How obsessed is Kent Mages with Halo 3, the most hotly anticipated video game in years?
Mages already has shelled out more than $1,000 on Halo-themed swag. The 23-year-old computer consultant who works from his River East home plans to pick up his preordered game at midnight Tuesday.
He said he’ll play it on the highest difficulty setting until he beats it, a feat he predicts will take him about 12 hours.
“I don’t plan on going to sleep, but I can’t control what my body does,” he said. “I might simply pass out on the sofa.”
Mages is one of possibly thousands of Chicagoans expected to skip bedtimes for retail lines during the first-person shooter game’s overnight release, which according to local retailers will be a rock star event unprecedented for any video game. Halo tells the story of Master Chief, a human soldier who battles hostile aliens.
Predictions are that first-day sales of the game will run up to $155 million nationally. Last month, Halo 3 received 1 million North American preorders. Its predecessor, Halo 2, had a big preorder blitz that resulted in record first-day sales of $125 million in November 2004. The regular version of the game retails for about $60.
The hype has been ramped up by game publisher Microsoft’s $10 million marketing campaign, which includes a Halo 3 Game Fuel version of Mountain Dew, a Halo-themed NASCAR vehicle and sponsorship with the band Linkin Park’s Projekt Revolution tour.
Halo fan Tim Lyons said he’s concerned that the hype could have a detrimental effect on the final product.
“My mom knows what Halo 3 is, so I think [the marketing] worked. But it might be overhype for some of the hardcore gamers,” Lyons said. “We are already expecting a great game, but if the hype is through the roof and [the game] doesn’t deliver, it would be a letdown.”
All this fanfare means a lot of extra work for retailers. Many stores, including all GameStop and EB Games locations, will sell the game starting at midnight.
Dashiell Stewart, an employee at the GameStop at 1730 W. Fullerton Ave., said employees have spent weeks preparing for the release.
“Whenever you have 400 copies of one game in the store at the same time, there will be problems,” he said.
Stewart said he’s worked during other big game releases, such as when Madden 2008 came out last month, but those don’t compare to the magnitude of customers anticipated for Halo 3’s release.
“You can only imagine what it will be like until it actually happens,” he said.
Dennis Jackson, manager of the EB Games at 2603 N. Elston Ave., worked at a GameSpot store in Addison Mall during Halo 2’s midnight release in 2004. He said the line then was wrapped around the block. Jackson said he’s ready for the Halo 3 stampede.
“It’s the same stuff to me, I’ve been here too long,” he said.
Mages and Lyons both plan to pick up their games at Jackson’s store. Mages pre-ordered three versions of the game — ranging in price from $59.99 to $129.99. He also purchased the special edition Halo 3 game controller and headset and die-cast replicas of weapons used in the video game. He even bought a special Halo 3-themed Xbox 360.
Lyons, a Columbia College student working on a degree in cultural studies with an emphasis in video game culture, plans on dissecting the game with classmates at school on Tuesday. Lyons, who play-tested the beta version of Halo 3 in May, said he expects that Halo 3 will be the best edition yet.
“The [developers] put it all together for this series,” the 22-year-old Lakeview resident said. “All the stuff they said they wanted in the [previous] games, they added now.”
Both Mages and Lyons also plan to check out the Halo party starting at midnight at the Micro Center store in Riverfront Plaza, 2645 N. Elston Ave. The store plans to host a costume contest with the winner getting a free Legendary version of the game.
Mages and Lyons don’t plan to dress in costumes.
“I have no delusions that I can fill Master Chief’s shoes,” Mages said. “I have a clearly defined boundary between fantasy and reality.”
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HALO BE THY NAME
The lowdown
Since 2001, when Halo: Combat Evolved hit store shelves, the video game series developed by Bungie Studios has marched a steady ascent to the top of the game heap. Microsoft has spent a reported $10 million making sure people hear about the Tuesday release of Halo 3, for which they expect a big return — predictions for first-day sales run up to $155 million, at about $60 per copy. That’s not so crazy, considering Halo 2 generated $125 million in sales its first day in 2004. By comparison, the movie “Spider-Man 3” made only $60 million its first day. So far, nearly 15 million copies of the first two versions of Halo have been sold.
The basics
In what’s known as a “first-person shooter” game, the player sees everything from the perspective of one of the characters. Jeeps, hovercraft, plasma weapons and grenades are a few of the things players are equipped with to fight the Halo fight.
In the world of Halo, humanity is defended by Spartan II, made up of superhuman soldiers who have been enhanced by various experimental procedures. Because of an overpopulated Earth, the humans have branched out and colonized other planets. They’re fighting the Covenant, an alliance of alien races bound by a rather complicated theology that calls for destroying the humans.
The face of Halo
Fighting for the humans is Master Chief, who leads Spartan II and whose face we never actually see because it’s hidden by his helmet. Since Halo’s emergence, Master Chief has joined Pac-Man, Lara Croft and the Mario Brothers as the most widely recognized video game icons. Madame Tussauds wax museum in Las Vegas recently installed a sculpture of Master Chief.
His voice is performed by Steve Downes, a DJ for WDRV in Chicago. When Downes revealed in an interview that he didn’t know much about video games, Halo fans denounced him online as a “boring noob.”
Halo movies + COMICS
— Peter Jackson, director of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, has been reported to be producing a movie based on the Halo series, though development is said to be stalled.
— Halo helped spawn a new film genre called machinima, in which video-game characters are manipulated for storytelling. Voices are then overdubbed for dialogue. The most popular example of machinima is “Red V. Blue (left),” which almost entirely uses Halo’s universe and characters. The short films are a big hit on YouTube, and a collection of them has been released theatrically.
— In case you need to know the back stories and inner lives of Halo’s characters, there are five novelizations of the game.
— Marvel Comics has a series based on Halo.
TELEVISION
Halo 3 Countdown
7-11:30 p.m., Monday, G4
“Attack of the Show” dedicates its Monday time slot and more to Halo 3.
Halo 3: Sci vs. Fi
3 p.m., Tuesday, Sci Fi
Interviews with Halo 3 creators, gaming industry insiders and celebrity Halo fans including Aisha Tyler, Greg Grunberg and Jason Mews.
