They look and sound good.

There are plenty of good reasons to celebrate Halo 3, and happily, gamers aren't the only ones to realise it. The incredibly popular FPS has netted a place in this year's Technical Excellence and Creativity Awards, which are run by The Mix Foundation for Excellence in Audio, a not-for-profit sound industry organisation based in California. Halo 3 was one of five titles nominated in this year's addition to the Outstanding Creative Achievement categories, Interactive Entertainment Sound Production.

Bioshock, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, The Orange Box, and Uncharted:Drake's Fortune appeared amongst the nominees, but Halo 3 is the first game to take its place amongst the winners - so Master Chief stands proud next to The Foo Fighters, who were applauded for the The Pretender, awarded Outstanding Creative Achievement: Record Production/Single or Track, and The Bourne Ultimatum, which netted Outstanding Creative Achievement: Film Sound Production.

Halo 3's award-winning performance is just one instance of a growing trend of recognition of excellence in creative and technical endeavour within the games industry, by lauded bodies outside it. You can view the full list of winners and creative or technical category nominees over at the TEC Awards website, and see for yourself the field of competition in which Halo 3 has proudly claimed a winning poisition.