Halo Everybody

While were on the subject of computer games, its funny to hear Woodstock say that the whole video game thing passed him by. Nowadays, what was a bit of a niche market for geeks back in the early 80's, has become a mass media culture and almost everyone has played some kind of video game at some point either on a mobile phone, console or on a pc. The big draw for me was always the graphics, the Amiga being the closest thing I could get to the arcade machines playing R-Type and Nemesis with the gorgeous coloured japanese space fighters and alien monsters. Eventually I gave up on the floppy disk driven Amiga and bought into the playstation culture. The graphical leap between the 16 bit graphics and the full 3d rendered art on the Playstation and Xbox was immense and ushered in a completely different experience of play. Modern games on the PS3 and Xbox360 are so far removed from early platform and shoot em up games on the Amiga as to compare a pencil sketch with an oil painting.

Apart from the graphical leap, the way games are designed has changed radically and one of the best proponents of game design is Bungie games, creators of Halo: Combat Evolved. Ten years ago in November, they released a first person shooter which put you in control of a genetically enhanced super soldier battling against an invading alien horde. What set it aside from its competition, aside from the spectacular graphics, was the story. Every aspect of the game was scripted like a film and cinematic sequences punctuated the action. The backstory was immense and immersive and was completely enthralling. The game is on the verge of its fourth incarnation now and for the tenth anniversary, the original game has been updated with cutting edge graphics. The design of each and every element has been considered from the mechanics of the weapons to the cultural beliefs of the alien races.

If anyone had to start with one sci-fi themed video game, this would be the point of entry. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary edition will be on sale shortly and will definitely be on my Xmas list!

Heres a promo video for the last release, Halo Reach which set the scene for the Halo series. Features a strong female lead in the style of Vasquez from aliens, but the characterisations in the game are seriously realistic and its possible to empathise with the characters in the game. The game graphics of recent releases arent dissimilar from the standard set in this video either!