Dylan Greene dot com

The pre-orders: Halo 2 has already broken records as the most pre-ordered game ever, with 1.5 million copies pre-ordered.

The reviews:
(from EvilAvatar.com)

Electronic Gaming Monthly: 10, 10, 10
GMR: 10
Game Informer: 10
Official Xbox Magazine: 9.7
IGN.com: 9.8
OXMUK: 10
XBN: 10
TeamXbox: 9.9
Gamespy.com: 5/5
Gamepro: 5/5
1up.com: 10
Extended Play (TechTV): 5/5
Gamespot.com: 9.4

Midnight Madness: 6,500 stores across the US will be opening their doors tonight at midnight so that geeks across the nation can get their game on as soon as possible. Store Locator

Why all the hype? Halo 1 came out three years ago and is still fun to play. The theory is that Halo 2 should be at least that much, if not more, fun to play.

The draw for it is multiplayer games. Halo 1 and 2 support up to 16 players, with up to 4 players per XBOX. Because it sucks to have your ass handed to you every time you play online against anonymous kiddies, Halo 2 has an automatic ranking system which ranks you as you play online. You are automatically assigned people to play against that are at your skill level, so in theory, the anonymous kiddies you are playing against are just as good or bad as you are. Of course you can ignore all that and just play against your friends, and XBOX Live has an IM-like friends system that shows you when they are online and lets you send voice messages, join their game in progress, and other cool tricks.

My XBOX Live Gamertag is Dylan. See you online.