I hope I don’t pay for this kindness later in life somehow, but earlier today I awoke at the crack of noon to find that I had been invited to participate in an early release of the Halo 3 multiplayer for the 360. You’ll forgive me if I keep this short and to the point.

This Bungie.net link will lead you to a pretty great video that will give you an idea what the Halo 3 multiplayer will be like.

I have to say, so far it’s the most polite bunch of gamers I’ve ever run into. Or run over. It’s a gentleman’s game right now – but I’m sure the course language will return when the beta goes public next week (you need to have already purchased a specially marked copy of Crackdown.)

My first impression is that this is the game that console gamers have been waiting for. It's still Halo, but there are a lot of cool new ways to murder people – and it looks and sounds just amazing. I never played Tribes - but I have been told that this new games has many excellent elements of that one. Lots of equipment to play around - portable gravity lifts, shields, mines.

Unofficial numbers have put pre-orders for Halo 3 at 4 million. At 59.99 a pop that should help Microsoft stave off bankruptcy for a while.

It will be very interesting to see what effect Halo 3 will have on the console wars because:

If that ends up being true – those are gamers that are buying the already successful 360 – and not the sad sack PS 3, which needs a price cut and something, anything exclusive that will get people excited.

Now, I am off to outer space. Farewell.