Last night I became one of those video game nerds you read about. I actually lined up for a game, which I even pre-ordered. The last game I pre-ordered was Grand Theft Auto Vice City, and that was about 7 years ago. That time I pre-ordered because I knew I wouldn't get a copy otherwise. This time I did it to get a T-shirt and a hat. Both of which I'll likely never wear.
Since I bought it from Future Shop, I also got a 2nd game Free, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer…a game which I'll likely never play and will instead take over to Blockbuster with the hopes of trading it in for Spider-Man 3 (a game I WILL play).
I bought the deluxe version of Halo, which comes in a tin with an extra disc, and a little hardcover book (it was an extra $10.00). The packaging is good, but neither disc was actually seated in the case properly, so both had jostled around during transportation, and they were a little scratched up. Apparently this is a bigger deal than I had thought as loads of people have reported discs which are unplayable.
I arrived at the Future Shop at 11:30, and I was about the 25th in line. Since I already had a pre-order, the only reason I was arriving early was to get the free game (which I can turn into another game through magic), and of course to play teh Haloz tonight. At midnight they started letting waves of folks in, and I was part of wave 3. By 12:15 I had my game, and was leaving the store, on my way back home. By 12:30 Halo 3 was fired up in my Xbox 360, and I was enjoying my first loading screen.
I played through a couple of checkpoints before tossing in the bonus disc to see what it had. I'm going to wait until I finish the single player campaign before I check it out fully, but it looks like there's some cool stuff in there.
So far I haven't really played enough to give full on impressions, but I love the revved up graphics on the 360 (and my sweet, sweet TV), the sound is awesome as always, and the beginning of Halo 3 actually makes Halo 2's ending make a little more sense.
I shall update this tomorrow night with a few more opinions on Teh Haloz.