Election Day Special!

You probably came here thinking I was going to give my thoughts on the election happening today. That I was going to give some speech about how you should get out there and vote because your voice matters and that you can help shape the course of history.

Sorry guys, not today. Not that I don't care about what happens in our nation, but here's the thing, I do this as a hobby, and why would I want to spend my hobby time talking about stuff that matters? Instead, we are going to talk about the things that you pay me to talk about: Movies and video games. Okay, I guess I don't really get paid to talk about that, but that's not the point. In today's case we are going to talk about one of the most hyped up and anticipated games of 2012... That's right, we are talking about...

Wait... What? Sorry wrong game, we are really here to talk about...

There should be a "Fuck Yeah" somewhere on this poster

Yes, we are talking about one of the most awaited sequels probably of the new decade. Ever since the first Halo game was released for the original Xbox console, games have never really been the same, especially first person shooters. What Halo did for first person shooters is what Zelda did for fantasy games. In other words, titles like Call of Duty and Battlefield all owe thanks in one way or another to the original Halo. And in alot of cases, some games have failed to meet the standard set by the original masterpiece. Unfortunately, some of those cases include Halo's own sequels. Some of them were good, the best one up to this point being Halo Reach (which was really more of a prequel), but none really wowed us the way that Halo did. Halo 2 was pretty meh, Halo 3 was an improvement, but it has its flaws, Halo 3 ODST was like the equivalent of Bourne Legacy, it was interesting, but the world would have kept on spinning had it not been released. We also had Halo Wars, which was a strategy game for Halo which, while it was a worthy effort and I do think is pretty underrated, got kind of swept under the rug. Then we had Halo Reach, which I already said was the best one to come since the original. Last year, we had the rerelease of the original Halo, where the developers took the original Halo, updated the graphics and released it for the Xbox 360. And to be honest, I had been saying that this should have happened a long time ago. So now, here we are, 2012, and Halo 4 is upon us, even though we were already told that Halo 3 was going to be the last for this story line. 

So, has this franchise gotten lost in space, or does live up to its own hype?  The answer is a very thankful and relieved YES, it does live up to the hype. When Bungie said that they were passing the torch to 343 industries, none of us really knew what to make of that. As far as I know, they haven't made anything big, and Halo 4 would have been their first huge big budget project, and you can tell that not a dime of the blank check they were handed was put to waste. My main problem with the other sequels, even Reach was that none of them felt as big or as grand as the first Halo. Well, that problem was already addressed 2 levels into the game after you have crash landed on a new planet. I'm not going to go into the story, as I don't want to spoil anything for those who are holding out for Christmas, but I can say for sure is that from a story stand point, this is a far superior entry to the predecessors. As far as I have played, there are no flood, there are sentinels and we even get to fight elites again. I was bummed when they turned good because I really liked fighting those guys. Sad Panda. At least, not anymore now that I get to kill them again. Joy! Keep in mind, I'm not that far into the game right now, so I can't say this for sure, but like I said there is not one sign of the flood. I really hope that is not a knock on wood moment, seeing as how I thought they were cool for the first bit, but I always saw them as a gag that got old really fast. So, as fun as the other games were, it finally seems as though we have finally been given the Halo sequel we were asking for. The only gripe that I have is that I heard they took out the firefight mod for multiplayer, which was the source of hours upon hours of fun for myself and my friends. Oh well, as long as there is a co-op element, or really any multiplayer (something the Halo games kick ass at), we don't have much to complain about.