It all comes down to one day: September 25th, 2007. That one day is when Bungie Studios and Microsoft want to change the way you look at video games. After six years, two different consoles, and millions of titles sold, Halo 3 is going to complete the story of Master Chief and Cortana, the war between Earth and the Covenant, and end a trilogy of games in one of the most important series' in gaming with a 10-megaton explosion. With online cooperative modes and a revamped multiplayer mode on Xbox Live, Halo 3 is set to make millions of gamers very, very happy. Before you stand in the midnight madness lines or drink the Halo-powered soft drinks, let's take a moment to look at how we got to this moment, and follow the road to Halo 3.

It's hard to imagine a series so synonymous with the Xbox on any other platform, but Bungie originally developed Halo for the Macintosh. Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed the game off at Macworld in 1999 to rave reviews. Almost a year later, in June 2000, Microsoft purchased Bungie and set them to the task of turning their FPS into the flagship title for their Xbox console. Bungie rewrote the game's engine, revamping the game for an entirely new perspective and redesigning the controls for the Xbox gamepad. Halo: Combat Evolved came out simultaneously with the Microsoft Xbox on November 15th, 2001, and forever changed the way players looked at the first-person shooter genre.

There were many aspects of Halo that enamored gamers. From the beginning, the visuals were stunning, and Halo's graphics were unlike any other game on the other consoles. Lush outdoor environments were brought to beautiful life on the Xbox, with bright colors and seamless action. Enemies would attack the player intelligently, using cover and grenades effectively, retreating when overwhelmed, and constantly challenging the player's skills. The controls were flawless; so much so that it's hard to imagine what an FPS on a console was like before Halo nailed the delicate balance required for analog control. The game was easy to learn, but constantly rewarding increasing skill. Halo was also one of the first games to effectively add vehicles to the mix. One of the major selling points to the game, if not the Xbox as a whole, was driving the classic Warthog over the canyons of Halo, and feeling the physics of the heavy vehicle's weight as you'd soar off cliffs.

The most amazing part of Halo, however, was its multiplayer modes. There was the brilliant cooperative mode, allowing two players to complete Halo's campaign together. But never before had console gamers experienced the massive 16-player competitive battles, tense matches with rule sets the player could customize and control. Xbox owners organized LAN parties -- just like their PC brethren had been doing for years -- to duke it out on Halo's even-handed, immaculately designed levels. It was an epiphany for the consoles, and showed how important an online multiplayer network could be for the market. Unfortunately, the infrastructure for Microsoft's Xbox Live service wasn't complete for the system's launch, and Bungie had to leave online multiplayer out of the equation.

That would have to wait for the sequel.

Halo 2, released on November 9th, 2004, was Halo cranked up to eleven. The graphics were better, the enemies smarter and tougher, the stakes higher. Playing as both Master Chief and The Arbiter, players could now dual-wield smaller weapons, sacrificing reloading time and the ability to throw grenades for sheer firepower. New weapons were added, as were new vehicles. Players could now jump on to approaching enemy vehicles and "jack" the opponent, knocking them off and claiming the ride as their own. Level design in the single-player campaign was more varied, with more intense battles and skirmishes. And of course, there was the new multiplayer mode on Xbox Live.

Halo 2 on Xbox Live was nothing short of phenomenal. Using a party system, you and a group of your friends could jump from one game to the next, selecting different play lists of game modes to play. The service would pick the gametype and put everyone into the game seamlessly, choosing a host for the game. If the console hosting the game resigned, Xbox Live would automatically select a new host from among the remaining players so the game could continue. There were new ranking systems and matchmaking services designed to pair players with equal competitors. It was the fun and excitement of Halo's LAN parties, only moved online. And people loved it, to the tune of more than five million unique players on Live, and more than 710 million hours spent playing. This was what everyone wanted from online multiplayer gaming on the consoles, and Bungie set the bar high.

Now Bungie hopes to clear the bar with the final game in the trilogy, Halo 3. They've added online coop to the mix, a feature long desired by the online community, and have gone one step further by allowing four players to go through the campaign online. The campaign is set to be epic, picking up right where Halo 2's abrupt cliffhanger ending left off and throwing players straight into the action. Graphics and sound have been improved, taking full advantage of the Xbox 360's improved hardware capabilities. A new meta-game aspect has been added, grading and ranking players for how well they perform in the campaign. And judging from last May's Multiplayer Beta, Halo 3's multiplayer modes have been balanced and refined to the point of near-perfection. Rankings have been refined, with two different systems in place to determine a player's skills. New equipment has been added, utilities like Bubble Shields and Radar Jammers designed to give players an edge in tense situations. More vehicles are in the game, including a support variant of the Warthog for transporting allies to the fight. And Bungie has even included online video creation and sharing tools, as well as a map customization tool called Forge, as a way to make changes to existing levels and share them with your friends. It's ambitious stuff, and if any of it misses the mark, the fallout will be huge. Bungie knows the stakes are high, and it looks like they're set to deliver the goods.