What was it like to have to wait for Halo 1-3?

Games Other Halo
17

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> > > > There wasn’t much build up around Halo CE but I played the campaign demo, on an Xbox Kiosk, for months leading up the release with the original Xbox. Halo 2, on the other hand, was amazing! The E3 2004 Halo 2 Campaign Demo got everyone all sorts of hyped up then we saw the E3 2004 Halo 2 Multiplayer Demo which pushed everyone over the edge! Everyone was chomping at the bit to play Halo 2! It’s all anyone and everyone was talking about.
> > > >
> > > > There was actually leaked Halo 2 Alpha Footage, before we saw anything at E3, of MLG players playing Halo 2 for the first time. I tried to find the video but the Alpha version of the game apparently can be found/downloaded online so I stopped looking. That leaked multiplayer footage really excited alot of people. The anticipation swelled leading up to Halo 2.
> > > >
> > > > Halo 3 though, was the cream of the crop. The hype and excitement around Halo had never been higher. Nothing since then has ever come even close to how monumental Halo 3 was. It all started with the E3 2006 Halo 3 Teaser then continued in December 2006 when the Halo 3 Starry Night Trailer debuted during Sunday Night Football. May 2007 finally came and we were finally able to play the Halo 3 Beta which nearly destroyed the Xbox Live Servers because so many people were trying to log in. Between the invitations that Bungie sent out and the invites through buying Crackdown, the servers were pushed to their limits. One of the final BIG trailers was the E3 2007 Halo 3 Campaign Trailer. The old glory days of the old Halo games were unlike anything we’ve seen in the last decade. I’m happy that I was a part of all the hype and excitement of the older Bungie Era Halo Games and wish I could better convey how that time was truly the BEST time to be a Halo fan. It was, honestly, a time when every single Xbox owner had an Xbox because of Halo. No other game came close. If someone wasn’t playing Halo, it was because they were playing on a Playstation or Nintendo.
> > > >
> > > > Those were the best years to be a Halo fan.
> > >
> > > don’t forget the Halo 3 Mountain Dew Game Fuel and slurpee flavor. and I think even Burger King promoted it. It was EVERYWHERE! I had never been so hyped for anything, and haven’t been since…
> >
> > I must have been playing ALOT during that advertising campaign because I don’t remember seeing a single commercial or ad for the Burger King or Slurpee. To be fair, Slurpee is a 7-11 drink and the closest one to me is 4ish hours away so that makes sense
>
> I have like 12 7-11s in a small radius by me so I was there like everyday. as for burger king, I only know it had some advertising because I randomly went there in the ad time frame. it was just the logo on the cups and fry holders.

That’s awesome! I gotta hunt down those old school Halo cups to add to the collection one of these days. I went to BK fairly often so either I never noticed or the promotion didn’t last very long where I’m at.

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> > There wasn’t much build up around Halo CE but I played the campaign demo, on an Xbox Kiosk, for months leading up the release with the original Xbox. Halo 2, on the other hand, was amazing! The E3 2004 Halo 2 Campaign Demo got everyone all sorts of hyped up then we saw the E3 2004 Halo 2 Multiplayer Demo which pushed everyone over the edge! Everyone was chomping at the bit to play Halo 2! It’s all anyone and everyone was talking about.
> >
> > There was actually leaked Halo 2 Alpha Footage, before we saw anything at E3, of MLG players playing Halo 2 for the first time. I tried to find the video but the Alpha version of the game apparently can be found/downloaded online so I stopped looking. That leaked multiplayer footage really excited alot of people. The anticipation swelled leading up to Halo 2.
> >
> > Halo 3 though, was the cream of the crop. The hype and excitement around Halo had never been higher. Nothing since then has ever come even close to how monumental Halo 3 was. It all started with the E3 2006 Halo 3 Teaser then continued in December 2006 when the Halo 3 Starry Night Trailer debuted during Sunday Night Football. May 2007 finally came and we were finally able to play the Halo 3 Beta which nearly destroyed the Xbox Live Servers because so many people were trying to log in. Between the invitations that Bungie sent out and the invites through buying Crackdown, the servers were pushed to their limits. One of the final BIG trailers was the E3 2007 Halo 3 Campaign Trailer. The old glory days of the old Halo games were unlike anything we’ve seen in the last decade. I’m happy that I was a part of all the hype and excitement of the older Bungie Era Halo Games and wish I could better convey how that time was truly the BEST time to be a Halo fan. It was, honestly, a time when every single Xbox owner had an Xbox because of Halo. No other game came close. If someone wasn’t playing Halo, it was because they were playing on a Playstation or Nintendo.
> >
> > Those were the best years to be a Halo fan.
>
> I still have ‘fake memories’ of playing the Halo 2 campaign demo.
> That part @3:55 when the player jumps down and starts dual wielding smgs, taking out grunts. I still wish I could actually play that demo.

I believe there is still a way to play that demo, to a certain degree, I’m just not entirely sure where

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> > > > > There wasn’t much build up around Halo CE but I played the campaign demo, on an Xbox Kiosk, for months leading up the release with the original Xbox. Halo 2, on the other hand, was amazing! The E3 2004 Halo 2 Campaign Demo got everyone all sorts of hyped up then we saw the E3 2004 Halo 2 Multiplayer Demo which pushed everyone over the edge! Everyone was chomping at the bit to play Halo 2! It’s all anyone and everyone was talking about.
> > > > >
> > > > > There was actually leaked Halo 2 Alpha Footage, before we saw anything at E3, of MLG players playing Halo 2 for the first time. I tried to find the video but the Alpha version of the game apparently can be found/downloaded online so I stopped looking. That leaked multiplayer footage really excited alot of people. The anticipation swelled leading up to Halo 2.
> > > > >
> > > > > Halo 3 though, was the cream of the crop. The hype and excitement around Halo had never been higher. Nothing since then has ever come even close to how monumental Halo 3 was. It all started with the E3 2006 Halo 3 Teaser then continued in December 2006 when the Halo 3 Starry Night Trailer debuted during Sunday Night Football. May 2007 finally came and we were finally able to play the Halo 3 Beta which nearly destroyed the Xbox Live Servers because so many people were trying to log in. Between the invitations that Bungie sent out and the invites through buying Crackdown, the servers were pushed to their limits. One of the final BIG trailers was the E3 2007 Halo 3 Campaign Trailer. The old glory days of the old Halo games were unlike anything we’ve seen in the last decade. I’m happy that I was a part of all the hype and excitement of the older Bungie Era Halo Games and wish I could better convey how that time was truly the BEST time to be a Halo fan. It was, honestly, a time when every single Xbox owner had an Xbox because of Halo. No other game came close. If someone wasn’t playing Halo, it was because they were playing on a Playstation or Nintendo.
> > > > >
> > > > > Those were the best years to be a Halo fan.
> > > >
> > > > don’t forget the Halo 3 Mountain Dew Game Fuel and slurpee flavor. and I think even Burger King promoted it. It was EVERYWHERE! I had never been so hyped for anything, and haven’t been since…
>
>
>
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> > >
> >
> > I still have ‘fake memories’ of playing the Halo 2 campaign demo.
> > That part @3:55 when the player jumps down and starts dual wielding smgs, taking out grunts. I still wish I could actually play that demo.
>
> I believe there is still a way to play that demo, to a certain degree, I’m just not entirely sure where

After some quick searching, I couldn’t find anything. Just a lot of discussion.
If it ever become playable I don’t even know how I would react! =)

19

I didn’t know anything about Halo CE until my college room mate had it and I played with him. It was amazing. We were both hyped for halo 2 and didn’t have long to wait. The demo of halo 2 in the earth city was mind blowing. He got it on release day and we played the whole thing in two sittings I think. We were shocked by the ending. We thought we had done something wrong or skipped something so we loaded up the last level and went through it again on legendary expecting that maybe the final level was locked behind the legendary difficulty. After that we were kind of just let down. The game was fun, but that ending just kind of killed it for us. Also was hyped and then dissapointed by the earth levels.

Didn’t feel hype for halo 3 until e3. After that hype was high. Big battle on earth! The end of the story from halo 2! When it came out I was able to play it when a friend who got it. But we didn’t like it all that much. It wasn’t as immersive as CE or as arcadey as 2. I really didn’t like the halo 3 brutes. I had thought they would be like the halo 2 ones but with shields or something, but really they ended up being less interesting to play against than the elites.

Later on once I graduated, I got my own 360 and got ODST and Reach as I couldn’t just mooch off of roommates and friends anymore. I was hyped for ODST because it was a game about what halo 2 had promised. I had thought Halo 2 was going to mostly be about the battle for earth, but was somewhat disappointed by the only two levels and the fact that the art style didn’t match halo 2’s e3 look. Halo 3 ODST was going to make up for that mistake in halo 2 and it was going to be about a weak ODST going through an over run city and I was hyped because I thought we were gonna fight elites again. ODST mostly matched my hype. The city was amazing, the music was great, loved the pistol. Was sad that no elites were there. Was confused with the timeline. Overall I felt that ODST was almost worthy of the hype.

By Halo Reach I had kind of lost the hype because of the almost continuous disappointment with the halo games. Still I was interested in the new mechanics and the fact that custom armor would be in the campaign. I also thought the DMR was the Halo 2 E3 br finally being released. I thought armor abilities would be cool, and I was excited to see Reach. The game mostly matched my expectations and I really enjoyed the game. To me it somehow felt like the first halo game to be close to that initial halo ce gameplay. I don’t know why I felt this way exactly, but I think halo reach is my second favorite halo game.

Halo 4 had a minimum of hype for me. I was a little excited to see chief again and I wanted to know what 343 would do with the franchise, but I was already biased against 343 for what they had done to Halo Reach’s mp. And so there is my story of hypes.

20

I really got into the forums and waiting for H3 after I found out about “ilovebees” (R.I.P), and playing the demo for Crackdown. Ended up standing in line on release night for 3.

I probably put in over 2000 hrs. on my friend’s accounts for H2, and that’s where my love for the game came from.

Waiting for the release of any game is an endurance test, but hey, it’s coming out eventually unless it’s P.T.

I also picked up hobbies when I wasn’t working while waiting for a release.

21

anyone else remember the Cortana letters?

i miss these kinds of engaging gimmicks for the fans…
they really fell flat with “hunt the Truth” series…for it to NOT be anything like that in the game…what a waste.

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> I really got into the forums and waiting for H3 after I found out about “ilovebees” (R.I.P), and playing the demo for Crackdown. Ended up standing in line on release night for 3.
>
> I probably put in over 2000 hrs. on my friend’s accounts for H2, and that’s where my love for the game came from.
>
> Waiting for the release of any game is an endurance test, but hey, it’s coming out eventually unless it’s P.T.
>
> I also picked up hobbies when I wasn’t working while waiting for a release.

The Crackdown game turned out to be really fun to play while waiting for the Halo 3 Beta. Those were some good times. Halo 2 was a blast to play as well assuming you had the tolerance to deal with modders/hackers

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> > 2533274808754416;20:
> > I really got into the forums and waiting for H3 after I found out about “ilovebees” (R.I.P), and playing the demo for Crackdown. Ended up standing in line on release night for 3.
> >
> > I probably put in over 2000 hrs. on my friend’s accounts for H2, and that’s where my love for the game came from.
> >
> > Waiting for the release of any game is an endurance test, but hey, it’s coming out eventually unless it’s P.T.
> >
> > I also picked up hobbies when I wasn’t working while waiting for a release.
>
> The Crackdown game turned out to be really fun to play while waiting for the Halo 3 Beta. Those were some good times. Halo 2 was a blast to play as well assuming you had the tolerance to deal with modders/hackers

Halo 3 beta was the ONLY reason why i played Crackdown.

Crackdown is an unsnug hero game right up there with Fuzion Frenzy on the disc of Halo CE…

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> > > I really got into the forums and waiting for H3 after I found out about “ilovebees” (R.I.P), and playing the demo for Crackdown. Ended up standing in line on release night for 3.
> > >
> > > I probably put in over 2000 hrs. on my friend’s accounts for H2, and that’s where my love for the game came from.
> > >
> > > Waiting for the release of any game is an endurance test, but hey, it’s coming out eventually unless it’s P.T.
> > >
> > > I also picked up hobbies when I wasn’t working while waiting for a release.
> >
> > The Crackdown game turned out to be really fun to play while waiting for the Halo 3 Beta. Those were some good times. Halo 2 was a blast to play as well assuming you had the tolerance to deal with modders/hackers
>
> Halo 3 beta was the ONLY reason why i played Crackdown.
>
> Crackdown is an unsnug hero game right up there with Fuzion Frenzy on the disc of Halo CE…

You and at least one million other people. It was pretty great.

I really had a hunch that when Halo Infinite was announced that it would be paired with Crackdown 3 for a Beta invite. I thought it was a cool idea but it didn’t happen

25

I kind of remember when I saw the release of Halo:CE. Both me and my brother had always wanted an Xbox to play it. It wasn’t until Halo 3 when I got to play, So when I watched ‘CE’ and ‘2’ slip passed me I was devastated. But when dad bought me Halo 3 a few months after it was released, I fell in love with the franchise.

I wasn’t really ready for Halo ODST. But once I got it and realized you weren’t a Spartan but an ODST I had a respect for health packs and it’s my favorite as of now.

Halo Reach was the one I was hyped for the most. (I know, I know, calm down…) It had the dynamic of the armor abilities and a sprint and evade. And the Forge mode made it for me. I liked H3 forge but it didn’t have the Forge World.

H4, CE Anniversary, and H5 were just purchases to pass the time for me, cause I wasn’t into games for a while.

But only recently I have got new hope like others have said. I think if 343i has a repair strategy for gameplay and can have a reason to burn a hole in peoples pockets again that’d save some people. They have Warzone, but no game yet has had a Flood Firefight…

I digress.

26

I never saw the ads for Halo 1-3, slightly before my gaming years, (except the option on Halo 1’s main menu to watch the E3 Halo 2 trailer / demo and producer commentary) but I was really hyped for ODST when I saw the ads. It was kind of like imagining all the possibilites and places to go in the game and what was going to happen in the game (story wise).

Reach was like ODST but multiplied by 5. Especially because of playing the demo that was available in ODST (I think it showed up on the main menu in late 2009?). Finally having jet packs was just mind-boggling since I always tried to get to places in the campaign that we seemingly weren’t meant to (like Outskirts or Delta Halo).

27

Let me tell you what, this was honestly the most exciting part of my life when halo 1-3 were released. Multiplayer wasn’t nearly as big as it is now and when halo 3 came out with its multiplayer on xbox 360 man I lost it. I would rush home from school just so I can play it plus people weren’t as toxic as they’re now and I miss those days where people would get together and share the same interest in a game and have a blast doing it. It’s like all the tales I hear about when people would all come over and play the nintendo 64 man I wish I could experience that… Times are changing though and things are getting less and less what it was in the past…

28

Waiting for Halo 1 was exciting in the sense that we were also just hyped for the original xbox to be released. I was young and didn’t really know much about Bungie or the Xbox. My siblings and cousins were big Bungie fans already, though, and they built up Halo so much that it just hooked me in as well and made me excited. When it finally came out and I got a chance to play it myself, I absolutely fell in love with Halo!
After I got my own xbox console and copy of Halo 1, I really couldn’t wait for a sequel. Once it was revealed, everyone was super excited! The gaming forums at the time were full of people (similar to nowadays) being either excited or finding faults with the changes coming up in Halo 2. With Xbox Live also having been officially launched, a major source of peoples excitement came from finally being able to play Halo’s multiplayer online! Sure, LAN Parties were fun, but xbox live would make things more convenient!
Our Halo 2 hype further increased when we saw the H2 E3 2003 demo, which showed us things like Dual Wielding, Brutes, Vehicle boarding, marines driving us in a Warthog etc. Now, these things seem pretty trivial today, but at the time these additions made Halo 2 even bigger and more exciting! When the game finally came out, reactions didn’t seem to me as universally positive as with CE, but H2 still received a lot of love from the community at the time.
Fast forward a little bit and we were ready for another big Halo game. This was also in the early Halo YouTube days when every Halo video was either a montage, machinima, or something badly recorded with “Blow Me Away” in the background. This was when we also got to see the reveal for Halo 3 and some leaked videos (that would get quickly removed) that really drew in the hype! And then we all had to buy Crackdown just to play the Beta, which was such a great experience. I remember often switching back & forth from the Beta to some H2. I remember the promotion for H2 and somewhat for CE, but NOTHING compared to the promotion that Halo 3 got!
Good times, good times!!!

29

It was amazing. The midnight releases, long lines, crushing Halo Campaign the same night you bought it, it was great. Its a shame everything has to be downloaded now onto the xbox, no more buy & play right away.

Also the 3 year wait was a perfect timeframe.

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> It was amazing. The midnight releases, long lines, crushing Halo Campaign the same night you bought it, it was great. Its a shame everything has to be downloaded now onto the xbox, no more buy & play right away.
>
> Also the 3 year wait was a perfect timeframe.

Agreed, 1000%! Those were some really great times. I’m glad I got to experience it all

31

You know what I actually remember about waiting for Halo 2? The fact that there was no streaming video service yet (or if there was, I didn’t have the bandwidth for it.) So I remember being so excited because I started the download for the new trailer. Then I left and let it download for like two hours before I finally watched it.

32

Can’t believe I have seen no mention of the “I Love Bees” ARG.
Also, H3 Release confession time (hope it’s past some statute of limitations, though it’s hardly provable anyway). I got my hands on Halo 3 and beat it a whole week before release. It sorta, errrr… “fell off a truck”. I knew they were prepped to ban any account that was playing the game online before release so I disconnected from the internet. Also had 3 extra copies I gave to my friends. I remember feeling like a real special kinda a-hole that whole week.

Halo 2 classic MP was my all time favorite though. Logged over 10,000 games online with this account and probably close to 4,000 on a second account.

Anyone remember Free For All Rumble Armory? Where everyone had the same weapon? Some matches were all Needlers, or all Rockets, all Sentinel Beams, etc., It was awesome because it completely leveled the playing field (minus Host advantage of course). Loved that playlist. Got quite a few “UN-FREAKIN-BELIEVABLES” in H2 FFA. I wish the player population was high enough to bring back ranked FFA in H2 MCC.

33

I was a huge Halo fan from the start. I even read the books. When I came home from middle school the first thing I did was load up CE on my old desktop. Then, I bought an Xbox solely for the release of Halo 2. Some of my best childhood memories are of playing Halo 2 for hours on Xbox Live with friends. We played so many hours together making custom game matches like ‘Assassin’ or ‘Zombies’. There were also the game glitches where we would ‘super jump’ out of the map. When Halo 3 came out we were all able to play the campaign mode together. And I am still friends with many of those old Halo friends to this day. Needless to say we were hyped during the release of every Halo game.

34

Thanks for everyone responding I am feeling the hole Halo nostalgia so thank you and please keep on doing it.

35

Bungie’s Halo paved the way for all modern shooters today. I don’t think anything in the world was as tremendous as the anticipation for Halo 2. The E3 demos were spectacles that brought tears to the eye. You owned an Xbox because of Halo or you didn’t, it was one or the other. The year 2007 was Bungie’s golden year; each BWO would ooze with content and juicy screenshots of Halo 3. You would haul your cumbersome Xbox console over to your friend’s house and set up that sweet sweet system link play and just game all night. Then Halo 3’s teaser trailer dropped and, oh man… the rest is history. It was the best time ever to be a gamer. No other era could ever match.

36

It was pretty nuts. I’d say Halo 2 was the game that set the standard of the hype machine that games followed through on last gen. I hadnt seen anything like it up till that point.

Unfortunately, I didnt actually get to play Halo 2 until spring break of 2005 when one of my friends let me borrow his Xbox. I had been playing Halo CE on PC before that and I was introduced to Halo through lan parties in 2002.

Halo 2 sold like two million copies during its launch and back then that was insane. I mean, its still pretty impressive but it was unheard of back then. Halo 2 really legitimized pro gaming back then, Halo 2 also really helped begin an age of machining with red vs that started with Halo CE and there was the Linkin Park song.

With the cliff hanger ending of Halo 2 and the new generation of consoles with the Xbox 360 the hype of Halo 3 was through the roof. People got Crackdown just for the Halo 3 beta. This was before Call of Duty because a juggernaut, there was nothing that seemed nearly as popular in the same way, in a lot of ways Halo 3 seemed like the biggest event of the year.

Microsoft really pulled out all the stops with the marketing campaign, i dont k ow if anyone’s gone as far at this point. They partnered with Mountain Dew and Burger King. There were ads about it every where. They made those over the top live action ads that’s some would even argue exceeded the game in quality.

Speaking of those epic ads, they really didnt have much to do with the contents and story of the actual game and its a testament to either the overwelming enthusiasm for Halo or gaming in general that instead of controversy that most people instead just had fun with the game we actually got.

I remember Halo 2 was like the first game I heard of for midnight launches. I wish i could have got to Halo 3s, see I g everyone else ay it that night was agonizing but i went and got my copy in the morning and afterward I got every single Halo game at the midnight launch until Halo Wars 2.

Halo 3 broke multiple records on launch and looking back things were pretty different. Even when CoD4 picked up steam in the ling term Halo 3 was popular. It was so popular that when they sold maps for the game you could reasonably expect to be able to ay matches on no problem. In terms of population even by 2009 you could reasonably expect around 700k players to be online at any given time.

Idk if single a console exclusive multiplayer game can ever reach the heights of Halo 3 again . I’d be utterly shocked if the Halo franchise itself can even return to even Halo 2 or Reach levels of popularity or general fan enthusiasm.