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]] The ''Halo'' series is a popular series of First-person Shooter Video Games developed by Bungie Studios and published by Microsoft . The series follows a full-scale Holy War between future humanity and a collective of alien races known as The Covenant , which believe that seven ancient rings built by a long-dead race are religious icons, and activating them will propel The Covenant on the " Great Journey ." The player follows the Master Chief , a genetically enhanced human equipped with the technologically advanced MJOLNIR Battle Armor , as he, assisted by the Pillar Of Autumn 's AI Cortana , helps the humans in their losing battle against The Covenant, and discovers the Halos' true purpose. VIDEO GAMES ''Halo'' was the most popular application for the Xbox console up until the release of its more ambitious sequel, ''Halo 2''. ''Halo'' quickly became known as the " Killer App " for the newly introduced Microsoft Xbox Console , gaining a huge success and later being ported to the PC and finally released for the originally intended platform, Apple Macintosh . A second game was released in 2004 , and the third game, currently thought to be in production, is rumored to be unveiled at E3 , 2006 on May 9th. ''Halo'' games have become well known for their rich background development and engaging physics, characterstics they share with previous Bungie works, such as the '' Marathon '' series on the Mac . Further enriching the universe of ''Halo'' are several novels which provide insights into the background story, and a movie currently in pre-production. ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' See Also: Halo: Combat Evolved When ''Halo'' began development, it was a Real Time Strategy Game that would have been released on Apple and Windows PCs. However, during its many years of development, it changed into a Third Person Shooter and then to a First Person Shooter . Halo was then converted for development for the Xbox Game Console . The game was released on November 15 , 2001 , alongside the launch of the original Xbox console. It was later ported to both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. The story deals with the adventures of the protagonist, referred to in the game only as " Master Chief ". Stranded with the rest of the crew of the human ship '' Pillar Of Autumn '', including the AI Cortana , he fights against The Covenant (an alien alliance waging a 'holy war' of sorts against humanity) while attempting to uncover the ring's secrets, which include the sinister parasitic life forms known as The Flood . After learning that the ring is a weapon that would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy if activated, Master Chief embarks on a mission to destroy it. ''Halo'' ends with the Master Chief and Cortana destroying the Halo and escaping in a Longsword fighter. ''Halo: Custom Edition'' See Also: Halo: Custom Edition ''Halo: Custom Edition'' (commonly known as ''Halo CE'') is a free stand-alone expansion for ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' (for the PC) that has the ability to load and play user-created content and maps. This version does not have the option to play in campaign mode. During an online match, players with the same user-created map can play together on it. Such maps include custom content such as vehicles, weapons, scenery, etc. More recent maps include recreations of '' Halo 2 '' maps. ''Halo 2'' See Also: Halo 2 '' Halo 2 '' was released for the Xbox on November 9 , 2004 , generating a $125 million dollar entertainment record on its premiere day. It was recently announced that a PC port for the Windows Vista operating system is currently in development by an internal team of Microsoft Game Studios . The sequel features new game mechanics such as dual wielding, new vehicles and weapons, better AI, the ability to hijack vehicles, and Internet-based multiplayer via Xbox Live . It has an advanced graphics engine that utilizes Normal Mapping and bloom effects, helping to make it one of the best looking games on the Xbox. It also has Bungie.net integration and rankings and tracking of every online match, pushing the envelope of online console gaming further. In ''Halo 2'', Master Chief battles the Covenant on Earth and later continues the fight on a second ring, Delta Halo. Meanwhile, the Covenant slides into . The cliffhanger ending suggests that another sequel is in the works. ''Halo 2'' is much more ambitious than its predecessor. There is heated debate over whether the game is superior to its predecessor. Arguments are mainly directed at the multiplayer aspect of the two games, with emphasis placed on ''Halo 2'''s greatly simplified learning curve and controversial matchmaking modes but lacks custom maps and games. ''Halo 3'' The Cliffhanger ending of ''Halo 2'', as well as the success of the ''Halo'' franchise, along with the epilogue on bungie.net makes a sequel definite. Halo will become a Trilogy , after which Bungie may be done with the series. Sources from inside both Microsoft and Bungie have made contradictory claims regarding whether ''Halo 3'' is currently in development. was less definite, saying : "We haven't announced anything on what Bungie is doing or where we're going with the future of the 'Halo' franchise... With all respect to Bill, I don't run Bungie's studio, and neither does he. We'll work with the Bungie guys and let people know they have something to announce ". Bungie has not denied that another ''Halo'' game is in progress, but they have not officially announced the game. However, the studio is known for being highly secretive and even occasionally misleading regarding development of their games. Bungie has recently made regular references to "our next project" in their website's weekly news updates. Though no official statements have been made regarding what that next game is, most believe it is indeed ''Halo 3'', and that Bungie is just being coy about the project in typical Bungie fashion. Bungie has also recently stated that ''Sapien'' and ''Guerilla'', custom-made programming tools used to build ''Halo'' and ''Halo 2,'' are being worked on. An article in '' Game Informer '' in November 2005 reports that: "Halo developer Bungie is so paranoid about the storyline for ''Halo 3'' leaking out that two different storylines are being worked on so that even the company's employees are in the dark as to the plot of the game." Game Informer has also mentioned that Bungie is working on a "non-halo" project as well as possibly Halo 3. An alternative possibility is that, following the precedent of '' Marathon Infinity '', either an outside agency or a contractor to Bungie is developing the content of ''Halo 3'' and using the existing engine, or possibly porting the engine to the Xbox 360 . This view could explain Bungie's reluctance to speak on their next project, as if they have indeed handed Halo 3 to a third party, the two announcements (of Bungie's next project and of Halo 3) would likely be made concurrently. Wideload Games has been suggested by fans as a potential such outside developer, reasoning that the third Marathon game was developed by a company which was, like Wideload, founded by former Bungie employees. Soon after the Xbox 360 was unveiled in May 2005 , EB Games and FYE started taking Pre-order s for ''Halo 3'', despite having no official word from Bungie on whether they would make another Halo game. The pre-order page has since been taken down, but other retailers have followed suit. On October 4 , 2005 , ivanjrn, a user at www.richeswillrust.com deployed a fake script for ''Halo 3''. Bungie said in this news article that the script was in fact fake. Since the posting of the script, the message board has been closed down. Halo Forerunner As reported in the April issue of , the magazine stated that they were not joking "which was not an April Fools joke by the way". It should also be noted that the ''Forerunners'' game concept is similar to the plot of Larry Niven 's book The Ringworld Engineers . Halo Orion Also reported in the May issue of Game Informer , Bungie also plans to produce a game based on the Halo series called Orion. Orion will mostly be a FPS MMORPG-oriented game. The game is still under development, so, like Forerunner, details on Orion may change. Possible Events For Halo 3''
POSSIBLE INFLUENCES Some fans believe ''Halo'' and ''Halo 2'' were influenced by a number of other games and Pop Culture references, partially based on the game series own references to some of these pop culture icons. These include '' StarCraft '', the '' Alien '' and '' Predator '' movies, the '' Marathon '' series, and Larry Niven 's Known Space universe. No comment has been made about these possible influences by the developer and these ideas are only speculation. ''Marathon'' A number of weapons and Plot Devices seem to borrow from ideas seen in the '' Marathon '' series of first-person shooters made by Bungie in the early to mid- 1990s (see List Of Weapons In The Halo Universe ). These include the concept of MJOLNIR "cyborgs", the supersoldier main character, the weapons, artificial intelligences, and even some of the alien creatures. Upon close inspection, crew members of the ''Pillar of the Autumn'' have the Marathon symbol on their uniforms, and the symbol is even embedded in the Halo logo itself. The Elites from ''Halo'' are somewhat similar (in their appearance, not their role) to ''Marathon'' These large similarities led to early speculation that ''Halo'' took place in the same universe as ''Marathon'', only with different time frames; however, this was later proved highly unlikely. According to both the ''Halo'' video games and books, the events in ''Halo'' coincide with the events in ''Marathon''. However, due to technology differences (the lack of transporter technology in ''Halo'', for one), this is impossible. On Bungie's own ''Marathon'' page, there is a Q&A which states, "Is Marathon the prequel to Halo? No, Marathon is a separate story, with wholly different characters, story and gameplay." [http://www.bungie.net/Games/Marathon/page.aspx?section=FAQInfo&subsection=FAQs&page=1 . Films Some film parallels in the games have been pointed out by various people. For instance, the ''active camouflage'' power-up is very similar to the type of camouflage used by the alien Yautja in the '' Predator '' film series. There are notices near the '' Pillar Of Autumn '' Adaptation See Also: Halo (film) A film adaptation of the game, being produced by Peter Jackson and wife Fran Walsh as executive producers, with Guillermo Del Toro rumored as director, is expected to be released in 2007 (see Gamespot.com press release) . Known Space Ringworld is a megastructure 95 million miles in radius that resembles the Halo installations, albeit on an enormously larger scale. This idea has been copied numerous times in science fiction, although normally on a larger scale than in ''Halo''. In both ''Halo'' and Known Space , humans develop space travel on their own and later encounter a hostile and technologically superior alien civilization. In one of Larry Niven 's early Known Space novels, World Of Ptavvs , it details an alien race, known as the Thrintun , and how they ruled a massive empire 2 billion years before humanity, through advanced mind control. At one point, the Thrintun's most advanced slave race eventually instigated a massive rebellion, using much of their own technology, which was developed for their masters, against them. The Thrintun, fearing extinction and intense paranoia, used an amplification device that targetted the minds of all sentient lifeforms, thus killing them. The wave from this device spread across the entire galaxy, killing all sentient life, including the Thrintun themselves. In Halo, the Forerunners used the Halos to extinguish all intelligent life in the galaxy, in order to prevent The Flood from escaping the Halo installations. Historical and mythological facts ''Halo'' took names from world history and mythology to aptly name objects and important characters in the ''Halo'' universe. Some of these names include:
''The Culture'' Alternatively, it is possible (or even likely) that ''Halo'' was inspired by the Orbitals featuring in '' The Culture '' novels by Iain M. Banks , as they are ring-shaped megastructures that orbit stars or gas giants, rather than rotate around them. These smaller structures have the advantage of not needing additional machinery to generate a day/night cycle. Furthering this theory is the fact that the Covenant resemble in no small measure the Idiran race, religious zealots bent on eradicating The Culture, which they regard as heretical or that the Forerunner robot 343GuiltySpark resembles a Culture drone. Other science fiction ''Halo'' seems to be inspired by a number of other science fiction books, particularly ''Ender's Game''. The Drones that appear in ''Halo 2'' resemble the "Buggers" from '' Ender's Game '', as in the third level they are referred to by Sgt. Johnson as "Buggers, heading over the rooftops!" There are numerous other references and links, such as the Spartan program, which closely mirrors the super soldier program from the novel. From reading Ender's Game, one would notice a plethora of other small similarities, from the fleets, down to the alien species. The concept of the Flood remarkably resembles the aliens noted in the later Ender books-creatures that rely on virii to survive. '' Starhammer '', written by '' Christopher Rowley '', details the story of a genetically altered man named Jon 6725416 who escapes slavery by a race of technologically advanced overlords threatening to destroy humanity, and finds an ancient weapon that was created by an ancient race to destroy a parasitic alien life form called the Vang that may have been a partial basis for the Flood. 343 Guilty Spark is also very similar to a small floating AI that shares a similar manner of speech. In the book '' Starship Troopers '', the Mobile Infantry are equiped with powered armor and are launched down to the surface of a planet in pods, not unlike the Spartans and ODSTs of Halo. Common culture ''Halo'' uses a number of common plot devices, although often they are not immediately apparent.
Religion There are subtle references to the Bible in the Halo series. For example, the story of Noah could be a possible influence for The Flood. Also, there is a reference to Noah's Ark (the Forerunners' Ark could possibly be capable of surviving the detonation of the Halos), or, if interpreted in another way, the Ark Of The Covenant (The Ark is sought out by The Covenant for the purpose of activating all the Halos). Another reference would be Master Chief's real name being John, and designation number 117, relating to John 1:17 in the Bible: "Because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Also, the fact that the game includes a reference to "the flood" and "the ark" may be a reference to Noah and his Ark - The flood cleanses, while a leader takes two of each species to repopulate - this may also apply to the makeup of the covenant - individual races bound together by a leader caste. Fan fiction A large body of Fan Fiction based on the ''Halo'' series has been written, covering both the past and future of the setting. The sites Bungie.net and halo.bungie.org both host collections of Halo fan fiction. Indeed, there are several works of fan fiction that run to the length of a novel or more, and are well-known among the Halo community. Additionally, fanfiction.net hosts a selection of over 1000 ''Halo''-inspired pieces. ''The Haunted Apiary'' '' The Haunted Apiary '' (aka ''I Love Bees'') was an Alternate Reality Game used to promote the release of '' Halo 2 ''. The game was centred on a website at ilovebees.com , and was created by 4orty2wo Entertainment , commissioned by Microsoft and endorsed by Bungie. The URL was discovered when it was briefly flashed on an official ''Halo 2'' trailer. ''Halo'' machinima '''', another comedy, to '' The Codex '', a Space Opera more closely tied to ''Halo'' canon — have also been created. ''Time'' magazine Recently, the creators of ''Halo'' were listed in ''Time'''s 100 most influential figures of the past year. This is due to the reason that ''Halo'' manages to appeal to both casual and hard core gamers, and broke sales records, making gaming more mainstream entertainment. Music
Three soundtracks, all composed by Martin O'Donnell, have been released based on the ''Halo'' game series:
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