The Halo Franchise, gone too far?

By: chronic cramps on June 03, 2007 [<<][>>] [back to archive index]

I gotta say, I'm a hardcore Halo fan. Not in the sense of having read the books, or having seen and collected every single record of information put out by the franchise.
I love the games. I’ve spent countless hours staring at that 4 way splitscreen with The General, ArabRabbi, Cheese, & Achilles at Lounge Three when I should have been out doing more productive things. We had a great time with the original Halo game, eventually getting online with "xb connect". I think we were doing just that then the Asian Sensation walked in with a copy of Halo 2, fresh from Gameplay on Venice blvd (love those guys). We popped it in and... DAMMN!!! It took some time to adjust to the new dynamics, but after a few hours, going back to Halo was not something we ever did.

Halo 2 really was the shit. For a while, the Arab Rabbi could no longer complain about the "One Hitter Quitters" from halo one in “Hang em High” and until cheaters grew aplenty, we had some damned good times on Live.
Now, with the new maps and the last installment, the Blastacular maps, we still get together and enjoy a good creaming session via Live as we have managed to geographically move apart. Kudos to Microsoft for providing us with this opportunity to connect with the one thing we still have in common as friends, gaming!

The real reson though, behind this writing came when I saw a video of the Halo 3 debut party. There was a short interview with Jared West, Global Products Manager for the Halo franchise (check it out at gamespot.com). This guy knows it all when it comes to the world of Halo, and I just could not take him seriously when he tried to explain what the “Legendary” version of the Halo 3 packaging would include. $129.99 for a “collectible” plastic helmet, a couple of "behind the scenes" discs and the game... how many of you actually went through the extra content that came with the Halo 2 collectors edition? You could hear the conflict in his voice He knew what his loyal fans would say, but what is a guy to do? Not to blame Microsoft though, they just want to make money, and with a franchise like Halo, they’ve got a responsibility as good capitalists and to their shareholders to milk this thing for all it’s worth.
Problem is, it’s backfiring. Someone went too far...

The last straw for me was the special edition Zune “loaded with lots of exclusive content for the hardcore Halo fan” How dedicated to Halo are we really? The Zune reviews havent exactly been up to par with the magic that Bungie has been churning out. Does Microsoft compare the halo fan to a crazed Beatles worshipper?… Maybe, I would have even gotten the $130 collectors edition game, but with the bad aftertaste of just one look at microsofts branding extravaganza, this gamer’s going bare bones with the $59 version of the game when it ships..

See you online,
Chronic Cramps

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