Halo 3 [X360]

Of course, sneaking around isn't really necessary when you're 7 foot hulk in some badass armor, so Jarrard decided to have a little fun by capping the nearest grunt from a few meters away. Suddenly, gunfire erupted from all around, as the rest of the Grunt, Jackals, and Brutes leapt into action and began attacking Master Chief and his crew. The fighting was intense, so it was no surprise that we took a few hits. We noticed that when Master Chief is hit by enemy fire, his shield briefly comes into view as a grid pattern before disappearing as it recharges.

Another thing that we noticed (it was pretty much impossible not to) was the amount of battlefield chatter going on around us. The Grunts and Jackals were obviously afraid, screaming in terror as "the demon" came for them. The Arbiter gave some instructions as we progressed through the level, offering Master Chief advice on how to best decimate the enemy's ranks (Grenades? Oh, you think so, doctor?). The best chatter, however, came from the UNSC guys, who threw out classics like "Killing time, you punks!" and "We're gonna send you back to Planet Jackass, Jackass!" Sure, the battlefield banter is totally ridiculous, but it's also awesome.

After battle our way through literally dozens of Grunts and Jackals, we headed through a cave strewn with red flares to a riverbank, where a Pelican dropship fired on Covenant ground troops. The battle intensified, as Master Chief and The Arbiter had to fight off several Brutes. Suddenly, a Phantom appeared from between the trees, firing its plasma bolts at the Pelican, which crashed somewhere over a nearby ridge. Master Chief ran up to a nearby mounted chain gun, grabbing it and yanking it off of its moorings. The action then switched to third-person (just as it did during the multiplayer demo), and Master Chief blasted away until the Phantom finally hightailed it out of the battle zone.

With that, our all-too-brief Halo 3 single-player demo ended, and the lights were brought up. Nearly everyone in attendance agreed that this was the footage that Microsoft should have closed the press conference with, as it surely would have impressed just about everyone in attendance. The game is definitely shaping up nicely, and the single-player campaign looks much better than the multiplayer. We'll be bringing you more information on Halo 3 later this afternoon, as we'll be checking out some different elements during our E3 meeting with Microsoft.

Thanks to Will Tuttle from TeamXbox for sharing his impressions of the Halo 3 single-player demo. Look for more Halo 3 impressions from IGN soon, and be sure to check out TeamXbox for all of their detailed E3 2007 previews.

©2007-07-11, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved