Halo (video game series)

Volume 2 is in the making.
. Volume 2 also has music composed and played by Incubus, Hoobastank and Breaking Benjamin:. The number of contiguous configurations for one through seven blocks, counting reflections but not counting rotations is in this table:. Two soundtracks, both composed by Martin O'Donnell, have been released based on the Halo game series. Lego itself sells a line of sets named "Lego Studios," which contains a Lego web cam (repackaged Logitech USB Quickcam), software to record video on a computer, clear plastic rods which can be used to manipulate minifigures from off-camera, and a minifigure resembling Steven Spielberg. There should, according to previously established canon, not be a SPARTAN-458. Several webcomics are illustrated with Lego, notably Irregular Webcomic!.

Since they were sequentially numbered, all SPARTAN-II soldiers should have numbers ranging from 001 to 150. Director Michel Gondry filmed a live version of the video, digitized the result, and then recreated it entirely with Lego bricks. Of those, only about 35 completed the augmentation process to become fully-capable SPARTANS (the rest died or were crippled by the side effects). Another notable example is the award-winning music video for the song "Fell in Love with a Girl" by the White Stripes. It should be noted that the Halo novels state that 150 children were selected for the SPARTAN-II program, and that only 75 were brought in because of room and funding issues. [2]. For the time being Nicole-458 is trapped in the 21st century; guarding Nassau Station's secrets with all but lethal force (she realizes killing someone in the past could have dire consequences), waiting for the "bubble" to collapse and hopefully returning her to the year 2552. 'Art Craziest Nation' was shown at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, UK.

The anomaly intersected Nassau Station; creating a semi-stable "bubble" in the space/time continuum on its way back to the 21st Century. The Little Artists have created an entire Modern Art collection in a Lego Gallery. SPARTAN-458's unit was preparing for a classified mission on Nassau Station when the ONI stealth ship Apocalypso (see I Love Bees) tumbled into real-space – being carried along in the wake of a freak slipspace anomaly. Artists have also used Lego sets with one of the more notorious examples being Polish artist Zbigniew Libera's "Lego Concentration Camp," a collection of mocked-up concentration camp-themed Lego sets.[1]. The SPARTAN-II program was the UNSC's highly successful military project to augment and hone perfect soldiers. For example, the Monty Python and the Holy Grail Special Edition DVD contained a version of the "Camelot" musical sequence redone with Lego minifigures and accessories. At six years of age she was abducted by the Office of Naval Intelligence and conscripted into the SPARTAN-II program. They usually use stop-motion animation.

Nicole was born in the year 2531 in the city of New Legaspi on Mars. Such movies are called "Lego movies", "Brickfilms", or "cinema Lego". This is the result of a collaborative effort between Bungie and Tecmo's Team Ninja. One hobby among enthusiasts is to re-create popular scenes from famous movies, using Lego bricks for the scenery and Lego play sets as characters. A female SPARTAN character, SPARTAN-458 (Nicole), appears in the fighting game Dead or Alive 4 as an unlockable character, along with a Halo-themed environment as an unlockable stage. Another novel application of Lego bricks is the combination of bricks and electronic components to obtain a Lego Electronic Lab Kit. This is due to the reason that Halo manages to appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers, and broke sales records, making gaming more mainstream entertainment. Because of the high degree of uniformity in Lego bricks, they have also been used in fields such as computer vision, in which knowing the exact dimensions and relative positions of objects is useful for creating test data.

Recently, the creators of Halo were listed in Time's 100 most influential figures of the past year. A set of software tools called LDraw or Lego Digital Designer can be used to model possible Lego creations in 3D. Other machinima have been created, ranging from the like minded Fire Team Charlie to the sharply contrasting The Codex, a more serious series. The website theory.org.uk (by academic David Gauntlett) features Lego versions of social theorists. Not Halo canon, the series is largely comical in nature and can be found at RedvsBlue.com. Legowars, the generic term for a number of wargames (most notably Brikwars) involving Lego bricks enjoys a cult-like popularity. Red vs Blue chronicles the Civil war that supposedly ensues between differing human factions in the time between the two Bungie games, specifically the story of the men and a woman (Tex), a robotic female tank with impeccable manners(Shiela), a Spanish robotic head(Lopez), and a load of religious maniacs who worship 'The Flag' posted at both armies' outposts at Blood Gulch, a dried creek bed in the middle of nowhere. The site features over 2,000 photographs of Biblical scenes.

Virtually all of the footage of the series is taken from Halo and Halo 2 gameplay. For example, at The Brick Testament "The Reverend" Brendan Powell Smith has built the Bible in Lego pieces. Red vs Blue, a production of Rooster Teeth, is a machinima series based on the Halo universe. Lego toys have been used in a number of unexpected ways. The URL was discovered when it was briefly flashed on an official Halo 2 trailer. A group which calls itself "AFOLs" (for "Adult Fans of Lego") is an important demographic for The Lego Group, which has recently begun reintroducing popular sets from previous years to appeal to this group. The game was centred on a website at ilovebees.com, and was created by 4orty2wo Entertainment, commissioned by Microsoft and endorsed by Bungie. Photos of many fan creations like these can be seen at Brickshelf and at MOCpages.

The Haunted Apiary (aka I Love Bees) was an alternate reality game used to promote the release of Halo 2. One such masterpiece solves a Rubik's Cube through the use of Lego motors and cameras, a task that many humans cannot accomplish. Additionally, fanfiction.net hosts a selection of Halo-inspired fiction whose numbers, as of December 2005, had just crept over 1000. Large mosaics, fully functional padlocks and pendulum clocks, a harpsichord and an inkjet printer (built by Google co-founder Larry Page while at the University of Michigan) have been constructed from Lego pieces. Fanfiction authors like Mr_Clark, Scorptank, soulguard, sir_brilliant and, AxE, garner no small amount of prestige as some of the more famous writers of the Halo community. Some sculptures use hundreds of thousands of pieces and weigh tens of kilograms. Indeed, there are several works of fan fiction that run to the length of a novel or more, and are well-known among the Halo community. A cult following of people who have used Lego pieces to make sculptures, very large mosaics and complex machines has developed.

The sites bungie.net and halo.bungie.orgboth host collections of Halo fan fiction. The Lego Group itself has developed a form of business consultancy fostering creative thinking, called Lego Serious Play, in which team members build metaphors of their organisational experiences using Lego bricks, and work through imaginary scenarios using the visual device of the Lego constructions and by exploring possibilities in a 'serious' form of 'play'. A large body of fan fiction based on the Halo series has been written, covering both the past and future of the setting. Lego bricks today are used for purposes beyond children's play. They are expected to be released sometime in 2006/early 2007. As of year end 2005, there are 25 LEGO Brand Retail stores in the USA, a number of stores in Europe, and a franchised LEGO store in Abu Dhabi. Bungie has confirmed that at least two novels are in development, one by Eric Nylund, the other by an unknown author. There are also several Lego retail stores, including at Downtown Disney in both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts and in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Many fans had hoped more Spartans would appear in Halo 2, but this did not eventuate in the final release of the game, most likely due to balancing issues. Lego Group operates several Legoland amusement parks in Europe and California. There are a number of differences between the novels and the games, most notably that there are no Spartans besides the Master Chief in the games, whereas by the end of the novel series at least 4 additional Spartans are shown to survive. It also allows advanced participants an opportunity to modify the Lego Mindstorms platform, adding their own sensors and actuators, as well as other mechanical, electrical, electronic and software related systems. Dietz. Lego Mindstorms provides primary and secondary school aged participants of RoboCup Junior an easy and intuitive introduction to robotics. Both the Fall of Reach and First Strike were written by Eric Nylund, while The Flood was written by William C. The international RoboCup Junior autonomous soccer competition involves extensive use of Lego Mindstorms equipment which is often pushed to its limits.

The Flood is a novelization of Halo: Combat Evolved, while First Strike describes events that take place between Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2. A related competition is FIRST Lego League for elementary and middle schools. The Fall of Reach leads up to Halo: Combat Evolved, and describes how the Spartans came into being. The earliest, and likely the largest, is Botball, a national US middle- and high-school competition stemming from the MIT 6270 lego robotics tournament. Three licensed novels based on the Halo series have been published: Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood, and Halo: First Strike. There are several competitions which use Lego bricks and the RCX, among other microcontrollers, for robotics. Chief's genetic, chemical, and otherwise unnatural enhancements do qualify him for "cyborg" status- at least loosely. These programmable bricks are sold under the name Lego Mindstorms.

Candidates for the SPARTAN-II program were chosen for natural genetic superiority, and thus were naturally taller, stronger, smarter, and faster than most humans even before augmentation. There are even special bricks, like the LEGO RCX that can be programmed with a PC to perform very complicated and useful tasks. Despite this, he would certainly not be average by any Human measure. There are also motors, gears, lights, sensors, and cameras available to be used with Lego components. Master Chief is entirely Human in appearance, as his armor is in no way permanently attached. LEGO recently announced the procurement of worldwide toy rights with the cable TV channel Nickelodeon for building sets with themes from two hit TV shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Avatar: The Last Airbender which will be available Summer of 2006. Bungie's own statements identify Master Chief as being a cyborg (down to dialogue from the Covenant Grunts), in addition to comparisons between Master Chief and the military cyborgs from Bungie's earlier game series Marathon. Sets containing new pieces are released frequently.

The SPARTANs were originally created to bolster the UNSC's own defenses against piracy and other jacks as part of the upgrades necessary to don the MJOLNIR armor, in addition to other measures. Since it began producing plastic bricks, the Lego Group has released thousands of play sets themed around space, robots, pirates, vikings, medieval castles, dinosaurs, cities, suburbia, holiday locations, wild west, the Arctic, boats, racing cars, trains, Spider-Man, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Bionicle, and more. He was taken from his home world Eridanus II as a child and brought up in the military's Spartan II program on the planet Reach (Epsilon Eridani) (resulting in his other designation, Spartan-117) to be a super soldier. Annual production of Lego bricks averages approximately 20 billion (2 × 10¹⁰) per year, or about 600 pieces per second. Master Chief is also known as "The Demon" to the Covenant. Brick decorations and packaging is done at plants in Denmark, Switzerland, United States, South Korea and the Czech Republic. In the Halo universe, Master Chief and the entire SPARTAN project are under the command of the United Nations Space Command Navy. Moulding is done at one of two plants in Denmark and Switzerland.

This rank roughly corresponds to the modern rank Master Chief Petty Officer of the United States Navy in the 21st century. Manufacturing of Lego bricks occurs at a number of locations around the world. His birth name was effectively erased, and so he is known by his rank of Master Chief or Spartan-117. It is thanks to this care in manufacturing that the Lego Group has maintained such a high degree of quality over the decades; this is one of the main reasons that pieces manufactured over 40 years ago still interlock neatly with pieces manufactured today. Master Chief's true name is John, and his surname has never been revealed. According to the Lego Group, its moulding processes are so accurate that only 18 bricks out of every million fail to meet its stringent standards. Halo uses a number of common plot devices, although often they are not immediately apparent. Worn-out moulds are encased in the foundations of buildings to prevent their falling into competitors' hands.

Starhammer, written by Christopher Rowley, details the story of a genetically altered man who escapes slavery by a race of blue overlords, and finds an ancient weapon that was created by an ancient race to destroy a parasitic alien life form than may have been a partial basis for the Flood. Precision-machined, small-capacity moulds are used, and human inspectors meticulously check the output of the moulds, to eliminate significant variations in colour or thickness. Ringworld, written by Larry Niven is a likely source of inspiration, with the first introduction of self-sustaining giant ring structures into science fiction literature. Since 1963, Lego pieces are manufactured from a strong, resilient plastic known as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, or ABS. From reading Ender's Game, one would notice a plethora of other small similarities, from the fleets, down to the alien species. In order for pieces to have just the right "clutch power", Lego elements are manufactured within a tolerance of 2 micrometres (0.00008 in). Johnson as "Buggers, heading over the rooftops!" There are numerous other references and links, such as the Spartan program, which closely mirrors the super soldier program from the novel. They cannot be too easy to pull apart, or the result will be Lego creations that are unstable; they cannot be too difficult to pull apart, since the disassembly of one creation in order to build another is part of the Lego appeal.

The Drones that appear in Halo 2 resemble the "Buggers" from Ender's Game, as in the third level they are referred to by Sgt. When snapped together, pieces must have just the right amount of "clutch power"; they must stay together until pulled apart. Halo seems to be inspired by a number of other science fiction books, particularly Ender's Game. Bricks, beams, axles, minifigures, and all other elements in the Lego system are manufactured to an exacting degree of tolerance. Furthering this theory is the fact that the Covenant resemble in no small measure the Idiran race, religious zealots bent on eradicating The Culture, which they regard as heretical. Retail Lego sets for young children are compatible with those made for teenagers. These smaller structures have the advantage of not needing additional machinery to generate a day/night cycle. Lego pieces from 1963 still interlock with pieces made in 2006, despite radical changes in shape and design over the years.

Banks, as they are ring-shaped megastructures that orbit stars or gas giants, rather than rotate around them. Since their introduction in 1949, Lego pieces of all varieties have been, first and foremost, part of a system. Alternatively, it's possible (or even likely) that "Halo" was inspired by the Orbitals featuring in The Culture novels by Iain M. Nevertheless, such corporate admonitions are frequently ignored as corporate intervention in the use of language, and the word lego is commonly used not only as a noun to refer to Lego bricks but also as a generic term referring to any kind of interlocking toy brick. Some of these names include:. The company asserts that to protect its brand name, the word Lego must always be used as an adjective, as in "LEGO set," "LEGO products," "LEGO universe," and so forth. It is probable that Halo took names from world history and mythology to aptly name objects and important characters in the Halo universe. "Lego" is officially written in all uppercase letters.

In both Halo and Known Space, humans develop space travel on their own and later encounter a hostile and technologically superior alien civilization. Thank you! Susan Williams, Consumer Services. This idea has been copied numerous times in science fiction, although normally on a larger scale than in Halo. Please always refer to our bricks as 'LEGO Bricks or Toys' and not 'LEGOS.' By doing so, you will be helping to protect and preserve a brand of which we are very proud and that stands for quality the world over. Ringworld is a megastructure 95 million miles in radius that resembles the Halo installations, albeit on an enormously large scale. We would sincerely like your help in keeping it special. A film adaptation of the game, with Peter Jackson and wife Fran Walsh as executive producers, is expected to be released in 2007 (see Gamespot.com press release). The word LEGO® is a brand name and is very special to all of us in the LEGO Group Companies.

Both characters even use the line "They're not paying us by the hour, marines!" Also in the realm of movie quotes enemies will sometimes use the line "its only a flesh wound". Lego catalogues in the 1970s and 1980s contained a note that read:. Finally, Halo's Sergeant Johnson is very strongly based on Aliens's Sergeant Apone - both are very enthusiastic, black, cigar-smoking squad leaders. The Lego Group's name has become so synonymous with its flagship toy that many use the words "Lego" (collectively) or "Legos" to refer to the bricks themselves, and even to any plastic bricks resembling Lego bricks, although the Lego Group discourages this as dilution of their trademark. The colonial marines' dropship resembles a Pelican and the Pelican pilot Foe Hammer is based on the dropship pilot from Aliens. Over the years many more Lego sets, series, and pieces were created, with many innovative improvements and additions, culminating in the colourful versatile building toys that we know today. Also, there are numerous similarities between the marines of Halo and those of Aliens. It wasn't until 1958 that the modern-day brick design was developed, and it took another five years to find exactly the right material for it.

The Flood Spores share a similar purpose with the Face Huggers in the Alien film series. Godtfred saw the immense potential in Lego bricks to become a system for creative play, but the bricks still had some problems from a technical standpoint: their "locking" ability was limited, and they were not very versatile. The shape of the Elites' heads is similar in shape to the creatures in the Alien filmseries and have mouth parts similar to the Predators'. It was his conversation with an overseas buyer that struck the idea of a toy system. There are notices near the Pillar of Autumn's bridge looking for a cat named Jonesy (the name of Sigourney Weaver's cat in the Alien film series). By 1954, Christiansen's son, Godtfred, had become the junior managing director of the Lego Group. For instance, the Active Camouflage power-up is very similar to the type of camouflage used by the alien Predator in the Predator film series. Many of the Lego Group's shipments were returned, following poor sales; it was thought that plastic toys could never replace wooden ones.

Some film parallels in the games have been pointed out by various people. The use of plastic for toy manufacture was not highly regarded by retailers and consumers of the time. On Bungie's own Marathon page, there is a Q&A which states, "Is Marathon the prequel to Halo? [...] No, Marathon is a separate story, with wholly different characters, story and gameplay." [1]. The blocks snapped together, but not so tightly that they couldn't be pulled apart. However, due to technology differences (the lack of transporter technology in Halo, for one), this is impossible. They had several round "studs" on top, and a hollow rectangular bottom. According to both the Halo video games and books, the events in Halo coincide with the events in Marathon. A few years later, in 1949, Lego began producing similar bricks, calling them "Automatic Binding Bricks." These bricks, manufactured from cellulose acetate, were developed in the spirit of traditional wooden blocks that could be stacked upon one another; however, these plastic bricks could be "locked" together.

These large similarities led to early speculation that Halo took place in the same universe as Marathon, only with different time frames - however, this was later proved highly unlikely. Hilary Harry Fisher Page, a child psychologist. There are two multiplayer gaming options, a version of king of the hill and a game called Oddball (called "Kill the Man with the Ball" in Marathon), which are present in Marathon's multiplayer mode. These "Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Bricks" were designed and patented in the UK by Mr. Also, both games use uniform color to differentiate between different ranks of aliens (and crew members), with higher ranks being stronger and harder to kill. In 1947, Ole Kirk and his son Godtfred obtained samples of interlocking plastic bricks produced by the company Kiddicraft. A type of alien that was modeled for Halo 2 but later cut is nearly identical to the Drinniol from Marathon. It should be noted, however, that the original, Greek verb "legein" actually has the meaning "put together".

The Hunters from Halo, though much larger, also clearly share design elements with the Hunters from Marathon. The Lego Group claims that "Lego" means "I put together" or "I assemble" in Latin, though this is a rather liberal translation; the more accepted and widely used application of the word is "I read". Hunters appear in both games filling the same roles. The company name Lego was coined by Christiansen from the Danish phrase leg godt, meaning "play well". The Elites from Halo are somewhat similar (in their appearance, not their role) to Marathon's Pfhor. Ole Kirk started creating wooden toys in 1932, but it wasn't until 1949 that the famous plastic Lego brick was created. Upon close inspection, crew members of the Pillar of the Autumn have the Marathon symbol on their uniforms, and the symbol is even embedded in the Halo logo itself. The Lego Group had humble beginnings in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, a poor carpenter from Billund, Denmark.

These include the concept of MJOLNIR "cyborgs," the supersoldier main character, the weapons, artificial intelligences, and even some of the alien creatures. . A number of weapons and plot devices seem to borrow from ideas seen in the Marathon series of first person shooters made by Bungie in the early to mid-1990s (see List of weapons in the Halo universe). The sets are produced by the Lego Group, a privately-held company based in Denmark. No comment has been made about these possible influences by the developer and these ideas are only speculation. High production quality and careful attention to detail ensures that Lego pieces can fit together in myriad ways, which is one of the main reasons for the toy's success. These include StarCraft, the Alien and Predator movies, the Marathon series, and Larry Niven's Known Space universe. Cars, planes, trains, buildings, castles, sculptures, ships, spaceships, and even working robots are just a few of the many things that can be made with Lego bricks.

Some fans believe Halo and Halo 2 were influenced by a number of other games and pop culture references, partially based on the game series own references to some of these pop culture icons. Lego is a line of toys featuring colourful plastic bricks, gears, minifigures (also called minifigs or mini-figs), and other pieces which can be assembled to create models of almost anything imaginable. Since the posting of the script, the message board has been closed down. The number 102,981,504 (four more than that figure) is the number of six-piece towers (of a height of six). Bungie said in this news article that the script was in fact fake. The figure of 102,981,500 is often given for six pieces, but it is incorrect. On October 4, 2005, ivanjrn, a user at www.richeswillrust.com deployed a fake script for Halo 3. Six eight-stud Lego bricks of the same colour can be put together in 915,103,765 ways, and just three bricks of the same colour offer 1,560 combinations.

The pre-order page has since been taken down, but other retailers have followed suit. "Legot" (or "leegot"), plural form of "lego" (or "leego") is also used as a Finnish slang term for human teeth, because of the rectangular shape of the teeth. Soon after the Xbox 360 was unveiled in May 2005, EB Games and FYE started taking pre-orders for "Halo 3", despite having no official word from Bungie on whether they would make another Halo game. Wideload Games has been suggested by fans as a potential such outside developer, reasoning that the third Marathon game was developed by a company which was, like Wideload, founded by former Bungie employees. This view could explain Bungie's reluctancy to speak on their next project, as if they have indeed handed Halo 3 to a third party, the two announcements (of Bungie's next project and of Halo 3) would likely be made concurrently.

An alternative possibility is that, following the precedent of Marathon Infinity, either an outside agency or a contractor to Bungie is developing the content of Halo 3 and using the existing engine, or possibly porting the engine to the Xbox 360. An article in Game Informer in November 2005 reports that: "Halo developer Bungie is so paranoid about the storyline for Halo 3 leaking out that two different storylines are being worked on so that even the company's employees are in the dark as to the plot of the game.". Bungie has also recently stated that Sapien and Guerilla, custom-made programming tools used to build Halo and Halo 2, are being worked on. Though no official statements have been made regarding what that next game is, most believe it is indeed Halo 3, and that Bungie is just being coy about the project in typical Bungie fashion.

Bungie has recently made regular references to "our next project" in their website's weekly news updates. However, the studio is known for being highly secretive and even occasionally misleading regarding development of their games. Bungie has not denied that another Halo game is in progress, but they have not officially announced the game. We'll work with the Bungie guys and let people know [when they have something to announce]".

With all respect to Bill, I don't run Bungie's studio, and neither does he. When asked shortly afterwards however, Microsoft senior vice president Robbie Bach was less definite, saying: "We haven't announced anything on what Bungie is doing or where we're going with the future of the 'Halo' franchise.. "It's perfect," Gates said, "The day Sony launches [the new PlayStation], and they walk right into Halo 3."(Time.com article, registration required; relevant quotes on Gamespot.com). Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, stated in a May 2005 Time Magazine interview that Halo 3 would be released in the "second wave" of Xbox 360 titles in 2006, as close to the PlayStation 3's launch as possible, to divert sales.

Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, was quoted as saying that Halo 3 was in development alongside Halo 2; however, this quote was recognized as a slip of the tongue and debunked before the release of Halo 2. Sources from inside both Microsoft and Bungie have made contradictory claims regarding whether Halo 3 is currently in development. It is speculated that Halo will become a trilogy, after which Bungie may be done with the series. The cliffhanger ending of Halo 2, as well as the success of the Halo franchise, makes a sequel extremely likely.

With the move to Windows Vista, Halo 2 for PC can be expect to have improved graphics, and to take full advantage of the modding community due to the afforementioned map editing tools. Bungie has also commented that Halo 2's gameplay balance is finely tuned, making such additions as new weapons or vehicles less likely, although new maps are certainly expected. Halo 2 PC will have some new features, potentially including some sort of map-editing software like the Halo Editing Kit, released by Gearbox Software for use with Halo Custom Edition. The game will only be compatible with Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista, a move that is likely intended to entice users to upgrade to the new Operating System.

Announced on 9th Feb 2006, Halo 2 is coming to pc later in the year. Arguments are mainly directed at the multiplayer aspect of the two games, with emphasis placed on Halo 2's greatly simplified learning curve and controversial matchmaking modes. There is heated debate over whether the game is superior to its predecessor. Halo 2 is much more ambitious than its predecessor.

The cliffhanger ending suggests that another sequel is in the works. The Halo universe expands as well, with new worlds and characters being introduced, as well a deeper look at the culture and society of Covenant. The aborted countdown in response triggers a fail-safe protocol that allows remote firing of all the other ring-worlds from one place: The Ark. In the end, the second Halo is almost fired, but the Arbiter and human Commander Miranda Keyes, with the help of Sergeant Johnson, are able to prevent this occurrence.

Meanwhile, the Covenant slides into civil war and a disgraced Elite commander known as the Arbiter is introduced to the series as a second playable character. In Halo 2, Master Chief battles the Covenant on Earth and later continues the fight on a second Halo: Delta Halo. No ports to other platforms have been announced so far. It also has Bungie.net integration and rankings and tracking of every online match, pushing the envelope of online console gaming further.

It has an advanced graphics engine that utilizes normal mapping and bloom effects, helping to make it one of the best looking games on the Xbox. The sequel features new game mechanics such as dual wielding, new vehicles and weapons, better AI, the ability to hijack vehicles, and Internet-based multiplayer via Xbox Live. It was recently announced that a port for Windows Vista operating system is currently in development. Halo 2 was released for the Xbox on November 9, 2004, generating a $125 million dollar entertainment record on its premiere day.

During an online match, players with the same user-created map can play together on it. This version does not have the option to play in campaign mode. Halo: Custom Edition (commonly known as Halo CE) is a free stand-alone expansion for Halo: Combat Evolved (for the PC) that has the ability to load and play user-created content and maps. Halo ends with the Master Chief and Cortana destroying the Halo and escaping in a Longsword fighter.

After learning that the ring is a weapon that would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy if activated, Master Chief embarks on a mission to destroy it. Stranded with the rest of the crew of the human ship Pillar of Autumn, including the AI Cortana, he fights against The Covenant (an alien alliance waging a 'holy war' of sorts against humanity) while attempting to uncover the ring's secrets, which include the sinister parasitic lifeforms known as The Flood. The story deals with the adventures of the protagonist, referred to in the game only as "Master Chief". It was later ported to both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

The game was released on November 15, 2001. Halo was then converted for development for the Xbox game console. However, during its many years of development, it changed into a third person shooter and then to a first person shooter. When Halo began development, it was a real time strategy game that would have been released on Apple and Windows PCs.

Halo was the most popular application for the Xbox console up until the release of its more ambitious sequel, Halo 2. . The Halo series is a popular series of video games developed by Bungie Studios and published by Microsoft. 2 : Original Soundtrack (Unreleased).

Halo 2, Vol. 1 : Original Soundtrack. Halo 2, Vol. Halo Original Soundtrack.

Halo 2 Hacks: Tips & Tools for Finishing the Fight by Stephen Cawood. Secrets Of Halo 2 by Greg Orlando, Russell Garbutt. Trautmann. The Art of Halo by Eric S.

The Unauthorized Halo 2 Battle Guide: Advanced Combat Techniques by Stephen Cawood. Halo 2: The Official Game Guide by Piggyback Interactive. Halo 2