Halo 3

I mentioned that when the Halo 3 beta was available on Xbox Live, it would bring Live to its knees. I was mostly right, as it took forever for some people to download the beta. But now something even worse is probably going to happen: I’m pretty sure that Halo 3 is going to break the internet. It simply cannot support the demand for bits and bytes that the millions of denizens of Halo 3 demand. There are many reasons for this. Here are a few:

When it’s all said and done, there will have millions of multiplayer matches played. As we speak, thousands are going on simultaneously. (There were 500k+ Halo 3 players on Live when I logged off to post this)

With the most excellent playback feature now part of the package, players can review and obsess over every little detail of each one of their matches. They can also share and upload videos and take thousands of in-game screen shots. Of course 95% of those screen shots and videos are boring and crappy, but a few gems shine through (see below). But with all these tools at the disposal of millions of players, the internet is going to be worse for the wear. Videos galore being uploaded to YouTube (almost 50k at the time of this posting) and thousands of screenshots being uploaded to Flickr (12k+ at the time of posting)

Of course, I’m part of the problem, not the solution:

That whimpering sound you hear are the servers, switches, and routers around the world.

I know I’m about 20 hours behind everyone else, but that’s okay. Halo 3 will be going in to the 360 after the wife and I watch “The Biggest Loser”. While we polish of some ice cream.

After reading Tom’s post about the Halo 3 campaign, I am very excited about this. I hope there are some friends to join in on the action once I’m on.

(BTW: Seems like Xbox Live and all its components are getting epically slammed. Everything is running slow. Could it happen any other way?)

More to follow.

More: I played entirely too long and now should be sleeping, but here are a few thoughts:

• The reports of sub-par graphics have been greatly exaggerated. Holy crap this game looks good. I recently switched from component cables to the VGA cable, so I don’t know if that makes a difference or not, but man this game looks good. There were a couple times, one during a cutscene, where things looked absolutely amazing. People say this isn’t on par with Gears of War. I disagree with them. Gears of War used five thousand shades of gray and brown. Halo 3 is vibrant beyond belief.
• I think I’m very close to the end of the second mission. So far, the campaign has been great, but marred by strange checkpoints. Sometimes they’re too close together, other times that are too far apart. There’s no consistency.
• Everything feels alive. Except for the scary eyes, the “extras” seem real and life-like. Creepy at times, funny at others.
• I only played one game of multiplayer, but I can already see this is going to be a blast. I played a little free-for-all slayer (where I came out on top, natch) and really enjoyed it. Can’t wait to get in on some matches with friends.

There’s a lot more that could be said but sleep beckons. If you’ve played, let me know what your impressions are (in the comments or a link to your blog).

I feel like I’ve neglected my duties as a “video game blogger” by not heading to Best Buy this evening around midnight to pick up my copy of Halo 3. I’m awake, I really should be using this time to smash some alien faces with the butt of my shotgun. But I’m not. After a week of entertaining family, I am drained. When the kids have to be on their best behavior 24-7, it gets tiring. So no Halo 3 tonight. I’ll be turning in for the evening after I hit “Publish”.

I will be picking it up tomorrow, of course. I’ll wait until the kids have been tucked away, the wife engrossed in something else and then I’ll toss it in to the 360 and play until my eyes bleed. Then I’ll jump on Live and play some more. After a week of cuteness, I’m ready for some shooting. I’m ready to save the world (Again. Sheesh, it gets tiring) and then wasting dozens of hours in the rumble pit. Everything else gets put on the back-burner.

Look out for I aint yer Pa! I’ll be in your base, dual wielding plasma pistols.