Halo 3 out of 10

A couple of days ago a friend bought Halo 3 and invited me over to try it out. After all the hype I went in extremely skeptical. After a number of hours playing I have to say I under-whelmed, even as skeptical as I was.

I know that I'm the only one out there, but it's just more of the same. Gameplay is virtually identical to previous Halos. with the irritating exception of changing the "reload" button to a shoulder button, so that the original button could be used to deploy various "enhancements" - cloaking, shields, etc. So both my friend and I found ourselves wasting these things instead of reloading. Is there a reason they couldn't assign the new features on the new button?

Anyway, I digress. The visuals are amazing, not that I'm surprised. The XBox 360 is a console solely designed for visuals, sometimes at the cost of game quality. Halo 3 is one such game, the game simply delivers the same gameplay, the same plot, the same challenge. The game, even on "Legendary" isn't overly hard - yes you die a lot, but simply respawn and go at it again. Despite this, it does a much better job of respawning than Bioshock. Halo at least respawns all the enemies too, and you lose your weapons.

The new features seem to be created with multiplayer in mind, rather than single player. Just like Halo 2, the game suffers. bungee has done a little better for single players, but the game is still multi-centric. That being said I think it's pretty cool that you can now play 4 player co-op.

Bottom line? While there's no doubt it's fun, it's not the stunning game that everyone is raving about. Is it fun to play someone else's copy? Yep. Is it worth getting an Xbox 360? Hell no.

Mark this one up as a disappointment. as for myself, I'm going to bide my time waiting for Assassin's Creed. Let the flame war begin...