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Wow! Just got back from the Halo Launch Party, deep in the heart of Chicago.
Much to my surprise, there were a lot more people there than I expected. I
had guessed about a hundred or two, but it turned out to be a total of around
four hundred, with people coming and going during most of the night (the
hotel room could only fit 250 people max). Good thing I arrived early around
6:45, cause even with that there was still quite a line, and I actually got
into the hotel a little while after it started. No matter, the evening was
great, and I'll tell you my tale as I remember it starting:

Enter time 7:15 - The outside was pretty cold, but it was still entertaining.
A lot of passing Chicagoans were asking us what we were waiting in line for,
most of us enthusiastically shouted "Halo!" and they just nodded and walked
away. Shows how cool Chicago people are! Waiting in line with us was a guy
from clan Asylum; a truly hardcore Halo fan who had already picked up a copy
of Bungie latest game prior to going to the party. Man, if I was that guy,
I probably go home and play Halo instead of waiting half an hour for
several minutes of play. Moving on, I met Mordia (Peter Marks, aka
admin guy) who was handing out nice Halo nametags and such,
and he told me to call him sometime if he ever in town. Mord still owes me
lunch since summer of (and still even after this). Just a side note: If
you ever see Mord in real life, this guy is huge. I'm talking WWF the Rock
huge! (well, maybe not /that/ big). But he really doesn look like a
biker as many other people have said, since he cut his hair short.

7:40 - Excellent! Finally, I get my first play of halo. Not bad, I'll say. My
TV screen had no sound for some reason, and the controls were... a bit hard
for me to get used to. Basically, there are two joypads (like the N64 one)
and the left one controls up/down/left/right (w-s-a-d for UT players) and the
right one controls the look (mouse movement). Triggers are conveniently
located behind the controller, and other action buttons are located on the
right controller side. It took me about 10 minutes to actually get going with
the game and learn the controls, but after I did, I was rolling. Definitely
good for an FPS played on a console!

7:55 - Finished my game, and I only really got to play 5 minutes (10 minutes
of learning controls). I watched Jeremy (Thanatos) play and it was pretty
interesting. He bravely decided to skip tutorials and whatnot to run straight
into the game blowing aliens to bits. Needless to say, he wasn't... doing too
well, but still a good try! Kudos for his effort!

8:05 Right about now, everyone goes packed into the main room, and they're
showing some sort of Halo. I had walked in there way too late, and all I hear
is people clapping. I have not the slightest idea of what is going on. I just
clap and take pictures like a total newbie.

8:10 - Hey! First person I meet! Bullseye (eric) is walking around with his
nametag signed and he has a staff one too. Lucky bastard, they
should give me one! Well, I talk to him quite a bit, and he later goes to
show me his copy of the Marathon 1 manual he plans to get signed by the
original developers. He then heads back to the front room where people are
still coming in. By his time, the whole place is completely packed, and food
and drinks are coming (finally). I go grab some pizza (a very tiny corner
piece) and make a huge sandwich of two cheeses, 3 types of meats, and a nice
amount of mayo. Hey, I still have to eat!

8:50 - I haven't done much by this time. Jeremy and I decided to go "Mord
hunting" (who has by this time not been seen after our arrival), and we then
realize that people have these blue ticket stubs or something, and so I go on
a quest to get myself a blue ticket. We find out these are the raffle tickets
for the Xbox, 5 copies of Halo, or 5 Halo t-shirts. I finally get mine,
Jeremy gets his, and Mord was nice enough to show up for five minutes to give
my girlfriend one while I was running around looking for him. What bad timing!

9:00 This late into the party, Jeremy and I are getting a bit bored, or at
least I am. There are 250 people in this tiny section of the hotel, and of
those, only about 50 hardcore Mythers (several of which I recognize), while
the rest are complete Xbox/Halo fans. A lot of the Halo developers are being
probed and questioned relentlessly, while (as I heard) some teens were trying
to impress him with their knowledge of programming or something. They can
seriously think that they be hired on the spot can they?

9:15 - Jeremy and I switch to hunting (St. Joan of Coven) now, as I
remembered she said she'd be here. I really desperate to meet some real
Mythers I know damn it, and I expected tons of CP guys, but turns out that
only Conner and Marius showed up. As I keep looking around for more Mythers,
I accomplish nothing. Like I said, they were mostly new to the whole Bungie
phenom, and a majority of them were attending for the chance of winning that
free Xbox (among other prizes) and chowing down on free food. Not to mention,
some people from outside actually got in who have never heard of Halo,
Bungie, or the Xbox. They were there for the food or something. These
wonderful folks were several mid-30's women, and a guy bringing them there.
They have no idea what going on. They get their food, make some small talk
(realizing gaming is over their shallow heads) and leave. I still just
walking around because I don want to wait 30 minutes to play halo, but I'm
staying a long time, so I have nothing to worry about. There was also some
problems rotating the gamers around. People in the single player room had no
problems (nice Bungie staff had made sure they changed every 15 minutes), but
in the main room where all the multiplayer was going on, people were waiting
for 30 minutes, collecting 50 frags and still playing. Luckily, this was
going to end very soon.

9:30 - They finally announce the Xbox winners! Guess who won? That right,
not me. Not even close. Conner of CP won a t-shirt, and two people missed out
on getting the Xbox. That right, two whole people. They left the party
before the announcement. I sure wish I had their tickets! The Xbox and Halo
copies that the lucky winners got were not with Bungie at the time, so they
will be shipped to them as soon as physically possible. They were also
selling the t-shirts that Conner won for 15 bucks, and I would have bought
one, but it didn look too good (in fact, it looked like a factory error or
something -- the t-shirt was lavender colored with black halo print...?)

9:31 - Alright! Time to play some Halo. After the announcement was made,
almost everyone left. Seriously, it was great! I finally get my fair share of
Halo after waiting hours, and that is exactly what I do. I get to experience
Halo side by side with the developers and all sorts. Let me tell you
something about the game:

The weapons I got to use were the sniper rifle (with different levels of
zoom), the powerful (but slow moving) rocket launcher, the standard assault
rifle, the other standard (with zoom) pistol, and the shotgun. You also have
grenades, which perfect against the Warthog (Halo famous jeep). The map we
played (I can remember the name) was a sort of wild-west type, with forts
and all. There were two Warthogs that people could ride. Words can't describe
how cool this is! You can drive the jeep, be the gunner, or be a passenger to
assist the gunner. When you have 3 guys on an Xbox (did I mention 4 Xboxes
were connected to make a 16 man LAN game?), all in a jeep going into the
enemy base (this was CTF after all) running over guys (yes, you can do that)
and shooting them down, you sort of get a sense of unfounded amazement. A lot
of times you could also blow the Warthog up. I often found myself performing
a suicide by throwing a grenade under the jeep as it ran me
over, and killed the two enemies in the jeep as it flipped over and over, all
while the explosion of dust and debris covered my screen. Its an amazing
sight, to say the very least. What seemed to work against me though, was the
fact that your own team could kill you. I had Bullseye and a Bungie developer
(I still can remember their names) run over me not once, not twice, but
three times in a row with the Warthog. I expect them to drive better than
that! Either way, the game itself is amazing. As a major UT player, I be
the very first in line to get my grubby hands on the Mac (I much rather play
mouse/keyboard than dual joypad), and I feel the online community would be
ten times better than what can be achieved on Xbox. I didn exactly get that
much of play time with the single player version, but from what I been
hearing, seeing, and the little amount I got to play, I have to say it
will be amazing. Is halo Xbox's killer app? It damn well might be folks. You
really have to play this game to get the full feeling. I'm not going to say
its the best game ever, mainly because I feel the game needs to be more
engrossing and have some sort of huge innovation (like Myth and 3D battle, or
Deus Ex and the fusion of rpg/fps, or Metal Gear Solid and the whole sneak
and total realism), but the graphics, for one, is by far the best I've ever
seen for a first person shooter. Though outdoor landscape can get a bit
polygonal, the texturing and particle effects are second-to-none, and the
sheer fun factor is off the charts. You can have more fun shooting the crap
out of aliens who try to hide when you damage them enough or run away for
cover when they realize they'll die soon, then head towards them and whack
them with your gun. The AI is wonderful, especially for a game this rushed
(and it was rushed like hell, so says Mordia), it turned out way better than,
well, another certain Bungie franchise game, to put to example, and the game
is solid and bug-free (as far as I knew). Any real problem I had with it was
nothing more that they could have done with the software. The levels are huge
(read: gargantuan) and there is almost no loading slowdown (takes less than a
second and the loading is seamless, barely noticeable). I sure wish I got to
pilot the alien craft and played more with the alien species and what not,
but for what little time there was (2 hours is nothing when playing games),
it was quite satisfying.

11:07 Time up! They must pack up and leave and stuff. I actually don
leave till much later, so I decided to stay around and talk to Conner and
Marius of the legendary Clan Plaid (proudly wearing their CP shirts) and
engage in some very friendly conversation (those guys are great, and really
smart too) and at such an unannounced time, I finally meet the elusive
St.Joan. At first she doesn recognize me, but when all is said I walk away
with two pictures. I say my final goodbyes to Bullseye, Mordia, Joan, and the
cp guys (these were the only people I knew left), and then I leave. To much
surprise, I spent half an hour /after/ the party ends, and managed to snag
some pretty random pictures of the after-party.

12:30 - After about 45 minutes waiting in the lobby of the hotel, my parents
pick me up (just a couple more months till I can drive!), we arrive home.
Jeremy and I play some UT, and then myth, in which he schooled me (I have no
idea how that happened. After all, I /am/ the best myth player. Ever.)

1:30 - I'm sleepy, and Jeremy left. I go online. At the time I write this, it
is 2:42 am, and I'm tired (but not tired enough to sleep!). I marvel at the
day that was, and how I had looked forward to this day a month ago with such
anticipation. If you ask me was it worth it... I definitely say yes.
Getting to meet great people you know from Myth at a party is in itself worth
every minute you spend there. Then, playing Halo for a great long time, not
to mention with the people who made the game, was just awe inspiring. And
coming home and Myth and UT in early morning against your local Myth order
mate? Nothing could be better in a day, well, except if one of the two guys
who left gave me their tickets and I won an Xbox and Halo. Of course, that
wouldn't have happened...the whole day was just one huge blur, and I just
realized I spent 5 hours at a hotel room that was small, packed to the
capacity, loud, and not to mention full of people who shouldn't have been
there for a "fan fest", and let me tell you, there will be nothing better
than this for the next several years (when Halo 2 comes out!).

Thanks for reading my wonderful story of an adventure.

Forever Bungie,

-Art Sangurai (Death on Impact)

PS: I try to get the pictures of the whole event up as soon as I can.
Until then, use your imagination to guess what it all looked like!