I was one of the thousands of video game nuts that went out at midnight and waited in line to buy Halo 2. Several of my friends got together and played the game until the wee hours of the morning. We're all single adults and I work nights, so this was not outrageous as far as my normal sleep schedule goes (as you can see from the regular 3 a.m. postings here).

However, what shocked me was the dozens of kids at the local video game store who were pre-teens and teens out, without their parents, playing in store-sponsored Halo and Halo 2 tournaments in the middle of the night on a school night. Several of the kids were telling their friends -- and everyone else in the store -- how their parents were allowing them to stay home from school today to play Halo 2 non-stop.

This sort of "parenting" method is completely foreign to me. It wasn't until my junior year of high school that I could even occasionally go out on a school night.

On a lighter note, there was one guy at the store that had me cracking up inside. This guy was probably in his early twenties and felt the need to impress everyone in the store with how "cool" he is. He told everyone how he planned to buy Halo 2 and then he would immediately take it home and pirate it. He was telling everyone about how he had hacked the original Halo and on and on and on.

I considered rolling up the cuffs of my pants -- the Bolshevik Storytelling was so deep.

The multiplayer element of the Halo 2 looks really good. If you've got an Xbox you'll want to get it. If you don't have Xbox Live, you'll want to get online and play this. Yes, this will affect blogging, but remember, you get what you pay for here at Hoystory.com.