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A lifesize Master Chief made entirely out of Mega Blocks guards the exit to Halo Fest.

SEATTLE — Attendees at Penny Arcade Expo taking place this weekend here can go deep inside the world of Halo during Halo Fest, a three-day celebration of Microsoft’s groundbreaking shooter series.

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the launch of the first game, which gave the fledgling Xbox console its much-needed killer app and established Microsoft’s bona fides as a maker of awesome videogames, developer 343 Industries is giving fans a whole weekend’s worth of Halo activities at the show within a show.

They’ll be the first to get their hands on Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, a remake of the original game with high-res graphics and other enhancements that Microsoft will release later this year. They’ll be able to compete in a variety of tournaments based on the unreleased game. And there will be a host of panels in which fans will get the first details on many new Halo products — novels, toys, and even news about Halo 4.

Besides simply being a place for fans of the shooter to congregate and a big marketing push for the series’ 10th anniversary, Halo Fest is a stake in the ground for 343 Industries. Having taken the reins of Halo from Bungie, the developer that created it, 343 has to prove itself to the legions of fans, and throwing a big party to introduce itself seems like a good plan.

“Meeting the team is the biggest part of it,” said Frank O’Connor, 343’s director of franchise development, at a preview of the festival on Thursday night. “People have a natural trust and confidence in Bungie because [it has] delivered consistently for at least 10 years. There are a lot of natural questions about a new developer — we still have a lot to prove. We want people to meet us and we want to introduce ourselves to them, and let them know it’s still in good hands,” he said.

Last year, 67,600 attendees swarmed the Washington State Convention and Trade Center for Penny Arcade Expo, aka PAX Prime, a gaming convention run by the Penny Arcade web comic. This year, the biannual convention (a Boston show is held each spring) has grown again, with the pack of gaming nerds from around the world staking their claim on even more of downtown Seattle’s square footage. The weekend’s sold-out show will take over all six floors of the Center, some space in the Sheraton hotel and the nearby 3,000 seat Paramount Theater.

All that space still isn’t enough to fill demand: Passes sold out in May.

343 Industries expects a large portion of that crowd to hit up Halo Fest, which will be held in an annex building across the street from the convention center. The developer, an internal Microsoft unit tasked with the production of all things Halo, has loaded up the event space with many, many things for fans to do this weekend. Wired.com got a preview of Halo Fest on Thursday evening before it opened to the public. It is an impressive undertaking, and clearly a labor of love.

O’Connor and the 343 team knew they wanted to do a Halo fan-fest even before the Anniversary game, he said. “It’s an organic, homegrown project, not a Microsoft Publishing thing.”

Giant stands filled with playable game kiosks will let fans try out many new maps and features of Halo Anniversary, to be released Nov. 15. They can also check out the patch for the game Halo: Reach, which will make major improvements to the game’s multiplayer mode and allow it to interface with the anniversary game.

Two kiosks off to the side of the main game will let attendees attempt to drive a Warthog vehicle through a twisty, nearly impossible race course for $3 a try, with the money going to the Child’s Play charity. Drive the whole roller coaster and you’ll win prizes from Rooster Teeth, maker of fan-favorite web comedy series Red vs. Blue.

A massive Halo history museum features one kiosk with every game in the series, so you can remember what it was like to play the first Halo with that massive original Xbox controller. Across from this are glass showcases full of Halo memorabilia: A signed copy of the back issue of Computer Gaming World magazine that introduced Halo to the world, prototype Xbox controllers and more.

All the while, costumed Spartans, Brutes and other characters from the series will be walking the halls posing for pictures with fans.

Events like Halo Fest devoted to a single game are uncommon but on the rise. Most notably, Activision Blizzard holds an annual Blizzcon event for fans of its Warcraft and StarCraft games, which it is hoping to replicate for Call of Duty shooter fans with a convention next week in Los Angeles.

Fans will get to sit in on many panel discussions featuring the 343 crew, including Sunday’s big one: A discussion about Halo 4, which O’Connor says will have some exclusive news about the hotly anticipated — but not yet seen — sequel. While 343 won’t be showing any new footage of the game, they won’t send fans away empty-handed, he says.

“We have a couple of surprises that people shouldn’t get too bent out of shape about,” O’Connor says.

All photos: Chris Kohler/Wired.com