Pros: Fast paced action, plays like Halo 2. The multiplayer will surely entertain me for months.
Cons: Story was short, game felt a little easy even in tougher modes
The bottom line: Just buy it. For a $60 investment, this thing will entertain you for months if not a couple of years!
The day has finally come and gone; the release of Halo 3. I was a HUGE fan of the first two setting up network games at my place in college for Halo 1 and then playing online for months for Halo 2. While I was excited for the release of the third game, I gotta admit, not counting down the minutes really made the wait easy.

I went to Best Buy the day of the release (12 hours after the midnight) and easily found one in the store. Been playing for a couple of days and here are my first thoughts.

The game itself plays very well. I must admit; back when I tried the multiplayer beta a few months back, something felt lacking, different and weird. I was afraid they'd change the game too much and maybe just enough so I wouldn't like it anymore.

However, when I popped in Halo 3, everything felt at home and for the most part most of the way you control the Mark VI armor is the same. Two things that are different is how you reload your gun and how you use special items (which replaces the X button as the reload button.)

Speaking of guns... this game has a TON of weapons. The humans added some lasers, and now we have all of the Brute's line of weapons to play with. You can also pick up turrets off their stands and bring it with you in battle; a very nice touch.

Vehicles wise, there are now a few variants of the Warthog and the ATV speculated in Halo 2 is finally here. There is also an addition to the human vehicles; the Hornet which allows you to fly with two people on the side. Also, a bunch of new vehicles from the Brutes are introduced into the game.

There are many new features in the game such as advanced stats tracking, making videos, customizing levels, etc. However, my favorite new feature right now is probably the online co-op. You can play with 1-3 other people in the missions with the couple of sessions I've played, I did not notice any hiccup in the game or noticed any other glitches.

On Legendary, the game IS hard. However, for whatever reason, it's not frustrating when you die and restart the battle. There were some parts in Halo 2 where it just felt impossible; the game is a lot more straight forward this time around.

On the options and customization side, this game is again, setting the bar. Like Halo 2, you can select different colors, different emblems, etc. New in this game are different armors, different helmets, and other options that are unlocked through finding some of the secrets in the game. Luckily, these are things you can use in play and not lame pictures to add to your virtual gallery where no one really cares about.

The scoring, the videos and the customizations are nice touches and I'm sure they will be hammered out in the near future once everyone has beat the campaign and move on to multiplayer games.

While over all this game is great, it must take a lot of resources out of the Xbox because unlike other games, I did have my Xbox 360 freeze up a couple of times trying to shut down. No biggie - Microsoft is now extending all warranties for the 360 to three years instead of one in case you run into issues.

But all the details and options aside, all reviews aside; if you like FPS games, then this is definitely something you should check out. I have two friends who finally threw some money down to get the 360 now that the game is released and it's nice to finally be able to play with them since all these months they've been holding out. I'm no longer a die hard fan of this series but this is the kind of effect this game has; and the one that Microsoft was hoping for.

Should you get this game? Definitely! I honestly don't even know why you're reading this review; you should just go try it out for yourselves.