A & E

There were 461,950 games of "Halo 2" played in the past 24 hours, according to game creator Bungie Studios' online counter Bungie.net, which keeps a constant running tally. Not bad, for a game that came out in 2004.

Today, the final chapter in the Halo trilogy -- "Halo 3" -- will be released to an eager gaming community.

Fans are ready. More than 1 million preorders for the "Halo 3" were placed by July. The aliens-versus-humans first-person shoot-'em-up currently is riding a wave of publicity and hype usually reserved for "Harry Potter" and "Star Wars" sequels.

Matt Nauman, 30, of Edgewood, plans to purchase it as soon as possible. "I like the 'first-person shooter' genre well enough," says the avid gamer. "It's probably not my favorite type of game to play, but the 'Halo' games are probably among the best, if you're a first-person shooter freak."

The major video-game retailers, like Best Buy, are accepting preorders online, and expect to have enough copies shipped to deal with demand. Best Buy in the South Hills is having a midnight release party at 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 25. All the other Best Buy locations are selling it during normal business hours.

"There is a buzz about it, says Paul Waddell, assistant manager of The Exchange on the South Side. "But it's not like as extreme as the first two releases. It's like the buzz for 'Madden '08'. It's been a pretty good year for games. 'Bioshock' has a lot of buzz -- I think it should be game of the year, but I think 'Halo 3' will kind of overshadow it.

There's a one-player mode that completes the trilogy's storyline, which you must play to find out what happens to Master Chief and his compatriots. But for many players, the main draw is the mayhem of competitive, online multiplayer action.

"I think most experienced players will run through that storyline -- especially the ones who buy it the night it's released -- by the following morning," says Leon Edelsack, co-owner of Pittsburgh CyberConXion, the largest public access computing/gaming facility in Pennsylvania. "I almost guarantee it. They're more interested establishing and getting online and playing competitively, whether in their own room, here, or somewhere else."

Drew Davidson, director of Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center, thinks multiplayer mode is where the "Halo" games really excel.

"Apparently they're making it easier, on XBox Live, for you to pair up and get put into a game where your skills are more evenly matched with who you're playing against," Davidson says. "You'd log in (on 'Halo 2') and get your butt handed to you. "

Aside from the anticipated new features, maps and weapons, there are subtle tweaks to the gameplay -- like the ability to mute annoying players online. Though trash-talking is fun, it can also can get old, notes Nauman.

"It's like the little kids, too, who really get you -- they sound like little girls, because they haven't hit puberty yet, and they're taunting you every time they kill you," he says.

The cost of the game ($59.99 for the Standard Edition to $129.99 for the Legendary Edition) and the XBox 360 system itself, might prompt some agonizing decisions for gamers -- especially if they've already committed to the Playstation 3.

"They can't afford to buy both (systems)," Edelsack says. "They're in a quandary because they want to get the game, but don't have the 360, and are trying to get it as an 'advance Christmas present.' "

The game is rated "M" for mature -- which means it can be purchased only by players 17 and older. "The retail channel is much more restricted that a few years ago," Edelsack says. "I think the mass audience may be under 18, so those people need a parent or guardian, or some other means of obtaining it. Places like EB Games aren't going to sell it to someone who doesn't show ID.

"I think it's mis-rated," Edelsack says. "I don't understand it, but that's the way it's rated."

Halo 3 expected to push sales of XBox 360 consoles

As far as current, cutting-edge gaming consoles go, there are three big ones -- Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.

Microsoft was the odd man out -- until the video game "Halo" (2001) almost single-handedly revived its fortunes. The company's XBox division has yet to make a profit, but the release of "Halo 3," may change that, analysts say.

Goldman-Sachs analysts estimate the game, created by Microsoft-owned game developer Bungie Studios, will rake in more than $170 million in revenue for the quarter -- which will put the XBox division in the black for the first quarter ever, reports industry magazine joystiq.com.

"If you think of a spreadsheet as the 'killer app' (application) for the personal computer, 'Halo' was the killer app for the XBox," says Leon Edelsack, co-owner of Pittsburgh CyberConXion.

"I think it was very deliberate on the part of Microsoft to put it out right now, to try to freeze the market on Sony," says Edelsack. "It's only available on the (XBox) 360. A lot of people aren't getting it because they don't have their 360. They can't afford to buy both (systems).

Microsoft is hoping the popularity of Halo 3 will recoup its losses on Xbox consoles. "Microsoft has just hemorrhaged money since they entered the market," says Drew Davidson, director of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center, and an avid gamer. "Especially with Microsoft and Playstation, you have to sell $1,500 to $2000 of equipment for $500 to $600, and that still seems expensive. They're taking a loss every time they sell one -- they're hoping to make it up on the back end, with the games."

"Halo 3" development began in 2004, and the title took 120 full-time employees (double the number that developed "Halo 2") and an army of contractors more than 1 million person-hours to create. The Bungie Studios team includes architects, engineers, journalists, artists and videographers.

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Listen up

"Halo 3" has more audio than 20 feature films combined, including the following:

•39,000 lines of dialogue

•13,000 sound effects

•Music totaling 6 hours of continuous play

•The music of the "Halo" series has garnered numerous audio awards around the world, including the 2004 Console Game of the Year from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, the Game Developers Choice Awards and Rolling Stone magazine's award for best game soundtrack.

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Halo on YouTube

A search for the word "Halo" on YouTube garners more than 134,000 pieces of video content based on the video game franchise.

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The Xbox LIVE numbers

•The "Halo 3" multiplayer beta (an early test version), which ran for three weeks in May 2007, attracted more than 820,000 participants from 25 countries.

•Participants logged more than 12 million hours of online gameplay. That's the equivalent of 1,400 years of continuous play by a single person. They downloaded more than 350 terabytes of data, equivalent to more than 82 million digital song downloads with an average size of 4 MB.

•Of the 7 million members on Xbox LIVE, more than 5.5 million have played "Halo 2."

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The Halo franchise

The "Halo" franchise is a worldwide entertainment property that has expanded beyond video games, into New York Times best-selling novels, comics and merchandise.

•The licensed merchandise for "Halo" has brought in three times more revenue than all merchandise sold to date for the "Harry Potter" franchise.

•To support the "Halo 3" launch, Mountain Dew launched Game Fuel, a customized, limited-edition "Halo 3"-themed beverage in packaging featuring Master Chief.

•"The Official Halo 2 Guide: Strategy Evolved" had day-one sell-through of 270,000 copies, the second-best launch day for Random House, next to Bill Clinton's "My Life."

•Madame Tussauds Las Vegas honored the Xbox 360 franchise Halo by immortalizing Master Chief as the first videogame character to be enshrined in the world-famous attraction's 250-year history.

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Awards

•The "Halo" franchise has received critical acclaim with more than 235 awards from media and industry organizations.

•Marcus Lehto, Jason Jones, and Charlie Gough of the "Halo 2" development team, dubbed the "Halo Trinity," were included in the TIME Magazine 100 in 2005 -- a list that calls out the 100 most influential people/groups in the world.

•The Halo Graphic Novel from Marvel Comics is its best-selling novel ever, outselling the Spiderman edition.

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