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It's All About The Story (the music is pretty good, too)
This page was last updated on September 29, 2022.
(Sorry, no cheat codes or achievement tips here. Zero-shot speed runs are the goal.)
What first got my attention to the Halo series of video games was that the music for Halo. It was late in 2009 when I became aware of all video game soundtracks, and their awards. The Halo series got my attention, and according to Wikipedia, the original Halo game in 2001 was considered by many to be one of the best that year. The Halo 2 original soundtrack was awarded Best Video Game Music at the 2005 Game Audio Network Guild Awards. It also won the 2005 Game Developers Choice Award for Best Audio and was named Best Original Video Game Soundtrack by Rolling Stone magazine. Even to this day, almost 15 years later, I still enjoy listening to Halo music.
Since I am a big fan of movie soundtrack music, I bought the Halo soundtrack CDs back in 2009. Then about six months later a guy at work was deploying to Iraq and I bought his XBox, games, controllers, and books for a less than absolute bargain-basement price, since he was about to donate the whole lot to the local Air Force on-base thrift store. The about six months after that, I bought the Halo:Reach game when it was released in September 2010. The Halo novels are surprisingly good science fiction, which I've been reading since I was about 12 years old. The game graphics in the newer games are really good, and they have made a couple short live-action movies to expand on some of the characters.
I bought an Xbox One in November 2014 to feed my guilty pleasure to be really bad at playing the Halo video game. I previously had my former co-worker's Xbox 360 and all the Halo games that came with that machine. I enjoy the story line, and the music, as well as reading the books. But I'm still terrible at gameplay. At the time I decided to pursue the concept of zero-shot speed runs, in which you try to get through the various levels as fast as possible, without shooting your weapon. It is amazingly challenging, and I'm still no good at it.
The Story
The Halo Timeline
The Halo Timeline -- A listing of the games, books, and short stories and where they fit within the Halo Universe
Halo Web Sites
The Halo Universe at 343 Industries.org
Videos
Halo Landfall Short Film by Neill Blomkamp
Producer Peter Jackson announced in 2007 that completely untested director Neill Blomkamp would be directing a Halo movie. There were funding problems, and creative differences between Microsoft, Bungie, and Jackson. Blomkamp worked on the movie for five months, but stopped his involvement in October 2007 to work on his first full-length movie, District 9, which was released in August 2009. After the Halo movie fell apart, Blomkamp was hired to direct three short films to promote the September 2007 release of the Halo 3 video game. As early as October 2007, fans compiled the three short films into a single film just over six minutes in length, and made the project available as Landfall. This is perhaps the closest thing we have to imagining what his Halo movie would have looked like...
Neill Blomkamp's Halo 3 Landfall (Youtube, 720p HD; 6 min 17 sec)
Halo Cutscenes at Halo.Bungie.org
This is where you can view the animated scenes ("cinematics") that connect one gameplay session with the next.
Halo: Combat Evolved (Halo 1)
Gameplay videos on YouTube (HD)
Pillar of Autumn (Part 1 of 10)
Halo (Part 2 of 10)
Truth and Reconciliation (Part 3 of 10)
Silent Cartographer (Part 4 of 10)
Assault On The Control Room (Part 5 of 10)
343 Guilty Spark (Part 6 of 10)
The Library (Part 7 of 10)
Two Betrayals (Part 8 of 10)
Keyes (Part 9 of 10)
The Maw (Part 10 of 10)
Halo: CE -- Mahalo gameplay Youtube video playlist
Halo: Combat Evolved Cutscenes (use the link above to Halo.Bungie.org)
Halo: Combat Evolved Aniversary Cutscenes
Halo CE Anniversary (use the link above to Halo.Bungie.org)
Halo 2
Gameplay videos on YouTube (HD)
Halo 2 Cutscenes
Halo 2 Cutscenes (use the link above to Halo.Bungie.org)
Halo 3
Gameplay videos on YouTube (HD)
Sierra 117 (Part 1 of 9)
Crow's Nest (Part 2 of 9)
Tsavo Highway (Part 3 of 9)
The Storm (Part 4 of 9)
Floodgate (Part 5 of 9)
The Ark (Part 6 of 9)
The Covenant (Part 7 of 9)
Cortana (Part 8 of 9)
Halo (Part 9 of 9)
Halo 3 Cutscenes
Halo 3 Cutscenes (use the link above to Halo.Bungie.org)
Halo Wars
The gameplay for Halo Wars uses the style of Age of Empires (or Civilization), and is a completely different from the first-person shooter style of the other Halo games. On the Halo timeline, Halo Wars takes place in the Outer Colonies, 21 years before the fall of Reach.
Halo Wars Cutscenes
Halo Wars Cutscenes (use the link above to Halo.Bungie.org)
Halo 3: ODST
Gameplay videos on YouTube (HD)
Halo 3: ODST Gameplay Walkthrough, No Commentary (53 videos) -- Mahalo Youtube video playlist
(watch the series in sequential order)
Halo 3 ODST Cutscenes
Halo 3 ODST Cutscenes (use the link above to Halo.Bungie.org)
Halo: Reach
Videos on YouTube (HD)
Halo: Reach - Deliver Hope (extended)
Halo: Reach - Birth Of A Spartan (extended)
Halo: Reach - Once More Unto The Breach (a "making of" video)
Halo: Reach Gameplay Walkthrough, No Commentary (28 videos) -- Mahalo Youtube video playlist
Halo: Reach Cutscenes
Halo: Reach Cutscenes (use the link above to Halo.Bungie.org)
Halo: Reach (All Cut Scenes) -- Gamer's Little Playground compiled 2 hour video
Halo 4: Infinity (Spartan Ops)
Gameplay videos on YouTube (HD)
Halo 4 Walkthrough, No Commentary (4 parts)
Halo 4 Spartan Ops (10 episodes) (HaloWaypoint Channel)
Halo 4 Spartan Ops, Season 1 Movie (all in one, 53 minutes) (NakedHalo Channel; lots of ads)
Halo 4 Cutscenes
Halo 4 Cutscenes (use the link above to Halo.Bungie.org)
Halo 4 Spartan Ops Cutscenes (use the link above to Halo.Bungie.org)
Hunt The Truth
A podcast was created as a prequel to Halo 5, supposedly documenting Master Chief going rogue.
"HUNT the TRUTH is a fictional investigative audio series set in the universe of HALO. Starting just before the events of HALO 5: Guardians, season one of HUNT the TRUTH follows journalist Benjamin Giraud as he investigates the story behind the Master Chief, humanity's greatest and most mysterious hero. As inconsistencies in the story emerge, Ben is faced with toeing the government line or cutting rank and breaking the conspiracy wide open. The second season picks up with rebel leader, FERO. As FERO is forced to confront ghosts from her past, something far more sinister begins to stir in the outer colonies."
"This is like listening to a really good audio book." "When an audio series is so much better than an actual campaign."
"Hunt the Truth" Seasons 1 and 2 on Youtube -- Almost 6 hours of both seasons of the podcast, as a Youtube video (actually just the audio).
"Hunt the Truth" on Youtube -- Three separate playlists of audio-only videos. Season 1 (all 13 episodes plus intro) and Season 2 (all 6 episodes plus intro).
Halo 5: Guardians
Halo 5: Guardians Complete Game Movie (YouTube; 2 hrs. 37 mins.)
Halo 5: Guardians -- Cimematics and important parts of game play (YouTube; 1 hr. 46 mins.)
Halo 5: Guardians All Cinematics (YouTube; 46 mins)
Halo 6: Infinite
Wikipedia article for Halo 6: Intinite
Halo 6: Infinite Gameplay Trailer (2020) (YouTube, 2:54 minutes)
Halo 6: Infinite, UNSC "Pilot" rescuing the Master Chief (YouTube, 6:12 minutes)
Halo 6: Infinite, UNSC Pilot and Master Chief Land on Zeta Halo (YouTube, 9:13 minutes)
Halo 6: Infinite, Gameplay (YouTube, 6 hours, 12 miniutes)
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