Halo: Combat Evolved is a first person shooter that takes place on a mysterious planet-like construct referred to as 'Halo'. Two days before the story begins, the Covenant, a collection of alien species committed to the destruction of the human race, launch an assault on the home of Human military production, Reach, destroying it. A single starship, the Pillar of Autumn, survives the alien onslaught, carrying one of the last known SPARTANs- the "Master Chief". The ship initiates a random jump to Slipspace, hoping to lead the enemy away from Earth. Following coordinates chosen by the onboard Al construct named 'Cortana', they jump to an alien built ring which orbits a planet. This ring is called Halo. Halo was built by a mysterious group of people in the distant past called "The Forerunners". Although the Protagonist (the Master Chief) does not know it, seven rings were constructed to completely eradicate all life in the galaxy. The rings were built as weapons of last resort to stop a parasitic race called "The Flood". Most of the history between the Forerunners and the Flood is unknown, but it appears that the Forerunners were overwhelmed by the Flood, who then proceeded to destroy their own civilisation in an attempt to starve the flood, leaving the universe empty and safe for new organisms to evolve. The Covenant discovered the rings and believe that they will lead their civilization on a "Great Journey". The "Sacred Rings" are the most treasured artifacts of the Covenant and they guard the rings savagely. Each "Halo" requires an Index to activate. The player is to stop the Covenant from activating Halo and prevent the Flood spreading across the universe, while faced with a massive four way war fought over immense and beautiful landscapes.
Halo: Custom Edition
Halo Custom Edition is a powerful expansion of the PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved. It is used to load user-created content (mods) that were created using the Halo Editing Kit (HEK). Halo CE includes online multiplayer where users are able to play against opponents with the same maps.
Halo 2
Halo 2 is the sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, released for the Xbox on November 9, 2004 in two different editions; the standard Halo 2 edition, with traditional Xbox packaging and a single disc with the single-player and multiplayer components, and the Collector's Edition, package in a specially designed aluminium case, along with an additional bonus DVD, extra booklet and slightly different user manual (written from the perspective of the Covenant military as opposed to the standard edition which was from humanity's perspective). The game's sales generated US$125 million on its premiere day, making it the fastest selling United States media product in history. The game has sold over 7 million copies worldwide since release. A PC port for the Windows Vista operating system is currently in development by an internal team composed of both Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios.
Halo 2 features new vehicles and weapons, and improved artificial intelligence, as well as new game mechanics like dual wielding and the ability to hijack vehicles. In Halo 2, you can now play as the covenant- Arbiter (The master elite). Unlike its predecessor, the game fully supports online multiplayer via Xbox Live and held a record for the most played game on Xbox live until the release of Gears of War. The game has a reworked, more advanced graphics engine than the original, utilizing normal mapping and bloom effects. It also has Bungie.net integration and rankings and tracking of every online match. Halo 2 supports the same local area network and split-screen multiplayer components found in Halo: Combat Evolved.
Halo 3
Halo 3, the third game in the best-selling Xbox game franchise Halo, is a highly anticipated first-person shooter video game under development by Bungie Studios for the Xbox 360 and is expected to "set a new high water mark" for next-generation games. An official announcement on the developers' website states that Halo 3 will end the current story arc of the Halo trilogy. A beta test of the multi-player component of the game is scheduled to begin on May 16th, 2007. The final version of the game is due to be released in Fall 2007.
