When Halo 2 was announced, we were beside ourselves with excitement. Michael brought over a magazine one afternoon and explained how the AI soldiers in the game would now be able to drive Warthogs for us. His eyes grew large at the announcement of duel wielding weapons. Every news break about the game was huge. We watched videos online of how we would be able to board enemy vehicles and detach turrets from the ground. Our minds were blown. We theorized on the story and where it would go. We both read the Halo novels The Fall of Reach, The Flood, and First Strike in anticipation for the game. We were the epitome of fan boys. Michael called me late one night, telling me that there was going to be midnight releases for Halo 2! A video game launching at midnight? That was unheard of at the time. No way would we miss it. I told him to call me later that week and we'd plan on which location to go, where we'd play it, etc... But Michael never called. That week, Michael died in a car accident on his way home from work.
I stopped reading the Halo news. I stopped watching the newest videos and details. I even stopped playing Combat Evolved. Without Michael there was no fun to be had in Halo anymore. My other friends didn't find our made up games as amusing as Michael and I did. When I did play Xbox again, I played different games; Madden mostly, just needing a distraction. Then one day I found an old video game magazine Michael had left at my house. The very same magazine that he brought over to show me all the new features Halo 2 would have. I picked it up and leafed through it nostalgically. After a few minutes, I picked up my controller and began a run-through of the campaign on Legendary. Several hours later I finally finished. It was the first solo legendary run I had ever done. Every step of the way I felt like the maps were familiar places, venues in which Michael and I had played together of years. Halo wasn't a reminder of the loss, it was a reminder of the fun times. I couldn't stop playing Halo. Michael wouldn't want that. I was going to be playing this franchise to the bitter end.
November 9th was almost here. I stood amongst strangers in line at GameStop (Maybe it was still EB Games back then, I really can’t remember), waiting for midnight to get my hands on the game that Michael and I had anticipated for so long. Talking to the strangers in line however became an experience itself. They were the first people I had met since Michael that I could talk to excitedly about the game and theories from the novels. The wait was genuinely fun and memorable, and when my number was finally called I didn't feel as though I had been waiting too terribly long. I took my copy of the game home and stared at it for a moment. Holding the game in my hand felt unreal. It was a confusing emotion. I shrugged it off and put the game in the Xbox. The opening sequence began and I was in awe. Everything seemed cinematic and grand in scale. The scene wrapped up. I was now standing at the blast doors with a BR in hand, waiting for the Covenant to blast through. I paused the game. A wave of emotions crashed over me. Sadness that Michael wasn't here to experience this with me; Excitement that the game we had longed for was finally here; and as cliché and cheesy as it may sound, I felt like I wasn't alone. I un-paused the game and proceeded to unleash holy hell on those covenant bastards for the next several hours. When Breaking Benjamin (One of Michael's favorite bands) came on during the climactic battle between the different sides of the covenant, a smile hit my face that I couldn't remove. The game was perfect, all the way down to the cliffhanger ending, a concept that Michael and I had both loved about the second Matrix movie. I sat in silence after it was all over. That cliffhanger...Halo 3 was coming, but Michael wouldn't be here to geek out with over all of the news.
I wouldn't be alone in my Halo geekdom for too long. I got swept up into the world of Xbox Live. I logged countless hours on Halo 2, making friends with random people along the way. Playing Halo 3 I ran into a friend from high school and we began playing together quite often. We even got so close with some people that we played with online that when they decided to transfer colleges, they chose UNF so that we could all live in the same city and actually hang out. Then came Halo Reach. One night I caught a Facebook status of my friend Shaun from high school wondering if anyone wanted to play Halo Reach, and I responded. It had been years since him and I had even talked and we barely knew each other, but here I was playing with him, his wife Lauren and their friends, Heather, Jamil, Kevin, and Kevin (Fez). Since that time I've grown close to every one of them. I lived with Shaun and Lauren for over a year since then and to this day share a family plan on my phone service with them. Heather and I share a few nerdy interests in the form of TV shows that the rest of our group doesn't watch, Kevin and I play Destiny together nearly every night, Fez and I bond over our love of UFC, and Jamil shares my nerdy passion of the Halo novels and all things Halo cannon just as Michael once had.
Halo may be "just a video game" but it has been the catalyst of a lot of significant parts of my life outside of video games. It's crazy to me how something simple like that can be so significant. Halo has become a tradition for me. Every time a new Halo game comes out, I get it at midnight. I schedule my vacations accordingly. I don't join my friends right away on release night. Instead I play the campaign alone first. I play it straight through, just as I did with every Halo game before. And when it's over, I sit in silence for a minute and remember Michael, and how much he loved this game before it ever became the huge franchise that it is today. I enjoy the games enough for both of us. Then I join my friends and begin to terrorize the War Games, and I teabag annoying players for Michael, because Michael thought tea bagging was hilarious. I will forever be a fan of Bungie and of 343 Studios for their work on these games and all the memories I have because of them. I will forever be an advocate of embracing the things you enjoy and your love for them. For those who see video games as an anti-social experience, locked away inside your house, alone in front of a TV: I present the counter argument that video games are an amazingly interactive social experience. Through video games I have made friends on opposite ends of the country, and even a few in other countries. I play games constantly with friends who are too far away to see in person on a regular basis. For me personally, I relive old memories with lost friends through video games. To me that is priceless, and I wouldn’t give it up for anything.
