Well, I finished the fight. The Halo 3 campaign is now complete. The flood is gone, the human and elites are friends, and Master Chief is sleeping in his warm and cozy cryo-bed. I wonder if some future event will cause Cortana to wake our hero up, so he can fight us to freedom once more? Floating alone out there in space, no one anywhere nearby…what are the odds?

Not being much of a FPS fan, I was surprised that I got into the game. The first attempt to play though it was after it came out, and it felt then like just another shooter. Move forward, kill whatever you see, rinse, repeat. Granted, nothing about that changed when I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, but for some reason it was more fun this time. For one thing, I was playing it more slowly, not just rushing in, blasting, and inevitably getting killed over and over (though that did happen once or twice). Nothing like learning to take advantage of those sniper rifles and big boomers! Plus, having played through Bioshock and Half-Life 2 recently may have helped. Both of those games stepped outside the traditional FPS mold, Bioshock with its Plasmid powers, and HL2 because it is a fantastic game (play it!). Halo didn’t break any new ground, but it was fun enough, and short enough, to make me finish.

One big problem: the story. Sure it stretched across three games, but it never elevated itself in any way. It was , and that was all. I think I winced a couple of times when the action slowed down, and Gravemind started another of his little spiels, dialogue straight from . Maybe the revival of Master Chief will happen in a future where life is more multi-dimensional.

Of course, the true drive to finish the fight was today’s pending release of the biggie. Is there an over/under on the number of Fox News stories about GTA IV? Can I get $20 on the over?