I like the Metal Gear games, I think Zelda games are consistently excellent, but there's something about Halo (for me) that's just different. Maybe it was the first shooter I played that had some substance? Maybe it was that my best friend bought me a copy of the game for my birthday and I didn't even have the console yet. Maybe it was all of the traveling to play in Halo tournaments on weekends in college, but somewhere between Halo: Combat Evolved's release and now, Halo became my Mario. It is the game that made me care about video games like I did when I was 10.
That doesn't mean I look past the problems the franchise has: that weird co-op loading-teleport-frame-stop-business, the sorta impossible-to-follow story of the first game, the multiplayer problems that plagued Halo 2. All of those problems are still visible; they are just trumped by the "30-seconds of fun" that Halo gets right.
As frustrated as I get with videogames (you may have heard it on 1UP Yours), the Halo games always end up reminding me that I'm lucky to have my hobby and profession intersect.
Earlier this fall, when I was inconceivably irritated with something in the game industry, I packed up my retail Xbox and dragged it a few blocks from my apartment and set it up at my desk. I grabbed one of my copies of Halo 2 and Halo: Combat Evolved and starting playing through them again at work when I needed a break. My coworkers would walk by and laugh, asking why I was still playing "these games." I played them for the same reasons that people still keep buying old Mario or Zelda games on handhelds -- because the feelings you get playing these games are timeless.
For me, there's nothing quite like a perfect clear of the opening of Truth and Reconciliation in videogames. For every Library, there's an Assault on the Control Room, a Delta Halo, a Gravemind and The Silent Cartographer -- the list goes on.
Every gamer has something that keeps them excited: Jeremy Parish has his Metroidvania fetish; Ryan O'Donnell has a crush on all things Valve; Garnett Lee loves shooters; and I've got a thing for the Master Chief.
Going up to Bungie to meet the crew that have helped create some of my favorite moments in 20-years of video gaming -- coupled with getting to mess around with a pre-Alpha build of the next-iteration of my favorite franchise
-- has made this synergy-based Halo 3 project my first real labor of love..
Over the next three weeks we're going to tell you as much as we remember about this build of Halo 3. It's early and it's not always perfect, but I can say with certainty that everything you love about Halo's gameplay is coming back in Halo 3 and I can't wait.
To read more about our visit to Bungie studios, check out the following:
