Unless you’ve been living under that proverbial rock often referred to, you know that Tuesday was the launch of Gears of War 3, the long awaited, much drooled after third installment of the exclusive Xbox series. Some of you also know I had the Epic edition pre-ordered from the day it was announced. Being a huge fan of the franchise I couldn’t pass up on the included swag. I simply love the story background of Gears of War and being able to own part of its fictional history was the clincher for me.

I was a bit late to the Game Stop where my pre-ordered treasure awaited. As I approached the clock showed 12:03 AM and cars were already streaming out of the parking lot. As I passed them I glanced into the open windows: gamers they were. I could tell this from the glow of the faces, the manic intensity of the eyes; they reminded me of excited dogs, heads leaning out from the car window, tongue lolling back from the wind, their ears pulled back and set on the prospect of the adventure hurtling towards them.

In the parking lot itself a few gamers remained, I suppose the calmer lot, chatting and comparing swag. One fellow named Steve was brandishing his Retro-Lancer. Dressed in fatigues and wearing his COG medallion proudly, he epitomized the excitement this game release has summoned among the Xbox gaming community.

Inside, the store was calm, the big rush over. I had unhindered access to the clerk and was soon on my way out the door with my large boxed Epic edition.

You are now probably expecting the usual “I got home opened it up and started playing!” passage. Well, that’s not what happened. You see I am what our younger readers would call in kindness an “older gamer” and more commonly an “old-geezer”. I more than doubled Steve with the Retro-Lancer in age. So, at my home at around 12:30 AM on a tuesday with two kids sleeping for school and no decent headphones to be had (kids  and headphones do not long last), there was no way I was going to get away with cranking up the Xbox to the screams of chainsaws and blasting of explosives. Instead, I opened up the box and delicately took out the artifacts. The level of quality achieved by Epic in the production of these Epic editions are a new standard in the industry. The mix of story background material such as the Octus Award paperwork for Adam Fenix, to the solemnly posed Marcus Fenix figure results in a product that will be hard, nay, near impossible for a competing franchise to achieve.

The next morning I took my treasures into the office and set them up in the Place Of Honor. Top shelf (gasp, even above my Star Wars stuff!). I added in my signed John DiMaggio print and stood back to admire. I was giggly-happy, and I hadn’t even played the game yet. What game has ever done that? Easy, none. There is just so much to this, it’s more than a game and gears heads know this. This explains all of the tweeted  body tattoos, the donning of fatigues by a young man to buy his dream game in the middle of the night, and the willingness of its fan base to go to extremes to support the franchise. I know its been said that the chainsaw lancer is the new lightsaber. I may not go that far, but sure as heck right now there is nothing closer.