Why Halo was so special...
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- Опубликовано: 2 май 2024
- There was nothing quite like classic Halo and in today's video I'm going to talk about Halo in 2024, where the game has been, and why things have changed so much. Mainly I want to share some old school Halo memories I have from growing up playing the series and to explain what made it just so special and unique. I do think there's a very clear reason(s) as to why Halo just is so different today and on the trajectory that it is. We went from something so incredible, to a direction focused so heavily on monetization, that much of the core attributes have been lost. But that's the way the whole gaming industry is moving, not much we can do about it, but be intentional, and try to find the experiences that truly deliver quality time, friendships, and solid fun. Thanks for watching. #halo #halomcc
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Some of my earliest videos just have splitscreen multiplayer Reach gameplay because that's all I was playing at the time, and it was so great going to my buddy's house/having him come over and playing.
When you get mentioned in a BBKDragoon video 🤩
Plus check out that stacked lobby of the OGs
My earliest memories of Halo were playing co op campaign on Halo CE with my dad as a kid because I was too scared to fight the flood on my own, and when my brothers got old enough the four of us would split screen multiplayer on Halo 2. That then started the spiral of wanting to play every Halo fps no matter what with each other
Gosh that's so legit! What a cool way to spend time with your dad
He got me into gaming and art fr.
I had the same thing we would take turns playing each level (my brother and I) with my dad
My first experience with Halo was with my dad when I was 4 years old. He used to play CE in a laptop he had every single night and I would just sit and watch him play. A year later he started to teach me how to play and looking back, it was like the first bond I ever created with my dad. Many years later, the same story repeated but instead it was me with my little brother. It was difficult for me to get along with him due to the age difference, but one day I dusted off the 360, hooked it up to the tv in his room and we played all the halo campaigns in order, creating my first solid bond with my brother. All throughout my childhood I also looked up to Master Chief as some sort of a role model, even to this day sort of. It is a game I hold dearly to my heart and will never forget. I'll never forget that christmas when my dad gifted me the Halo 3 legendary edition with chief's helmet, the look of happiness in his face when I opened the gift and obviously my excitement of pretty much seeing the Chief in person was something else...Good times.
Me and my brother got introduced to halo ce when we went over to our parents freinds house and he had the multiplayer on blood gultch and he was just doing all the random glitches you could do by running vehicles into eachother and he was having a blast just doing this by himself just you know mindless fun. But than he noticed me and my brother just stairing like puppy's behind him and he said alright grab a controller and he proceeded to for the next 4 hours show us all the crazy stuff you could do just fucking around in blood gultch not even killing eachother. Than for the next 20 years me and my brother have beaten every halo campaign on legendary together when possible. And have had some of the most hilarious and heart wrenching memories( halo reach). God looking back it makes you realize how special bungie used to be.
I feel like it’s because it’s the story it tells and events in it and it’s such a unique game
Agreed, it has a special spot for sure
I was always “player 2.” My parents wouldn’t let us have an Xbox growing up, so I mainly experienced Halo at a friend’s house. We’d always run thru CE’s campaign on co-op seemingly every sleepover. I eventually got my own computer in my room in high school. My parents wouldn’t let me buy the game, but I could download the CE demo, which had online capabilities. I poured an unhealthy amount of hours into playing CTF on Blood Gulch. It was the only MP level in the demo, and it was so, so much fun.
Halo 3 is what connected me so hard to FPS games/games in general and it was such a good time to bond with friends, go around each other houses just gaming your hearts out in splitscreen all night. I remember every Friday being around a friends house and waiting each week until Griffball came on. Nothing ever has come close to how much fun that was, please take me back to the days
I got into Halo from playing H3 split screen at friends place. Feels like a rite of passage for Halo players.
I love the Halo Reach co-op split screen story you told. My younger brother and I played the HELL out of Halo Reach, 3 and ODST offline since we did not have Xbox live. But even without Live, we still had fun playing campaign, trying to find the hidden weapon caches on Mombasa Streets, messing around in Forge, or playing Gruntpocolypse in Courtyard. Looking back on Halo 3, ODST and Reach, Bungie really made sure those games were jam packed with features for the community. I really miss the simplicity of those days, and how games were more socially oriented than competitive.
Just came across your channel and instantly subscribed. You get it. You talk about hutch and nanners. They were my heroes. You understand what’s lacking and how far the games have fallen. I stick around on halo to try and recapture the memories.
Halo 3 was peak online gaming for me . I remember playing Xbox live for the first time with school friends and because of my rank I was put down in the lobby by all these kids in the other team and the pressure I felt as a 14 year old to impress my school friends was on big time. I drove a warthog up the grav lift on Valhalla with my friends in the other seats and by sheer coincidence landed on the entire team that were giving me shit in the lobby. The reactions were ecstatic and I was getting “clan” invites left right and centre. My friend recorded it in theatre mode and when I went to school that Monday morning people treated me like a king because they had all seen it. Even the older kids who were in their last year before college were high giving me and asking me to play with them. That’s what peak halo was for me.
I’m a dad of 2 now with a mortgage, a broken pc and a dream to recapture those memories.
In all honesty, I’ve been dying for a chance to share my Halo story. It’s gonna be kind of a long one so buckle up.
I was born with high functioning autism/Asperger’s, so it was always somewhat difficult for me to socialize with other people. But my family has a large friend group from their church life, and their children ultimately became my friends just because of how close my parent’s relationship with their parents were. My friend Luke was the one I would primarily be playing video games with on his Xbox 360. We would always boot up the Minecraft tutorial level and just have a blast with it. Eventually, I was introduced to the kickstart of my Halo journey: Halo Reach. Now, growing up, I was a Nintendo kid primarily because my parents didn’t want me playing any violent shooter games at the age that I was. So going into Halo Reach was kinda rough for me, I would always be getting killed by grunts in the first level of the campaign, and Luke would always destroy me in split screen slayer. But despite all the trouble I had learning the game, I ended up having so much fun playing with him at the end of the day. Sometimes we would go many hours late into the night playing Halo Reach and Halo 3 with each other and just having an absolute blast.
Fast forward to around 2017-2018, after saving up as much money as I could, I was finally able to buy myself an Xbox One S. And with that, my selection of games was massively increased to tons of great titles. Of course I got Minecraft as my first game, but then I was able to experience games like Skyrim, CoD BO3, Doom 2016, Overwatch, Assassin’s Creed, the Dark Souls trilogy (which quickly became my all time favorite rpg franchise), Titanfall 2, and me and my school friends after school would always party up and play For Honor with each other. Many of these games were really starting to sculpt my core identity as a gamer, but something was still missing. One day at my church’s youth group, we went to the game room where they had an Xbox 360 set up. We would always be playing Minecraft and Kinect Adventures, but one day, one of my church friends, James, along with four other people, booted up a game I haven’t seen in a long time at that point in my life: Halo Reach. All of the memories of me playing with Luke came flooding back as soon as I saw the boot up screen. So we started a match of 4 player split screen slayer ffa. Now since I’ve had a little bit more fps experience with Titanfall 2 and CoD, I was able to play a little bit better than I had back in 2011 when I was just a little kid. I still wasn’t the best player in that room, but it really didn’t matter all that much since at the end of every session we played, it would always end up being filled with joy, laughter, and just pure fun. And in that moment when I was playing Halo Reach with a full split screen party, it struck me like a lightning bolt that Halo was my game. My identity as a gamer that I’ve been missing. That realization alone was what prompted me to buy a copy of Halo Reach and Halo MCC for myself and really start indulging myself into the Halo games. I was able to start playing online multiplayer Halo where I started learning how to really play better and made massive improvements in skill. One day during church youth service, we were playing Halo Reach split screen ffa, and this time, there was a good crowd of other students watching the game and rooting for their friends, and lines would be formed to play the game next. And once it was my turn to finally play, I had gotten so good at Halo Reach that I’d end up winning with a 10-15+ point lead. And I gotta tell you, the amount of hype coming from that room and all the other students cheering me on as I dominated every match with the grenade launcher, that kind of energy couldn’t be matched by any other game nowadays. So much so that my friends would end up coming to my house and playing Halo MCC with me. Even at this point in time when Halo was becoming less relevant in the gaming world, the magic was always there every time I played with them. I became good friends with a lot of those other students that would always be rushing to the game room to play Halo Reach with me, and every time we played a match of ffa slayer, it would never fall short to be an absolute blast. In my personal opinion (and I apologize for getting religious for this next bit), but I truly believe that this was a work of God that I was able to have all these friends and strengthen our bonds all just from playing Halo Reach.
Fast forward to today. I’m now 21 years old, working a full time job, living in an apartment on my own… Time has passed, friends have grown up, graduated high school and are starting their own lives, and over time have become distant memories… Except those memories will never die out. The passion that I have for Halo will never die out. I still continue to play Halo MCC online multiplayer to this very day. While those moments of me playing the Halo Reach firefight with Luke hours late into the night, and those moments of a crowded and hyped up game room with me dominating the lobby are all gone, the memories are always here with me and will only die out when I do.
Thank you Halo for making magical moments in our lives, and creating numerous communities and unbreakable friendships :)
It's good to remember the good old times, from time to time.
Speaking of Halo 5, there might have been issues, but you posted a lot of videos about the game and I will always be thankful that they helped me get from "noob that never played Halo" to Solo Onyx in FFA and Slayer. And it's all thanks to learning a ton from your replay reviews and "mindset" videos. And a ton of practice😁But still, without your content I don't think I would have ever attempted to "git gud" at Halo 5 Arena.
I never experienced the "golden age of Halo", but that social aspect for me was in Destiny 1. A lot of the things you mention in this video about making friends and getting really into it every day... That was Destiny for me.
Those days will never return as I am older and games are different, but I will always cherish them.
Cheers to the good times!
I knew exactly what this video was gonna be about before I even clicked on it. While watching it, I couldn't help but tear up a little bit.
I met one of my best friends when I was 14 in a game of Halo 3 rocket race. He had partied up with some of his friends. While they were in a party chat, they could all hear me because this was before proximity chat was brutally murdered in an alleyway. After some hilarious shenanigans involving driving off the edge of Rat's Nest and jumbling up the teams (and hearing me being absolutely befuddled at the situation), I was invited to their party chat. I haven't been able to keep up with the others, but my friend and I still talk and play games to this very day. I'm 31 now, and it kinda blows my mind that we have known each other for over half of our lives. I haven't kept up with anyone else, outside of family, for anywhere near that long.
Halo 3 is very special to me, and no other game I've played has come close.
We'll never get these days back but that's ok. The nostalgia is good enough for me and in 10 years hopefully I'll be saying the same about playing Infinite, Apex and others. Halo was the biggest part of my life back then and I wouldn't change it or want it to be like that again
They were fun, and I know new experiences will emerge, things we can't predict yet, I just gotta be always up for checking out new things
Oh definitely I couldn't agree more! I should have finished the video first and then commented though.
My story starts on day 1! I got Halo CE on release and between that and Final Fantasy I didn't play anything else. H2 came out and me and a friend would play all day together on co op, then I would carry my TV to his to play Lan games! This was the same for H3 and Reach. They genuinely were the days of my life and nothing will ever compare to that today.
I try not to bash on games too much and even though infinite has been a hot mess at points it's bought back some old friendships that were lost between years. I want more of that, but it doesn't have to be the same.
I'd also be quite happy to not have another free to play Halo, providing 343 can supply great content to boot.
Finally I miss the community night games. I never played in them but loved watching the clips and YT vids afterwards.
Sorry for yet another ramble!
I remember when I played Halo CE through Halo 3 with my brother. I was born in 2000 so I must have got a really early start to be playing Halo CE for a little while before Halo 2 came out. At first, we only played co-op campaign, and only the missions we liked (no scary space zombies) and only on Easy. My brother had me convinced hunters were the scariest thing in the universe, capable of killing you by looking at you, so I usually cowered from them while he killed them. I was so proud when I killed my first hunter in Halo CE by standing far enough away that I'm surprised I didn't have to mail him the bullets and then dumping about 7 assault rifle magazines into his frontside over the course of 5 minutes.
This literally almost exactly how me and my brother played
Key word here "WAS". Rest In Peace Halo.
Asking the question "in a few years will I value the time I invested into this" seems like a really good way to cut through the fomo that live service games prey on people with. I like that a lot, definitely going to use this!
I've largely abandoned PvP games because you're right, it feels like banging my head against soulless bots. Fallout 76 has taken my heart these last few weeks, a real sense of community and casual fun.
My first memory of Halo is 2001, I was 5, right after it came out, sitting down with my cousin on his Xbox and playing through the entire game with him and my brother over a two day weekend. I still remember how The Flood creeped me out the first time I ever saw them, I will always love Halo and encourage people to play those bungie games. Halo 2 through Reach online was a truly special thing to be a part of and I'm lucky to have experienced those days. I still invite friends over for Split Screen Halo and every single time we all have a blast
I remember playing halo offline by myself or with a friend not knowing online even existed. We would build defense maps and attack each other or play forge and fly to the top of the map and drop tanks on each other to see the Spartan bodies glitch all over the place. I remember seeing a RUclips video of someone wearing a really cool elite helmet and that’s when I learned you could earn armor through achievements. My sisters friend secretly made me an online account using his email (which I eventually lost years later) and I played my first ever game on snowbound and from there I was hooked. Looking back I was super anti social but so many people were in game chat having the time of their lives that it broke me from my shell and I made dozens of new friends in which we made clans and played every single night. Halo on halo, frogger, Jenga were all staples and I would cry laugh till midnight every night. Earning all the armor felt like such an accomplishment and earned. Reach was the same. Maybe it’s cause I was a kid experiencing something new for the first time but booting up infinite just isn’t the same. No one talks, no random invites that say messages to all recent players I am starting a custom game,nothing is earned and is all behind a pay wall. I just play to kill time mostly in silence grinding for the only thing that can be earned which is a coating for master rank that I will definitely never reach. Halo 3 will always be the best years I had in gaming and I will always appreciate the memories and friends I made through those experiences.
I had barely gotten an original Xbox in the summer of 2007. Everyone knew about the hype for Halo 3. I couldn't afford a 360 but decided to get Halo 2. I was blown away by the campaign. Even though I couldn't play online I still had a great time running co-op with my brother. Have been a Halo fan ever since.
I've been watching your videos for years, never commented because I'm kind of private online, but felt like I had to on this one because it really hit home. Some of my best childhood memories are Halo 3 split screen with a big group of friends. I'd lug this brick of a TV (small screen but super heavy) to the trunk of my family car along with my 360 and copy of Halo 3, and drive over to my friend's place. We'd system-link the consoles together and tilt the TVs away from each other so we could do 4v4 without screen peaking (but people occasionally peaked anyway 😂). It was all having fun with friends - the casual competition, teamwork, goofy Halo physics moments and fails, weird game modes, and times where we all got super competitive in a close game brought us all together. We'd play till like 5am and then fall asleep in our sleeping bags on the living room floor. Compared to that, gaming feels a bit detached for me these days. One day I'd love to try recapturing the magic of in-person multiplayer gaming, just not sure how. Anyway thanks for the video, and great channel :)
One of the core memories I had with Halo 3 me and my brother and our cousins was playing customs with each other and we didn't have a force controller so the fourth player used the Guitar Hero controller😂 and we did take turns with the guitar control
That PS2 network adapter was amazing. Fond memories of SOCOM and Midnight Club II
I'm with ya, BBK. College was the last time I had couch co-op, but the most fun I had was in the early 2010s. That's when I played CoD and stuff with Xbox Live friends. Now, I don't even have a mic for my Xbox. Most of those friends are on my list, but I don't even look to see who's online anymore. It's sad.
So i started playing Halo CE Campaign with my Step Brother. Then other games like fusion frenzy, mortal kombat deception. But went to Halo 2 and after Campaign. I did glitching out of map and what not. Then got Halo 3, did the Campaign,Multi-player. Then played Portal and thought... how about making something like this in halo 3. And then got into puzzle maps since
You aren't wrong man. I'm a bit older and all us kids used to get together in my pop's basement and play Metroid on the NES. It built a small community. We'd get together on the Friday night and see what the next item we could get would be. As you said, life happened and I stopped playing some until I saw a sale on PS3 and a free sony TV and started playing Modern Warfare. All my work buddies were on xbox playing h3. I finally got one and started playing with those guys. It was the first time I felt that community like in the old neighborhood. The mics worked good, match ups in seconds, random matches for the history books on the Pit etc. Now, all the visuals and extras but no one even chats or has a mic etc. Not the same anymore man. That's a fact. Even Destiny doesn't do it for me. I have had terrific moments on there, but not like H3. If you look at say IGN, and Bungie's twitter feed, they care more about current politics and virtue signals than making good games if you ask me. It's like leave the politics out and let's make a good game. Thanks for the video man. Been a follower a long time and may be the first comment I've left. Appreciate the content.
Brother and I grew up playing 3 and reach online. Mostly reach. Before 2010 my parents hadn’t gotten us Xbox live so we replayed the campaigns like crazy. Didn’t matter to me as a kid because the original halo campaigns felt like a movie. Every mission has a cool ass moment that made my mouth drop as a kid. Kinda like that kid from incredibles that said “that was totally wicked!”. That kind of energy. So I grew up loving campaigns and single player games just as much as the multiplayer games.
But the couch coop, finding out I could change settings in forge, playing fat kid, hulk, or nascar was what made halo great. The social piece of it. I miss that from games today, today that stuff is silenced.
Helldivers is the only game that makes me feel like that again. Just go out there and have fun with buddies after a long day of work. You can log on, kick back, get a couple of kills, and have a blast. No need to sweat or communicate callouts or anything. Just fun.
I will always think of halo as the game that can be serious when it wants to be, but at the end of the day it wants to have a good time
I've been craving some couch co-op gaming Lately for the very same reasons. Such good memories 😊 I should probably finish cleaning my home and getting my living room set up finally to get my friends over.
Daaaaamn that H3 lobby. I miss some of those guys so much
I used to have to stretch the phone line halfway through the house to play on dial up. I wanted nothing more in life than to be able to play halo 2 online. I have incredible memories of LAN parties at friends’ houses and I remember asking the guy in front me in the halo 3 launch line to pretend to be my uncle because i wasn’t old enough to buy the game. 😂 Classic. Also, i have loads of official xbox mag demo discs lying around. Those things were absolute gold when i couldn’t afford any games. Thanks for the nostalgia trip.
So - we had halo ce at home....never played it much. My buddy tells me about these LAN parties at some headshop where they started at like 11pm - sunrise or something crazy. That ran for a few months until the shop eventually closed. I then talked my other buddies who had a house into running a halo night. Every Thursday - I brought the router, everyone else brought tvs/xboxes and what not. Upstairs vs downstairs - hearing someone pound on the floor when you destroyed them was the best. Sometimes we had 8 v 8 - such a great time!!
My son and I play Infinite online multiplayer (ranked arena, we’re low plat level) split screen and have a blast playing.
First off man your videos are always awesome to watch and to listen your opinions on games and definitely stories you talk about in halo. This video made me think back to my early teenager days.
The 1st time playing halo ce was when my friend up the stree invited me over for 2nd or 3rd time to try and beat me in this new game he got which was halo and just loving it right off the bat and after the 1st match losing to him, i never lost again. Then after school everyday i would go to his place and play it and then have lan parties there.
Then halo2 came out and didnt have the best internet so every weekend my mom or my friend parents would come get me and we would literally play halo2 co op and online most of the time all weekend long and get like 6 to 8 hrs of sleep that whole weekend and then have lan parties there sometimes or at my place and remember getting the extra maps on the disc too was weird but cool at the same time too.
Then halo3 came out and remember going to the midnight release and staying up all night to play online with my friends all week and weekend long and then putting my big tv in the back of my 1987 4runner 5 speed to take up the rd to my friend house and have like 7 to 10 my friends there and my friend dad played with us too and order pizza and just having a blast and then do that at my house on the weekends when my parent's left me home alone bc they went hunting and set up every xbox360 and 1 ps2 to play some ddr and n64 to play some smash or mario kart.. like all those years back then i will never forget and will always stick me
When halo reach and 4 and mcc came out is when like all my friends stopped playing one game after another bc the game changed and we didnt have time. Nowadays i have like 1 friend from back then that still plays halo infinite with me ever so often. Its hard to make new friends on infinite in my opinion or if you do they are barely on or not close in age. If you ever want play some halo infinite or mcc just add me and my gt is Pvt Taco. Thanks for all the videos you do man and the stories you tell too. Keep it up and hope to see you online in the future.
The Playstation 2 Network Adapter changed my life.
I used to play Madden 03 online from a demo disc nonstop! And plenty of other future titles to thereafter.
*The fact that the Xbox Console and Controller used to reflect CO-OP by having the LED lights on the home button and power button alongside showing your friends avatars and profiles at the Home Screen for the 360 era says everything. Now not only do you not see your friends and avatars at the start screen anymore but even the LED lights on the console and controller to tell if your player 1-4 are gone also. Such a damn shame.*
Arbiter
I have great memories of couch co-op on Reach and 4, wether it was working together on triple team or richochet, just being in the same room with all of us on one big screen was great. My friends are more of PC gamers these days, but I've had a hard time convincing them that cross play is worth it and connecting again online.
4 player splitscreen online was so fun!! You and 3 "guests" causing chaos was great! Peak gaming.
Glad you mentioned battle bit
I've had halo mcc in my library for about a year or so but barely touched it due to being preoccupied with other games. I've been getting tired of the state of the industry rn, especially with the lack of worthwhile fps games, and I decided to give halo a try again. this past week I played through the campaigns from combat evolved up until reach and I almost instantly became a fan. these games feel so fresh nowadays compared to modern games despite the first game being over 20 years old, and after playing through them I've been watching videos on youtube about the history of these games and seeing how big halo as a franchise was back in the day and how many people seem to reminisce on those days makes me feel like I've missed out on something special. I've had difficulty getting into the multiplayer of these games due to players being so good from years of experience, but I still enjoy these games so much and I truly hope to see the next halo game do well so that maybe I can have a chance to experience at least some of the magic that seemed to be apart of old halo (although it seems unlikely since 343 has been fumbling the ip for over a decade)
I think my favorite franchise regressing has helped me realize that there are other things in life to enjoy. I’ve started hiking with a buddy and it’s been some of the most fun I’ve had in years. I hope in the future halo comes back in a big way.
Halo 4 drove my friends from the franchise as well. Started out playing Halo 2 with some friends from high school and was immediately hooked. Played Halo CE on Mac. Bought a 360 and stood in line for the midnight release of Halo 3 in college. And I'm still here for Halo, sadly my friends are not.
Don’t you think that growing up and getting jobs/lifes had something to do with it?
I do realize the state of the world, I even make videos talking about it, we truly don’t know what’s to happen, all we can do is hope that we have a better future.
My biggest memories for me was being 9 years old and play Halo 3 with my older brother, it turned into an OBSESSION for me. I went from not good at games to my parents getting me an xbox with H3 for christmas and me OBSESSING over it. I was the typical "squeeker" that would go insane and tbag/talk shit to everyone older than me. I remember beating H3 on legendary pulling an all nighter with one of my best friends, unlocking recon armour, I even started my own friend group where i would host custom game lobbies 3 nights a week and had a legit wait list of people trying to join because they would be so fun and max out on people. The social interaction and fun is what made halo for me. Now everything is overly competitive and less social for all games. I truly miss those days.
I remember me and my cousin playing Halo 3 ODST and Halo Reach both were really fun.
It took me a long time to realize that for me looking back to when i was a kid, halo represented superior story telling in games, but also a community driven experience, my first halo was halo 3, and it was my first xbox title i remember my friend loved marathon and got the security helmet, i didnt even know what marathon was but i liked that bungie made the security helmet as a reference, i remember rvb. And waiting for episode premiers, and not just rvb, but forgelabs, and pete the duck,H.O.R.S.E, it just seemed so lively and interconnected. Even during the decline, in halo 4. I remember people in voice chat partying up for customs and teasing rank and it was when i really got into forge mode. Halo kinda lost its magic to me, and infinite was so close. I think halo needs to focus on treating the community with more respect and giving us more tools to create and share, and have more choice in the games direction.
I started playing halo 3 when I was 3 and just didnt stop playing halo then destiny 1 and 2.
I got into Halo from “Fails of the Weak” and RvsB. Its supposed to be fun with friends
While everyone was playing Halo 3 in 2008, I was playing Metal Gear Online on the PS3. I had the best social experience in that game compared to Halo and CoD that was big in the day. The movement and stealth for your character was so diverse, it's not replicated in any other game. I missed out on playing Halo 3 social experiences because Microsoft was charging moolah to play online.
I wasn't allowed to have an xbox and especially to play 'violent' games when I was growing up and so whenever I went round to a buddys house who had a 360 we'd play halo and Gears and it was always the funnest thing; I'm at a different point in my life now in a different city and I'm not in contact with most of those friends anymore just cause of being an adult and life has taken us in different directions, but I think part of why I miss couch co-op so specifically is missing those friends and those moments; you can't share pizza and soda over online play, nothing beats being in the same room together having a blast. It feels like the end of an era with Rooster teeth going away now cause we'd always watch Red vs Blue together too, god I miss those like 2008 - 2012 vibes. Anyway arbiter
I definitely agree that it WAS special. It's kind of sad now, because the franchise at this point has lost all the appeal it once had for me.
RoosterTeeth went the same way, and now they're shutting down. I guess this is how life goes sometimes, but there's a kind of sadness in the changing of the times. When things you love and moments you treasure become relegated to the past.
I remeber being five years old and sitting in my dads lap while he played halo ce. He had the duke controller. The big fat one that I couldn't even wrap my fingers around. He let me hold the sides and then put his hands over mine to play the games. I dream of doing the same with my own kid someday.
No splitscreen used to be unfathomable.
Love this kind of content
Pretty much the same experience here. Ended up skipping Halo 4 and 5 because they didn't "Feel" or look like a Halo game, and didn't play any video game at all for almost a decade. Came back after seeing a Halo Infinite trailer and thinking it might be a step back to what Halo was/is supposed to be. I just wish 343 wasn't so vehemently opposed to social features (pre and post game lobbies, couch co-op, file share, etc.) because it really could've been a return to form for the series (if it also launched with the right amount of content).
My older brothers friend left their xbox at my house after they had a lan party! I played Halo 2 for hours!!! My first time and i was hooked! I was hoping he never took the xbox back lol. I was living in Halo and it was the best escape 😊 That feeling of being consumed by a game is so comforting, like nothing else matters
I joined halo while infinite was on it's second season. I still love that game, and I prefer it over MCC, but honestly... I wish that we would go back to having something more like the old games. arbiter
343 has stripped every single social feature out of the game. Playing Infinite feels like playing against bots.
I remember getting a demo disc for tomb raider for the original Xbox in the mail
Nice video it resonate a lot with me, had a similar experience. Question are you playing on PC or Xbox? Because on my PC, Halo Reach looks atrocious with over exaggerated bloom light, everything is blurry and yours do not. 5:36
I had always been gaming from a young age, starting with the likes of the OG Pokemon games, Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong etc., but I was never, NEVER allowed to play "violent" video games... Until Halo. You see, for my 7th birthday, my mom took my sister out to buy me a video game as a gift from her. By happenstance, she picked up an M-rated video game, "because it looked cool." My Mom said absolutely not, only for a store employee to overhear, and tell her that while it was an M-rated game... You only shoot aliens in it, not humans. Somehow, that was enough to convince my Mom to give the O.K. to buy it. Cut forward to my birthday, and my sister hands me my gift - and it's a HUGE box. Like, nearly as tall as I was, and using kid logic, bigger gift = better gift. So, I excitedly tear into the thing, only to discover and second, smaller box - and inside that, a third, even smaller box. By the fifth box, I finally pull out the actual gift, and unwrap it, coming face to face with a big green guy with guns doing a cool pose...
Halo 2
I fell in love with the game instantly, playing just the campaign again and again - I distinctly remember adoring Delta Halo/Regret most of all, and learned every nook and cranny and secret of those missions. Eventually I convinced my parents to get me the first Halo and loved that, too. I began to read and re-read the books that had been released by that point, and then eagerly awaited Halo 3's arrival to Finish the Fight, getting my first taste of online gaming towards the tail-end of Halo 2, but also having awesome split-screen times with friends during sleepovers and get-togethers. I still have that original copy of Halo 2 I was gifted nearly 20 years ago now, and from time to time, I still boot it up on the old Xbox I have. This November, I'm going to do a full playthrough on the OG in celebration of 20 years, along with getting online via Insignia to enjoy the original matchmaking.
No matter how difficult or hopeless things get with modern Halo, I know I'll always have the originals. And for that, I am thankful.
I'm like 15 seconds into this video and just want to say that 343 has officially upset me enough that I'm going to make my own fps
SBMM is not that big an issue, the real problem is simply the mechanics.
Sprint, Slide and Clamber are still bad for Halo, the utility weapons (regardless of what you think about the precision meta) are basically hit-scan which is suffocating, balancing through effective range instead of ease of use is game warping to encourage un-fun play styles; and instant strafe&crouch speed is obnoxious. These mechanics don't promote a variety experiences, casual or competitive; the only reason they work in games like Apex and Warzone is because the Battle Royale experience is as broad as the player want's it to be, you can choose to have high tension engagements or to have a slower game with more downtime; you can't have that in a Halo arena, the mechanics just don't allow for it.
SBMM does optimise for equal skill levels, but with Infinites mechanics, the ultra stressful, high tension, comes down to the wire games is simply what "equal skill levels" looks like. That's why every game you play feels like an HCS game, because at the highest level of HCS, that's what those games look like.
If you go back to the Bungie Era games and look at the highest level of MLG, those games had more variety than what you get at the "casual" level of Infinite. Even at MLG level when skill levels were equal, not every game was an even, down to the wire, nail bitter; sometimes teams just got trounced, then came back in the next round. Sometimes a CTF game only lasted 4 minutes, now the HCS commentators laugh at the idea of one team winning by capping the flag 5 times...
Bungie's Game mechanics were simply not as oppressive as the 343i games so even amongst the best of the best, all skill levels equal, there was still a variety of experiences you could have game to game, it didn't always feel like a sweat-fest...
Split screen❤❤❤
It’s not that Halo 5 and infinite are bad, there are fun games. I’ve played them a bunch. But I still think the best formula for halo is classic movement and an old school feel. There’s something about the simplicity of halo that makes it fun.
It’s like the difference between checkers and chess. The objective of both games are similar, but have a completely different feel and may not fit the particular situation you’re looking for.
Anti-Social features and SBMM are core reasons why I never played a single second of matchmaking on Halo Infinite. I wish there were others who didn’t play a second of that game, because 343’s just going to rehash and do the same thing again since Infinite’s launch was such a massive success.
My man playing MnK, a surprise to be sure, still wish you could hot-swap 😅
As a recent Arbiter, I didn't grow up with HALO nor the consoles. I grew up with some Gameboy Advance and Lego starwars/Need for SPeed on the family computer and browser games like Miniclip/Nitrome.
Here is my HALO Origin story:
In college, I got into free-roam on MGSV:TPP and the mods for it and then tried FPS like Ironsight and Overwatch, but didn't like their gameplay loop. Around that time El Dewrito came out. I kinda liked it, but didn't like the racism and jankyness of it and once it got shut down and eventually MCC got ported to PC on Steam. I tried MCC on my laptop and I have been playing HALO on laptop mouse and keyboard ever since.
I liked Reach's campaign for what it was, I tried some of the other ones but I know the overarching story and enough lore from the halo meme reddits and lore videos. Multiplayer-wise, I enjoyed Reach Gun Game on Customs, H4 BTB heavies pre-Infinite, and CE for how weird and unsettling the maps vibes are.
As Infinite released, I continued to complete the battle passes and have purchased some cool helmets like Anubis, Firefall, and Celox. Infinite is my main game, I adore this gameplay feel more than the other entries but gah-lee I wish there were more sandbox additions. Here's to the next entry though but man, what a botched dev hell. Hopefully it took Infinite's failure to course-correct the franchise but we'll see. Around this time I started joining different HALO communities on discord, youtube, reddit, and twitter.
"I survived HALO Infinite Season 2: Lone Wolves and all I got was this t-shirt" and it's the loading screen with the three spartans on it.
Anyways, I still play Infinite but recently my internet has been acting up so I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077. I usually play Infinite or any other HALO title by myself and solo queue, usually if I have discord open I don't like how it affects my game performance and I don't have a strong inclination to hearing others' voices bc I don't like their voices anyways nor the content of what they're saying.
Recently, my usual Infinite session arc is as follows: play in Socials (Diet Ranked but I don't like losing so I try to clutch when my team falls apart but SBMM has other plans) as my internet is bad rn I haven't touched Ranked and then I go to Firefight and then some Hot Pursuit or something similar on the Customs Browser.
Oh and I started playing halo around 21 years old when MCC came to PC and now I'm 26 playing Infinite.
Hopefully things improve for the franchise.
SOmetimes I am kinda glad Infinite or Halo as a whole isn't doing so well because sometimes I get frustrated with Infinite so I open up Ableton or Blender or Photoshop and get back into my more creative hobbies bc I'm like "What am I doing with my time?!!?!" so there's a reframe for ya :)
Seeing the word "was" kinda hurts for some reasons
Originally Xbox Live was marketed as couch gaming online with friends. Its what made it so massively popular in the first place and I think Microsoft gained their market share and just took control and made everything super isolated. Remember Xbox 360 used to have that 'Watch netflix with friends" thing? Super cool stuff. Theres no innovations like that anymore.
I bought the Xbox One and 2 controllers in preparation for the MCC, and it became a netflix box its entire life. Halo 5 did not vibe with me at all. And so I sold the system. It was around the Xbox One era where everything started feeling disconnected and the shitification began.
No no no, you're wrong. Halo was never about having fun with your friends. It was always a competitive shooter. Fans for years haven't been asking for splitscreen co-op, but rather they wanted the ability to buy clothes for their spartan and play dress up in game!
Ikr i hate having fun with my friends on splitscreen
Yeah and less content then the last game
Yeah absolutely agree, I love dressing up my spartans and paying for 40$ microtransactions than actually playing the game
Selling spartan cat ears single handedly saved the franchise
and we also love it when we have the privilege of waiting 3 years for an semi complete game just to be dropped in a couple of years.
Steam next fest is like the new demo discs, you have to try it, (everytime ive had voip in a game its only ever been slurs)
hey !!
Hello!
I was really upset with Halo Infinite on PC. I was waiting for split screen co-op to experience it with my friends and family. After the plug was pulled I’ve lost quite a bit of interest in any new Halo games going forward unless the feature returns
Talk all the trash you want to on Halo 4 but it was a great game! At the time ign did a poll on their channel of what game the people wanted to play more Halo 4 or Call of Duty Black Ops 2??? Overwhelming people voted to play Halo 4 over Black Ops 2 in 2012 and Call Of Duty was at the peak of its power! People forget that Halo 4 was amazing at that time and in my eyes still is! Halo 5 was the only misstep that 343 had and also the launch of Halo Infinite not having a good multiplayer experience at the start but years later became good after many updates! People are so tough on Halo for no reason it’s still the same game with the same enemies, the same master chief but a much better developed character, the same Cortana A.I., the same vehicles, the same weapons sandbox it’s always had! They add a run button and everybody losses their minds! They had Call of Duty like controls and people are like no way that’s not Halo, they add Spartan abilities and people don’t like that! What I’m getting at is people HATE CHANGE!!!
I love halo 3 for it's story, innovations, customization, visuals
But halo 3s multiplayer mechanics were soooo slow 🤦♂️ the competitive scene fell off hard
Why Halo is** so special
Outside of life circumstances like work, parenthood, etc, I think this is really more an issue of the industry having left us old cats behind in favor of the younger generations with unlimited access to their mom's credit card.
These new games simply don't appeal to a lot of us who experienced gaming before live service existed in the mainstream or before gaming itself became mainstream.
Myself, for example, I still play video games to this day but I'm thoroughly done with multiplayer gaming and have been ever since halo 5. That abomination almost made me quit gaming entirely. But everything is so competitive focused and lonely. Nobody talks or socializes anymore outside of discord servers so there's not much point. I feel like if I'm going to feel alone, I might as well be alone without other players there to potentially ruin the fun.
I don't think gaming will ever return to what it was prior to 2013 because of the mainstream aspect to it and it seems we have collectively been artificially placed into a hyper anti social gaming landscape, not because we wanted it, but because it's what is catered to the most by all these companies, especially since they intentionally axe cooperative features any chance they get in favor of battle passes and whatever other modern garbage there is.
Plain and simple, this industry doesn't want communities, they want customers, and they've alienated a ton of people in the process.
The people who are last seen online 12 years ago must've seen this coming before the rest of us. Sometimes I think they made the better decision than to stick around for this mess like I did.
I would play more Halo MCC if EU servers were more populated. Playing on 140 ping on US servers is not enjoyable and queue times for EU are atrocious.
Halo killed itself before fortnite could kill it ironically, it fell into the ultra competitive trap way too early shouldve had a good 6 or 7 more years at at minimum “halo reach” levels of popularity
I never understood the hype about Halo series, I started playing around 2021 and the game are not special, there are okay-ish but somehow I played for 350 h in MCC and 100h in Infinite. I just feel most people praising it are doing it for the sake of nostalgia then anything else.
I paused @7:15 to post my thoughts, halo started to spiral down hill after halo3 when halo reach came out. Halo2/3 where the peaks of popularity in the world for halo. Halo3 was sooo massive that when they brought out halo reach, half of the halo3 players hated halo reach & they stayed playing halo3. They didn’t like the sprint, the jetpack, the sniper reticle movement when firing, they got rid of the BR & Carbine & added the dmr. They ruined the needler, a fun sandbox gun & tried to make it to replace the covernant carbine. Aka turning fun sandbox weapons for noobs into competitive guns that require skill. Halo reach was the beginning of halos downhill run, with them trying to keep up with call of duty & turning halo into more a competitive fps than a fun social fps which is what it was meant to be. The slope started with reach but the vertical drop off came with halo 4 undoubtably. Halo 5 further solidified the death of halo with absurd req packs, the announcers voice in h4 & 5 is terrible. Halo was a unique universe & it contested hotly with call of duty at the time of halo3. After halo 3 halo became influenced by COD hence why reach had sprint etc, halo5 had req packs aka loot boxes. The last great halo game was halo 3. There’s a bunch of gamers who came along during reach who missed the halo 3 era. These players typically don’t know what halo use to be. So now you have halo reach, halo 5 players who want halo infinite to be like halo reach or halo 5. Why do you think the Battle rifle was in halo infinite Competitve hsc scene but then the “pros” wanted to overhaul the br & use a single shot bandit bc most of the infinite pros are halo5 losers who miss their single shot pistol. So there you have it, halo fans are all disagreeing on what a good halo game is. But the OGs are the ones who know what halo is & where it went wrong.
If you want that feeling back, I have to recommend Eldewrito. I can't recommend making videos on, I can recommend personally in your own time it will bring you bcak to that era instantly.
I miss the shitty xbox live mics.. The distortion is like a warm hug 😊