Picked up Halo 3 on thursday, and then finished it on friday. I was a little surprised that it only took me around 7 hours to complete the entire game, but it was a fun ride.

The new vehicles and weapons made it a more engrossing experience, while still keeping the core gameplay intact. The origonal weapons still felt the same, making head shots and smack downs feel very comforting, since I've done them many times before. The new weapons fit in fine, except for the gravity hammer. Although it was a fun addition to send grunts flying, it felt a little over powered. Being able to take down brutes with a single blow seemed a little out of place, even if the weapon did run out of juice fairly quickly. The choppers were a good addition to the game as it game another swift vehicle to the game, and the quads were good as well for fast movement, even if you are left to die when you don't have anyone in the back.

The enemies in the game were quite well balanced, except for a select few flood enemies. The crawling enemies and the big brute flood were a little over powered as it takes several shots with a shotgun or brute shot to take them down, which seems odd because the other flood go down within one or two shots. Other than that, the new brutes are quite good, providing both easy and challenging foes throughout, while giving the same formation of enemies as the previous games had.

The level designs were better than the last game, appearing less cookie cutter, and although the enemy patters were still just as predictable, the flow of the game was very good. The game levels weren't as pretty as some other games (Bioshock, Gears), but were definitely more vast, which was a nice change.

So far its been a fun experience, and I can't wait to get online.

-RJ Out