As you may already know I am a big Halo fan. I love the series in every single way you can possibly imagine: the story, art style, game play, soundtrack; well as I said: everything. I consider the series to be the most important shooter ever created (skipping Doom/Wolfestein obviously). But as I circled the internet forums more and more I saw lots of people saying Halo was overrated or that Half Life was so much better than Halo, etc. I got instantly mad, not for the arguments that Half Life was better, because that is mere subjective reasoning, but against the people that said Halo was overrated.

My question is: was there really a good shooter for a console before Halo? I really don't think so. Shooters in consoles were plagued with weapon scrolling, which had me switching over 20+ weapons to get the one I wanted. In this Halo succeeded immensely, because it was the first shooter to introduce primary/secondary weapon system, this not only added tons of strategy into the game, but also a perfect way to end that nonsense weapon scrolling, which works amazingly well on PCs, but not in consoles.

Another thing Halo Combat Evolved did wonderfully for console shooters is to actually create a perfect aiming system for joysticks. Up to this point I had to press a bottom to aim the weapon, or sometimes the aiming was stupidly imprecise. Yes, Halo uses lots of Auto Aim, but it leaves enough room for skill. And if you are the type of guy that talks sh17 like: "oh n03s! Hal0 n33dz n0 sk1llz" then man I invite you to play against me, I'll kick you ass of I promise.

Hell, for the first time ever in shooters using melee was actually useful and fun. I remember having to actually switch to "fist" in Doom/Golden Eye to safe bullets, and it was practically useless as a weapon. Halo on the other hand had a melee system that was useful for a change, was fun, and actually implemented another layer of strategy to the game.

In my experience in gaming, which I have lots (check my XBL gamer score/GS collection for reference), I have never seen a good vehicle system that is not from Halo.Half Life 2 vehicle chapters just suck, for either PC/Xbox/Xbox 360. If I had to rate from 1 to 10 it I would put it a 2, and that is the second best vehicle system across all games. Using a warthog, a ghost, a banshee, everything, is just so rewarding: making splatters, taking your buddy with his flag back to base, supporting infantry with some air strikes, just amazing and fun.

Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3 campaigns are all superb. The storyline for the games is so good, with the books I think it's the best stories ever made for a video game (skipping adventure games like Grim Fandango/Longest Journey). Yes, Half Life for me is a straight second, and Metal Gear Solid a Third. Storyline is not the only thingthat makes a goodsingle player campaign, we also have to consider level design. This is where Halo CE and Halo 3 (not Halo 2) really succeed. Every mission is perfectly balanced, it's never too hard, or cheap hard, and it's never too easy. There are never too many enemies that could overwhelm you, and not so few to bore you, it's perfect. Rushing the beaches of Silent Cartographer, exploring the cold in Assault on the Control Room, taking a de tour in Sierra 117, landing into the epic Ark, all is just impressive and mind juggling. Going with my Scorpion Tank blowing every piece of **** that comes across my way, having my marines yelling: "Tanks beats ghost; tank beats hunter; tank beats everything!" Is so rewarding and epic. And this is exactly what drives Halo: coolness. For Bungie is all about making the game cool, period.

Many people still argue that Bungie never really introduced new game play to Halo 2 and Halo 3... Well, why mess with something that is already perfect? This is why Bungie went to other direction is the sequels of the first game, because you can'treally improve what is already perfect, therefore Bungie added superb online to Halo 2, new enemies, new cinematic styles, a few game play reparations, and Halo 2 was still a very impressive game. Same with Halo 3, but Bungie did so much better with the last installment: FORGE, Saved Films, 4 player Co Op, super balance to every weapon in the game, equipment, armor permutations, double rank (skill/EXP), crazy ass roller coaster single player, meta game, better skull system, infinite multiplayer options, best AI in the market, tons of new weapons and vehicles, awesome graphics (just look at Sierra 117 for Christ sake), best soundtrack and sound mechanics ever build in a video game, and finally: best ending ever.

I'd like to mention something about that last point, and others I've talked about in this blog post. Just because the story isn't complex it means the story sucks, actually, Halo 3 script is very well written, and it's filled with joy, full joy. Bungie went in this direction with Halo after Halo 1: if you like to be complex, then go read the books, if you don't just play the game and learn the upper layer of the whole thing. To be totally honest with you I believe Halo's books are just too deep and interesting, every detail carried out nicely in the reading, and connecting these details with in game sequences is one of the best experiences I have come across in video games, ever.

To finish I'd like to say I AM missing TONS of good things about Halo, this are just so few, but this blog is to remind idiots that Halo is Halo, it's the same quality of game as Half Life or Call of Duty 4 if not much better. Yes, it's all subjective, but the reason it may seem that everyone hates Halo, is because tons of people that love it and would defend the game till death are playing the game right now, unlike you with your games, cockbites.

Ok guys I just wanted to let you know that I upgraded my account from a normal membership to full access greatness. I am pretty happy with it everyone should go for it, it's just like 5 bucks and you get lots of advantages. First, no propaganda, no ads, no nothing! Second, HD Vids, yeah ok you might say: "XFan I can download those at gametrailers.com for free!" Yeah but here you get one heck of a bandwidth! It Game Trailers my bandwidth is about 45kbps, in Game Spot it is around 65kbps! That's one third quicker than that of Game Trailers. Third is that I can put a different color on my nick while in the forums!!! Best feature ever! Mine is green! All I say to you guys is that this site is great, it offers a blog, a community forum, unions, top notch reviews, a great game database, and I support all those services with my 5 bucks a month.

Now let's talk about Halo. I have been a Halo fan since its debut on November 2001. I have all the buyable media on Halo. I have all the four books, the graphics novel (which is a blast!), the Art of Halo, the soundtracks, Halo: CE, Halo 2 (normal edition), Halo 2 (Collector Edition (Yeah I am THAT hardcore)), Halo cloth, Posters, Halo toys and with the upcoming Halo 3 I am not let my guard down.

One of the biggest Halo "thingies" that will come out this year (in October to be precise) is Halo: Contact Harvest, written by Joseph Staten, the very creator of Halo's Story Ark. Another piece of media is Halo: the Uprising. Done by Marvel Comics after the HUGE success of the Halo Graphics Novel, Halo: the Uprising is a four comic mini series that tells the fight Master Chief had to endure in the forerunner ship during his voyage to earth (between Halo 2 and Halo 3). Halo 3 soundtrack is a must also.

But one of the things I WILL buy is the Xbox 360 Halo Edition. Dude it has a very cool Halo design, Play and Charge Kit, HDMI and Halo gamer picks/themes. So, I am selling my current 360 (one that has never faced 3 red lights for some reason) and buying this new, kick-ass, edition. I already have a 22 Inch LCD-TFT HD Display, but my surround sound while good it's not THAT good, so I am buying a new one with digital input so can get the most out of my hardware. Also, this time around I am not buying all of the Halo 3 Editions as I did with Halo 2, because there are 3, and really don't have much money to spend, even if I love the series. But I am buying the best of all 3 = Halo 3 Legendary Edition. Yes, many are pessimistic about this package but in my opinions it's worth it. I mean it comes with a MLJONIR Mark VI Helmet, two DVDs, an art book with Halo storyboards and more! So I am getting it no matter what comes in my way.

Another SH17 that has gone wild in the internet is the heavy criticism to Halo 3s graphics. Just for you guys to know the trailer had a lot of Alpha footage, yes it did contain final footage to but I spotted many scenes with two grenades in HUD (the third grenade was added 8 months ago, thoughts?). What everyone should do is read all the previews that magazines had posted all over the internet. Also you guys should check out the new picks Bungie released, I am adding my favorite down below.

Now if you don't like those graphics there's little I can do. Halo has always been a lead on graphics. Remember Halo 2? Those were the best graphics on any console (not PC) of the time. Halo 3 shall do the same, as you can see from those picks the game is shaping up amazingly. Bungie has 11 weeks to polish the game, and even if there is going to be no huge leap on the graphics from now on, the picks Bungie gave to the public look amazing in every respect, I'd recommend everyone to check the new picks out, they go beyond everything I have seen on any console, and even if Crysis is still better (like half life 2 against Halo 2 on 2004), Halo 3 is close. I know they have different art goals, for Halo combines fantasy with reality, and Crysis is pure reality. Still Halo 3 stands up (doesn't win but still) against Crysis and even wins against any other video game in the graphics department. But what's perfect about Halo is the Epic feeling, the drama, the "humanity against the Wall", as Joseph Staten said. Halo is about human's struggle to survive in a war years ahead of them. I hope the best for Halo 3.

About Peter Moore leaving Microsoft all I wanted to say I heard the pod cast and he is leaving because he is putting his family over everything and wants to go back to his roots. I will miss the guy, he was one of the most human of the rich people, he cared about us, the community, and that I will never forget! Thanks Peter for everything, and have a happy life!

I have to say, I live in Ecuador, and not much money is made here, so i don't hav any fancy stuff, but I did my best with the low budget i had. So, I was wondering around the net searching for a great TV but with great Def also. Many said that a computer monitor was the way to go, and I agreed, as computer monitors can do Hi Def, and are cheap. So I had quite a few options. They were:
Dell 21' Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor ($400)
Gateway 22' Inch Widescree LCD Monitor ($400)
Viewsonic 22' Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor ($360)

It's kind of funny, by looking at these you could say: "Get the viewsonic, it's the chepeast and has the same amount of inches..." But reality is that the Gateway monitor not only had VGA and DVI inputs (as the other two), but component, composite, S-Video, VGA, and DVI... A better contrast ratio, a higher resolution, the best refresh rate in the market, Picture-In-Picture, and 4 USB ports to connect cameras and stuf. DEAL OF THE YEAR!

So I decided quick, bought it, and arrived to my home in around 3 weeks (remember, Ecuador...)

Next, I decided what Xbox 360 accesories to buy. So I grabbed an Xbox Live Vision Kit in Amazon.com, a Memory Unit (to play at my friends house), and extra Hard Drive, VGA Cables (1080p all the way!) and a Logitech 5.1 Spekers. I did not grab the HD DVD because i want the format war to settle down first. $200 is too expensive, and I might have to throw it away anyways.

I picked a couple of posters (Halo 2 and GoW), few more games, few more movies, the whole That 70's Show  series, and I had my gaming room done!

This is my little gaming/working space. You can see my HD Display, the accesories told you about, my PC, the speakers, and my cool 1 ltr Halo Legendary glass.

Here is the same pic, but instead of showing the xbox 360 dashboard its showing my computers desktop, easily done with a KVM switch.

Oh and guys, sorry for the mess with tha cables in the back... I just have to run a server and all those cables go to a terminal