The Nerd Next Door

  Halo 3: ODST , one of my favorite games of all time, has finally received a proper PC port so I felt it was time to talk about what made it so special. ODST stood out in the Halo series for changing the formula; new gameplay ideas, new design, throwing what a Halo game was on it's head, and focusing on more personal stories about the world you're in as opposed to the big epic scales one got used to. Over the years however, I've noticed one game that does the same thing in it's own series and stands out for those same reasons as ODST , the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask . Sure it's a different series and gameplay styles, but you'd be shocked at the common story these games share, right from inception. ODST and Majora's Mask both started out as other projects entirely, for ODST it was Halo: Chronicles , a failed project meant to be directed by Peter Jackson. When Jackson bailed however the team behind Chronicles were left with nothing to do. So, ...

So now we are at the end of the line, all the mainline Halo games have played and now the wait begins for Infinite and the MCC port on PC. A wait that honestly is taking longer than expected, but I can wait, I'm a patient lil sausage. But there is a path here, one I've seen over my journey through Halo , one that in my opinion can perfectly explain what the hell happened here and we can find out jsut what the hell happened to cause the rise and fall of Halo. In my opinion and in terms of single player, what made Halo stand out from games like DOOM, Quake, and Duke Nukem was it's ability to flawlessly switch from hallway style linear shooting to big outdoor arenas with lots of vehicles and weapons, all of which encouraged experimentation and approaching things how you want to. It also had a sense of humor about itself, the stakes were big, epic, and serious, but the tone of at least the human characters indicated that they were having a bit of fun with the wh...

And now it's time for the most relevant game as of now, as it's due to release in the near future for PC, Halo Reach . Bungie's final game in the Halo series before they moved on to Destiny , is Halo Reach's attempt to return to the past a fitting swansong, or could it have used some improvement's? Set 2 months before Halo 1 , Halo Reach follows the Fall of Reach, the battle that leads to Halo 1 . The focus here though is on a group of Spartans who try to stop it called Noble Team consisting of Carter, the gruff no nonsense leader; Kat, a mischievous tech specialist with a knack for getting a bit in over her head; Jun, a sniper unafraid to speak his mind; Emile, a explosives and CQB specialist who enjoys all the blood and killing; and Jorge, a Spartan from the older class that the Master Chief came from and a heavy weapons specialist with a fondness for people that the rest of Noble doesn't share. Of course, we don't play as them we play as, and say...

Remember when I said Halo Wars fails as a Halo campaign due to it's terrible story and characters? Well in that same year the opposite happened when Bungie released, of all things, an expansion pack for Halo 3 , Halo 3: ODST . Taking the conflict to a smaller scale and focusing on a less powerful protagonist, Halo 3: ODST takes the series in a different direction than usual. But is it a good one, and is it still worth making it through to see the dawn? ODST takes place at the same time as Halo 2 's first three missions and focuses on a squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, an elite special forces unit that strap themselves into pods and are shot at the surface. Th focus is namely on a squad of ODST's who are part of a mission to aid the Master Chief during the events of 2 . You've got Buck, the wiseass leader who just wants to get his troops through the next mission alive; Dutch, the heavy weapons specialist best described as a simple man making his way through ...

One trilogy finishes as does another, it's time to look at Halo 3 , the franchise's jump to the Xbox 360. With a brand new console, does Halo still have what made it work? Well of course it does, but does it still hold up today? Well of course it does as well. But why is this held up so high amongst fans, including myself? Well let's dig into what I consider the apex of the series. Also I played this on Heroic because I can play through Halo 3 with my hands behind my back, Normal would be done in like 5 hours for me. Set hours (and a shitty graphic novel) after Halo 2 , Halo 3 sees the Master Chief wind up back in Africa, but this time on the slopes of Killamanjaro, where he is found by a squad led by returning Sergeant Johnson and the Arbiter. Things aren't looking good however, the UNSC is reduced to a resistance movement hiding in an old NATO base and a few frigates, the Flood are rampant with a super intelligent eldritch leader, Cortana is trapped on High Cha...