I was hoping you’d end up on here one day 😌 you’re an absolute legend, thanks for helping create some of the most amazing memories for millions of people
I think the social aspect only really applied to the America’s and Oceania maybe Africa if it was split into different regions and India due to less variance in language
@@theWheezyI love Halo and was my first shooter which was ODST. Halo is a lot like Munster Rugby a lot of looking back at glory days and ever sinking into mediocrity until the latter dragged itself to its first championship win in 12 years
We went from having full pre-game lobbies with everyone having mics and even map veto in Halo 3, to mics being muted by default and no pre or post-game lobbies in Infinite. It's like they didn't want a community at all.
@@theWheezy I don't care to cover for 343 after the past decade, but this specific issue is industry wide. All aspects of modern AAA's are designed like mobile games, to maximize engagement and therefore profit. Social features don't inherently contribute to the bottom line, so resources are not put into them and they are not implemented. Persistent lobbies for example? Well, that would interfere with EOMM. Even more, after the mid 2010s there was corporate incentive to prevent "toxicity" (I'm sure we remember those days on yt) and the consensus was simply make multiplayer games *singleplayer*. Of course the majority of players would just mute and move on, but because of crazy talk online the publishers figured lets just remove the communication (then we won't have to moderate it). Then there is the other annoyance of over-fixation on competition. "You can't queue for FFA as a party of 2, then you will cheat!", or "We can't let you talk to the other team, otherwise people would try to grief and throw the game.". Just nonsense, especially when your game is much more likely to be ruined by AFK teammates or a cheater. So I don't blame 343, or at least no one but management, because all this comes from the top. If they simply made a great game, then we would all buy it like hotcakes right? Unfortunately the math of making a mediocre game that a tiny percentage of people will spend hundreds to thousands on, is ridiculously more profitable. Of course, Halo Infinite didn't become that game for Microsoft given the small playerbase there are very few whales.
@@theWheezy Indeed. When I play a game, I don't want to feel isolated from the people I play with. communication is key to a community forming, and every year, it feels like Microsoft keeps on forgetting this and neglects vital features. I miss the damn xbox 360 UI, it felt ALIVE, but what we have now feels so damn sterile and boring.
Beautiful video, I can tell a lot of time and effort went into selecting then editing the footage. 11:35 is my favorite part. Easily one of the best Halo videos today because it greatly recalls its social foundations.
If anything, you’ve inspired me to start this discussion from your “Remember Halo” video. You do an excellent job at bringing folks together with that storytelling. I wouldn’t mind all the changes to Infinite and the franchise if we could bring the scale of the social influence back
Nothing sadder than having to *explain* what halo is to the newer generation after there once being a time where a new Halo game outsold Pirates of the Caribbean
But they'll get it one day, because believe it or not, this new Fortnite, Apex Legends generation will one day end up where we are. Those games will eventually have their time, and they will be explaining to that other, next generation what was so special about those games to them.
@@RaikenXion not really sure about that... those games aren't really story driven games. It will fade with popularity ofc but it will be a natural fade. Halo was a self destruction fade
Fr like when I was young I was like I can’t wait to get older and have my own place and just laugh all night with the friends talking about how we gonna be playing this till we’re old but now look at us 😞
@@DivineSupreme I agree in some respects. Overall, no, but in terms of the best core competive gameplay, yes. Campaign is far from the previous titles (not bad, but not even close). Socially, it is not great, and customizations are terrible in comparison to older titles. They have made amazing improvements, but there is still a bit to go before it can be considered the goat.
I think it is just the changing of the gaming atmosphere these days. Back then, people would interact with each other more, and now, it is a dying art. I think Team Fortress 2 is the last bastion of this old gaming atmosphere, and not to say that it's better then Halo Infinite in any way, I'm just saying that it's one of the last places where you can find people chatting to each other and actively supports the community. Modern gamers are too focused on doing good at games these days, and don't just try to have fun. I think if we want that aspect of community back, we should start supporting the community more, and not focus on the official stuff as much. Sure, having a dedicated team to work on the game is great, but it's the dedicated fans that keep it going and create that community.
I do agree it's most of gaming where we don't encourage interacting with others. It's why I'd support games like Among Us or even COD where you can still heavily socialize and be encouraged to do so within the game's foundations. While it is slipping more and more away, Halo was the ultimate social experience on all ends. Split-screen, coop campaign, multiplayer lobbies/games, custom games, screenshots/file share. It's what I think made it the absolute bomb back in the day. Maybe I will make a future vid on the drifting social aspects in ALL of gaming.
Tf2 is a much better game than Halo Infinite. I played Halo infinite, whole campaign and you know what? The amount of enjoyment i got from that is a puny grain of sand from hoe many times tf2 has made me laugh.
bungie only using 10% of their true power lol meanwhile 343 using their 100% to create that shitspace engine that nobody on the team can use because those engine were made by intern that microsoft won't hire them
@@PackHunter117 People mostly complained because the neck was shoot through on elites in h3. That was the main reason. You can shoot their head and everything else but their neck, so it made it sometimes hard to hit head shots, especially when they jumped.
Unfortunately, the Bungie that made Halo what it was died shortly after they left Microsoft so they could make Destiny. Most of the old guard are either gone or in managerial/bureaucratic roles where they don’t have any creative imput. Now it’s completely soulless. Just look at Destiny. The second game didn’t even get good until late into its life when there was a good chance of Bungie going under.
Well, it’s my hot take is that Halo was started going downhill with 3 and by Reach the franchise was actually in decay. Keep mind I am a campaign player, and I think the Halo story structure and narrative peaked in Halo 2. They were also gameplay problems in the later games most notably sandbox bloat and enemy encounter becoming increasingly formulaic. Basically, starting with halo three, the dev found itself in a rut that comfortably got the good reviews scores and made the sales, so they just kept riding it.
@@shreksnow1918quite the opposite, destiny 2 was good since the beginning all the way to forspoken which i believe was the 3rd expansion. After that it had a few mediocre expansions and by the time they dropped a good expansion most people had already moved on
Trust me you wouldn't want to see the timeline where Bungie sticks around and then ruins your favorite game after almost a decade due to laziness and greed..
A few times I've had DM's from enemy players laughing about a moment in Infinite. The rest of the time I feel like I'm playing with bots. About a week ago when I last did Halo 3, some dude was playing music obnoxiously in mic, so I asked to play All Star. He started playing the song, and the zombies are all chilling around his warthog tbagging for the entire duration. We were all having fun. I can't recall a single moment like that in Infinite out of thousands of hours. Game is lonely to play.
HALO was the first game played with friends and families and will always have a place on the shelf of must haves. Will never sell any of the originals!
Same, I own a complete physical collection (if you ignore the gaps for the Xbox one games), and I just have to dust off my 360 to play these right now if I wanted to.
If you believe that we should be moved on entirely or stop voicing our comparisons, I respect your opinion as I hope you do with mine. What I miss the most from past Halo was the social connection and amount of fun you could have WITH people. Not just friends, but anyone. I miss all the mics plugged in, the supported features encouraging you to be social, and the very alive community. I want to be able to hop on Halo and share the moments with other people and be allowed to do that at the highest level. That's what I think made Halo stand out from the rest of the competition because it was one of the best at being social. On top of that, there was a certain charm that the older games brought and since this is still Halo, it's very much fair to nitpick. But the social experience is so dry in Halo, and most games in my honest opinion. I compared Halo Reach and Infinite because I think they are almost on the same level. The biggest difference is the lack of that heavily encouraged and supported social environment. Maybe that isn't entirely modern Halo's fault and could be pushed onto a general gaming problem, but I think it's the main ingredient from making it an enjoyable, or at least tolerable experience, from those that believe they had it so much better back in the day. Regardless, I hope the video was good enough to sit through and/or at least brought some good conversation down here.
"Do you ever wonder why we're here?" Also... "What I've learned is that... a great love is a lot like a good memory. When it's there, and you know it's there, but it's just out of your reach, it can be all that you think about. You can focus on it, and try to force it, but the more you do, the more you seem to push it away. But if you're patient, and you hold still, then maybe... Just maybe... It will come to you. [...] And I mean, hell, if you have to live the rest of your life in a memory... you might as well make it a good one."
I will never forget playing halo for the 1st time, while halo 2 and 3 is so memorable due to its campaign and multi-player, my love for Halo CE is undying.
I'm not giving up. I'm committing to plugging in my mic more. Chatting with folks. Because even one person feeling like they had a more traditional, social experience is enough for me. I was 10 playing Halo 3. And stayed mostly quiet because of anxiety about being a squeaker. But hearing everyone in the lobby is what made the experience so unique. Winning wasn't everything. Fun was.
I’ve been doing this bro. I’m talking to myself the whole damn game if I have to. I know y’all hear me. I’m trying to keep halo alive. Say what’s up. 🫡
Cool video man. The thing is, times just change. It was never going to last forever. I remember getting Halo 2 on the original xbox live. Back then, only hardcore gamers would play consoles online. Not many people had it. I was a teenager and it absolutely blew me away and changed my life. And i remember they gave everyone a headset, so we could ALL talk and laugh and trash each other. Use team work and play together. It was ridiculous. By Halo 3, everything was more mainstream and they created the most incredible experience. All of the innovation with forge, custom games, theater. And everything worked the day or release, you didnt have to wait for updates or months for certain features. I logged on to Halo 3 in the first week and remember seeing over 1 million players smashing it out. I have the best memories of by buddies and I in customs. Those times are done and dusted. If you played the new Halo games today without previous experience, they probably wouldnt be that bad. But compared to what it was back then, they are absolutely terrible. Its not even a comparison.
Playing Halo campaign with a bro was the best feeling in the world, miss those good hold days Splits screen didn't bother us back then only playing together Epic moments and memorise ❤😢
Ngl, this video made my heart hurt. How I long for those days again. Coming home from school and playing halo all night. Looking back at it, all of the people I befriended, they moved on. Yet I alone remain, and I semi-regularly play through the campaigns again. It's a weird place to be in, playing a social game with no social features.... it's a void. Its not just Halo though, every major online shooter has done the same. It's sad, idk really what else to say. Every time I meet a younger person all I can think is how they missed out. They missed out on the best portion of online gaming, and I don't see it returning.
I feel for you man, how I long to just sit on my 360 10pm at night hearing people squabble about the best truck pre game halo 3 lobby. Or play countless custom games on Reach, our characters of Spartans we’ve created as a persona of ourselves. Now just out there in the void, missing in action
Definitely. And it isn't even just gaming. Look at movies these days. Television. Music. Hell, even books and other art forms are not what they once were. But then again, these past years it feels like the whole world is in decline. It's no wonder that this is reflected in art. These past years certainly haven't been the worst in my life, but they weren't very fun or memorable either. Everything just feels so dull.
Even though I've never gotten the chance to experience multiplayer back in it's golden days as a kid, Halo will always be special to me, splitscreen campaign with my dad in halo 2 was the best thing ever. I miss those days where I would come home from school and boot up gta or halo and play them with my dad so much.
This is a good video, but as a younger fan, I have still had lots of laughs over the mic on Halo and continue to even today. Infinite, Halo 3, Reach: I love these games and have had tons of fun with my friends on mic laughing about goofy physics or great plays. Heck, when I've done campaign co-op those experiences became core gaming memories for me. The old days are over, but there are still great new memories being made.
Appreciate the love. In response to you, a friend group can carry almost any game and make it fun. But I want to be able to meet people on this game. I want lobbies to be full of passionate experiences, not quiet ones. And I also want everything to be tailored to the coop experience from day one (social modes, forge/customs, split screen). Even with a friend group, it’d be much more fun and laid back if you had unique matches with the personalities of new people. That’s the social part I want back in this that the older games did have. Maybe that’s harder to create these days, but I don’t even see it really being encouraged
@@theWheezy that's true, and sometimes I've had social experiences with randoms, but that was in Apex and not Halo. Socializing through games is almost dead in the MCC and Infinite, and personally, it's just not fun to lose out on those experiences with other people.
Halo at the end of the day is meant to be a party game before anything else, I just wish the party wasn't over. If Infinite had more unique campaign missions, tighter map design in the dev made maps that encouraged all facets of the sandbox, all the content we came to expect from a Halo game was there at launch, and the community features were on par with 3 and Reach then it could have been a return to form. Instead there are rumors that they are defaulting to a Battle Royale mode, which is the safest and least innovative thing you can do for a video game these day. Bungie used to innovate by seeing what fans liked and delivered more of it the next time around. 343 never tried to make a classic Halo game until the later stages of Infinite's development, and they basically released the game with their pants down. They don't have faith in Halo's legacy or it's features that were added in the Bungie games. When dual-wielding, playable elites, Forge, Theater, neutral player equipment, and file sharing were added they were big focuses of their respective games. Now you have to pray for just half of those features to be there and supported at launch. I'll blame 343 as much as Microsoft because at the end of the day, Bungie had to deal with them too, the difference is they had to make Halo before is was proven Halo was a great game, while 343 has those 9 years of Bungie's legacy as hindsight. If modders can understand Bungie's design philosophies for free then 343 should be able to do so for money, Microsoft be damned.
Hopefully with new people at the reigns, things will be better if they make another game. Ultimately, while 4 wasn't awful, it definitely didn't hold a candle to what the previous series had built up and 5 was just...a mess. Infinite is a step in the right direction, but it had such a rocky start and is still suffering because of that. The numbers have come back a bit, but Infinite will forever be remembered as the game that many lost hope. But why I'm hopeful is because there was a real shake down of the leadership, the one constant that remained at the end of the day was always who was in charge since Bungie stepped away. Now that there has been a change of the guards, maybe things will be better. We've certainly already seen some really good progress being made by the new leadership at 343.
@agentmaryland1239 I'm playing 5 for the first time (have played all previous and not infinite) and I'm really enjoying it so far. Bear in mind I'm only on mission 2. But from what I've seen so far, I like that laskey, palmer, buck, etc. are back, and that the Arbiter is waging war against the covenant scraps.
Great video! I do believe in some capacity, the halo mod community is creating a better space for og halo nerds like us. Not sure if you have seen any new mods recently. It’s worth to play, and obviously bigger groups on discord can make the game greater again with these mods. That’s where I believe Halo can return in some old form.
good video man i think you make an excellent point with modern gaming having no social aspects anymore i think it is gone if im to be honest its just not what games are played for in my eyes. i remember the days were it didnt matter score bored or what we were even doing as long as it was enjoyable
I understand both sides of the argument. As a diehard halo fan I will continue playing the game until they stop making them. However, I wont pretend that the games don't suffer. I also see the argument of the rose-tinted glasses as old halo fans will never be content with the future games because how the gaming world works today. What I will say is that you should play what you enjoy/
Agreed. But I also don't want to be a sheep and just accept the way things are if you could possibly make a positive difference. It's good to discuss and get the juices flowing between everyone in a respectful manner. People will be vocal and emotional when going back and forth in heated discussions, but it's all about finding the common ground to make this a uniting and fun franchise like it once was for almost everyone.
I’m so glad this video came across my feed… it brought back so many heavy emotions from those days..the golden days. I remember when I first got Xbox Live the day it came out and playing Halo 2 for the first time Live.. and so on through my all time favorite Halo 3. So many good memories and FRIENDS! Never met them in person but always connected with them to play Halo! Great video! “I’m not crying…you’re crying!”
There's a old interview with a bungie staff correcting a guy when he called halo a competive shooter he said halo can be competive but halo was designed to be a party shooter like the smash bros of shooters anyone can play and have fun
Halo (Specifically Reach) Was perhaps the first FPS I recall ever playing. Still holds a special place in my heart. It's tragic to see where the franchise is now.
My conclusions: • Content creators, such as TheBoysUnknown, ActMan, ABD, you, etc... They provide a fundamental life support for the community (although even they have lost hope - community interest in the face of the uncertainty of having 434i in charge of the franchise) • The Cartographers who use Forge to prevent Infinite from continuing to fall into the red deserve all the support - respect of the community, and it is necessary that 434i continue to be pressured so that they can provide them with the tools they need, to continue working • If the game enhances the flight it will be thanks to the community, if it fails then 343i would finish demonstrating its incompetence and in an irrefutable way - indirectly, all those who came to support them would be left as clowns
I will never understand this argument. I grew up with Halo 3 and Reach. I stayed on Halo 3 a ton because there was enjoyment to be had. There was no armor abilities, 0 bleed through, and RNG bloom in 3. Everything was on an even playing field not to mention 0 sbmm which allowed for a new gaming experience each match because you matched with everyone of a different skill level. It was peak gaming for me and nothing except maybe Titanfall 2 has come close to making me wanna feel the need to sit down and turn off my brain for hours playing a video game. I've completely lost that feeling because Halo has changed so much to where I cant stand the movement, the feel, and the matchmaking. Infinites a good game but it will never capture what prime Halo felt like simply because of the restrictive feel it has when it comes to social experience. Halo 3 had all the social experiences you could want in a halo game. A social progression, a community file share, favorites by the developers, and WORKING theater. All these allowed people to have a fun time with friends, make cool screenshots, and capture cool moments because everything was working and it was simple. Maybe I'm old but gaming back then didnt feel as competitive as it does now there was more social space then there was a competitive space and the community felt open because of that.
Reach didnt have shield bleed until after 343 took over. Then introduced TU game modes. (title update). Halo reach's combat was just fine where it was before 343 messed it up. Also there was RNG bloom, on NEARLY EVERY weapon in Halo 3, however it was non scaling. Ever got a carbine and fired at a jackals head and missed like 5 times for no reason? thats why. RNG Bloom, and if you want to demonize armor abilities, then drop abilities in Halo 3 should be on the no-no list too. Because it changed the formula from the classic Halo 2 and CE gameplay. Even if it was a little bit. I dont remember bubble shields and flares in CE or halo 2. which was kind of a big deal. Considering it shook up encounters. And as for SBMM, that wouldnt make any difference, because no, every match wasnt any different at all. you had four types of players, try hards, trolls, noobs, and average players. SBMM wiil not and has never changed that dynamic. infact I never noticed the difference in any games it has been in. Because it makes no difference.
@@JamesTDGif you have any skill you'd end up completely dominating 90% of the population so the game matches you against teams of sweats while giving you useless teammates. Then your stuck in an endless cycle of treating every match like you're in a tournament just to stay competitive.
I agree but the new halo games are just dressing up a dead corpse in makeup and I think halo ended in 3 or reach like the game just needs to rest in peace man its so fkd seeing ur childhood be distorted like this u kno same with gears i fuvking love the story till three now its just a slap in the face
As of writing this, last night, my friends and I jumped on Infinite. Firefight modes just came out a couple days ago. And that made me feel.. happy? It was a feeling of bonding I hadn't felt in a long time with Halo. Usually when we played, it was in online matches and it felt very dry. Plain. Like a cut and drive A to B victory or loss and move on to the next. But we just kept playing firefight. We laughed, we poked fun at each other. Even when we were mad at something, we still laughed at how outrageous a situation got. Then we hopped into Big Team Battle and played Follow The Leader. That spark 'happy' grew from just a spark, to a fire and I said out loud, "This is like the old days." My best friend was quiet for a moment and said, "Damn.. You're right." And now this is recommended to me the morning after. And you know what? Halo is about community. It is about having friends and making them along the way while having fun. A part of me truly wonders if a lot of us just don't want to have fun anymore and play just to have better K/Ds, ranks, and to knock the new for what's missing from the old. Sure, there are things missing that I'd still argue need to be back. (Like giving back the plasma pistol's EMP charge), but Halo, and games in general, are only as fun and memorable as you make them.
A big thing that is missed is the simplicity of the 1st three games. Reach was the begining of the end. Stuff kept being added that wasnt asked for. After 3 the "feel" of halo kept changing. One thing my friends bring up is 343 kept trying to make halo feel more serious. Combat evolved feels almost zanny in comparison. I kind of wish they would just stop trying with halo and let it die.
Exactly, and part of that is because some people have such a weird obsession with changing everything even if it’s not wanted nor needed. And it’s not just 343, even mainstream journalists and gaming audiences demand change just for the sake of change even though it isn’t always a good thing which they forget.
Amazing video dude. I Just subscribed. The level of this video is top tier quality awesomeness. About a important topic too, that a lot of people seem to have a hard time understanding. It's crazy how disconnected game devs have become nowadays even tho we have all these advancements.. we aren't utilizing them what so ever..
Just started playing halo ce on my dads old xbox with my little brother on splitscreen, i wasnt alive for the first 3 halo games even but i thought it'd be fun to play, and i can already tell that its making memories between me and my brother
I haven't finished this video yet, but me and my irls STILL play halo IRL with eachother (splitscreen and all), its the absolute best. We scream at eachother while playing ninjanuat on Halo 3, or getting no scope kills in Halo 4. I'm sad that I couldnt grow up with the older halo games (1 and 2, and I guess 3 because I was so young at the time). I've tried playing halo infinite recently, and while its fun, it feels like its missing something. Your video has really described how my older friends have felt about Halo as a franchise. One of my friends (whos is college now!!) would be always playing some sort of halo game on his xbox 360, still remember when me, my brother, him, and his younger brother would sit on the living room couch and play halo reach together. (Just want to say that your content is amazing and really reminds me of playing these games back then man....)
My first Midnight Release was Halo 3. I was a sophomore in college with my friends . Waited 6 hour before midnight. Got my complicate 12:30 am. We immediately played the campaign all day. The moved to multiplayer afterwards. It was sooo good. So emotional and such a great experience. Glad I had it.
I’m not giving up on it, having a ton of fun on it right now. I do miss the social aspect though. However, with more social playlists popping up I do think this will improve soon.
It doesn't matter what new games come out, I still go back to Halo 2 and Halo 3. While most of my friends from back then no longer play the game. I've made new friends that I play with every weekend.
This video made me shed a tear. I miss all my old buddies I played with online when I was a wee lad. I remember getting into a lobby and making friends with random people and always having people to play with. Now every game just seems dead.
Man this video brought tears to my eyes. I lost my HALO buddy to cancer in July of 2020. Easily 1 of the toughest obstacles i have ever faced in my life. I watching him fade away helpless to stop it. The attachment is as much with the people as it is the game its self. Long live HALO.
perfectly captured bro. im sure alot of us OG halo fans agree with your points here. i genuinely wish we could go back to the halo 3 xbox live days but it wont come-- mostly the reason ive quit gaming for the most part. great video bro
I must say it is almost rejuvenating my love for halo seeing people like you make videos like these. Everyone, old or new fans need to see this video. "Halo fans need to move on" thats like saying "Star Wars fans need to move on" i mean how can 2 of the biggest franchises in American Culture flop so hard. Those of us who grew up with Halo and got to experience the journey as it unfolded before our eyes.. we have a right to be upset with any Halo post Reach. We are grieving. Halo is not what it was meant to be in its current state. Thank you for reminding us that we arent alone and reminding us what made Halo ... well Halo! I am subscribing 😊
When i was a teen i mostly just played custom games especially on reach. Ill never forget the Saturday night when me and my friends would stay up and play custom games together.
I think you kinda hit the nail on the head with how it was more about the people than the games. Looking back I think the reason I look so fondly on my time playing specially Halo 3 and Reach was because it was something I’d do at my buddies house, I’d go over there and we’d play split screen campaign. Or something I’d play with my brother, we’d make crazy forge worlds or play firefight for hours.
Amazing Video! I believe your right about how the social impact that has been lost to the online gaming world. Those are what made so many amazing memories in the halo games, with complete strangers. And it was made even more clear back in 2021, when I had a day off from work and decided to play some games, found a group of random people that wanted to get all of Halo Reach's multiplayer achievements, I spent over 10 hours playing and laugh with these people as we played. They helped make one last great Halo Reach (360) memory that day. We laughed, we joked, we talked about the old days of Halo 3 and Reach, Just an all around good time. I hope Halo will bring back more of the social areas, as I feel like that will help bring back up, and not just Halo, many games would be better in my opinion.
Man those halo 2 clips brought back so many memories of youtube searching. I joined back in 2006, same with se7ensins but I was searching way before then. I do wish you had some montages in here like shook on3 and walshy and others. I'll be honest, halo 5 did it bad for me. I only got to level 148, and onyx level. I didn't enjoy it. I played halo 2 until it's shutdown and my friend and I did the leave the Xbox on, and stayed on lockout until we had a power surge about 2 days after 😢
Wow, this video was incredible. I was there for it all. So glad i was around for the ride, its something i will never forget. As much as i want to experience this all again…i think most know everything has changed and that this is most likely just a pipe dream. But if i’m wrong and it ever did come back, i think we would all return.
i wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart for this and i want to most of all thank god for bringing me into this world so that i could grow up with halo i was born in 2000 aug 17 i remeber an i will never forgot the moments and long lost freinds thank god for the time we had thank god that we got blessed no one will ever understand what it truly ment to "finish the fight" im so glad i was a kid im so glad my dad gave me an og xbox im so glad i was alive to recall this and praise be to god for bringing us all together spartans it was honor.
Damn. Never expected a tear in my eye at 11:35 it reminds me of when Halo 3 was coming to PC and I was a lucky person to be picked for the early flight launch. It felt like 2007, we were laughing we were having a good time and we were all going hype and chanting HALO 3, HALO 3. I still sport the Halo 3 Insider Flight nameplate since it gave me the nostalgia we experienced in '07 during that 2 days. We weren't angry, we were having fun and having a laugh seeing the quirky games of Halo 3 go by. I missed file share, the screenshots, the random forge maps in matchmaking, the theater films and pictures featured for the week, the messages the forge maps, the weird modded maps, the absolute absurdity of it all. And everyone loved it.
Ive unironically been banned from halo servers on discord just for pointing out illogics in 343s retcons. Which in my highest opinion, are some of the dumbest, idiotic retcons ive ever seen. And ill die on that hill.
This is a good video. Your comparison of Reach to Infinite was spot on. Bungie def made questionable and even downright bad decisions with Reach, but it's still looked upon fondly by fans and I think you are right in thinking that the social systems Bungie propped up in that game helped it's case. It's hard to say the same for Infinite when you can't even ask the other people you are playing with "what map should we vote for?"
Coming from someone who has moved on, completely... it still hurts. Halo infinite was the last straw for me i beat the campaign on legendary a few days after release played multiplayer for about a week then just gave up. I've never been more betrayed and hurt by how Halo has been handled as a franchise. If i ever get my hands on Frank O Connor for what he did to halo i will strangle him, i hold him personally responsible for the downfall of Halo and i have a seething hatred for him. I can't even bring myself to play MC collection despite it being in such a good state now, like you said the community isn't there anymore, Halo is less social than its ever been and so is gaming as a whole. I hate to bring Fortnite into this but a couple days back i decided to play a squads fill match and matched with 2 dudes who were unbelievably chill and ended up playing and talking with them for about 4 hours and it was the most fun I'd had in probably years. For years I've been completely adverse to just talking or socializing in games out of fear, and the fact that no one else does it probably also out of fear. You can't socialize in games anymore cause of developers gatekeeping voice chat and banning you for saying the least harmful things one can think of. It wasn't like that during the golden days of Halo and i understand why people haven't moved on but i couldn't do it anymore 343 has hurt me too many times and it doesn't help that i have friends who will criticize me for loving the bungie era of halo too much and one friend in particular that thinks Halo 4 is the best game ever made with a flawless art design and campaign. I want to beat his head in sometimes. So coming from someone who has moved on and can't bring himself to even play any Halo game in recent years. Don't give up. Halo is something extremely special that was torn from us due to incompetence and greed and at the very least the MC collection is trying to keep that alive for how little it matters to me at least i know it matters to a lot of you. I spent most of my early years doing nothing but playing Halo and i miss it so. Fucking. Much. But i don't think we'll ever get to experience that glory again. Go on without me everyone keep old halo alive until there's literally no servers left just like the 14 who kept Halo 2 alive at the very end of its life. Finish the fight.
Watching this video made me feel old. It made me remember the days where videogames just had a shoot to make things right. No patches, no DLCs, no updates, nothing. You either released a good game, or you failed in the industry. It made me remember when me and my friends would gather our lunch money just to go to the nearest Cyber to play Halo 2, and I tell you, I was awful at it, but we always had a blast. It made remember... Halo.
We all played Halo 3/Reach custom games till 4 in the morning for the last time and we didn't even know it...what can we say? It was one hell of night.
Amazing work on this video. You voiced my inner thoughts more eloquently than I've ever managed. Been with Halo since the beginning at 6 years old. It's the same with every giant FPS franchise. COD and Battlefield have suffered similar fates. We'll never recapture the memories and experiences of COD4/WAW/MW2, BFBC2/BF3/BF4, and Halo CE-Reach. In many ways it overlaps the glory days of online console gaming. That kind of lasting community in gaming is basically dead. I like Infinite, but the open world campaign feels like a grind to get to the parts I enjoyed and multiplayer doesn't have the community infrastructure to fill the social void that makes gaming fun for me. I really only play Insurgency Sandstorm and similar tactical games nowadays because they demand social interaction and communication to succeed. With communication comes the kind of memorable moments we still have from Halo's glory days.
I wish i could have witnessed the beginning of halo, i started with halo 2 being alone, no one to play with, but i managed to have fun, i never understood the campaign due to me being blind, i didn't even see the guns correctly, but i could see the silhouette of the chief, the elites, it was fun, and im gonna keep having fun playing these games
Yes there’s been a change of culture. Back then, playing multiplayer online was new to many people. Like there’s used to be games that would force you out of party chat and into game chat. That’d never be allowed today. People would just hop on discord on their phones before they accepted that. So yeah there’s been a cultural shift of how people utilize online gaming. I think just like how people are socially isolated in real life, the behavior now extends to even Xbox live. These people can’t make friends at a party, and they also can’t make friends in an Xbox lobby. Just chatting up random people is not a strong skill set within many people anymore. But also, the games and publishers are also responsible. Because outside of the cultural shift, there’s also been a design shift. Like Sony records in game chat so they can ban you. Games don’t do consistent lobbies anymore. Some games don’t even allow you access other players profiles from any in game menu. Like in halo 3, you could pull up the leader board and then click on a profile and their Xbox account would show. That’s not the case anymore. I’m the Xbox 360, you could’ve set social parameters for your account. And one of them was literally trash talker. And the Xbox live servers would try to match you with other users who also labeled themselves “trash talker”. So that’s literally Xbox encouraging flame wars, arguing and trash talking on their platform. You simply would just never see anything like that today. Today we’re like 2 years removed from living a world where Microsoft and Sony ban you based off of what you say in a private party. Social spaces online have bricks sterile and atomized in an attempt to remove toxicity. And it turns out you can’t just have the good without the bad. The space where you run into friends can also be the same space where you run into jerks, that’s honestly just life. We can’t even choose our exorcised anymore. Sometimes I lie trash talking and getting trashed talk at. But I guess that isn’t up for me to decide
One of the many things I can agree on, is the interaction with others in game chat in the community. Back then, most people were interacting with others in game chat. But now, most people are either in xbox party chat or using some other chatting apps to communicate with people they already know like friends and family. Thus leaving the in game gaming chat experience, empty, dull and lifeless. But everyone once in a while I'll hear someone in gaming chat talking. Bringing back that small form of enjoyment in me to hear that interaction with others in a game that makes or breaks on how well we did on enjoying ourselves with the match we had. But one crucial problem with it, is once the match ends, you're no longer with that group of people anymore. No way to simply push a button on wishing to stay with that group of people you had fun with and to go into another match together as allies or on the enemy team and fight each other and just have a good old time together and keep the fun going. That sense of interaction, is gone.
I remember when Halo 2 was first announced. I was 7 but my first thought was there's no way this is gonna live up to the first game. Halo 2 was the first time I ever experienced a sequel being anything but a money hungry, cash grab. This series gave me hope for so long, but now its all so distant. Hope feels like a dream fading away. Is this what the world is now. Is there no room for integrity, honesty or excellence. These are dark years my brother's.
I got kinda teary. I think it's the laughter I miss the most. I've been lucky enough to play Halo 3 with some friends in person on some Xbox 360s in the last few years and the laughter is still there. Halo 3 is a special game and I don't think those memories will ever fade, but I also don't see the future of gaming catching that spark again. The term 'nostalgia' derives from the Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain). The literal meaning of nostalgia, then, is the suffering evoked by the desire to return to one's place of origin.
Seeing halo the way it is today is like seeing an old close friend for the first time in years to find out they are strung out on drugs and is a shell of their former self. We stick around because we want to help this friend get better but they just won't help themselves...
The Best Thing About Halo Was The Campaign And Forge. All The Great Memories I Have With Halo Were Made Just With The Campaign And Split-Screen. And When I Eventually Got Live I Spent, Hours And Hours On Forge Trying To Make Stuff , It Wasn't Good But It Was Still Stuff I Enjoyed With Friends. And While The Campaign Is Still Not There Yet, Forge Is Better Than Ever And That Brings Joy To My Heart.
I missed out on the "Golden Age" of Halo, simply because I didn't have Xbox Live, but that doesn't change that I grew up with Halo. Halo 2 was the first game I can remember ever playing with my dad, and I remember constantly replaying that campaign in particular with my brother growing up, or even just solo after school. I'd always start it over, even if I didn't finish it the day before. My brother & I would also play custom games together, and mostly explored the maps to see what we could find. My mother, brother & I bought dad an Xbox 360 along with Halo 3 for his birthday one year, but he didn't have time to play it much so it was really only used by my brother & I. We did the same thing, played the campaign multiple times a week, and spent hours on custom games, and forge. Same with Reach, and 4. No internet, no online play, just splitscreen fun. It wasn't until Halo 5 that I dipped my feet into the online scene. After the more-than-dissapointing campaign (at least, in my eyes), I wanted to see what was up with the online. And genuinely, it was some of the most fun I'd had in a long time up to that point. I stll consider Halo a story-driven game first, but I was addicted to the multiplayer of H5. I met great people, some of whom I still talk to. I got good at the social games, but most of my fun came from the custom browser. I played that game from its release all the way until Infinite's. I heard a quote recently that I think fits. "You will always love something the most when you fall in love with it." This quote was in reference to a UA-cam channel, but can definitely be applied here. Halo 2 was my first experience with the campaign, and playing it as a kid with my dad & brother growing up will always be some of my most fond memories. Halo 5 was my first experience with the online-multiplayer, and I genuinely loved every second of it. Halo isn't just a game, it's an experience. Something that you can come to love at any point, and I think that's something people don't understand. I love Bungie's campaigns, and think they're the best in the franchise not just because they house the best stories told in the Halo universe (they do), but also because I made fond memories with my family on them. Halo 5 is my favorite multiplayer experience not only because it's one of the few (not counting MCC) multiplayer experiences I have with Halo, but because I made fond memories with my friends on it. It's not about the story, or the gameplay mecahnics, or the graphics or sound design. Those are all fine and good, but they will ultimately fail if they don't make a good experience. That's why I turned away from Halo Infinite, because with the lack of split screen (preventing me from playing with my brother/family) and the lack of what I call "social settings" (functioning game chat, pre/post-game lobbies, etc), Halo didn't feel like an "experience" to me, and only felt like "a game." I don't fault my friends for liking it, but it's just not my thing. It doesn't feel like Halo to me. Damn, this comment went on longer than I wanted it to. Thanks for reading my (likely incoherent) rant, whoever you are, and have a nice evening.
I'm an OG halo player and have been playing Halo since the day CE came out. It is the franchise that got me into gaming with the help of my dad. I remember playing 4 player splitscreen with relatives, some of which have passed, and I will forever cherish those memories. But I have accepted and learned to let them be memories. I have also accepted the direction Halo has gone. This is a franchise i will stick by until the day I die no matter what. I've gone and created new memories with the 343 titles and with the addition of AI in forge in Infinite, I've been able to have some great times with friends and family. I think 343 is starting to do the community right with the new things they are constantly adding to Infinite. It feels like they are actually listening to us for once and I am extremely grateful for that. We can't cling on to the past, it's only going to make us miss out on the amazing memories we can create now and years down the line we will regret it if we do. Adapt to the ever-changing gaming world and try to make the best of what we have now. We never know when it will all end. Peace ♥️
Damn... Hearing these old voices wondering where all of the fellow OGs are in life today. If I could give them all a hug especially my old friends who I haven't heard from in who knows how long now, those who I had the opportunity to play along side back in the day, then hell yeah I'll give all the googly bears a damn hug then! RIP to the good ole days. Such simpler times. P.S. Seeing all these old game modes and maps i use to play really hit me hard. I gotta go cry in the corner now.
I already did, Infinite was a mess in how long all the features took to come along and just the overall production/development cycle. The live-action TV series on Paramount was the nail in coffin for me really. Unless the magic dreamteam o.g. devs who worked on Halos 1-Reach ALL return and bring *Halo* back home for us, this beloved franchise is done. But that's NEVER going to happen is it, we all know those individuals have gone for good, they have all moved on from "Halo" now so should we.
I grew up with halo I even still play it today it my memory it's my family it's ny childhood seeing what there doing to halo is sickening but I havw to stick through it it got me through my life and I must do the same for it
I was late to playing Halo and ended up with Infinite being the first game I launched. However, Halo 3 was looking to be my favorite when I saw the clips of the game. And now Halo 3 is surely my favorite. I first saw a Halo related item when I was playing Minecraft legacy and the Halo Mash-Up pack came with it. I liked to pick Master Chief as my character in that game and that was when I go into Halo, 6 or 5 years ago.
They just look like they’re in two totally different worlds. Two totally different games with two totally different fanbases.” Just like Fallout. SMH And speaking of? There’s one thing about the campaigns I feel you should have mentioned. The flow and storytelling. The original trilogy did it rather well. Whereas 343 feels like a series of stories with the barest connections there, the finer details instead of being brought up ingame are instead explained away in outside material like comics and novels. Something many people likely aren’t gonna see.
Wonderful video. You basically hit the nail on the head. A large part of early halo's success is the fact that it was the perfect game for that time in the gaming landscape. Online gaming spiked in popularity with the launch of the 360. Pair that with the already huge halo fan base for the previous 2 titles and the fact that the 360 came with a mic in the box and you have all the ingredients for a perfect storm. I think simply put halo was the perfect game for the perfect time period but that time period has past and its left the games and their fans yearning for that perfect storm again.
I got introduced to the franchise by my older brother with ODST. I am 23 and he is 30, I only got to see him a couple of times as a kid... hes my half brother. Anyways, I loved playing this game with him: and he introduced me to the entire franchise, and I came back to it with the MCC in 2020. I wish I could share those memories with my fellow gamers. I host a community with 40 or so players that does something akin to online reenactment. My first introduction to custom games was through MCC, 12 of us winding down after doing an event. Man, that was fun. Only now in infinite with one or two buddies on"firefight" do I get the same feeling.
Great choices for music 😉
I was hoping you’d end up on here one day 😌 you’re an absolute legend, thanks for helping create some of the most amazing memories for millions of people
I think the social aspect only really applied to the America’s and Oceania maybe Africa if it was split into different regions and India due to less variance in language
@@theWheezyI love Halo and was my first shooter which was ODST.
Halo is a lot like Munster Rugby a lot of looking back at glory days and ever sinking into mediocrity until the latter dragged itself to its first championship win in 12 years
What a fucking goat ❤
@@Amy-gf7je Agreed
We went from having full pre-game lobbies with everyone having mics and even map veto in Halo 3, to mics being muted by default and no pre or post-game lobbies in Infinite. It's like they didn't want a community at all.
It's saddening, I could put a lot of my distaste aside for 343's era if the social aspects were all back. Just feels so dead
@@theWheezy I don't care to cover for 343 after the past decade, but this specific issue is industry wide. All aspects of modern AAA's are designed like mobile games, to maximize engagement and therefore profit. Social features don't inherently contribute to the bottom line, so resources are not put into them and they are not implemented. Persistent lobbies for example? Well, that would interfere with EOMM. Even more, after the mid 2010s there was corporate incentive to prevent "toxicity" (I'm sure we remember those days on yt) and the consensus was simply make multiplayer games *singleplayer*. Of course the majority of players would just mute and move on, but because of crazy talk online the publishers figured lets just remove the communication (then we won't have to moderate it).
Then there is the other annoyance of over-fixation on competition. "You can't queue for FFA as a party of 2, then you will cheat!", or "We can't let you talk to the other team, otherwise people would try to grief and throw the game.". Just nonsense, especially when your game is much more likely to be ruined by AFK teammates or a cheater.
So I don't blame 343, or at least no one but management, because all this comes from the top. If they simply made a great game, then we would all buy it like hotcakes right? Unfortunately the math of making a mediocre game that a tiny percentage of people will spend hundreds to thousands on, is ridiculously more profitable. Of course, Halo Infinite didn't become that game for Microsoft given the small playerbase there are very few whales.
@@theWheezy Indeed. When I play a game, I don't want to feel isolated from the people I play with. communication is key to a community forming, and every year, it feels like Microsoft keeps on forgetting this and neglects vital features. I miss the damn xbox 360 UI, it felt ALIVE, but what we have now feels so damn sterile and boring.
That's gonna be all modern games.
Tbf I like not having to disable all mics but it does hurt community.
All for the sake of feelings.
@@naiveveg8447 Nothing to do with feelings, grow up. It's all about money.
Beautiful video, I can tell a lot of time and effort went into selecting then editing the footage. 11:35 is my favorite part. Easily one of the best Halo videos today because it greatly recalls its social foundations.
If anything, you’ve inspired me to start this discussion from your “Remember Halo” video. You do an excellent job at bringing folks together with that storytelling.
I wouldn’t mind all the changes to Infinite and the franchise if we could bring the scale of the social influence back
evening crowb
Crowb! Miss your videos mate. Hope you make a grand return to this platform soon!
Okay crowbcat
You like halo. I like halo.
You like max Payne. I like max Payne.
When are we gonna kiss 😳
I still hate your re4 video but good day
Nothing sadder than having to *explain* what halo is to the newer generation after there once being a time where a new Halo game outsold Pirates of the Caribbean
Yes there is. Replace "Halo" with the state of America and the world as a whole.
@@dZorroIII bruh shut up 🤓
Some games have some of the charms old Halo had.... battlebit definitely has the voice chat moments
But they'll get it one day, because believe it or not, this new Fortnite, Apex Legends generation will one day end up where we are. Those games will eventually have their time, and they will be explaining to that other, next generation what was so special about those games to them.
@@RaikenXion not really sure about that... those games aren't really story driven games. It will fade with popularity ofc but it will be a natural fade. Halo was a self destruction fade
What's sad is how we thought it would only get better...
Fr like when I was young I was like I can’t wait to get older and have my own place and just laugh all night with the friends talking about how we gonna be playing this till we’re old but now look at us 😞
Halo infinite is the goat of all time 🐐👑 it just passed up destiny 2 on most played Xbox list season 7 we all shall 👑 infinite 🐐
@@DivineSupremeNo sir.
@@DivineSupreme I agree in some respects. Overall, no, but in terms of the best core competive gameplay, yes. Campaign is far from the previous titles (not bad, but not even close). Socially, it is not great, and customizations are terrible in comparison to older titles. They have made amazing improvements, but there is still a bit to go before it can be considered the goat.
Season 7 🐐💯👑🙀
I think it is just the changing of the gaming atmosphere these days. Back then, people would interact with each other more, and now, it is a dying art. I think Team Fortress 2 is the last bastion of this old gaming atmosphere, and not to say that it's better then Halo Infinite in any way, I'm just saying that it's one of the last places where you can find people chatting to each other and actively supports the community. Modern gamers are too focused on doing good at games these days, and don't just try to have fun. I think if we want that aspect of community back, we should start supporting the community more, and not focus on the official stuff as much. Sure, having a dedicated team to work on the game is great, but it's the dedicated fans that keep it going and create that community.
I do agree it's most of gaming where we don't encourage interacting with others. It's why I'd support games like Among Us or even COD where you can still heavily socialize and be encouraged to do so within the game's foundations. While it is slipping more and more away, Halo was the ultimate social experience on all ends. Split-screen, coop campaign, multiplayer lobbies/games, custom games, screenshots/file share. It's what I think made it the absolute bomb back in the day. Maybe I will make a future vid on the drifting social aspects in ALL of gaming.
In a gaming society where talking is dying TF2 and CSGO have stayed true to themselves
Tf2 is a much better game than Halo Infinite.
I played Halo infinite, whole campaign and you know what?
The amount of enjoyment i got from that is a puny grain of sand from hoe many times tf2 has made me laugh.
Battlebit?
@@umairashraf5167 baddle bin
Reach also still had a working Theater mode, fantastic gamemodes like Invasion, playable Elites, and Firefight.
bungie only using 10% of their true power lol meanwhile 343 using their 100% to create that shitspace engine that nobody on the team can use because those engine were made by intern that microsoft won't hire them
Did not have playable elites beyond customs, and elite multiplayer.
@@tamezzodiac2862 That was a good middle ground since people complained about their hit boxes in Halo 3
Reach was peak Halo for me :))
@@PackHunter117 People mostly complained because the neck was shoot through on elites in h3. That was the main reason. You can shoot their head and everything else but their neck, so it made it sometimes hard to hit head shots, especially when they jumped.
Bungie was the type of company that would've learned what didn't work with Reach. If only they remained in control.
Unfortunately, the Bungie that made Halo what it was died shortly after they left Microsoft so they could make Destiny. Most of the old guard are either gone or in managerial/bureaucratic roles where they don’t have any creative imput. Now it’s completely soulless. Just look at Destiny. The second game didn’t even get good until late into its life when there was a good chance of Bungie going under.
@@shreksnow1918 destiny 1 was the exact same thing though was it not?
Well, it’s my hot take is that Halo was started going downhill with 3 and by Reach the franchise was actually in decay.
Keep mind I am a campaign player, and I think the Halo story structure and narrative peaked in Halo 2. They were also gameplay problems in the later games most notably sandbox bloat and enemy encounter becoming increasingly formulaic. Basically, starting with halo three, the dev found itself in a rut that comfortably got the good reviews scores and made the sales, so they just kept riding it.
@@shreksnow1918quite the opposite, destiny 2 was good since the beginning all the way to forspoken which i believe was the 3rd expansion. After that it had a few mediocre expansions and by the time they dropped a good expansion most people had already moved on
Trust me you wouldn't want to see the timeline where Bungie sticks around and then ruins your favorite game after almost a decade due to laziness and greed..
A few times I've had DM's from enemy players laughing about a moment in Infinite. The rest of the time I feel like I'm playing with bots.
About a week ago when I last did Halo 3, some dude was playing music obnoxiously in mic, so I asked to play All Star. He started playing the song, and the zombies are all chilling around his warthog tbagging for the entire duration. We were all having fun.
I can't recall a single moment like that in Infinite out of thousands of hours. Game is lonely to play.
HALO was the first game played with friends and families and will always have a place on the shelf of must haves. Will never sell any of the originals!
Same, I own a complete physical collection (if you ignore the gaps for the Xbox one games), and I just have to dust off my 360 to play these right now if I wanted to.
@@JamesTDGDon’t worry only the Bungie games count
If you believe that we should be moved on entirely or stop voicing our comparisons, I respect your opinion as I hope you do with mine. What I miss the most from past Halo was the social connection and amount of fun you could have WITH people. Not just friends, but anyone. I miss all the mics plugged in, the supported features encouraging you to be social, and the very alive community. I want to be able to hop on Halo and share the moments with other people and be allowed to do that at the highest level. That's what I think made Halo stand out from the rest of the competition because it was one of the best at being social. On top of that, there was a certain charm that the older games brought and since this is still Halo, it's very much fair to nitpick.
But the social experience is so dry in Halo, and most games in my honest opinion. I compared Halo Reach and Infinite because I think they are almost on the same level. The biggest difference is the lack of that heavily encouraged and supported social environment. Maybe that isn't entirely modern Halo's fault and could be pushed onto a general gaming problem, but I think it's the main ingredient from making it an enjoyable, or at least tolerable experience, from those that believe they had it so much better back in the day.
Regardless, I hope the video was good enough to sit through and/or at least brought some good conversation down here.
as red vs blue says(ironically) All good things must come to an end.
"Do you ever wonder why we're here?"
Also...
"What I've learned is that... a great love is a lot like a good memory. When it's there, and you know it's there, but it's just out of your reach, it can be all that you think about. You can focus on it, and try to force it, but the more you do, the more you seem to push it away. But if you're patient, and you hold still, then maybe... Just maybe... It will come to you. [...] And I mean, hell, if you have to live the rest of your life in a memory... you might as well make it a good one."
I think cod fans need to move on that series is way more shit now than halo infinite rn
@@Caldoric Damn, I forgot how hard that second line hits.
What ever happened to this world.. what went wrong
Now it's just dust and echoes
We'll we better go back for him 😂
Can't leave our bro Dustin behind, gotta get him out of there before he goes mad from the echoes of his past
I will never forget playing halo for the 1st time, while halo 2 and 3 is so memorable due to its campaign and multi-player, my love for Halo CE is undying.
True! I play till these days the CE. Probably played the full story more than 20 times since 2006 (when first played).
Same here. I'm 29 and still remember the first time I played CE when I was 8. It's indescribable
I'm not giving up. I'm committing to plugging in my mic more. Chatting with folks. Because even one person feeling like they had a more traditional, social experience is enough for me.
I was 10 playing Halo 3. And stayed mostly quiet because of anxiety about being a squeaker. But hearing everyone in the lobby is what made the experience so unique. Winning wasn't everything. Fun was.
I’ve been doing this bro.
I’m talking to myself the whole damn game if I have to.
I know y’all hear me. I’m trying to keep halo alive. Say what’s up. 🫡
I wanted to grow up so bad so I wouldn’t be made fun of for being a squeaker
@@Drearyx Which is honestly sad, because now all I want to do is go back to those simpler times.
Great video! Especially 1:20, because it's my LAN party footage. #MakeHaloGreatAgain
Cool video man. The thing is, times just change. It was never going to last forever.
I remember getting Halo 2 on the original xbox live. Back then, only hardcore gamers would play consoles online. Not many people had it. I was a teenager and it absolutely blew me away and changed my life. And i remember they gave everyone a headset, so we could ALL talk and laugh and trash each other. Use team work and play together. It was ridiculous. By Halo 3, everything was more mainstream and they created the most incredible experience. All of the innovation with forge, custom games, theater. And everything worked the day or release, you didnt have to wait for updates or months for certain features. I logged on to Halo 3 in the first week and remember seeing over 1 million players smashing it out. I have the best memories of by buddies and I in customs.
Those times are done and dusted. If you played the new Halo games today without previous experience, they probably wouldnt be that bad. But compared to what it was back then, they are absolutely terrible. Its not even a comparison.
@betamale You changed lmao
Playing Halo campaign with a bro was the best feeling in the world, miss those good hold days
Splits screen didn't bother us back then only playing together
Epic moments and memorise ❤😢
It's the friends. That's really what we miss. We miss having fun with friends, either in co-op or online.
The secret Halo ingredient is friendship.
"Alright bro, Imma get off, see you tomorrow."
*Last online 14 years ago*
Ngl, this video made my heart hurt. How I long for those days again. Coming home from school and playing halo all night.
Looking back at it, all of the people I befriended, they moved on. Yet I alone remain, and I semi-regularly play through the campaigns again.
It's a weird place to be in, playing a social game with no social features.... it's a void. Its not just Halo though, every major online shooter has done the same.
It's sad, idk really what else to say. Every time I meet a younger person all I can think is how they missed out. They missed out on the best portion of online gaming, and I don't see it returning.
I'm the same way man
same here. Just finished several of the campains and am playing Infinite multiplayer now
I feel for you man, how I long to just sit on my 360 10pm at night hearing people squabble about the best truck pre game halo 3 lobby. Or play countless custom games on Reach, our characters of Spartans we’ve created as a persona of ourselves. Now just out there in the void, missing in action
Definitely. And it isn't even just gaming. Look at movies these days. Television. Music. Hell, even books and other art forms are not what they once were. But then again, these past years it feels like the whole world is in decline. It's no wonder that this is reflected in art. These past years certainly haven't been the worst in my life, but they weren't very fun or memorable either. Everything just feels so dull.
You use that energy to fuel you in times of need in life
Even though I've never gotten the chance to experience multiplayer back in it's golden days as a kid, Halo will always be special to me, splitscreen campaign with my dad in halo 2 was the best thing ever. I miss those days where I would come home from school and boot up gta or halo and play them with my dad so much.
This is a good video, but as a younger fan, I have still had lots of laughs over the mic on Halo and continue to even today. Infinite, Halo 3, Reach: I love these games and have had tons of fun with my friends on mic laughing about goofy physics or great plays. Heck, when I've done campaign co-op those experiences became core gaming memories for me. The old days are over, but there are still great new memories being made.
Appreciate the love. In response to you, a friend group can carry almost any game and make it fun. But I want to be able to meet people on this game. I want lobbies to be full of passionate experiences, not quiet ones. And I also want everything to be tailored to the coop experience from day one (social modes, forge/customs, split screen). Even with a friend group, it’d be much more fun and laid back if you had unique matches with the personalities of new people. That’s the social part I want back in this that the older games did have. Maybe that’s harder to create these days, but I don’t even see it really being encouraged
@@theWheezy that's true, and sometimes I've had social experiences with randoms, but that was in Apex and not Halo. Socializing through games is almost dead in the MCC and Infinite, and personally, it's just not fun to lose out on those experiences with other people.
Halo at the end of the day is meant to be a party game before anything else, I just wish the party wasn't over. If Infinite had more unique campaign missions, tighter map design in the dev made maps that encouraged all facets of the sandbox, all the content we came to expect from a Halo game was there at launch, and the community features were on par with 3 and Reach then it could have been a return to form. Instead there are rumors that they are defaulting to a Battle Royale mode, which is the safest and least innovative thing you can do for a video game these day.
Bungie used to innovate by seeing what fans liked and delivered more of it the next time around. 343 never tried to make a classic Halo game until the later stages of Infinite's development, and they basically released the game with their pants down. They don't have faith in Halo's legacy or it's features that were added in the Bungie games. When dual-wielding, playable elites, Forge, Theater, neutral player equipment, and file sharing were added they were big focuses of their respective games. Now you have to pray for just half of those features to be there and supported at launch.
I'll blame 343 as much as Microsoft because at the end of the day, Bungie had to deal with them too, the difference is they had to make Halo before is was proven Halo was a great game, while 343 has those 9 years of Bungie's legacy as hindsight. If modders can understand Bungie's design philosophies for free then 343 should be able to do so for money, Microsoft be damned.
Halo was definitely meant to be a story focused fps game first, multiplayer was an afterthought.
Hopefully with new people at the reigns, things will be better if they make another game. Ultimately, while 4 wasn't awful, it definitely didn't hold a candle to what the previous series had built up and 5 was just...a mess. Infinite is a step in the right direction, but it had such a rocky start and is still suffering because of that. The numbers have come back a bit, but Infinite will forever be remembered as the game that many lost hope.
But why I'm hopeful is because there was a real shake down of the leadership, the one constant that remained at the end of the day was always who was in charge since Bungie stepped away. Now that there has been a change of the guards, maybe things will be better. We've certainly already seen some really good progress being made by the new leadership at 343.
@agentmaryland1239 I'm playing 5 for the first time (have played all previous and not infinite) and I'm really enjoying it so far. Bear in mind I'm only on mission 2. But from what I've seen so far, I like that laskey, palmer, buck, etc. are back, and that the Arbiter is waging war against the covenant scraps.
They removed dual wield I'm not playing because of that.
over for you but not for me and my circle, sad to be you i guess
Great video! I do believe in some capacity, the halo mod community is creating a better space for og halo nerds like us. Not sure if you have seen any new mods recently. It’s worth to play, and obviously bigger groups on discord can make the game greater again with these mods. That’s where I believe Halo can return in some old form.
good video man i think you make an excellent point with modern gaming having no social aspects anymore i think it is gone if im to be honest its just not what games are played for in my eyes. i remember the days were it didnt matter score bored or what we were even doing as long as it was enjoyable
Absolutely amazing video, I'm so impressed by your pacing and your style. Can't wait to watch the rest of your content
I think the fact that Halo infinite has the voice chat set to off by default speaks volume.
Always nice seeing a video from ya.
I understand both sides of the argument. As a diehard halo fan I will continue playing the game until they stop making them. However, I wont pretend that the games don't suffer. I also see the argument of the rose-tinted glasses as old halo fans will never be content with the future games because how the gaming world works today. What I will say is that you should play what you enjoy/
Agreed. But I also don't want to be a sheep and just accept the way things are if you could possibly make a positive difference. It's good to discuss and get the juices flowing between everyone in a respectful manner. People will be vocal and emotional when going back and forth in heated discussions, but it's all about finding the common ground to make this a uniting and fun franchise like it once was for almost everyone.
Based
Dont "diehard" for a game made by devs that dont care about you. Dont be a consoomer. Thats the worst thing you can do
mostly the halo reach elites
I’m so glad this video came across my feed… it brought back so many heavy emotions from those days..the golden days. I remember when I first got Xbox Live the day it came out and playing Halo 2 for the first time Live.. and so on through my all time favorite Halo 3. So many good memories and FRIENDS! Never met them in person but always connected with them to play Halo! Great video! “I’m not crying…you’re crying!”
The real halo were the friends we made along the way❤
"Wanna play tomorrow"
(Last online 10 years)
There's a old interview with a bungie staff correcting a guy when he called halo a competive shooter he said halo can be competive but halo was designed to be a party shooter like the smash bros of shooters anyone can play and have fun
All your videos are amazing dude keep it up and take your time making them like you have been.
Halo (Specifically Reach) Was perhaps the first FPS I recall ever playing. Still holds a special place in my heart. It's tragic to see where the franchise is now.
My conclusions:
• Content creators, such as TheBoysUnknown, ActMan, ABD, you, etc...
They provide a fundamental life support for the community (although even they have lost hope - community interest in the face of the uncertainty of having 434i in charge of the franchise)
• The Cartographers who use Forge to prevent Infinite from continuing to fall into the red deserve all the support - respect of the community, and it is necessary that 434i continue to be pressured so that they can provide them with the tools they need, to continue working
• If the game enhances the flight it will be thanks to the community, if it fails then 343i would finish demonstrating its incompetence and in an irrefutable way - indirectly, all those who came to support them would be left as clowns
I will never understand this argument. I grew up with Halo 3 and Reach. I stayed on Halo 3 a ton because there was enjoyment to be had. There was no armor abilities, 0 bleed through, and RNG bloom in 3. Everything was on an even playing field not to mention 0 sbmm which allowed for a new gaming experience each match because you matched with everyone of a different skill level. It was peak gaming for me and nothing except maybe Titanfall 2 has come close to making me wanna feel the need to sit down and turn off my brain for hours playing a video game. I've completely lost that feeling because Halo has changed so much to where I cant stand the movement, the feel, and the matchmaking. Infinites a good game but it will never capture what prime Halo felt like simply because of the restrictive feel it has when it comes to social experience. Halo 3 had all the social experiences you could want in a halo game. A social progression, a community file share, favorites by the developers, and WORKING theater. All these allowed people to have a fun time with friends, make cool screenshots, and capture cool moments because everything was working and it was simple. Maybe I'm old but gaming back then didnt feel as competitive as it does now there was more social space then there was a competitive space and the community felt open because of that.
The closest I want for SBMM is to have teams be balanced, that's about it.
Reach didnt have shield bleed until after 343 took over. Then introduced TU game modes. (title update). Halo reach's combat was just fine where it was before 343 messed it up. Also there was RNG bloom, on NEARLY EVERY weapon in Halo 3, however it was non scaling. Ever got a carbine and fired at a jackals head and missed like 5 times for no reason? thats why. RNG Bloom, and if you want to demonize armor abilities, then drop abilities in Halo 3 should be on the no-no list too. Because it changed the formula from the classic Halo 2 and CE gameplay. Even if it was a little bit. I dont remember bubble shields and flares in CE or halo 2. which was kind of a big deal. Considering it shook up encounters. And as for SBMM, that wouldnt make any difference, because no, every match wasnt any different at all. you had four types of players, try hards, trolls, noobs, and average players. SBMM wiil not and has never changed that dynamic. infact I never noticed the difference in any games it has been in. Because it makes no difference.
H3 BR is garbage.
@@JamesTDGif you have any skill you'd end up completely dominating 90% of the population so the game matches you against teams of sweats while giving you useless teammates. Then your stuck in an endless cycle of treating every match like you're in a tournament just to stay competitive.
I agree but the new halo games are just dressing up a dead corpse in makeup and I think halo ended in 3 or reach like the game just needs to rest in peace man its so fkd seeing ur childhood be distorted like this u kno same with gears i fuvking love the story till three now its just a slap in the face
Great video! I loved it, especially the part about the social aspect of Halo.
I disliked Halo Reach but I was forgiving of it knowing it was Bungie’s last Halo game and they wanted to make something they could enjoy too.
As of writing this, last night, my friends and I jumped on Infinite. Firefight modes just came out a couple days ago. And that made me feel.. happy? It was a feeling of bonding I hadn't felt in a long time with Halo. Usually when we played, it was in online matches and it felt very dry. Plain. Like a cut and drive A to B victory or loss and move on to the next. But we just kept playing firefight. We laughed, we poked fun at each other. Even when we were mad at something, we still laughed at how outrageous a situation got. Then we hopped into Big Team Battle and played Follow The Leader. That spark 'happy' grew from just a spark, to a fire and I said out loud, "This is like the old days." My best friend was quiet for a moment and said, "Damn.. You're right."
And now this is recommended to me the morning after. And you know what? Halo is about community. It is about having friends and making them along the way while having fun. A part of me truly wonders if a lot of us just don't want to have fun anymore and play just to have better K/Ds, ranks, and to knock the new for what's missing from the old. Sure, there are things missing that I'd still argue need to be back. (Like giving back the plasma pistol's EMP charge), but Halo, and games in general, are only as fun and memorable as you make them.
A big thing that is missed is the simplicity of the 1st three games. Reach was the begining of the end. Stuff kept being added that wasnt asked for. After 3 the "feel" of halo kept changing. One thing my friends bring up is 343 kept trying to make halo feel more serious. Combat evolved feels almost zanny in comparison. I kind of wish they would just stop trying with halo and let it die.
Exactly, and part of that is because some people have such a weird obsession with changing everything even if it’s not wanted nor needed. And it’s not just 343, even mainstream journalists and gaming audiences demand change just for the sake of change even though it isn’t always a good thing which they forget.
Wow. This video and Crowbcat’s video both really capture the essence of why old Halo will never be left behind. Thank you!
Awesome video man, I randomly clicked my mentions and came to this. Yea the death of Halo breaks my heart. I used to live and breathe Halo2/3.
Amazing video dude. I Just subscribed. The level of this video is top tier quality awesomeness. About a important topic too, that a lot of people seem to have a hard time understanding. It's crazy how disconnected game devs have become nowadays even tho we have all these advancements.. we aren't utilizing them what so ever..
Just started playing halo ce on my dads old xbox with my little brother on splitscreen, i wasnt alive for the first 3 halo games even but i thought it'd be fun to play, and i can already tell that its making memories between me and my brother
I haven't finished this video yet, but me and my irls STILL play halo IRL with eachother (splitscreen and all), its the absolute best. We scream at eachother while playing ninjanuat on Halo 3, or getting no scope kills in Halo 4. I'm sad that I couldnt grow up with the older halo games (1 and 2, and I guess 3 because I was so young at the time). I've tried playing halo infinite recently, and while its fun, it feels like its missing something. Your video has really described how my older friends have felt about Halo as a franchise. One of my friends (whos is college now!!) would be always playing some sort of halo game on his xbox 360, still remember when me, my brother, him, and his younger brother would sit on the living room couch and play halo reach together.
(Just want to say that your content is amazing and really reminds me of playing these games back then man....)
Im struggling to understand how you only have 14k subs, great video man
My first Midnight Release was Halo 3. I was a sophomore in college with my friends . Waited 6 hour before midnight. Got my complicate 12:30 am. We immediately played the campaign all day. The moved to multiplayer afterwards. It was sooo good. So emotional and such a great experience. Glad I had it.
I’m not giving up on it, having a ton of fun on it right now. I do miss the social aspect though. However, with more social playlists popping up I do think this will improve soon.
Social is dying 🗿
It doesn't matter what new games come out, I still go back to Halo 2 and Halo 3. While most of my friends from back then no longer play the game. I've made new friends that I play with every weekend.
Man I love Halo 2. I'm not very good at the multiplayer (probably because I use mouse and keyboard) but I still absolutely love playing it
This video made me shed a tear. I miss all my old buddies I played with online when I was a wee lad. I remember getting into a lobby and making friends with random people and always having people to play with. Now every game just seems dead.
Man this video brought tears to my eyes. I lost my HALO buddy to cancer in July of 2020. Easily 1 of the toughest obstacles i have ever faced in my life. I watching him fade away helpless to stop it. The attachment is as much with the people as it is the game its self. Long live HALO.
perfectly captured bro. im sure alot of us OG halo fans agree with your points here. i genuinely wish we could go back to the halo 3 xbox live days but it wont come-- mostly the reason ive quit gaming for the most part. great video bro
I must say it is almost rejuvenating my love for halo seeing people like you make videos like these. Everyone, old or new fans need to see this video. "Halo fans need to move on" thats like saying "Star Wars fans need to move on" i mean how can 2 of the biggest franchises in American Culture flop so hard. Those of us who grew up with Halo and got to experience the journey as it unfolded before our eyes.. we have a right to be upset with any Halo post Reach. We are grieving. Halo is not what it was meant to be in its current state. Thank you for reminding us that we arent alone and reminding us what made Halo ... well Halo! I am subscribing 😊
When i was a teen i mostly just played custom games especially on reach. Ill never forget the Saturday night when me and my friends would stay up and play custom games together.
I think you kinda hit the nail on the head with how it was more about the people than the games. Looking back I think the reason I look so fondly on my time playing specially Halo 3 and Reach was because it was something I’d do at my buddies house, I’d go over there and we’d play split screen campaign. Or something I’d play with my brother, we’d make crazy forge worlds or play firefight for hours.
Amazing Video! I believe your right about how the social impact that has been lost to the online gaming world. Those are what made so many amazing memories in the halo games, with complete strangers. And it was made even more clear back in 2021, when I had a day off from work and decided to play some games, found a group of random people that wanted to get all of Halo Reach's multiplayer achievements, I spent over 10 hours playing and laugh with these people as we played. They helped make one last great Halo Reach (360) memory that day. We laughed, we joked, we talked about the old days of Halo 3 and Reach, Just an all around good time. I hope Halo will bring back more of the social areas, as I feel like that will help bring back up, and not just Halo, many games would be better in my opinion.
Man those halo 2 clips brought back so many memories of youtube searching. I joined back in 2006, same with se7ensins but I was searching way before then. I do wish you had some montages in here like shook on3 and walshy and others. I'll be honest, halo 5 did it bad for me. I only got to level 148, and onyx level. I didn't enjoy it. I played halo 2 until it's shutdown and my friend and I did the leave the Xbox on, and stayed on lockout until we had a power surge about 2 days after 😢
Wow, this video was incredible. I was there for it all. So glad i was around for the ride, its something i will never forget. As much as i want to experience this all again…i think most know everything has changed and that this is most likely just a pipe dream. But if i’m wrong and it ever did come back, i think we would all return.
I got teary eyed. You hit it spot on.
i wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart for this and i want to most of all thank god for bringing me into this world so that i could grow up with halo i was born in 2000 aug 17 i remeber an i will never forgot the moments and long lost freinds thank god for the time we had thank god that we got blessed no one will ever understand what it truly ment to "finish the fight" im so glad i was a kid im so glad my dad gave me an og xbox im so glad i was alive to recall this and praise be to god for bringing us all together spartans it was honor.
Halo died when bungie left and 343 industries took over.
Damn. Never expected a tear in my eye at 11:35 it reminds me of when Halo 3 was coming to PC and I was a lucky person to be picked for the early flight launch. It felt like 2007, we were laughing we were having a good time and we were all going hype and chanting HALO 3, HALO 3. I still sport the Halo 3 Insider Flight nameplate since it gave me the nostalgia we experienced in '07 during that 2 days. We weren't angry, we were having fun and having a laugh seeing the quirky games of Halo 3 go by.
I missed file share, the screenshots, the random forge maps in matchmaking, the theater films and pictures featured for the week, the messages the forge maps, the weird modded maps, the absolute absurdity of it all.
And everyone loved it.
Ive unironically been banned from halo servers on discord just for pointing out illogics in 343s retcons. Which in my highest opinion, are some of the dumbest, idiotic retcons ive ever seen.
And ill die on that hill.
This is a good video. Your comparison of Reach to Infinite was spot on. Bungie def made questionable and even downright bad decisions with Reach, but it's still looked upon fondly by fans and I think you are right in thinking that the social systems Bungie propped up in that game helped it's case. It's hard to say the same for Infinite when you can't even ask the other people you are playing with "what map should we vote for?"
Coming from someone who has moved on, completely... it still hurts. Halo infinite was the last straw for me i beat the campaign on legendary a few days after release played multiplayer for about a week then just gave up. I've never been more betrayed and hurt by how Halo has been handled as a franchise. If i ever get my hands on Frank O Connor for what he did to halo i will strangle him, i hold him personally responsible for the downfall of Halo and i have a seething hatred for him. I can't even bring myself to play MC collection despite it being in such a good state now, like you said the community isn't there anymore, Halo is less social than its ever been and so is gaming as a whole.
I hate to bring Fortnite into this but a couple days back i decided to play a squads fill match and matched with 2 dudes who were unbelievably chill and ended up playing and talking with them for about 4 hours and it was the most fun I'd had in probably years. For years I've been completely adverse to just talking or socializing in games out of fear, and the fact that no one else does it probably also out of fear. You can't socialize in games anymore cause of developers gatekeeping voice chat and banning you for saying the least harmful things one can think of. It wasn't like that during the golden days of Halo and i understand why people haven't moved on but i couldn't do it anymore 343 has hurt me too many times and it doesn't help that i have friends who will criticize me for loving the bungie era of halo too much and one friend in particular that thinks Halo 4 is the best game ever made with a flawless art design and campaign. I want to beat his head in sometimes.
So coming from someone who has moved on and can't bring himself to even play any Halo game in recent years. Don't give up. Halo is something extremely special that was torn from us due to incompetence and greed and at the very least the MC collection is trying to keep that alive for how little it matters to me at least i know it matters to a lot of you. I spent most of my early years doing nothing but playing Halo and i miss it so. Fucking. Much. But i don't think we'll ever get to experience that glory again. Go on without me everyone keep old halo alive until there's literally no servers left just like the 14 who kept Halo 2 alive at the very end of its life. Finish the fight.
How can I? This series has been a part of my entire life and I would be happy if they pulled it off again just one more time.
Honestly with season 5 there is hope we may never reach the social height like back in the day but damn if we won’t have a hell of a fun time.
Yes yes Chapter 2
I remember having 9 people on my house to play halo 2 multiplayer split screen shit was fun asf back on 2009
Halo was the soul of the xbox community. The moment Halo went to 343, it felt like that soul began to wither and die
Watching this video made me feel old.
It made me remember the days where videogames just had a shoot to make things right. No patches, no DLCs, no updates, nothing. You either released a good game, or you failed in the industry.
It made me remember when me and my friends would gather our lunch money just to go to the nearest Cyber to play Halo 2, and I tell you, I was awful at it, but we always had a blast.
It made remember... Halo.
As someone with no friends all of that sad hypothetical at the end is exactly what my whole experience has been with every game.
I totally agree with what you said in this video, communities are the core reason why games have such an impact on the player base
We all played Halo 3/Reach custom games till 4 in the morning for the last time and we didn't even know it...what can we say? It was one hell of night.
I will be a fan of halo till I die. It's just too important to me. The amount of memories I have Of playing halo 3 with my brother Is crazy
i keep playing and hang on to halo because its what my dad raised me on and me and my dad would have fun playing it.
This is my community right here! Halo.. 2001-2011
Any of the new fans after 2011... i want nothing to do with them!
Amazing work on this video. You voiced my inner thoughts more eloquently than I've ever managed. Been with Halo since the beginning at 6 years old. It's the same with every giant FPS franchise. COD and Battlefield have suffered similar fates. We'll never recapture the memories and experiences of COD4/WAW/MW2, BFBC2/BF3/BF4, and Halo CE-Reach. In many ways it overlaps the glory days of online console gaming. That kind of lasting community in gaming is basically dead. I like Infinite, but the open world campaign feels like a grind to get to the parts I enjoyed and multiplayer doesn't have the community infrastructure to fill the social void that makes gaming fun for me. I really only play Insurgency Sandstorm and similar tactical games nowadays because they demand social interaction and communication to succeed. With communication comes the kind of memorable moments we still have from Halo's glory days.
I wish i could have witnessed the beginning of halo, i started with halo 2 being alone, no one to play with, but i managed to have fun, i never understood the campaign due to me being blind, i didn't even see the guns correctly, but i could see the silhouette of the chief, the elites, it was fun, and im gonna keep having fun playing these games
The real halo was the friends we made along the way
Yes there’s been a change of culture. Back then, playing multiplayer online was new to many people.
Like there’s used to be games that would force you out of party chat and into game chat. That’d never be allowed today. People would just hop on discord on their phones before they accepted that.
So yeah there’s been a cultural shift of how people utilize online gaming. I think just like how people are socially isolated in real life, the behavior now extends to even Xbox live. These people can’t make friends at a party, and they also can’t make friends in an Xbox lobby. Just chatting up random people is not a strong skill set within many people anymore.
But also, the games and publishers are also responsible. Because outside of the cultural shift, there’s also been a design shift. Like Sony records in game chat so they can ban you. Games don’t do consistent lobbies anymore. Some games don’t even allow you access other players profiles from any in game menu. Like in halo 3, you could pull up the leader board and then click on a profile and their Xbox account would show. That’s not the case anymore. I’m the Xbox 360, you could’ve set social parameters for your account. And one of them was literally trash talker. And the Xbox live servers would try to match you with other users who also labeled themselves “trash talker”. So that’s literally Xbox encouraging flame wars, arguing and trash talking on their platform. You simply would just never see anything like that today. Today we’re like 2 years removed from living a world where Microsoft and Sony ban you based off of what you say in a private party.
Social spaces online have bricks sterile and atomized in an attempt to remove toxicity. And it turns out you can’t just have the good without the bad. The space where you run into friends can also be the same space where you run into jerks, that’s honestly just life. We can’t even choose our exorcised anymore. Sometimes I lie trash talking and getting trashed talk at. But I guess that isn’t up for me to decide
One of the many things I can agree on, is the interaction with others in game chat in the community. Back then, most people were interacting with others in game chat. But now, most people are either in xbox party chat or using some other chatting apps to communicate with people they already know like friends and family. Thus leaving the in game gaming chat experience, empty, dull and lifeless.
But everyone once in a while I'll hear someone in gaming chat talking. Bringing back that small form of enjoyment in me to hear that interaction with others in a game that makes or breaks on how well we did on enjoying ourselves with the match we had.
But one crucial problem with it, is once the match ends, you're no longer with that group of people anymore. No way to simply push a button on wishing to stay with that group of people you had fun with and to go into another match together as allies or on the enemy team and fight each other and just have a good old time together and keep the fun going.
That sense of interaction, is gone.
Imagine only having 14k subs and Marty comments on your vid. Bro you must feel like a champ. Much success and love to you my man.
I remember when Halo 2 was first announced. I was 7 but my first thought was there's no way this is gonna live up to the first game. Halo 2 was the first time I ever experienced a sequel being anything but a money hungry, cash grab. This series gave me hope for so long, but now its all so distant. Hope feels like a dream fading away. Is this what the world is now. Is there no room for integrity, honesty or excellence. These are dark years my brother's.
Why hang on? Because Bungie made the best damn game known to man kind, they earned to be called story tellers. Per Audacia Ad Astra.
I got kinda teary. I think it's the laughter I miss the most. I've been lucky enough to play Halo 3 with some friends in person on some Xbox 360s in the last few years and the laughter is still there. Halo 3 is a special game and I don't think those memories will ever fade, but I also don't see the future of gaming catching that spark again. The term 'nostalgia' derives from the Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain). The literal meaning of nostalgia, then, is the suffering evoked by the desire to return to one's place of origin.
Seeing halo the way it is today is like seeing an old close friend for the first time in years to find out they are strung out on drugs and is a shell of their former self. We stick around because we want to help this friend get better but they just won't help themselves...
Does anyone know what the map/mode is of that Reach map with the falling warthogs? I gotta play this
The Best Thing About Halo Was The Campaign And Forge.
All The Great Memories I Have With Halo Were Made Just With The Campaign And Split-Screen.
And When I Eventually Got Live I Spent, Hours And Hours On Forge Trying To Make Stuff , It Wasn't Good But It Was Still Stuff I Enjoyed With Friends.
And While The Campaign Is Still Not There Yet, Forge Is Better Than Ever And That Brings Joy To My Heart.
Great video. I miss the days of gaming before widespread social media platforms. The games WERE the platforms.
I missed out on the "Golden Age" of Halo, simply because I didn't have Xbox Live, but that doesn't change that I grew up with Halo. Halo 2 was the first game I can remember ever playing with my dad, and I remember constantly replaying that campaign in particular with my brother growing up, or even just solo after school. I'd always start it over, even if I didn't finish it the day before. My brother & I would also play custom games together, and mostly explored the maps to see what we could find.
My mother, brother & I bought dad an Xbox 360 along with Halo 3 for his birthday one year, but he didn't have time to play it much so it was really only used by my brother & I. We did the same thing, played the campaign multiple times a week, and spent hours on custom games, and forge. Same with Reach, and 4. No internet, no online play, just splitscreen fun.
It wasn't until Halo 5 that I dipped my feet into the online scene. After the more-than-dissapointing campaign (at least, in my eyes), I wanted to see what was up with the online. And genuinely, it was some of the most fun I'd had in a long time up to that point. I stll consider Halo a story-driven game first, but I was addicted to the multiplayer of H5. I met great people, some of whom I still talk to. I got good at the social games, but most of my fun came from the custom browser. I played that game from its release all the way until Infinite's.
I heard a quote recently that I think fits. "You will always love something the most when you fall in love with it." This quote was in reference to a UA-cam channel, but can definitely be applied here. Halo 2 was my first experience with the campaign, and playing it as a kid with my dad & brother growing up will always be some of my most fond memories. Halo 5 was my first experience with the online-multiplayer, and I genuinely loved every second of it.
Halo isn't just a game, it's an experience. Something that you can come to love at any point, and I think that's something people don't understand. I love Bungie's campaigns, and think they're the best in the franchise not just because they house the best stories told in the Halo universe (they do), but also because I made fond memories with my family on them. Halo 5 is my favorite multiplayer experience not only because it's one of the few (not counting MCC) multiplayer experiences I have with Halo, but because I made fond memories with my friends on it. It's not about the story, or the gameplay mecahnics, or the graphics or sound design. Those are all fine and good, but they will ultimately fail if they don't make a good experience. That's why I turned away from Halo Infinite, because with the lack of split screen (preventing me from playing with my brother/family) and the lack of what I call "social settings" (functioning game chat, pre/post-game lobbies, etc), Halo didn't feel like an "experience" to me, and only felt like "a game." I don't fault my friends for liking it, but it's just not my thing. It doesn't feel like Halo to me.
Damn, this comment went on longer than I wanted it to. Thanks for reading my (likely incoherent) rant, whoever you are, and have a nice evening.
No. I’m never gonna move on
I'm an OG halo player and have been playing Halo since the day CE came out. It is the franchise that got me into gaming with the help of my dad. I remember playing 4 player splitscreen with relatives, some of which have passed, and I will forever cherish those memories. But I have accepted and learned to let them be memories. I have also accepted the direction Halo has gone. This is a franchise i will stick by until the day I die no matter what. I've gone and created new memories with the 343 titles and with the addition of AI in forge in Infinite, I've been able to have some great times with friends and family. I think 343 is starting to do the community right with the new things they are constantly adding to Infinite. It feels like they are actually listening to us for once and I am extremely grateful for that. We can't cling on to the past, it's only going to make us miss out on the amazing memories we can create now and years down the line we will regret it if we do. Adapt to the ever-changing gaming world and try to make the best of what we have now. We never know when it will all end.
Peace ♥️
this is why i think BF1 did so well, it was more of a passion project rather than a corporate mess.
Damn... Hearing these old voices wondering where all of the fellow OGs are in life today. If I could give them all a hug especially my old friends who I haven't heard from in who knows how long now, those who I had the opportunity to play along side back in the day, then hell yeah I'll give all the googly bears a damn hug then! RIP to the good ole days. Such simpler times.
P.S. Seeing all these old game modes and maps i use to play really hit me hard. I gotta go cry in the corner now.
I already did, Infinite was a mess in how long all the features took to come along and just the overall production/development cycle. The live-action TV series on Paramount was the nail in coffin for me really.
Unless the magic dreamteam o.g. devs who worked on Halos 1-Reach ALL return and bring *Halo* back home for us, this beloved franchise is done.
But that's NEVER going to happen is it, we all know those individuals have gone for good, they have all moved on from "Halo" now so should we.
I grew up with halo I even still play it today it my memory it's my family it's ny childhood seeing what there doing to halo is sickening but I havw to stick through it it got me through my life and I must do the same for it
The moment Anita Sarkeesian stepped into power was the moment social in gaming had a bullet put through it's head.
I was late to playing Halo and ended up with Infinite being the first game I launched. However, Halo 3 was looking to be my favorite when I saw the clips of the game. And now Halo 3 is surely my favorite. I first saw a Halo related item when I was playing Minecraft legacy and the Halo Mash-Up pack came with it. I liked to pick Master Chief as my character in that game and that was when I go into Halo, 6 or 5 years ago.
They just look like they’re in two totally different worlds. Two totally different games with two totally different fanbases.”
Just like Fallout. SMH
And speaking of? There’s one thing about the campaigns I feel you should have mentioned. The flow and storytelling. The original trilogy did it rather well. Whereas 343 feels like a series of stories with the barest connections there, the finer details instead of being brought up ingame are instead explained away in outside material like comics and novels. Something many people likely aren’t gonna see.
Wonderful video. You basically hit the nail on the head. A large part of early halo's success is the fact that it was the perfect game for that time in the gaming landscape. Online gaming spiked in popularity with the launch of the 360. Pair that with the already huge halo fan base for the previous 2 titles and the fact that the 360 came with a mic in the box and you have all the ingredients for a perfect storm. I think simply put halo was the perfect game for the perfect time period but that time period has past and its left the games and their fans yearning for that perfect storm again.
I got introduced to the franchise by my older brother with ODST. I am 23 and he is 30, I only got to see him a couple of times as a kid... hes my half brother.
Anyways, I loved playing this game with him: and he introduced me to the entire franchise, and I came back to it with the MCC in 2020. I wish I could share those memories with my fellow gamers.
I host a community with 40 or so players that does something akin to online reenactment. My first introduction to custom games was through MCC, 12 of us winding down after doing an event. Man, that was fun. Only now in infinite with one or two buddies on"firefight" do I get the same feeling.