Sorry for the lack of updates on this.
I’ve been playing a lot of the video game series “Halo” lately…And I can’t stop. Between schoolwork, homework, and my social life (surprising, isn’t it?), the gap is filled with an hour or two a day of playing on my Xbox with a controller in my hand, eyes glued to the screen.
Now, some of you might say “Dude, that’s so unhealthy!” or “Go get some friends, loser!”. Well, I’m aware of the fact that paying that much time to your television screen is definitely not gonna have a positive impact on someone’s life. However, I rebuttal with this because my reason is, well, reasonable.
Over the past year or so, my Xbox LIVE membership has been absent from my Xbox profile. I got it back about a month ago around the twenty days part of November and have been enjoying the reclaim of my membership once again. I started by playing a few simple shooting games (for before I managed to get my membership back, I had just finished Batman: Arkham Asylum and Assassin’s Creed 2), such as Modern Warfare 3 or Call of Duty: Black Ops. Not finding much enjoyment in either one, I ventured for something different and found my old copy of Halo: Reach. I recalled then that back in the day I used to be fairly good at matchmaking games for this specific chronicle in the Halo series, and inserted it into my Xbox for a try.
The first two games, I was horrible. Getting blown up by my own grenades, falling off platforms and into the depths below. Feeling like a complete noob, I forced myself to become re-accustomed to the mechanics of Halo: Reach and how players acted. Soon enough, I was the second or third ranked player in every game, managing to keep not too far away from the first.
As I got better in the matchmaking section, I realized that I had played nearly none of the campaign at all the entire year I’ve had the game. Deciding to try it out, I played the first level and found that I was moderately good at it (thanks to my previous ‘training’ in the LIVE games) and enjoyed the structure of it, too.
Eventually, the campaign ended and I found myself intrigued by the Halo universe. After the end of Reach, I tried out the Halo 3 disc I’ve had for years–and barely played–for kicks. I began with the matchmaking, as I did before, and was shocked to see how different it was from Reach. The buttons were different, the graphics were so down-graded! Knowing that the games were three years apart in release date, I was still surprised to see how far Halo had come.
Once I got used to the matchmaking world (which is very lonely at the moment, all playlists usually only have around 500 players on them
), I began the first level of campaign. Although it was harder than Reach and not nearly as helpful as to where to go during the missions, I liked firing the Covenant’s heads off and enjoyed kicking grunts out of their Ghosts.
So, now with winter break gifted to me, I’ve been playing as much Halo as I can. I really like the story, and the graphics are so great, too. Although, I gotta say, the story in Reach is a lot better than the one in the third Halo. Plus, you feel a lot more connected to the characters that you work with; I don’t feel that emotion as much in Halo 3.
I’m planning on getting Halo 3: ODST after I finished the Halo 3 campaign, because from what I’ve heard, the campaign in that game is incredible, along with its sound-track. I would like to try getting the second and first Halo games too, but I’m not sure how that’d work since I don’t have the original Xbox.
Also, Halo 4 is coming out next summer! I can’t wait to see what it’ll be like, even though Bungie isn’t the one creating it…Apparently there’s supposed to be a new trilogy that would be part of the original Halo games? I dunno. The Halo universe is so confusing, I don’t think we need much more added on to Master Chief’s past. He seems more cool and frightening if we don’t know much about him.
So, yeah.
12-21-11 Update: Finished the Halo 3 Campaign. Boo-yah.
~James