When I purchased my Xbox 360 a year and change back, Halo 3 was the furthest thing on my mind. I was pumped to finally play Oblivion, looking forward to some next-gen NBA ball, and marking off stunners like Bioshock and Mass Effect on my Most Wanted list. Why even give a second thought to Halo 3? After all, I have a decorated history of sucking mightily when it comes to the Halo. I'm no stranger to first person shooters but playing that first game co-op on Legendary was an exercise in patience for my friend as I was murdered and murdered repeatedly, guns blazing and camera flailing. And Halo 2 (which I never technically owned.. college and no Xbox and whatnot) multiplayer would consistently humble and shred my already modest gaming ego. Too many maps I didn't know, too many vehicles running over me and snipers headshotting me. I regressed into my Gamecube and soured on Microsoft's flagship offering.

And then, right on schedule, oodles of millions of dollars were let loose from the war chest in the hopes of making people like me furrow my brow, stare at the noisy white box under my TV and wonder, "If I don't go out and buy this game, nay, this *event* right now, why did I even get this thing anyway?" This was the marketing blitz to end all blitzes, grandiose and expensive and in-your-face stupid. The Game Fuel(TM), sponsoring everything from Monday Night Football to the evening news, Believe! and Finish The Fight!, overly dramatic commercials without a hint of gameplay or even a sense of why this game is any good, hell, the giant sidebars I see every time I log into Gamespot. Very subtle stuff, real classy-like. Microsoft gleefully and unashamedly employed all the marketing tactics that, if I had the money, would drive me to go out and buy a PS3 simply out of spite (and to check out Heavenly Sword).

But the funny thing is, and I am ashamed to admit such things, it kind of worked. They made me feel small for not caring about my generation's Star Wars. The traditional news media ate it up and this manufactured event became actual news. I read up on the backstory, it was cooler than I remembered. I checked out some videos of the mulitplayer beta I had no interest in partaking in, and it looked fun. My will was crumbling, and the $60 I had set aside for Orange Box started scratching at the walls of my wallet, begging to jump out just a few weeks earlier. And then the reviews hit the Sunday before release day (Halo 3-Day? I don't even know if they gave it a silly name or not), and all those 9's and 10's flipped the switched for good. I was sold. Not excited, not particularly happy, just sold. I own a 360, hence, I would own Halo 3 and there was nothing I could do about it.

As the Wal-Mart woman opened the display case for me on Saturday, a frazzled mother pushed me aside and interrupted our conversation with a "is this the Halo 3? I need it." Great, I thought, I'm going to love hearing your annoying son's racist spew while I frantically try and remember how to switch grenades again. But I can't fault her urgency, she must have seen the news. Or watched TV. Or stepped outside for 5 minutes. Hey this was a big deal, even bigger than Spiderman 3!*

Cynicism is well and good, and I looked proudly at my unopened copy near 1 in the morning last night. Pshh.. Halo. The box isn't even very attractive. Might as well pop it in and give it a go. Next thing I know it's 7 AM, my cats are crying because they never went to sleep, I more than held my own in multiplayer and was engrossed in the punishing but exhilarating gameplay on Heroic. The cutscenes are a bit ridiculous and the environments are lacking something but the music, presentation, level design, enemy AI, voice acting, forge, videos, customization.. this is a very good game, I thought to myself. And I still think it today, as I woke up "early" to get in a few rounds before football. And then I turned off football to play some more.

Clearly Halo 3 is a game that deserves to be celebrated. I just wish Microsoft didn't have to do 90% of the celebrating for us. Though I shouldn't really complain, after all it helped make me a believer.

*not really, and bad movie anyway