Halo 3 for the Xbox 360

Halo 3 is doubtless one of the most feverishly anticipated game releases in some time. It is the crowning episode of a trilogy of first person shooter games that date back to the original Xbox with the first release of Halo. Halo's significance comes from the combination of its native platform, the console, and its genre, the first person shooter.

First person action games were invented on the PC, and as such, their early development centered on improvement of the gameplay on the PC platform. On consoles, at least in the early days of first person game development, action games did not seem to catch on as quickly as platformers or role playing games.

However, Halo changed the perception of the console environment, and made it a viable system upon which to develop good gameplay. Halo 3 is expected to advance the console first person genre considerably, and will take advantage of many of the more impressive features of the new Xbox 360.