Halo Game Summary

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Halo is a popular series of science fiction FPS video games developed by Bungie Studios and published by Microsoft. The games are set in the "Halo universe" — a science fiction universe created by Bungie Studios exclusively for the series. The series follows the events of the war between future humanity and a collective of alien races known as the Covenant. The first title in Halo: Combat Evolved quickly became known as the first "killer app" for Microsoft's Xbox video game console when it was released in 2001, achieving both critical acclaim and financial success. Halo was later published on the PC and finally released for the Mac (for which it was originally developed prior to Microsoft's acquisition of developer Bungie).

A second game, Halo 2 was released in 2004, breaking sales records and becoming the fastest selling United States media product in history. Halo 2 US sales top $125; UK retail celebrates successful launch September 7. A third game, Halo 3, is in development for the Xbox 360, announced for release in 2007 . The Halo games have become well known for the high quality of their graphics, gameplay, physics, and storyline. Further expanding the Halo universe are several novels, which provide insight into the background story, and two upcoming Xbox 360 projects: a Halo RTS named Halo Wars and an as-yet untitled Halo project to be made in partnership with Peter Jackson.

Halo trilogy

File:Halo3MC.jpg

The main character of the Halo trilogy, the Master Chief.

The Halo trilogy centers around the SPARTAN 117 "John", also known as Master Chief, a human super-soldier equipped with technologically advanced battle armor, and his AI companion, Cortana.

File:Halo Cover.jpg

The box art for Halo: Combat Evolved.

Halo: Combat Evolved

Main article: Halo: Combat Evolved

Halo: Combat Evolved is a first person shooter that takes place on a mysterious ring world named Halo. Set in the year A.D. 2552, it focuses around a war between humans and a technologically advanced alliance of alien races known as the Covenant, who are united by their fanatical religious beliefs in a mission to eradicate humanity. Two days before the story begins, Covenant forces launch an assault on the second largest human installation, Reach, and destroy it. A single starship, the Pillar of Autumn, survives the alien onslaught carrying the last known SPARTAN-II super-soldier, the "Master Chief". The ship initiates a random jump to Slipspace, hoping to lead the enemy away from Earth.

Halo: Custom Edition

Main article: Halo: Custom Edition

´ Halo Custom Edition is an expansion of the PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved. It is used to load user-created content (mods) that were created using the Halo editing kit.

Halo 2

The box art for Halo 2.

Main article: Halo 2

Halo 2 is the sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, released for the Xbox on November 9, 2004 in two different editions; the standard Halo 2 edition, with traditional Xbox packaging and a single disc with the single- and multiplayer components, and the Collector's Edition, package in a specially designed metal case, along with an additional bonus DVD, extra booklet and slightly different user manual (written from the perspective of the Covenant military). The game's sales generated US$ 125 million on its premiere day, making it the fastest selling United States media product in history. The game has sold over 7 million copies worldwide since release. A port for the Windows Vista operating system is currently in development by an internal team composed of both Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios.

Halo 2 features new vehicles and weapons, and improved artificial intelligence, as well as new game mechanics like dual wielding and the ability to hijack vehicles. Unlike its predecessor, the game fully supports online multiplayer via Xbox Live. The game has a reworked, more advanced graphics engine than the original, utilizing normal mapping and bloom effects. It also has Bungie.net integration and rankings and tracking of every online match. Halo 2 supports the same local area network and split-screen multiplayer components found in Halo: Combat Evolved.

Halo 3

Main article: Halo 3

File:Ruckt01.jpg

Cropped Screenshot from one of the Halo 3 teaser trailers

Halo 3 is the third installment in this story arc in the world of Halo, announced at Microsoft's E3 2006 Press Conference via trailer. [1]. Recently a few reporters from the swedish magazine LEVEL were given restricted access to play a multiplayer test of Halo 3 in the Bungie headquarters. More recently, Microsoft has announced that select members of the Bungie community will get a chance to be part of the Halo 3 Beta, as well as those who purchase specially marked versions of the soon-to-release Crackdown. Both Crackdown and the Halo 3 beta will be released spring 2007.

Spin-off games

As the Halo franchise continues, games will be developed that will have little or nothing to do with the Halo trilogy story-arc.

Halo Wars

Main article: Halo Wars

Halo Wars is a real time strategy game exclusively for the Xbox 360 which takes place in the time before Halo: Combat Evolved, thus not part of the Halo Trilogy. Its developer, Ensemble Studios, stated in the FAQ that Halo Wars is "created for the Xbox 360 from the ground up."

Untitled Halo Project

Main article: Unidentified Halo Project

An untitled Halo project was announced on September 27, 2006 at X06, to be co-written, co-designed and co-produced by Peter Jackson, with his recently-formed Wingnut Interactive . Jackson will create a "media experience" set in the Halo universe, in partnership with Bungie Studios.

Novelizations

The Halo universe has several times been adapted into novel form. The first adaption was Halo: The Fall of Reach—a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, written by Eric Nylund and published during October 2001. The novel was reportedly finished in seven weeks, eventually becoming a Publisher's Weekly bestseller with nearly two hundred thousand copies sold. The second novel, entitled Halo: The Flood, served as an adaptation of Halo: Combat Evolved. Written by William C. Dietz, this novel also attained the Publisher's Weekly bestsellers list during May 2003.

Eric Nylund returned to write the third novel, Halo: First Strike, a sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved taking place before the events of Halo 2. It was published in December 2003, after being written in a period of sixteen weeks. A fourth novel, entitled Halo: Ghosts of Onyx,written again by Eric Nylund was published on October 31 2006. The Halo universe was adapted into the graphic novel format in the Halo Graphic Novel, a collection of four short stories, released during July 2006. It was written and illustrated by well-known graphic novelists Lee Hammock, Jay Faerber, Tsutomu Nihei, Brett Lewis, Simon Bisley, Ed Lee and Jean Giraud. Bungie Studios considers the Halo novels as canon.