Three Editions of Halo 3 Officially Announced

Microsoft has officially announced the three different editions of Halo 3 that will be released to stores this fall: Halo 3, Halo 3: Limited Edition, and Halo 3: Legendary Edition.

Halo 3 will simply be the game, DVD case, and manual itself, retailing for approximately $69.99.

Halo 3: Limited Edition will contain a bonus disc featuring documentary material, an art/story book, and come in a metal collector's case with plastic sleeve like many other standard Xbox collector's titles (save that it's a large metal case like the Gears of War Collector's Edition. This will retail for about $79.99.

Halo 3: Legendary Edition comes with a second bonus disc mainly featuring re-mastered cinematics from the first two games, and it comes in a Spartan-II Helmet case based on the Mark VI Mjolinir armour. Also included will be a collection of original storyboard art. This package will retail for $149.99.

Now, these different editions remind me a lot of when The Lord of the Rings was released to DVD. You could get the basic theatrical version, and this was fine and inexpensive for the casual fan, or you could wait for the 4-Disc Special Extended Editions that certainly cost more, but where expanded cuts of the films adding anywhere from an extra 30 minutes to full hour of story and character development, plus including several hours of doc material.

You could also have purchased the Collector's DVD Gift Set which featured some nicely crafted bonus piece akin to the Spartan-II helmet here. And while it would have been cool to have owned some Argonath bookends, the insane cost was just to much for all but the craziest and most hardcore of Tolkien fans.

So in a nutshell, I'm a huge Halo fan, I'd love to have the Legendary Edition, but not at that cost! You're paying an extra $70.00 for storyboards, cinematics you probably already own, and of course the Spartan-II Helmet case. I'm sorry, but I fail to see the worth and would gladly use that $70.00 to buy, oh I don't know, a second video game!

More pics available at TeamXbox here.