Just woke up, feeling a little nostalgic this morning.
I'll always remember the hype for this game, it was unreal. Obviously nothing can compare to Halo 3, but this is a very close second. You had blurry videos coming out of trade shows people would analyze and go full sperg over. People losing their shit on Gamefaqs after being invited to try it. Then news dropped that Gamestop would be having playable demos in store.
Like, announcing that you could play the demo at another Gamestop location was an event. And ours got one and we drove over there in my friends shitbox that had a roof leak fucking somehow that we ended up making a detour to the store to tape up and we made it, and there was a bit of a crowd but we got our turn and it was so damn fun. Easy pre-order. I couldn't wait.
People were actually buying Gamecubes as they made their pre-order, and this did become a common thing since Gamecube was only $100 at the time. This game for sure is responsible in a big bump in the Gamecube sales numbers. X Play mentioned doing it in their review as well I remember.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLCwqzTRVrQ
Just miss those days. Or, maybe just miss being young.