Last night was a Halo 3 pre-launch party at the Microsoft office in Bloomington.  Jason invited me, and he also allowed me to bring along one other person, so I invited Raymond to come too.  There were six consoles going all at once, each with 4-person games going on.  There were more people than there were controllers (maybe 75 people?), but folks were really good about getting up after a game and letting other people play.  They handed out some gifts (t-shirts, hats, posters) and provided food and drinkies. 

They also organized a Slayer tournament, and somehow I managed to get 3rd place.  I don't know how many people in total played in the tournament - maybe 40?  I'm sure I wasn't the 3rd-best player.  I just got lucky with the Gravity Hammer in the 2nd round :)  There were a lot of "kids" there last night (children of Microsoft employees, etc), and after the first two rounds there were a couple of dads who came up to me and said "Hey!  You beat my kid!".  All in good fun of course.  It was fun.

Thoughts on the game?  Well, Halo 3 multiplayer is still Halo multiplayer.  But there are enough new goodies baked in to the game now that will keep players interested for a long time.  New maps, vehicles, weapons and creative use of items like the bubble shields and trip mines keep the game fresh.  I didn't get a chance to play around with Forge or saved films, but I didn't expect to in such a large group of attendees. 

The best map?  I only played a handful: High Ground, Snowbound, Epitaph, Last Resort, Isolation, and one that I think was called "Narrows".  For Slayer, I thought Epitaph was great.  Kind of a small/medium size with the hammer in the middle and rocket goodness hidden high up. 

The beast weapon?  There is no best weapon, but I'm an immediate fan of the dual-wielded Spikers for some reason.  I just can't get the hang of the Spartan Laser.  Otherwise, if you can find the assault rifle in combination with the battle rifle and a supply of grenades, you can win any game. 

Here's to the new (and last) era of the Halo games!

UPDATE:Jason just posted a few pictures: http://jasonbock.net/JB/Default.aspx?...