My full review is running tomorrow, but after investing about 10 hours over the weekend in the game (I went to bed at 5 am this morning), I wanted to give you guys an early peek at my review.

Also, I wanted to beat Marc's review up onto the blog.

So, hah!

I think the best way to sum up my review is to list what I think will be the three stages of general reactions to this game: massive hype and excitement, then slight disappointment, and finally renewed appreciation and enjoyment.

You can't escape the hype, and it colors the way we all look at Halo 3 right now.

So we're expecting an epic entertainment experience, the greatest game of all time, and a life-changing dramatic tale all rolled into one.

Well, Halo 3 isn't that.

It's a lot of fun, already one of my favorite Xbox 360 games. But I don't know that it's necessarily better than Gears of War or Dead Rising or Oblivion or BioShock.

So I bet we'll hear some grumbling on the blogs soon after release, and it won't be long before the accepted wisdom is that the Halo franchise was always overrated.

But I'll also bet that, after the radioactive glow of Microsoft's hype campaign fades away, gamers will realize that Halo 3 is, warts and all, entertaining as hell.

My score: A-

I'll post a link to my full review once it's up on dallasnews.com.

UPDATE: Some Halo 3 screens after the jump, if you actually haven't had your fill yet.