Halo 3, 546. Ed, 0

I bought a 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew's "Game Fuel" flavor, the bottle adorned with the Master Chief and Halo 3 stuff. As a Halo 3 fanboy I was contractually obligated to buy it. However, it tastes like a combination of bad bubble gum and Nerds candy. Despite it's foul taste, I'm amazed they got those flavors in there. Good work guys.

Halo 3 Is Driving Me Insane

Here is a brief history of me and Halo:

• Halo 1 is released for the XBox. At the time, I thought the XBox was a piece of crap and loved the GameCube.
• I play Halo 1 for the first time. I tell everyone who will listen that the game is way overrated and a piece of crap, citing the lack on online MP (no XBL at the time) and repetitive level design.
• I win an XBox in a raffle.
  
• I go and buy Halo 1 and a second controller, because, hey, everyone's doing it, and I play it a lot.
  
• My fraternity hosts regular 16-player 4-TV Halo fests. I participate (in the words of Boon from Animal House: "It's a fraternity party. I'm in the fraternity. I have to go.") but tell everyone how bad the game is.
• In one game, I have no fewer than four successful flag captures in the Warthog, at least one from each spot. I realize that the beauty of Halo lies in one place: the Warthog.
• I play lots of Halo 1, still telling people it sucks.
• I camp out for Halo 2 on November 9th, 2004, then stay up all night playing.
• I beat Halo 2 on Heroic on November 21st.
  
• I buy XBL on November 22nd because I can't stand missing Halo 2 MP.
• I proceed to play almost 1200 games of Halo 2 online.
• The Halo 3 ARG, Iris, slowly drives me insane.

As hard as I try to not be a goofy fanboy, I can't; I'm making plans to camp out for Halo 3, I'm reading everything I can about it, and I'm generally pumped as all hell.

Could it be? Finally?

So the Halo 3 multiplayer beta went live last week. And I'm in it. Of course.

So where does this fall in terms of productivity? I almost feel like it's my job to play this game as much as I can before the beta is over, both because I feel some loyalty to Bungie to help them collect the data they want, and because it's a limited time beta, and I won't see Halo 3 again until September. But should I spent time on my website?

I've already given up on getting a formal video game review site working. I just don't have the time/money/crew to do what I dreamed of. But I could get a basic blog working, then add review functionality to it. And I could create the gamertype quiz I wanted to.

But, Halo 3. It's that good. :)