First off Halo 3 does not reinvent the game, because its part of a trilogy of sorts, and it does not need to. If this is your first time playing Halo then you will be able to jump right into the game. For those that follow the trilogy you will be able to pick up the story from where it left off in Halo 2.

Now onto Halo3.

The game itself has some nice graphical additions. Almost everything has been upgrade, yes you can still see some areas that look 2D but for the most part they added texture to where it was needed. Items you interact with look better, people you kill die with gushing agony, (well except for the grunts) things you blow up...well you get the idea.

I was also pleasantly surprised at the variety of levels you go through in the campaign, no cookie cutter maps here just vibrant jungles, frozen wastelands and futuristic cities. I am sure you will have your favorite maps in the end.

You can also interact with your environment a bit more, items are not nailed down as much. This is not to say you can destroy everything or take everything. You can move things around more and knock over items, this can work in your favor... say you knock a large crate of items into a group, they will have to go around it or over it. You will also be happy to know that if you find a turret... of any kind, Alien or Human you can take it with you.

The controls are mostly unchanged, how you pick weapons up and drop weapons has been moved to the right bumper, you also do get the addition of the item button, which allows you to deploy and make use of equipment. While that doesn't change the way you control the game itself, it does affect the way you develop your strategies.

One of the biggest surprises for me was the improvement to the computer AI. Thiers not mine. The computer AI was very impressive, at times you can see the AI forming strategies based on what looked like emotional reactions to fallen comrades. At other times I found myself cursing "Why won't he just stand still" or "A crap they are charging me"This has to be one of the best evolutions to the game.

Multiplayer, well come back in a few days and I will tell you more..after I OMGWTFPOWNZU. (translated: Own you online)

One more item to note, I did play this on two different TVs. One was HDTV and the other was a regular TV. They both looked great. The biggest difference on the HDTV for me was seeing more detail in the distance, seeing more shadows and the feel that I had more peripheral vision.