When I was walking the halls of E3 this year for Games Business, with my little blue vinyl jumpsuit and orange umbrella, I kept hearing my fellow journalists chatter about a monumental title that was shown behind the most closed of doors at the Bungie booth. Cool cats and cooler kids where bursting at the seams about the mysterious title that blew away the competition (and this included press that had seen Black & White, and Freelancer).

At MacWorld today, Bungie software and Steve Jobs finally revealed was all the buzz was about -- Halo, a third-person action/adventure title that brings new meaning to the words "fantastic." Set on a ring-shaped world deep in space, you play a soldier who must take on enemies over land, sea and air, using everything from swords to weaponry, your feet to planes and tanks. The single-player game will be augmented by a role-based multiplayer game as well, including "skills, strategies, vehicles and weapons." It just keeps getting better.

Unfortunately, though we do know that the game will get a simultaneous PC/Mac release sometime in the middle of next year, they've only released a taste of the plot, and one (yes, ONE) screenshot:

While doing janitorial work over the weekend, I actually spoke to a dust mite who was in a game journalist's unwashed hair during one of the screenings over E3, and he resoundingly confirmed Halo's coolness. In fact, he went so far as to say that the screenshot didn't give the game justice. You see that photo-realistic sky? Those clouds move, people, and more than that, the sun will become blocked by them, with rays shining through the cloud banks. Plus, the sight of the ring world rising up and around the sun in the far distance is supposedly jaw-dropping gorgeous. Needless to say I still wiped the dust mite off on the nearest counter-top, but I'm happy to confirm that this might just be the game to finally give Bungie the credit they truly deserve.

-- Vincent Lopez