KIRSTINA BOLTON | staff writer
KARMEN DeLANCEY | staff writer

Fans stood in life for hours outside retail chains to get their hands on the most successful video game trilogy in history.

The Halo trilogy is by far the most popular video game series in history. Halo 2 alone brought in over $126 million in its first 24 hours on the market.

Bungie Studios unleashed the final chapter of this video game phenomenon on Sept. 25.

This release has been hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as “the most anticipated video game of all time.” It has even been compared to a movie premiere. APU professors beware: Halo 3 may be the only homework on students’ minds.

What is it about Halo that keeps its players hooked?

“The game is just so above any technology right now,” freshman business administration major David Anderson said.

Halo 3 has been a fun challenge for creators, but what are they doing in their secretive video game labs to make Halo so incredible? Creators take an ingenious approach by adding more than just action and violence.

“They put a lot of effort into it and it’s a good product… you just get immersed in the game,” freshman history major Kirk Dahlstrom said.

Freshman music major Tiffany Becerra proudly claims she is a huge Halo fan and plays with her guy friends when she gets bored. The game doesn’t seem quite as violent and disgusting to her.

“It’s a good way to bond with friends… plus it’s a lot of fun to run around and shoot your friends,” Becerra said.

Some may claim they only ‘casually play’ when everyone else is playing, but most talk about Halo highly.

“I would definitely buy Xbox 360 just to play Halo,” freshman business administration major Bryan Ziebart said.

One reason the game is hailed with such passion is because of the unique option to play with up to 16 people.

“Halo Parties” are popular in the dorms. It is quite a sight to see hoards of students with their TV’s hooked together, speaking code into their headsets with someone on the other end of the world.

The game’s incredibly realistic graphics, coupled with the intense action that encourages people to spend much of their time shooting up the evil alien race known as the Covenant.

Junior nursing major Lauren Piercey waited outside the San Dimas Walmart with her boyfriend for two hours in order to snag a copy.

“There were at least one hundred people in line. I was surprised to see some old poeple too,” Piercey said. “There was a guy behind us who took off of work all day on Wednesday just to play the game, and another that was blaring the Halo soundtrack the whole time!”

Some APU dorm residents will say they have averaged 4 to 5 hours a day playing Halo, but it all changed when the homework started flooding in.

“We will play all night long. It gets kind of wild because you hold grudges against certain people,” freshman cinema broadcast arts major Bobby Rognlien said.

Despite all the obsessive Halo hype, many are not sad about this being the end of the Master Chief’s heroic space voyage.

“I think that with any trilogy, if you go more, then that it gets old. All great things come in trilogies,” Ziebart said.