Halo 3: The line starts back there, dude!

About 2 hours ago I was walking past a local store that sells video games on my way to grab some Mexican food. It didn’t occur to me that the line represented months of development work by Microsoft’s gaming division on the much hyped and ballyhooed supposedly final release in the alien shooter series, Halo. In this latest release annouced at E3 2006 with a special video trailer, we once again find ourselves immerersed in Master Chief’s world. This is the third in the series, appropriately titled Halo 3.

Anyhow back to my story which started with me walking past that store… I quickly realized what the line was for. Mostly due to the kid who kept shouting “Ha-mother-f’n-lo, wooooooo!!”

As a side note to parents everywhere. If your 13 year old kid has a mental defect for which he should be wearing a helmet 24/7 please chaparon him. Both for his own safety and the sanity of everyone else, thanks!

No where was I? Oh yeah, so I figured out what all the ruckus was about about halfway down the line. A line which incidentally streched a good 30 yards down the sidewalk. Anyhow I got about halfway down it and stopped for a moment to take a look at everyone there who was waiting. There was a good mixture of folks waiting for the doors to open at midnight. All ages and sexes were present. I saw kids with their parents who couldn’t have been more than 5 and adults who looked like they might be pushing 65. As I stopped some girl around 20 or so looked at me, curled her lip and said “Don’t even try cutting in front of me” in a voice that absolutely seethed venom. The guy ahead of her in his late 30s or early 40s turned around and kindly informed me The line starts back there, dude! and pointed to the back of the line. I just smiled nodded and went on my way wondering if people have become so ignorant because of things like video games or has it happened in spite of them?

As for the game itself, I never much cared for Halo 1 (combat evolved), or Halo 2 so I don’t expect much from this game. I believe when Microsoft makes statements such as:

There is bound to be a huge kink in the armor that will rear its ugly head sooner than later. This has been a dismal year for Microsoft’s gaming division after having to finally admit to an unacceptable number of issues with the XBox 360 which the company has reserved 1.15 Billion dollars to deal with. Only time will tell how an already soft economy will respond to Halo 3. The marketing campaign has been phenomenal if you’re a hardcore gamer or a teenager waiting on your latest fix of the week. For the rest of us who are neither teens nor hardcore gamers it will have to be a wait and see approach. Experience tells me a few things though.

• It will never live up to its hype
• People will expect more than it was ever intended to deliver
• Chances are excellent that the this isn’t the end of the Halo series

If you’d like to purchase Halo 3 consider doing so through Amazon.

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