ODST certainly has its work cut out. A cursory inspection of Killzone 2 reveals a beautiful-looking game that arguably wipes the floor with Halo 3 in terms of graphical prowess. It's rendered in full 720p with anti-aliasing for smoother edges, the motion blur model is one of the most advanced in the industry and its artwork, AI and animation are state-of-the-art. Guerrilla Games' epic also works so well on a technical level because the art assets are built around the limitations of both the engine and the host hardware - weaknesses become advantages in the overall presentation. Take for example the implementation of quincunx anti-aliasing: maligned by many for the blur it adds to texture detail, its peculiar visual look interfaces perfectly with the game's motion blur techniques. The Killzone makers seemingly targeted their engine development towards the final effect they desired and this focus paid dividends.

All of which leaves the two-year-old Halo 3 tech looking rather aged. Levels can look low in detail and basic in structure, bright colour schemes often show up the game's sub-HD 1152x640 resolution and in turn add to the jagginess incurred due to the lack of anti-aliasing. Enemy animations are clearly a generation behind Guerrilla's offering. And yet, analysis of the gameplay footage revealed at E3 shows that the self-same two-year-old technology with apparently only minor modifications is powering Microsoft's biggest first-person shooter of the year: ODST. Does the Halo tech have what it takes to regain the advantage in the FPS arms race?

By the end of this feature, hopefully you'll see that the utilisation of the existing engine makes perfect sense, that there's actually method behind the madness, and that Bungie's tech is still at the cutting edge in many different ways. We'll be looking at Halo 3 in more depth, commenting on its strengths and weaknesses and putting the game through performance analysis. Facts and figures about the game derived from presentations made by Bungie itself are the icing on this pretty substantial editorial confection.