I picked up the game about thirteen hours ago, but the fall out is still in full swing. Redmond police were called in for crowd control at the Company Store and I’m currently sitting in a cafeteria surrounded by 250+ like minded Geeks that are still in full swoon…

There wasn’t any rioting at the Company Store or like that, I don’t think… just a hell of a lot of people. I’ve heard the stories about when Halo for the PC was released. There was a line that wrapped around the building and not every body got a copy on that first day. You see, one of the perks of working at Microsoft is that you can get a majority of our products at a discount through the Company Store. Of course, there’s a flip side (as in Fable) and that’s because the Store doesn’t usually get new releases on the day of release – it usually takes a couple of days, if not a week, for stock to come in, as was the case for the PC version of Halo.

For Halo 2, however, they opened early – and they plan to close late – so they must have a shit load of copies: they hadn’t run out as of 2pm today. I was talking to one of the employees last month and they told me they would be better prepared for Halo 2 – I figured that meant using stun guns on the people that got out of line, but I think she meant that they’d have more copies.

Anyway, I’m currently sitting in a satellite campus of Microsoft (and annoyed that their cafeteria is better than mine). Still in Redmond, but off the main campus: I’m in one of the buildings that proudly sports the X logo of the Xbox team. As part of the “celebration of release” Microsoft is hosting a tournament for 256 employees. I’ll be handed my ass in competition – I’m sure of this, since some 12 year old kicked my ass this morning – but I’m now up one hat (the same one the Bungie team was wearing last night,) one poster and one pully-badge thingy. And they are prises too: ten free copies of the collectors edition are up for grabs and the last one standing gets a three foot tall statue of Master Chief. [lately I’ve been thinking “dammit, I wish I had a camera!”

so there *might* just be something to that cell phone camera – I had the same thought many times last night.] If I leave with my thumbs in tact I’ll be happy.

I’ve got one last thing to say… one last thing: *w00t*