Halo: Reach Sydney midnight launch

Since the announcement of Halo: Reach at last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, Halo fans have been eagerly waiting to get their hands on Bungie's final game in the Halo universe. Set on planet Reach, the game follows a group of Spartan special forces soldiers who are fighting a losing battle against the Covenant in a bid to stop them from taking over the planet. Halo veterans will already know how this story ends, but that didn't stop nearly 200 people from lining up last night outside of the EB Games store in Blacktown, Sydney, to get their copy at midnight. The retailer provided plenty of distractions, such as music, drinks, food, and two Kinect demo stations, to keep people entertained while they waited. GameSpot AU went along to cover the event, so check out the photos below to get a glimpse of some of the action.

While waiting in line, customers could get their photos taken against a green screen and have it Photoshopped onto a Spartan body.

Two Kinect interactive demo units--showing off Kinect Sports and Dance Central--were on hand for customers to play. People yelling "You got served!" was not the sort of trash talk we expected to hear at a Halo launch.

EB Games gave out goody bags to the first 300 people who turned up; suffice it to say, the pile of bags didn't stay this large for very long.

"You can't get in with those shoes, sir." A UNSC marine and an ODST trooper guarded the counter as people paid for their preorders in the lead-up to midnight.

Multiply these boxes by about 50, and that's an indicator of how big the mountain of Halo: Reach boxes was out the back. Thankfully, no EB staffers were killed by falling boxes during the midnight launch.

With just minutes before Halo: Reach went on sale, people were lined up at every possible angle around the store trying to get in. The staff did a good job of controlling the crowd and maintaining a steady flow of customers.

Jayden Ashworth from Eastern Creek was one of the first people in line to get his game and politely posed for photos with Master Chief and his entourage--they were packing serious firepower, so it's not like he could say no!