The funniest and coolest of games: Celebrating ten years of HALO

All images from Google.com

Hello again. Time surely flies when you’re having fun. I can’t believe it’s been TEN years since Halo appeared on the original xbox.

The Trilogy

Halo: Combat Evolved

If you do not know by now, I am a huge Halo fan! I mean HUUUUGE! I played the first Halo ever since it came out.

Halo 2

Then Microsoft gave it the go – ahead to create a sequel which was Halo 2. I find this the best out of all the Halo games. Why? To keep a series alive, you have to add unexpected and new elements to the game which was what Halo 2 did to keep the franchise alive.

Halo 3

Then the trilogy has to be completed. With which Halo 3 filled in the Gap. I did not find Halo 3 the most exciting as it did not live up to Halo 2’s high expectations. It also did not have to best soundtrack with which Halo 2 had in variety

The Past

Thinking the trilogy had come to the end, guess again. The next three games had to explain the story gaps in between and so the brand new trilogy began.

Halo: Wars

This game took place 20 years before the original game; where mankind first made contact with aliens and found them to be hostile. It all took place to shape the Halo story; on planet Harvest.

It introduced a new genre to the mix, Real Time Strategy. It was a new genre, different from the traditional First Person Shooters the Halo Franchise had incorporated.

Halo 3: ODST

Then came a different style of game play. This took place during the third mission of Halo 2. ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) are a kind of soldiers which fall from the sky using drop pods and are as tough as a Spartan.

The game had ODSTs, so no energy shields to start with. And the campaign had a kind of Role Playing elements to it, reliving the memories of your squad mates after you were unconscious.

Halo: Reach

This grand daddy of a game was where the protagonist of the franchise was trained to be a Spartan. The game did not make you feel lonely as you were not the only Spartan left but soon, they died and you did as well.

The story drifted a bit from the books but had many elements that made it unbearable to keep away. This game lived up to Halo 2.

The Future

After ten years, the story does not end. The franchise has not died because announcement and trailer for HALO 4 has been revealed. Microsoft game studios has also re-mastered and re-made the original Halo calling it: Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary which should be coming out this year.

The Novels

Besides the games, there were also novels regarding the Halo series. These books are all in order:

I have all these books and read them all. This shows just how large the Halo Universe really is! It’s huge so that it can have intertwining stories.

The Animated series

Speaking of intertwining stories, a DVD of Halo came out in the month of February 2010. It’s called Halo: Legends. It is a compilation of 7 mini episodes featuring random but related stories from the Halo universe.

I thought it was well done, telling the story from a different perspective, featuring different art styles in all the 7 episodes and expanding my knowledge further of the Halo universe.

Here’s a part of an episode called “The Package” which features the main protagonist of the Halo franchise: John and his two best childhood friends fighting aliens aka The convenant. Embedding the video has been disabled so you can click here to see this awesome fight scene.

The Geek (me)

I’m such a fan boy too that I have one small figurine of Master Chief, the legendary edition of Halo: Reach which comes with the 5 Spartans in Reach and Posters too!

Master Chief HIMSELF

Noble Team from Halo Reach

Halo Reach Poster which includes Noble team

And of course, The funny and The cool

To finish off the post here, I am going to show you that even Halo has it’s funny segments where people creatively exploit Halo’s interesting diversity. And instead of Cool videos, I want to let you listen to what made Halo 2 the best game to me: The soundtrack.

There are truly awe-inspiring ones but there are others which left me with a tear in my eye. So, continuing to believe in this truly amazing 10 years, this is me signing off.

This is one had my blood pumping!