The Halo 3 multiplayer beta came to a conclusion a just short while ago. We've already shared our opinions on the experience in our most recent Vs. Mode exchange, but we were curious to know what our peers made of it. So we reached out to a smattering of them with an email questionnaire, and they kindly sent us their answers over the past week. Today, we're posting the responses of mainstream media writers from outlets ranging from USA Today to Electronic Gaming Monthly; tomorrow, bloggers and pro gamers take their turn in the spotlight. To see what writers for newspapers and magazines had to say, read on.

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Name: Rolf Ebeling

Outlet: Newsweek

Title: Creative Director, Newsweek.com

Best New Feature: Detachable machine gun turret. Covering fire is now a true tactical option.

Least Welcome Change: Can't double-up on the Needler and unleash a fuchsia-colored death cloud.

Biggest Surprise: Variety of equipment pickups. I want more. COUGH-superspeed-AHEM!

Weapon of Choice: Battle Rifle: tried and true. I'm keeping an eye on the underdog Covenant Rifle, though...

Preferred Game Type: VIP, which takes the dreaded "escort" motif and makes it genuinely fun.

Favorite Map: Valhalla. But it's no substitute for my beloved Coagulation.

Rank 'Em:

1. Halo 3 multiplayer beta

2. Halo 2 multiplayer

3. Halo multiplayer

Did the Halo 3 multiplayer beta live up to your expectations?

Yes. Particularly when judged for what it is: a limited preview that is more polished than a majority of 360 multiplayer first-person shooters on shelves now. It "feels" solid--opponents slam to the ground with authority, dirt chunks kick up nicely from grenade explosions and fishtailing the Mongoose into the Man Cannon for a 360 aerial into the river on Valhalla is stoopid fun.

How has Gears of War influenced what you want out of Halo 3?

Perhaps more than it should. Gears is a great, gritty, claustrophobia-inducing game that is an entirely different experience from the glossy great outdoors of the Halo universe, but I can't stop thinking of the adrenaline rush of "roadie-running" away from that freakish Berserker. The first Halo had that panic-inducing atmosphere down pat in the final hellbent Warthog race on the highway, and I want to be happily scarred for life by some traumatic moment in September.

What are you hoping to see in the finished game?

Like many, I felt the end of the single-player campaign in Halo 2 lacked in drama--it was no "Two Towers" or "Empire Strikes Back," to put it in fanboy terms--and I'm hopeful we'll see a satisfying end to the Master Chief saga. Mostly, however, I look forward to Bungie paying as much attention to cleverly tweaking the multiplayer in the months after the release as they have with Halo 2. My dream of destructible multiplayer environments probably won't happen--tell me you wouldn't love to crater the opposing team's base as their trash-talking flag carrier steps inside?--so I'll settle for new maps, game types and my trusty Battle Rifle.

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Name: Dan "Shoe" Hsu

Outlet: EGM: Electronic Gaming Monthly

Title: Editor-in-Chief

Best New Feature: I must be alone in saying this, but I like the new control scheme the best. With Halo 3's intuitive shoulder-button controls, I feel like I'm a better player now, and I don't want to go back to the old Halo 2 ways.

Least Welcome Change: The Covenant Carbine is a tad too powerful now, but Bungie has already hinted that they will fix this.

Biggest Surprise: The X-button "equipment" is a big surprise. Adding Bubble Shields or Energy Drainers was a risky move--they could've thrown off the balance of the game, but they worked out rather well.

Weapon of Choice: With a bigger magazine now, the Brute Shot's my weapon of choice.

Preferred Game Type: Anything Oddball.

Favorite Map: Snowbound. I love those Shield Doors!

Rank 'Em: Well, since the beta's only three maps deep, I'd rank that last. So...

1. Halo 2 multiplayer

2. Halo multiplayer

3. Halo 3 multiplayer beta

Did the Halo 3 mutiplayer beta live up to your expectations?

It's a bit hard for me to say, because I played all three of these maps long before the beta was even announced, so the seeing the same stages again was a bit of a disappointment. But that said, I've spent more time on this beta than I do with most other games I'm playing for fun, so it must be doing something right. For a game that's still a few months away, it runs awfully smoothly and relatively problem-free, so that's very impressive.

How has Gears of War influenced what you want out of Halo 3?

Gears of War is such a looker, and unfortunately for all other games, they just don't compare. Since Halo 3 is Microsoft Game Studio's # 1 franchise, you'd naturally expect it to outshine all other titles in all departments (gameplay, graphics, sound, etc.). But as of now, Gears is still the better looking game, and you just can't help but wonder "what if" Halo 3 had that same graphical engine and would look that good.

What are you hoping to see in the finished game?

See last response. :-) I hope that when Halo 3's finished, it looks so amazing that you just can't say that you wished it looked as good as Gears of War. I also hope for a ton of modes and maps in multiplayer, a comprehensible and conclusive story, and a great matchmaking system that will keep the impossible-to-beat elite players out of my games.

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Name: Francesca Reyes

Outlet: Official Xbox Magazine

Title: Editor-in-Chief

Best New Feature: The front-end interface. It's streamlined and just info-tastic--honestly, it's a huge leap in and of itself from Halo 2 and finally makes the whole concept of online play much more accessible and player-friendly.

Least Welcome Change: Not a fan of the change up of the buttons to accommodate the new "bombs" like the power drainer or the bubble shield, but maybe that's just me being crotchety and clinging onto old habits. So don't listen to me.

Biggest Surprise: Detachable turret guns. Very Lost Planet and a very cool moment when you discover you can do it.

Weapon of Choice: Brute Spiker or the mounted turret. I'm not a thinker when it comes to weapons--I just want to shoot s--t. The Brute Spiker is perfect for this, though it's not really the best weapon in the beta.

Preferred Game Type: Rockets (it's not new, but it's still the best.)

Favorite Map: High Ground. I'm not super hot for any of the three maps, but High Ground is the right size so that deathmatches are quick, dirty and always moving.

Rank 'Em:

1. Halo 2 multiplayer

2. Halo 3 multiplayer beta

3. Halo multiplayer

Though I'm still incredibly fond of LAN multiplayer in Halo 1.

Did the Halo 3 multiplayer beta live up to your expectations?

It's hard to say. For a beta, it's amazingly solid and gives us just enough to get us looking forward to all the new maps, etc. and most importantly--how different the singleplayer might be with what we've gleaned from the multiplayer. As a preview of Halo 3, itself? I honestly am not sure. The beta is too limited in scope to really give me a solid grasp of what the final game will likely be. It far outshined what I expected out of a beta--but I'm still on the fence on if it delivered as a forecast for what the final package as a whole will be.

Lots of the press and players really pointed to the graphics and the fact that they were only slightly improved over Halo 2 as a weakness in the beta, but honestly--I don't really care all that much. They do their job, look great (if not revolutionary) and don't come at the cost of gameplay or technical things like framerate. And I've never previously been, to steal from the Brits, "gobsmacked" by the visuals in the other two Halos, so I'm not attached to the idea that Halo 3's graphics have to do everything but my laundry for me. But the main thing I've come away with from the beta is I'm still waiting for something... That one thing to bowl me over--that one ineffable thing that wasn't in the beta. I'm guessing they're hiding it away in singleplayer--which is the real test.

How has Gears of War influenced what you want out of Halo 3?

The only thing I can think of is pacing. I've gotten spoiled by the pacing in Gears--it's much more deliberate and focuses a lot on team play. Halo is this crazy cocktail of insanity that usually ends up in a looping bloodbath. There's nothing wrong with either and there were definitely times when I was adjusting to the pacing of Gears' MP when I thought to myself, "I could've done that in Halo! Why can't I do this in Gears?!" But in the end--I think they're too different. Though I do think that Gears' co-op structure was absolutely peerless--I really want to have that same co-op experience in Halo 3's campaign, but I'm not sure how they could do that and not break the story; after all Gears was built from the ground up as a co-op game. Oh, and how rad would the Torque Bow be in Halo 3?

What are you hoping to see in the finished game?

The kitchen sink. Ha. Seriously--I want to see Bungie pull out all the stops and take the story and gameplay to a whole new level. They've already revolutionized how we approach multiplayer gaming on console with Halo 2, so this time I want them to concentrate on refining MP, while overhauling the single player campaign to really give people something to shout about when it comes out (and not from being jacked out of an ending.) After all, the multiplayer keeps people playing, but the singleplayer story is what truly captures their imaginations and creates a lasting mythology.

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Name: Mike Snider

Outlet: USA Today

Title: Digital entertainment reporter

Best New Feature: The Man Cannon gives players a new way to navigate the map and strategize.

Least Welcome Change: No reply.

Biggest Surprise: That the graphics didn't immediately wow die hard gamers.

Weapon of Choice: No reply.

Preferred Game Type: No reply.

Favorite Map: No reply.

Rank 'Em: Not fluent enough. I prefer single player. :-)

Did the Halo 3 mutiplayer beta live up to your expectations?

In my opinion it did because there's more happening in Halo 3 multiplayer than in Halo 2's multiplayer--more intricate environments and new vehicles--yet the gameplay seemed as smooth as ever. Most of the diehards I talked to recognize that the multiplayer version of the game has to hold the graphics at a certain level to allow for the frantic multiplayer gameplay. A co-worker and his son are diehard Halo junkies and they participated in the beta. Their opinion is that Bungie did an excellent job adding new features while keeping the feel of Halo 2 multiplayer. They say: "if it isn't broken don't fix it."

How has Gears of War influenced what you want out of Halo 3?

The up close-and-personal hyperreal look of Gears of War has set a new bar for game graphics. What everyone is waiting to see is how far Bungie can ratchet up the single-player Halo 3 experience.

What are you hoping to see in the finished game?

I think the Halo crowd is hoping for some single-player look that rivals Gears of War.

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Name: Dean Takahashi

Outlet: San Jose Mercury News

Title: Tech Talk columnist; author of "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked"

Best New Feature: The Spartan Laser. A chance to kill with one shot.

Least Welcome Change: That there actually isn't enough new about it.

Biggest Surprise: Man Cannon. It's like the old circus.

Weapon of Choice: Rocket launcher. Very satisfying if you can hit somebody.

Preferred Game Type: Slayer

Favorite Map: Valhalla. Fighting in close quarters gives me a chance at a lucky shot with the rocket launcher.

Rank 'Em:

1. Halo 3 multiplayer beta

2. Halo 2 multiplayer

3. Halo multiplayer

Did the Halo 3 mutiplayer beta live up to your expectations?

So far, so good. They didn't screw anything up. That's a plus. They added new weapons and game play experiences. That's good. The fixed some problems like too much dual-wielding. But it falls a little short on compelling new material. It's an improvement on an existing game in a known universe with known enemies. What's new here so far? I suspect that a lot of the new and moving material will be in the single-player game. That's what I'm have high expectations for.

How has Gears of War influenced what you want out of Halo 3?

I want outstanding graphics that matches the believable, consistent world of Gears of War.

What are you hoping to see in the finished game?

I want a story that finishes in a satisfying way. When you wait six years to finish a story, you don't want any mysteries, cliffhangers or fizzle endings. You want to go out with a bang.

Next: Bloggers and pro gamers weigh in on Bungie's preview.