Halo: Combat Evolved

The Good
Everything. No, just kidding. Well, sorta. I did like just about everything about this game. Graphically, this game kicks. It's one of the most beautiful games out there to date, period. Well, outside of Unreal 2003... and maybe the new Doom when it finally comes out. Outside of that, this game is everything and a bag of chips. As a first person shooter, it has everything that makes this game a classic and more. It has a fairly immersive story... action that will continually kick your ass (depending on the difficulty level you pick), and tons of weapons, vehicles, and troop interaction stuff that just make the game so worthwhile.
Take for example... the vehicles. Most shooting games don't even have vehicles. Halo has approximately 4 that you can fly or drive. And they all act as you would expect them to... everything from the aliens' Ghost to the Tank to the Jeep thing (I forgot the name of the vehicle :P)... it all feels ultra-realistic.
Another thing I really like about the game is that the difficulty actually matters, unlike some other games where there is little difference between normal and hard. In this game, when you pick Legendary (the hardest setting), the AI is spectacularly smart... and difficult to kill. And on easy... it's pathetically easy to kill the aliens. I like that. I also like the multi-player deathmatch options. Definitely a lot there to keep things interesting for quite a while. Also a lot of options for a lot of different arenas. I also liked the option of having cooperative hot-seat multi-player. This made legendary that much less-hard. The music in the game is definitely scored well. It gets more intense during particularly hectic moments of the game when you're supposed to be doing something quickly... or when you've been ambushed... or when you're just generally surrounded by a lot of bad guys. The sound effects were realistic too... everything from the assault rifle to the Covenant weapons sound authentic enough. And, once again... blood splatters galore :) I think it should be a rule, however, if you're going to make a FPS... you have to include blood splatters. It's just not a FPS without them.... Anyway... the environments are also particularly wonderful. The terrain is realistically multi-tiered... filled with plenty of architecture and wild-life and all-around "earthly" objects... it makes you feel like you're actually on another world.

The Bad
Well... I only had a few minor gripes about the game. I felt that there could have been more deathmatch options. Sure, capture the flag, and king of the hill was fun... but they could have had some original ones... and the inclusion of bots (AI enemies) in some deathmatches would have just made my day complete. But, like I said... that's a minor gripe. I would have also liked some more weapons. For example... one of the huge aliens in the game has a plasma launcher that I would have loved to have gotten my hands on. You get a smaller version of it with the plasma gun... but, it... really... didn't satisfy me. Other than that, I can't think of anything I didn't like about this game.

The Bottom Line
The best FPS for any console. End of story. No matter how much you want to try to kid yourself, this is the king of all first person shooters for any console. It reigns supreme. All other console shooters just say "Please, sir... don't hit me over the head with the butt of your rifle again. It hurts." when in its presence.