The Director

So, Halo 5 is slated to be released holiday 2014 (around Thanksgiving/Christmas of next year) and I thought a great way to get excited about the release of Halo 5 was to look at the history of Halo, from the beginning to now (chronologically). So let's begin. Halo: Combat Evolved This is the game that started it all. Inspired by Marathon, ONI, and a few other games, when it was first thought of by Bungie Studios and Take Two Interactive, it was originally intended to be a game for the Mac. It was even announced as such in 1999 by Steve Jobs. Little did Bungie, Apple, or Take Two know at the time Microsoft was actually scheming how to turn the "two horse" (Sony and Nintendo) console race into a three way free-for-all. Halo, at the time code-named "Monkey Nuts" (which was later changed to "Blam!" because Jason Jones couldn't say Monkey Nuts in front of his mother) was one of the games that Microsoft wanted for "The X-Box Project", which was a console designed to compete with the Nintendo Gamecube and the Playstation 2. To make sure the console was a success Microsoft wanted to get as many top-notch games as possible for the launch of their console. In June of 2000, Bungie accepted Microsoft's offer to buy both them and the game. Take Two Interactive didn't want to work for Microsoft and thus left project "Blam!" and took the rights to Myth and Oni with them. The stage was set for Halo to finally come to life. There was some discussion as to whether Halo should be third person or first person, but with better technology in play Bungie decided that the game played more "fluid" in first person. Not to mention the added bonus of being inside Master Chief's head made players more sympathetic to the character. The two weapon system was integrated, and the Cortana letters had been received with joy from fans. Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric Nyland released October 30, 2001, paving the way for Halo Canon and going more in depth on the story of the "Halo Universe". Both the X-Box and Halo: Combat Evolved hit the shelves November 15, 2001. Halo CE was an instant hit. Raving reviews and gold stars all around, it sold a million copies in five months and is credited for 50% of all X-Box sales. Five months after the game was released (right on the millionth game mark), Microsoft authorized a second Halo. The success of Halo: Combat Evolved also led Bungie to further pursue "viral marketing" as well as more books similar to the Fall of Reach. Halo 2 Halo 2 was, once again, authorized by Microsoft just as Halo CE hit 1 million copies sold. Halo 2 was going to be the game to play on X-Box Live, which was the "online multiplayer" element that we today take for granted. With this in mind, Bungie realized that a good deal of the weapons in the game were unbalanced for online multiplayer. So, Bungie started off trying to balance the weapons while adding on to the story that they had started with Halo CE. With Halo 2, they decided to go with distancing the player from the characters by switching the player from Master Chief to a newly introduced character that we all know as "The Arbiter". They also introduced a bunch of new features (new to Halo, that is) like boarding and duel-wielding. Bungie created a 9 minute demo that debuted at E3 2003 (or E3'03, if you'll recall). This demo showed off a good chunk of the new features and enemies (drones and brutes) and got fans excited for the new game to come. However, Bungie was about to hit a very big snag. The engine that Bungie had built the E3 demo on (and so far the game) was not compatible with the X-Box hardware. Bungie had to basically start over with only a year until the deadline that Microsoft had set for them. Bungie pushed for as many extensions as possible, and cranked up the viral marketing with ilovebees.com, but Microsoft was pretty stern. So, Bungie had to release Halo 2 not quite as they had imagined it November 2004 with a cliffhanger ending due to the crunch. That being said, however, the game sold. A lot. And was praised, despite it's flaws (which some say made it even more fun) as one of the most competitive and best online experiences that you could get out of a console game. It also left canon lovers wanting more, which brings us to the next part of Halo history. Halo 3 In 2006, Microsoft and Bungie announced Halo 3. Bungie had started on Halo 3 following the process that they had set with Halo 2, and they did not take much of a break between games. Bungie had a bad taste in their mouth with the way that they had to end Halo 2, so they took everything that they weren't able to put into Halo 2 and put it into Halo 3. They also took Halo 2's multiplayer and did everything they could to improve it, including adding in a much desired Forge Mode as well as more weapons and the addition of equipment. Halo 3 went over more smoothly than Halo 2 and broke all of the records that Halo 2 had previously set. It was released September 25, 2007, two years after the release of the X-Box 360. Shortly after the release of Halo 3, a few Bungie employees set out to see about getting a Halo movie made, and then not long after that (which apparently didn't go over so well since we don't have a Halo movie [except for FUD which doesn't really count imo]) Bungie announced their decision to leave Microsoft. The decision by Bungie to leave Microsoft caused a bit of a spat between Bungie and Microsoft officials, but after everything Bungie agreed to do two more Halo titles before going off on their own. Halo Wars Halo Wars was released February 26, 2009 (March 3 for North America) and was the first Halo game made entirely out of Bungie's control. Microsoft owned Ensemble Studios, who specialized in RTS games, and picked them to create the Halo title for 2009. After Ensemble created Halo Wars, it came up with an idea for a Halo MMO, code-named project Titan. However, Microsoft said no, and Ensemble was shut down. One month before the release of their game. On a brighter note, Halo Wars received good reviews and to date is one of the top selling RTS games for consoles. Halo 3: ODST Halo 3: ODST was the first of the two Halo titles that Bungie Studios promised to make before leaving Microsoft. Originally title Halo 3: Recon, it was released September 22, 2009. It took a grand total of 14 months to make, from start to finish. Bungie spared no expense in the casting for the game, however critics maintain that the game felt more like an expansion than a full Halo game. Halo 3: ODST introduced firefight mode, which was a fan-favorite all around. It also came with all of the DLC multiplayer maps for Halo 3 AND Halo Reach beta access (for newer copies). This put a lot of cries to rest about Halo 3: ODST costing $60. Halo Reach Halo Reach. The last Halo game created by Bungie, and the end of an era. This time around, it was all about the game for Bungie. They seemed to ignore the canon that they had created throughout the years (and I know this is a controversial thing but it is documented that they did override previously set canon, therefor breaching it) to create a very fun and gripping experience. Halo Reach released September 14, 2010 and broke tons of sales records. It came with a ton of critical acclaim and had some fans in an uproar (over the little things mainly, everyone must complain about something). It also set the stage for 343 Industries to take over the reigns, which happened on March 31, 2012. But I get ahead of myself. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary November 15, 2011 343 Industries released the tenth anniversary edition of Halo: Combat Evolved. This was their first big trail in taking on the Halo series, and by all accounts they passed it. 343 Industries took Halo CE and gave it a HD face-lift and added as much as they could into it (such as skulls, new control schemes, and achievements) without changing the game entirely. It gave the fans who started from the very beginning (and those who joined in a little later on) some much appreciated nostalgia. The game included a disc that gave players access to the Halo Reach "Anniversary" Map Pack, which included some good ol' fashioned maps and gametypes to complete the nostalgia. Less than a year later, 343 Industries took the reigns of Halo and brought us to where we are now. Halo 4 Halo 4 was a game that a lot of fans doubted would ever come after the release of Halo 3. There was a lot of speculation about it when Bungie announced that they would be letting go of Halo, including that Master Chief would never come back from being stranded in space. Then, June 6, 2011 Halo 4 was announced. As it turns out, development began in 2009 and was kept pretty hush hush. Which in this day and age is hard to do. Halo 4 took around three years to complete. When it was announced there was WILD speculation on what the game would be about. There were rumors running rampant about what the enemies would be, hoaxes on leaked documents, actual leaked documents, and even a stolen copy of the game after it was completed resulting in a bunch of bans from X-Box Live. This was definitely one of the most anticipated Halo titles ever released. When it was released, it was met with critical acclaim and grossed $220 million dollars on it's first day and had over 1 million active players in the first 24 hours of it's release. Halo 4 introduced more weapons, more multiplayer modes, and the new storyline for Master Chief. So there we are. The Halo history. The thing about history, though, is that there's always more of it. There is going to be a Halo 5 and 6, and possibly more after that. We will have to see what is to come. Anyways, this has taken me literally all day to research and write and it is now almost 3 in the morning, so I am going to sleep now. Hope you enjoy it.

Did you know that Legendary was originally meant to be the rank after Dedicated for posting 2000 times? This was later changed to be the rank for those who have served the forum and have since retired from "active duty", and there was an award created for getting over 2000 posts. There was also an award for getting over 3000 posts, however that was removed because only 4 members at the time had over 3k posts. To this day, only 6 people have gotten over 3k posts, and one of those six has had their post count reset, which brings us to a total of 5 current 3k+ posters.

Good idea, but you still need the disc to be able to be recognized to be able to play installed games. ;D

Congratulations. Once more following in the footsteps of The Director. ;D

Apple is pretty money hungry. However, I don't see how them not expecting the gold color to be popular could be construed as anything except improper planning. I mean think about it. How do they make money off of that? There are only two decisions when you go into an Apple Store that is out of stock for the gold. You either buy a different color of iPhone 5s, or You wait and don't give Apple money until they make more. The obvious way for them to make money is to ramp up production of the gold iPhone 5s so that they can get more on the shelves, and offer them online. Which they have. Also, I'm not surprised someone payed 10k for a gold iPhone 5s. Especially when you consider that someone has payed 3k for one of the X-Box 360's boxes when it released. Not the X-Box, but the box. That the X-Box used to be in, but was no longer in.

This is half right. When I tried this, my X-Box 360 recognized the disc and would play the music, but would not download it from the disc. This is what I ended up doing: Needed Items -Some kind of disk -Computer capable of burning disks -Xbox w/ Hard Drive -iTunes (easy to download at itunes.com) 1.) Open up itunes and create a new playlist and name it what ever you'd like. 2.) Drag and drop the music you'd like to burn from your library into the newly created playlist. 3.) Once finished, click on burn disk at the bottom right of itunes. 4.) A screen should pop-up. Make sure Audio CD is checked before continuing. 5.) Put your disk into your computer and press burn. 6.) Once finished put the CD into your Xbox 360 and download the songs onto your hard drive or just play them of the CD.

Spectral Jester wasn't just a moderator. He was the moderator of moderator's. Which, in and of itself, is pretty legendary. Not to mention all of the giveaways that he funded, the playdates that he put together, and that he was one of the people who made the forum what it is today. There's a lot of credit to go around as to who helped make the forum as awesome as it is now, but Spectral Jester has earned more than an equal chunk of that credit. There's a ton of stuff that you've probably missed out on that was awesome and that Spectral Jester made happen. That's why he's a legendary member. As for me, I've been a part of this forum for two years, become one of the most decorated members on the forum, have one of the highest like/post ratios, and spent a ton of my time helping people on the forum with stuff like advice, achievements, fixing bugs, and making Halo forge maps. And that's not even when I was a moderator. When I was a moderator, I was on here dang near 24/7 fixing posts, banning trolls, fixing member names/titles, helping people learn to use the forum, as well as other things until my life dragged me away for a while. All of that Jester doubled, easily. Except my post count. He's only been able to beat that by about 1.23 times.

Thank you all for this honor. All of the replies had me rolling with laughter, especially AD's story about my moderatorhood. He left out the part where I broke the forum for 10-20 minutes when my ego hammer was first trying to acclimate to it's new environment. And to answer Zelda's question, I still have my Ego Hammer. It's just in need of some R&R from all of it's use while I was a moderator. lol I know I've been away for a long time, and even though I'm back to semi-active that's not really going to change in the coming months. I've got a new apartment, new job, new girlfriend, and new hours at the aforementioned job. Not to mention that business just picked up in a BIG way (and if you pay attention you can probably guess what it is I do now), and I'll be pulling 10-15 hour shifts for the foreseeable future. Which means I can't get on the forum at work anymore, and might not be able to every night, as I sometimes have to do that thing called sleeping. In short, I enjoy all of the times I've had on this forum and I can't wait until I can come back and enjoy it fully again. P.S. Jester, of course I was smiling. I broke the record for most posts over 10 words in a 24 hour period. lol

Granted, but it kills your friends and leaves you alone. I wish that wishes didn't get corrupted.

I actually did try and find the specifications for RAM for the iPhone 5s, and found out that Apple hasn't disclosed that. So we don't know how much RAM it has. I also failed to find a single article that stated the iPhone 5s had 1gb of ram. The 1GB (that you've listed it as being) is what is currently in the iPhone 5, though, so I can see how you could have made this mistake. The iPhone 5 actually has an A6 processor, with 32 bit architecture. iPhone 5s has an A7 processor with 64 bit architecture. For the processors, we don't yet know which one is superior. As the A7 processor is the first smartphone processor to have 64-bit architecture, there's no telling how it will handle. It may be amazing, or simply crap. As far as pricing goes, unlocked it is actually starts at 549, not 699. Even the 32gb is 629 €. Here you go: http://store.apple.com/uk/buy-iphone/iphone5s I also couldn't find the actual price for the Samsung Galaxy S4, because there are too many retailers selling it for different prices. A google search suggests pricing between 650 and €699. In short, I'm not entirely sure where you got your information, but a good chunk of it appears to be incorrect. I am not defending the iPhone 5s, I really don't care either way. I just wanted to inform you of your mistakes.

Mine is Halo 2. The reason is simply because it was, to me, perfectly broken. With so many ways to get outside the maps, and so many easter eggs hidden outside the maps (in campaign) it provided quite a few hours of entertainment. Simply trying to find all the glitches is easily a 30+ hour thing, not to mention following the actual storyline of the game. And then there was the multiplayer. A lot of people don't realize that Halo 2 was made when multiplayer was just first becoming a big deal on consoles. Taking that in mind, and comparing it to other games that were out at the time, it was really, really fun. Even playing splitscreen without X-Box live was pretty awesome. A lot of my best Halo memories come from Halo 2, and that's why it remains my favorite.

There are actually quite a few upgrades between the iPhone 5 and 5s. Upgrade wise, it's about the difference between the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4S. And there are a lot of things that are going to be different about the iPhone 5s compared to the 5. The iPhone 5s looks similar to the original iPhone 5 with an aluminum body available in three colors. It employs a faster A7 processor with 64-bit support, a new M7 “motion coprocessor” chip, a significantly improved camera, and the Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the Home button. Not to mention that with iOS 7 (which is almost completely different in the way it looks and feels), it doesn't even feel like an iPhone 5. I agree with you on one bit. The only reason to buy an iPhone 5s if you have an iPhone 5 is if you are a hardcore gamer or if you use it for work that demands peak performance. Otherwise, you are just wasting money.

Don't be afraid. Halo is far from done. Halo 4 has given 343i the budget needed to make Halo 5 bigger, better, and beastly. The main reason that people don't play Halo 4 as much as they used to is simply because they don't like the multiplayer gameplay. That's alright though, because they still bought the game, and play it on occasion. There are tons of games out there that don't even have multiplayer that sell amazingly (final fantasy, for instance [disregarding the MMO's]). Just because people don't play it doesn't mean they won't buy Halo 5. 343i has a pretty good idea what their audience is looking for now, and are working on incorporating it into Halo 5. The people who buy Halo are pretty diverse. You have those that buy it simply for the multiplayer and nothing else, those that buy it for the campaign, those that buy it for forge and for roleplay, those that buy it simply to collect it, and then you have those that buy it for all of the above. Even if one of those groups don't buy Halo 5, it will still make a ton of money. As long as it makes money, they can make more games and continue the saga.

Yeah, me too And thanks lol Glad everything's looking up around here

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. On the Apple website, it says "order it from September 20th". Not sure if this means you can't preorder it, and it's released on the 20th or if it means that it's tba on a release date and you can pre-order on the 20th. What do you mean by this?

So Apple's iPhone Conference was today. Anybody who uses iPhones, iPods, iPads, or any other Apple device should have been on the edge of their seat during the keynote. To watch the keynote: http://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2013/ So here's the rundown on the products they announced. iOS 7 iOS 7 is being released before any other iPhones are, and has a few upgrades and differences from iOS 6. From the Apple website: "iOS 7 introduces great new features like Control Center, AirDrop for iOS, and smarter multitasking. It also makes the things you do every day even easier, faster, and more enjoyable. And while many of the apps look different, the way you do things feels perfectly familiar. So from day one, you know how to use the world’s most advanced mobile OS. In its most advanced form." It also has some new security features with Find my iPhone that will make it more difficult for someone to sell or use a stolen device. It will be available on September 18th to update your iOS devices. It is compatible with iPhone 4 and later, iPod Touch 5th generation and later, and iPad 2 and later. http://www.apple.com/ios/ iPhone 5c The iPhone 5c is going to be a faster, cheaper version of the iPhone 5. It's also going to come in a bunch of different colors with cases. It contains an A6 chip, 8MP iSight camera, 4-inch Retina display, and Ultrafast LTE wireless. Pre-orders will begin September 13th and delivery will begin on the 20th. It starts at $99. http://www.apple.com/iphone-5c/ iPhone 5s The iPhone 5s is the major upgrade. According to Apple's website: "A7 supports OpenGL ES version 3.0 to deliver the kind of detailed graphics and complex visual effects once possible only on Mac computers, PCs, and gaming consoles." It also includes an M7 coprocessor, an upgraded camera (15% better, apparently), an HD facetime camera, and Ultrafast LTE wireless. It also comes in three colors, silver, gold, and gray. There will also be cases that can be purchased with the iPhone 5s. Pre-orders begin on September 20th. It starts at $199. http://www.apple.com/iphone-5s User tips: Before upgrading your iOS, be sure to make a backup. Doesn't matter to me how, just be sure you do it.

No. Videos games do not make me violent... Lag does.

Yeah, that's kind of the internet in a nutshell. The fractured community is actually what makes it great. You see, we all love the same games, but different parts of the games. Some parts of the community love to rage at each other about what their favorite is, other's don't. The splintering of the community isn't necessarily a bad thing. It just makes being a part of the Halo community a bit more interesting.