Halo 3, the most highly anticipated video game since Halo 2, was released last week and has proven to be everything we thought it would be and more. But next week the second sequel to Half-Life 2, Episode 2, hits the shelves. That ought to keep the Half-Life versus Halo debate alive a little longer. But which is the best first person shooter?

10. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault — No game moment could be cooler than storming Omaha Beach the way Tom Hanks did in “Saving Private Ryan.” It would have been better, though, if you got to play as meth-addict Tom Sizemore.

9. Metroid Prime — Metroid was already one of the all-time Nintendo classics, and Prime took the series to a new level. More people would be familiar with it had it been on any other system than Nintendo’s awful GameCube.

8. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six/Ghost Recon — I’ve never actually played any Clancy games, but these two guys on my hall do all the time. And they said these games are all-time greats, so I am taking their word for it.

7. Battlefield Vietnam — Battlefield fans say, “Hey, 1942 was a much better game, and Vietnam was a sorry sequel.” But how many games do you get to fly around in an attack helicopter, launching missiles at helpless Vietcong soldiers while listening to “Fortunate Son?”

6. Quake — After Doom came Quake, and I never really saw a huge difference between the two, save for Quake’s multiplayer option. But that’s what made it a great game back then.

5. GoldenEye 007 — Who didn’t play GoldenEye back in the day? In fact, who still doesn’t play it every now and then on the venerated N64? This game, one of the all-time classics with an awesome single-player option, has an even better multiplayer mode … unless of course some cheap jerk picks Oddjob.

4. Counter-Strike — No game has been a more dominant online force over the last decade than C-Strike. However, it is easy to feel out of place when everyone is “team-speaking” over a headset except for you.

3. Doom — Building on pioneer FPS Wolfenstein 3-D, Doom established the standard for the genre back in the early ’90s. The 2005 movie adaptation of the game, featuring The Rock, established the standard for bad sci-fi action movies.

2. Halo 3 — The first Halo was a great game, and the second was even better. Unfortunately, I’ve only been able to scrounge a few minutes of the new game amidst serious competition in Scales 1 to play it. Nonetheless, the campaign and multiplayer are ridiculously awesome.

1. Half-Life 2 — When your series has produced multiplayer greats such as Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat, you can’t hold the lack of a multiplayer mode against it. And as far as single player games go, nothing compares to this one. But if you are easily frightened, just remember: “Don’t go into Ravenholm.” Seriously, it scared the crap out of me.