I can still recall watching an E3 showing on TechTV (back when it was still TechTV) and watching Microsoft announce their Xbox hardware and showing off Halo. Halo back then was just a game, but when you saw that Pelican dropping off soldiers on the beach, something about it just seemed epic. Slowly Halo went from being just a game to the defining game of a whole hardware name, and has risen to become one of the definitive gaming pinnacles for many players. The Halo trilogy wraps up with the newest installment – Halo 3 – and I couldn't ask for much more than I've been given. Thank you Halo. Thank you Bungie.

THE STORY SO FAR
Halo 3 starts where Halo 2 finished – namely a cliffhanger that had Halo fans everywhere screaming and cursing. You tease us with this and don't finish it off! We see Master Chief riding on home, breaking the atmosphere, and landing in the jungle to be found by a roving group of soldiers. In no time at all you are back up to speed and it's time to kill some Covenant once again. Don't you just love the smell of Grunt blood in the morning? It smells like victory.

Halo 3 is a game you don't want spoiled for yourself as the single player game has always been and will always be the reason I love and come back to the franchise time and time again. However, if you're playing Halo 3 or thinking about it, chances are you've probably played the others, so sharing some of those early bits aren't really that spoilery as they are just expected. The main thing is that the story is still following the Prophet of Truth as he heads to Earth with his armada of Covenant, set on finding this Ark and riding the universe of all life as we know it, as it is believed to be their ultimate purpose and way to achieving transcendence.

The reason the story works so well is because it really does feel like the epic conclusion of some movie, and the events and levels unfold in such a way that it never really feels like you are playing disassociated levels and partaking in nothing more than a shooting gallery, but rather you are Master Chief and are very much involved in this war. When you and your fellow soldiers are hunkered in a bunker while Covenant keep landing and advancing on you, and you keep holding out just a little longer for reinforcements or that Pelican to arrive, you really feel that feeling of dread and yet hope. When you're zipping around on a Ghost and blowing away tanks, it just feels massive and real.

The story unfolds mostly through cutscenes scattered before and after levels, but the radio chatter you'll hear as you advance through a level are instances of storytelling too, and are but two of the ways in which Halo 3 tells its story. There is a third way that happens in Halo 3, but to spoil that would be a no-no for those who haven't played the game yet. Either way you go, Halo 3 is a fitting conclusion to the trilogy and yet another fine installment in the franchise.

SINGLE PLAYER: GAMEPLAY
As usual the single player portion of the game is confined to the single player story mode in the game, though it's important to note you can team up with other players to complete it (but more on that later). In terms of Halo as a franchise and first person shooters in general, not much is fundamentally different down at the core. Halo 3 is still a FPS built around a solid frame of tactical shooting with many of the controls you'd expect.

One of the big things the original Halo implemented was the two weapon system, which only allowed you to carry two weapons on you at once (not counting grenades). Halo 2 introduced the ability to dual-wield weapons, which opened up the floor to combo possibilities. Neither of these systems have been changed and if anything the dual-wield system has broadened a bit with the inclusion of new weapons for you to combine in unique fighting ways. The two newest and biggest inclusions in the franchise would be the support weapons and their uses in the game.

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