HALO 3.

Sadly, or maybe not sadly, I have stopped playing video games. I'm not even sure if "playing video games" is the correct way to say it anymore. I still own a PS2 and have,in fact, purchased two video games in the last six month. Neither has ever been in the machine, but it felt good to buy them.

Over the last month I've been exposed to what I can only call "brilliant advertising" for Halo 3. It has moved me from a point of "what's Halo?" to the brink of purchasing Halo 3, which would require me to buy an Xbox 360 if I wanted to actually play it.

So here is a sample of the campaign that is making me rethink my abandonment of the gaming experience:

I love the simple piano music and the details of the model. It's brilliant that they actually built a gigantic diorama of the battle. For me, it makes the game feel like more than a video game; it makes it feel like a toy. It reminds me of when I was a kid. I used to set up and play out giant battles with GI Joe figures and Transformers on a an alien couch landscape or in the branches of a Christmas tree.

On the Halo 3 website, you can tour the diorama, zooming in and out of sections, watching videos, seeing little descriptions of characters or weapons and taking screen shots of the battle.

Check it out: HALO 3 SITE And here's a mock documentary about the building of the set.

In the end, I'm not buying Xbox or Halo 3. No matter how much I think I want it now, I know if I got it I would play it for about an hour, get frustrated and quit. At best, I'd sit and watch my friends play it for a few hours. I think the experience of owning the game would ruin my love for the advertising.

I suck at video games.