Rampancy

Stuff.co.nz calls Halo 3 a masterful conclusion but does, of course, have to add some obligatory, if odd, caveats:

Halo 3 isn't perfect. It's obvious more of the scenarios this time have been designed for their potential for online play rather than to advance the story.

Reviewer Tom Cardy gave the game five stars out of five.

No pun intended, 411.com thought Halo 3 met expectations:

Though it could easily have been swamped by the hype and buried by unrealistic expectations, Halo 3 weathered the storm very well. The game, even with the few flaws, is as close to the perfect FPS as you can expect to see this console generation. Not only does it have a very solid single-player campaign that improves on every aspect of the past two, but it takes real steps forward in both multiplayer and additional features. It's quite possibly the best all-around game that the 360 will see this generation, with features that other games will be forced to imitate and gameplay that will still be entertaining far down the road.

They gave it ten points out of ten, a "virtually perfect" rating.

Major Nelson had to take a break from putting up the Live Activity weekly totals for awhile due to Xbox Live maintenance, but the latest list shows Halo 3 in the top Xbox 360 game slot, above Gears of War. Halo 2 retains its spot as the top original Xbox game, ahead of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, although there is no longer any note about combined lists.

The totals are of "global unique users connected to Xbox Live".

GameSpy stops playing Halo 3 just long enough to wax lyrical about the game. There are viewpoints from several staffers, but here's one that stands out. Associate Console Editor Sterling McGarvey was bitten by the bug that disables the Resume feature when moving a hard drive from one console to another:

It's not all rotten in the state of Denmark, however. After jacking a Wraith to Gabe's amazement, I proceeded to mow through legions of Brute forces with alarming ease. That was because I'm playing on Normal. What can I say? I can't organize enough guys on my schedule to burn through four-player Legendary. Yet. I'm sure that I'll be far too green to play well online in time for Wednesday's upcoming 'Spy-Hunter, but what else is new?

Playing on Normal because you've no help or time for Legendary? There's a solution to that problem. It's called Heroic.