All-Nighter All-Stars

November 2001, I would have been in 4th grade at the time. The amount of hours I spent playing video games up until that point in my life I could have counted on my fingers. It’s not that I didn’t like video games; quite the contrary, I enjoyed any chance I got to spend playing them. It’s just that I never owned my own console. I did, however, have a friend who had recently acquired an Xbox and a copy of this game called Halo. He raved about it at school, and insisted that a few friends have a sleepover at his house to play the game with him. It would end up being my first all-nighter.

The controls felt awkward, I sucked at the game, I didn’t know where I was half the time, and I was absolutely hooked. We played most of the night on Sidewinder: 2v2 Capture the flag, goofing around with the vehicles, bouts of Slayer. My friend was quite skilled with a sniper rife, and to this day I have a certain loathing for snipers. I make it my personal mission to seek them out and end their killing sprees.

Many sleepovers followed that one. The one other night that really sticks out in my mind was the night I played coop campaign with another buddy while everyone else was asleep. Before that night, I had never played through the entire campaign. To be honest, because of how awkward the controls initially felt, I was a little frustrated with the campaign. By this time, however, I had grown more comfortable with the controls. My buddy and I battled our way through the Covenant and Flood hordes, cheering each other on and working together to save the galaxy. We laughed at our many deaths, we screamed in excitement and fear, and when we ran those last few feet to the Longsword, barely escaping the destruction of Halo, we finally sat back and basked in our hard won victory.

Fastforward 10 years when I discover the bungie.org community and realize that there are people who share my love for Halo (and Bungie), and who are even more passionate fans than I am. The brief time I have spent in this community has brought back those feelings of playing Halo for hours on end with my school buddies. I feel as though I have found a home, and I couldn’t thank the community enough for their awesomeness. 

For a while I was never quite sure what it was about Halo that made me fall in love with it. There was so much that I loved ABOUT it: the story, the music, the heroic characters, the fun times with friends. But those things can be found in many other games. So why did I love it so much? (I’m gonna go a little deep here) I believe that the reason we love something, anything, whether it be a person, a pet, a story, a game, is because it has a positive effect on us, it changes us, makes us a better person. Something about Halo changed me as a person, and therein lies my reason for loving it. Halo made me a happier kid, and it made me the gamer I am today. Thank you, Bungie, for giving me that.

Destiny awaits, and my inner 4th grader couldn’t be more excited!

-Mr Daxx

Seeing Eye to Eye – Eggfooyoung510

I remember the dark setting of the library. My brother and I, playing
co-op side by side, walked through each of the levels with an AR and
shotgun, scared out of our freaking mind, freaking out whenever a
swarm of Flood came through. But in the end, we made it through. Fast
forward a couple of hours, and we’re at the Maw, the final trench run.
I’m driver, he’s gunner, and we go blazing through the level. I take a
left turn, my bro goes and shoots the sentinel on the right. I run
over a grunt, he mows down a Elite. We hit the final jump, thinking we
made it, Foehammer is here to save us, till we see the dam Banshees.
We both stared in disbelief as we saw the Pelican drop pass under us,
hearing Cortana trying to hail her.

There’s one last Longsword at the launch bay.

My brother and I stared at each other, look back at the TV, and I
slammed the right trigger to peel out on the Warthog. Left and right
the Flood and plasma bolts from the Covenant zing past us. We hit the
road block, got onto foot, and ran to the Pelican. I was ahead, and my
brother was slowing down. I turned back, shot the Elites behind him
with a rocket. He tells me to go on and finish it while he holds them
back. I chuck a plasma and fired a rocket, and ran to the Longsword.

The final scene shows, and my brother and I let out a roar of
accomplishment. That was probably the best time we ever had playing
Halo.

My brother and I don’t always see eye to eye anymore, but we will
always remember that moment, because of Halo: Combat Evolved.

-Travis Ng, Eggfooyoung510

Blown Away – TheElmo

Halo has been, for so many years, a very significant part of my life. How should I start this? I suppose I will start this by telling you how I got involved with Halo – my story.

One fine day in 2002, I decided to get an Xbox console. I had seen how the gaming community had been blown away by this opening title Halo Combat Evolved, and I wanted to see it with my own eyes. Needless to say, I was very impressed with the story. I had never played a game with this amount of depth, such a large universe that could be explored – just imagine the possibilities! I fell in love with the series, and I got Halo 2 and Halo 3 later on.

The only thing more impressive than the game itself was the huge dedicated community surrounding it. I would join a multiplayer game, and players would start trash talking each other, laugh, kill people, teabag and so on. Yes, I did mention teabagging. Let me tell you, teabagging shows just how much Halo is about fun, not getting the highest k/d ratio, or whether you can get headshots. To me, Halo remains the only series which is centered around gamers having fun with the game. Today, I still play Reach frequently. I own all the Halo books. I eagerly anticipate every new entry to the series or Halo literature. Halo has changed me forever, and who do we have to thank for that? Bungie. The one and only.

See you starside.

– The Elmo

What once was… – XGHOSTOFW4RX

As a child one can be blissful to the world around them. And throughout mine, it was no such tale. As I grew, the world around was cold and unforgiving, and I never had the ability to sit and relax.

But then I went across the country, to my residence in this town. To find new things aloft, and more importantly Halo. I still remember going to my friends house and hunkering down to play what at the time was the cool console to us, the GameCube. Games of Mario Kart and Mario Party were frequent (take heed I was only 12). And then, we went to his older brothers room to divulge in his X-Box, I knew not what it was, but when my friend picked up the controller and started playing I was in awe.

Here my friend was, playing as to my knowledge some guy, fighting this massive walking object shining in purple armor, razing us with it’s Fuel Rod laser. And then the controller was passed upon me, as if it were a torch to the bearer in the Olympics. I needed to accustom myself to this alien controller, but when I did. I loved it. I danced with this death machine running and looping through it’s gigantic legs and avoiding being crushed. Little did I know that this game would forever change my life, and this game was Halo 3.

I soon found out so much in so little a time, it was a huge community game, with exhilarating gameplay and fun Custom and Multiplayer games. I decided to try that level again, to find it was known as The Storm and this beast I fought was none other than the infamous Scarab. I soon divulged myself into the game as if a rampant AI had taken hold of my reigns. I loved it, my friends and brother would play it all the time, custom games of infection and slayer filled with occasional screams of screen peaking and then laughter.

Then 2010 came around, after purchasing Halo 3: ODST and still not having online, I played, forged and loved Halo. The trailer for Halo: Reach was installed in my console as if someone had put it there when I bought it. I watched it and became ecstatic, I was filled with joy, so every night I would bolt to my computer and search the realms of the internet for anything Halo: Reach. And as time went on, it released, I had pre-ordered it and ran home in glee. I played it with my brother, and then forged, firefighted, and campaigned till early 2011 came around, and an X-Box LIVE adapter presented itself, I installed it and began my journey through the community of Reach as I had done with Halo 3.

As time went by, Summer soon found it’s way upon me. I had now found many a things about Halo that I knew not of, nor could I comprehend. This was called Machinima, and it perked my interests in the universe of Halo ten-fold. I soon ran into a friend who created such things, offering my services I set off. Little did I know that this was the beginning of something much bigger. I voiced, acted, and made such videos for the YouTube populace to enjoy, and I still do today.

But this was only a rough outline of my experience with Halo, for 4 years I have squandered upon the universe that is Halo, playing customs with friends that I will never forget, and making videos that will be embedded to YouTube and my heart for years to come. I will follow Bungie into the deep blue abyss and I will continue to uphold my part in the Halo Universe. Hopefully I can one day be a much bigger part to this massive and beautiful universe that Bungie has created.

So may it be that I bid Bungie farewell in hopes that it’s baby will continue it’s safe keeping with us the community, and I will see them starside. “Per Audacia Ad Astra.”

– XGHOSTOFW4RX

Something You Get To Say – JONNY683

 

Dear Bungie,

Because Of you, and a game called “Halo” I had some of the best years. I met new people, saw awesome art, experienced new things, and felt the sadness of defeat and the awesomeness of victory. I had a friend in combat during that time, which we no longer speak to each other because of differences. But I can fondly remember great moments with not just friends from school, but friends on the internet, and even my own family enjoyed the game. Because of you, I was happy, I was sad, I was owned and I owned others. I can remember having two Tv’s in one room so we can play 6 player multiplayer with my sister’s and their husbands. Even my mother picked up a controller and played. She got a No-Scope head shot in her first online multiplayer game. I had laughs and dissapointments. I cant thank the people I played along side with and against. Even if you were a total idiot, I had fun. That Phrase, I had Fun, is past tense, but when Halo 4 comes out, I WILL HAVE FUN! I hope you guys have more success in the future and let your work do the talking for you. You all had the privilage to not just play but create something that when spoken, made everyone smile. “I helped create Halo.” is something you get to say and make people remember fond memories. I Love Halo, and If it were a woman, I’d marry her. Thank You Bungie, and may good fortunes be in your favor.

– JONNY683

My Great Journey – Antonio Greco

About two years ago, my sister was involved with a guy who we all thought was going to propose to her one day. Around Christmas time, we went to this guy’s house out in the suburbs (which to me, being born and raised in a City, was like Master Chief on the uncharted but vastly beautiful Halo ring). When we got there, the scenery was magical and it reminded me of Halo 3, seeing as how I was introduced to the Halo series backwards, first 3, then two and then finally at this guys house, Halo CE. It was stunning to see how low grade the graphics were. But as I played the magic and mystery of the game began to show itself and I fell in love. From then on I was a Halo fanatic and to this day I still listen to “Ambient Wonder” at night during the Christmas season or whenever I go to a scenic suburb. That guy screwed my sister over so we left him in the dust, but his Halo CE that he lent to…I mean, MY Halo CE is in my basement.

Halo means a lot to me on many different levels and has done so much for me over the years and so, I feel it is time to give back to the community. I have contacted 343 Studios about gaining their blessings and support on creating a fun documentary/narrative adventure about my contacting the people I have created strong friendships with over Halo gaming for the past Five years. We have become so close and they all live in the suburbs, so venturing out to find them will be like Master Chief venturing out into the massive ring world to uncover its mysteries! I wish to gain the support of the community because this movie is my gift to 343 (who will hopefully post it on their site) and the community to show why we all love Halo so much and what it has done for us in our lives, specifically bringing awesome people together who otherwise would have never met.

For me, this is stop number one. I will continue on my Greatest Journey yet. Forward Unto Dawn my friends!

-Antonio Greco

Late Bloomer – xDeAdlYxGh057xx

I was a late bloomer into becoming a Halo fan. Up until September 2007, I was a strict PlayStation fan. I’d heard tidbits of information about Halo but marked it off as one of those games I never wanted to play. Then the Xbox 360 was released and soon after, Halo 3 was too. I remember flipping on the t.v. on Halo 3’s launch night and immediately turned over to G4. There was a live launch party being filmed and I decided to stop in and watch. What I saw blew my mind. A dedicated community, an awesome looking online play, and Adam Sesslar’s many jokes about teabagging gripped me and sent me into a fit. “I have to play this game!” I said to myself. The next day I was hanging with a friend and we decided to go see what was in at the movie store. My friend had a 360 so we went immediately to the Xbox games. There it was. Halo 3. And suprisingly, there was one copy left to rent. Like giddy school girls, my friend and I rented the game and beat a path to his house.

The opening cutscene of Halo 3 confused and mezmerized me. Who’s this chick talking? Who’s she talking to? What is that fireball? Who’s that black guy? My God, who’s that in the green suit and why is it so awesome looking? So  many questions! My friend told me about Halo 2 and Halo CE for Xbox. Needless to say, within a week I had a Xbox original and Halo CE and 2. As I stepped out of a life pod, I looked up. Holy cow! That view of the ring captured me and I stood staring at it so long that the dropship came close to killing me. By 2008, I had bought Halo 3 Legendary Edition and a 360 in that order. Yes, I bought Halo 3 before I had a 360. On this day of November 12, 2011, I’ve read all the Halo books, own all the Halo games, and have spent countless hours of online gameage beating down noobs. Halo has made the past four years of my life pretty freaking sweet, and I’m looking forward to spending the next ten years of my life hanging out with Master Chief and this awesome community.

Much love to both Bungie and 343 Industries,

-xDeAdlYxGh057xx

KaBlam! – Sjefke

I’d like to share my ten years of Halo with you guys. I’ve been playing Halo since 2004 and practically live there when I’m not working, or working out at the gym. I am now 40 years old and kick regular butt in MM even though I am “old” by some kids’ standards but anyway here it goes…

I play games all the way back from the Commodore 64, and progressed from that via the Sega Megadrive, Saturn, and Dreamcast to the original X-box. I mostly played 3rd person shooters (Max Payne) Prince of Persia, Ninja Gaiden, that stuff. A co-worker at the steel mill I worked at said to me that I should try Halo CE, I’d love it. So just before x-mas 2004 I got myself a secondhand copy of Halo CE.

I started playing, I liked it but the fire hadn’t sparked just yet. Had to get used to the controls a bit, but it wasn’t too bad (and now, when I pick up the controller, my fingers move automatically to the right places, even in other games with a different control scheme:-P). I played through the first 3 chapters or so, but the Halo virus caught me when the Truth and Reconciliation chapter started. I got dropped off with a bunch of loudmouthed marines which made me grin and looked at the big @$$ sniper rifle I had in my game hands. And the minute I started up that slope, the marines yelling encouraging things at me, and the computer lady in my head giving TomTom-like advice, the spark caught. This was awesome! I played deep into the night and got the Halo 2 game the next day. I promised myself not to play that before I finished the first one. So that’s what I did. And the first time you get to meet the Flood. The mood is already set with the dead marine dropping into your arms. I wandered around the room a bit, thought “Nothing to see, I might as well leave and look someplace else…”, and found the door closed on me. I turned back, heard that booming sound and the next thing I knew, the room was full of these little bouncing things that came after you. At first I looked around a bit like; what the heck?!? Then they start hitting you and your shields go down, I started shooting these pods still looking very surprised. And then these combat forms started wading in, slamming you a good clout across the helmet, and I went: Ahh, wtf?!? Kablam(shotgun blast), ffing die, Kablam, what, they’re not dying! Crap!!! Kablam. My neighbors must have thought I was fighting WW 3 upstairs:-), or committing some serious murder.

That particular holiday, people had to dig me up because all I did was play Halo, I couldn’t get enough of the game. I loved the aliens, their bright colors, the funny things they said. The scenery was ridiculously awesome. And Marty’s music, that is something else!

I started on the books too, and that was great because by reading them I got more insight in the game and they made the experience even more awesome. By the time I got to Halo 2, X-box Live sent me an email with a special code that granted me 2 months of free online play. I had never played an online game in my life, and had to get a credit card first, or I couldn’t subscribe. I thought it over real hard, but what did I have to lose? If I didn’t like it I would quit after 2 months and no harm done… So I got the card, made a gamertag and went online for the first time in my life. That took some getting used to, but I stuck with it and by the time Halo 2 went offline forever I had logged some 85000 MM Halo 2 games online…

Now I have every Halo game that came out, all the books, strategy guides and soundtrack cd’s. I got some friends for life from the MM lobbies, and even a tattoo on the side of my right upper leg, in the actual letter type used in the game, of the call sign Spartan 117. I play Halo: Reach almost every night and keep track of my stats on HaloCharts. And when people ask me why this particular shooting game is so great? It is a living, breathing, believable universe, not some nicely sketched sterile alien world, in which you are an omnipotent god. You can explore, dive headlong into a firefight, get hurt, die and try all over again. And the community is unmatched I think. I never forget the night that the Reach beta went live, by the time I had played 3 Matchmade games, the whole MM system ground to a hold and I said jokingly to my friends; What do you bet that we just fried the servers off the wall at Bungie’s? Little did I know that was exactly what had happened. Later, Bungie put some photo’s up on Twitter as scorched proof of our massive community love for the game. That says it all I think.

-Sjefke, The Netherlands.

My Only Game – Sticky08

My first stumble with the Halo universe was when I was just eight years old, in 2001. I remember my mom would always go to one of her friends houses to talk for long hours about gossip, news and many other… shall I say teary subjects. My moms friend had a son, a 17 year old boy who was always really good to me. We would have a great time playing with his collectors swords and teaching me how to use the force, until one fateful day when I got there I saw him sitting on his couch with three other people I had never seen before laughing and screaming at each other. I was immediately attracted, back then I didn’t understand anything at all, all I heard was the now so familiar AR fire and all I saw were the different shades of greens yellows and browns of blood gulch. After that day I didn’t see Halo for quite a while, but I was always captivated by the amount of fun my friend had that day.

About three years later my mom had to drop me of at one of her clients places. Once again I ran headlong into a surprisingly smug 17 year old boy who invited me to his room. I sat down, he handed me the big black controller of an XBOX when I suddenly saw the blue start screen of a video game. By then I was a little more familiar with video games, my dad had bought an atari and all I did was play pitfall and Bosconian. Soon I was screaming and laughing just like my friend did all those years ago and I remembered the game he was playing, so I asked the kid next to me what was this enchanting game was called he said “Halo 2.” I still remember being pinned down by the elite rangers in cairo station trying to get to the bomb for over twenty minutes when suddenly, I had to go not to see this new and wonderful world again for quite some time.

Next I was on the move, it was December 2006 and I was going to a third world south american country, Ecuador to be exact. Me and my ecuadorian father had gone first to surprise my grandparents, who were expecting us a week later. While I was there I was completely bored out of my skull, when my older brother called me and started talking to me about this super fun “demo” he found on the internet. Immediately I thought it was the sequel to lego star wars. I had been playing it recently and I really enjoyed it. But when my brother answered he said “no it’s not lego star wars its something…. I dont know different.” For the next week I was so anxious to see what this new “different” game was. When my brother finally got there the first thing he told me was that it was called “Halo Combat Evolved.” I couldn’t believe it there was another halo, and my brother got to play it first. I maid him download the demo again on our tiger mac and let me play. While I was roaming the innards of the silent cartographer and ding hundreds of time’s from the colossal Hunters, that’s when it took me over. I didn’t know at the time what but I knew that this game was something else, it was some how my own my only game.

I played the crap out of that demo for a year, thats whenI I came up with my alias Stickyo8. At the time I thought I was the best sticker around. One time while I was walking around with my family, I saw a copy of halo and I knew that I had to get it. I Begged my mom for five dollars(dont judge me i’m in a third world country) and I knew that if I didn’t get those five dollars I would never get my hands on halo. Luckily I got the money, bought the game and when I got home there was another problem. It was for PC and I still had that apple Tiger and my dad wouldn’t let me put the disc in his laptop, because he was scared it had viruses. So I crossed the street to the neighbors house, he let me use his old Dell desktop. From then on it was bliss, I played the game over and over again, with a white master chief instead of a green one and no multiplayer, but I loved it.

One day while I was surfing the net, I found this video called halo “2 E3 reveal.” The following minutes I was amazed at how much halo had changed. Little did I remember playing Cairo station back in 04. So logically after seeing the video, I new I had to search Ebay for an xbox. When I found out that there was a xbox 360 and halo three my mind exploded. The next three years I saved my money, I watched halo wars and halo ODST role out. First I got halo wars, played it and was more enticed by the story than the game play. Then halo 1,2 and ODST arrived. I finished the campaign of halo 2 in one night(on easy) and used the forty eight hour xbox live trial that came with ODST and played halo 3 multiplayer for the first time. I remember walking into walls, getting sniped teabaging the corpses of already dead enemies. Through out the next years I bought the books Halo: the fall of reach , first strike, the flood and ghosts of onyx. I loved them all. The universe so involved it was wonderful. I bought halo reach and that is were most of my multiplayer prowess has come from. Finally I got my hands on all the Halo’s and I couldn’t be happier. I never experienced halo 2 multiplayer or lan partys. I never stood in line for halo 3 or reach, because I live in third world country were halo doesn’t even exist but the fact that I have been able to enjoy the halo universe and share this story with you shows how I feel towards halo its maker and its fans. Hey but i’m just another fan no different from the next guy so Halo you have my humble gratitude for being my only game.

-Sticky08

Staying in Touch – James Albert

I was first introduced to Halo through some friends who had an Xbox and they used to play 4 player multiplayer all the time and invited me over for some all night Halo madness. I still remember half of them falling asleep one time and wanted to coop the campaign and to this day getting a chill when first encountering the flood when Marty’s music really brought the mood in, I was hooked.

Eventually Halo 2 came out more invites and more all nighters but never enough until finally college came and I bought my own Xbox, 4 controllers, Halo CE and Halo 2. Now those same friends (and some new ones) were all getting together every week on the same night for over a year to the same house cooking up a big mess of food, putting couches back to back and playing 4v4 all night long, and once in a while showing some rival Halo players how it was done when we could get another 8 players to our place for some Big Team destruction.

So much time invested in the games and yet nothing of what was to come. With Halo 3 in the distance I broke down and bought my Xbox 360 about a year earlier than it and we decided to go LIVE in Halo 2 for the first time only to find we weren’t as badass as we thought. So we rededicated ourselves to getting good at online and 3 best friends living together led to girlfriends getting neglected from massive Halo hours. Of course we beta tested and loved it, going back into 2 after the beta was hard but we new 3 wasn’t far away as we went our separate ways.

Halo 3 kept us all updated on our lives as we spread out across this vast country of Canada and my girlfriend even got into the mix and could rip a new one to a lot of people. To date I logged just under 10,000 games in my main account on Halo 3 and a few hundred on a secondary account. So much time around here was when I really got into the novels and am still working my way through buying and reading them all.

With Halo 3 ODST came a cool quick story that i really enjoyed especially with being that Nathan Fillion is awesome. And of course there was Halo Wars from Ensemble before they closed shop. Other than Halo and old Nintendo games I loved RTS games especially Age of Empires and C&C series so when i heard there was a Halo RTS I was all over that and when it came once again I poured myself into it and worked for all achievements and didn’t stop till I had them. Then Reach beta came and went lots more time logged I maxed out beta leveling after a couple weeks but still couldn’t get enough.

Once Reach arrived immediately dove into campaign as always and I still go for my Daily dose of Halo. Although as I get promoted and work more it’s not the hundreds of hours per month in multiplayer as it once was. And as I look forward to the future of Halo and wonder where we will go and what we will see I don’t worry because I can see that those who hold Halo’s future really do care about where it goes. The things that Halo has done for me that I am truly grateful for is offered me a place for distant friends to talk, keep in touch and too many memories than I can count of spending time with awesome people and kicking ass and getting ass kicked in turn. And having this amazing story which goes so much deeper than the games if I read a book it’s a Halo book. When I buy the games I buy the legendary ones for all the little tidbits of awesome.

Thank you Halo for ten years of awesome.  Here’s to the future.  And a big shout out to Bungie for creating a world of Halo.

-James Albert