Halo 3 fanatics were out in full force Tuesday at midnight waiting to get their hands on the game's final installment.
Hundreds of people waited outside Game Crazy, near Alma School Road and Main Street in Mesa, to pick up nearly 250 reserved copies of the game for the Microsoft Xbox 360, said Dan Hendrix, manager of the store.
Halo 3 is the final chapter of a trilogy that originally debuted on the Xbox in 2001. The Halo franchise is a first person shooter game that involves battling different species from various outer space planets.
Apollo Ruiz, a sports medicine junior, waited in line for about three hours at Game Crazy.
"A lot of people want to see what this game is about because it's been talked about so much," Ruiz said.
According to xbox.com, more than 1.5 million copies of the game had been pre-ordered and the game was poised to shatter first-day entertainment sales records.
Freddy Sandoval, an undeclared freshman, said he came directly from his job to pick up his copy he reserved from Game Crazy.
Sandoval said he has wanted to play Halo 3 since last year and that he couldn't get his hands on enough information about the game prior to its release.
"I've been keeping updated as much as I could," he said.
Electrical engineering sophomore Chris Lieb said the Halo series was one of his favorites because users can compete with other gamers online through the subscription-service Xbox Live.
Biochemistry sophomore Steven Avenenti agreed.
"I'm going to get Xbox Live because of Halo 3."
Other Halo 3 fanatics' quests for the game took a littler longer.
David Carpenter, 21, of Mesa, was the first person to buy the game at Game Crazy after camping outside for eight hours.
Justin Gallagher, 22, of Mesa, was the final customer when he made his purchase at 1:45 a.m.
"Just getting Halo itself is good," Gallagher said, adding he didn't mind being the last guy to get the game.
Reach the reporter at: drew.dickman@asu.edu.
