The fuss surrounding the mysterious appearance and re-emergence of a Halo 3 poster in various stores across the U.S. has stirred the Halo 3 pot once again this holiday season.
The latest push to the story has been provided by reports on various, otherwise reputable gaming websites, some of which have even suggested that the poster may be a Bungie original. A closer analysis of the image however, provided by Halo gamers themselves, reveals that the image created is not only not an original but a poor attempt to mislead the public.
When an unannounced, officially not discussed and potentially non-existent game has its poster unveiled within the tiny confines of a gaming retailer, if the pictures of the poster are real, you do tend to think that some salesman has had too much free time on his hands. When the story is discussed on various websites you know that the holiday season has kept the news wires quiet.
The poster has also been discussed in distressing detail on various forums and it appears that the image used as the poster background originates from the map pack while the 3 which is the number that makes the difference, appears to be a rather shoddy edit of the number 2 from Halo 2. You can view a close-up and a gamer made version of the number 3 by following the screens tab above.
All this of course, is really not that important as game retailers, online or otherwise, have long been cashing in on gamer eagerness to be the first to experience the next-gen Master Chief. The combination of a poor 360 lineup and the popularity of the Halo franchise has proved too appealing to retailers to ignore but the fact remains that Halo 3 has not yet been officially announced. Anticipating a 2006 release date would involve a leap of faith even though Bill Gates himself did suggest that the game may be released in spring 2006, at about the same time as PS3 hits the streets.
