To play Halo 3 or to not play Halo 3?

Yes, the biggest sequel in gaming history was released yesterday. And no I don't have my copy yet. I was going to spare myself the trash talking fanboys and wait to pick up a used copy. Why? Because I haven't even the first one yet. But with all the stories about metal Limited Edition cases scratching disks I think I'd rather pick up a new copy thank you very much. But when will I play it?

The only part of Halo 3 I would play right now would be the multiplayer. While I"m sure this would be a lot of fun I wouldn't want anything . . . or anyone to spoil the ending of the saga. There's nothing like letting the excitement build up over a good story only to have someone spill the beans (intentionally or accidentally, it doesn't matter) and have the story ruined for you.

When the Star Wars prequels came out I had to stop paying attention to news reports and all that internet chatter because I didn't want anything to cheapen my experience with the movies. I did the same with the Harry Potter novels. It was kind of hard to live in a world the two weeks before Deathly Hallows came out where everyone wanted to talk about whether Harry lived or died or whether Snape was good or evil.

I've only briefly played the first Halo game. I've also only briefly played a few multiplayer matches on Xbox Live in Halo 2. It's not like I didn't like the game, it's just that I had so many other games to play at the time. I go through phases in what type of game I like to play and when Halo came out I was in my "nothing but RPGs" phase. Where does a shooter fit into that? When I finally got into a shooter mood I was playing Star Wars Battlefront every night on Xbox Live. Was I suppose to stop playing with my friends so I could play alone? I was having too much fun to do that.

Now Halo 3 is out and everyone is playing it. I got on briefly last night and 12 of 17 friends were playing the game. And I noticed some of them were friends who said they would never get the game. Now I want to play with them. That is why they're on my friends list after all.

In order to get caught up in the story I'd have to play through Halo and Halo 2. That's a lot of game time to make up before someone ruins the plot for me. I've already had to skim through reviews so I wouldn't be given too much information on the story line. And with just a couple hours of gaming available each night I would be consumed with playing nothing but Halo. Do I really want to do that?

I'm sure I'll eventually get a copy of Halo 3. It's hard for me to pass up a good game in a genre I like. I just don't know when or how much of it I'll be playing for awhile.