Newegg has had it for $30 after coupon. I don't know if that's still valid though.

Not sure if you are buying anything else this fall, but it qualifies for B1G1 50% off at K-mart. Offer is valid on Halo, MW3, Skyrim, Saints Row 3, Assassin's Creed, Rayman and Need for Speed: the Run.

I would like Skyrim, but I know I just won't play it much right now (it will probably ruin Oblivion for me too, which I haven't finished yet). Thanks though, I'll look into that deal (does it work with a Kinect by chance?)

Feels odd to pay so much for (based on my cheap standards) but I know I'll play it a lot and could use the map packs.

Just the titles I listed.

For all those people that ordered from Newegg, my order was updated to shipped earlier this morning.

Eh, I will probably pick it up when it gets down to $20. Playing through co-op again would be pretty fun, but I'm not paying $40 for a 10 year old game.

It was $5 for me in today's Kmart sale, so I couldn't resist.

Does that mean you bought another $60 game at full price, got this one at half price and applied a $15 gaming coupon to this one item? If so, that's some "fuzzy math".

In this case it's not fuzzy math at all. I had a $15 gaming coupon, applied to this game after 50% discount was taken off. The game cost me $5.

So $7.50 off each game.

Okay, that's one way to look at it, if you fold three games worth of discounts into a single game purchase. So to rephrase, you bought two $60 (or perhaps one $60 game and one $40 game -- don't know what you got that $15 coupon from) at full price and then got another $40 game for $5. That's not a bad deal but there have been many, many deals recently at different retailers where you buy two $60 games at full price and got another $60 game for free, which is a considerably better deal.

My copy arrived from New Egg today! Pretty fast free shipping. Nice slipcover too!

I played the maps last night in Reach. It was a blast. 343 beefed up the Reach Pistol to put it on par with the original Magnum. Holy shit it took some getting used to again. It nearly renders every other weapon useless. I wonder if that is only in the Anniversary playlists or an overall improvement for all of Reach.

However, we really got hosed on maps. I kept waiting for favorites to pop up so I had to look it up this morning. After 10 years I had forgotten how many maps the original game had. They basically gave us 25% of the maps.

In Anniversary:
Battle Creek
Damnation
Prisoner
Hang 'Em High
Timberland (PC Map)
Breakneck (Halo 2 map)
Installation 04 (Firefight only)

Left Out of Anniversary:
Derelict
Chill Out
Blood Gulch
Wizard
Longest
Rat Race
Sidewinder
Boarding Action
Chiron TL-34

PC Exclusives:
Death Island
Danger Canyon
Infinity
Ice Fields
Gephyrophobia

They gave us 1 PC map so those are clearly on the table, so out of 20 maps, they gave us 5. I guess in the DLC line of thinking, 5 for $15 is acceptable, but as a $40 title, that's pretty fucking weak.

Yeah I agree. I got it too, but haven't had a chance to play it yet.

Some of the CE maps were forged and are pretty good remakes they were in a playlist called Team Classic, I don't think it's still active anymore though.

how is the actual campaign? aged well? cool to see the comparison in graphics?

It's crazy to see a Halo thread, on the third day after launch, not have one post about gameplay. The MW3 thread has been on the same page since Sunday...and the Assassin's Creed post has been on the same page since last Wednesday, isn't anyone playing these new games? This is a weird year for games I guess.

I'd forgotten how much harder this game was on Legendary compared to the later games. It's still a blast though, and the graphics look great, even though they're a little jarring laid over the top of stuff that still looks 10 years old (specifically the way the characters move and the way the cut scenes are blocked out... we've come a long way in 10 years).

I played thru the first level on easy just get see what it looked and played like. It was like a nice old comfortable shoe. Fit just right and brought back good memories. The graphics update is super impressive when you hit the back button to compare...especially the water effects. The game plays exactly like it did originally.

I just wish you could switch back during the cut scenes. It appears you can only look at the old graphics during actual gameplay. Once you push the button, there is an approximate 2 second fade to black when it switches back and forth.

Flipping back and forth between the old/updated graphics, it's downright shocking how bad the original game looks in comparison. I mean that as a compliment... the original game made so much out of so little, and went for a very specific and unique look that worked well within those limitations.

I don't know when I am going to be able to play this, though I do have it already...I can't wait to do this on Legendary and see how much my 40 year old reflexes have slowed down in 10 years...

I gave the Pillar of Autumn some time last night and, the difference is astounding. I'm going to have to pop in the original Halo disc though to compare. The difference is so great, it almost feels like they downgraded the original graphics to make the HD look better.

The "original" graphics on the Anniversary disc are actually better than the CE XBOX game.

They're uprezzed to 720p (or thereabouts), whereas the original game was only 480p.

I've really been on the fence about buying this. I watched some video comparisons today and decided against the purchase (I think, lol). My main problem with the new graphics are...the Halo series has already been upgraded, and Reach looks spectacular, so the remake looks like that. If we hadn't had a Halo game since Halo: CE or Halo 2, the Anniversary would be remarkable to see, but it just looks like more of what I've been used to for the last couple Halo games. I'll probably grab it in the spring when I'm looking for something to play, but for now...no sale.

Finally got to playing this and had a blast running through the intro. It takes a minute to get used to the different style again, but it was great.

Did the cut scenes seem really jumpy/jittery for anyone else?

Finished over the weekend. The game was a blast. I was amazed how much I'd forgotten. The hidden terminals add quite a bit to the lore, i.e. make it less confusing. 343 did an amazing job with the HD visuals throughout. I loved being able to change it back and forth on the fly for comparison. Getting used to how things "used" to work took an adjustment. Vehicles work different, weapons, etc. Hell I finished the game and never did find a controller layout that felt completely right.

I'd say it's definitely worth picking up on the cheap. It'd be an easy recommendation if they included all the MP maps, but they fucked that up, so I'd recommend it for around $20.