Halo is a cultural phenomenon. Early sales reports indicate that Halo 3 has a higher first day gross than other major media releases such as Spider-Man 3 and Harry Potter's final book. Halo is the franchise that saved Xbox for Microsoft, and essentially legitimized first person shooters on a console (1997's Goldeneye on the N64 perhaps not withstanding).

So here we are, at the end of an era of gaming. Microsoft and Bungie claim that this is the end of the Halo saga as we know it. Yeah, they said the same thing about the Star Wars Trilogy once upon a time too. Halo is way too much of a cash cow for Microsoft to just let it die. Still, if this is the final Halo game, then Bungie has done a bang up job ensuring that the Master Chief and crew have an appropriate sendoff.

Halo 3's story picks up exactly where Halo 2's cliffhanger ending left off. I won't spoil too many story details, despite the fact that countless others over the internet had already done that for me. The Master Chief and the Elite Arbiter are now partners in trying to stop the Covenant armies from activating the Halo rings and effectively destroying the galaxy by unleashing a parasitic organism known as the Flood. As Halo 3 opens, our heroes find themselves on Earth, trying to stem the onslaught of a full out Covenant invasion. The Covenant is led by some psychotic religious zealots who believe that activated the Halo rings will allow them to embark upon a "great journey". Are there some parallels between these religious leaders and ones in the real world? Is it possible that a silly video game could have some actual social commentary within its storyline? I'll leave that for you to decide. Of course, the Flood is always a step behind too, and you'll encounter this frightening parasite before your time with Halo 3 is done.

Since Halo 3 is the supposed end to the trilogy, gamers can rest assured that the story does come to a satisfying conclusion this time around, with no cliffhanger ending to worry about. With that said, there's clearly more room to explore the Halo universe. I wouldn't be surprised to step into Spartan armor again in the near future, if not the Master Chief's himself. Halo 3 serves as a fine conclusion for the trilogy as we know it, even if it will only take you between seven to ten hours to see the story all the way through.

Controls for the game will take a slight adjustment for seasoned Halo veterans. Namely, instead of using the X button to pick up weapons and reload, the function has been remapped to the right bumper for the right hand, and the left bumper for the left hand. What the X button does now is utilize the new inventory items that the Chief now has access to. You can only carry one item at a time, but all of them have really neat effects. You can use an explosive flare that blinds your enemies like a flash bang grenade, deploy a bubble shield that stops bullets, drop a power draining device that sucks away shields, among others. Your enemies will also be using these devices with great aplomb. The rest of the game mainly utilizes the same control configurations as the other two Halo games.

All your favourite weapons from both previous games make a triumphant return, some with a few tweaks. The original assault rifle from the original is back, and remains one of the more versatile and useful weapons you can use. The pistol in Halo 3 has the slower firing rate and better stopping power of the original pistol, but without the zoom function. The Needler also returns, but it can't be dual wielded this time around, making it essentially the most useless weapon in the game. Finally, the Chief can also wield a new flame thrower that is a lot of fun Torching those slow little alien grunts with a flame thrower simply never gets old. You'll also encounter old favorites such as the battle rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle, covenant carbine, plasma rifle, and rocket and grenade launchers among several others.

The new weapons in the game are quite interesting. You can dual wield a devastating new weapon called the Brute Spiker, which is essentially like a Needler that fires a little slower but does far more damage. You'll also come across dual wieldable shotguns known as maulers that do obscene amounts of damage at close range.

Although they technically aren't new weapons, you are now able to rip turrets off their mounts and carry them around with you. When you do this, the camera shifts from first to third person, and your movement is slowed down to compensate for the extra weight of the gun. Turrets have unlimited ammunition until you take them off their mounts, upon which ammo begins to drain. This adds an extra layer of strategy to the game. Do you slow yourself down in order to deal significantly more damage? It all depends on who you're fighting in any particular situation.