Anyone going to the Socal Universal City Halo 3 Launch?

[Zoglog]

Los Angeles
Where: GameStop, 1000 Universal Studios Blvd, Universal City, CA 91608
What: From the entertainment capital of the world, GameStop's flagship store at Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles will host the Halo 3 West Coast launch. The event begins Monday evening and will lead up to the first sale of the game at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, September 25, and will feature a celebrity autograph session, Halo trivia contest and a special appearance by the man of the hour, Master Chief, as well as a number of Bungie team members. Fans in line will also have a chance to be one of the lucky few who can battle it out against a celebrity on "Halo 3" prior to the launch. The event can be seen on televisions nationwide via live broadcasts from both Spike TV and G4.

Attendees at the regional events will also have an opportunity to receive the following giveaways as part of the festivities:

" Halo Action Clix from WizKids
o http://www.wizkidsgames.com

" Collectible trading cards from Topps
o http://www.topps.com

" Halo Ghosts of Onyx by Eric Nylund from Tor
o http://www.tor-forge.com/haloghostsofonyx

" Frag Fest t-shirts from Mighty Fine
o http://www.mightyfineinc.com/

" Accessories and hats from Changes
o http://www.changesonline.com/

" Messenger bags from Enmon Accessories
o http://www.enmonaccessories.com/

" Console sling bag and hardware organizers from BD&A
o http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=802719

" Halo Graphic Novels published by Marvel
o http://www.marvel.com/

" 2008 Halo calendars from Trends International
o http://www.trendsinternational.com/

" Halo Uprising Comic (issue one) from Marvel
o http://www.marvel.com/

" Halo soundtracks from Sumthing Else Music
o http://www.sumthing.com/

" Weapon replicas from Master Replicas
o http://masterreplicas.com/index.php

" Zune Halo 3 edition
o http://www.zune.net/en-us/meetzune/halo/default.htm

" Limited-edition figurines from the diorama created for the "Halo 3" ad campaign

" And many other great pieces of merchandise


Anyone goin? the prices look compelling enough

[DesertEagleXIX]

Midnight is too late for my blood. I hate to sound like a wimp, but I have to work early the next day.

[SOSTrooper]

Maybe, I'm no Halo fan though, I dont even think I'm getting Halo 3. I have a bunch of other games I haven't played yet.

[Zoglog]

Midnight is too late for my blood. I hate to sound like a wimp, but I have to work early the next day.

well the festivities start before 12am, that's just when they start selling the game.

[rewn]

What time do you guys start showing up. I'm in a weird perdicament as in that I ordered HALO 3 LEGENDARY via a rewards program of SPRINT (thus making it free), but I knew it wouldn't make it on time. So part of me considered pre-ordering yet another Legendary (for later return of the other one) but it turns out those pre-orders long closed.

So what I'm up against is going just for the SWAG and not actually going to have a copy reserved for me. I'd like to go just to check it out as I had alot of fun during their Wii launch party.

Anyhow - looking for input as to what you guys think would be a good time to get there to assure some SWAG - also hoping you don't need to per-se beat people in the game to get anything as that's kinda lame.

peaceout
REWN

[dracula]

i am not going, but last week Koji Igarashi(the castlevania creator) was at the universal studios EB store signing autographs and i would have definitely gone to that if i didnt have to work.

I dont know how well halo 3 will do, the last one was a letdown for a lot of folks-it was a good game, but there were so many better games coming out at the same time like san andreas and resident evil 4. Those were both much more fun shooters imo.

Actually, hell they werent even giving any free shit away. If they were passing out some castlevania swag, i probably would have blown off work to go.

If they will be giving away loads of free shit at the halo 3, that would be reason to attend. otherwise, i dont get it. That is not a cheapass way to go, just wait for the weekly ads at BB, CC, target, frys etc, and get the cheapest one. WTF are cheapasses doing preordering at EB/GS?

[jkanownik]

I was there for the Wii launch and it was a disappointment. There were so many people there just because it was Universal that it got really crowded. They were also really grabby too. They were mauling the Nintendo help to get any freebies they possibly could. I saw grown men pushing women and kids out of the way to get a T Shirt.

This looks a little better and it is a week night (so it won't be quite as crowded), but parking is a problem. You either pay $10 to park in their lot or you have to find somewhere else to park and walk a mile uphill. I would pass unless you are a huge Halo fan.

[Zoglog]

buy a legendary there if you can, get it signed, sell on ebay, profit

[Zoglog]

well..... that event was a waste of time. Falsely advertised, they didn't pass out crap except some stupid posters.................

One of the worst events ever.........

[SOSTrooper]

Good thing I decided to stay home and play TF2.

[Zoglog]

Good thing I decided to stay home and play TF2.

I wish I did, and when I got home I couldnt even get home because there was a bomb scare and I couldnt get in my appt till 2 am....... great........

so pissed off............

The whole event was so that ebgames could hammer you asking you to preorder other games on 4 seperate occasions.
They didn't give out jack...

[rewn]

I am in full agreement w/you Zoglog - what a LET DOWN. Here's how my evening went just for public amuse of folks...

Drove out to Universal and parked by 8:45 PM. Spent $ 10.00 on parking. Saw "Master Chief" (a guy who looked too tall and skinny to pull it off well) being literally escorted and filmed passing the line of some 300+ kids for obviously self promotion. Looked around and didn't see shit in terms of freebies - asked the store mgr. who rudely stopped talking to me in the middle fo my query and was told "The MS guys are inside and they will give away stuff later"... ended up cutting the misery short and decided to bail... drove out to INGLEWOOD (o/~ ... in da hood...) out of all places and learned 7 kids had cancelled their pre-order on LEGENDARY EDITION - dealt with a super nice mgr. who allowed me to simply pay @ 9 PM - went to the Casino for some grub and cocktails and returned by midnight - waited another 45 mins. in line and got the goods... I was thrilled.

Today (TUE) was topped w/niceness by some Target employee allowing me to get a free exclusive ActionClix pack despite not having pre-ordered it there.

So all in all I am happy with the outcome, but definetely a big F*U* to MS for clealy not putting out for a well publicized launch event in the biggest West Coast city. I am just glad we figured out the lame'ness quickly and bailed.

peaceout
REWN

[jkanownik]

I warned you.

I went to the Woodland Hills Best Buy at 12:15 to pick up my preorder and waited in line for about half an hour. The wait was actually entertaining as I got to laugh at all the people that were WAY too excited to be getting the game. There was also an older black man that kept driving by saying things like "I never seen so many honkeys in all my life" , "where did all these white people come from?" and "this is a nerdy looking bunch of honkeys". As far as I can tell he was just curious about why so many white people were gathered together but was not willing to stop and ask.

[ChristHBK]

wOW iM Sorry u guys had such a bad time...

I got there between 6:30-7:00pm chilled in line.. I got the poster, my halo 3 shirt and a GTAIV shirt.

I kept shouting..."HALO?? I THOUGH THIS WAS FOR SMASH BROS...!!!"

Dunno If any of u heard me... Got my legendary edition helmet AND game signed by the bungie guys...

Overall a weak launch compared to Halo 2 (the best yet) but they have been decaying in goodies...Ive been to almost every single one since Halo 2.

Heres previous launches:

Halo 2- First 100 customers (numbered wristbacnds) got a prize pack including shirts, halo 2 communicator, soundtracks, FABLE (it had just come out), PGR2/Counterstrike among other things...

Nintendo DS- Got special metal stylus/pen from nintendo, Nintendo Calendar and the five day old Metroid Prime 2: Echoes..Hell Yeah..

XB360- Microsoft didnt give much at all...no games..just some shirts,,, and wristbands =(.

Wii- Beanies, Caps, shirts, they had Wii Carts going around the line to keep us entertained...NIntendo takes care of their fans IMO.

BTW my AVATAR PIC is from the Nintendo Wii Launch...

Heres looking forward to the next one....

[Zoglog]

I am in full agreement w/you Zoglog - what a LET DOWN. Here's how my evening went just for public amuse of folks...

Drove out to Universal and parked by 8:45 PM. Spent $ 10.00 on parking. Saw "Master Chief" (a guy who looked too tall and skinny to pull it off well) being literally escorted and filmed passing the line of some 300+ kids for obviously self promotion. Looked around and didn't see shit in terms of freebies - asked the store mgr. who rudely stopped talking to me in the middle fo my query and was told "The MS guys are inside and they will give away stuff later"... ended up cutting the misery short and decided to bail... drove out to INGLEWOOD (o/~ ... in da hood...) out of all places and learned 7 kids had cancelled their pre-order on LEGENDARY EDITION - dealt with a super nice mgr. who allowed me to simply pay @ 9 PM - went to the Casino for some grub and cocktails and returned by midnight - waited another 45 mins. in line and got the goods... I was thrilled.

Today (TUE) was topped w/niceness by some Target employee allowing me to get a free exclusive ActionClix pack despite not having pre-ordered it there.

So all in all I am happy with the outcome, but definetely a big F*U* to MS for clealy not putting out for a well publicized launch event in the biggest West Coast city. I am just glad we figured out the lame'ness quickly and bailed.

peaceout
REWN

yeah, I really shouldn't have stayed. apparently they only had some stuff for the first 100 people in line which was ridiculous. They didn't even give everyone a t-shirt and poster and were giving them out to people who Weren't in line. It was so horribly organized and they basically shafted any fans who went after work (6 pm). At least at the NY one they had some entertainment and drinks to give out to people. the LA one was such a steaming pile of crap........

in the future I won't goto any of these stupid events unless they're invite/profit worthy. All the other MS events I went to were much better, like the Gears of War party in Hollywood cemetery and Zero hour, which is why I expected better for the so called "biggest entertainment launch in history"........ My ass. The funny thing is, I noticed some people in line just happy to get halo 3 at midnight and content with that... which is bullshit.

[dracula]

for you guys paying for parking- next time just take the bus. Or park somewhere in the neighborhood and then take the bus. there isnt any street parking anywhere near universal studios, so parking and walking isnt an option.

Sorry to hear the event sucked, hopefully next time they will do better.