You take the role of the Master Chief, a super soldier, tasked with protecting an A.I., Cortana, from falling into the hands of an alien race, the Covenant, who are on a mission to destroy all life that doesn’t follow their beliefs.  It’s a first person shooter that will take you through multiple levels and multiple biomes as you try to defeat them.  You will also commandeer a variety of awesome vehicles along the way.  This is probably the game that defined the first person shooter of the early 2000s and it really shows.

Visuals:

I don’t know why, but when I got the game in college in 2003 I wasn’t really impressed with how it looked.  I just felt the stages looked kind of bland, the characters looked rather chunky and stiff, and the enemies just seemed lackluster.  It wasn’t until you got off the first level, Pillar of Autumn, and onto the actual ring world, Halo, where the beauty of the game truly lies.  The world opens up and now you just maneuver around the level determining the path to the objective.  All the stuff I thought about the game went away and I embraced the game.  Although the side characters are all kind of meh, Master Chief is well designed.  The Covenant’s designs vary widely and are super unique.  The guns have become iconic.  Everything about this game is iconic.

Audio:

Which leads me to the audio of this game.  HOLY FUCK is this game something else.  From the very beginning the game soundtrack just gets you going with the drums and vocals.  The voice acting is great, for the time period, and the weapons all just sound amazing.  The Covenant are also voiced superbly as well with the Grunts being super excited in everything they do while the Elite’s deep booming voice makes you search around every corner.  God, this game just is so good in every aspect.

Completion:

I FINISHED THIS GAME!  Maybe not on this playthough, but I have completed this game so many times.  During my aforementioned time in college when my buddies and I would do co-op while stoned.  To when the remaster came out in 2010.  To when the Master Chief Collection came out a few years later.  This game has been a staple of my gaming life for over 20 years now.  Playing it again to write this and take screenshots just made me realize how amazing of an experience this game was at the time and I didn’t even realize it.  Who knows what’s going to happen to the Halo franchise in the future or whatever remakes will happen, but at least we have this version on the good ol’ Xbox.

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The last NFL football video game made by someone other than Electronic Arts which was released by Sega in 2004.  When this was released it was for a bargain at $20 and caused quite a stir in the football video game market.  You can do all sorts of stuff in this game.  Stuff like a franchise mode, trick out your crib with all sorts of cool knick knacks and artifacts, or even play the game in first person view.  This really was quite the full package for a budget price.  In the end, EA felt it couldn’t compete and decided to lock down the NFL license which effectively killed this franchise.

Visuals:

While maybe not looking amazing, this game really does the ESPN NFL presentation justice.  You have Chris Berman doing a pregame presentation.  The stadiums all look like they’re supposed to and all the players do give off their own looks.  Everything about this game just looks like it’s supposed to and that’s pretty cool.  Seeing the field in first person view is also really cool but I couldn’t play that way anymore since it gives me a headache.

Audio:

ESPN NFL 2K5 really sounds like a football game.  The announcers seem like they really are just commentating on the game they’re watching because there doesn’t seem to be any repeating dialog.  I’m  pretty sure if I played more of the game I would start noticing it but this is just from my initial experience.  All the ambient noises throughout the game also sound authentic because they’re all just so unique and you usually don’t hear this kind of banter in most sports games.  

Completion:

Back when this came out, my roommate and I were really into this game.  We both had our profiles and our seasons and we just dominated.  I played as the Cowboys then because I didn’t know any better.  Now, I tried them out again and found that they were pretty good against the Titans, at least for a quarter.  I pulled off a 99 yard run after I got sacked for a loss of 10 on the first play.  The game just feels amazing in which everything is just so snappy and all the animations just do what you want them to do.  I wish this series had had the ability to carry on but, alas, here we are, over 20 years later and we’re still stuck having only one NFL videogame release year after year.

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