DISCLAIMER: I will probably do a video blog covering a lot of this, so only read if you are so inclined.

The week after exams is the best week ever. Until the next week after exams, that is.

I passed all of my exams on Friday although my Physician Development test was delayed until sometime this week due to a fire alarm. Now you probably assume I ended my Halo 3 embargo and played like a madman as soon as I got home on friday, but that was not the case. Instead my girlfriend came to visit so I kept the gaming on the backburner. I think it would have been a bit rude to play games all weekend when she drove 7 hours just to see me. I had a great time with her and she headed home yesterday. So today, after a week of waiting I finally got my first Halo 3 action in. I'm through the first three levels of the campaign and it is amazing. The level design is vastly improved and the graphics look great with natural feeling environments. The weapons also feel perfectly balanced.

My first run through is only on Heroic difficulty because Legendary just isn't that much fun. Sure I like the satisfaction of beating the game on Legendary and I will do it at some point, but the extreme difficulty makes the game repetitve as you peek, shoot, recharge, rinse, and repeat. Heroic is just a tad bit too easy, but overall it strikes an enjoyable balance between difficulty and fun factor.

I refuse to play any matchmaking until I've finished the story, but I am competing in the current Gamespot tournament so I did play online today. Fortunately, we won the match pretty handily an I'll be playing again tomorrow. I'd love to win the $300 prize, but it's unlikely.

As for the other games I bought, they will wait until after Halo 3, but I am VERY excited, especially for Bioshock. Lastly, I bought the HD DVD add on and will be watching King Kong later on this week or weekend. I'm also going to head to the used media shop and get some more movies soon so I'll let you know what I get.

See you online.