Why I bought a HaloBox Xbox
 

Back in the golden days of Mac gaming, we had a little something called Marathon. Marathon was a trilogy of first-person shooter by Mac Software giant Bungie. The boys on the PC platform had Doom and Hexen, but Marathon had something different. Maybe it was the fact that the plot was so engrossing. For once, the plot of a 3D first person shooter didn't take a back seat to the multiplayer aspect of the game. Marathon had a unique flavor, it was something Mac users could be proud of. Bungie came out with their Myth series of real-time strategy games, which were released to both Mac and PC. Development continued on Oni: a dark, anime-style third person shooter.

Then, in 2000, the unthinkable happened: Microsoft bought Bungie. Bungie, the golden-jewel of gaming on Macintosh had been stolen by the evil empire of Windows. Furthermore, Bungie's latest and greatest revolutionary shooter, Halo, would be released exclusively on Microsoft's new gaming console, the Xbox. It was the most unimaginable betrayal that could ever happen to Mac users. I (along with most of the Mac community, I'm sure) wrote an angry letter to the people at Bungie. I personally promised that I'd never buy another one of their games, and assured them that they had permanently alienated everyone in the Mac community.

Halo was released for Xbox in November of 2001. I spent years ignoring Bungie, the way you ignore an ex-lover because you can't stand to imagine that they're happy with someone else. However, the popularity of the Xbox and Halo soared exponentially, and it was only a matter of time until I could no longer ignore them. Chris W. bought an Xbox, and played Halo all the time. Naturally, I started watching. Like all of Bungie's efforts, Halo was something new and different. It wasn't just another dressed-up version of Quake. The enemies were intelligent, the combat was indeed "evolved", and the game just looked and sounded great.

So I started playing Halo. Once again, the folks at Bungie had come up with a great story that was just GOOD Sci-Fi. I actually had to think about my strategy and tactics in combat, or the in-game enemies would out-think me. Of course, multiplayer was tons of immensely frustrating fun. ("Kill your enemies. Kill your Friends. Kill your Enemies Friends.Etc…)

My Halo 2 Predictions So, are you already a Halo fan? Here's my predictions of some things you can expect in Halo 2: Sergeant Johnson is Stayin' Alive The lovably coarse Sergeant Johnson appears in the gameplay trailer for Halo 2. Some people find this curious, because all the other human characters from Halo (save the Master Chief) were supposedly killed. Here's the thing: Sergeant Johnson was killed twice in the original Halo. He was with the team of marines who released the Flood (the team was subsequently digested). If you complete the game on Legendary, you get an alternate ending where the Sergeant is fighting with an Elite for a gun when the Pillar of Autumn explodes. My theory is that the Sergeant is Bungie's version of Kenny. He'll always die but somehow he'll always be back for the next episode. The Monitor - 343 Guilty Spark If you played the first Halo, you probably came to a point where you tried to use a rocket launcher to blow the gears out of that annoying little robot known as the Monitor. Unfortunately, it appears that he's indestructible. If you complete the game and watch through the credits, you'll see the Monitor flying through space away from the remains of Halo. The Monitor was always a bit crazy, so I doubt he'll be feeling very rational after Cortana and the Master Chief destroyed Halo. If he doesn't show up to mess things up in Halo 2, you can bet he'll be in Halo 3. This brings me to my next point… Caught Off-Guard In Halo one, the writers pulled the Flood out of their magic hat. In the middle of what had been a perfectly sane bit of combat, we were literally overwhelmed by a… well… flood of alien zombies and scurrying tentacles. The moment when a torrent of Flood bursts through a door to attack you is what many people attest to being one of the scariest moments in video gaming. This comes from people who have played games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. We probably won't see the Flood in Halo 2, but you can be assured that the writers at Bungie will pull something else out of their hat at the last minute to give us a heart attack.

But the game doesn't end there. No, Precious, no. In a sequel upcoming this November the group of religious alien zealots known as the Covenant are back, and they have their sights set on Earth. But Bungie isn't just dressing up the old Halo engine with some new weapons and a different story. No, gameplay trailers of Halo 2 show an amazing new graphics engine, and important story elements taking place during gameplay. We've almost become clichéd to the idea of "shooting, cutscene, shooting, cutscene." With Halo 2, that distinction is much more blured. The characters you interact with in gameplay have realistic motions and facial expressions. The demos of Halo 2 show what many gamers have suspected for some time: games will become akin to interactive blockbuster films.

So I bought an Xbox.

I bought a Microsoft product so that I could play games from a company I swore I'd never buy another game from again. Halo is just that good, and it looks like Halo 2 is going to be even better. I don't think there are many other games that I'll buy for Xbox; the games list for my Nintendo GameCube just looks so much more… FUN. But Halo, for that genre I'll buy an entire system dedicated to that. It's just that good. My friends now refer to our consoles not as "Xboxes" but rather as "HaloBoxes". I just hope I haven't sold my soul. I can almost feel Bill Gates beathing heavily on my ear... ugh...

 
Here's some links to catch up on Halo 2 goodness:

Halo 2 Home at Bungie.net

Halo 2 Cinematic Trailer at Xbox.com

Halo 2 Gameplay trailer from E3