The Game That Revolutionized Gaming: The Impact and Legacy of Halo 3

Halo 3 was released in 2007 and is a first-person shooter game created by Bungie for the Xbox 360 console. The third part of the Halo series, following Halo: Combat Evolved from 2001 and Halo 2 from 2004, the game’s story revolves around an intergalactic war between humans, aliens known as the Covenant, and a deadly parasite called the Flood. Players take on the role of Master Chief, a powerful super soldier with advanced technology, to fight against both the Covenant and the Flood. When playing together, other players can join forces as part of a human team, working alongside alien soldiers. The game includes familiar vehicles, new weapons, and gameplay features, along with exciting additions such as saved game movies, file sharing, and the Forge map editor – a helpful tool that lets players make changes to multiplayer levels.

Halo 2 was initially planned to conclude the story started with Combat Evolved, but problems during development led to a cliffhanger ending. As a result, Bungie began working on Halo 3 soon after Halo 2 was released. The game was officially unveiled at E3 2006, and its release was preceded by a multiplayer beta test that allowed some players who bought the Xbox 360 game Crackdown to play it first. To promote the game, Microsoft spent $40 million on advertising, hoping to sell more consoles and attract new fans beyond just those who loved Halo. This campaign included cross-promotions and an alternate reality game.

Halo 3 came out on September 25th and made $170 million in just one day of sales, which grew to $300 million within its first week. The game sold more than 14.5 million copies worldwide and was the top-selling video game in the US for that year. A lot of people played Halo 3 online, with over a million players on Xbox Live in just twenty hours after it came out. Generally, critics liked the game, but some had issues with its single-player part, such as the storyline and how missions were laid out. Halo 3 is often considered one of the best video games ever made. A new sequel, Halo 4, was released seven years later in November 2012 by a team called 343 Industries. In 2014 and again in July 2020, Halo 3 came back as part of a bigger collection for Xbox One and Windows.

Gameplay begins as Master Chief prepares his assault rifle to attack a group of Covenant Grunts. A special piece of equipment called the bubble shield is activated and shown.
In Halo 3, players mostly play from the perspective of one person in front of them. Most of the gameplay happens when they’re walking or running around on foot, but there are also parts where they get to control vehicles. The main idea of the game focuses on three key things: using guns, throwing grenades, and fighting with their fists. In many cases, these tools can be used together for extra power. Some players might even carry two guns at once, giving up using grenades or their fists. Unlike other games in this series, a second gun is always visible to the player and can either hang from their belt or go around their back. Halo 3 adds new types of equipment that are slow to use but give more firepower when used correctly.

Along with guns, Halo 3 introduces a new type of gear called equipment; these items have different effects, such as defensive screens that protect players or shields that can heal them in battle. However, only one piece of equipment can be used at any given time. The game’s vehicles have been improved with more types of cars and special vehicles that other players and the game itself control.

Halo 3 includes extra features beyond gameplay, such as Forge, a tool for editing maps. With Forge, players can add or remove objects like guns, boxes, and vehicles onto existing multiplayer maps. Most game items, including cars and interactive objects, can be placed and moved on these maps using Forge. Players can join Forge games in real-time and modify objects right away. However, there’s a budget that limits the number of objects that can be added. Players can also save up to 100 clips of gameplay from their Xbox 360’s hard drive, watching it from any angle or slowing down the action. Halo 3 allows players to share files with others, including saved game clips, screenshots, and customized versions, which can all be uploaded to Bungie’s official website. Anyone can browse user-created content on the website and instantly download new items to their console when they log into Xbox Live for Halo 3.

In Halo 3’s story or campaign mode, you can play either alone or with up to three other players through Xbox Live or System Link. Unlike previous games, where everyone was the same character in co-op mode, here you get different characters – Master Chief, the Arbiter, and two other Elite members N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham. Each player has the same powers but starts with unique weapons. If you find special skulls on each level, it changes how the game is played, like making enemies more powerful or altering what they say to you. These skulls also affect your score and speed – for every challenge you pass, you get points that can be used to unlock achievements by reaching a certain target in each level.

A local area network or Xbox Live can accommodate up to sixteen players in multiplayer games, featuring modes like deathmatch and Capture the Flag variations. To find other players, gamers must look through their Xbox Live friends list or use the party invite system and LAN search feature to set up custom matches with unique rules and maps. If connected to Xbox Live, a player can let the game choose the rules and map for them automatically, as well as discover new people to play against or with using the “Matchmaking” system, which groups players based on skill level. Players then pick from pre-made playlists created by developers, each offering a specific way to play the game.

Halo 3 uses its own special matchmaking system based on TrueSkill, which helps players compete against others with similar skills. To keep track of how experienced a player is with online multiplayer and specific playlists, the game calculates an EXP value for each match. This feature allows players to play safely and enjoyably without worrying about other players. The game also has features like instant reporting and chat muting, which make playing online more enjoyable. Like its predecessor, Halo 3 allows players to download new content and updates. Unfortunately, the original Xbox 360 version of the game’s online services stopped working in January 2022.

Synopsis Setting and characters The science fiction world of Halo 3 takes place from 2552 to 2553. Humanity is fighting against an alliance of alien races called the Covenant, who are determined to wipe out humanity. In the past, the Covenant discovered Earth during Halo 2. “Halo” rings are huge circular structures in space that can be thousands or tens of thousands of kilometers across. These rings were made a long time ago by an ancient race called the Forerunners as a last resort against another alien species called the Flood. When activated, these rings would destroy all life in the galaxy, which would stop the Flood from eating. After creating the rings, the Forerunners vanished. In Halo: Combat Evolved, while running away from the Covenant, a human spaceship named Pillar of Autumn found one of these ringworlds called Installation 04. A human named Master Chief destroyed the ring to prevent harm from another danger called Halo and the Flood. The Covenant didn’t know about the rings’ destructive power and tried to create another one, Installation 05, during Halo 2 so they could follow their prophecy. Some members of the Covenant, especially the Elites, discovered the truth about the rings and joined forces with humans to stop the ring’s firing. However, this made a surprise trigger a safety protocol that made all the rings ready to fire from one place called the Ark. The Covenant still didn’t know what the Ark was, but they were heading towards Earth, where they thought it was hidden.

The main character in Halo 3 is Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, a super-strong soldier known as a “Spartan”. He works with the Arbiter, a former leader of the Covenant who was kicked out for disobeying orders. In cooperative play, two other high-ranking Elite warriors join him: N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham. Other characters from previous games also appear in the story, such as human soldiers Avery Johnson and Miranda Keyes. The leader of the Flood, known as the “Gravemind”, plays a significant role too. In Halo 2, the Gravemind breaks free from its prison, invades the Covenant’s capital city called High Charity, and captures a powerful artificial intelligence named Cortana.

After the events in Halo: Uprising, Master Chief arrives on Earth in east Africa, where he is found by Johnson and the Arbiter. The Chief and team head back to a UNSC outpost, where Keyes and Lord Hood come up with a plan to stop the Covenant leader, Truth, from using a powerful Forerunner device that the Covenant has discovered. Master Chief helps clear away enemy air defenses so Hood can lead the last ships on Earth against Truth, but just as they are about to attack, Truth activates the device, creating a secret doorway that lets him and his followers escape into space. Meanwhile, another ship carrying Flood-infected creatures crashes nearby, and Elite forces quickly arrive to seal off areas of the planet contaminated by the Flood, stopping any further threats. The Chief and his team then follow Truth through the portal, which is joined by 343 Guilty Spark, who helps him since he has lost his purpose after his ringworld was destroyed.

As humans and Elites journey through a portal, they stumble upon an enormous artificial structure called the Ark, which lies far beyond the edges of our galaxy. This discovery allows the Truth to activate all the Halos remotely. The Flood invade High Charity in full force, infesting the facility. In this chaos, Truth captures Johnson, who is essential for using Forerunner technology. However, Keyes attempts a rescue mission but ultimately succumbs to failure, and Johnson is compelled to activate the rings. Gravemind forms an alliance with the Chief and Arbiter to stop Truth and his army, freeing Johnson in the process and stopping the activation of the installations. After the Arbiter eliminates Truth, Gravemind turns against the Chief and Arbiter.

The Chief, Arbiter, and Guilty Spark found out that the Ark was building another Halo ringworld to replace the one the Chief had destroyed earlier. The Chief decided to power up this new ring, which would stop the Flood from spreading on the Ark without harming the rest of the galaxy. To get the necessary information, the Chief rescued Cortana, who knew how to activate the old Halo’s system, from High Charity and blew up the city. Once they arrived at the new Halo, Cortana warned that Gravemind was trying to rebuild itself on the ring. The Chief, Arbiter, and Johnson went to the control room to make the ring work. Guilty Spark explained that because the ring wasn’t finished yet, activating it too early would destroy both the ring and the Ark. When Johnson ignored his warning, Guilty Spark killed him to protect his new project. Even after Guilty Spark died, Johnson’s injuries ended up killing him. The Chief turned on the ring, managed to escape before it destroyed itself in space, but when he did, the ship was badly damaged by the blast, leaving only its front half to sail back to Earth with the Arbiter on board.

A ceremony was held on Earth to honor the brave warriors who fought in the Human-Covenant war. During this event, the Arbiter and Lord Hood shared some words about Master Chief, who had fallen. After the ceremony, the Arbiter and his fellow Elites left for their own planet. At the same time, the rear part of the spaceship Forward Unto Dawn kept drifting aimlessly in space. Cortana sent out a signal for help, but she knew it might take a very long time before anyone could reach them. As Master Chief went into a deep sleep, Cortana told him that she would miss him. He reassured her by saying he would wake up if she needed his help. If you complete the game on the hardest level, the scene will continue to show Forward Unto Dawn floating towards an unknown planet, setting the stage for what happens in Halo 4.

Halo 2 was extremely well-received by critics and fans alike, but this success came at a cost for Bungie. The game’s development process was intense and rushed, causing them to cut the final act of the main storyline. Bungie openly expressed their disappointment with Halo 2’s shortcomings and saw an opportunity to correct these mistakes in the next installment, which would be the last major project before they left Microsoft due to a change in ownership. Bungie had been unhappy about being acquired by Microsoft in 2000, particularly because of unfavorable profit-sharing terms for the popular Halo series. As a result, they negotiated a deal that allowed them to break free from Microsoft as an independent studio after producing a set number of new games in the Halo franchise.

After Halo 2 was released, Bungie co-founder Jason Jones went on a break, leaving the team in charge of making Halo 3 with little guidance or leadership. The staff members were confused about who would be in charge of creating the game’s story and plot, and no clear direction was agreed upon. The writer of the story, Joseph Staten, took time off because he disagreed with other staff members, which meant that there was no single person responsible for writing the game’s story during part of its development. A committee came up with an early draft of the story, but it didn’t take into account any characters or plot threads from before. The composer, Martin O’Donnell, thought this draft wouldn’t work because it missed some important parts of the previous games. He had recently seen a movie called Serenity and learned that having main characters die made the story more exciting. After the main plot was set in place, Staten went back to edit the story.

Halo 2 had made online multiplayer matchmaking and social features like player groups and voice conversations really popular. When Xbox 360 came out, it added many similar features through Xbox Live, but changed how they worked underneath. The game’s designer, Max Hoberman, remembered that instead of creating new features, he spent a whole year fixing broken ones to make sure everything was back to normal.

Contrary to how fast-paced and stressful it was for Halo 2’s developers, who had to make tough cuts to meet its release date, Bungie employees remembered working on Halo 3 as much more relaxed with plenty of time to add cool features like Forge mode.

Bungie didn’t say much about its new project until it was finally revealed. In its weekly updates, they hinted at something big without giving away any details. When the game was officially announced, it came with an exciting video trailer that showed what the game would be like in real time.

Unlike Halo 2, which had a tight-lipped development process, Bungie was more open with its fans about the making of Halo 3. To keep everyone in the loop, they shared updates on their website every week. When it came to building the game, Bungie divided it into two main parts: single-player and multiplayer. This made testing and debugging the multiplayer part a lot faster because it was smaller. Even though many details about Halo 3’s multiplayer were released over the next 16 months before the game came out, the single-player storyline remained largely secret until much of the development was done. The first campaign screenshots didn’t appear until July 5, 2007 – almost a year after the announcement trailer – to build excitement for the marketing push that was coming soon.

Before the game was completely released, a test for its online multiplayer part and features like sharing files and watching movies on saved devices happened four months earlier. To join this early test, players needed a special copy called a Crackdown disc.

The performance of artificial intelligence (AI) in the game was made better and more efficient; enemy Brutes now behave like a single unit, moving together as if they’re part of a group. This changes how you play by making it harder to fight them because they work together and do things at the same time.

The graphics engine used in Halo 3 is unique and built from scratch by Bungie. It uses advanced technologies like high contrast, global lighting, and effects that make scenes look more realistic during cutscenes. In the beta version, motion blur was missing but was added to the final game. Objects in the game can cast real-time shadows on themselves and their surroundings, including plants. Halo 3 adds detail to surfaces by using techniques called normal mapping, bumping, and parallax mapping without increasing the number of polygons much. Players can see objects from far away – up to ten miles – all in three dimensions. The graphics engine can create reflections in real-time, but these effects are often not used because Bungie thought they were a waste of resources. Halo 3 uses two frame buffers instead of one, which helps preserve the range of light in the game without slowing down the game’s performance. This means the game naturally displays at a higher resolution – 1152×640 pixels – than usual, and can be upscaled to 1080p on Xbox 360. Halo 3 has also been improved for the Xbox One X, where it renders at 1920p but is then upscaled to 2160p in high definition at a steady 30 frames per second.

The Xbox 360 version of Halo 3 features high-quality 5.1 surround sound audio, just like all other titles on the console. The game contains over 50,000 audio clips, with about 40,000 of those being lines spoken by non-player characters (NPCs). This is a significant increase from the previous Halo games, which only had around 15,000 dialogue pieces. To make the conversations sound natural and believable, special care was taken in recording NPC dialogue. Separate recordings were made for different sounds, such as gunfire that’s close by versus gunfire that’s far away. In the final game, the audio is modified using Waves Audio plugins to create a more realistic experience. What might seem like ambient sound at first can actually be the result of an actual battle happening somewhere else in the game.

The music for Halo 3 was composed by Marty O’Donnell, just like in the previous games. However, this time some tracks were created with an even bigger real orchestra than before, making them sound more impressive. For instance, when you first see the game’s announcement trailer play, it features a huge orchestra of 60 players and a choir of 24 singers. This game is special because it has its own soundtrack that players can customize to their liking by replacing the in-game music with their own preferred versions. The official Halo 3 Original Soundtrack was released on November 20, 2007. As part of this album, there’s an original song created by fans and picked as a winner by well-known musicians like Nile Rodgers, Michael Ostin, and Marty O’Donnell.

Returning actors from the Halo 3 series include Jen Taylor as Cortana, David Scully as Sergeant Johnson, and Keith David as the Arbiter, with Tim Dadabo voicing 343 Guilty Spark and Ron Perlman taking on Lord Hood’s role. Robert Davi will play Rtas ‘Vadum, while Steve Downes continues to voice Master Chief. The game also includes new voices, such as Terence Stamp and Justis Bolding replacing original Halo 2 cast members Michael Wincott and Julie Benz in roles like the Prophet of Truth and Miranda Keyes. Notable additions include celebrities Jonathan Ross, Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk, Katee Sackhoff, and John DiMaggio. Members of popular machinima group Red vs. Blue, including Burnie Burns, Gus Sorola, Matt Hullum, Jason Saldaña, Geoff Ramsey, and Joel Heyman, make guest appearances in the game.

A big launch event for Halo 3 took place at a building called NASDAQ in New York City on September 25, 2007.
Main article: How Halo 3 was marketed
Microsoft spent more than $40 million to promote Halo 3. The goal was to sell more Xbox 360 consoles and attract gamers who were not already fans of the series. To do this, Microsoft used various stages, such as videos of the game, live action scenes, recorded gameplay, computer-generated images, and real-time footage. On September 12, 2007, a marketing campaign called “Believe” started with an ad video called “Museum” that showed Master Chief’s story and continued after the game was released.

As Bungie developed their new game, they shared four videos that explained how the game came together. A big multiplayer test was held on Xbox Live where over 800,000 people could play and see what the game was like. Before the game was released, an online game called Iris started a mystery for players to solve by finding clues about the game’s background. When the game finally came out, there were parties all around the world to celebrate its release.

Halo 3 had various marketing partnerships and promotions. PepsiCo introduced a new type of soft drink, called Game Fuel, which was inspired by Mountain Dew and featured Halo 3 branding and Master Chief character design. Most of the advertising aimed to attract people who weren’t just gamers, but also ordinary consumers; for instance, some convenience stores like 7-Eleven advertised Halo 3 and sold special cups and copies of the game. In the UK, Gamestation stores offered a limited-edition Master Chief figurine to customers who preordered the game within the first 1000 people.

The last test version of the game before its official release, known as “Epsilon,” was leaked to the internet months before it was due out. Microsoft responded to this leak by locking out Xbox Live accounts that were caught playing the leaked copy until the year 9999. Copies of the game, complete with pictures of the box, started appearing on online auction site eBay weeks before release. Similarly, UK retailer Argos accidentally released some copies a week earlier than planned. Although Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division was “disappointed” that this happened, they said they wouldn’t punish Argos for their mistake. Meanwhile, people were able to download the game itself from the internet before it came out, with over 1,000 gigabytes of data shared in just 24 hours. Some users also recorded the final ending of Halo 3 using leaked copies and posted them on video-sharing websites.

Halo 3 was released on September 25, 2007, and came out in three different versions: regular, special, and extra special. The regular edition included a game disc, a manual, and a small poster with maps and pictures of the game’s controls. The special edition, which was put in a metal box, had everything the regular version did plus an extra DVD with cool videos, a big book about the creatures, places, and cultures in Halo 3. The extra special edition included all that and more: another DVD with even more cool stuff, a special movie on DVD, a real-life replica of Master Chief’s helmet to put on top of the discs, and a huge poster of him when you opened up the box.

Some special editions had a problem where the part that held the discs together would break easily and scratch them. Microsoft heard about this and decided to make it right by offering a free replacement for the disc holders so they wouldn’t get scratched again.

Before it was officially available for sale, there were already four and a half million copies of Halo 3 on store shelves.

In October 2013, Microsoft made Halo 3 available for free download to Xbox Live Gold members through its “Games with Gold” program. This was followed by its inclusion on the Xbox One in 2017, where it could be played via backwards compatibility. A special edition of the game that ran smoothly at 1080p and 60 frames per second became part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for Xbox One in 2014. In 2020, Halo 3 was released again as part of Microsoft’s version of The Master Chief Collection on Windows.

Halo 3 supports getting new multiplayer maps and game updates on Xbox Live. After its release, three new multiplayer maps were added together as one package called the “Heroic Map Pack.” The first set of maps included “Standoff”, “Rat’s Nest,” and “Foundry”. These maps arrived on December 11, 2007.

Later, another group of three maps was released. This time, it included a remade version of the “Lockout” map from Halo 2 called “Blackout.” Also included were new maps like “Ghost Town” and “Sidewinder,” which was originally used in Halo: Combat Evolved. Another remade map, called “Avalanche,” was also part of this set.

In addition to these new maps, visual filters were added to the game’s Forge mode. This changed how the maps looked. Later, a free downloadable map called “Cold Storage” became available on a special day called Bungie Day in July 2008.

Halo Wars came with a bonus pack of multiplayer maps called the “Mythic Map Pack.” These included three new maps: “Orbital,” “Assembly,” and “Sandbox.” This pack arrived through Xbox Live Marketplace on April 9, 2009.

Finally, another set of three maps was released in February 2010. This set included maps from Halo 3: ODST: “Citadel” and “Longshore.” A remade version of the “Midship” map called “Heretic” was also part of this set.

The first major update for Halo 3 came out on February 19, 2008. It fixed several problems that caused issues with fighting, like when you were playing close to your opponent and it wasn’t fair. It also fixed some problems with movies in the game that wouldn’t play right.

Later, on September 23, 2008, another update was released, called a Title Update. This update added new challenges to earn achievements, a new way to rank players, and ways to stop people from cheating in the game. After this, there were no more updates planned for Halo 3.

Bill Gates was the first person to buy the official copy of Halo 3 from Best Buy in Bellevue, Washington.
When Halo 3 came out, it made more money on its first day than any other video game did in 24 hours. This broke the record that Halo 2 had set a few years earlier, which made $125 million within 24 hours of its release. Lots of people had already preordered Halo 3 in North America – over one million! Worldwide, more than $300 million worth of copies were sold in the first week after it came out. This was very good news for the Xbox 360 because it almost doubled what the game usually made each week compared to before the new game launched. By 2010, Microsoft said that Halo 3 had made over $600 million overall.

In the United States, Halo 3 sold an impressive number of copies in its first week on sale. Over 12 days, it sold over 3 million copies, which increased to nearly 4 million by November 15, 2007. According to Reuters UK, this may have been just a fraction of the total number of copies sold worldwide during that time period. By the end of November 30, 2007, Halo 3 had reached a sales milestone of over 5 million copies around the world. This made it the best-selling video game in the US for the year 2007, despite being available on only one console. Before long, Microsoft announced that Halo 3 had sold more than 8.1 million copies worldwide. In just its first 20 hours after launch, the game attracted over a million new members to Xbox Live, setting a record for the biggest online gaming day in history. Even years later, in February 2009, Halo 3 continued to perform well on the sales charts, possibly thanks to the release of its sequel, Halo Wars. Microsoft reported that by 2012, Halo 3 had sold an impressive 14.5 million copies worldwide.

Advertising Age stated that movie studios thought releasing Halo 3 would lower box office earnings; the week’s earnings were 27% less than the previous year’s profits. Some executives thought the difference between predicted and actual earnings for movies like The Heartbreak Kid was due to how badly the film was received, but other analysts believed that “people who play [Halo 3] are mostly young adults” – similar to what you’d see in movie theaters – which led to fewer people going to the movies. Later research showed that even though gamers spent more time playing Halo 3, they still watched just as much TV and went to the movies as before.

Critical Reception for Halo 3 Was Very Positive Upon Its Release.

Halo 3 received great praise from critics when it was released. The website Metacritic says the game got an average score of 94 out of 100, which means almost all reviewers liked it very much. Some reviewers thought that the game lived up to everyone’s expectations and even exceeded them. They said that Halo 3 was exciting and had something for every type of fan, from the most serious players to those who are just starting to play.

Critics agreed that the game didn’t change too much from previous Halo games in terms of its basic gameplay style. However, this wasn’t a bad thing – it meant that fans of the series could still enjoy what they loved about the game. Reviewers also praised some new features like the ability to build and customize levels with the “Forge” tool.

When it came to multiplayer, critics said that equipment like guns and vehicles were much more important than the main story missions. They felt that these new features made the gameplay even more exciting and fun. Overall, Halo 3 was seen as one of the best games available on a console at the time, with some reviewers even saying it raised the bar for other shooter games.

Opinions on the single-player section differed greatly. Yin-Poole felt that while the ending of Halo 2 left him with a sour taste, the story in Halo 3 was much more enjoyable overall. Other critics like Gerstmann, Gabe Graziani from GameSpy, and Goldstein thought the campaign was too short, especially when playing on lower difficulty levels or co-op mode. In fact, Goldstein was extremely dissatisfied with the eighth level, saying it was so bad that just thinking about it made him feel uncomfortable. Charles Herold from The New York Times believed the game had a weak storyline and Total Video Games agreed that the single-player aspect ultimately let them down. Some critics, including Goldstein and Steve West of Cinema Blend, thought a part of the story was missing because the Arbiter wasn’t given as much attention in Halo 3 as he was in Halo 2.

Most reviewers agreed that multiplayer was one of the standout features; IGN thought the variety of multiplayer maps made it the best part of the series, while GameSpy noted that every map was finely tuned. The game also had an impressive level editor and saved films feature, as well as exceptional voice acting and a rich soundtrack by Martin O’Donnell.

Other issues centered around the artificial intelligence system; while critics commended its opponent AI, they criticized the less impressive AI abilities of the player’s friends. Bryan Vore from Game Informer expressed frustration with some facial features and textures that he found laughably bad.

Halo 3 received seven award nominations from Spike TV Awards, winning two notable awards. The game took home the top prize at Time magazine’s “Game of the Year” and was picked as the best online multiplayer experience for Xbox 360 by IGN in 2007. Additionally, Bungie studio received a prestigious Visual Effects Society Award for its outstanding work on real-time visuals in Halo 3. The Calvin Award also recognized Halo 3 as the best video game of all time based on predictions from Box Office Prophets. Furthermore, GameTrailers named Halo 3 their Xbox 360 Game of the Year in 2007, and fans voted it as the ultimate game for that year on G-Phoria. In August 2008, Halo 3 won an award for innovative interaction at the Edge Awards. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences honored Halo 3 with two nominations at their Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, including “Action Game of the Year” and “Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay”. Even after several years, Halo 3 made it onto a list of essential games to play before you die, as featured in a book published in 2010.