hm, I was kind of expecting better... but maybe it's hard to tell because those screenshots are so f'in small, the true resolution of them should be 1280x720 but it's nowhere near that size
I don't think all of those pics were even from Halo 3 as some look straight out from Halo 1...and then look at the some of the screenshots and compare them with the screenshots from the trailer (which supposedly was real-time footage) and there's a huge difference.
It could be the "Lair" effect (as I like to call it). Factor 5 showed that game off in real-time last year (manipulated the camera and everything...think I even have a video of it). When they showed gameplay from it, it didn't quite look as good. The game has improved a little bit since then, so maybe that was just a minor setback in development. H3 looks good enough for being in pre-alpha (or whatever stage it is in), but I expect the game to look a lot better when it is finished. Kind of like the last MGS4 trailer, which had a lot of rough areas (PS2-esque textures and placeholder animations, but some things were ).
there's no way it's gonna look as good as gears of war. i don't think graphics are as important in halo 3. as long as they get some good maps in and some cool new vehicles and weapons, i'm sure i'll love it.