You're not alone, Doc. The Halo franchise has been on every "top overrated games" list that I've seen. As for the hype, well, strangely enough, the reason is mainly because not everyone knows the true qualities of gaming; even those who have over 50,000 Gamerscore points on their Xbox Gamertag. Some people only care about the graphics, and others just don't really care at all, as long as the game is fun. Like I said in my article; everyone has different tastes in games, so there can never be a game that everyone in the entire universe can enjoy without any doubt in their minds. At least, that's what I think. After I beat Halo 3 on Normal, I decided to go through the whole game again on Hero mode, but I got bored the whole rest of the way. I don't usually get bored with playing games, at all. Unless if I'm playing a continuous puzzle game, like Tetris.

I think the story mode is wonderful. on the highest difficulty on two player especially.
The online is far inferior to Halo 2.Too many mindless gameplay tweaks were added to Halo 3. It Also has glitches and horrible hit detection online. Goobers look up the glitches and unfairly kill you with them.

If its online shooting you are after get the also over hyped Call of Duty 4. The story mode is ok. The online is fast paced and even experienced players are in trouble when a beginner walks in.