Bungie.org's own Louis Wu has recovered from his Halo Overload as he called it and put up his own post-E3 summary of his Halo experience. He still seems to feel the game is fun and on-track. An excerpt:

At one point, a team made up of Louis Wu (HBO), Freewill (Bungie Sightings), Noctavis (Rampancy.net) and Santa's Head (Mumbo Jumbo) took on Yeroen and three unnamed teammates... and were beaten soundly. (In our defense, it was Noc and Santa's first runthrough on Halo - and we provided some decent entertainment anyway.)

Multiplayer proved to be seriously addictive (the adrenaline rush that hits you when you drop a grenade in front of a jeep barreling towards you, only to see it spiral through the air above your head, landing upright behind you and continuing to your base, intent on mayhem, was unmatched by anything else we ran across at the Expo), and Miguel and I stayed pretty close to the booth for the next few hours, jumping in as often as possible.

Whatever complaints people have about the changes that have occurred in Halo development over the past year, it cannot be denied that 8-person team play is just flat-out fun.

More than anything else, the experience of multiplayer seems to be polarizing people-- some people love it, others couldn't get past the technical glitches or just plain didn't get it . It'll be interesting to see if the production release provokes similar reactions.