Is that a Master Chief helmet in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? - Sure its been hyped to death but I don't care, Halo 3 is finally here. Like about a million other Halo fanboys, I headed to my local gaming store and waited in line like a kid waiting to see Santa Claus...a 36-year old kid. Here's how it when down.
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11:00pm - I just finished watching my Tivoed (Is that the correct spelling for this. Can someone smarter than me make a ruling on this?) season premiere of Heroes, it was sweet. If you're not into the show, rent season one and get caught up, you owe it to yourself. I was watching it late because I needed something to keep me from driving down to GameCrazy and standing around for 2 hours. My brilliant plan is to leave home at 11:30, show up around 11:45, pick up my copy of the game at 12:10 or so and be home by 12:20. How long could the line be, right? (This is what's known as foreshadowing).
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11:30 - After watching a few minutes of the Halo 3 GameHead (insert sex jokes here) special, its time to go. I ponder how the hell Geoff Keighley got his job and head out to Wendy's for a late night snack. I plan on staying up late, I'll need some fuel. My quick trip delays my arrival but its on my way to the store. How much of a difference can 5 minutes make? (Uh, um...foreshadowing).
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11:50 - I arrive at GameCrazy to find the parking lot packed! I've never seen the lot this full, not even when E.T. came out on the Atari 2600! I park and walk into the very crowded store. There are literally 100 guys jammed in the GameCrazy section of the store and they're overflowing almost out the front door. The line is a complete mess so I head up near the cash register to see what the deal is. I run into one of the two managers I know and we start BSing about his new 360.
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My buddy heads up to the register and I'm left to examine the line. Wall to wall dudes of course but to my surprise there are actually 4 women there. Four women at a gaming store at midnight? That must be a new record. I'm standing toward the back of the store but well within earshot of everyone in line. The feeling of excitement was palpable, everyone was just dying to get their hands on the game and get the hell out of there. Its a different feeling than most lines I'm used to. Unlike other places, everyone here knows they're going to get something, the exact same something as everyone else, so everybody was upbeat and happy. I overheard the first guy in line talking to some people behind him say that he was there at noon. That's one dedicated (or crazy) guy.
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Midnight - The line finally starts to move and the first customer giddily gets his Legendary Edition. The guy looks like he just won the Super Bowl. Unfortunately the lines are moving pretty slow because the managers only have 2 registers and are going at a pace of about 3-5 minutes per customer. At this rate, since I'm surely last in line, I won't get mine until 4am. My manager buddy said he'd squeeze me in after a few minutes but the idea of cutting makes me feel a little uneasy (yet more foreshadowing) but I decide I'll stick around and see if the line starts moving any faster. After about 5 people, my friend calls me over to the register. I hesitate for about 2 seconds than remember the old motto, "Sometimes its not what you know, but who you know". I'm not ashamed to say I'd do the same for my friends but I feel guilty. But once I see the box for my Legendary Edition, the feeling evaporates.
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12:20 - Home at last with my new toy. The box is big and heavy. I open it up, crack open the game disc, glance at the extra content DVD and stare hungrily at the box. I remove a smaller lid to see the Master Chief helmet covered in a special dust cover. Taking the cover off, I gaze at the helmet. I feel just like Indiana Jones at the beginning of Raiders of the Ark. Where's my bag of sand and Alfred Molina?!? Gently I take the helmet out of the box. Its huge (that's what she said)! Its the size of a human head, if that head was George Lopez. I thought it would be about the size of a mini-helmet, like the small Broncos helmet that sits on my desk, but its much larger. I have no idea where I'm going to put it (the wife insists it leave the house) but right now I have other things to think about. I get my game on and stay up way too late playing the first two single player levels and four online games. I have a blast but its time to get some sleep.
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1 comment:
Well, my story isn't as fantastic. I went to Walmart on my lunch break at about 11:30am and picked up Halo 3 there. I guess there was some concern that the game would be sold out everywhere? I dunno..they had like 15 copies at the Walmart (in Fountain). There was no line. I had to hunt down someone to open the glass case for me so I could get it. I never was a HUGE fan of Halo 2. I played it through single player (one of the few games I ever finished single player), and played online a handfull of times. I enjoyed it. I simply enjoyed other games more, so it went largely untouched over the years. Still, I looked forward to how a similar game would be utilizing the capabilities of the 360. Sure the graphics were going to blow me away and the shear astonishment at the innovative gameplay would keep me hooked for hours. Well, I played single player for about an hour just to get used to the weapons and using the RB and LB. After that, I jumped into some Rumble Pit on XBL. I lost my first couple of matches, but then won like 3 or 4 in a row in different game modes.
So, in my opinion, Halo 3 is a rehash or mod of Halo 2 with slightly better graphics (just barely...nothing like you'd expect from a brand new XBOX 360 game when compared to every other game that has come out recently), a few new items to use (bubble shield, power drain, etc), a few new weapons and new maps. It's not like playing a new game at all. It's nearly identical to play Halo 2 just at a higher resolution (multiplayer I mean). It's the equivalent of BF2142 to BF2 on the PC. They change it slightly, add new maps and new weapons, then sell it as a brand new game. The movement, and gameplay is nearly identical to Halo 2. Yeah you have theater and forge. A neat gimmick. I was expecting more than gimmicks from Halo 3. I might as well just keep not playing Halo 2 on the 360. Enh...
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