Just finished a 5 hour marathon of Halo 3 goodness with a room full of friends passing the controller around (so when you peep my stats, it wasn't all me) and damn, even after all the videos I've watched (every single one of them on the web) - playing the actual game was STILL unbelievably so much better!
Again, kudos to these guys at Bungie - the gameplay is downright rocksolid... they really have surpassed themselves, and gone above and beyond Halo and Halo 2, and most of you all already know that I rank those two as my favourite shooters of all time... I've played so many other franchises out there in different genres where the original game still managed to be better than the sequel, and that was never the case with Halo to me - Halo 2 improved over Halo, and Halo 3 Beta has gone beyond Halo 2... wow.
Assault Rifle is such a blast to use, and is really worth holding onto even as a starting weapon... not to mention how great it is to see this cool-looking weapon back in action again!
I really love the Spartan Laser, man - I barely got my hands on it because I never knew where it spawned, but once I found it on Snowbound, I loved it... so cool, so powerful, pure obliteration when it hits!
And just to end my short impressions - I really couldn't tell if there was any auto-aim whatsoever, since it's much harder to snipe now, or even get headshots with the BR - very nice...
Gonna head back in for some Halo 3 goodness now that my friends are gone - and oh yeah, maybe sometime tonight or tomorrow, I'm gonna make some room on my friends list for you guys - we need to get some parties going!
Thanks again Stinkles and Bungie!
EDIT: Yeah Sean, the helmet really looks high-grade, definitely not cheap looking at all... so sweet, and will be mine at launch no doubt!