Halo and Me- a Reflection

I believed I had talked about this many times before, but I can't emphasize how big has Halo been in my life. After watching this ViDoc... Wow. Just wow.

Bungie is awesome. This 1 hour long homage to fans has production quality beating 90% of all documentaries. It details the history of Bungie and Halo. If you remotely like Halo, watch it. Its going to be worth your time.

For me, it sparked a strand in my heart I rarely remember. But when I do, I could only reflect on the impact that this game had on my life. Its shocking, how what little social life I had centered around this inanimate object.

But let me start from the start.

So, I don't really know when I actually found this little gem of a game. All I know is long long ago, I found this game called "Halo Trial". I was somewhere around the age of P1-P4, and since I was at that time spending all my free time on free internet games (often trials of full games, since my parents thought  games then cost too much).

More on that later. I loved it but eventually I forgotten about that, and moved on to whatever MMO was popular at that time (Before Maple was even popular) and played it with my friends. Runescape, bitch.

Skip ahead a few years. My dear friend LYX reminded me of that game, and I instantly remembered it. I don't really remember the name, just how awesome it was. So I redownloaded it. And wow.

Inside the trial was a single level level, The Silent Cartographer. I don't remember playing it the first time, but subsequently I loved the beach assault sequence. I would play that over and over and over again, and even today after playing so many other games I still think that is easily one of the best executed gameplay moments ever.

Thing about that level- the 2nd part of it always got me since I can't drive a warthog up that hill. I was very young so forgive me for saying that that sequence scared the crap out of me. I still have a fear of it despite able to easily clear it now. Especially the camouflage elites when you exit the Cartographer. Gives me the chills whenever I replay that.

But than I found Multiplayer. Online 18 player team heavy flag/ Oddball on Blood motherfucking Gulch. Holy crap that was fun. Banshees raining death from above, while I mastered the art of tank on tank combat. In Oddball driving multiple warthogs onto the small hill in the back Red base and set up a fort of rocket and regular hogs. Holy crap it was fun. Never mind no one else plays it, its good enough by itself. That 1 map was good enough for me. I played it almost every afternoon for hours. When I had chicken poxs, I was playing it. It was the bomb.

Eventually, it faded away from my attention once again. New MMOs are constantly getting our attention (Some less commons ones I played with friends are Space Cowboy and Rakion.), including Maple.

But than I was paired in the same class with my old friend Darric (Red Swastika School, 5/7 '06). And I was introduced to Halo 2. At that time, I don't even know Halo Trial was Halo. I thought it was just a awesome Sci-Fi FPS. It took Wikipedia to find that link between the 2 games. And when I found out...

Holy shit. So fun. SSSOOO FFFUUNNN. I remember going to his house during P5/6 nearly daily to play Halo 2 (We both lived practically next to each other and our school is 10min walk away). Lockout and Midship man... 4 player split screen. I was hooked. Holy fuck that was fun. (I probably shouldn't swear, I barely learnt that word yet then). Endless hours of fun. ENDLESS.

Keep in mind what we did play it on a 360 he does not have LIVE, so we don't know the wonders of online yet. But who cares. Its awesome by itself either way.

I literally wasted my so many hours of my life playing that game...

After Halo 3 launched, I got to taste abit of it, but...

...PSLE happened. I won't get into the details, but I remembered riding in my mom's car as we went to pick up that Xbox I always wanted on the exact last day of PSLE at courts megastore. My mom even went everywhere to find that Halo 3 Limited Edition I wanted (Thank you so much <3). She got cheated $30 for that at Sim Lim Square (TT). But either way, I got it.

And the next few months were the best I every had up to that point of my life. Halo 3 EVERYDAY for 5 hours, going to either me or Darric's place. (As I remembered the team was LYX, Darric, me and Aden with occasional guests (correct me if I was wrong)). We played it to hell and back. To the very last day of school, and even into the early holidays. Nirvana.

I eventually plugged my Xbox into Xbox Live. I was the only one. HHHOOOOOOLLLYYY SSSHHHIIITTT. Big team matchmaking with 4 friends. Thats the life. Ultra Nivana, if its a word. And furthermore, I have people to play with when alone. Win-win-win-win!

Then, it stopped. Just stopped. I don't know why, maybe its because we are drifting apart due to lack of school or whatnot, or maybe it was because Darric moved, but it eventually stopped and never really fit again. I still dream for that day I can experience that type of fun with the guys again. Call me guys :) Lets do something wild after the 'O's.

Halo slowly slipped away once again without friends to anchor it down. I was introduced to COD4:MW by Chee Hao. And fuck, thats my new craze.

Eventually, after some bitter argument and SNAFU, I was sent into Maris Stella High School, leaving LYX in Hai Sing Catholic (Sorry dude, I still never wanted it to be this way...), which basically means my ties to old friends was severed. And what's worse is that my parents appealed especially late, and I was sent into a class with no old schoolmates, even.

For someone like me with near zero social skills, I was scared as hell. It took me awhile, but I eventually drifted towards the right crowd. Than I met Joshua and Tristan, which I have to say, is the first other physical persons I met with subscriptions to XBL. I was douchey at first with my elitism of Halo knowledge, but he certainly showed me who boss not too long after. And there I was once again. New Halo buddies, tearing shit up online every fucking day (or weekend, I don't remember). Except this time, via XBL. Not as good as LAN (maybe because of school work), but still unique and awesome in its own way.

And the first trend of illegal gaming in the school? Halo Trial. What a coincidence. Except this time we learnt how to mod it.

We played for 2 years. Custom games all the way. 16 player game was surprisingly different than 4 player, as you expected. However, I did introduce to them Call of Duty 4, which they than found a port for the Mac and commence massive craze in school!

(Insert Halo 3:ODST somewhere here)

MW2 killed our Halo group. At the same time, we changed classes to Sec 3. Gaming was at a backseat now. We just couldn't meet up and LAN in school any longer. I eventually moved on to Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which they did not catch on. Halo was no more. We do play once in a while, but other than that, nothing.

And with no one really to play XBL with and than chat about it in school, the social aspect of multiplayer gaming slipped out slowly. Last year, Halo: Reach did bring the magic back a little, but we were too fractured to truly enjoy it to the max.

And I find myself losing interest in Halo. Reach was fun, but it was stagnant. It simply couldn't stand up in depth to newer games, and I find myself running short of time to game anyway. I eventually got a PC, and moved mainly to PC gaming, particularly RTS. I haven't touch my Xbox for a long time. When I do, I hope everyone will have XBL, with the 'O's over. Everyone, not only 1 group. My dream is to get back the times after PSLE. I hope that will happen. I can only hope.

My social life has been Halo. Nothing but Halo. It has been the core and I will forever cherish it as such. I might be repeating this, but I am shocked at how this game can allow socially awkward forever alone me to attain great friends.

This ViDoc really touched me.... I really hope this trend can continue. Guys?

/End 1 hour 30 min post