: I always found H3 lacking in story, almost as if Bungie was afraid to do more
: story after how poorly received H2's story was. Most of the story of H3
: happens in The Ark and The Covenant (and they and the story are done
: awesomely there), the whole first half of the game is pretty much the
: player doing trivial tasks. Cortana and Halo are pretty much an epilogue
: that tie up the loose ends rather poorly, with neither being great
: missions either.

Well, Halo 3's story is mostly reconstituted from the end of Halo 2. It's thin on story because it wasn't intended to be a full game on its own.