Halo 3: breaks sales records and GPAs.By Matthew Walters / Contributor

Halo 3 was released Tuesday, Sept. 25 to an anticipating audience. Beginning at midnight, the game sold $170 million in copies opening-day, making it the most successful video game title ever.

Halo and Halo 2 combined have sold 15 million copies worldwide, so anticipation was high for the final installment of the Halo trilogy. With Microsoft and Bungie, the games developer, claiming the same thing, Halo 3 will be epic, gamers were excited.

“Its an impressive game, but not much more than Halo 2,” Junior Sergey Blyakhor said. Blyakhor felt that the sequencing was really bad when it came to the storyline and that it felt rushed.

“Its not as epic as I’d like to imagine it would be. They hyped it up too much. It’s still a good game on its own merit.”

Blyakhor enjoys the new variety of weapons and the multiplayer additions, like the ability to edit the spawn points for objects on the map. He thinks it is great that they added four person co-op in the storyline.

Others aren’t as pleased.

“Terrible. I beat legendary in a single day. Only nine levels and the story has no ending,” Senior Chase Richardson said.

“Online is definitely sweet,” Richardson said. He said he was amazed one night when he went to play Halo 3 online and saw that over one million people were playing it.

According to Bungie’s website there have been over a million people playing Halo 3 online every day since its release.

“It’s Halo 2, only prettier,” Freshman Kevin Cline said. However, Cline likes the multiplayer and how it brings people together. Cline skipped one class and failed a test because he was playing Halo 3 instead of studying.

“I was expecting more,” Sophomore Jayson Spangler said. He said he still loves the game and enjoys playing the multiplayer.

“I haven’t done as much work and studying as I should have,” Spangler said. Spangler started playing Halo 3 with his friends shortly after the midnight release and continued until early morning. He skipped one of his classes to catch up on sleep and they finished the game later that day.

“Its not difficult to pick up. If you’ve played Halo 2 you’ll be able to pick it up like that,” Sophomore Fiana Clewell said as she snapped her fingers. Clewell is not about to get excited over Halo 3, but does enjoy the multiplayer portion of the game.

Though Halo 3 has been disappointing for some, the game has been a recording-breaking success and well-received.

“Love it,” Senior Jim Massarelli said.