The graphics are well above average and nearly everything in the game is immensely detailed. The environment, the enemies, even the vehicles all look very sharp. The sound is top notch as well; I can't stress enough that you'll want to play Halo 3 on a television equipped with surround sound. Seriously though, did you really expect Halo 3 to look or sound any way but beautiful? Granted, we aren't talking about Bioshock sound and visuals here - Halo 3 is at least two steps behind the underwater adventure, but still looks and sounds great.

After the recent PS3 game Lair, most gamers came to realize that good graphics/sound and good gameplay aren't always mutually exclusive. Fortunately, Halo 3 manages to deliver on both sides of the spectrum. Most of the levels offer both challenge and enough fun to play through them over and over. The selection of weapons is even bigger this time, and using them is no less fun. The Gravity Hammer, my personal favorite, is a new melee weapon that is enormously powerful. One would think that the weapon would make the game easier, but in fact, using just the Gravity Hammer will get you killed… and fast. It is best to use a good combination of all weapons available, melee and otherwise. Halo 3 is balanced well enough to make sure no weapon is discarded as useless or revered as magnificent.

Halo 3 has two other strong points that set it apart from other games in the genre - the vehicles and, believe it or not, the jumps to third person perspective. The vehicular combat has always been a strong point for the series, and the third and final Halo doesn't disappoint. Aside from the usual vehicles (both human and alien), Master Chief will also get the chance to take the reigns of the Brute Chopper, which is essentially a West Coast Chopper motorcycle with a serious case of 'roid rage. Sure, the Warthog, the Ghost and the Scorpion Tank are still fun, but smashing through enemies with this thing rivals the Burnout games when it comes to giving nightmares to the good people at Geico Vehicle Insurance.

My only complaint with the vehicles is that if you want things done right, you have to do them yourself. If you choose to let another soldier control things while you man the turret, you'll end up flying off a cliff, going the wrong direction or killed instantly by enemy fire. It is a good think that Master Chief is on Earth's side; if the computer controlled troops are humanities best and brightest, the Covenant could take over the world with a paper clip and an unsharpened pencil. This seems especially painful on higher difficulty levels. Your enemies will flank you, hide when hurt and even run at you kamikaze-style with a grenade in each hand, but your human allies still couldn't pass an Alabama driver's test.

The occasional jump to the third person perspective really serves to break up the action. Even casual gamers have grown tired of the glut of FPS games hitting the market, especially for the 360. F.E.A.R., Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Far Cry, Perfect Dark Zero, Quake 4…if you are looking for generic, ho-hum FPS games, the 360 is the system for you. While Halo 3's first person action is easily better than all of these games, the third person action serves to not just blow away the competition, but steal its lunch money and stuff it into a trashcan at the top of a large, rocky hill… and everyone knows what comes next.

As Master Chief tears his way through levels, he'll occasionally come across a flamethrower or a plasma gun emplacement. With only a quick press of a button, the Chief will pick up the weapon and things will shift to a Resident Evil 4 over-the-shoulder perspective. The controls remain identical to the first person segments, but just the small cosmetic change really amps up the excitement. What could have been a boring walk through a long corridor instantly becomes an insane firefight where, finally, players are given a better view of just what it means to be a Spartan warrior.

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