As soon as this is posted, I'm going to go to my local Gamestop and sit in a line, waiting for Halo: Reach. I'm excited to see this, the culmination of nine years of Halo, but at the same, I can't help but feel sad.

Nine years. I still remember clearly when I first played Halo. It was a few days after Christmas 2001, and I'd gotten quite a bit of money that Christmas, so I decided to go to Toys R Us and pick up the original Xbox. They were mandating that people buying the system bought an accessory and a game. After deciding on a memory unit (huge mistake in hindsight), I settled on the game. Halo was something of a media darling at the time, and while the screens made it look like just another FPS, it was the most obvious choice in a middling launch lineup. So hey, why not try that Halo game?

I took my gear home, set up my Xbox, and proceeded to be wowed like I never had before. The enemies were smart and varied in their tactics. The Marines' were some of the most eclectic game characters that had ever been assembled at the time. The story, while still very isolated and not revealing much (who's the Covenant? What's this Reach place? Why'd they leave?), felt at once epic and oh so personal, the tale of humanity itself stubbornly holding on in the face of an insurmountable force of religious fanatics so incredibly poignant given the events of just a few months prior. And Lord, the music... Never before and very rarely since have I heard such inspirational, emotional music as the tunes in that special game. The game was a perfect storm, that rate launch game that defines the system throughout its entire lifespan. Surely one would have expected it to be milked to death, but Microsoft and Bungie proved careful stewards of the Xbox's flagship series, taking the needed time to craft two masterful sequels and a spinoff that showed the depth of this interesting world. Put bluntly, this has been one hell of a ride.

And now, this ride comes to an end. With Reach, Bungie bids Halo adieu. Yeah, Microsoft will still keep the franchise going, and 343 Studios will keep the style and mythos of the Halo world to a high standard. However, Bungie is an undeniably unique developer, and without their hand directly involved, what will happen to Halo? It won't be milked to death (MS has proven that they're not Activision), but will they screw up with the story? Will the story continue going back in time, disintegrating Lufia-style into a never-ending sea of retcons? Will the Chief return, only to be thrown into a stupidly improbable adventure? And what of the multi-player? The skill matching and balancing have become a hallmark of the series, but will 343 and MS remain committed, holding off the temptation to turn it into a sci-fi themed Call of Duty? There are so many questions.

Then there's Bungie. While they're going to be in full creative control of the new IP they're creating with Activision, what if they misfire? Oni wasn't exactly the greatest game ever, and Marathon, while thematically wonderful, isn't exactly the narrative tour-de-force that Halo would eventually become. Can they do it again? Or will they slip back into obscurity?

Perhaps that's the reason I'm so conflicted with the release of Halo: Reach. We're going off into the unknown once this game comes out. There is plenty of promise, but at the same time, the possibility for everything to blow up into a horrid mess with both Halo and Bungie. I hope for the best, but even if it all goes to crap, it's been one hell of a ride.

As soon as this is posted, I'm going to go to my local Gamestop and sit in a line, waiting for Halo: Reach. I'm excited to see this, the culmination of nine years of Halo, but at the same, I can't help but feel sad.

Nine years. I still remember clearly when I first played Halo. It was a few days after Christmas 2001, and I'd gotten quite a bit of money that Christmas, so I decided to go to Toys R Us and pick up the original Xbox. They were mandating that people buying the system bought an accessory and a game. After deciding on a memory unit (huge mistake in hindsight), I settled on the game. Halo was something of a media darling at the time, and while the screens made it look like just another FPS, it was the most obvious choice in a middling launch lineup. So hey, why not try that Halo game?

I took my gear home, set up my Xbox, and proceeded to be wowed like I never had before. The enemies were smart and varied in their tactics. The Marines' were some of the most eclectic game characters that had ever been assembled at the time. The story, while still very isolated and not revealing much (who's the Covenant? What's this Reach place? Why'd they leave?), felt at once epic and oh so personal, the tale of humanity itself stubbornly holding on in the face of an insurmountable force of religious fanatics so incredibly poignant given the events of just a few months prior. And Lord, the music... Never before and very rarely since have I heard such inspirational, emotional music as the tunes in that special game. The game was a perfect storm, that rate launch game that defines the system throughout its entire lifespan. Surely one would have expected it to be milked to death, but Microsoft and Bungie proved careful stewards of the Xbox's flagship series, taking the needed time to craft two masterful sequels and a spinoff that showed the depth of this interesting world. Put bluntly, this has been one hell of a ride.

And now, this ride comes to an end. With Reach, Bungie bids Halo adieu. Yeah, Microsoft will still keep the franchise going, and 343 Studios will keep the style and mythos of the Halo world to a high standard. However, Bungie is an undeniably unique developer, and without their hand directly involved, what will happen to Halo? It won't be milked to death (MS has proven that they're not Activision), but will they screw up with the story? Will the story continue going back in time, disintegrating Lufia-style into a never-ending sea of retcons? Will the Chief return, only to be thrown into a stupidly improbable adventure? And what of the multi-player? The skill matching and balancing have become a hallmark of the series, but will 343 and MS remain committed, holding off the temptation to turn it into a sci-fi themed Call of Duty? There are so many questions.

Then there's Bungie. While they're going to be in full creative control of the new IP they're creating with Activision, what if they misfire? Oni wasn't exactly the greatest game ever, and Marathon, while thematically wonderful, isn't exactly the narrative tour-de-force that Halo would eventually become. Can they do it again? Or will they slip back into obscurity?

Perhaps that's the reason I'm so conflicted with the release of Halo: Reach. We're going off into the unknown once this game comes out. There is plenty of promise, but at the same time, the possibility for everything to blow up into a horrid mess with both Halo and Bungie. I hope for the best, but even if it all goes to crap, it's been one hell of a ride.

I have doubts that Bungie will fall into the same mistakes Infinity Ward had made with Activision. They're highly experienced and intelligent developers to fall into Activision's tropes. Infinity Ward weren't experienced as Bungie, because they were a Rookie studio by the time they made their first game published by Activision. I have faith in Bungie, they never once disappointed me. Maybe a little with Halo 2 & 3 campaign, and ODST's price tag, but they still managed to be great games. Besides, Bungie are creating a new engine for their new IP.

" @Kahnero: Infinity Ward were not a rookie studio by any means, they had worked as a team and as individuals on many games prior to Modern Warefare and Bungie are not really the experts you make them out to be.  Remember, when Halo was being shopped around, neither Oni nor Marathon were titles which garnered them much support or financial success.  Myth was their only real earner at that stage.  MS tied them down and the Halo IP because it was cheap and a low risk investment due to the popularity of FPS games on PC at the time. "

Pretty crazy to think that the first Halo came out 9 years ago! I guess I sort of grew up with Halo, at least in my adolescent years seeing as I was 10 the year it came out. Looking forward to playing Reach, then for the first time I think I will be able to say I played and completed all of the games in a franchise.

 @zepp said:

" Pretty crazy to think that the first Halo came out 9 years ago! I guess I sort of grew up with Halo, at least in my adolescent years seeing as I was 10 the year it came out. Looking forward to playing Reach, then for the first time I think I will be able to say I played and completed all of the games in a franchise. "

" @SeriouslyNow said:

" @Kahnero: Infinity Ward were not a rookie studio by any means, they had worked as a team and as individuals on many games prior to Modern Warefare and Bungie are not really the experts you make them out to be.  Remember, when Halo was being shopped around, neither Oni nor Marathon were titles which garnered them much support or financial success.  Myth was their only real earner at that stage.  MS tied them down and the Halo IP because it was cheap and a low risk investment due to the popularity of FPS games on PC at the time. "

Infinity Ward were still making Call of Duty titles that were published by Activision, they never any other new IPs after then. Marathon was actually financial success for Bungie at the time. It was big hit among Mac users, and almost every Mac user back in the day downloaded Marathon. Oni was actually made by a different division of Bungie, called Bungie West Studios. It was also one of their least critically successful titles. While Halo's success may have due to Microsoft's support, no one expected for Halo to be as big bacl then. Halo's E3 2001 peformance was quite poor, due to sluggish controls and the demo was very buggy. People had low expectations toward it by then.  It wasn't until it was released, it took the gaming industry by storm. As it was a phenomenal commercial and critical success that any of their games. "

" @Kahnero said:

" @SeriouslyNow said:

" @Kahnero: Infinity Ward were not a rookie studio by any means, they had worked as a team and as individuals on many games prior to Modern Warefare and Bungie are not really the experts you make them out to be.  Remember, when Halo was being shopped around, neither Oni nor Marathon were titles which garnered them much support or financial success.  Myth was their only real earner at that stage.  MS tied them down and the Halo IP because it was cheap and a low risk investment due to the popularity of FPS games on PC at the time. "

Infinity Ward were still making Call of Duty titles that were published by Activision, they never any other new IPs after then. Marathon was actually financial success for Bungie at the time. It was big hit among Mac users, and almost every Mac user back in the day downloaded Marathon. Oni was actually made by a different division of Bungie, called Bungie West Studios. It was also one of their least critically successful titles. While Halo's success may have due to Microsoft's support, no one expected for Halo to be as big bacl then. Halo's E3 2001 peformance was quite poor, due to sluggish controls and the demo was very buggy. People had low expectations toward it by then.  It wasn't until it was released, it took the gaming industry by storm. As it was a phenomenal commercial and critical success that any of their games. "

You ignored Myth.  Myth was their first financial success.  Enough that it funded an expansion pack and a sequel Marathon was popular among Mac users, which is and especially back then, was a minuscule market.  While it too had a sequel, the whole Marathon series sold in much smaller numbers than the Myth series.  Infinity Ward is comprised of devs who had worked at EA first on quite a few games, well before the Activision changeover, which connects to some of the drama surrounding the supposed firing of West and Zampella.  To call Infinity Ward a rookie studio is to ignore all of the works their dev team had been a part of for almost a decade prior to the beginnings of Modern Warfare. "

" @SeriouslyNow said:

" @Kahnero said:

" @SeriouslyNow said:

" @Kahnero: Infinity Ward were not a rookie studio by any means, they had worked as a team and as individuals on many games prior to Modern Warefare and Bungie are not really the experts you make them out to be.  Remember, when Halo was being shopped around, neither Oni nor Marathon were titles which garnered them much support or financial success.  Myth was their only real earner at that stage.  MS tied them down and the Halo IP because it was cheap and a low risk investment due to the popularity of FPS games on PC at the time. "

Infinity Ward were still making Call of Duty titles that were published by Activision, they never any other new IPs after then. Marathon was actually financial success for Bungie at the time. It was big hit among Mac users, and almost every Mac user back in the day downloaded Marathon. Oni was actually made by a different division of Bungie, called Bungie West Studios. It was also one of their least critically successful titles. While Halo's success may have due to Microsoft's support, no one expected for Halo to be as big bacl then. Halo's E3 2001 peformance was quite poor, due to sluggish controls and the demo was very buggy. People had low expectations toward it by then.  It wasn't until it was released, it took the gaming industry by storm. As it was a phenomenal commercial and critical success that any of their games. "

You ignored Myth.  Myth was their first financial success.  Enough that it funded an expansion pack and a sequel Marathon was popular among Mac users, which is and especially back then, was a minuscule market.  While it too had a sequel, the whole Marathon series sold in much smaller numbers than the Myth series.  Infinity Ward is comprised of devs who had worked at EA first on quite a few games, well before the Activision changeover, which connects to some of the drama surrounding the supposed firing of West and Zampella.  To call Infinity Ward a rookie studio is to ignore all of the works their dev team had been a part of for almost a decade prior to the beginnings of Modern Warfare. "

No, I meant that they were a Rookie studio when they made the original Call of Duty.  "