The Halo series is near and dear to my heart. Back in elementary school, my cousin, Vinny, would play Halo 2 split screen with me. This ultimately led to me getting my own Xbox and copy of Halo 1 and Halo 2. Since then, I’ve play every mainline entry and most of the spinoffs. I’ve only not played Halo Spartan Assault, Halo Wars 2, and Halo Infinite. However, that last one is only because Infinite came out a week ago.
Halo started life as “Monkey Nuts,” a codename for Bungie’s new RTS. The title was to be released exclusively for Mac computers. As development continued, the titled morphed into a third person shooter. Finally, it became the iconic first person shooter we know today. The title also changed hands. Microsoft, direct competitors to Mac’s computers, were thinking of getting into the console market, having already considered and opted out of buying Sega. Seeing the end of Sega’s console years as an opportunity, Microsoft decided to go ahead with their own system, the Xbox, and considered Bungie’s title, now called Halo, as a potential exclusive.
On November 15th, 2001, Halo launched. As far as console first person shooters go, there had been many before Halo, such as Perfect Dark and Golden Eye. However, there was always complaints about the control systems of those games. Halo succeed in making a control system so useful that almost every First Person shooter for consoles has borrowed that layout since then. In many ways, Halo made the console First Person Shooter boom of the mid-2000s and early-2010s. However, I wouldn’t associate the series with the “problems” of that boom. Halo was unique among other titles at the time for large open environments, more traditional approaches to FPS map layout, and a strong recalcitrance to following trends in the industry.
My first Halo was actually Halo 2. I played that before Halo: Combat Evolved. As such, I always had an odd view on it since, arguably, Halo 2 is the better title and I played it first. However, the title has always stood on its own merits with me. Especially all the fun I had with the PC release and the many, many wacky mods of Custom Edition. You see, I own the game a few times: the original Xbox, the PC release, the Xbox 360 Remastered, the Xbox One Master Chief Collection, and the PC Master Chief Collection. A fool and her money…Regardless, both the original PC release and, recently, the PC Master Chief Collection allow for mods and Halo Mods were certainly novel back in the day.
We will be using the Master Chief Collection’s version to play the game. There is some thing that should be disclosed. The best version of Halo is considered the original Xbox release. However, I do not own a capture card so a PC version was a necessity. I still have my old PC title, but the Remastered and MCC version use the Gearbox PC port as a basis anyway and the MCC version has the most features. While the MCC version is inferior, it’s the one I can most easily capture.
Lady Mapi and I will be playing the original Halo. For now, that’s all we have planned. We will be doing a somewhat humorous, somewhat informative video LP of the title. All of the footage has been recorded, but commentary is only up to Episode 3 at this point. We thought it best to have some backlog, but also have the majority unrecorded so we can respond to the thread in videos.
Brief aside, in episode 1, we briefly mention another LP going on hold. That was an LP we were doing on another website. I know that the discussion means nothing to you all. Just thought I should explain that here.
Without further ado, I hope you enjoy the video. To be honest, Lady Mapi is really the one who does LP as a hobby. I just like spending time with my old college friend and, thanks to COVID making it unsafe for us to travel to either’s state, this is a fun way for us to collaborate and spend time together. Not sure if that makes for entertaining content, but I hope you enjoy what’s there.
Episode 1: The Pillar of Autumn
Episode 2: Halo
Episode 3: Truth and Reconciliation
Episode 4: The Silent Cartographer
Episode 5: Assault On The Control Room
Episode 6: Guilty Spark
Episode 7: The Library.
Episode 8: Two Betrayals
Episode 9: Keyes
Episode 10: The Maw