Okay then, just for the sake of consistency... what the hell are you doing wasting time reading this review when you could be playing Halo 3? Surely by now you know that it's the greatest first person shooter series in history? It's the definitive Xbox 360 title. It's the biggest reason to own an Xbox 360. So why are you still here?!

It's not often that a reviewer tries to discourage people from reading his review and indeed I'm sure that many of you are still with me, but this is the third time I've done it - because when it comes to Halo, every spare minute you have should be spent playing it, rather than reading about it. Now, rather than getting straight into just how astoundingly awesome Halo 3 is, I'd like to take some time to talk about just why the series means so much to me. I've come across people over the years who claim that Halo and Halo 2 are over-hyped shooters that are nothing out of the ordinary. They say that we're all suckers for buying into the hype and following the crowd like sheep. But there's a reason why there's hype. There's a reason why Halo has risen above all other shooters to become one of the most renowned and best selling series of all time. Quite simply, that reason is because the games are compelling, engaging, satisfying, enduring, rewarding and enthralling, with epic scale sci-fi stories that feel more like an interactive movie than a game, and utterly addictive multiplayer modes that kept me coming back for more years after the game's releases. If you want to read about Halo 3 now then by all means skip down to the Halo 3 heading - otherwise, stick with me for a chance to relive fond memories of two of the greatest games ever devised.

Halo

The original Halo wasn't hyped. It was just an Xbox launch title that looked like a cool shooter. However, its unprecedented success and incredibly strong fan following were what created the expectation that hyped up the release of Halo 2. Microsoft didn't need to manufacture a huge hype machine to put pre-orders and sales of Halo 2 through the roof - we, the fans of the game, had already done that. We knew that Bungie had achieved near perfection with Halo and there was never any doubt for those of us who had faith in that they'd deliver with Halo 2. And they did - it was better than the original in almost every possible way. I have absolute faith that Halo 3 will be the best game to hit the Xbox 360 so far and that it'll be very, very hard for anyone to outdo it in the coming years - so much so that I'm writing this recap of the first two games a few days before Master Chief returns for his third, possibly final and inevitably greatest outing.

So then, just what has Halo got that none of the others have? Why is it that, even now, six years after the release of Halo, I can replay it on Legendary setting to get myself pumped up for Halo 3's upcoming release and still enjoy it every bit as much - if not more - all these years later? I didn't complete this game across all four difficulties (Easy just the once, for the sake of completeness!) over twenty times with single player and co-op combined because of hype. I rarely ever complete a game more than once - usually once I'm through it, that's it, I move on and the game gathers dust on my shelf or cash on eBay. But with Halo and Halo 2, I just keep coming back for more, time and time again. Why is that?

In the words of one of the Bungie crew, it's all about capturing those thirty seconds of great gaming and then repeating them over and over again. The simple fact is that Halo is immensely satisfying to play. The opening scene on The Pillar of Autumn, with Captain Keyes and Cortana discussing how the Covenant are still on their tale after a blind jump from Reach, hints of a story with a deep background and a rich plot. Indeed, the many cut scenes that follow feature engaging direction, an intelligent script with excellent voice acting and a strong story that features at least three stunning twists in the lead up to its explosive finale. Even when you're not in a cut scene, you still feel like you're part of a living, breathing world, with events taking place around you as you act and react, doing whatever it takes to prevent those religious alien zealots from wiping out the human race.

This is largely thanks to the presence of Cortana in your head - she's a sexy and sassy shipboard AI who gets downloaded into your infrastructure and she chats away throughout the game, keeping you informed of Covenant and human movements and events, talking about the areas of Halo as you explore it and giving you advice on how to proceed. She's your companion for most of the game and she's great company indeed. Then there are characters like Captain Keyes, Sergeant Johnson and Pelican pilot Foehammer (Echo 419), who talk to you over the radio or in person from time to time, adding some personality and character to your allies. Better yet are the many Marines you meet, who all react to your presence, commenting in awe at the sighting of a Spartan, praising your prowess in combat or even bemoaning that you should leave some enemies for them to kill! They're intelligent, they have hundreds of different lines for a range of situations and they're efficient and battle ready, dodging grenades, taking cover, chasing down stragglers or spearheading an offensive. They can throw grenades, they can use a variety of weapons very effectively and they're some of the most convincing AI allies I've ever had the pleasure of teaming up with.

The only time you're alone in the whole game is when you head into the swamps to find out what's happened to Captain Keyes - and it's only then that you feel the true isolation and foreboding of what is to come, with the tension mounting beautifully. There are crashed Covenant ships and a downed Pelican with an ominous distress call repeating automatically. There are piles of dead Covenant that definitely weren't killed by humans, their multicolour blood plastering the walls. There's even a crazy Marine who won't stop shooting you, driven mad by some terrible ordeal. Then you finally find a video and watch the playback log from a discarded Marine's helmet - discovering the deadly threat of the Flood, which completely alters the whole gameplay dynamic. And just when you thought you had a handle on things again, 343 Guilty Spark and his Sentinels arrive, taking you through the Library - everyone's least favourite level it seems, although I personally love the intense action of being overwhelmed by suicidal charges - and divulging some snippets of intriguing information about the Forerunners and the origin of Halo among his sporadic ramblings. He hums, he laughs, he talks to himself and he calls you 'Reclaimer' - I guess 10,000 years is a long time to be alone, even for a machine. For the last three missions you're facing three different enemy forces, who each take different approaches and will wipe each other out if you sit back and let them - or you can dive headlong into the fray and attack everyone indiscriminately, or help one side triumph over the other before finishing off the survivors. The choice is yours.

That's another thing that Halo has in abundance: choice. You can only carry two weapons at once - a stroke of genius to my mind - but you can pick up any discarded weapon as you go. The weapons are so well balanced too, and in fact the awesome Magnum with its 2x zoom when combined with a Plasma Pistol can wipe out any Elite with just two well-placed shots. The Needler is so satisfying to use, as enemies explode in multiple bursts of homing pink glass shards, sometimes setting off the plasma grenades they carry and those scattered on the floor for a massive chain reaction. The Assault Rifle and Plasma Rifle are the staple weapons, powerful at close to mid range against any foe, while the Rocket Launcher is essential for taking down vehicles and the Sniper Rifle wonderful for picking off enemies before they even know you're there. And how about that Shotgun? Great for killing slimy alien zombies, blowing off their heads and root-like tentacles!

So, you can approach any of the ten sprawling levels in a multitude of ways - get up close and personal with a plasma and assault rifle, shoot from afar with a sniper rifle and needler, or balance your approach. Do you hop in a vehicle, or stay on foot? Do you take that formidable Scorpion tank or stick with the mobile but less powerful Warthog? The vehicles too are fantastic - there are only four types, but each is distinctive and the suspension on the Warthog looks and feels perfect, while flying around in a Banshee is awesome, diving down to blitz ground-based foes, and the Ghost hovers around with great handling, mostly unaffected by rough terrain.

Another wonderful thing about Halo is that it all looks so amazing. Even now, as I play through it for the umpteenth time on Xbox 360, I marvel at the detail. I look at the photo-realistic grass beneath my feet, the way the sun's rays shine through the foliage in a tree, the sweeping, epic view beyond the mountains out over the sea, the way half the Halo's ring is in shadow and half in light at night, as you look overhead to see the entire circumference above you, some of it blocked by the looming Covenant Cruiser whose gravity lift glows purple in the distance, marking your destination before you board the alien vessel. Every level is teeming with detail - the rush of the waterfalls, the shimmering walls of the Covenant ships, the dynamic patterns and blinking computer displays of Halo's inner core, the varying, grand scale of the scenery, from the sunlit beaches to the snowy canyons. Even the weapons look amazing as you reload them, or stand still for a bit and let Master Chief admire them.

Throw in consistent and always realistic sound effects for every weapon, enemy and footstep, along with the ambience of distant gunfire and explosions, birds singing in the trees and even the howl of unseen animals at night, and the only thing that can further enhance the presentation perfect is an original, evocative orchestral score that manages to be rousing, uplifting and menacing in all the right places. Making groundbreaking usage of a harmonious male choir to sing memorable themes and mixing a great range of instruments and rhythms into the many different tunes that fill the game, Halo's soundtrack is one I have listened to countless times on CD (in fact I'm listening to it right now), including playing other games online using the Xbox and 360's custom soundtrack functions. There's no other game I can say that about, either.

Then there's the co-op - you can play the entire game through with a friend and open up a whole new world of strategy. Charge in together, flank the enemy while the other draws their attention, one person in a vehicle the other on foot, one cloaked and one playing decoy, one driving a Warthog the other shooting... the list goes on and the fun simply never ends.

Translate those weapons, that gameplay and those vehicles into a superb range of multiplayer maps for up to sixteen players that use the visual themes from the Campaign without lazily recycling any of its level designs and you've got a game that just lasts and lasts and lasts. Other than Super Mario Kart on SNES (Battle Mode) and Laser Squad on the Spectrum 128k, there are no other games that my brother and I have played against each other so much. Years after Halo's release during a period where we were living together, we'd have heated bouts of head-to-head battles on a nightly basis, taunting each other, berating the underhand tactic of screen-watching (where you look at the other person's half of the screen to see where they are and what weapons they have) and generally having a laugh while still being very competitive. There's a reason why people have hauled their TVs and Xboxes around to each other's houses for sixteen-player system link Halo parties - and that reason is because it's just simply brilliant.

I'm close to 2000 words into this review and I haven't even started with Halo 3 yet - if you want that then you'll need to skip the next section too. But there is a point to all this, other than to take fans through a nostalgic reminiscence of a golden era of gaming and expound to those new to the series the myriad reasons why going back to the beginning of the trilogy is a must, and I will get there. But first, I need to talk about Halo 2.

Halo 2

Not many games get pre-ordered months in advance. Not many games get midnight launches. Halo 2 (and very shortly, Halo 3) are the only ones I've been to and I can't see myself going to any others in the near future - there's just no other game that gets me as excited as Halo. But I queued up, having recently read the trilogy of Halo novels and played my copy of Halo 2 long into the night.

Halo 2 builds upon a very strong foundation and improves it in nearly every way. It's longer and its scale is even greater than the original. The action is faster and more intense, the stakes are higher, the story is deeper and it amplifies everything that was wonderful about Halo, kicking it up several gears to take it well beyond the next level. The vehicles are better, with the ingenious concept of boarding at the push of a button, kicking your foe out to take the driver's seat and speed off, possibly after running the former driver over for good measure! The weapons are much enhanced and weapons from the first game like the Fuel Rod Cannon, Sentinel Beam and Energy Sword are now available to wield, as well as the Covenant's Wraith tank and a new Covenant Warthog equivalent, the gliding Shade with two passenger seats and its powerful cannon. Sure, the loss of the assault rifle was a shame. The near uselessness of the magnum pistol was disappointing. But new additions like the Beam Rifle, Carbine and Battle Rifle more than make up for this, along with the brilliant concept of being able to switch weapons with fellow marines - give five marines a carbine when you rescue them from the prisons in the Covenant Holy City High Charity and watch them wipe the floor with the opposition. Get a guy with a rocket launcher in the passenger seat of your Warthog and you've got a vehicle that's every bit as powerful as the Scorpion tank but far more manoeuvrable.

Oh yes, there's this little thing called duel wielding too, which revolutionised the gameplay altogether. Mix and match weapons as you please, an SMG in one hand and a needler or Brute plasma rifle in the other. Two needlers are now very deadly in the Campaign, although still hard to make effective use of in multiplayer. You can't throw grenades while duel wielding either, with the two staples of the bouncing Marine frag and the sticky Covenant plasma returning, but that's a small price to pay for such an effective way of mowing down the opposition, be they Covenant forces or online foes.

The storyline in Halo 2, to my mind, isn't quite as good as the original. There, I've said it - I've raised a criticism! It's still brilliant, but the introduction of civil war into the ranks of the Covenant isn't entirely convincing at first and the Gravemind, the rhyming monster that seems to be the source of the Flood, seems just plain daft. Yet as you replay the game and really pay attention to the nuances of the cut scenes, it all starts to make sense as to why this chain of events occurs and just what is motivating the arrogant Prophet Hierarchs as their faith and leadership are shaken up by the destruction of one of their sacred rings.

The scenery is better than ever - starting on the Cairo Station Orbital Defense Platform, you quickly move to fighting on the streets and back alleys of besieged city New Mombasa, assaulted by enhanced versions of the Elites, Jackals, Grunts and Hunters, along with the new additions of Jackals with beam rifles and the very annoying Buggers, who swarm around you and can easily take you down armed with just plasma pistols. There are defining moments all the way through this game - like when you are speeding around the coastline in your Warthog, sometimes accompanied by marines driving Ghosts, or through the tunnels beneath the city, where I've had three Warthogs (marines can now drive vehicles and do a great job at it, too) all working together. How about when you drive your Scorpion over that bridge? Or when you have to board the massive Scarab to take it down from within? The new Halo itself is also a joy to behold - ancient ruins, complex lift systems, unending grand scale architecture both archaic and futuristic but always intricate with detail and design that defies belief, beautiful coastlines and spectacular backdrops greeting you at every turn, whether you're looking out over the snowy wastelands approaching the library on Halo or making your way through the immense Covenant City that you saw in the cut scenes at the start of the game.

One of the best features of Halo 2 is the duel storyline - you play a number of levels as the Elite Arbiter, a member of the Covenant from the first game who slowly begins to realise that the Prophets are religious madmen who will destroy the universe unless they are stopped. You never fight or kill humans either - you begin by taking out a rebel faction of Elites in a Forerunner installation above the gas giant that the first Halo orbited, who have been enlightened by 'The Oracle', good old 343 Guilty Spark reprising his role. Eventually you take on the formidable Brutes (cries of "Watch out, he's gone mental!" can often be heard when I play in co-op, when an injured Brute discards his weapon and rampages towards you), with fellow Elites, Grunts and Hunters at your side. The three Prophet Hierarchs, Truth, Mercy and Regret, lend a sinister personality to the Covenant, while Sergeant Johnson, the black Marine with attitude from Halo, reprises his role, and Captain Keyes' daughter Miranda takes the lead, stepping up to the challenge after the terrible demise of her father. It all comes together at the end for a slightly disappointing boss battle (I loved the Warthog race at the end of Halo and was hoping for something similar here) as the storylines of our two heroes, Master Chief and the Arbiter, collide with a revelation that the Ark, the back up system for activating the Halo rings, is located on Earth, while Cortana is left trapped in the Flood-infested Covenant City and Master Chief returns to Earth to "Finish the fight." And then it ends with an almighty cliffhanger, a controversial and frustrating ending but boy does it leave us wanting more! Opinions are polarised on this topic - I found the ending a little anti-climactic and lacking in closure, but I can at the same time I can live with it, especially as the game is such a roller coaster ride from start to finish. So, not perfect - but pretty damn close.

On the multiplayer front however, Halo 2 is perfect. Online play for up to sixteen players, a host of brilliantly designed maps, a multitude of weapons and vehicles to choose from, an almost endless array of modes beyond the standard Deathmatch and Capture the Flag with full customisation for creating your own modes and a matchmaking system for online party gaming that is unrivalled to this day. I've spent more time online with Halo 2 than any other game, including anything the 360 has offered so far. I could harp on for hours about how perfectly balanced it all is, how joyful it is when you have a lucky escape, snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, co-ordinate with your team to run rampant or pull off an ambitious game plan. But I won't - because I've harped on for far too long already.

And here's the point of all this - by now you'll see that I'm completely biased when it comes to Halo. I have no objectivity - that went out the window a long time ago. I love everything about Halo and Halo 2 and I am unwilling to concede even the remote possibility that Halo 3 will be anything less than the best game I've ever played (and probably will ever play). You might think that makes my perfect scores across the board (five days to launch and I'm already anticipating 10s in all categories!) meaningless. But it doesn't - because hopefully you can see by now that there's one simple reason why I'm nuts about all things Halo and why I think Master Chief is the coolest guy ever to grace a videogame - and that's because Halo and Halo 2 really are absolutely superb. So by all means carry on and read my Halo 3 review if you want to (but I still feel you're wasting precious halo 3 playing time!) - just don't write me off as being biased or having an agenda, because I love videogames, I have impeccable taste and, for me personally, it just doesn't get any better than Halo.

Halo 3

So it's finally here. The day has arrived at long last. Was it worth the wait?

Believe.

As I played through the opening levels of Halo 3, I thought to myself how every member of the Bungie development team has absolutely excelled themselves. I doubt there has ever been a team of designers, programmers, artists and composers who has more right to be proud of themselves than Bungie - and it's hard to imagine that there ever will be. There can't be a more satisfying job in the industry today than being a part of the production of Halo 3. Sure, truly classics games come along on a regular basis, a handful every year, but never has there been so much pressure before - so much fan expectation, so much riding on a game, so much to live up to. Even more, in my humble opinion, than with Grand Theft Auto IV.

Although I've only played the first few levels and haven't yet touched multiplayer (I don't really want to do that until I've experienced all the new weapons, vehicles and scenery in the campaign), I can categorically state that Halo 3 is a groundbreaking experience, the likes of which has never, ever, been seen before. My comments above about intending to give it full scores across the board, having total faith in Bungie and expecting it to be the best game I ever played have all been completely and utterly justified during the past few hours. It's almost too much to process, as the rich, beautiful chaos of the graphics bombard your senses, accompanied as always by the evocative trademark themes that enhance Halo's atmosphere like no other soundtrack. I wanted to get this review online ASAP, but it'll take me months if not years to plough the depths of all that Halo 3 has to offer - so I'm going to do something a little different. I'm going to write a reviewer's diary. Check in regularly for updates - I'll be adding bits and pieces over the next few weeks and possibly months, with my main aim to cover single and multiplayer with frequent updates in the early stages. I'm also going to do my very best not to put in any big spoilers, because if ever there was a game that you need to discover on your own, Halo 3 is it.

Day 0 - 25th September 2007

With perfect weather for the midnight launch of Halo 3, a crisp, clear, moonlit night and no chance of rain, I joined the queue at my local GAME store in Swindon at around 11:30pm, which stretched around the corner, probably about fifty people strong. The line continued to grow as midnight approached and I was coincidentally joined by a very distinctive guy by the name of John who I remembered from the Halo 2 midnight launch! The time passed as the excitement mounted - MC minus 30 and counting!

Day 1 - 26th September 2007

I'm a sucker for merchandise, so I snapped up the Halo 2008 calendar and the swanky new Xbox 360 Master Chief Wireless Controller, with a smooth, hardened shell so that the artwork won't fade any time soon and bundled with an intricately detailed little model of the Chief himself. I took the regular version (the others two were pre-ordered online months ago - I'm a Halo nut and proud of it, and there's no other game I'd buy multiple copies of!) and walked past the queue, which was still just as long as it was when I joined it, as more and more people got in line. I hopped in my car, my Halo 2 soundtrack ready in the CD player and with the volume high and the windows open, the main Halo theme blasted out as I headed home, resisting the urge to drive at 90mph all the way! It didn't take me long to rip open the new controller and then Halo 3 was into my 360 and I was ready to play. I've spent the last three days on a Halo bender, blitzing Halo and Halo 2 on legendary one last time before I got my hands on Halo 3, and I've done nothing else but play Halo (oh, and eat) for that time - yet I am absolutely thirsty for more!

The menu is very understated, in keeping with the style of Halo 2, and it takes quite a while for a demo to appear (I haven't watched it, don't want to see anything before I get there!) I don't think it'll be spoiling too much to say that the story picks up right where Halo 2 left off, although there's a curve ball straight away in that it opens in a way that you don't expect. I was just wondering to myself today if there would be any jungle style levels in Halo 3, something that's been missing from the first two - and that's exactly where you begin! I've already got so much to tell you, but I'll have to curb my enthusiasm and keep my promise of minimal spoilers. Suffice to say, the game is very much story-driven and the feeling of the first two games, of starring in an epic sci-fi movie, is amplified about a thousand times. The story is already filling in a few gaps and it's much tighter than Halo 2 - I already like it more than both the previous titles and almost every character from Halo 2 who isn't dead has made an appearance and gained involvement in the plot.

There are new weapons. New grenades. New vehicles. And everything has been redesigned. It's still Halo, but it's uber-Halo, familiar and yet new all at the same time. The Grunts, Jackals and Hunters look pretty similar although obviously far more detailed than ever, while some of the Elites have new style armour that looks very nifty. Some of the Jackals wear protective headgear now, while the Buggers are even nastier looking, with patterns on their backs that look like a pair of big eyes. Ugh. They're not the only enemies that can fly either, with a super cool variant of the Elite jetpack coming into play. The Brutes are the Covenant race that have seen the biggest changes - not only do they have a range of armour that seems to have some sort of energy field protecting it, but they have new weapons and look slightly more humanoid yet still very apelike. Consequently they're a lot scarier looking than before and they make for formidable opponents, featuring far more prominently than in Halo 2 (where you didn't actually get to fight any Brutes until the final four levels).

When it comes to your arsenal, it's never been stronger. All the old favourites return, including the Assault Rifle! Sleeker and more compact, if you missed it in Halo 2 then you'll be delighted to know that you can use the old faithful combo of shotgun and assault rifle against the Flood - ah, it's like old times, yet all very new! The Carbine is one of the best redesigns, its beam much more substantial than before and its sound a lot meatier. The Brute Shot is also far more effective and explodes with a real bang, while the Fuel Rod Cannon, which features quite a bit even early on, is faster and deadlier than ever. So far there are a couple of new Brute weapons, the melee one of which is so much fun to wield that it should be illegal - I'll give you a hint for this: it is a weapon that you've seen before. The other weapons are largely unchanged; Plasma Rifle and Plasma Pistol, Magnum, Rocket Launcher, Battle Rifle, Needler (which sadly can't be dual wielded any more), they're all very familiar to use. There's an ingenious twist with the turrets that I'd love to mention but can't possibly ruin for the first time you discover it, and a new Brute grenade that's pretty vicious too. I'll also leave you to discover the range of brand new offensive and defensive pick-ups that you can now avail yourself of, which are incredibly imaginative and innovate, throwing a whole new dynamic into the gameplay.

Coming onto the vehicles and so far I've only been able to pilot a couple. The Ghost feels very similar to before, while the Warthog is better than ever - it looks better obviously, as does everything, but its handling has been perfected and it can bounce over terrain that's rougher than ever. There's a new variant too, one with no cannon, with spaces for three people in the back and a passenger in the front. Give fuel rod cannons or rocket launchers to a couple of passengers and it's a seriously lethal machine (ammo for Marines' weapons is still unlimited and you can still switch weapons with your comrades at any time). I haven't tried out the new Brute vehicle yet though - I was having too much fun in the Warthog! But I have tried the Mongoose, a brand new Marine vehicle that's fantastic fun - the scene at the docks when there are a whole bunch of them speeding around, taking down a massive boss (something you've seen before but a million times cooler than it was in Halo 2 - there, I've practically given it away!) is just mind-blowing.

That's the state I'm in right now - my mind is blown. Every level brings new and different scenery (so far there isn't any repetition even slightly from the first two games and I won't complain if we do get to retread some familiar territory later on) and the scale of it makes Halo 2 look both limited and amateur by comparison. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Halo 3 takes on Half-Life 2 and wipes the floor with it, giving you war on an epic scale with dozens of enemies on-screen at once, armadas of Pelicans and Phantoms exchanging fire in the distance, some of the most stunning backdrops you've ever seen stretching as far as the eye can see. This is war on Earth like you've never seen it before. This is what Bungie always wanted to do with Halo - and now they have, thanks to the power of the Xbox 360. There's more going on throughout every level than I could ever describe, a bombardment of action, excitement, adrenaline and spectacle.

It's 6:16am now and I had to tear myself away from the game because I don't want to blitz the campaign too fast (it's tough going as I'm on Heroic to make it last longer). With that said, I don't think I'll be able to resist finishing it off soon - like the final Harry Potter novel, I've been waiting years for the conclusion of a story I love (I'd go as far as to say that the Campaign has always been my favourite part of Halo, despite how much I've played the multiplayer) and I'm not sure I can stop myself from rushing through it. At least I know I'll be playing it again and again, online with friends, split screen with my friend's son (he's eleven and will proudly tell you that he's completed Halo and Halo 2 in legendary on co-op!) and with any friends who happen to drop round.

I'll finish this entry with a brief mention of the Flood. I've always been a fan of the grotesque spectacle of zombies and mutations (the movie Slither was really twisted and nasty, but damn did I love it!) and I always thought the Flood was a fantastic concept, an enemy with a singular purpose and (as discovered in Halo 2) a single mind, which throws itself at you without its only strategy to overwhelm with sheer force of numbers. Anyone who ever thought the Flood was lame or boring in the first two games, well, just you wait and see. The Flood have been completely overhauled in many, many ways and are now as horrific, twisted and menacing as Bungie always wanted them to be. I'd go as far as to say that they're the nastiest mutations I've ever laid eyes on (at least on a par with the Head Crabs of Half-Life 2) and Resident Evil now has some serious competition. Zombies in space have never been done so well and the sheer numbers of them you'll face will boggle your mind.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to just nip back downstairs to switch off my 360 (I'm listening to the beautiful Halo 3 menu music on my wireless headphones as I type) and I might just accidentally play one more level before I hit the sack - I need to know what they're going to discover at Installation 00 and it better be something good, because otherwise the human race has had it...

Day 2 - 27th September 2007

This game just keeps on getting better and better - the sweeping deserts of Installation 00, which isn't part of the Halo network but something new and very cool, are a joy to behold. After a tough battle against strong Covenant presence, I hopped into one of the new Brute vehicles, the Prowler, and headed across the dunes laying waste to everything in my path. The vehicle sections of Halo 3 are bigger and better than ever before, with enemies attacking from all sides as you speed around picking them off, either yourself behind the gun or driving and letting Marines take care of the shooting. There's a new aerial Marine vehicle, the Hornet, and I took to the skies to lay waste to the various land and air opposition before ending up on a very picturesque coastline bordering a forest area. The views here are spectacular, although you can't go flying off over the sea, an invisible barrier keeping you on the coastline. This is a little disappointing but considering the scale of what Bungie have achieved across all aspects of the game, it's really not a big deal.

The inner core of Installation 00 is reminiscent of the architecture of the two previous Halo ring worlds, but grander and more detailed than ever, with huge drops, tall towers, intricate computer panels and even, at one point, a gigantic waterfall. The story is really hotting up by this point too, and there are a couple of high impact events that create a real sense of desperation and hopelessness - but I have faith that the Chief will prevail. I do miss Cortana though - she's been in the game a bit so far, communicating with Master Chief through visions and eventually an automated message warning of a terrible imminent danger that is more of a threat to humanity than the Covenant ever was. There's an unsettling alliance that takes place too, of a very unexpected nature, and it makes for a brilliant twist to the story and the action. I only got a couple of levels in today; sadly life must go on and keeps getting in the way of Halo 3 time! But it's okay, because I don't want to rush through the story too fast...

Day 3 - 28th September 2007

Whoops. I accidentally finished the fight today! I didn't realise how near the end I was - and in a way I was disappointed that it ended so soon. With that said, I think it was a wise decision on Bungie's part not to stretch out any particular level too much. There's no endless trudging through corridors like in the first two games (not that I had a problem with that, I enjoyed those aspects of Halo and Halo 2), but every level in Halo 3 is fast and tight, full of high octane, relentless action and epic scale battles, with no repetition of locations or scenery. Needless to say, there are a number of huge events towards the end of the game and I don't think I'll be spoiling anything when I say that not everyone survives - so get ready to shed a tear for a favourite character or two. The final level is just awesome, a truly gripping and spectacular finale that fans who've been with the series since the beginning will go nuts for. The ending of the story is absolutely perfect; the plot is wrapped up beautifully and the final line is just wonderful. Without doubt I'll be playing the campaign over and over again, solo, online and split screen, and there's a secret hidden in the final level with information that I'm guessing can only be accessed when you play through on Legendary, so I've still got that discovery to look forward to. It's the end of an era though and no mistake.

With the campaign wrapped up, I ventured online for a few multiplayer games and messed around in the Theater for a bit, but more on that next time...

Day 4 - 29th September 2007

Has it really only been four days since Halo 3 was released? My life is so different now... I don't know how I possibly ever existed without it! Okay, so I'm joking (well, half-joking), but seriously, while the Campaign was everything I ever hoped it would be and more, the Multiplayer is even more groundbreaking. I'm not just talking about the intense online action either - it's the whole package, with the multitude of extra features that only those wizards at Bungie would think of pioneering.

Today I want to talk about the Matchmaking system. For those who never played Halo 2 (shame on you!), Bungie introduced a system of creating parties, lobbies and finding games that was unparalleled until it was blown away by the release of Halo 3. I think that's a pretty impressive accolade for both games. The only downside was that you couldn't host Custom games and leave them wide open so that any Tom, Dick or Harry could wander in - it was Friends only and the same is true of Halo 3. With that said, it's not that tricky to invite a couple of friends, who invite their friends, and soon have a room bustling with activity as you pick from the multitude of modes and maps on offer, and get stuck in.

The core of Matchmaking though, which still applies here, is that of creating your Party. Whereas in most games you have to be on a chat channel with buddies so they know which game to join, or you have to set up a new game every time and get them to rejoin, in Halo 2 and Halo 3 you can have a Party of people - and where you go, they will surely follow (hopefully like lambs to the slaughtering!) So at the end of the match, you and your buddies stick together for the next one. Not only this, but you can bring up to three friends without Xbox Live accounts along as guests in split screen mode. Brilliant or what?

Halo 3 improves upon the original system in several ways. Firstly, at the end of the match you get a countdown of 15-20 seconds to trash talk, commiserate or congratulate with the opposing team before you're all chucked straight into Matchmaking for a new session, without having to do a thing. Not only this, but if you've headed into any team mode with less than four players and you want to stick with the people you just met and play with, you can simply hit X and 'Party Up' - as long as both players have selected the Party Up option, your parties merge and you're teamed up instantly, without having to send invites, join Friends Lists or anything like that. As such, it's possible to go into Team Mode solo and within a couple of games have a strong team of four, all starting to learn each others' rhythms and tactics. It's only a little feature, but boy is it useful!

There's more information than ever before on offer in Multiplayer. There's a grand total of the number of Halo 3 players online and a world map that's lit up according to where players are located, which is just plain cool. Another total of players in your particular mode is also displayed, and as you sit waiting to be matched up to other players and parties, there's loads of stuff to see and do. For starters, you can hit the back button for a comprehensive breakdown of the previous match. You can see the list of Kills, Assists (where you didn't get the kill but your bullets helped weaken the fallen opponent) and Deaths for each player, and the Kill/Death ratio as a plus or minus figure (positive if you killed more times than you died). On the next screen you can see a breakdown of the kill type for each player - Weapon, Melee, Grenade and Other (like vehicle kills with turrets or splattering opponents). Click on any of the players and a detailed report comes up, where you can see all their medals for that game, who they killed most and who they were killed most by, their weapon of destruction (the weapon used to get the most kills) and more - I'll come back to this another time to go more in-depth. Suffice it to say that this information is both useful and fascinating to view as you chat with your teammates while waiting for the next match.

The Matchmaking itself is split into several groups - for Ranked matches there's Lone Wolves for single player games and a variety of Team Games including Team Slayer, Team Objective (Assault, CTF, VIP, Territories and more), Team Tactical (slower paced games for the more cautious and strategic amongst you) and Team Doubles for a two-vs-two match. There's masses more modes in the Custom games and other Unranked Playlists too, which I haven't even looked at yet, so I'll stick with Ranked. Each Ranked mode has its own skill level, so you start at 1 and quickly begin rising the ranks as you gain victories. However, there's a new twist this time around - you also gain experience to increase your Spartan rank, soon becoming a Sergeant (I'm currently Grade 3 and can't wait to see what comes next!) You gain experience in ranked and unranked matches and it's always a wonderful little reward to see your skill level go up and get the notification of an increase of rank after a particularly triumphant match. I've barely even scratched the surface here, but as I'm playing daily at the moment, I'll carry this on with the next entry...

Day 5 - 30th September 2007

Damn if we didn't have the funniest ever match tonight - I'll table giving more details of the Matchmaking system because I just have to share this experience while it's still fresh in my mind. I had a session of around five hours tonight, which as usual just flew by in record speed. I was on top form, as were my teammates, Vincenzo and our very own Christopher Martin, who I've known for years and in fact met randomly in a game of Midtown Madness 3, way back when Xbox Live was still in its infancy. Our final game of the nights was a Team Slayer match of three-vs-three on Isolation, a woodland-based level with slight Flood infestation in an underground network of tunnels and concrete bunkers. It's a fairly small, circular map that's bathed in sunlight, with a wide road around the outside and plenty of rocks and structures to take cover in above the tunnels, as well as a couple of booster lifts that rocket you into the air. The weapons on this map include the battle and sniper rifles, needler, rocket launcher, shotgun, brute shot and a few dual wielders, plus one Ghost and one Mongoose.

So, the game begins and, within one minute, the score is 10-1 to us - I usually prefer a close, challenging match, but it's already highly amusing so I'm just rolling with it and loving every moment! So much happened in this match that I won't be able to fit it all in - and indeed the three of us all had different personal experiences alone and together, so it was the perfect match to thoroughly deconstruct in the Theater.

The Theater is arguably the biggest innovation of Halo 3's multiplayer - I expect similar things have been done before on PC, but for a console game this is a first... and it's totally groundbreaking. You see, Halo 3 stores a healthy number of your recent matches and you can load them up at any time, with up to sixteen people in your party, and rewatch them! Awesome, right? Wrong! That's not even close to how awesome it is! You see, you can switch between any player at the push of the d-pad, choose first or third person perspective, with full control over angle and a decent zoom out for third person, or just free yourself entirely and fly around wherever the hell you like, using the bumpers for altitude and the left thumbstick for directing the camera, the left trigger increasing the camera movement speed and the right trigger speeding up the replay. Better still, you can pause and rewind the action, take screenshots at will and even record video clips to upload onto the net for other Halo 3 players to download and enjoy. Now that's revolutionary.

So, with the three of us in the party, I began to play the seven and a half minute film and we watched through it three times, from the perspective of each of us. Each time we got new insight into what the other people were doing behind the scenes and how we often saved each other or assisted on kills without even realising it - and the sequence of main events went something like this.

On Isolation, our first move is always to grab the Ghost and rocket launcher, as they are key to getting a good start. Chris went straight for the Ghost and was about to grab the rockets when I arrived, so he relinquished them to me - good move, because ten seconds later I rounded the corner to find Chris being assaulted by all three enemies. As Chris sped away to turn around and come back, I fired two rockets and triple killed the whole team before they knew what hit them, the last one landing on the ground just as Chris rounded the corner again. What then followed was the unmitigated slaughter of our opponents. I headed up to the hill in front of the sniper base, and made myself a target - you see, I had a Regeneration pick-up and sure enough the enemies came and sure enough Vincenzo and I wiped them out while the Regenerator kept my shield intact. As we did this, I glanced ahead into the distance to see the Ghost go flying past, a red body hurtling ahead of it - we were all cracking up as Chris and Vincenzo got to see this from my perspective for the first time.

The laughs continued as we witnessed Chris triple kill the whole team with the Ghost, which happened a few seconds after I had been killed - he appeared over the hilltop like a swift purple avenger and mowed down two of the three, catching but not killing the third, who attempted to board but was then finished off as he approached. Soon after this they got the Ghost, although Chris got it back pretty fast, and the next time they grabbed it, Vincenzo was there to wipe them out instantly. Then began my brief foray on it, with a couple of splatters before Chris took the driving seat again. We continued to wipe out all offensives, with a couple of lovely needler explosions from me and a very cool death for Chris where his weapons and grenades fell into one of the boost lifts, only to be spewn back out high into the air. There was also a hilarious moment where a Spartan was sent flying into a tree, his arms and neck stretching out impossibly far and bending around behind him before his body slumped to the floor.

Then possibly the funniest moment of all came, right near the end. Chris drove up with the Mongoose and kept beeping, so I got on, despite having a sniper rifle. We drove around for a few seconds and then he stopped, and I no-scoped two different opponents, one of them now driving the ghost, wiping out their shields. As the Ghost sped off, Vincenzo leapt into the fray, beating down the other shieldless guy who flew high into the air, something that occasionally happens with melee attacking. Then Chris and I were bombarded with brute shot blasts, sending our Mongoose soaring into the air, spinning like mad, yet we landed below unscathed and upright, and sped off. While this was happening, Vincenzo was on the case of the Ghost driver, who managed to get himself trapped in a gap in one of the structure walls and a handy grenade blew the crap out of him good and proper, as Chris drove back up top and I sniped a brute shot assailant in the cave below. We all gathered again for the finale and as Chris and I fell, taking an enemy with us, Vincenzo mopped up the survivors and the match was over, Vincenzo the last man standing as Chris's body fell into a boost lift and was blasted into the sky, the final score resting at 50-22. Victory has rarely been so sweet - or so damn funny!

Now, you might think I'm being a bit self-indulgent here - and I am - but there is a point to this entry and that is as follows: many of the games you will play online are eventful and action-packed, often with wonderful moments like that Spartan laser double kill, the accidental splatter, the heroic survival against a fearsome enemy assault - you're not just having an online gaming session, you're having mini-adventures every ten minutes or so, filled with close calls, defeats and victories, pride and shame, camaraderie and teamwork, and shining moments of pure skill in the face of overwhelming odds. This is the best way I can find to describe what it's like to play Halo 3 online and convey why it's the best online game I've ever played - and thanks to the Theater, you can relive these adventures over again, from any perspective or viewpoint you wish. You can keep your favourite games, record clips of your very finest moments to share with the world, see what the enemy was doing, study the tactics of the opponents who beat you, or just generally watch for pure entertainment value, reliving a particularly great victory like we did only an hour ago. There are few games that have such variety and adventure online as Halo 3, and to provide the framework to be able to go back and look at your past games, for whatever reason, is nothing short of genius.

Day 6 - 1st October 2007

Today was a day of mixing it up a bit. I played a couple of levels online in Legendary with two buddies, and we still died quite a bit - it's tough, and I look forward to ploughing through solo and tracking down every last one of the hidden skulls scattered around to discover for an achievement. On the subject of achievements, usually the first thing I do with any Xbox 360 game is go and review the list so I can see what I need to do to start getting them - and I go out of my way to try and get them. With Halo 3 however, I was so excited when I first got my paws on it that I forgot there even were achievements, until I got one for completing the opening campaign level! It's the one game where I've resisted the urge to look - I know I'll pick most of them up over the natural course of playing the game, and I'd rather just play for pure enjoyment than to try and get them this time. I played the first couple of levels on Heroic co-op split screen with my brother too, who was impressed by the atmosphere of the opening jungle level, which just gets better and better with every replay.

I also delved into the Custom matches too, hopping into a game of Infection. One guy starts off as the zombie, armed with only a sword, and he must kill other players to infect them; the infected respawn as zombies until everyone is changed. Essentially you're playing for the accolade of last man standing, something I got in the Uber Infection mode, where everyone is moving at super speed and with super high jumps. With fifteen players on board it was seriously manic, and Valhalla was the perfect level to try this on. It's an outdoor level with waterfalls and woodland, similar in layout to the classic Blood Gulch and Coagulation of Halos past. One of the biggest differences comes with the 'man cannons', which blast you halfway across to the centre of the level, where you can pick up the Spartan laser to take out Banshees and other vehicles.

I took a look at Team Tactical today as well. Whereas Team Slayer is all about killing, and Team Objective consists of Assault (bomb the base) and Capture the Flag (both in the 1 bomb/1flag attack and defend format across four rounds), plus the excellent new Territories, again with four rounds and five territories to capture that you can't lose once you've got them, Team Tactical is a more thoughtful game mode, consisting of the likes of Elim Snipers and Eliminatio. No, that's not a typo - Eliminatio gives you all the usual weapons on whichever map comes up, then there are a series of five rounds where the first team to accrue five kills wins the round. The score carries over, so if you win one round 5-3 and the next 5-4, you'll be 10-7 going into round 3, with a maximum possible score of 25. It's a great variant on the Elmination theme so you're not out for the count after dying once, although respawns obviously take longer than they do on other modes. Again on Valhalla, this time in Elim Snipers, both teams launched straight into the man cannons and I managed to snipe and kill an opponent at the other end of the map while both of us were speeding through the air - watching the replay on that was just fantastic!

Other great moments I've had include a perfect grenade kill using the motion sensor and chucking a grenade up the lift in Construct, and Chris pulled off an awesome Banshee board in Sandtrap, hitting an air vent and flying up out of a building at exactly the right moment to take control of the enemy craft. I've also been learning how to use those explosive barrels in The Pit, where a well-placed grenade sent two opponents flying halfway across the map. Brilliant. There's so much more to say, but I'll save it for future entries...

Day 7 - 2nd October 2007

I got my first sword killing spree today, five sword kills in a row without dying - and that was at the back of a sniper killing spree in the same game... whoooo, I'm cooking now! Sad that it took several hours to get there though, lol. Online, especially in ranked games, Halo 3 tends to be a game of rolls, for me at least. Sometimes you're on a good roll and you're just unstoppable, other times you get creamed match after match. Boy was I getting infuriated earlier on in the night when I kept getting sniped in the head before I knew what was happening or instantly killed by a point blank single shotgun blast. Shotty Snipers, a Team Slayer mode where the only weapons available are sniper rifles and shotguns, both with infinite ammo, plus grenades, and turrets and vehicles where available, is a real love it or hate it mode. Personally I love it, even when I'm losing - there's just something about the combination of sniping from afar and having the shotgun as backup for close range that's spot on. I will continue to persevere and I will figure out the exact aim and timing required to get those single shotgun kills.

Meanwhile, the stats are coming in about Halo 3's groundbreaking success. Here are just a few figures to ponder, taken from a recent news article on Microsoft's official Halo 3 site:

Halo 3 is officially the biggest entertainment launch in history, with an estimated $170 million in sales in the US alone during the first 24 hours, beating movie blockbusters like Spider-Man 3 and novels like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Within the first 20 hours of its release, more than one million gamers logged into Xbox Live to play Halo 3, making September 25th the most active Xbox Live gaming day in the history of the service so far - I know that my Friends List was busier than usual, and every single one of them was playing Halo 3.

More than 10,000 retailers hosted midnight launches.

More than 1.7 million copies of Halo 3 were pre-ordered, decimating the previous record of Halo 2 and making it the fastest pre-selling game ever released.

As Halo 3 week comes to a close, I can look back over the past seven days and honestly say that never in all my life have I had so much fun playing a videogame, in single player, co-op or multiplayer. I've put in hours every day, easily sitting for a session of five or six hours that flies by and leaves me thirsty for more when I finally drag myself away because of that annoying Halo 3 time sapper known as sleep. It really has been one hell of a ride - and thanks to those of you who have come along with me, to friends old and new who have teamed up with me online and to all of you who've taken time out of your busy Halo 3 schedules to read this diary and share in my experiences. It's not over yet though; in the words of the Chief himself, we're just getting started...

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).