The promise we got was thatHalo 2 would be “a lot likeHalo 1, only it’sHalo 1 on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas… And the ninjas are all on fire, too.” It wasn’t. It was a disappointing sequel in every respect except the multiplayer. Well,Halo 3 delivers on that promise. Basically, they took everything that was great about the first game, combined it with the multiplayer experience from the second, and then turned the graphics knob up to 11. Seriously, it’s ridiculously fun to play, and I can already tell we’re going to get just as much replay value out of this one as the first, and it’s also breathtakingly good-looking. Not to mention that it puts the water in Bioshock (a game that is arguably all about water) to shame. The plot is a satisfying conclusion to the storyline, but I’ll point out that you should keep watching through the credits so you can see the entire conclusion, otherwise you’ll be feeling a bit let down. All of that would be worth buying the game for, but you also get the Forge mode to edit multiplayer maps, and the file-sharing service, so you can do things like take the screenshot I used on this post from your own deathmatch sessions. This is the game of the year, no question.