HaloFest was a few weeks ago (or maybe just a week, I'm not sure anymore) and during HaloFest 343 Industries gave out some details on the new Halo games. The "biggest" of which was that Halo 4 was the beginning of a new trilogy of games. Are we honestly surprised though that this was the beginning of three more Halo games? It seemed like a no-brainer considering the series keeps making money. It's also one of the few major exclusive series Microsoft has left.
Oh, and they gave it a name too. It'll be called the "Reclaimer" trilogy. As far as most people can remember, the only tie to the lore this has so far is that Guilty Spark referred to Master Chief as the Reclaimer. Otherwise no one knows what the hell it means. The name of the trilogy doesn't really mean much to be though.
My life with the Halo games is a complicated relationship. It dates all the way back to the original Xbox. I had bought an Xbox to play Halo, Halo 2, and KOTOR. I'd heard a lot about Halo from friend and wanted to check it out. Plus, I really wanted to own all three major systems. As it turned out, Halo was only okay and I sold my Xbox to pay for a new PS2 when the laser died (it was old). KOTOR was amazing though, as you should all know by now.
A few months down the road another friend of mine (who didn't have an Xbox) wanted to try Halo. So he bought the PC version. He thought the campaign was alright, but that the multiplayer was where it was at. This friend and I were big into PC multiplayer games so I picked up a PC copy for cheap. I installed it and never looked back.
Halo 1 had amazing multiplayer. Not only was the pistol the greatest thing of all time, there were so many mods. Low gravity, flying vehicles, teleportation points, and so on. It was a fantastic time. My favorite thing was to go into a flying vehicle server, grab a warthog with my friend, and take to the sky. I'd be the driver ('cause I was the craziest of my time) while my friend would be the gunner. Together we'd rain bullets down on the poor helpless noobs on the ground below. This would continue until one of two things happened: 1. we get shot down by a rocket launcher, or 2. we get cut in half by a flying ghost. Both of which have happened before!
Halo 1 was also a time for great gaming stories. There were so many random moments that happened during my time with the original Halo. My favorite of which was a CTF game we were playing on Blood Gulch (the best Halo map). I had the enemy's flag, but was being chased and our base was being assaulted. To prevent myself from getting killed, I hid in a little pocket in the corner of the map (both sides have this). When I crouched behind this, I couldn't get hit. So my friend and I (who were communicating via phone) were trying to clear a path long enough for me to reach our base and we could score. A problem has arisen though: the enemy had our flag.
It was a long wait and see game with my friend constantly moving from cover to a warthog, killing some people, then getting killed. This went on for a little bit. Finally, a path had been cleared and our flag reclaimed. I was ready to move and my team was ready to score. I don't remember the score or how close we were to timing out, but either way it was time. I stand up, take one step forward... and get shot in the head by a sniper across the map. . . . Thankfully my friend was able to pick up the flag and score so all was well.
After Halo 1 was phased out by most people due to the fact that Halo 2 had come out, my interest in Halo began to decline. I played Halo 2 on Xbox and while its campaign was fun, it was short and I didn't play online. After that I stopped caring about Halo in general. Until recently, I've never owned a 360 so I never bought Halo 3 when it came out and I still haven't. The closest I've come to continuing to play Halo is ODST. ODST actually had a really good story (I thought at least) up until the end where I just forgot about it and stopped playing!
You guys may be reading this wondering why I'm not in love with its multiplayer. Considering all I said above, I can't blame you. The problem basically stems from two things. The first is the lack of mods. The biggest draw of Halo 1 on PC was all the modding. There's none of that in the other Halo games (there may be in the Forge mode, but I think those are for custom games only right?). The second is the lack of LIVE. I refuse to pay for it and I know if I did I would barely use it. I know there are tons of Xbox users here on the blogs that I could play with, but I'm just not that interested in playing Halo multiplayer on a console. I'll definitely play with a few friends who are all int he same place (loser passes the controller style). That's also great for some laughs.
While I'm a fan of the split-screen experience Halo gives me and my friends, my interest stops there. The announcement of Halo 4 only garnered a sigh from me. It was the most predictable announcement from MS's E3 conference, along with that of the Halo 1 remake. Which, by the way, still seems utterly pointless. It's only been ten years guys. It's not as if you can't find the game any more in used bins or on the internet for cheap. Another ten years and I could see it. My video game cyniscm is staring to creep in so I think I'll bring this post to a close.
I hope you all enjoyed reading this one. I don't know if all my posts will somehow wind up being as long as this one (it wasn't planned to be, let me tell ya). I would like to read your thought on Halo as a series, and any great multiplayer stories you'd like to share (or even videos if you have any).
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