I am writing this story for those who have bought the Halo 3 Collector’s Edition and got screwed on the whole scratched- disc deal. If you are worried about sending your damaged games off, you might want to read this...

Like some of you out there I bought the Halo 3 Collector’s Edition which clocks in at $69.99. Unlike some of these guys on these online gaming sites who had the game delived to the door by Microsoft personally for review (for free at that), my ass went out and waited 3+ hours in line and I also spent my own hard-earned money (yes, I have a 40 hours a week real job besides this one) for the Halo 3 Collector’s Edition.

So when I got home and saw that not one but BOTH of my Halo 3 discs were scartched to hell, I was pretty mad. To make matters worse my Halo 3 game disc was cracked in the inside and would not play on my Xbox 360 system. So I could not play it the game at all. This was bad because I had a review to do for the NLG site and how the hell was I going to accomplish that with a broken Halo 3 disc?

First, Wal-Mart could not swap the game because they did not have any Halo 3 Collector’s Edition’s left in their stock. I could have rented it up the street from where I live at a place called GameZone for $8 but why the hell would I do that when I just spent $75 on this game? Let’s just say I was not happy.

I managed to tough it out and put a review up on the fact that I went from my own broken down Halo 3 game disc to using my brothers disc (his is scratched up as well, but not as bad). I filled out the PDF form  that Microsoft has online to send in both discs and to have new discs sent back to you for free. On top of that I paid $8 for USPS priority. A week and a half went by with no Halo 3. Anger was pretty much building up as each day went by. After all, every time I would log onto Xbox Live, my friends would be requesting me to play Halo 3. But I didn’t have the game (and my brother had his disc back).

Finally Microsoft came through. They sent me both discs back brand new, not a scratch in site. I also recieved a free 1 Month Xbox Live Gold Card. The point of this story is that Microsoft had some problems with the Halo 3 Collector’s Edition case. They took care of it and they also took care of me with the 1 Month Xbox Live Gold Card... Not the greatest deal (hell, give me a master Chief helmet or something) but still a nice touch that shows that they know the have had some problems and they did something nice to make up for it. It also made up for the $8 USPS charge I had to pay out of my own pocket. After all guys... Microsoft is a huge company... and they didnt have to do crap for me or anybody else that had this problem but they did. I was a bit mad but they came though.

So if you have a Halo 3 disc that is in need of a fixing, don’t worry about sending it out. Microsoft will take care of you.