you decide to edit, your player transforms into a monitor (a la Guilty Spark). Change to the monitor and zip away from a firefight. Or buy yourself a rocket launcher and drop back in the middle of a fight ready to blow away the competition. Depending on the settings you choose for The Forge, you could potentially have a dozen players manipulating the surroundings. Perhaps you'll form teams of two, where one person plays the monitor, dropping supplies for the other player. Or you could have the host act as a sort of Dungeon Master, changing the location of items as a Slayer match roles on. There are near limitless possibilities. You don't even have to fight to enjoy the Forge.

Looks like a Killing Spree to us.

As a prime example, four editors from competing websites met to test out the Forge recently. At first, we spent some time fragging one another and learning nifty ways to manipulate the system to gain the upper hand on our opponents. But within an hour, we were joining forces to create the biggest pyrotechnics show ever witnessed in Halo. We stacked every possible explosive, then discovered a way to cause one canister to respawn in the air, falling into the pile every 30 seconds to create a spectacular explosive display. The result was a repeating series of massive explosions, which created a unique new environmental danger during firefights.

If you take the rich gametype customization (as previously seen in Halo and Halo 2) and then add the Forge into the mix, you can see how Halo 3's multiplayer has a near limitless number of permutations. While the casual fan may not find much interest in building their own versions of maps and gametypes, this will keep some of the more serious gamers playing Halo 3 for years without getting bored. And, again, all of this can be quickly uploaded so that others can check it out. The online elements of Halo 3 are above and beyond anything we've seen previously in a console game.

By now you're frothing at the mouth thinking of the thrilling battles in the campaign, of blasting people online with all the cool new weapons, and mucking around with the Forge. Now imagine if you could keep a visual record of everything you ever do in Halo 3. It's not only possible, it happens automatically. Every time you play Halo 3 -- be it a campaign level, Forge, or multiplayer -- the 3D game data from your match is saved to your hard drive or memory card. The file is only a few megabytes, but you'd never guess it from the replays you witness.

Moments before all hell breaks loose.

Let's say you pull off the particularly amazing feat of launching your mongoose off a man cannon (a propulsion device in some multiplayer maps) and as you pirouette in the sky, you manage to snipe an enemy who's rocket has just whizzed past your head. You're no wordsmith. And, more importantly, you're friends know you could never pull off this insane headshot you're trying to describe. Now you have footage to prove there's no fiction behind your greatest deeds. You can go back to that match, pause just as you snipe, detach the camera from your character, and pan around the scene. You'll see the smoke trail of the rocket, and can follow the path of your bullet right through your victim's skull. This can be recorded and uploaded to the one you sniped or anyone else that has a copy of Halo 3.

You can watch your complete tour of the campaign. Want to see a Scarab explode in slow motion? Easily done. Want to see what the AI is doing while Master Chief is running other folks over with a Warthog? Yeah, you can do that too. The replay system is truly amazing, groundbreaking, and undeniably cool. It really is the very best thing about Halo 3. I've watched plenty of replays at this point, but it still has me in awe every time.

The replays also create a greater appreciation for the beauty of Halo 3. This is a gorgeous game that has such a quick pace, it's easy to miss out on some of the things it does well. Pause during any explosion and fly the camera by to view a marvelous shot. The particle effects are truly top notch. It never fails to impress. There's the smoke and dust from the back of the Brute Chopper, the blinding red bolt of the Spartan Laser in action, the subtle shine of Master Chief's armor. Considering that Bungie had to have every nook and cranny of the environment detailed and rendered constantly (because you can detach the camera for replays), Halo 3 really is a marvelous technological achievement. It may not be the prettiest game on Xbox 360, but it's also doing far more than any other game. For that, I can forgive the occasional moments when the framerate jitters or there's some minor texture pop in. I get texture pop in just trying to butter a bagel.

Cool explosions are commonplace in Halo 3.

They say to save the best for last, which is why I've neglected to mention the sound until now. Were it not for the excellent sound effects and the top notch score, Halo would not be nearly as good of a game. When Master Chief is about to enter a major battle and the music sweeps in, it's impossible not to feel a sudden surge of adrenaline. Halo's combat theme is the perfect futuristic military anthem. How could you not bring your A game after hearing that evocative orchestral powerhouse? I can't stress enough how vital the sound is to this franchise. The score is powerful, cinematic, and at times moving. It's the music that humanizes a hero who wears a helmet 24/7. For my money, Halo 3 has the best soundtrack of any videogame.

Collector's Edition
The Collector's Edition of Halo 3 retails for $69.99, or $10 more than the standard edition. With the CE you get a bonus disc and a Beastarium art book, all housed in an attractive black tin. The Halo 2 CE made the mistake of stacking the two discs on top of one another. For Halo 3, Microsoft was wise enough to create two cradles for the discs. Unfortunately, there are widespread reports of both discs coming loose during shipping and being scratched. Microsoft will replace any scratched disc, but it's still a bit annoying and one major strike against buying the CE.

The Beastarium art book is fairly small and not very attractive. It offers some basic info on Brutes, Grunts, and the rest of the creatures in Halo 3. It doesn't have any in-depth info on the characters and the art is small and not very spectacular. But hey, can't turn down an extra gift to go with Halo 3.

The CE disk includes:

• Anatomy of a Game: Making Halo 3
  
  • Story
    
  • Design
    
  • Art
    
  • Engineering
    
  • Test
    
  • Audio
  
  
• Router 7.0 - How to get the best network performance online
  
• Git Ta Werk - Life at crunch time in Bungie Studios
  
• Gallerium - 100+ pics and artwork
  
• Gamer Pics & Themes - Pretty up your Xbox desktop
  
• Warthog Launch Game - Web sensation playable on your 360
  
• Calibration Tests - Make sure your TV is properly set to display Halo 3

This is a pretty spectacular series of documentaries that cover just about every aspect of design. If you want to know what goes into making a blockbuster epic like Halo 3, this is really all your need. Though you'll probably never watch this video a second time, the features included are worth watching. The best are the rows of 360's flashing three red lights in the Git Ta Werk video. Yes, even at Bungie 360s meet their maker.

So is this worth the extra $10? Only if you can't get enough of Halo and just have to find out what went in to making the game. The tin, while nice, doesn't do a very good job of housing your game and the art book is mediocre. Get this only if you think a handful of (admittedly solid) documentaries are worth the extra money.

Closing Comments
The campaign, which is very good, is Halo 3's weakest point. It doesn't capture the cavalier spirit of the original Halo, but you'll still have fun playing through it. There's no first-person shooter on 360 that can equal Halo 3's blend of cinematic action, adrenaline-pumping shootouts, and male- (and female)-bonding gameplay. Look beyond the gameplay and you have a rich feature set unlike anything ever delivered in a videogame. The Forge and the replay functionality raise the bar for console shooters so high, it may never be surpassed this generation. There will be plenty of aspects for fans to nitpick, but it's hard to argue against Halo 3 as the most complete game available on any console.

The Collector's Edition offers some excellent documentaries that most Halo fans will find worth the extra $10.

Halo 3 - IGN AU's Conversational Review

Contentious? You bet. Please don't firebomb our office.

Expectation can be a cruel mistress, Mr Bennett. You think she's going to swoop down and lavish you with affection - fanning your brow to stave off the parching heat of boredom, stuffing the succulent grapes of pure flavour down your throat, while quenching your thirst from an amphora filled with the elixir of gameplay perfection, but it never really works out that way. Just ask Mr Beardy, aka George Lucas. (Although to be fair Phantom Menace was crap, so it's not like he almost lived up to expectations).

I'm a firm believer, you see, in the Theory of Entertainment Relativity - the idea that if you think something's going to be great, and it's merely great (as opposed to awesomely awesome), you'll be disappointed, whereas if you're convinced something's going to be crap and it turns out to be great, you'll enjoy it much more. So, to test the theory, I've been telling anyone who'll listen about how shithouse the Halo series is - how Master Chief is a big girl, how I'd prefer to be forced to play every Army Men game in succession than Halo 2 and how any company that promotes its products via elaborate dioramas should be shot on sight. Unfortunately, it didn't really work. Halo 3 is, in fact, merely great, and after several days out at Microsoft playing it, I've still come away disappointed. A penny for your thoughts Mr Ring.

The Famous Five's modern day makeover hit a snag when Dick was killed by a sniper.

Bennett: I never thought I'd be mentioning Year 12 Calculus in a review of Halo 3 review fifteen years later, but here I am, about to sprout forth with a couple of words usually associated with complicated graphs and clunky scientific calculators. Camwise, I believe the term you're looking for is Inversely Proportional. That is, the amount of hype behind a game usually leads to an inversely proportionate level of satisfaction when you finally peel back the plastic wrapping, smell the sweet fragrance of a fresh manual and lodge the disc in your console's drive. In this regard, Halo 3 is facing an uphill battle. Actually, uphill doesn't really cover it - this game has to scale Mount Everest levels of hype, dressed only in a bathrobe, gumboots and a deep sea diving helmet.

It's strange, your choice of the words of "merely great" makes us sound like we were expecting to see the face of Jesus revealed when the Chief finally removes his helmet at the end of the game. Yet when we saw Chuck Norris' woolly mug beaming back at us, we should have been blown away - but we weren't. Ok, so I'm lying about seeing MC's face, but I'm sure there's some kind of meaningful analogy in there somewhere.

Cam: It's mostly Microsoft's fault really. The game was always going to be the subject of huge expectations, but the way the company has wanked on about the Master Chief and Halo 3 over the last couple of months has been - frankly - embarrassing. We've done reams of coverage on the game, sure, but Microsoft has been evangelising it as this epic, life-changing experience, and the portentous dialogue has really worn me down. While I'd love to review the game as if it's in its own hermetically sealed bubble, the reality is that the game's pretentious PR campaign meant that every cheesy line of dialogue, or example of the story taking itself too seriously (of which there are many), had me rolling my eyes. (I would have done that anyway, but this made it worse). And to be honest, while merely great still makes this a game worth owning, there are plenty of 360 games that fall into that category. I want something exceptional, but what I've found is a game that has a host of great features, but is ultimately was just one long deja vu session. I'm not saying Bungie should reinvent Halo - the Universe and gameplay has a great feel, but I don't feel that they've taken it to a new level. Levels Jerry, levels.

The Chief whipped around, but the Brute froze on the spot. This was going to be a long game of Spotlight.

Bennett: Urgh, why did you have to remind me of the cheesy dialogue? Seriously, this stuff makes those vomit-inducing pizzas that have a 12cm deep layer of cheddar in the middle seem palatable. Do you remember the virtual incarnation of Steve Irwin in there as well? Halo 3 once again has an Aussie doing some dialogue, and it's so over the top that it makes Crocodile Dundee sound positively upper class. And am I the only one that didn't have a frickin' clue what was going on? Sure, I didn't quite finish Halo 2, but there should have been some effort made to loop me in on the series' rich back story.

You're right that this isn't a re-invention of the series. During our co-op session with the game, it became clear how tightly Bungie has stuck to the Halo recipe. It's got the exact same features that made the first two games so great, most important being the epic fire fights that spring up every couple of minutes. It's here that the game's AI really shines, and I'd argue that it's one of the finest examples of computer controlled shenanigans. Watching the Brutes order around the grunts, with superb voice communications going on between the species, really captured the feeling that we were taking on a group of aliens, rather than a simple AI algorithm.

And vehicles are back, better than ever before. The Brute Chopper is my new favourite mode of wheeled destruction - that bad boy has a meaty weight to it that is going to prove a treat in multiplayer.

Cam: I'm not such a fan of the Brute Chopper - it seems pretty goofy to me. You're right though - the AI is excellent once again, and Bungie really throws a lot of enemies at you at a time now, which helps give the fire-fights a better sense of scale. As always, this also helps give the game replayability, simply because the same scene plays out differently every time. This is a tough nut to crack on Heroic - although it didn't pose too many problems in two player co-op on Legendary (because, well, there's two of you, and you're far less likely to get booted back to a checkpoint), which acts as a good starting difficulty level for anyone who has played shooters before. Still, I just couldn't help shake the feeling that I'd played whole sections of this game already, which really reduced my drive to finish it. For every level I really liked, such as the jungle section early on (which shifts the gameplay up a bit by virtue of the densely forested environments and snipers stationed in trees), there's a level that feels like something out of Halo 2, or a section where you go back and forth across the same terrain several times, or a disappointing boss battle (for something so big, those Scarabs sure are easy to take down).

That said, the weapon selection is a huge amount of fun to play around with, and adapting to the situation at hand is once again an important component of the gameplay. A few faves? The Flame Thrower is very cool, as is the Gravity Hammer. You've got to get pretty close to an enemy to use it, but damn is it satisfying. Love being able to rip off gun emplacements too - you move much slower, but they're pretty formidable. Elsewhere, the Needler is very powerful this time around, and I can't get enough of the Carbine for some reason. It's definitely the AI and the weapons that are Halo 3's major strength, as opposed to level design.

Master Chief, gettin' out on the highway, lookin' for adventure, whatever comes his way.

Bennett: Halo has always been great at giving the player variety in terms of things to kill people with, and in this regard Halo 3 doesn't disappoint. The Gravity Hammer is the definition of pure rib-cracking oomph, though it's a total bitch to get close enough to enemies to actually use it. I'm not so sold on the new pickups though - I can't actually remember either of us using these once the novelty of trying them had worn off. Sure, the Bubble Shield looks super sexy, but in single player it's easier to duck behind a wall or barrel than it is to take the time to deploy the shield. I can see the pickups being much more useful in multiplayer though.

For the most part, I actually liked the level design. There's plenty of difference between the levels - one moment we'd be in the midst of a frantic hallway based fight, the next we'd be able to pick enemies off at leisure with our sniper rifles in large, open vistas. Sadly, one of the main issues with Halo 2, having to backtrack through parts of the level, happens once again in Halo 3. C'mon Bungie - Microsoft gave you more money than it's going to cost NASA to set up a moon base, so why the need to re-visit parts of the level that we've already cleared minutes before?

Cam: A couple of other things we should mention before we move on to multiplayer. I really love the scoring system in co-op - trying to get a higher metascore than the dudes you're playing with brings a great competitive edge to the game - it's no longer about just getting through a section, but kicking more ass than your friends. Then there are the hidden skulls which unlock a whole range of modifiers, such as turning off your HUD or giving enemies better grenade-throwing skills. Many of these increase the game's difficulty, and come with a metascore boost for those who turn them on, rewarding you for taking on the challenge. Nice one Bungie - these are the kinds of bonuses that will make me want to play through again.

Death from above. The best kind of death.

So. Multiplayer. This is a tricky one, partly because (being completely honest here) Halo hasn't been my favourite multiplayer shooter in the past, and it won't be in the future either. While we've had some fantastically fun sessions, it just doesn't grip me in the same way as an Unreal Tournament or a Call of Duty 4. That's just my personal preference, so if you're a huge fan of the series' multiplayer, obviously take what I have to say with a big grain of salt. The other reason evaluating multiplayer is a little tricky is the simple fact that most videogames get better in multiplayer the more you play them. Part of the great thing about multiplayer is seeing tactics, weapon use and item use evolve, and discovering maps and modes you may have overlooked. Halo 3's multiplayer is an even more extreme example of this, as The Forge will see maps being tweaked and uploaded, and players dropping in reinforcements and weapons in real-time. That has huge ramifications for the longevity of the game, and factored in on top of the wide array of options for customisation, you have one hell of a beast. That said, while I'm happy to take 'potential' into account, the reality is that, based on what we've played so far, I found Halo 3 multiplayer to be solid, as opposed to groin-grabbingly transcendent. Of course there are exceptions, but I'll get to those after Bennett has his say. Your take?

Bennett: It's going to take months, years even, for players to exhaust the huge range of options in Halo 3's multiplayer game. The biggie is The Forge, allowing creative-types to build exactly what they want to play. This feature won't appeal to those who like to jump in and get blasting with a minimum of fuss, but for the creative-types it's as deep as Forza 2's livery customisation system. As a result, Halo 3 players aren't going to be short on new content and game modes for years to come.

Likewise with the incredibly powerful replay system. I can't see everybody appreciating the ability to share replays of every single, co-op and multiplayer game they've played. But when the wannabe Spielbergs start getting busy, YouTube had better beef up its bandwidth in the week's following Halo 3's launch.

And yet… and yet… I'm with Cam on the feeling that there's something lacking. Again, I think it's because Bungie didn't want to mess with the formula too much. Other than the new pickups, multiplayer feels exactly the same as Halo 2. Perhaps I'm underwhelmed because I've been spoilt by the amazing Call of Duty 4 and Team Fortress 2 betas - if you like Halo 3's online game, just wait a month until these two beasts come out. To me Halo 3 is simply solid, rather than breathtaking. The same can be said of the game's graphics.

Halo sailor!

If you played the beta and weren't impressed by the game's visuals, don't expect a massive leap in the game's appearance. For every "Omigod how does the 360 do this without bursting into flames" moment, there'll be another "If it wasn't for all the jaggies I'd probably notice how bland these indoor sections are" sections. Halo 3 needed to be the most amazing looking game to hit the 360… and yet it doesn't compare to the likes of Gears of War.

Cam: It doesn't, but then, you can't pause the action, detach the camera and fly around an entire level seeing what every entity is up to in Gears of War, now can you? For me that's worth a slight graphical hit, but also means that you can appreciate the artistry that did go into many of the models and effects. Some of the textures and environmental geometry might be a bit lacking, but this is a good looking game in so many other ways.

But back to multiplayer. I wasn't all that wowed by the maps in the beta, but thankfully the full game has a stronger line-up. My favourite is probably Narrows, simply because it has a good rhythm and symmetry… not to mention Man Cannons - gotta have Man Cannons, but there are definitely enough compelling maps to keep me entertained. A couple of small duel maps wouldn't have gone astray though. In terms of play modes, old favourites are back, although thanks to the greater array of options, modes like Oddball or CTF can feel radically different once you've toyed with damage, gravity, weapon and other settings. And then there's Infection, which is a riot - several players start out as energy sword-wielding zombies and by taking out the normal players can 'infect' them. It's frantic fun being one of the last players left, desperately trying to avoid infection. We like. So multiplayer is a hugely polished experience, no doubt about it, and while there are other multiplayer shooters I like more, Halo 3 still gets a big thumbs up.

We call this level the Killatorium. Actually, we call all the levels the Killatorium.

Bennett: Man cannons? Bah - I've been jumping around on bouncy pads since Quake 2, so to me they're a non-event. There's one element we haven't mentioned though, and for me it's the most impressive of the lot. The musical score and sound effects. I've briefly chatted about the AI's propensity to have a chat in the middle of a fire-fight, but it needs to be said again just how cool this feature is. It gives the enemy AI a sense of truly being alive, as compared to the robotic scripted foes we see in so many other games. But the real treat for your eardrums is the music. Wow. I remember when the first Halo 3 trailer came out and I played it endlessly just to hear the militaristic theme song. I'm happy to report that the rest of the music in the game is just as good. This is a sound-scape that demands a booming sound system.

Closing Comments
Cam: So where does all this leave us? With a game that is worth playing, no question, but that – for me at least – is a long way from game of the year. If you’re a Halo or Halo 2 multiplayer whore you may feel differently, as the Campaign will be the icing on a delicious multiplayer cake stuffed with maps, modes, replays and options galore, but for me the actual gameplay itself – potential aside – simply doesn’t warrant a 9. It’s very close, but not quite there. Care to bang out a Conclusion Bennett?

Bennett: Hang on a second Cam, I’m just on the phone to a security firm. See, we’re going to need personal bodyguards for at least the next month, because I agree with you that this isn’t quite a 9/10 game. There’s no denying how awesome the replay and Forge features are – but they’re not the core of the game. Don’t get me wrong, the single player campaign is very strong, the action is tight, and the AI is F.E.A.R.-killing. But for every positive, there was an area of the game that left me wanting more – the backtracking, the overly cheesy storyline, the underwhelming visuals. And multiplayer feels too much like a HD-version of Halo 2 with a few gadgets you can toss around. Which to Halo fans is fine – but compared to other online shooters, I get the feeling that Halo 3 is staying a little too close to its roots. It doesn’t really matter what you or I think Cam – Halo 3 will still sell more copies in the first second of release than all of the games ever created in the history of electronic entertainment combined. But does that make it the best game on the 360? I think not.

Halo 3 Review

The fight is finished. Anyone got a cigarette?

My father once told me, "Never start a fight you don't intend to finish." Master Chief's pappy must have said something similar to him long before John-117 became a Spartan, because in Halo 3, the iconic action hero does indeed finish the fight. There is no cliffhanger ending that will have you screaming at your television, no doubting that this is Chief's tale and everyone else is along for the ride, and no question that it is a worthy conclusion to the most successful trilogy in videogame history. But just like that girl you dated in college, Halo 3 has some issues. Don't' worry; the good far outweighs the bad. This is Halo 3, and it is indeed the game you've been waiting for the past three years.

When last we left Master Chief, he was headed towards Earth, determined to stop the Prophet of Truth and his cadre of Brutes from destroying the universe in a blaze of zealotry. Cortana had been captured by the Gravemind, a disgusting creature intimately tied to the Flood. The Arbiter and his Elites, once bitter enemies of humankind had made an uneasy truce in order to conquer a greater evil. Frankly, things didn't look so hot for Earth and its inhabitants. For three years fans have been waiting to find out what comes next. Most won't be disappointed, as the story eschews some of the ambiguity of Halo 2 and tells a more straightforward narrative. Events play out like a sci-fi action blockbuster.

Lost, though, is the intriguing side-story of the Arbiter and his Elites. The focus is clearly (and perhaps deservedly) on Master Chief. That means in the single-player campaign you will be Chief and Chief only. The Arbiter is just a dude with a weird mandible and a cool sword. While keeping players locked in as Master Chief is a wise decision on Bungie's part, it's a shame that the Arbiter's story fades so far into the background. That's not to say I want to spend half the adventure following the Arbiter and leaving Chief to twiddle his thumbs, but it would have been nice to see such a prominent storyline from Halo 2 have more weight in the cinematic telling of Halo 3.

Clearly Bungie was listening to the criticisms of Halo 2. Not only is Chief in the driver's seat once more, but the environments are varied enough that each level feels distinct. Though you will still need to backtrack in a few areas, it's not as tedious as in previous iterations. The levels in Halo 3 lend to spectacular pacing that weaves from close-quarters, intense battles with Chief and a few soldiers, to more epic arenas. It does feel as if the marine presence is lighter than it should be, but there's enough chaos in the field to at least make it appear as if Master Chief is part of something grander.

You can rip a turret from its mounting and take it with you.

Most of the nine levels are hunky-dory, but the penultimate chapter is so bad, just thinking about it puts a rotten taste in my mouth. It's the kind of level where, if playing through Halo 3 again, I might just stop once I reached it and not bother finishing the skirmish, much less the fight.

It should be noted that the difficulty level is a bit out of whack, though done purposefully. Bungie has to service an enormous casual crowd who (let's face it) suck at games. There are millions who will play Halo 3 and only Halo 3 this year. All they want is to finish the fight and take a nap on the couch. But at the same time, there are an equal number of hardcore gamers who have become immensely skilled at Halo over the past six years. For these folks, the single-player version of Heroic and Legendary difficulties has been ratcheted up just a tad. Many will immediately jump into Normal difficulty, and never see the more aggressive AI that calls in reinforcements and makes better use of its weapons and equipment. Frankly, Normal on Halo 3 is too easy for the average gamer and that lack of challenge may actually bore some.

Do yourself a favor and test your mettle on the harder difficulties right off the bat. Once again, the Halo franchise utilizes some excellent AI that shouldn't be missed. The Brutes, now the primary focus for your aggression, have a distinct hierarchy and their actions are generally dictated by rank. The Brutes also make liberal use of the new equipment system. By pressing X you can deploy one of several different pieces of equipment that offer a momentary offensive or defensive advantage. You'll often enter a fracas and see a Brute deploy a Bubble Shield (a transparent dome invulnerable to gunfire) or a Regenerator that creates a green cloud which continually heals those within its radius. By their nature, the Brutes are aggressors and can be coaxed from the safety these beneficial pieces of equipment provide. While I wouldn't go so far as to say no two battles are alike, you will certainly illicit some different responses depending on the actions you take.

The enemy AI is generally solid, but the same can't be said for your teammates. It's been said that the world would be doomed without Master Chief. After seeing the other marines in action, that makes a lot of sense. The AI drivers are less like marines and more like Mr. Magoo; support troops are just fodder for the Brutes; and the Arbiter makes me question why the Elites were ever feared in the original Halo. Let's get the Arbiter clear. He's the bad ass "Chief" of the Elites. He should be able to handle his own. In the campaign, the Arbiter and Master Chief are BFF. If you play alone, the AI takes control of the Arbiter and allows him to tag along. Enjoy watching your supposed equal getting shot in the face repeatedly and generally making himself utterly useless. What is the point of sticking you with an AI compatriot if all he's good at is respawning?

You'll face a variety of Brutes in Halo 3.

While Heroic and Legendary single-player offer a good challenge, the same can't be said for co-op. A decent Halo player can get through the campaign alone on Heroic in 10-13 hours. Four decent Halo players can burn through Legendary in 4-5 hours easily. Unlike Halo 2, you aren't penalized for having a teammate die. As long as you aren't amidst a swarm of enemies, your dead buddy will respawn, whereas in Halo 2 if either player died, you were forced to restart from the last checkpoint. But don't worry, Bungie has set up an interesting system to add a bit of challenge and replayability to co-op for those who don't want to be able to obliterate the enemy with ease.

A few truly adventurous souls discovered that there were skulls hidden in the levels of Halo 2. Those skulls were not only hard to find, but often hard to reach. And they could only be acquired in Legendary. The skulls make a return for Halo 3, but have been re-imagined so as to be more accessible to gamers and to make replaying Halo 3 more interesting. The skulls (most of which can be found at Normal, Heroic, and Legendary difficulty), can be activated before a level to increase the intrigue. Most of the skulls make things a lot tougher. One removes your HUD and reticule, another empowers enemies with incredible grenade skills. Some, however, are just for fun. The Grunt Party skull, for example, offers confetti celebrations for head shots. Throwing a fiesta for popping Grunts is an excellent way to assuage a hangover. Well done, Bungie.

You are one ugly...

The skulls play a role in the new optional scoring system. In co-op you can turn on scoring to earn points for kills and other key actions, allowing you to compete for the best score against your teammates. Ultimately, your Metascore doesn't mean a whole lot, except to your ego. Still, both Halo and Halo 2 are games that people continue to play to this day. And it's the little extras, like the Metascore, that add longevity. Even when you've finished the fight, you'll want to start it all over again. Especially if it means jockeying with your buddy (either online or offline) for a chance at bragging rights.

The meat of Halo 3 is its multiplayer. Let's be honest with one another: There's nothing Bungie could do to make everyone happy. And since it's tough enough for me to be ensure my own happiness, I can't really address the individual concerns of the millions who will hop online from September 25, 2007 and play through September 25, 2010. So let's talk about what makes me happy. Halo 3 strikes a nice middleground between the the multiplayer of Halo 1 and Halo 2. For the most part you get the best of both worlds.

The battle rifle has become the default kick-ass weapon of the Halo universe, the M16 of the 26th century. But there are few weapons that, in the right hands, can't put someone to death. There are a few casualties to the tweaks made to weapons. The submachine guns are pretty much obsolete next to the more powerful (and cool) Brute Spikers. And all guns still fall short of the power of a well-placed punch to the back of someone's skull.

One of the more surprising improvements falls to the Energy Sword. Less prevalent in the campaign, the Energy Sword has a new twist in multiplayer. If two opponents swing swords at the same time, the two will clash, momentarily stunning one another, but leaving both alive. It then becomes a furious battle to see who can get in the killer strike as the two clang swords in a clumsy form of swashbuckling. A quick-jab strike with the melee button can often result in a win in such contests. While it's not Soul Calibur, it adds enough of a wrinkle to make Energy Swords seem fresh again.

Welcome back to Zanzibar.

Several swank new weapons have also been added to the arsenal. There's the powerful Spartan Laser, which can practically cut Warthogs in two; the Ruthian Gravity Hammer, which allows you to swat vehicles to the other side of the map; and the aforementioned Spikers, that, when dual-wielded, can bring a quick death to enemies at close range. While all of the new weapons are fun, one stands out. There really is nothing quite like seeing a Spartan walk through a door toting the hefty flamethrower. If you're online and hear a dulcet-toned IGN editor ask, "How you like your ribs," prepare to be barbecued.

The Gravity Hammer and Spikers can feel overpowering at times, but there are limitations to all of the weapons in Halo 3. If you're sick of being knocked 30 feet in the air by a Gravity Hammer, keep your distance from the guy who talks softly and carries a big stick. Besides, balancing weapons doesn't mean they are all equal. It means there is a cost for power -- usually in aim, or recoil, or range.

Really, the multiplayer boils down to one question: Is it fun? Yes. It's a lot of fun. And that's all Bungie needed to do. Create a multiplayer that's fun and addictive and that will satisfy the majority, even if it doesn't necessarily please the vocal minority.

Also added to the mix are some new vehicles. Bungie didn't go overboard by inundating Halo 3 with too many new rides, but there are a few sweet ones. The best of the bunch is the Brute Chopper. If the Fonz followed the Prophet of Truth, this is the bike he would ride. It's fast, maneuverable, and very deadly. It is perhaps more powerful than it should be, but when a vehicle is this cool, you almost need it to be king of the battlefield. The bad guys don't get all the fun toys. The UNSC Marines are given access to the Hornet, a futuristic VTOL aircraft that's likely to see limited use in multiplayer, but is still fun to toy around with. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my personal favorite: The Mongoose. This two-person dirt bike has no offensive capabilities, but it can drive your opponents nuts, thanks to its speed. There's nothing quite like driving circles around the enemy while mocking them.

Sandtrap is one of Halo 3's best maps.

Halo 3 ships with eleven multiplayer maps, though more are expected through downloadable content over the next few years. This is the series' strongest collection of maps to date. There's an excellent variance not only in range, but in layout. The majority of the maps service both long-ranged and close-ranged combat. While larger, more open maps -- such as the desert-themed Sandtrap -- offer the chance for snipers to get in their licks, those who prefer to get their kills up close will find it's possible to stay out of the open and clean up with the shotty. Snowbound and Isolation are both examples of maps that have open upper levels, but more confined subterranean areas.

If you don't dig the layout of a particular map, you can make some adjustments with the Forge. This new addition to the Halo series will keep these eleven maps fresh for years. While you can't alter the geometry of the level, you can make any other adjustments you wish in the Forge. On your own, you can hop into any map using The Forge and rearrange the placement of objects, weapons, power-ups, spawn points, and objectives. You can also access a Counter Strike-style menu and spend money to drop new vehicles, equipment, objects, and more anywhere you like in the map. Then you can save the new map you've created and upload it to Bungie.net for others to check out.

But the Forge offers much more than just some map-editing tools. You can also play games in the Forge while the map is being edited. When you decide to edit, your player transforms into a monitor (a la Guilty Spark). Change to the monitor and zip away from a firefight. Or buy yourself a rocket launcher and drop back in the middle of a fight ready to blow away the competition. Depending on the settings you choose for The Forge, you could potentially have a dozen players manipulating the surroundings. Perhaps you'll form teams of two, where one person plays the monitor, dropping supplies for the other player. Or you could have the host act as a sort of Dungeon Master, changing the location of items as a Slayer match roles on. There are near limitless possibilities. You don't even have to fight to enjoy the Forge.

Looks like a Killing Spree to us.

As a prime example, four editors from competing websites met to test out the Forge recently. At first, we spent some time fragging one another and learning nifty ways to manipulate the system to gain the upper hand on our opponents. But within an hour, we were joining forces to create the biggest pyrotechnics show ever witnessed in Halo. We stacked every possible explosive, then discovered a way to cause one canister to respawn in the air, falling into the pile every 30 seconds to create a spectacular explosive display. The result was a repeating series of massive explosions, which created a unique new environmental danger during firefights.

If you take the rich gametype customization (as previously seen in Halo and Halo 2) and then add the Forge into the mix, you can see how Halo 3's multiplayer has a near limitless number of permutations. While the casual fan may not find much interest in building their own versions of maps and gametypes, this will keep some of the more serious gamers playing Halo 3 for years without getting bored. And, again, all of this can be quickly uploaded so that others can check it out. The online elements of Halo 3 are above and beyond anything we've seen previously in a console game.

By now you're frothing at the mouth thinking of the thrilling battles in the campaign, of blasting people online with all the cool new weapons, and mucking around with the Forge. Now imagine if you could keep a visual record of everything you ever do in Halo 3. It's not only possible, it happens automatically. Every time you play Halo 3 -- be it a campaign level, Forge, or multiplayer -- the 3D game data from your match is saved to your hard drive or memory card. The file is only a few megabytes, but you'd never guess it from the replays you witness.

Moments before all hell breaks loose.

Let's say you pull off the particularly amazing feat of launching your mongoose off a man cannon (a propulsion device in some multiplayer maps) and as you pirouette in the sky, you manage to snipe an enemy who's rocket has just whizzed past your head. You're no wordsmith. And, more importantly, you're friends know you could never pull off this insane headshot you're trying to describe. Now you have footage to prove there's no fiction behind your greatest deeds. You can go back to that match, pause just as you snipe, detach the camera from your character, and pan around the scene. You'll see the smoke trail of the rocket, and can follow the path of your bullet right through your victim's skull. This can be recorded and uploaded to the one you sniped or anyone else that has a copy of Halo 3.

You can watch your complete tour of the campaign. Want to see a Scarab explode in slow motion? Easily done. Want to see what the AI is doing while Master Chief is running other folks over with a Warthog? Yeah, you can do that too. The replay system is truly amazing, groundbreaking, and undeniably cool. It really is the very best thing about Halo 3. I've watched plenty of replays at this point, but it still has me in awe every time.

The replays also create a greater appreciation for the beauty of Halo 3. This is a gorgeous game that has such a quick pace, it's easy to miss out on some of the things it does well. Pause during any explosion and fly the camera by to view a marvelous shot. The particle effects are truly top notch. It never fails to impress. There's the smoke and dust from the back of the Brute Chopper, the blinding red bolt of the Spartan Laser in action, the subtle shine of Master Chief's armor. Considering that Bungie had to have every nook and cranny of the environment detailed and rendered constantly (because you can detach the camera for replays), Halo 3 really is a marvelous technological achievement. It may not be the prettiest game on Xbox 360, but it's also doing far more than any other game. For that, I can forgive the occasional moments when the framerate jitters or there's some minor texture pop in. I get texture pop in just trying to butter a bagel.

Cool explosions are commonplace in Halo 3.

They say to save the best for last, which is why I've neglected to mention the sound until now. Were it not for the excellent sound effects and the top notch score, Halo would not be nearly as good of a game. When Master Chief is about to enter a major battle and the music sweeps in, it's impossible not to feel a sudden surge of adrenaline. Halo's combat theme is the perfect futuristic military anthem. How could you not bring your A game after hearing that evocative orchestral powerhouse? I can't stress enough how vital the sound is to this franchise. The score is powerful, cinematic, and at times moving. It's the music that humanizes a hero who wears a helmet 24/7. For my money, Halo 3 has the best soundtrack of any videogame.

Closing Comments
The campaign, which is very good, is Halo 3's weakest point. It doesn't capture the cavalier spirit of the original Halo, but you'll still have fun playing through it. There's no first-person shooter on 360 that can equal Halo 3's blend of cinematic action, adrenaline-pumping shootouts, and male- (and female)-bonding gameplay. Look beyond the gameplay and you have a rich feature set unlike anything ever delivered in a videogame. The Forge and the replay functionality raise the bar for console shooters so high, it may never be surpassed this generation. There will be plenty of aspects for fans to nitpick, but it's hard to argue against Halo 3 as the most complete game available on any console.

Halo 3 UK Review

The fight is almost over, but is it legendary or an anti-climax?

Right, let's throw this out there right away. Halo 3's single player campaign is disappointing. There. Phew! Said it. For three good reasons I'll elaborate on in a minute. But before you frame letters to your MP, allow me to quickly qualify this and begin with a confession. I'm a card-carrying, bought-the-action-figure, tried-it-on-legendary, wasted-away-half-my-life-in-online-multiplay Halo saddo. Not read-a-Halo-novel mental, give me some credit, but you get the picture.

A couple of Halo 2 multiplay map favourites make a welcome return.

That doesn't mean I can't step out of my fanboy funk for a few hours and review a game objectively, that's how crusts are earnt round these parts, but on completing the single player mission, I quietly set down my controller, and found I was left slightly cold. And without sounding too childish, that's Halo's fault, not mine. The game's so big and unwieldly, the hype so planet-dwarfingly massive, the expectation so high, that I think any sane gamer's reaction when it doesn't turn out to be pound-for-pound the best game ever, is a tiny vacuum of empty in the pit of the stomach. And that's the problem with judging Halo. By any other PC or console standard this is exemplary gaming. By Halo's ridiculous, unattainably heavenly standards, it falls short. Don't panic, though. It gets gushy later.

Reason for single player disappointment one: It's too short. You'll gleefully stab that nipple-like X on your controller, select "normal" difficulty and play through to the homage-y final level and sombre final credits in around six hours if you're Halo proficient. And I'm not going to get into the whole game length debate, but by anyone's standards, this is too damn short. Crackdown? Eight to ten hours of nicely weighted and fun play. Bioshock? Around ten hours of story-led shooting. Halo? Almost half that. Boo…

Reasons for single player disappointment two: Graphically, it's underwhelming. Again, don't get me wrong, it's polished to today's required high def sheen, but Bungie has been a first party Microsoft developer for seven years now and is its Blue Ribband games constructor, so it's not unreasonable to expect this to be the eye candy graphical standard of the console. And Bioshock looks better. As does Heavenly Sword. God bless The Cell.

Forge means you can slap any item down anywhere in any level.

Reasons for single player disappointment three: The story is an unfathomable mess. Anyone have any clue whatsoever as to what occurred in Halo 2? Nope, us neither. Well Bungie carry on in that vein, with vital expositional dialogue covered over by explosions and music, alliances struck and undone with no real explanation and I'm sure I missed a couple of standout, blockbuster moments because I happened to be looking in the other direction. I know that cut-scenes are seen as slightly smelly gaming throwbacks nowadays, but if you want to push on a story, don't allow the player to wander off while your cranking up your exposition. Oh, and make sure you switch the subtitles on to make sure you take everything in.

Get through these disappointments, though, and you'll certainly crack through the single player with a smile on your face. It is pleasingly Halo 3.0, with the requisite smattering of new guns, new vehicles and new enemies. Much of the fighting is on a truly epic scale - there's an awesome boss battle (that for some reason the chaps at Bungie were refusing to acknowledge was a boss battle, Lord no) against a Covenant Scarab which hosts more AI-led individuals on screen - Covenant and Human - than the entire first level of the first Halo game. The 360 can crunch the kind of numbers to allow this to happen, and Bungie has absolutely exploited these resources to paint up some cracking set pieces on the Halo canvas. Microsoft politely asked us not to give away any plot spoilers, and we won't. If you want that, there are other corners of the interpipe, but I won't give too much away if I just say in passing you'll meet a few old friends and a few old enemies, too.

But restart after the closing credits and you get to the point of Halo 3. Multiplayer. In fact, it's no surprise really that the multiplayer feels like the true meat of this game. Bungie well knows which way the gaming wind's blowing, and the gusts it's picked up on are whooshing noisily towards the online, sandpit and community created direction. So there are four main parts of multiplay, each with their own particular brand of genius.

The first is your conventional multiplay battles. Different levels - big, small, medium-sized - team games, objective games, deathmatch games, you've done this before and you'll do this again. It shows how far gaming and Bungie has gone, that what felt hugely significant and earth shattering in Halo 2's multiplay now feels comfortably conventional. Halo 2 broke ludicrous online gaming records month on month. This will do the same. And it's surprising how blasé you can be, knowing that at doing this, Bungie is once again best in the business.

Four-player co-op is going to get very messy, especially when scored in metagame.

It's when you add the second main part that it becomes genius. There's a "Forge" option which turns every multiplay level into an infinitely tweakable sandbox. You can run around like a bog-standard conventional seven-foot-tall super soldier, but bash the D-pad up and you transform from Master Chief to Monitor, and are given the power to omnipotently zoom around the level and place anything, anywhere. Select items from the menu, place, step back and move again as you see fit. So if you just want to pile tanks like Stonehenge, start the level with a mad dash for a stack of rocket launchers or reckon that a shadowy corner could really do with a pointless, but nice looking PC monitor, knock yourself out. Tweak players, rules, spawn speed, spawn points, whatever, then save your level to Xbox Live. You can then fire it up and set two teams knocking seven bells out of each other while roaming around like some kind of modern day Dungeon Master, monkeying with teams/players/items at your Godly discretion. The possibilities are quite literally endless.

Then comes multiplay part three. Save movie. This is quite simply astonishing. You can pretty much record anything. Ever. Remember that spawny killtacular that you pulled off with a lucky grenade and last ditch, desperate button-bashing melee kill? Well you can revisit the multiplayer game you just completed, view it back in its entirety from your viewpoint, third-person behind you, another player's viewpoint or third-person behind them or just free camera. Still with us? Excellent. So frame your five seconds of Halo genius from any angle, record the cool clip of you going postal with all the grace of a John Woo movie, and then save it straight to Xbox Live. Tag it for your mates and they can see the playback when they log on. Now I'm no IT genius, but the server space this will require would boggle even Bill Gates's massive noggin. Extraordinary. And that doesn't even touch upon the possibilities this will throw up for fan-created machinima. Putting the tools into everyone's hands means this will explode like a nuke over Xbox Live and YouTube. You're not going to be able to spit for Halo 3 movies over the next couple of months.

One of the stand out Campaign moments is the face-off against this angry Scarab.

Which brings us to part four - co-op. Rainbow Six Vegas has done four player co-op before and it was ace, but Halo ratchets it up more than a few notches. You can play through the entire campaign online with four players. Vegas managed specially-created levels; Halo plays the same, entire game as single player, but with four people shooting the crap out of the Covenant. Want more? You got it. You can play this as a 'metagame' too, which scores everything. Kill a grunt and you garner points; do it with a head shot and they multiply. Pull off multiple kills with a grenade and the counter goes past like a one-arm bandit. The thing is, if you die before a checkpoint you lose the lot, plus if you kill your partner you're score takes a hammering. So you can imagine the scenes at the end of each level, with team-mates desperately throwing themselves on each other's grenades in a bid to score the most points. There's more, too: add video save and you'll be able to see the best Halo performers' vids by high score and see just how those gaming Jedi earnt their props. Absolutely, stupidly incredible.

Closing Comments
So let’s recap. Single player’s good, without question, but the sheer weight of hype alone brings inevitable disappointment. It would have had to have troubled the very best single-player games ever to reach for those highs but it doesn’t. But it all pales into insignificance against the tech-brimming majesty of the multiplay. Again, the conventional multiplay aspects would have left most reviewers a sweaty mess on their carpets, but Bungie’s innovations have pushed the boundaries on not only what multiplay does, but what multiplayer is. Shooting doesn’t seem to be the be all and end all, all of a sudden.