If you don't dig the layout of a particular map, you can make some adjustments with the Forge. This new addition to the Halo series will keep these eleven maps fresh for years. While you can't alter the geometry of the level, you can make any other adjustments you wish in the Forge. On your own, you can hop into any map using The Forge and rearrange the placement of objects, weapons, power-ups, spawn points, and objectives. You can also access a Counter Strike-style menu and spend money to drop new vehicles, equipment, objects, and more anywhere you like in the map. Then you can save the new map you've created and upload it to Bungie.net for others to check out.

But the Forge offers much more than just some map-editing tools. You can also play games in the Forge while the map is being edited. When you decide to edit, your player transforms into a monitor (a la Guilty Spark). Change to the monitor and zip away from a firefight. Or buy yourself a rocket launcher and drop back in the middle of a fight ready to blow away the competition. Depending on the settings you choose for The Forge, you could potentially have a dozen players manipulating the surroundings. Perhaps you'll form teams of two, where one person plays the monitor, dropping supplies for the other player. Or you could have the host act as a sort of Dungeon Master, changing the location of items as a Slayer match roles on. There are near limitless possibilities. You don't even have to fight to enjoy the Forge.

As a prime example, four editors from competing websites met to test out the Forge recently. At first, we spent some time fragging one another and learning nifty ways to manipulate the system to gain the upper hand on our opponents. But within an hour, we were joining forces to create the biggest pyrotechnics show ever witnessed in Halo. We stacked every possible explosive, then discovered a way to cause one canister to respawn in the air, falling into the pile every 30 seconds to create a spectacular explosive display. The result was a repeating series of massive explosions, which created a unique new environmental danger during firefights.

If you take the rich gametype customization (as previously seen in Halo and Halo 2) and then add the Forge into the mix, you can see how Halo 3's multiplayer has a near limitless number of permutations. While the casual fan may not find much interest in building their own versions of maps and gametypes, this will keep some of the more serious gamers playing Halo 3 for years without getting bored. And, again, all of this can be quickly uploaded so that others can check it out. The online elements of Halo 3 are above and beyond anything we've seen previously in a console game.

By now you're frothing at the mouth thinking of the thrilling battles in the campaign, of blasting people online with all the cool new weapons, and mucking around with the Forge. Now imagine if you could keep a visual record of everything you ever do in Halo 3. It's not only possible, it happens automatically. Every time you play Halo 3 -- be it a campaign level, Forge, or multiplayer -- the 3D game data from your match is saved to your hard drive or memory card. The file is only a few megabytes, but you'd never guess it from the replays you witness.

Let's say you pull off the particularly amazing feat of launching your mongoose off a man cannon (a propulsion device in some multiplayer maps) and as you pirouette in the sky, you manage to snipe an enemy who's rocket has just whizzed past your head. You're no wordsmith. And, more importantly, you're friends know you could never pull off this insane headshot you're trying to describe. Now you have footage to prove there's no fiction behind your greatest deeds. You can go back to that match, pause just as you snipe, detach the camera from your character, and pan around the scene. You'll see the smoke trail of the rocket, and can follow the path of your bullet right through your victim's skull. This can be recorded and uploaded to the one you sniped or anyone else that has a copy of Halo 3.