Greetings from rainy Langley outside of London, where I'm in town for a few days doing something almost, but not entirely, unrelated to Halo 2; something I hope to rectify in approximately 12 hours or so. In the meantime, of course, I returned to notice that the server logs had filled up the server's disk space, effectively closing the site; hopefully that won't happen again for... oh... at least another 24 hours or so.

Shadow at Sector 7 relates how clams, cigarettes, sleep deprivation, aurora bourealis and nausea combine to make a memorable experience of buying Halo 2 from GameStop. Editor's Note: We made a short note of Shadow earlier; he got his hands on Halo 2 slightly earlier than most because he helping out the store by lending them his Xbox for display.

Taylor Whitfield of the Paly Voice, the online paper of Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, California, has a rather interesting figure quoted in their article on Halo 2 midnight madness:

"This is definitely the biggest turn out we’ve ever had," said Tyler Durden, manager of Game Stop."

Sounds like a lot of people have been breaking the first two rules of Halo Club. Thanks for the heads-up to vector40.

News outlets seem continually amazed at the turnout to pick up Halo 2 at midnight launches around the country.

Several posters in the Bungie.net forums are warning that they received empty boxes with no Halo 2 game inside, especially when purchasing Limited Editions. This is probably because some game stores removed the disc from the case for security purposes. If your box isn't shrinkwrapped when you get it, check before you leave the store to make sure the game is inside!

[image:8701 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]Blackstar of Blackstar Productions sent in a series of photos from the midnight opening of his local EB where he picked up a copy of Halo 2. There's also a writeup of his shopping experience: