Is Halo 3 going to go above and beyond our expectations?

That's a question I've been asking myself lately and to be frank, I don't and can't understand how Bungie will be able to keep the fans happy with the next installment of Halo. Halo: Combat Evolved was a great game and gave birth to Microsoft's goldmine in the gaming industry. Halo 2 was an average First Person Shooter but we still just ate it up. Will Halo 3 live up to the name put in place by it's older siblings?

Hype is a sickness not unlike the common cold. It attacks the central nervous system and therefore dulls the receptors responsible for keeping the bad game restriction sensors from being ineffective. When you begin playing a bad game, you get that feeling and immediately stop playing the game (unless you're trying to get achivement points). When sick with hype, you fail to recognize the overall crappiness of the aforementioned game and continue playing it. After getting over the hype it's impossible to see why you paid for such a game.

This brings me to my topic questions: Overhype. The Beta. September.

Overhype

Honestly, is it necessary to have ads for a game 6 months before the game is released? What about delays? There are so many factors that come into play when releasing a game that it's impossible to foresee when it will be released. Duke Nukem Forever is a great example- the game has been in development for a decade and scheduled for release too many times. What's keeping Halo 3 from being delayed?

The Beta

It's HALO! Exactly. Those two words are the embodiment of what is the Beta. It's still Halo, it's still entertaining, it's still good. I just find it difficult to play for more than 30 minutes at a time. Then again, I wasn't impressed with Halo 2- another case of hype. I think what I'm trying to say here is that it's still Halo, but is that all? Will this game be enough to quench the thirst of the non-fanboy populus?

September

September 25th to be exact. This is the scheduled release date of Halo 3. If this is true, why are there ads floating around IGN and GameSpot? Other sites have jumped on the bandwagon aswell. Just look at this one all around GameSpot:

September 25 is 4 months from today, give or take a few days. Isn't that a steep gradient from ad/game release? Yes, I do know that the ads are geared toward the Beta and Crackdown, but it's still advertisement for a game that is 4 months away.

I'm as excited as anyone about the new Halo, but I'm concerned that the state of mind that most of the gamers have gotten through playing the Beta will lead them to dissapointment in the end. I'm hoping that Halo 3 will be as good as they make it out to be, will be as fun as they claim, and will be the Halo 2 killer (I made a funny). I don't think there's a problem with hype, but overhype should be stomped out.