The Covenant control Earth. The Flood is unleashed. With the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance, Master Chief is the only one that can save the human race. The entire epic story arc has led up to this moment. Master Chief, the last of his kind, is a warrior born for combat, bred for war… and humanity’s only hope.

After stowing away on a Forerunner spacecraft, Master Chief, a genetically altered, cybernetically enhanced Spartan supersoldier, must race back to Earth to stop the Covenant once and for all and save mankind. With his artificial intelligence companion Cortana in the grip of the Flood’s intelligent embodiment, Gravemind, Master Chief and his allies are vastly outnumbered. But the stakes are too high to do anything but face them head on.

In “Halo 3,” the third installment of this legendary epic, the war has come to a climax - the Flood continue to grow in numbers and strength, the armies of Earth are scattered and decimated, and the Covenant threaten to activate the Halo, effectively destroying all life in the galaxy. Master Chief’s mission: to stop the Covenant, destroy the impending Flood threat and ultimately save mankind.

When TU2 goes live next week Bungie fully expects a crazy period in Matchmaking. See, there will be a period after TU2 goes live where not everyone will have the Title Update for a number of weird reasons like: You left your box on and the TU came out so folks who turn their boxes on are getting the new patch and you're playing the previous version of the game; Your Xbox doesn't recognize a new patch (clear your boxes' cache - Go to the System blade and select Memory. Press Y on the HD symbol and then press X, X, LB, RB, X, X. If you did this properly a message will appear saying: Do you want to perform maintenance on your Xbox 360 storage device. Selet the "yes" equivalent and then boot up Halo 3) or any number of other weird issues like the host has TU2 and the client doesn't or the client has TU2 and the host is on TU1, it's going to be a bit like the end of Ghostbusters, but even though it seems like Matchmaking has fallen into the gaping maw of cement cracks - it will climb out.

New Legendary Maps and Halo 3 Campaign achievements:

• Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch (0 points) – Get to the rank of Lieutenant in any playlist in the new EXP progression system.
• Vidmaster Challenge: 7 on 7 (0 points) – Enter into any ranked or social playlist with 7 EXP on the 7th of the month.
• Vidmaster Challenge: Annual (0 points) – After 9/25/08, complete Halo on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and everyone in Ghosts.
• Double Double (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get two Double Kills during any ranked or social match.
• Poor Yorick (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 Oddball melee kills during any ranked or social match.
• Came…From…Behind (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 assassinations during any ranked or social match.
• Defend This (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a flag melee kill during any ranked or social match.
• Flag Dropped (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 2 flag carrier kills during any ranked or social match.
• Road Rage (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 5 Warthog chaingun kills during any ranked or social match.
• Look Both Ways (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a Splatter Spree during any ranked or social match.

There’s a bunch of under-the-hood changes in TU2 that will be largely invisible to players. Things like rare occurrences of crashes, server-side support for data collection, making more data available and consumable for internal use – you know, the sort of bullet points that warm engineering loins and sing the rest of us a lullaby.

Title Update 2 will also introduce a brand new type of ban. It’s harsh, it’s metered fairly and most of all, when it hits you, it hurts so bad. This new spike on the banhammer will soon drip wet with the blood of jerks and the innards of sinners.

The most visible change coming to Halo 3 in TU2 is the in-game addition of Playlist Ratings:

• Playlist Ratings are the playlist-level decoupling of Trueskill values (the in-game number next to your name) from Experience (the icon next to your name).
• You will now have a separate military rating (based purely on EXP) in each playlist. When TU2 goes live, everyone will begin at 0 EXP. This means that being a General in a Playlist is based on how many games you’ve won in the Playlist, not based on the Trueskill number next to your name.
• Your Trueskill values have not been reset. If someone checks your Service Record they will still see your Highest Skill.

Features :

• “Halo 3” raises the bar on the next-generation gameplay experience with non-stop action, an incredible story, massive battles, and visually stunning worlds.
• Epic and compelling storytelling on a scale never before seen in interactive entertainment with new weapons, characters and challenges. You can experience Master Chief’s greatest battle as he transcends greatness and becomes a legend.
• Working in concert with Xbox LIVE on Xbox 360, “Halo 3” builds upon the unique social multiplayer experience of “Halo 2” and promises to enhance the innovative and evolving online gameplay of “Halo 2” on Xbox LIVE.
• Presented in stunning HD, see the well-known “Halo” universe as it’s never been seen before. State of the art HDR (High Dynamic Range) lighting makes every scene look and feel like the real thing, from terrifying gloom to dazzling sunshine, adding more detail to every weapon, more texture to every character, and more realism to every battle.
• Countless foes, each with their own distinct personality, strategy and fighting style, make for better encounters and more replay value, which will culminate in larger scale combat than ever before witnessed on the “Halo” battlefield.
• Staying true to the original games, “Halo 3” will support four player split-screen and system link gameplay, letting gamers battle it out both online via Xbox LIVE or with a group of friends right in their own living rooms.
• Made famous as a key component of the renowned “Halo 2” multiplayer experience, Bungie.net will continue to innovate how gamers track their progress, as they view their rankings and stats in real-time.
• Duck as a rocket sizzles over head. Take action as the footsteps of a Covenant adversary echo in the distance. Every sound in “Halo 3” is fully positional Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, bringing the world of “Halo” to an even more vivid level of realism.