While they called the graphics undeniably pretty and loaded with all sorts of eye candy , PlanetXbox has been less than completely pleased with Halo as a complete package in its latest review:

Since finishing Halo a week ago, I've had a hard time deciding how to review it. On one hand, Halo is a darned good game -- it's ambitious, has some great action and an engaging story. If you pre-ordered an Xbox months ago, Halo should absolutely be in your shopping cart when you wheel your new Xbox out of the store.

At the same time, I can't help but feel a little disappointed -- Halo is hardly the revolutionary game it's been hyped up to be. It contains some truly brilliant moments, but along with feeling like a PC game trapped in a console's body, it also contains a frustrating amount of uninspired, repetitive gameplay that may well have you yelling at your TV.

While the review takes care not to give away anything about the story, the reviewer does suggest that some may have issues with the direction the story eventually takes. Interesting. What could it mean? The review goes on:

While I was a bit disappointed that there weren't more than two races represented within the Covenant, it should be noted that there are other threats in the game that (purposefully) haven't been mentioned in previews or shown in screenshots. I won't give away any spoilers here; suffice it to say that they're not in short supply...and many may find them eerily reminiscent of another popular game...

Normally I'd expect a remark like that to fuel some rampant speculation; however, I suspect a large number of us are going to know in a few days time, which will bring us the difficult tasks of how to manage spoiler information for those who won't have their hands on an Xbox for a few weeks (like me) or are waiting for the Mac/PC version of Halo, as about half our readers are, according to the most recent poll.