Halo 3

Luckily for them, we're happy to report that Halo 3 is not only the best game of the series, but the best Xbox 360 game to date. The single-player game is excellent and ends the story beautifully, but it's the amazing multiplayer offerings and cutting-edge technology that will help the game stand the test of time. Make no mistake, this is a game that will still be played religiously until the end of the Xbox 360's lifecycle, and may be one of the rare titles that actually gets better with age. Let's kick things off with a look at the single-player campaign, shall we?

While it's not terribly challenging, the cooperative gameplay is an absolute blast from beginning to end. There's something inherently fun about blasting your way through the campaign with 3 of your friends, hooting and hollering every time you take down a Covenant dropship or mélee kill a Brute. The ability to play co-op also means that you will have to rely on your occasionally moronic teammates to keep you alive. I was actually killed by my teammates on a few occasions, including one sweet moment in which I was crushed under an oncoming Warthog.

The single-player game offerings are definitely a lot of fun, but nothing can compare to the abundance of multi-player options. There is a pretty decent chance that a some percentage of you got in on the multi-player beta, but that really didn't do much to prepare you for what it is like in the finished version of the game. Not only is the multi-player action stellar (after all, this is Halo 3), but there are more options than ever before. You are once again be able to create just about whatever custom game you can think of, tweaking Bungie-created variants in countless ways.

Of course, many multi-player games are only as good as the maps they have, and Halo 3 features a great blend of levels: for big and small, light and dark to symmetrical and asymmetrical; it's all in there. It seems that the more you explore some of the maps, the more small details you can notice. Isolation and Guardian particularly stand out from the crowd. The former features a cool dichotomy of normal and infected areas and the latter is, well, simply damn fun. Certain maps definitely work better with certain game types, so it'll be interesting to see what sort of recommendations Bungie puts out. If for some reason you get sick of what the game ships with, just head on over to the Forge.

Overall: A+