I hope you moved your car over, because the Halo: Reach hype-wagon sure takes up a lot of space in the garage.

A press release from Bungie arrived in our inbox yesterday, announcing the existence of RememberReach.com, who's arrival gives those wandering, nomadic Halo: Reach fans a very specific website to stare at until the game's release on September 14, 2010.

Promising a "one-of-a-kind experience," RememberReach.com allows each visitor (with a Facebook account) to add a single point of light to a slowly-manifesting monument to Noble Team - the Spartan heroes of Halo: Reach.

In addition to this admittedly bizarre collision of fan-service and over-zealous marketing, visitors will also get to sample a series of live-action video vignettes, directed by Noam Murro, that depict the way of life for Reach residents as it was prior to all that nasty invasion business.

The website's concept is most certainly a crazy one, so I'll let the meatier parts of the press release do the explaining:

With the worldwide launch of the biggest blockbuster game of the year just three weeks away, Microsoft is calling all “Halo” fans to participate in a one-of-a-kind experience: the creation of a monument of light commemorating the heroes of Noble Team and the planet Reach. Over the next three weeks, visitors to RememberReach.com can contribute a point of light that will help form a dramatic monument to “Halo: Reach.” Along with the monument’s formation, a collection of three live-action short films from acclaimed director Noam Murro will be unveiled to bring to life glimpses of what it was like living on Reach just prior to the Covenant invasion.

Visitors can explore and contribute to RememberReach.com, where a continually regenerating sculpture composed of thousands of points of light will take form, produced by a state-of-the-art robotic installation. By guiding a robotic arm to their chosen coordinates, visitors will add another light to the sculpture, honoring the heroic Spartans in the most anticipated game of 2010. The monument is constructed by special camera equipment which captures and composites the movements and light pulses from the robotic arm, which visitors can see in action on the website.

As the community bands together to create a monument to the highly anticipated launch of “Halo: Reach,” they will also be able to access other content, including a collection of dramatic live-action shorts that capture a poignant snapshot of life on the planet Reach just before the arrival of the dreaded Covenant. The stirring vignettes offer an intimate look at the lives of citizens and soldiers on Reach prior to the legendary battle that set the epic “Halo” saga in motion.

Though it serves its place in today's gaming environment, I'm not one who gets excited for this kind of thing, I must admit. I'm a little too old, English and utilitarian to enjoy an activity such as this when it does not directly correlate to my enjoying the game that bears its name. In other words, the thing that excites me and get me pumped to play Halo: Reach is the anticipation of playing Halo: Reach; not coloring-in a monument with white dots.

Additionally, I find these types of marketing techniques, tasteless and over the top. Halo 3's obscene "Remember" ad campaign was in a  similar vein, though much more brazen, with live-action footage of aged 'veterans' who had served alongside Master Chief.

Ranters, do you enjoy this kind of PR? Does it stoke the fire of excitement for Halo: Reach in your belly? Sound Off!

Halo: Reach will be released on September 14th exclusively for Xbox 360.