"Halo 3," Microsoft Corp.'s highly anticipated first-person shooter game, was well received on Sunday by game reviewers, who gave it perfect ratings and said it would definitely be one of the year's best.
The game, the final chapter of a trilogy that began in 2001 with the launch of Microsoft's original Xbox, is set to go on sale at midnight Tuesday. It already received over one million pre-orders by Aug. 9, according to media reports.
Gaming news Web site GameSpy gave "Halo 3" five stars, its highest ranking, saying it was so good that it was worth buying an Xbox 360 just to play it.
"Quite simply, 'Halo 3' is the reason the Xbox 360 exists," GameSpy said.
Dan Hsu, editor-in-chief of gaming magazine EGM, gave the game a perfect 10 rating.
"It's such a huge package. It's hard to imagine something gamers don't like here," Hsu said.
Microsoft has predicted its entertainment and devices division -- home of the Xbox 360 console, its games studios and the Zune media player -- will finally make a profit this fiscal year after more than 5 billion U.S. dollars in losses since the Xbox was launched in 2001.
Halo 3, the 60 dollar game with its army of supporting merchandise, would be a major contributor to that.
Microsoft has said it expects initial demand to surpass that for 2004's "Halo 2," which racked up 125 million dollars in its first 24 hours.
Since "Halo 3" is the game industry equivalent of a new "Harry Potter" book or "Star Wars" movie, few expected the entertainment blockbuster of the year to be a flop, the reports added.
Source:Xinhua/agencies
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