I am on Two Betrayals now. More than any mission, this one so far has made the biggest impact playing on Anniversary graphics versus original. Not only is the shotgun bad ass in updated form, but driving on the ice looks way different and better in Anniversary.

I hit a glitch in this level though that almost has me skipping the rest of the game. You have to sabotage three energy towers or some shit and I am on tower three but you need a Banshee to fly up to it and I don’t have one because the Banshee that spawns in this area was immediately commandeered by an Elite and then a rocket launch carrying Flood shot it down. Fucking bullshit. I spent like 30 minutes trying to get the Banshee to respawn. I doubt I’ll wanna replay this level again.

Finished Halo CE this morning. Overall it’s still a great game that holds up but I enjoyed Reach more. Reach was a great SP game, Halo CE just seems like it wasn’t as good as when I originally played through it in split screen.

So that brings me to Halo 2 and ODST. Thinking back to how gargantuan Halo was during the Halo 2/3/ODST era, I was pretty excited to start it. I don’t remember if I played through the SP on my OG Xbox. I just played a shit ton of MP. ODST I did start and greatly enjoyed what I played but I didn’t finish.

The first thing I noticed starting Halo 2 is how amazing the cut scenes are in the Anniversary mode. I wish the original Halo allowed you to swap between graphics modes during cut scenes but it doesn’t. Halo 2 does, though. What a huge difference.

I’ve played up until Metropolis, which means I now need to start ODST. So far Halo 2 seems pretty good. I do remember playing as Arbiter or something, I guess that comes later.

Through five of the eleven ODST missions. Such a weird game. The story is nice and how it’s told, constantly shifting between troopers, is awesome. But the core gameplay is pretty boring, running through one super dark street after another. Barely any enemies around, and the ones you do find you just ignore and can continue running. Thankfully on the last couple missions I’ve been able to use the turret on a Warthog and decimate Covenant in a scorpion tank, it’s helped break the monotony.

It seems weird that there are all of these weapons and vehicles and enemies in this game but not in Halo 2 even though they are taking place simultaneously. Also weird is that the grenade arc in this game is definitely way different than the other Halos.

ODST is finished. I stand by what I said, the missions where you are the rookie are downright awful and boring. You're sloooooooowly plodding through dark ass streets just to make it to a marker to initiate a mission that is actually good. All the flashback missions were awesome. I wasn't a huge fan of the escort stuff at the end, protecting that turtle looking thing, but the Warthog sequence made it much better. Overall a good game. I forgot Fillion was in Guardians, I was very surprised to see him in this game. Apparently his character is an Easter egg in Reach as well but I don't remember if I found him or not.

I'm six or seven missions into Halo 2 now, just killed the Heretic or whatever. The Covenant stuff is very cool, way more interesting than anything happening on the human side so far. I don't remember where this Arbiter story goes, it's been too long.

Finished Halo 2 today. What a great game. The second half was much better than the first imho. The narrative unfolding before you was incredible as you see Covenant turn on one another and a war between I guess brutes and elites starting to happen, to the point where many of the battles on the last few levels you don't even have to join, you can just run by as they kill each other.

I have two small questions after playing this game and the first level of Halo 3. One, how did Johnson beat Master Chief back to Earth? Maybe I am mistaken but didn't MC take off in a Forerunner ship alone at the end of Halo 2? And Halo 3 begins with Arbiter and Johnson watching Chief crash down. Maybe I missed something. Secondly, am I correct in assuming Gravemind is like the collective consciousness of The Flood?

So I am starting Halo 3 now. A game I was very hyped for and had a crew of friends from real life set to play tons of MP with.... and then we played the CoD4 beta, and decided to pass on Halo lol. But holy shit the marketing for this game was beyond any other game I remember, ever. Even the biggest CoD. I remember you could be pumping gas at 7/11 and the pump would remind you to preorder Halo 3 inside. Insanity.

I would wholeheartedly suggest you gain a copy of Catherine Halsey's Journal that came with the Reach LE it is easily the best companion piece to a game I have come across , an aside the journal can be seen on her desk in Reach, the journal is around eighty or more pages and gives a lot of background through  personal commentary and drawings it also contains a pouch full of candidate records unsc correspondence , maps, photo's etc etc.

Finished Halo 3. Another very good game where the narrative really picks up towards the end. Really enjoyed the increased variety of enemies and weapon types. I’m only playing on Normal but the great Halo AI is still evident.

Overall story wise... why did the Covenant have to come to Earth to get to the Ark? So they get to the Ark and the Flood arrive as well. I am assuming all these brutes and Covenant still fighting, are still believers of all the religious stuff? Meanwhile humanity and the Flood want to stop them to prevent from being wiped out.

Why does the Oracle keep saying MS is a Forerunner or something? Maybe this comes up in later games.

I also started Halo 4. Holy shit, this was made on the same console as Halo 3? Seems impossible. Maybe it sacrifices some of the open structure of the older games for these graphics? They’re very good. And the sounds, amazing. Big step up from the Bungie Halo games. And sprint! 4 is off to a great start.

I just finished playing through MCC, or what's released on PC so far. Halo 1-3 and Reach.

Hard to say which is my favourite campaign, probably 3.

Is Halo 4 generally considered a bad campaign? Because I am at five of ten missions played and it might be my favorite campaign of the series so far. The sounds are infinitely better, like every weapon has more pop and impact. The combat is much more entertaining because of the machine enemies you fight (Prometheans I guess, still not far enough along to know what they are) require way more tactics and have way cooler weapons than the aliens you fight. And the graphics are just so good... I am having a hard time understanding that this was a 360 game. Maybe it’s had big Scorpio enhancements?

Yeah I found some in CEA and they looked incredible. I haven't found a single one in 4 but I just watched them all on Youtube, they were very good. I agree about the story in 4 as well, it's easily my favorite of the series so far. It's incredibly deep, feels way more sci-fi than anything in the previous games. The idea that the Forerunners were being decimated by the Flood and tried to turn themselves into digital beings is great, and Didact punishing humans by turning them into digital beings for his army is a cool story element as well.