Even with these shortcomings, however, the campaign in Halo 3 is still the best of the franchise. Hands down. Everything you love about the first two games is here, perfected and amplified by 100. The frantic gunplay? Faster than ever. The alien enemies? Smarter than ever. The vehicular combat? Explosively enhanced. The split decision strategy of weapon, grenade and melee combos? Gloriously restored.

What's most impressive about Halo 3's single player, though, is the sheer and awesome scope of it. The linear hallways and freeways of the previous games do make an occasional return, but for the most part, you'll be waging the war for Earth across battlefields so vast, so open and so packed with action that it's honestly a miracle the Xbox 360 can render it all without melting.

Remember the adrenaline that pumped through your veins when you first took on a Scarab in Halo 2? Now multiply that scene, and that excitement. Imagine fighting not one, but two Scarabs simultaneously. Imagine attacking the building-sized behemoths with anything you choose... guns, grenades, rockets, turret-mounted jeeps, laser-firing tanks, missile-launching hoverjets... and seeing a dozen other AI-controlled soldiers making their own decisions around you. Imagine moving from the ground to the air to the alien-infested inside of the Scarab itself, all within the span of a minute.

Yes, that scenario is an actual example of gameplay from Halo 3, but it's only a single instance. You'll experience many more like it, each of which can play out completely differently depending upon your personal combat style and decisions.