An ode to a time long gone.

So when I saw imgur's whole "tell us about your gaming story" thing, I spent some time thinking about what my most memorable moments were. The more I thought on it the more I realized just how fundamental the Halo series was to my childhood. With that said I'd like to share my story and experience with the Halo series as well as entertain you with some of my favorite Halo memes.

I was only 5 when CE was released so I didn't really get the chance to experience it until I was older. But some of my fondest memories were playing 2 on 1 team slayer in blood gulch against my friends older brother who was much better at the game than we were.

Probably the best memory I have of CE was staying up until 5 am over Christmas break trying(and failing) to beat the library on legendary with my best friend Ryan.

On to Halo 2 and what would become my challenge for the next 15 years of my life.

I have spent countless hours on legendary in this game come so close to finishing it only to get totally stuck on some part due to my own poor planning and fail. To this day it is the only game in the series that I haven't beaten on legendary and I still find myself going back every so often. Dedicating a day or so to trying again only to fall short once more.

Until now my experience with halo had involved going to my friends houses and playing on their consoles. I was a Nintendo kid growing up so I never had my own not that I didn't love my Gamecube and Wii.

So when Christmas morning '07 came along and my folks had given me an xbox and Halo 3. I LOST MY MIND. I don't know that any gift since has topped my excitometer on that day.

I played EVERY SINGLE DAY until school started back up. Playing campaign, making creations in forge mode, and meeting new friends in online that would last for years to come. Needless to say halo 3 is and will probably always be my favorite of the whole series.

While Halo 3 is my favorite game I still hold Reach on a pedestal. It did a lot for the series and despite a few missteps I still place it in my top 5 games of all time.

Since I'd gotten the console some years prior I actually got to participate in the beta tests for reach. Still have some of my old videos from them as well(man my voice was squeaky at 14). Most of my friends from 3 had carried over and with the new forge mode I spent more time on the game than I did on schoolwork (sorry about that one mom and dad). I'd forged (eh get it) some real friendships as well from a mutual love of the games that would last until even today.
One of these friends would eventually lend me a book and then the real journey would begin....

My friend Blaise (yes real name) lent me his copy of Fall of Reach in my Junior year of high school as a way of psyching me up for the release of 4. I got engrossed in the military style sci fi and fell in live with the writing of Eric Nylund.

I proceeded to read every book that was available in the span of about a month and as of today I'm proud to say i have kept up with the novels as they were released. If you like good world building and some seriously amazing character depth. I highly recommend you pick up fall of reach and just see for yourself.

This deep dive into the story only deepened my love for the series and gave better understanding to the plot if the games and their significance to the rest of the halo universe.

While I played halo 4 and 5 and enjoyed them I didn't really get the same sense if wonder I did from the first trilogy and reach. I don't know if it's the way the 343 has changed the plot or just the shift of focus to multiplayer. Its just not the same. But this being the end of the post I'd like to say on final thing...

Send a message to your old gaming friends if you can. Try to reconnect with them. It may spark a new friendship that you might have been missing in your life.

Cause remember Spartans never die. They're just missing in action...

FP Edit: Wow just... wow. You guys/gals are awesome. I've been having a rough time of it lately (bad breakup) so seeing all of you connect over this series really warms my heart. Glad to see there's still so many other Spartans out there.