About three months before the release, at the E3 Bungie showed us a part of the first level of the game, called Sierra 117. To not reveal much of the story, the demo started when about one third of the level was played. Remarkable is the fact that Master Chief works together with the Arbiter (and some Marines) to kill the Covenant enemies.

Of course, we got to see the typical Halo gameplay with intense fights, very promising gunplay and often praised A.I. which offers you new experiences every time you start the game. It felt like coming home and we couldn't wait to get our own hands on it. There were some spectacular explosions, a Pelican had to die and Master Chief briefly took a turret to attack the opponents. They showed us how the new shield grenade can be used in sp and we learnt the enemy can do everything we can do.

It was a relief to see the quality of the visuals is very good with lots of colours, beautiful light effects (especially the HDR was impressively implemented and added a lot to the atmosphere of the forest, buildings and river), consistent design and appealing animations. However, the makers emphasised that nor the beta, nor this level were visually finalised. This means the actual result will look even better!

The demo didn't contain a musical soundtrack yet, but that gave us a chance to listen even better to the sound effects and especially the voice-acting and constant communication between enemies, their reactions and funny remarks. Those little fighters always succeed in making up a fun answer to your actions and during this 15 minutes demo we couldn't note any repeats.

To make things short, the single player looked very nice and appealing. It promises to be a lot of fun. However, don't expect a completely different gameplay or original innovations, because it's clear they will stay loyal to the formula. Well, would anyone want it to be different?

After this demo, Bungie showed us a not earlier demonstrated feature, the movies. In Halo 3, gamers will be able to tape and save, even edit their experiences, both in single and multiplayer. For example, you can cut some pieces out of it and choose if you want to make your movies with fixed camera locations (so you get to be a director) or just dynamic. With the last option, you get to do all kinds of stuff: fast forward, slow motion, turn cameras, take screenshots in high definition to download them on bungie.net like with Forza 2,...

The images (still or slowed down) looked fantastic and it will be a real kick to replay the deaths of your enemies. Especially the explosions looked very nice and you were able to see how a Warthog got torn apart by some rocket attacks. Wheels, parts, gamers, headlights, motors flew in every direction. Makers of fan movies will have a blast. Besides that, a new unit was shown, the Brute Chopper, some kind of rough motorcycle that can drive through a Warthog and rip it apart.