So Halo 3 is officially out, and nerds the world over are behaving like this:

That photo’s from the Times, where they also have a pretty good story about the whole phenomenon.

“In our first few hours on sale, all signs indicate that we will indeed have achieved the biggest entertainment retail day in history,” Microsoft said in a statement.

“This is the Mecca of the video game world right here, right now,” Carl Gunther, a 23-year-old marketing researcher from Brooklyn, said Monday night as he joined hundreds of other fans in a long line outside a Best Buy in Midtown Manhattan.

“Halo is the Star Wars of this generation,” Mr. Gunther added. “Thirty years ago my father waited in line to see Star Wars, and I know I’ll tell my kids I stood in line to buy Halo 3. It’s like saying you were at Woodstock or something.”

Okay, so that’s a bit hyperbolic, but still. The sad part for a whole lot of gamers who camped out? When they finally got the game, the discs were scratched. Nice one, Microsoft.

Anyway, anybody got it yet? It’s supposed to be pretty solid. (We’ll have a review in next week’s Mercury.) Do share what you think, because I have no idea what it’s like: Since I’m an idiot, I pre-ordered my copy on Amazon, assuming they’d send out early so that it’d arrive on Tuesday. But yes, as one particularly jackassy junior high teacher of mine was fond of saying, “Assuming makes an ass out of ‘u’ and ‘me’,” and no, Amazon didn’t send it out early, so now I get to wait until it arrives. (Actually, wait—I’m not the idiot, Amazon is. Why the hell couldn’t they send it out early? Whatever. Nice one, Amazon.) So now instead of playing Halo 3 in my sweet homemade Master Chief armor, I just get to wear it while I sit around my house (it chafes), occasionally checking my game’s excruciatingly slow shipping status online. Apparently they’re shipping it via tortoise; it is currently in Allentown, Pensylvania. And the disc’s probably already scratched to shit. Alas.