We see it all the time. "I HATE [insert successful game here]!  Its just the same as every other [insert successful genre]".
   Its gotten insanely popular and increasingly stupid. Lets explore the ignorance shall we?
 

The Definition of a Media Franchise

A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media

What games are ABOUT

What are you expecting EXACTLY?

  I've been a Halo fan since CE. I didnt own an xbox, and i didnt even know it came out for a few months. But once i played it, i was hooked. Lan parties whenever, wherever. I played that campaign like 60 times.  I bought it on computer, and learned to play on keyboard because i couldn't afford a pc controller.
When Halo 2 came out, i actually split the price with my friend who owned an xbox. We played split screen and online all the time. I owned a 360 controller before i owned a 360. 
 And when 3 came out, i bought a 360 the day before it was released. I resisted the urge to purchase a copy a day early out of fear of being banned from online play. I played every night with my friends over live for hours. And we did the same for ODST.and Wars. And Reach.  And while some of my friends have given up on the franchise, im playing right now.
 
   I tell you all of this so that there are no allusions. I am a hardcore halo fan. I have played them all, and i probably will play the rest as they come.
 im writing this to address the seemingly infinite number of times ive seen people say "Halo never changes" or "the franchise is getting stale".  
 
 Like most franchises, Halo is based off of the actions and events that took place in the first game. A super soldier fought off aliens. Like most games now days, it was designed to continue. So my question is: how is it different than any other popular franchise?
  Mario has ALWAYS been about a plumber jumping on things to save a princes or a kingdom. Even when extra powers and 3d mechanics and ride-able dinosaurs were added, that was always the core of the franchise.  Why isnt that stale?

 Assassins Creed is about assassinating people. its been the same on multiple consoles and hand helds. A guy with wrist blades and a hood tries to save whoever from whoever by assassinating key people. 
 
The COD franchise has been about war. The only real changes from game to game have been the timelines and the gun names. But if you break them down to nothing but controls and combat, they are all roughly the same.
 
 Why arent these games getting the gruff that Halo is getting?
 
 The easy and true answer is that Halo is bigger. The biggest name always gets the biggest target pained on their backs, and Halo is it. 
   
 To the point, if you dont think Halo is still a relevant franchise... just move on. Facts are Halo was still selling for 30-40 dollars 3 years after its release. Halo 2 had record numbers its last week, and didnt go down until days after it was intended... 6 years after its release. 
  Every installment of Halo adds something new to the franchise. Graphically. Thematically. Gameplay and story wise. It has yet to be the exact same game as the last. Even Multiplayer, which has for the most part stayed the same, still added completely new weapons, vehicles, and damage modifications to each game. 
 
If Halo isnt for you, it isnt for you. But there is nothing wrong with the franchise.
 
 
thanks for reading, and check me out on COMICVINE.

sooo.... we dont have that on here? i just started playing my PS3 games, and i wanted to sync it up... but i cant find it? and i realized we dont have iOS support either.
 does anyone know why we dont have those on here?

Halo. Microsoft's Mario. The FPS prodigy, loved by the masses, and hated by the fans of the competition. But love it or hate it, you know two things.

1. It rocked. Even if it wasnt your cup of tea, it was still worth a few sips every time.

and 2. It is NOT over.

While Bungie is stepping out of the limelight, Microsoft is not letting go, putting 343 Studios in charge of the Halo franchise, lore and all. And while Bungie was more than happy to step away from the the lone hero antics for their farewell from Halo, 343 most defiantly will not.

it is almost assured that the next official Halo game will follow Master Chief onto whatever planet he was last seen drifting towards, but what is unknown is exactly what he will be facing once he awakens. A land of savage Elites? A new form of Flood? Lost Forerunners? The people of Marathon?

While all of those are good possible theories, i have one of my own that is very natural in the evolution of Halo lore. I think the next big bad in the Halo Universe is... Cortana.

If your a devout follower of the Halo stores, you know that Cortana is considered a "smart A.I.". These Smart A.I.'s are designed to operate at the levels of an overly genius human. They are smarter than normal A.I.'s in multiple fields of expertise, and have the ability to hypothesize. To think in ways that are normally human.

The downside to these A.I.'s is that they are still just machines. As they compile data, and begin to think more and more, developing their own identities and conciseness', and compiling massive amounts of data, they begin to break. In most cases, they simply shut down. Short circuit from the sheer mass of information. In other cases, they attempt to protect themselves against the first outcome by deleting lesser data. And if you are into sci-fi, you know that machines tend to see morals and emotions as lesser data.

To counteract both of these outcomes, most A.I.'s are decommissioned after a few years, their data stored, studied, and the more useful info shared with other A.I.'s as deemed necessary. But Cortana has been active for well over the standard amount of time. She has collected more data on The Covenant, The Forerunners, The Flood, and human beings than probably every A.I. combined. She has also developed a personality, similar to that of her maker Doctor Halsey, but with her own flair of attitude and logic, much like a daughter. And of course the often hinted at romance she "feels" towards Master Chief.

So what happens when an A.I., pushed to all of its limits and then some, with more data than anything before it, goes batty? There is allot of proof that its already happened, in game and out. In the ending of Halo 2, we see her begin to communicate with the Gravemind like an equal, something most computers and A.I.'s wouldnt do. But Cortana seemed to bypass the part of her programing that saw him as a threat, and gave into the idea of him being something worth sharing information with.

This carried over into halo 3, where Cortana seemed to be portraying erratic behavior through the Gravemind's telepathic link. How an A.I. was able to link telepathically to a parasitic being is beyond me, as she shouldnt have the ability to telepathically link without a brain. But if she is evolving to the point of having a truly artificial brain....

The final and possible most damning evidence comes from Halo Legends, the collection of Halo Universe stories animated by various anime studios. In Legends, Cortana actually shows signs of glitching and advanced technology as she makes a life-sized hologram of herself to speak to the frozen Master Chief.

Needless to say, Cortana has evolved into a different type of creature since she was handed off to Master Chief in on Reach. With the possible telepathy, the entire histories of multiple species, the development of deep emotions, and the possibility of her core systems eliminating programs that would keep her "human", it is all too possible that Cortana can become the next big dangerous adversary for Master Chief to topple.

{Thanks for reading! check out my other blog posts HERE ON COMICVINE.COM !!}

so after the hurt and hardship of missing out on Gamestops awesome trade in deal for the Xbox 360s subsided, i went out and fed the demon walmart to get my system.  
 i love it. My old xbox needed an external fan to function, and the thing sounded like an airplane. But this little baby is quieter than any electronic device in my room.  The built in excellent wifi adapter is a breath of fresh air compared to my old wifi adapter that i had to tape to my wall 6 feet up with painters tape and a usb extender to get my neighbors internet. And that friendly little beep it gives off when u power it on/off or eject a disk (with just a touch, no pressy) makes me giggle every time. 
 The only problem i have with my fantastic new xbox is... its too light. 
 When my controller dies, i cord up and keep playing. But last night i felt like i was gonna pull my xbox right off the top of my big screen tube tv with any sudden movements. I know i could lay it on its side, but im afraid the excellent wifi quality will diminish.  
 My question is: does anyone know of any stands for the slim, or have any idea how to keep firmly in place without damaging the bottom of the box or the top of my tv? 
 please and thank you.