So the final Bungie chapter of the Halo Universe released today. I don't know about your area, but it was flying off the shelves at the Best Buy I went to. The cashier said it was basically all anyone was buying today. I hope it thumps CoD:Black Ops, MW2 really lost me with it's single player campaign while the Halo series has never disappointed. In fact, I might say every iteration has been success to success. ODST so far has been my favorite of the series, and I can easily say it's my favorite shooter series on any console. Potentially 3rd most favorite game/series after Descent Freespace and Wing Commander.

Not so much for the idiots in Multiplayer, but for the fact it was the first game series in AGES to have co-op. Something no game should be without (imho). I also really have enjoyed the story, it was a refreshing break from the 'quake/doom hell is unleashed' shooters and the 'rainbow six' wannabes.

I'll be busy tonight, but down the road I'll be up for co-op for sure.

Thought I'd check if anyone else preordered from Gamestop and got the Multi-threat armor?

What receipt was your code printed on? The reservation or the pickup?

As a FYI for those who didn't pre-order. Wal-mart and Best Buy both offered a $20 gift card opening day, and may still be offering them with purchase of the game.

Wal-Mart's is good all week, and on any version of the game.

So, some intial thoughts:

1. Graphics - Fantastic, really really nice and lush graphics in this one. Putting it on Reach Bungie has moved out of state of the art and given us a taste of a few rural areas. Really nice to see the new/tweaked engine

2. Spartan IIIs - now here is tying in your extended universe. For those that don't know Noble Team are not Spartan IIs. This is revealed in Dr. Halsey's Journal which comes with the Limited Edition. They are in fact Spartan IIIs from ONI's secret project run by Kurt, a Spartan II (Jorge is a Spartan II, but all the rest are not, hence the non standard Spartan interactions).

3. A loosing mission - I actually like the fact you already know Reach gets glassed, and the mission is set against the fact UNSC couldn't save the planet.

4. New weapons and 'perks' - Love the Grenade Launcher and new covenant version of it (the multi shot plasma) and the new covenant mini wraith.

5. Customized cutscenes/player - It's great that any change you make immediate shows up on your character for cutscenes. Change a helmet or shoulder pad? Shows up right away. Makes your Spartan feel like he/she is really yours.

I pre-ordered from Best Buy.

However...I didn't realize when I was doing it that you have to add the $20 gift card to your basket. Just a word of advice for those who still want to take advantage of this promotion.

I forsee this being a landslide in COD's favor.

Not a chance....hit the space combat missions.

BEST FPS EVER! Hot damn! Fighter Sim hidden in Halo.

COME MEET THE MANIAC, UGLIES!

HAhahahahaha. Is it better than Halo 3 ODST? I played that game for 5 minutes and never played it again.

To each their own I guess, I massively prefered ODST to MW2. I enjoyed MW2's multiplayer for a while, but it turned into Halo 3 MP on crack (i.e. hyper active racist teenage bigots who think they're Jet Li).

For single player CoD can't touch Halo though. Nor will any FPS touch Reach now for me. Dogfighting in space to blow up a carrier with a hijacked slip space drive only to land and board a destroyer in low g/zero g and watch guys go spinning off into space as you frag them.

When Descent Freespace was out I used to take on whole teams of Human pilots and still whomp on them. Gad it was like being back in the saddle flying through the dry docks splashing covenant flakbait. I could go for about 4 more missions of that....

I LOVED ODST, especially Firefight mode.

I broke down and picked up Reach today (with the cooooool booklet). I will be on tonight.

Maniac...what is your gamertag again?

I liked ODST too, but didn't know enough people with it to ever really try firefight.

I'm enjoying it in Reach though.

BTW, it turned out that the Best Buy I bought it from had a 'problem' with giving out the DLC code. However, they were able to print one up for me. Since it was an actual item in their register, I suspect one of the clerks running the register yesterday was forgetting to add it to people's order.

Oh, Maniac and your Call of Duty hating ways...

Ok, Reach. Very good. MP super sweet. DMR, still fantastic. Pistol, Hell yes. Sprinting, finally here.

The MP is pretty fun right now. The bad people make for good DMR practice. A friend and I played a game that was 2 vs. 4 and won. That was awesome. Odds are (if it's as good as it looks) Black Ops could replace this game for the "play all the time" title, but Halo: Reach is definitely going to be played by me for quite some time.

And, Jarimy... Odds are, if you didn't like ODST, you aren't going to like Reach. I am unsure what you didn't like about it, though, so I can't really offer a definitive answer.

It's a to each their own thing with me because ALL of my friends play COD. Craig said he would play ODST with me, but every time I saw him on he was playing something else hahaha. Thanks Craig! Just messing. But I mean if all my friends play Halo, then I'd probably play Halo ya know?

In the Campaign for ODST I played for literally maybe 15 minutes. It just seemed really old looking to me, and just odd how it played. Maybe I am just so used to MW2 that I just couldn't get into it.

I agree with the multi-played in MW2 being stupid when people are yelling racist stuff, but I have been muting everyone but my friends for a long time now.

I'm not saying Halo is a bad game, it's just not one for me. It probably mostly has to do with the fact that almost all of my real life friends play MW2 and none play Halo. But I also specifically bought ODST because it was recommended on here, then nobody ever played it. So I actually blame Craig for it. Not really, but the game just never stood a chance for me. I sold it not long after.

I'll rent this to check it out, but all my money for games is reserved for the new COD and Fallout.

I don't hate it. I think I sound that way because I don't find it as good as everyone else raves it to be.

I am tired of the overly rediculous conspiracy theory games though, which both Modern Warfare Single Player campaigns have been. Perhaps also add in the fact that I played the hell out of the original Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear, and the Counter Strike Betas (note not the full version) and it kind of feels like 'been there done that' in some ways.

I will say the Spectre missions in CoD were a refreshingly brilliant addition to the genre.

Maniac nmt. I've got my heart set on playing through it again (once through it the first time) and beating it on Legendary. Halo 3 keeps bugging out and loosing my completed Legendary missions, but want to complete them all on Legendary (nevermind the 5k experience bonus for completing 5 levels on Heroic or higher).