Everyone's Playing Halo 3

The long-awaited third installment of the X-Box video game Halo was released this week.  Within the first 24 hours of its release, the game rang up $170 million in sales and more than 1 million people logged on to play. 

The game features a variety of weapons used to fight aliens and other humans along with vivid imagery of the effects of this violence. Though the game is rated M for mature audiences, it is very popular among teenagers, in part because it is so heavily marketed by a variety of kid-related tie-ins.  For example, Burger King and 7-11 have in-store promotions for the game and Mountain Dew has created Halo-themed packaging and cans, calling them "Game Fuel".

CommonSenseMedia rated the game "Pause" which indicates that parents should decide individually whether their child is developmentally mature enough to play the game.