I pre-ordered my copy of Halo 3 Limited Edition from my local Game Stop last week.  I had been to the Halo 2 midnight launch and it was a zoo then with well over 100 showing up.   That time I arrived around 11:30 and didn't get my copy till close to one o'clock in the morning.  This time I learned my lesson and decided to show up around 10:30.  That's right I was not in line all day.

I was the eighth person in line in what was an interesting group of people.  I was by far the oldest as most seemed to be in their early twenties.  As the night went on I was no longer the oldest but the over 30 group could be counted using just one hand.  I equipped myself with my ipod and prepared to wait it out hoping there would be some cool swag something.  Well Game Stop is not as good as EB when it comes to a launch event.  Nothing was handed out and the guy in charge outside was power freak trip'en hard wearing his army fatigues.

For the next half hour it seemed a couple people started showing up and it was almost looking respectable.  I was still wondering how this game would out sell Halo 2 when so few people where here.  The big crowd seemed to show up around 11:30 and at one point I counted out over 80 people in line.  By the time midnight came I couple not count how many people where there but it was probably around 120.  It was an impressive line and the best part of all was I was in my car by 12:01 with my copy of Halo 3.

When I got home I dove straight into the campaign.  It seems a lot of the game footage shown so far is from the first two levels.  There is not the big cut scenes like at the start of the Halo 2 but you do get caught up quickly and get to see how the game looks.  There are a few changes I noticed right away.  The grunts now have a deeper voice and aren't as easy to kill.  The brutes are back and now have three distinct types based on their armor.  They are a lot more difficult to kill than I remember too.

I've played through the first two levels and I can say Bungie listened to their fans.  It seems a lot more (possibly all) of the game will take place on earth.  You start in the heart of the African jungle and fight your way out.  The game plays just like the other Halo games so there are no surprised.  The controls did change so you have to get used to how to reload your gun and the default sensitivity was a bit too much for me.  Bungie did also throw in one of their classic hard as hell fights towards the middle of the second level.  I was very tempted to smash that limited edition controller as the same guy killed me for the seventh time after the prolonged fight where I take on a dozen or so Brutes. 

As for the multiplayer I got in six matches so far and got myself to level 4 rank in lone wolf (rumble pit from Halo 2).  The maps in multiplayer really do look good and are all fairly large.  I think I did well in all my matches except my last one.  I finished 2nd a couple times (out of five) and stayed in the top three in all of my matches except the last where I finished in last place.  Bungie has a couple different ways to rank folks now.  You have your number ranking for a specific game type and you also have a military rank for your overall multiplayer ranking.  This should help get some of the matches a but more fair.

So far I am very happy with the game and it is very enjoyable.  I'll get more into some of the changes in halo 3 in my next post and hope to get some time to play with Forge.  I have a feeling this game will be all that I'm playing for some time to come.  Bungie put out a lot more game than they needed too.  The co-op and meta data game within the campaign should help keep people playing for a very long time.  I know once I finish the game I'll want some help taking this game on in Legendary difficulty.