I played the "Halo 3" beta last night. You know, the one that gamers waited all day for?

First impressions: The graphics are beautiful. The game play is completely fun. But I was often confused, particularly when it came to reloading guns or trying to pick up weapons on the ground.

Here's what others have to say:

Kotaku: The first thing that strikes you is the quality of the graphics compared with "Halo 2." A lot of the same elements are there -- weapons, vehicles -- but all a whole lot shinier, more finely detailed, and, well, sexier. Everything flowed beautifully.

Geek.com: The grass looks as good as any game I've ever seen -- on par with "Call of Duty 3's" grass that blows in the wind. The water, ohmygosh, the water. It's almost worth getting killed in the water just to get the water kill camera.

UGO: ... there's still this nagging feeling that we're playing the same game we've been playing since "Halo 2," which in itself wasn't a particularly marked change from the first entry in the series.