The graphics were simply dissapointing for a xbox 360 killer app and a selller of multi million copies. For the people saying the e3 2007 graphics were better than the e3 2006, I pity you. I'll admit I did not see a huge difference in graphics from the two aside from the MC armor itself but!! that was because besides MC, everything was far away. I don't care if MC's 2006 armor was unreal, melting looking, not halo-like, whatever, it technically had better texture and graphics to it. while the 2007 MC armor wasnt so bad that it was blocky/pixelly, it did look bad compared to the 2006 one, it just looked thin, weak, not-too-shiny plastic, while the 07 one looked like stone, with small bumpy texture, unreal sure, but who the hell cares if it looks like stone, nothing wrong with it, so whats if its unreal, not the first unreal thing in halo. But Stillblazin, that e3 06 video was just a goal!!! Yea and they didnt reach it! Not close enough to satisfy. Stop lying to yourself, most people that complain about graphics are not graphics whores/ps3 fanboys or blind female dogs, they are simply the open minded. Aside from the armor well, let me say all the "screenshots" looked magnificent and that brings us to the next problem. All the "MP screens from the beta" were pretty and polished and in high high resolution, while the actual Beta itself really didnt look on the same level. Of course this problem isnt anything major, usually things look better in screenshots anyway, but there was a thread in here that said the screenshots were tuned to be better looking. The Mp beta graphics were not bad, they were good, but had AA problems, some "not so good textures", im not saying they are bad, but simply not that good. Heres some examples. The textures on the steel buildings on valhalla (very plain), Rock textures although looked great from far away and in MP screens were great but the closer you get, the more "meh" they get. Now Halo 2 graphics up close were a mixture, some looked good up close, some didnt, This is probably due to bump mapping. In halo 1, nothing really looked blocky/pixelly up close unless you were to zoom. .. Now people here always talking about stuff like "Oh its an old build, its alpha, the beta will look better, oh its beta, its not done yet, wait for the final, or we still have 3 months man!" Shut up. you saw the e3 06 trailer, oh so why wasnt the beta graphics that good? =/ Why no visor reflections man? that was pre alpha trailer and supposedly in game engine! But the beta didnt have that type of visor reflections... Now this is when some fanboys will surprisingly say "Oh I like the reflections the way they are, I dont like the mirrored look", fanboys always adapting to suck up in new ways. Really sad. I TOLD people over and over, Bungie will make the same mistake, Halo 2 didnt live up to the graphics of its announcement trailer and Halo 3 so far has not either. Now is when fanboys will say "Of but the game isnt finished man! we still have a couple months man!" BOGUS, No real change will happen in the final months and you know this. People said Halo 2 announcement trailer wasnt running on xbox and that halo 3 Announce .trail. was... and I just LOL'ed when I saw the e3 07 trailer. Graphics of Halo 3 are certainly much better than halo 2, although not polished the same yet. I will still continue to play the game and I will not actually even complain about the graphics. I just can't stand fanboyism and how people lie to themselves over and over again, blinded by the simple truth, "Oh go to hell stillblazin, go play gow if you want graphics, dude did you even see the color palettes used in halo 3, its the ownsorz man!, so go play a grey scale game like gears you emo!" THis is by far the most weakest comback I've heard in these forums. What suprises me even more is that people saying Halo 3's graphics are better than Gow, even moderators agreeing with it!!! L.M.A.O. It's not better than Gears, has a better color palette but its not better than Gears. Look I understand you like the halo art style more, you like rocks, you like trees, water, and all the halo elements, but technically Halo is not better looking than Gears and it does not have the same level of detail as some of the Gears maps. Just accept it, and move on. "Oh stillblazin, if your so good, why dont you go and try to make a game, you noob" Lawl, this one cracks me up every single time, I guess we all need to be game developers to critisize things, I guess we all need to be movie directors to critisize movies, Come on.. think for once. In conclusion, I realize Graphics are about 33% importance in a game, The other 66% being Gameplay, sound and etc, which Halo is amazing at. I actually forgived Halo 3 beta graphics for not living up to the e3 trailer standards eventually and enjoyed the game. Because they showed us this "IN GAME" footage in e3 06, I expected ~~~atleast~~~ to see the same "visor reflections, armor texture" and the same texture level of the armor applied to the whole map. Technically by some of your "theories", since that trailer was PRE ALPHA AND VERY EARLY IN DEVOLOPMENT, we should have gotten Graphics that were a YEAR better than it, but we simply didnt. Also people kept saying Oh, the campaign graphics will be as good or better than the 06 trailer and kept hyping up a campaign documentary. That campaign trailer well didnt reach the hype. That hype was actually a realistic hype, since we could of course expect bungie to "atleast" reach a pre-alpha stage in graphics dev right? oops they didnt, hahaha. Since i said graphics were 33% of the game, I think Bungie reached 27% of that 33%. So thats why i made this thread and I realize its the 1000th graphics thread you've been to and I simply don't give a flying grunts -kablam-. Enjoy reading my unedited rant.