That sucks.More fuel to the Halo-haters :(

I just opened mine right now, and yep it was scratched.

I would hardly blame MS or Bungie. This was the manufacturers fault/the people who shipped/handled the game before they were placed on store shelves.

Only my extras dvd was scracthed not the game disc itself which plays fine

i picked mine up today at a local best buy. the guy in front of me took 45 minutes. he kept making the girl open the box, then he fully inspected each disc . he went through 4 boxes. i thought he was nuts until i read this!

At least they are giving us to Dec 31 to replace Halo 3 discs for free. I can play my game now and replace it later when I beat it.

@Sleeping_Orange:

Agreed

Wal-mart is so bass- ackwards about "customer service" that Mr.Chip's story doesn't surprise me.

MS is aware of the problem and already implementing a free replacement program

here's a link for the lazy
[www.xbox.com]

replacements for Halo 3 LE discs are free til 08, so get going.

I'm done shilling.

I didn't make a pre-order at EB Games like I usually do so I gave in and went to Best Buy. The first Collector's Edition I bought was completely scratched up. So I went to the Returns and Exchange counter where the Sales Associate and I opened Collector's Edition boxes until we found one where the disc was completely mounted and unscratched. :D The Essentials disc was a little scratched up but I don't really care. My boyfriend will be a happy gamer tonight when I hand Halo 3 to him.

@Megatenist: Um, Halo haters? I think the term you are looking for is "nutjobs". Who hates Halo? Sheesh.

Both my friend's and my LE copy of H3 was scratched up. Booth seem to play fine though, so its not really a huge deal I guess. Would've been nice if the discs weren't scratched though.

Big deal, the 360 is going to scratch up the disc as soon as you play it anyway.

Booya for opting for the "Regular" edition.

Suckers.

How about fixing it in the first place? They were eager to release a console with a shitty design a year too early just to get in the market and now look, they had to "spend" 3 million/billion (whats the difference to bill gates?) to fix the warranties which were shitty from day one of the original xbox (90 days on that and the start of the 360 gimmie a break)

How about finish your product then release it.

I picked up my legendary edition this morning and when I got back to the car, I realized that the discs were sliding around in the case. Took off the wrap and sure enough, both were scratched. Went back into Target & exchanged it. I opened the 2nd one at the counter and sure enoguh, it was scratched, too. Then I tried one from another case with the same result. After that, I just said fuck it and got the regular edition, which was of course, perfectly fine.

Mine was scratched but works. When I put the discs back in the case it felt really secure so I dunno if they machines didnt push down hard enough or what.

@ STARTINGACES: Yeah. Pretty sad that the Regular edition has a better case than the Collector's and Legacy one. :P

That sucks for a lot of people, but I can't help but chuckle.

@bluegus32:

Funny you should mention it,but here at my work,there's was a guy who came up to my desk,and started to discuss how "horrible" and "stupid" Halo 3 was.(Probably because I have a couple of Halo posters on my wall and a screen saver.)

I'm sure it was a coincidence that he was wearing a Heavenly Sword T-shirt....

I've played videogames all my life (I'll be 22 on Oct.1), and I'll have to admit, I've never played 1 minute of "Halo". Just doesn't look interesting to me. The entire aspect of playing online against people, really doesn't seem sensational to me one bit. I guess it just never caught on as something I'd care to do, and or, ever play a game, be it against a computer, or against people from Japan, with any form of "packet-loss" whatsoever. Doesn't seem worth it. I donno, maybe I'm odd.

QQ

This is common for box sets, to the point that Amazon now warns you that DVDs in box sets may be loose.

I bought all five seasons of Babylon 5 as they came out in box sets, plus the movies, and every single box rattled on removal from the shipping box, but there were no playback problems. Not all scratches cause read errors, so don't panic.

If you think you have a damaged disc, use a damp cloth to wipe from the center hole radially outward to the edge of the disc, lightly, to make sure any contaminants are gone and any scratches are as clean as possible.

My discs were still attached and fine.

Luckily they still play... but like everyone's already said: It would have been nice not to any an imperfect looking disc :(

Halo 3 is running hot on my system (GPU: 55 C, CPU: 47 C). I have a feeling that scratched DVDs are just the tip of the iceberg.

It'll be interesting to see how many people have Ring of Death problems/issues in the next day or two.

@LowerHouseMember: Hi Mr. Troll. How are you doing.

@landu13: Did you even BOTHER to read the f**king article?? This has to do with the game media. Read the articles before you open you damm mouth and start blabbing on stupid nonsense that has nothing to do with the article.

@y2julio: You're right, I'm just trolling. I couldn't possibly be speaking from personal experience here. I'll take care next time before I insult the perfect magical wonderbox 360.

I was in line last night for 4 hours waiting on my legendary edition. The game shop manager told us to bring our scratched game disc back to his store and he would replace it. If it was a bonus disc we'd have to deal with MS. He also heard that MS was shipping out entirely new units as opposed to just the disc.

@LowerHouseMember: Label it as such. Not like the blanket statement you gave. I own 23 games on my 360. NONE of them have been scratched by the 360.

So what? It's not like the game was bad or it caused the consumer harm. The limited edition packaging wasn't able to stand up to the rigors of shipping-- big whoop. The discs are still playable and MSFT already has a replacement program, meaning that people can send their discs back at their leisure. Even the bit about WalMart not wanting to open up all of their Halo 3 for the guy, though frustrating for the concerned, is somewhat understandable. The whole story is mildly interesting, and that's all it is.

@y2julio: I own the 360 and I like it, but sorry that I'm not bending over backwards to defend its honor whenever it gets talked about online. The point is that discs are going to get scratched at some point whether they came packaged that way or not. As long as the game still works, what's the problem?

@Megatenist:

As long as Halo players are busy with Halo and stay away from Team Fortress, I'm happy.

    My son reports that his Gamestop copy of H3 is playing fine. I'll be lucky if I can pry him away from his 360 to eat dinner, tonight!

@Megatenist: I liked that game better when it was called "God of War."

Someone along the supply chain fucked up pretty good, but luckily the consequences aren't significant.

@Megatenist: Where are you working where you have Halo posters on the wall and guys are walking around wearing videogame t-shirts? I'd probably get sent home for that. ;)

I just picked up my regular edition pre-order at Best Buy and they were opening a huge stack, at least 50 of these, looking at the discs. I remarked that the pre-order folks must've been irritated and the depressed supervisor said, "Sir, these are the pre-orders."

How many of these screw ups can Microsoft endure?

It was just the extras DVD. And it's only the Collectors copy. The standard and Legendary editions are unaffected.

@ViperBorg: It was just the extras DVD. And it's only the Collectors copy. The standard and Legendary editions are unaffected.

NOPE.

Both discs in the CE are attached the exact same way so it's a gamble. In my box the extra disc stayed on but the game is scratched up.

If it hasn't been already said, defective media can be exchanged. The vendor will be able to return it to the publisher as defective.

@warf0x0r: That works if you bought in the store. I ordered from Amazon for convenience. Now at the very least I have to box the thing up and ship it back, defeating the entire purpose.

@TechnoDestructo: Team Fortress Forever!

(hmm, that sounds hauntingly familiar for some reason...)

@tcolberg: Oh shut up. It's simple, when you buy something new you expect it in pristine condition. Just because it "works" doesn't negate that fact.

"*BONUS FEATURE: Each Collectors Edition Disc has been personally scratched by Master Chief himself."

@02J: Legendary were supposed to come in two DVD cases...I haven't seen reports of this changing.

That said, my cheapo version is protected, and that's all I care about. Now if only I could get off work early for it.

@kidwei:
I'm a sale rep for a certain computer manufacturer:)

Our dress code is pretty lax.

I read this story this morning. When I picked up my son's Collectors Edition this afternoon, I started to tell the guy at my local Gamestop what I'd read, and he finished my sentence for me. He had my son open it, found it scratched, and pulled the disc from a regular copy and replaced it on the spot. He put it in a paper sleeve to protect it too. Happy consumer, here.

Who cares that the disc's scratched? It still costs 60-70 clams and takes only 6 hours (of boring rehashed environments plucked right from the first game and stilted cutscenes) to get through.

Luckily Bungie added a feature that overwrites your single-player progress when you start an online co-op game, so you have to complete it again anyways! Even with the great online multiplayer, this game is definitely not worth what they're charging for it. I feel ripped off even worse than when I bought Halo 2. Of course, YMMV.

@y2julio:

Dude, you don't even need to read the article, the fracking TITLE says all you need to know.