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| Wow, has it been that long? (Wow, *Long*!) | |
| Posted By: cheapLEY <wes.foutch@gmail.com> | Date: 11/16/08 11:51 a.m. |
In Response To: Halo - a look back over seven years (Louis Wu) I joined the party about a year after Halo came out. I was only twelve or thirteen at the time, so everything I bought I relied on my parents for. One day, my friend brought his Xbox over, and some games. We played Fusion Frenzy, Project Gotham Racing, and then moved on to Halo. Immediately, I fell in love. At the time I was still rocking my N64 and playing Goldeneye on a daily basis. I saved allowance and birthday money, and, finally, was able to purchase an Xbox and a copy of Halo, along with one extra controller (Long live the Duke!). It was the only game I owned for a good six months. I played it constantly. I can't count how many times I played through Halo: CE's campaign. The story was enthralling, the game was beautiful, the atmosphere was incredible. It was the perfect game. I remember freaking out when I first encountered the Flood. It was a complete shock, and I loved it. The two of us that had an Xbox and Halo convinced a few of our other friends to get the same. The LAN parties began. Entire weekends devoted to playing Halo . . . and play we did. 36 hour marathons with little sleep (and lots of other things throughout: occasional Rainbow Six games, throwing the football, just general screwing around. Those who have been to LAN parties know how it goes.). It wasn't long after buying the game that I found this place. A cursory Google search for "Halo" pointed me here. For the longest time, I just followed the front page. The forum was lost on me. I wrote fan fiction (back when the individual stories and their authors were posted on the front page with every update!). Then, the announcement for Halo 2 came. The wait for Halo 2 was the greatest time to be in the community, I think. The Bungie Weekly Updates, the new info, the novels being released. The build up was intense. And once Halo 2 was released, I entered new territory. We finally had a high-speed connection, and I was able to get Xbox Live. The campaign was all but forgotten, and online multiplayer dominated my Halo experience. I joined the HBO Forerunners, and made some real friends there, and we had some of the most fun I've ever had playing a video game. Then the release of the Xbox 360 split the community. Those who didn't upgrade pretty much had one game to still play: Halo 2. Those that did upgrade moved on. Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, and the eventual release of Gears of War. I didn't upgrade, but some of my clanmates did. And I had less time for gaming. I finally upgraded to 360 on the day the Elite version came out. And finally, the long awaited release of Halo 3. I thought it would bring things back to the way they were after the release of Halo 2. But, unfortunately, that didn't happen. Halo 3, I played for just a few months. If you look at my B.net profile, I probably have fewer than 400 games played, and at least a quarter of those are from my fraternity brothers playing on my account (I had one of two 360s with Xbox LIVE in the house). And this is from no fault of Halo 3's. The game is amazing. It's as close to perfect as a game can be, I think. But I've grown up, things change. Gaming, while still fun, and something I love to do, has taken a backseat to life, which tends to get in the way. Halo has been a great ride, something I was able to enjoy for years; something I still enjoy. And this community had a huge part to do with that. This community enlightened me to the inner workings of the game, and it turned me into something more than a Halo fan: a Bungie fan. Unfortunately, being young at the time, I was never able to attend an HBO LAN, even the I always wanted to. But the times I had playing Halo 2 with the HBO Forerunners came as close as possible to replicating the LAN experience. It's been fun, and it seems like it will continue to be for some time to come.
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