Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Happy birthday, Halo

Here's to the greatest video game series objectively of all time.



I LITERALLY cannot wait to play the original rendition of this franchise.  No, really, I'll LIKE LITERALLY die if I don't pick up my copy of Halo Anniversary on launch day.  (Are you picking up on my valley girl sarcasm here?)


But seriously, Halo is definitely the best thing that ever happened to console video gaming.  The saga as a whole has the greatest production value of any video game series ever, and while you play through the campaign you feel as though you're influencing the outcome of a high-quality science-fiction epic, rather than merely shooting up alien scum in a poorly plotted FPS mess with one-dimensional heroes.  Weighty themes permeate the series, including soldier augmentation for pragmatic purposes, immortality, genocide, indoctrination into war, courage in the face of immeasurable fear, and heck, even a few Biblical references are thrown into the story.


Halo 3: ODST didn't take itself as seriously as the trilogy or Reach, and its method of nonlinear storytelling through flashbacks was actually highly effective.  The game felt more like a noir, mystery movie than its predecessors, with a little bit of Hollywood quality visual effects thrown in for good measure during action-heavy sequences.  It didn't hurt that the soundtrack was exhilarating.  This installment was incredible, and second only to Portal 2 as the most cinematic game I've ever played.

So let's celebrate ten years of the wonder that has been Bungie's Halo.  Now if I could only secure my weekend again in the frenzy of this TP debate world...

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