Review by: Tom Chick

Halo: Reach means getting to select your equipment before you spawn. Period. End of sentence. Full stop. Nuff said. Sixty bucks, ladies and gentlemen. Don't put your wallet back too deep in your pocket, because some DLC will be along shortly. Don't forget to install and register for Halo Waypoint to get your free armor bits!

Now you might think pre-selecting equipment isn't a big deal. In Halo 3, you got equipment items by picking them up off the ground, and you used them by pressing a button. But in Halo: Reach, the item of your choice is part of your initial loadout when you choose a class. This means equipment is going to play a more prominent role. That is Halo: Reach's big innovation. Other than that, uh…new maps, I guess?

Halo: Reach isn't terrible. It's just too familiar. There is nothing here to merit a full release, much less its status as one of the "event" games of the year. Halo 3 added a story in which you played as an Elite. It also introduced the concept of special equipment. These were pretty big deals. Then ODST gave us the co-operative Firefight mode, which had been a long time coming and was worth the wait. But there is no equivalent in Halo: Reach. It's mostly tweaks, shine jobs, new maps, slightly different weapons and a couple of modified vehicles. Call it combat evolved, if you will. It's the stuff of updates and DLC.

Some of the new additions are better than others. It's a real rush flying up to the top of that tower in the Spire map. The hologram power is an important new twist in a game that plays this fast. Calling down artillery fire is a great way to rack up points if you time it right, just as the grunts spill out of a drop ship like popcorn. It's about time we can play matchmaking games of Firefight instead of having to wait for our friends.