On Sunday at 4pm I beat the first “Halo.” On Monday at 1AM I beat “Halo 2.” At an undisclosed time on Monday night I beat “Halo 3.”

I write this not to brag but to publicly thank my wife, who allowed this to happen. I write this to explain what happens when you go on this kind of “Halo” binge.

I also write this to explain how I pulled this off and still managed to attend a wedding in Ithaca, more than 200 miles away from home, during this “Halo” weekend.

Hint: I have a very understanding lady in my life.

It all started in the middle of last week when I was invited by Microsoft public relations people to a “Halo 3″ review event, scheduled for early this week. I had attended a similar event right before the launch of “Halo 2″ in late 2004 (where I was called “Mr. Halo”). Aside from a 5-minute hands-on session of “Halo 3″ at this year’s E3, that 2004 event was the last time I played any “Halo” series single-player.

So when I got the invitation last week for the new event I knew I needed to do some catching up. My skills were rusty. I couldn’t remember the series plot. I’d never even reached “Halo 2″’s notorious cliffhanger ending — didn’t even know what it was — and wanted to be up to speed before starting “Halo 3.”

So I decided in the middle of last week that I needed to burn through the first two “Halo” games and needed to do it by Monday morning. That wasn’t challenging enough, so fate intervened: I found out I had to go to a wedding during the “Halo” catch-up weekend. My wife and I had been invited some time ago, but had been thinking recently that we couldn’t attend. On Thursday of last week our plan to attend was back on. And my “Halo” catch-up routine was in trouble. This was not just a scheduling catastrophe for me but another test of gaming tolerance for my already amazingly game-tolerant wife.

(In case you’ve read this far and are wondering just when I’m going to cough up some “Halo 3,” details, you’re out of luck. The first paragraph of the agreement I signed in order to attend the event states: “the information you will receive is confidential and proprietary to Microsoft, and by attending the presentation where it is divulged you acknowledge it is.” So I won’t say how long the game took me. I won’t say what I thought of it. I won’t even tell you who the main character is or what color armor he wears. Though I think you can make some safe guesses.)

So no spoilers about “Halo 3.” But how about some spoilers about my weekend?

Alright. So on Thursday night — still at home, while my wife was doing other things — I got a couple of hours in of the 2001 Xbox kick-off game “Halo: Combat Evolved.” I played it on my Xbox 360 via the wonders of backwards compatibility.

My first reaction? The game felt old. Frankly, it reminded me less of the just-passed era of PS2/Xbox/GameCube and more of the one before that. I had visions of Nintendo 64 and the first PlayStation dancing in my head. In the opening cut-scenes the characters moved liked robots. One did an about-face with the grace of RoboCop. I could practically count the polygons on the characters faces. The controls were tight. The strong, streamlined concepts that have been ripped off by so many other games — regenerating shields, a two-weapon carrying limit — worked wonderfully.

But the single-player campaign in that first game tired me in the way that a lot of old games I used to enjoy do when I replay them. Even in those first two hours on Thursday I grew weary of the amount of repeated content. The game made me fight a small variety of enemies through a series of similar (sometimes identical) rooms. The gameplay and controls held up. The single-player level design did not.

I was too busy on Friday to play any “Halo.” At night my wife and I drove to a hotel in Ithaca for the Saturday wedding. That drive cost me four more hours of potential “Halo” time.

But I had my 360 with me.

Let’s reflect on my situation for a second: perhaps you find it extraordinary that I was traveling with the 360 to a wedding and not yet been served with divorce papers. This amazing scenario occurred because my wife was going to have to do work of her own at the hotel on Saturday. So she’d be stuck in the hotel room writing for a freelance assignment. I’d be stuck in that room playing “Halo” and trying to get to “Halo 2.” My headphones weren’t compatible with the hotel TV, so she’d be stuck hearing “Halo” too.

Part of my weekend strategy was to blitz through the games on easy mode. Two weeks ago, before my schedule got tight, I mentioned this very thing and wondered what it said about me as a gamer. Unembarrassed, I stuck to my plan. Still, I couldn’t clear the first “Halo” before the wedding on Saturday. The next morning we drove home. I got back to the game at 2:30 on Sunday and finished it at 4:00. I struggled with the final driving mission, watched the credits and the final cut-scene and was done.

At 4:30 on Saturday afternoon, I started the sequel. “Halo 2″ was a revelation and a testament to how much more a developer can get out of a system on their second attempt. The second game’s graphics still impress. The first two levels — on a space-ship and then in an African city — are expertly paced.

Then … the levels got repetitious. The story got more confusing. And as it got later and I realized that I’d committed to start “Halo 3″ at an undisclosed New York City location at 9AM the next day, I started to panic. I began running through levels, skipping past firefights, probably missing opportunities to really have fun, and beginning to wish everything in the game was trimmed down.

I had started “Halo 2″ at 4PM, taken a break for dinner, and finished at 1AM. The cliff-hanger was as clipped as advertised (though not frustrating, given my plans for the next day). The campaign bore some of the same problems of repetition as the first one, but less so. The driving controls were easier. My favorite moments were early on.

Eight hours later, on Monday morning, I was playing the third game.

I guess it seems that I disliked the first two games. I didn’t. As single-player titles, they were pleasant if not spectacular when played in a crunch. My weekend binge gave me a strong sense of Bungie’s approach to a single-player campaign is. Bungie nailed multi-player in game one. I’m not sure they did the campaign. When I got to my 9AM session on Monday morning, I knew what I wanted to see Bungie do better — more level variety, more graphical variety, less revisiting of levels I had already been in, better sign-posting so I didn’t get lost as much — and had every reason to assume the third game would deliver. I can’t reveal whether they did. Not yet.

But I will recommend that people do this sort of thing before an anticipated sequel. If you have the time — and the patience of loved ones — it’s a great way to really feel like you understand the developer of the next game you’re excited to play.

I’m curious to know how often other people prepare for big games in this way and what those people make of the experience. Does it ruin the sequel or improve your appreciation of it?

And I wouldn’t mind hearing more stories about how the non-gamers in people’s lives have helped gamers realize their crazy dreams.

Expect more “Halo 3″ coverage soon…

(Recent Thing I’ve Also Done: Missed A Button - “Metroid Prime 3,” “Lair”)