Halo 2 is the game that singlehandedly pioneered Xbox Live in my opinion. At a time when playing against others online was still a new thing, Halo 2 came out guns blazing (literally) and set the gaming community on fire. Halo: Combat Evolve or Halo 1 was a big hit on its own but without being able to play against others online, it didn’t have the chance to reach masses like Halo 2 had from the start. When Halo 2 came out, everyone was talking about it and I mean EVERYONE. My brother and I had to share an Xbox live account, J H S 4 E, don’t ask what it stands for, its a family insider lol Sharing an account was the worst thing ever to my older brother. In a competitive game atmosphere that was brand new and thriving, the first online shooter that was readily accessible to most people, first game you got to play with your friends over the internet and he had to share it all with his little brother. In his defense it does sound pretty horrible to be honest, but hey sorry, not sorry! I had to get my piece of the action for myself! After a year or so and after countless fights my parents finally got me my own account, Robomonster, again don’t ask why because I have no explanation for that one lol Halo is a first person shooter game that follows the adventures of Master Chief. Master Chief, a complete bad ass, saves the world countless times and pulls off the unthinkable just in the nick of time so the people of earth can be safe. Set in I believe the 26th century, the game is very futuristic. The story of the Halo games are great, they have received many awards and some even say its the best game franchise of all time, but the mutlti-player has always been my favorite and continues to be the reason why I still play the game today. Halo 3 is really where my true love for Halo really started to blossom.
I remember the day I first saw and played Halo 3. It was kinda of close to my brother’s birthday and my uncle bought him Halo 3 as an early present. I came home from school and there she was, sitting right on our dresser, shinny from the clear wrapping over the game, Halo 3. If I had every hour I played this game back I could probably graduate from Cal State Fullerton and complete a Graduate program. I played this game so much and at one point this game was my whole life. The graphics were smooth and crisp, the gameplay was new and different, and the biggest change, I was older. Old enough to spend countless hours playing video games that is lol I also got grounded for like 3 months and my parents were the nicest parents in the world and let me play video games on the weekend and after hw sometimes. I know I got grounded and I still got to play games, doesn’t sound so harsh huh? Well I had no cellphone and couldn’t see my friends and to me that was the worst thing ever, no joke. My love for Halo grew to an outstanding level and it has stuck with me ever since. I stuck through the thick and thin with this game franchise. From bad games to studio changes I’ve seen the rise and fall and somewhat comeback of the Halo universe. After Halo 3, they had Halo: ODST, a third person campaign only game, a lot of people liked it but I was never much a fan since I mostly played Halo for the multi-player. Then came Halo: Reach which was good, different but good. I enjoyed all the things they added like jetpacks, armor lock and the thruster pack, but at this point Halo’s popularity was starting to fall off due to the growing success of the Call of Duty franchise. Halo: Reach was the last game made by Bungie Studios, the original creators of Halo. This made me sad and still don’t know why they gave up on Halo, maybe cause the hype was dying off, some speculate it was because Halo is an Xbox exclusive and it kept Bungie from branching out onto all gaming platforms other games, who knows though. 343 Industries was the new studio put together by Microsoft to produce the Halo games. Then came Halo 4, sad face emoji…. I was excited for Halo 4, it was around the time I got my first job and I decided to buy the collectors edition of the new Halo. Halo 4 wasn’t a horrible game but it was too different. They added aspect of games that competed with Halo, mixing in some of the best and worst part of some of those games too. For me it just didn’t work and didn’t have the same feeling as Halo should. Not only did I not like it as much as pervious Halos, neither did anyone else. It was a sad day for the franchise, I thought Halo might have been dead. After Halo 4 they made a remake of all the Halos that could be played in one game, The Master Chief Collection. I had it, I played it, I liked it. It was a positive step for 343 Industries, but it was just all the old games. Not that they weren’t cool, it was fun, but I really wanted something brand new. Then 343 knocked it out the park with Halo 5 Guardians.
Halo 5 was awesome. It was fast enough to compete with other games at the time and it brought back the old Halo feeling with a new high powered graphics. It brought back the Halo community and they actually had world tournaments and everything. I still play Halo 5 till this day and still enjoy the time I do. 343 listened to the community and it payed off, Halo 5 was a hit and was definitely a huge plus for the studio. I figured it might be the last Halo since the story started to follow another character alongside Master Chief but I was wrong. 343 has something new in store for Halo lovers like myself, Halo Infinite.
DiamondJacob's GameTalk 