I learned a few things last night at the IMAX theater in Lincoln Center:
- NY Department of Parks doesn't give a shit whether or not you're sitting on a park bench when they want to water the plants.
- Welfare lines can be confused for Halo 3 lines.
- The campaign level titled "The Storm" made me as giddy as a school girl, but some may argue I'm always that way.
For a while, I thought number one was the most important (and critical) lesson of the night, but by midnight, I was sure two and three were equally important.
I'll be honest with you, I wasn't even really there to see
Halo 3. I had heard about how dreamy Christian Bale was in
3:10 to Yuma, so I decided to take in a quiet evening with he and Russel Crowe, and maybe a pack of Jujubes. Turns out most theaters don't sell Jujubes anymore, also turns out that Sara (Gamerscoreblog) and Drea (GTR, Blue Skittle, etc.) were at the same theater. I didn't want either of those two magnificent women questioning my manliness, so I opted for the Halo 3 IMAX event instead.
Arriving around 6:30, there really wasn't too much commotion outside the theater. Around 4 p.m. they had given wristbands to the folks who were waiting in line, each with individual numbers on them. You didn't have to wait in line after that, the number on the wristband told you when you could play. Lower = sooner, higher = later.
There was also a line for the welfare office, suspiciously close to the
Halo 3 line, and from what I heard, the lines were co-existing and mingling.
Dirty Diva loves some Alo 3 (I don't even care that I'm going to catch shit for posting this photo)
At 9 p.m. they ushered all the gamers into the IMAX theater. There were plenty of available seats, and it was New York, so people were rowdy as hell. The host for the evening feigned more excitement than I thought was necessary, but I'm sure that was his job, and he seemed to be good at it. After a handful of Pontiac plugs, Luke Smith and Joe Tung from Bungie started to demo
Halo 3.
Drea and I molest Master Chief
Up first was an early mission called
The Storm. I'll keep this spoiler free and simply say:
amazing. The level started off in a warehouse, which led to a convoy of warthogs, and ended (for us only, early) battling a Scarab. It seemed like there were more enemies in this level than I remember fighting in all of
Halo 2, but I'm old, my memories aren't quite what they used to be.
Next up, Luke and Joe demoed the Saved Films and Forge. We barely got a taste of the saved films in the beta, and it will be evident as soon as you get your hands on the final version.
What's more, Forge is going to be the ultimate friend's party. It truly is a video game nerd's playground.
The night was topped off with a open multiplayer matches which started on the map
Guardian, a remake of
Lockout from
Halo 2.
They ushered eight at a time down to the monitors in the front of the theater, and for six minutes those folks played Rumble Pit. Afterwards, they could go back to their seats, or continue to play some more out in the lobby.
It was great to see Campaign in action, as well as all the other goodies we got sneak peaks of. Honestly though, I want to experience this game the way it was intended: On my couch, lights turned low, and the surround sound cranked up. I'll be there on September 25th at 12:10 a.m., when the wife is fast asleep dreaming of how I'm going to make this "nerd allowance" up to her.
