Jason "Gravemind" Goodman (also known as ShadowoftheVoid) has written up part one in a series on the history of medium-range weapons in the Halo series, this one focusing on the recent nerf of the Covenant Carbine between the Halo 3 beta and now.

TrackZero at Evil Avatar got to see a closed-door demonstration of two campaign levels from Halo 3. His verdict? It's a keeper if you like Halo, at least a rental if you don't.

It takes all the best of the series and kicks it up a notch. I never encountered any issues during gameplay at all to speak of. The single player campaign missions that I saw merely came off as a tease, as I wanted to grab the controller and play the whole time. The multiplayer is a large improvement over Halo 2 (which I wasn't a fan of) and hits a great balance that's sure to please people.

Read the full post for more details about Halo 3, as well as impressions of several other games.

Kotaku has the story that says that eighty-eight Best Buy locations have been chosen to open at midnight to sell Halo 3 on September 25. See Kotaku for the full story or click the thumbnail on the left for the complete list.