In case you have been living under a rock or just don't care, Master Chief returns today in Halo 3 exclusively for the Xbox 360. Hardcore fans around the country stood in line taking advantage of retailers opening their doors at midnight to sell the hotly anticipated game to eager gamers. This third chapter in the Halo series marks the debut of the franchise on the Xbox 360 and the end of the Halo trilogy of action games in general. But not all was good news for Microsoft.

While sales of the game were brisk, some consumers who bought the special limited edition version of the game found that the packaging had scratched the game disc. And while these scratches didn't make the game unplayable, a scratched disc is still a scratched disc. Microsoft has already

responded on its Xbox Web site with details for a replacement program that allows customers encountering this problem to fill out a form and send in their scratched limited-edition disks for a free exchange through the end of December.

Microsoft is selling the limited-edition version for around $70 and the regular retail version for around $60, with a "legendary" version, which comes with a replica of the helmet worn by Master Chief, retailing for $130. The game officially went on sale early Tuesday. You can learn more about Halo 3 by visiting www.xbox.com .