The Halo Thread - Games - Facepunch Forum

[img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Facepunch_Reach.png[/img] [img]http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100424233457/halo/images/c/c8/Halo_logo.png[/img] Halo is a game series started in the late 90s by Bungie LLC. Originally conceived as a strategy game for the Mac, Halo was turned to an FPS when Microsoft bought out Bungie in 1999. Halo was announced as a flagship title for the upcoming Xbox, beginning the series. [B][U]Storyline[/U][/B] Halo's heart is in it's rich story. So, as such, it needs quick summation. Halo takes place primarily between the years of 2552-2554, following Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, and his AI companion, Cortana. Introduced in the second game was The Arbiter, also known as Thel 'Vadam, a Covenant Elite who was exiled for his loss of the Halo in the first game. Long story short, an alien parasite known as the Flood was invading the galaxy a few million years ago, and after a long and costly war, the Forerunner race, the dominant species in the Milky Way, created the Halo Array and the Shield System(AKA, the Sword and Shield). The Halo Array was a series of super weapons that could be individually fired or triggered from The Ark, a salvation and control station outside our galaxy. The Forerunner were doomed, and, unable to flee into their shield worlds, was forced to trigger the Halos in order to save the rest of the galaxy. All life was extinguished, starving the parasitic Flood(also killing a great amount of them) and driving them to extinction in the Milky Way. In the 2500s, humanity has reached the stars, and is now in the midst of a situation resembling Warhammer 40k. There are massive insurrections in the UNSC and many colony worlds have seceded from the main empire. In 2525, this is made worse by the arrival of The Covenant, a conglomerate of alien species who see humanity as a threat to their religious salvation, and seek nothing but the total and utter annihilation of man. Prior to this, the Spartan Program was created to quell the insurrection, as main UNSC forces were too little. John, AKA the Master Chief, was the most promising candidate, and became the leader of the primary squad, Blue Team. So now the stage is set, the Halos are out there, somewhere, the Spartans have been deployed numerous times against the Covenant and the games are soon to come. Read more at the [url=http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page]Halo Wiki[/url] or play the games, and read the books. [B][U]Games[/U][/B] [U]Halo: Combat Evolved[/U] [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/Halobox.jpg[/img] Halo was the first game in the series. Named after the main setting of the game, Installation 04("Halo"), the game features the first appearance of the Master Chief and Cortana. Beginning in 2552, it starts after the Fall of Reach(see: Halo Reach). The UNSC Pillar of Autumn, running from the Covenant assault on the fortress world of Reach, and carrying the Master Chief, FTLs to the Halo due to an accident caused by a Forerunner artifact recovered by the Chief. There, the Autumn is crashed on the ring, and the Master Chief, Cortana and the rest of the crew fight to survive and escape the Halo. However, they find much more than just the Covenant; the Flood is there, and the Chief learns the true nature of the Ring. Not going into any other detail, play the game. [U]Halo 2[/U] [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/92/Halo2-cover.png[/img] Halo 2 is the 2004 sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved. Taking place roughly a month after the events of Halo, the Master Chief has returned back to Earth, and at the Covenant capital city of High Charity(giant squid-looking space station), Thel 'Vadam is branded as the Arbiter for his loss of the Halo(he was the commander of the Covenant Fleet at Halo). What follows is a plot spanning several days as the Chief and the Arbiter fight through the invasion of Earth, the Flood and eventually another Halo, this time with much more at stake. [U]Halo 3[/U] [img]http://i27.tinypic.com/2ypfcz5.jpg[/img] Halo 3 concludes the Halo trilogy's main plot. It's now several weeks since the end of Halo 2, in late 2552(presumably November, with Halo 1 in September). The Arbiter and the Elites are now the main faction in the Covenant Civil war, choosing to ally with the UNSC. The Chief has been MIA since the end of Halo 2, but reappears at the beginning(durr). The Covenant have been excavating something near the city of New Mombasa in Africa. It is a portal to The Ark, the control center of the Halo array. With the four factions(the remnants of the UNSC, the Sangheili[species known as the Elites], the Covenant and the Flood) poised and ready to begin the final battle of the war, they all enter the portal, some in chase of the others, in one final battle to either use the Halos or stop them once and for all. [B][U]Non-trilogy Games[/U][/B] -Halo 3: ODST [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/Halo_3_ODST_Box_Art.png[/img] Taking place in New Mombasa in the weeks prior to Halo 3, and starting midway through Halo 2, you play as an unnamed rookie ODST(Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, think of them as US Army Rangers or SAS units), who had the misfortune of dropping into New Mombasa shortly before it was destroyed. Filling in some major plot points between Halo 2 and 3, the game adds a lot of context to the series. Also added is the Firefight game mode, pushing up to four players in an onslaught against the Covenant. The goal is to survive as long as possible and get as many kills as possible. ODST also includes a second disk containing the Halo 3 Multiplayer in full, with three additional maps(Mythic Map Pack II). -Halo Wars [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f2/Halo_wars.png[/img] Halo Wars takes place in 2531, and a deviation from the Halo series as it's an RTS. The plot is kinda stale, but it adds a bit of data previously unknown, and is a fun game all around. [B][U]Halo: Reach[/U][/B] [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5c/Halo-_Reach_box_art.png[/img] Basically, welcome to Halo 4. Reach takes place in September 2552, around a week before Halo 1, during the Fall of Reach. You play a Spartan III, a somewhat lower form of Spartan II(like the Chief). Your spartan and his squad are one of the few Spartan forces on the ground on Reach, and may be all that stands between the Covenant and whatever awesome plot device that Bungie decides to pull out. Not much is known about the plot. The multiplayer beta ran in May, and featured multiple game types, a preview of the armor customization and a snippet of the weapons and maps available in the final game. Personally, I found multiplayer to be far more fun than Halo 3, especially with the addition of armor abilities. [B][U]Machinima[/U][/B] Halo, due to it's popularity, customization and multiplayer choices, has become a major haven for machinima creators. The most known of all is Red vs Blue, by Rooster Teeth. It began during the Halo 1 era, and continued all the way through Halo 3 and is likely to continue into Reach. Halo 3 made the machinima scene far more accessible due to the addition of the Theater, which allows players to view real-time reconstructions of a game they previously played, allowing for complex camera angles to be used. [B][U]The Books[/U][/B] The Halo series is not limited to games. As of June 2010, there are 7 books available in the series. [quote]Halo: The Fall of Reach- Essentially, this is the most important book of all. It documents the pre-game events of the Halo universe and gives all you need to know about the Master Chief. Very good read.[/quote] [quote]Halo: The Flood- A somewhat mediocre retelling of Halo: Combat Evolved, but still an interesting book. Adds a bit of depth to the main story of the game, and pretty entertaining to read. I call it mediocre because of it's characterization of the Master Chief, which saw him as more of an action hero and less of a soldier.[/quote] [quote]Halo: First Strike- Bridging the gap between Halos 1 and 2, the book recounts how the Master Chief, Sergeant Johnson, Cortana and the rest of the Spartans made it home to Earth. Adds a lot of details to the plot, and has some seriously interesting scenes. Answers many questions about Halo 2.[/quote] [quote]Halo: Ghosts of Onyx- Ghosts is my personal favorite, and seems to be the most well received of the Halo books. Focusing around "Shadow Chief", Kurt(whom I call the Shadow Chief because of the fact that his capabilities seem to rival those of the Chief, yet his role was often as the Chief's support), the book takes place on the secret world Onyx, where the UNSC is training Spartan IIIs. This book introduces the concept of Shield Worlds, the Spartan IIIs and SPI armor.[/quote] [quote]Halo: Contact Harvest- Following the first contact with the Covenant at Harvest, the book centers around Sergeant Johnson during the pivotal days during the violent battle that was Humanity's first encounter with aliens. I found it to be a very good book, as it adds a lot of character to Johnson and it gives a lot of clarity about the first contact, the Covenant's political layout and the enigmatic Engineers.[/quote] [quote]Halo: The Cole Protocol- This one is a bit of a toss up for me, as it centers around the character of Captain Keyes, who was a main plot center in Halo 1. The game takes place in the 2530s, and introduces the Arbiter outside of his role as the Arbiter, merely being Thel 'Vadam. For that, this book is good. It also provides some back story into the Insurrection in the UNSC and has a few really awesome battle scenes. It also goes into detail about Gray Team, a group of Spartans that was basically given guns, pointed to Covenant space and told to fuck shit up.[/quote] [quote]Halo: Evolutions- A book of short stories revolving around the Halo universe. Love them all. The poems are kinda cheesy, but the stories are fantastic, and most are considered Halo canon.[/quote] [B][U]Future of the Franchise[/U][/B] Halo Reach marks the end of Bungie's development of the series. 343 Industries, a subdivision of Microsoft Game Studios will now begin developing the series. Don't panic just yet, some of Bungie's staff, including Frank O'Connor, and a pretty shaped up staff will take the helm. [B][highlight][U]Bungie Day 2010[/U][/highlight][/B] [B][U]Return of Blood Gulch, except it's on Halo and Valhalla is there. Also, it's big. Really big.[/U][/B] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgFy83gAL1Y[/media] [url=http://www.facepunch.com/showpost.php?p=23390873&postcount=347]The return of Firefight and a massive list of tweakable features. Credits to Frazah for them.[/url] [B][I][highlight]Comic Con 2010: AKA, Forge World[/highlight][/I][/B] Thanks to KingKombat for the links, below are vids of Forge World in action. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T-OceiL7uE[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N75gJCm_cTY[/media] And the ViDoc, courtesy of Bungie. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCcmrL29WII[/media] As for the question you're all no doubt asking, What the Fuck is Forge World? Well, remember Forge from Halo 3? That G-Mod-esque map editor which allowed you to place objects within the geometry of the map? It turned out to be pretty damned successful, as Sandbox demonstrated. So Bungie thought, "Hey guys, let's just make a whole damn map where players can build there own maps". Welcome to Forge World. Forge World is a map that players can load in the Forge and edit completely. The map's geometry is still uneditable, but it is the largest gamespace in Halo history. The canyon from Blood Gulch is present, but the thing is, [B]Blood Gulch is not back officially.[/B] Instead, Blood Gulch was recreated as a subset of Forge World. That alone shows just how fantastic this new feature is. Check the videos for more info, words alone cannot convey the awesomeness. Forge World contains... -A medium sized island in the middle of a big lake. -A pillar-like island adjacent to the former. -A coliseum embedded in the mountain side of the Lake, likely used for Grifball. -The Canyon. -More? Ladies and gents, Forgeworld variants may very well make up the bulk of the maps for Halo: Reach. Also, it's not Blood Gulch anymore. It's Hemorrhage. [url=http://www.facepunch.com/showpost.php?p=23642306&postcount=776][highlight][B][I]KingKombat delivers again, except now we have the blissful knowledge that the Chief yet lives. Expect 343 to do some magic.[/I][/B][/highlight][/url] More images! This time from TizzYcho. [url=http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/6655/94475500.png]Shit's going down in a UNSC Base.[/url] [url=http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/3771/31322931.png]Our new hero looks at a crashed Covenant ship. It's big.[/url] And Bungie delivers a new campaign trailer for us! It reeks of fucking epicness. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92Bbw-KHajs[/media]

Expand it more and the ODST section needs expanding big time. Also 100th millionth done.

Nice to see a Halo thread show up, although I hope you're ready to make a big ol' box fort with the [i]massive[/i] amount of bandwagon hate against the series.

Halo has nice MP. I really wish Reach was available for PC and ACTUALLY CODED FOR PC. Not just a shitty port.

the only reason i played a halo game after 1 was because of red vs blue

Get ready for the hate. [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Trolling" - Benji))[/highlight]

oh god, the bandwagon is en route. On topic,I don't care what anyone says. Halo will remain as my favorite video game series to date, I cant wait for reach. Good info, OP!

It's fun to play with friends.

halo died when halo 2 came out. now they're just pissing on a dead cow and milking the last mouldy drops of milk out of it and shipping it out. you rate me dumb because halo was meant to be a trilogy. now look at it. dumbudumdudmdudmdudum

[QUOTE=XSarcYX;22797667]Nice to see a Halo thread show up, although I hope you're ready to make a big ol' box fort with the [i]massive[/i] amount of bandwagon hate against the series.[/QUOTE] This. It's irrational, really.

[QUOTE=CoolKingKaso;22798176]It's fun to play with friends.[/QUOTE] and most of FP lacks those

Halo 1 and 2 were so tight. The thing that really sold the halo series to me in the beginning though was the fact you could choose the vehicle you wanted to drive, as opposed to most games forcing you to drive a certain one. Halo 3 was pushing it, halo wars was shit, and halo ODST was also pretty shit, and I have no idea about halo reach. It will probably be ok. I also remember reading somewhere back in 2008 or so that halo 3 would be brought out on the PC in 2010.

Halo kinda went downhill after 2 when it focused more on the MLG "pr0" crowd then being fun. 3 was far too focused on supporting the "pros" then being fun like halo 2 was and ODST was only good for firefight which was kickass at gaming nights with my friends, reach might be awesome if it focuses more on being fun then "pro"

Generic FPS shooter said to be revolutionary. Apple much?

[QUOTE=imnotBPX;22798385]Generic FPS shooter said to be revolutionary. Apple much?[/QUOTE] The first one was revolutionary. I never saw a game before halo 1 that let you drive the vehicle of your choice, or just not drive at all.\ Plus the cutscenes were some of the best I had ever seen.

[QUOTE=gerbile4;22798366]Halo 1 and 2 were so tight. The thing that really sold the halo series to me in the beginning though was the fact you could choose the vehicle you wanted to drive, as opposed to most games forcing you to drive a certain one. Halo 3 was pushing it, halo wars was shit, and halo ODST was also pretty shit, and I have no idea about halo reach. It will probably be ok. I also remember reading somewhere back in 2008 or so that halo 3 would be brought out on the PC in 2010.[/QUOTE] Actually, Halo Wars was a great game. Don't play an RTS if you don't like that type of game, or at least don't shit on it because you're too stupid to figure it out.

[QUOTE=Bllasae;22798486]Actually, Halo Wars was a great game. Don't play an RTS if you don't like that type of game, or at least don't shit on it because you're too stupid to figure it out.[/QUOTE] Halo wars was okay even for a console RTS, single player was fun but multiplayer was far too rush happy the majority of the time to win you go sgt forge build the double supply pads and spam to your hearts content

[QUOTE=Bllasae;22798486]Actually, Halo Wars was a great game. Don't play an RTS if you don't like that type of game, or at least don't shit on it because you're too stupid to figure it out.[/QUOTE] He was saying it was shit, not the fact that it was an RTS and was shit because he couldn't figure out how to play it.

good thread

[QUOTE=Fusilero1;22798369]Halo kinda went downhill after 2 when it focused more on the MLG "pr0" crowd then being fun. 3 was far too focused on supporting the "pros" then being fun like halo 2 was and ODST was only good for firefight which was kickass at gaming nights with my friends, reach might be awesome if it focuses more on being fun then "pro"[/QUOTE] That damn BR. "lol lets play BRs only" "Can't we just have fun? Play Infection or destruction derby or something?" "your such a n00b, pros use BR"

[QUOTE=Zezibesh;22798610]That damn BR. "lol lets play BRs only" "Can't we just have fun? Play Infection or destruction derby or something?" "your such a n00b, pros use BR"[/QUOTE] This is why I hate the majority of Halo players. About 10-20% play for fun, the rest play for e-peen, or in the very very [b]very[/b] vain hope that an MLG pro will find them and take them away to a lifestyle of playing tournaments for cash.

[QUOTE=GrimBloodyFable;22798784]This is why I hate the majority of Halo players. About 10-20% play for fun, the rest play for e-peen, or in the very very [b]very[/b] vain hope that an MLG pro will find them and take them away to a lifestyle of playing tournaments for cash.[/QUOTE] Play in the smaller less populated set lists mainly the teams of 2 ones Had some fun times with all gravity hammers :3:

Rockets and hammers, two man teams, mongooses. It's amazing.

Bungie would make so much more money if they released Halo 3, ODST, and Reach on the PC. Though I still loved each and every one. I really enjoyed the co-op and hunting for glitches.

I'd love Halo 3, and eventually, Reach, on PC.

[QUOTE=Fusilero1;22798814]Play in the smaller less populated set lists mainly the teams of 2 ones Had some fun times with all gravity hammers :3:[/QUOTE] To be honest, I lost all interest in competitive gamemodes. I occasionally play custom games with my friends, or maybe Grifball if it's on, but otherwise I don't play it.

If Reach stays true to the halo plot, you die in the end.

Halo is for furfags

[QUOTE=tinhead50;22799236]If Reach stays true to the halo plot, you die in the end.[/QUOTE] Not necessarily, we didn't know the S3s were even deployed at Reach, what's not to say they'll miraculously escape? Bungie has retconned data in the past.

I like Halo, but I have a PS3. :frown: