Am I awake, or stuck in a fanboy's wetdream? I cannot be certain since the Halo 3 Beta has hit the streets. (And by streets I mean Xbox Live, but it just didn't sound edgy enough for my hard-hitting style). Although, maybe I should know better since Kotaku has taken a look at it both here and the other side of the world.

So for this week's Frankenreview, we're actually doing more of a Frankenimpression on the still incomplete Halo 3. Hit the jump to see what it looks like when a fanboy cries. But do we mean tears of glee or sadness...

Games Dog
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. The movement of bodies, both alive and running around, and dead and blown through the air, was great, and particularly impressive was the water effect.

Opposable Thumbs
The guns are subtly tweaked and the levels are new; many hardcore players are going to have to a lot of adjusting to do. Little things like remembering to reload each weapon in a dual-wield separately to keep up a steady stream of fire takes some practice but is a huge advantage when mastered...

Games Radar
This game is friggin' confusing. Other than the assault rifle and the Spartan laser, we're never sure exactly what weapon we're wielding. Often, we won't figure it out until we're in the middle of a battle and we start pulling the trigger. The guns all look the same! This has always been somewhat of a problem with Halo, but when it's dark and you don't have an instruction manual, things get extra convoluted.

2old2play
You only get the Hog, Ghost and the 'Goose. The Hog seems slower, slightly, but it's the hog...Same with the Ghost (which is basically exactly the same with weaker guns and a prettier paintjob)...The Mongoose sounds and drives amazing. It's fast as hell and great for getting you from one end of the map to the other. Riding "Brokeback" will have its advantages, probably for flag running.

Eurogamer
...the most obvious new addition is the new equipment items, accessed by pressing X: There's the Bubble Shield...Portable Grav Lift...Trip Mine...and the Energy Drainer...At first, it doesn't feel like any of these new additions drastically alters the Halo formula. But after a while, you'll notice the more canny players starting to do things a bit differently...And that's when it starts to get a bit more interesting.
With the Crackdown demo down, I haven't had a chance to play. What do you think? Mark Wilson

Pictures here.