THE HALO 3 MIDNIGHT LAUNCH

As I mentioned yesterday, I had made the decision to head out to my local game shop’s midnight launch for Halo 3. Now, I’ve gone out to these things in the past, and every time I go, I swear that rather than standing on line for hours, next time I’ll just show up at 12:45am and get in with the back of the line. Once again I ignored my own advice and headed out approximately 2 hours before midnight, and once again, the line had already stretched to the end of the block and turned the corner.

(The store is on the far left of the pic & the line turns the corner just past the far right of the pic)

Making matters worse, I had forgotten to charge my cell phone, which left it with little power for me to take pictures or talk with friends who were braving the lines at other stores, my DS was sitting at home on my desk and the nearest WiFi access point was just far enough away to make connecting to the internet via my Palm T|X an impossibility. Things were looking pretty grim.

Fortunately, I was surrounded by a good group of gamers, and since we all share the common language of gaming, the time passed relatively quickly. Relatively being the operative word here – no matter how engaging any conversation was, nothing was going to take one’s mind off the fact that we were lined up like cattle awaiting the slaughter. In talking with the people around me, and observing those coming out of the store after midnight, I was a bit surprised to see just how many people had ordered the Legendary Edition of the game – guess I’m not the only sucker out there. I somehow think that with at least 250,000 of them made that there will be any sort of aftermarket rush for these. (I base that number on the numbering on the back of my Master Chief helmet)

The store itself did an admirable job of running the show – during the course of the night, they ensured that everyone on the line paid their reserve in full so that once midnight came, it would be a relatively quick process of getting people in and out of the store. A raffle was held for the store’s Halo 3 standee and soft drinks were provided free of charge.

Midnight did come, and the line did indeed move more quickly than normal. That said, It still took me 45 minutes to actually get into the store once midnight came, but again, once inside things went pretty quickly. I took my new shiny box and went home to enjoy the unpacking…

Two last things to note here;

1.) I should have a post about the contents of the Legendary Edition (with pictures) up shortly. I wound up massively oversleeping and am currently racing to try and get several things done at once. Don’t blame me, blame Bungie.

2.) To the people who feel the need to perform burn-outs and then tear out of the parking lot at 90 mph, contrary to what you may think, no one thinks you’re cool – we all tend to just say “what a moron” in unison. Sorry to disappoint you.

• Halo 3 – Official website