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| The IMAX Experience | |
| Posted By: *THASF* A.K.A. The Halo And Sonic Fan <NOSPAMtmesisrevenge@hotmail.com> | Date: 8/22/07 3:49 a.m. |
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First, there was the announcement and the RSVP email option. I decided not to RSVP, noting that they would probably have thousands of entries from all across the world, even from those who were too far away to make it in time. Essentially, I thought it pointless to even bother. A little in the afternoon, I had chosen to abstain from playing Halo:CE or Halo 2 in the hopes that it would make the Halo 3 demonstration all the sweeter. So, I was playing GTA:SA on the PC with a weapon replacement mod to pass the time before I got the phone call from my mom to start getting ready. We had talked it over the day before and she was skeptical that we'd be able to get in, noting how big the Halo Nation really is. I estimated that around the time we'd start waiting in line... around 4:30 PM, there would be approximately less than twenty people there. So, we headed for the Pacific Science Center - an oxymoron, to be sure - and looked for a place to park. The street parking is murderous. Two-hour limits and no parking after 6:00PM for an entire block due to the damn bumbershoot event. So, we started looking for alternatives when an out-of-sorts fellow in a campaign T-shirt walked towards us and asked for directions to Pike Place Market. He said he'd come all the way from Texas and wanted to see it. I pointed out that it was down by the waterfront and my mother deigned to give more detailed directions following my feeble attempt. Choosing to park elsewhere, we scoped out a place that had parking specifically for the Science Center itself. Six dollars for ten hours after 4:00PM. Perfect. We stopped in space thirty and I stepped outside, my copy of Ghosts of Onyx and a Creative Zen Micro clutched near my chest. As I ambled up the driveway I noted a group of foreigners in front of the parking area's ticket machine. Naturally, they asked me for help. I hadn't a clue how to operate the thing, seeing as how the directions were so poorly laid-out. Easy enough to figure out on your own, though. Once they got their receipt, we got ours and set out towards the beginning of the line. As I walked along the path, I noticed there weren't any color posters or major signage. There was nothing to indicate the Halo 3 event that would take place in five and a half hours aside from a hastily-printed paper note taped to one of the ticket booths. Nevertheless, roughly seventeen other souls had lined up before us. Just as I had predicted. The pale-faced enthusiasts sized us up with stone-cold glares at first, but then quickly relaxed once they saw me as another of their number. The two benches in the area were already taken, so I just sat down and started listening to a few tracks on my MP3 player and reading a few pages from the book. Unfortunately, I didn't have the Halo soundtrack on my player so I resorted to the next best thing... the first few tracks of Battles' recent album; Mirrored. In the shadow of the Space Needle looming ominously above, I resigned myself to waiting several hours to see and hear OVER 9000 decibels of awesome. After about an hour of sitting on the pavement, I noticed that a few people were bringing the repositionable benches in from a small stash roughly a hundred feet away. These were some seriously heavy-duty benches with thick steel supports and sturdy purple plasticized seats. It took two people to carry one of these hundred-pound beasts, on average. I ran down and started lugging one up all by myself. I only got about thirty feet before my mom rushed in to help me, pulling it another thirty feet. Eventually, this awesome biker dude took her place and helped it up the final third of the way to our place in line. Now properly seated, we set our stuff on the bench and got ready for the long wait. Shortly thereafter, the sun broke through the overcast skies, and we used our umbrellas for shade. From the moment I walked near that crowd, my nerd radar had been tripped. I struck up a conversation with the dudes next to me, and sure enough. We talked at length about our escapades in Chromehounds, EVE Online, Halo and Halo 2 glitching/jumping outside of levels, Battlefield 2142. Halo 3. You name it, we discussed it. Turns out that neither of them had the chance to play the Beta, so I enjoyed the opportunity to discuss the changes made to the returning weapons and the effect of the new additions. A couple hours in, a bunch of people near the gates hooted as Bungie personnel made their way outside. "I think that bald guy is Frankie!" one shouted. As I parroted their elated screams, my mother was chagrined at our rudeness. By eight o'clock, the line had ballooned to over a hundred people, disappearing around a corner and backing up into the Experience Music Project. At that frantic pace, the sky quickly darkened and the time of reckoning drew near. My throat hoarse from hours of fulfilling conversation, I watched with rapt attention as the clock struck nine. We all stood simultaneously, our shoes clacking into the ground like ODSTs getting ready for the plunge. As we paced forth towards the gates, I shook hands with the three fellows that had sat closest to us and bid them farewell in case we got separated. As we were handed our free tickets at the front gates, those "gifted" few at the very front of the line stampeded into the building, hooting and hollering into the wind as they dove at their chance to see Halo 3 in the flesh. Walking through the halls, I came face-to-face with Marty and Frankie, continuing on by with a smile as I waved over my shoulder. Inside the halls of the IMAX theater, the sound of conversation was absolutely deafening. You had to be roughly one head's distance from somebody to hear what they were saying. My mother brought provisions, handing out Starbucks Frappuccino bottles, Aquafina and Junior Mints. At one point, a man whistled and his buddies shouted for joy at the top of their lungs, the effect of their shouts passing through the crowd like some sort of mob action. The sound was unbearable. Nevertheless, I pitched in with a shout of my own. Another hour passed and we moved from the blisteringly-hot halls into the air-conditioned theater, taking our seats as the Chief and the Arbiter did their idle animations in the campaign lobby. Dozens of people took photographs of the audience, almost in mock-protest of the no-cameras rule. I could've sworn I saw a camera flash facing the screen. You can bet there will be photos showing up. I didn't take any, but they're probably out there already. Some people played around and made shadows over the "Campaign Options" button. One guy even "hugged" the gigantic Master Chief with his shadow. "We love you, Master Chief. You big man, you!" "Don't know about the other guy, though." one guy said, referencing the Arbiter that stood off to the side in the Chief's shadow. People hooted and hollered even inside the theater. "We love you Frankie!" one shouted. "That guy's gay." another retorted. "You people are all muggles." Frankie spoke into the microphone. Laughter ensued. Frankie was signed in to play as the Chief and Luke Smith would play as the Arbiter. Luke went into campaign options and set campaign scoring to competitive mode, inadvertently showing how you can easily enable the skulls you've found in the Campaign lobby. Frankie muttered "you're a bad man, Luke", feigning disappointment that he'd have to compete with the latter's favored scoring method enabled. They fiddled with the difficulty settings and the crowd went wild as they hovered over Legendary, and booed just as quick when they hovered over Easy. People seemed a little bit disappointed when they settled on Heroic, which turned out to be tough enough for the pair. "We'd like to thank you all for coming. Some of you came from Portland, some from Spokane, even some from Enumclaw." Yadda yadda. My full attention was focused on the game. Any tidbit I could glean from the UI would be duly recorded in the fleshy databank in my head. Shortly thereafter, they loaded up Tsavo Highway, starting up in a Warthog garage where a Marine sergeant shouted about how we had to get the hell out of the tunnels. Luke and Frankie both took driver positions in two separate 'hogs, waited for a few marines to get in, and then they hit the road. The graphics were amazing. No complaints here. Frankie drove into a rock in the dark tunnels, flipping the 'hog and ejecting the Marines. People booed. He flipped it back over and drove off, leaving the Marines behind. Soon enough, the two left the tunnels and emerged into the bright African sunlight, the HDR lighting enhancing the effect tenfold. They drove through hanging cables from the ruined space elevator's remains, with the physics effects causing the cables to bend out of the way. Neat! Eventually, Luke got into Frankie's 'hog as a gunner, blasting Jackal snipers with the Warthog's LAAG. Sniper towers are now destructible, so one of their favored tactics was to drive the 'hog into the tower's dead zone at its base and shoot upwards, causing it to crumble into pieces. Brutes shouted at the Arbiter angrily, decrying him as a "traitor". The combat dialogue kicked ass. They continued on, annihilating a few scattered groups of five grunts, each headed by a Brute Captain. Every time they made the mistake of battling their foes on foot, snipers picked them off and Grunts and Drones suppressed them to death thanks to their glaring ineptitude. As they fought on foot, a Brute dropped a positional shield and retreated. Seems that lower-level Brutes don't survive too much well-directed firepower. Something like four or five BR bursts to anywhere on their body should do the trick. That's okay, though, because there are dozens of 'em! He died again. They booed. "Don't make me come down there." I quipped. With the checkpoint reloaded, it was back to the 'hog action, and this time... No getting out! If only for a short while. Eventually, they heard a Marine shouting that their convoy had come under attack. Just as the two rounded a corner, we got to see a pair of Choppers run down a Warthog or two, sending them flying. Needless to say, the Chief and the Arbiter were here to put a stop to that. Frankie grabbed an idle Chopper in the area (seeing as its driver had been gunned down by Luke and his LAAG), and demonstrated its effectiveness to us. It's like a Ghost. A Ghost that brutally rams stuff out of the way and fires mini-rockets that are slower-firing and a bit more powerful than Ghost plasma rounds but harder to aim. He drove it into a corner and died again as Brutes and Grunts encircled him with murderous looks in their eyes. They booed again. You may suck, Frankie, but we still love you! :D Luke had the common sense to duck out of combat and let Frankie respawn into the battle. The two got back in their hog and made their way to tunnel with a massive shield door blocking the way. In this part, you could hear what sounded like Truth prattling on about the significance of the Ark to their Great Journey or something like that. Hard to tell if he's been recast. Sounds like it... sort of. Could be the same guy, maybe. A flight of six or seven drones rushed out as Frankie got a little too close to the tunnel. Their plasma pistols made short work of him and he died again. Seems like they don't do as much damage to your health as they do in Halo 2, so it should be as totally cheap as it was before, with four drones murdering you in an instant. Needless to say, you'll definitely want to use your Warthog turret for this entire segment, especially on Co-op. Lots of firepower there. Once the way was clear, the two proceeded on towards a ruined highway. A Covenant Cruiser flew overhead. Okay, hold that thought. It flew overhead! WHOOSH!! Like, a giant spacecraft one kilometer above you, casting a shadow on EVERYTHING and screaming overhead as it plowed thousands of cubic feet of air out of the way. It was as if it were right in the theater with us! Creepy. That's something to watch out for come September. At that point, Luke and Frankie started attacking each other in mutual co-op griefing, ending the campaign demonstration on that note and switching to the Forge lobby. They demonstrated how easy it is to switch to a Monitor and start placing and moving/rotating all sorts of items on High Ground. When playing as a monitor, spawn points show up as visible icons that you can place elsewhere if you so choose. They also showed off the Gravity Hammer and its slow, mighty attack that can easily knock smaller unpiloted vehicles away and destroy them with a single blow. This thing can send your opponents flying away and down their shields with one hit. Devastating and hilarious all at the same time! Next, they demoed Saved Films on Sandtrap, pausing to show off the mighty Elephant and then unpausing to show a skirmish between four Warthogs and two Choppers. They did a freeze-frame for every awesome Spartan Laser moment, showing how you can step through in slow motion and watch Spartans fly from the forceful methods of doom enacted upon them. The lights went on and the screen went dark. After what felt like... two minutes... it was over. After waiting five and a half hours in line... forty-five, maybe fifty minutes of awesome. Gone in an instant. Frankie asked the crowd to check their tickets for the three Frankensteins that would signal a winner. Some people had already chucked their tickets. None of them could produce a winner. So he alerted the audience to an alternative method of winning the prize... the one sitting in seat G7 would be the winner. He stood and was awarded an autographed Legendary edition helmet (minus the game, of course). A spotlight shone as the small-scale replica MJOLNIR Mk. VI helmet glistened in the dark corner of the theater. The proud recipient held it above his head with glee. Someone behind us shouted "It's a long way back to your car, man!". May god have mercy upon his soul. As the crowd cheered and Frankie thanked us once again for coming, we filed out of the theater and faded like stardust in the dark night, this day forever etched in our memories. -*THASF*
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| Replies: |
| The IMAX Experience | *THASF* A.K.A. The Halo And Sonic Fan | 8/22/07 3:49 a.m. |
| Re: The IMAX Experience | Dragonclaws | 8/22/07 4:02 a.m. |
| Re: The IMAX Experience | *THASF* A.K.A. The Halo And Sonic Fan | 8/22/07 4:09 a.m. |
| Re: The IMAX Experience | darthbob | 8/22/07 4:02 a.m. |
| Re: The IMAX Experience | Izzinatah | 8/22/07 4:05 a.m. |
| Re: The IMAX Experience | darthbob | 8/22/07 4:08 a.m. |
| Re: The IMAX Experience | Hunt3r | 8/22/07 4:13 a.m. |
| Re: The IMAX Experience | Izzinatah | 8/22/07 4:16 a.m. |
| Wish i was there..:( *NM* | Spu7n1k | 8/22/07 9:18 a.m. |
| Oh, and just so nobody gets the wrong idea... | *THASF* A.K.A. The Halo And Sonic Fan | 8/22/07 4:19 a.m. |
| Re: The IMAX Experience | scarab | 8/22/07 5:18 a.m. |
| Re: The IMAX Experience | wolfman | 8/22/07 2:51 p.m. |
| Re: The IMAX Experience | Nate Moody | 8/22/07 1:08 p.m. |
| Re: The IMAX Experience | *THASF* A.K.A. The Halo And Sonic Fan | 8/22/07 1:53 p.m. |
| That was you? *NM* | LX925 | 8/22/07 7:05 p.m. |
| yep *NM* | SecretAgentCow | 8/22/07 11:57 p.m. |
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