OP, I would just like to inform you Bungie just wanted to make this an expansion. It was an M$ idea to make it a separate game. At the time, paying 60$ for a smaller Campaign and everything else would have seemed like a ripoff, and your initial anger is extremely justified. However, its a wonderful game, and since I had been against (and still am) any paid online form of DLC, it gave me a chance to try ALL of Halo 3 maps. [Edited on 07.02.2012 4:03 PM PDT]