Halo Series

Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved, also referred to as Halo: CE, or simply Halo, is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The first game of the Halofranchise, it was released on November 15, 2001 as a launch title for the Xbox gaming system,[1] and is considered the platform's "killer app".[7] With more than five million copies sold worldwide as of November 9, 2005,[8] Microsoft released versions of the game for Microsoft Windows (ported by Gearbox Software) and Mac OS X in 2003, and the surrounding storyline was adapted and elaborated into a series of novels and comic books. The game was later released as an Xbox Original for download onto an Xbox 360 HDD.

Halo is set in the twenty-sixth century, with the player assuming the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced super-soldier. The player is accompanied by Cortana, an artificial intelligence who occupies the Master Chief's neural interface. Players battle various aliens as they attempt to uncover the secrets of the eponymous Halo, a ring-shaped artificial world. The game has been called "easy to learn",[9] and has been praised for its "engaging story".[10]

Many game magazines have praised Halo as one of the best[11] and most important[12] games of all time. The game's popularity has led to labels such as "Halo clone"[13] and "Halo killer", applied respectively to games either similar to or anticipated to be better than it.[14] [15] In addition, the game inspired and was used in the fan-created Red vs. Blue video series, which is credited as the "first big success" of machinima[16] (the technique of using real-time 3D engines, often from video games, to create animated films). Two sequels, Halo 2 and Halo 3, a side game, Halo 3: ODST, and a prequel,Halo: Reach, were released in 2004, 2007, 2009, and 2010, respectively. A remake, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, was released in 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the original game's release. Halo 4, a planned sequel by 343 Industries, is currently in development.

[edit] Setting
Halo: Combat Evolved takes place in a science fiction universe created by Bungie Studios specifically for the game. According to the story, the overpopulation of Earth and the realization of faster-than-light travel have caused the human race to colonize other planets. A keystone of these efforts is the planet Reach, an interstellar naval yard and a hub of scientific and military activity.[19] A secret military endeavor, dubbed the SPARTAN Project, was established on Reach to create an army of biologically engineered, cyborg "super-soldiers". Twenty-seven years before the beginning of the game, a technologically advanced collective of alien races, the Covenant, began to attack human settlements, declaring humanity an affront to their gods. The United Nations Space Command experienced a series of crushing defeats, and, although the super-soldiers of the SPARTAN-II Project fought effectively against the Covenant, they were too few in numbers to turn the tides of war.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual_18-4" style="line-height:1em;">[19]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">To prepare for a mission to discover the location of the Covenant's homeworld, SPARTAN-II soldiers were recalled to Reach for armor upgrades. Two days before the mission was to begin, Covenant forces attacked Reach and destroyed the colony.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual_18-5" style="line-height:1em;">[19] A starship, the Pillar of Autumn, survived the onslaught with the lead SPARTAN-II, Master Chief, onboard. The ship initiated a random jump to slipspace (similar to hyperspace),<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-36" style="line-height:1em;">[37] hoping to lead the enemy away from Earth.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-37" style="line-height:1em;">[38] The game starts with the Pillar of Autumn encountering Halo.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual_18-6" style="line-height:1em;">[19]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The titular Halo is an enormous, ring-shaped artificial space station/planet, which (according to Bungie Studios) has a diameter of ten thousand kilometers.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bungie_38-0" style="line-height:1em;">[39] Halo sits at a Lagrange point between a planet and its moon. Centrifugal force created by the rotation of the station provides the ring's gravity.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gravity_39-0" style="line-height:1em;">[40]

[edit] Characters
Main article: Characters of Halo<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The player character is Master Chief Petty Officer John-117,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-john-117_40-0" style="line-height:1em;">[41] one of the few (see Halo: The Fall of Reach and its sequels for more information) surviving super-soldiers of the SPARTAN-II project, and the main character of the story. Accompanying the Master Chief is the Pillar of Autumns feminine artificial intelligence construct, Cortana, who resides in a neural implant connected to his battle armor, codenamed MJOLNIR Mark V. The Pillar of Autumns captain, Jacob Keyes, is also a major character, with Staff Sergeant Avery Junior Johnson as a supporting character. Playing a mainly antagonistic role in the game's events is 343 Guilty Spark, an eccentric artificial intelligence responsible for monitoring and maintaining Halo's systems.

[edit] Story
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Beginning immediately after the events of Halo: Reach, the game opens as the Pillar of Autumn exits slipspace near a mysterious ring-shaped space station, called "Halo" by the enemy of the game, the Covenant.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-41" style="line-height:1em;">[42] A Covenant fleet attacks and heavily damages the Pillar of Autumn. Captain Keyes initiates "The Cole Protocol",<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-42" style="line-height:1em;">[43] a procedure designed to prevent the Covenant from learning the location of Earth. While Keyes prepares to land the ship on Halo, the Master Chief and Cortana escape via an escape pod, which crash lands on the ring. Cortana and the Chief are the only ones who survive the impact of the escape pod crash.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Keyes survives the Autumn ' s crash landing, but is captured by the Covenant.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-43" style="line-height:1em;">[44] In the second and third levels of the game, the Master Chief and Cortana gather human survivors and rescue Captain Keyes, who is imprisoned aboard the Covenant shipTruth and Reconciliation. Once rescued, Keyes orders the Master Chief to beat the Covenant to Halo's control center and to discover its purpose.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-44" style="line-height:1em;">[45] The Master Chief and Cortana travel to a map room called the Silent Cartographer, which leads them to the control room.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-45" style="line-height:1em;">[46] There, Cortana enters the systems and, discovering something urgent, suddenly sends the Master Chief to find Captain Keyes while she stays behind.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-46" style="line-height:1em;">[47] While searching for his commander, the Master Chief learns that the Covenant have accidentally released the Flood, a parasitic alien race capable of spreading itself by overwhelming and infesting other sentient life-forms. Keyes falls victim to them while looking for a cache of weapons. The release of the Flood prompts Halo's AI monitor, 343 Guilty Spark, to recruit the Master Chief in retrieving the Index, a device that will activate Halo and prevent the Flood from spreading beyond the facility.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">After the Master Chief retrieves and prepares to use the Index, Cortana re-appears and warns him against the activation. She has discovered that Halo's defense system is a weapon designed to kill all sentient life in the galaxy, which the Flood requires to spread,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-47" style="line-height:1em;">[48] a revelation which Guilty Spark confirms.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-48" style="line-height:1em;">[49]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Faced with this information, the Master Chief and Cortana decide to destroy Halo to prevent its activation. While fighting the Flood, the Covenant, and Guilty Spark's Sentinels, Cortana discovers that the best way to accomplish this is to cause the crashed Pillar of Autumn to self-destruct.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-49" style="line-height:1em;">[50] However, Captain Keyes' authorization is required to destroy the Autumn,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-50" style="line-height:1em;">[51] forcing the Chief and Cortana to return to the now-Flood-infested Truth and Reconciliation to search for him. By the time that they reach Keyes, however, he has been infected beyond the point of no return by the Flood. The Master Chief retrieves Keyes' neural implants directly from his brain and retreats to the Autumn, where Cortana activates the ship's self-destruct sequence. However, 343 Guilty Spark reappears and deactivates the countdown, discovering the record of human history in the process.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-51" style="line-height:1em;">[52] The Master Chief manually destabilizes the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactors, and he and Cortana narrowly escape the destruction of the ring via a fighter.

[edit] Cast

 * Steve Downes as the Master Chief
 * Jen Taylor as Cortana
 * Pete Stacker as Captain Keyes
 * David Scully as Avery Johnson
 * Tim Dadabo as 343 Guilty Spark
 * Tawnya Pettiford-Wates as Foehammer
 * Chris Wicklund as Pvt. Jenkins
 * Mike Madeoy as Pvt. Bisenti
 * Mark Dias as Pvt. Mendoza
 * Andrew McKaige as Pvt. Chipps Dubbo

Halo 2
Halo 2<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> is a first-person shooter<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> video game developed by Bungie Studios<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. Released for the Xbox<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> video game console<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> on November 9, 2004, <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-anniversary_2-1" style="line-height:1em;">[3] <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> the game is the second installment in the Halo franchise<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. A Microsoft Windows<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> version of the game was released on May 31, 2007, <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-VistaRelease_3-3" style="line-height:1em;">[4] <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> developed by an internal team as Microsoft Game Studios<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. The game features a new game engine<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">, as well as using the Havok<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> physics engine<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">; added weapons and vehicles, and new multiplayer maps. The player alternately assumes the roles of the human Master Chief<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> and the alien Arbiter<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> in a twenty-sixth century conflict between the human United Nations Space Command<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> and genocidal Covenant<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">After the success of Combat Evolved, a sequel was expected and highly anticipated. Bungie found inspiration in plot points and gameplay elements that had been left out of their first game, including multiplayer over the internet through Xbox Live. Time constraints forced a series of cutbacks in the size and scope of the game, including a cliffhanger ending to the game's campaign mode that left many in the studio dissatisfied. Among Halo 2 ' s marketing efforts was an alternate reality game called "I Love Bees" that involved players solving real-world puzzles.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">On release, Halo 2 was the most popular video game on Xbox Live,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-halo2mostplayed_4-0" style="line-height:1em;">[5] holding that rank until the release of Gears of War for the Xbox 360 nearly two years later.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gearsofwaroustshalo2_5-0" style="line-height:1em;">[6] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1em;">[7] By June 20, 2006, more than 500 million games of Halo 2 had been played and more than 710 million hours have been spent playing it on Xbox Live;<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-halfbil_7-0" style="line-height:1em;">[8] by May 9, 2007, this number had risen to more than five million unique players.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5bil_8-0" style="line-height:1em;">[9] Halo 2 is the best-selling first-generation Xbox game<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-best-selling_9-0" style="line-height:1em;">[10] with at least 6.3 million copies sold in the United States alone.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-USsales_10-0" style="line-height:1em;">[11] Critical reception of the game was generally positive, with most publications lauding the strong multiplayer component. The campaign was the focus of criticism for its cliffhanger ending.

Setting
See also: Halo: Combat Evolved and Factions of Halo<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Halo 2 takes place in the 26th century. Humans, under the auspices of the United Nations Space Command or UNSC, have developed faster-than-light slipspace travel and colonized numerous worlds.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual_12-4" style="line-height:1em;">[13] According to the game's backstory, the outer colony world of Harvest was decimated by a collective of alien races known as the Covenant in 2525. Declaring humanity an affront to their gods, the Forerunners, the Covenant begin to systemically obliterate the humans with their superior numbers and technology. After the human bastion at the planet Reach is destroyed, a single ship, The Pillar of Autumn, follows protocol and initiates a random slipspace jump to lead the Covenant away from Earth. The crew discovers a Forerunner ringworldcalled Halo, which the Covenant wants to activate because of their religious belief that the activation of the ring will bring about a "Great Journey", sweeping loyal Covenant to salvation.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18" style="line-height:1em;">[19] Leading a guerilla insurgency on the ring's surface, the humans discover that the rings are actually weapons of last resort built to contain a terrifying parasite called the Flood. The human supersoldier Master Chief and his AI companion Cortana learn from Halo's AI monitor, 343 Guilty Spark, that activation of the Halos will prevent the spread of the Flood by destroying all sentient life the parasite can subsist on in the galaxy. Instead of activating the ring, however, the Master Chief evades Guilty Spark and his robots and detonates the Pillar of Autumn ' s engines, destroying the installation and preventing the escape of the Flood. The Master Chief and Cortana race back to Earth to warn of an impending invasion by Covenant forces.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19" style="line-height:1em;">[20]

Story
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Taking place shortly after the events of the novel Halo: First Strike, Halo 2 opens with the trial of a Covenant Elite commander aboard the Covenant's mobile capital city of High Charity. The Elite is stripped of his rank, branded a heretic for failing to stop the humans from destroying Halo, and is tortured by Tartarus, the Chieftain of the Covenant Brutes. On Earth, the Master Chief and Sergeant Avery Johnson are commended for their actions at Halo. Lord Terrence Hood awards the soldiers alongside Commander Miranda Keyes, who accepts a medal on behalf of her deceased father, Captain Jacob Keyes.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-hood_20-0" style="line-height:1em;">[21]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">A Covenant fleet appears outside Earth's defensive perimeter and begins an invasion of the planet. While the UNSC repels most of the fleet, a single Covenant cruiser carrying an important member of the Covenant hierarchy, the High Prophet of Regret, assaults the city of New Mombasa, Kenya. The Master Chief assists in clearing the city of Covenant; with his fleet destroyed, Regret makes a hasty slipspace jump, and Keyes, Johnson, Cortana and the Master Chief follow aboard the UNSC ship In Amber Clad. The crew discover another Halo installation; realizing the danger the ring presents, Keyes sends the Master Chief to kill Regret while she and Johnson find Halo's key to activation, the Index.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Meanwhile, the disgraced Covenant commander is presented before the Prophet Hierarchs, who acknowledge that though the destruction of Halo was his fault, he is no heretic. They offer him the honored position of Arbiter so that he can continue to fight for the Covenant. On his first mission to kill a heretic, the Arbiter discovers 343 Guilty Spark, who the Covenant calls an "oracle", and brings him back to High Charity. Responding to Regret's distress call, High Charity and the Covenant fleet arrive at the new Halo, Installation 05, just before the Master Chief kills Regret. Bombarded from space, the Chief falls into a lake and is rescued by a mysterious tentacled creature.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The death of Regret sows seeds of discord among the races of the Covenant, as the Hierarchs have given the Brutes the Elites' traditional job of protecting them in the wake of the death. The Arbiter is sent to find Halo's Index and captures it, Johnson, and Keyes before being confronted by Tartarus. He reveals to the Arbiter that the Prophets have ordered the annihilation of the Elites, and sends the Arbiter falling down a deep chasm.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Arbiter is saved by the tentacled creature and meets the Master Chief in the bowels of the installation. The creature, Gravemind, is the leader of the Flood on Installation 05. Gravemind reveals to the Arbiter that the Great Journey would destroy Flood, humans, and Covenant together. Gravemind sends the Arbiter and Master Chief to different places to stop Halo's activation. The Master Chief is teleported into High Charity, where a civil war has broken out among the Covenant; In Amber Cladcrashes into the city, and Cortana realizes that Gravemind used them as a distraction to infest In Amber Clad and spread the Flood. As the parasite overruns the city, consuming the Prophet of Mercy in the process, the Prophet of Truth orders Tartarus to take Keyes, Johnson, and Guilty Spark to Halo's control room and activate the ring. The Master Chief follows Truth aboard a Forerunner ship leaving the city; Cortana remains behind to destroy High Charity and Halo if Tartarus succeeds in activating the ring.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-21" style="line-height:1em;">[22]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Arbiter is sent to the surface of Halo, where he rallies his allies to assault the Brute's position. With the help of Johnson, he confronts Tartarus in Halo's control room. When the Arbiter tries to convince Tartarus that the Prophets have betrayed them both, Tartarus angrily activates the ring, and a battle ensues. The Arbiter and Johnson manage to kill Tartarus while Keyes removes the Index. Instead of shutting down the ring entirely, a system wide fail-safe protocol is triggered, putting Installation 05 and all the other Halo rings on standby for activation from a remote location, which Guilty Spark refers to as "the Ark".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-22" style="line-height:1em;">[23] As Truth's ship arrives amidst a raging battle on Earth, Hood asks the Master Chief what he is doing aboard the ship. The Chief replies, "Sir, finishing this fight."

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">In a post-credits scene, Gravemind is seen arriving on High Charity, where Cortana agrees to answer the Flood intelligence's questions.

<h2 style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Halo 3

<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for the Xbox 360 console. The third installment in the Halo franchise, the game concludes the story arc begun in Halo: Combat Evolvedand continued in Halo 2. The game was released on September 25, 2007 in Australia, Brazil, India, New Zealand, North America, and Singapore; September 26, 2007 in Europe; and September 27, 2007 in Japan. Halo 3 ' s story centers on the interstellar war between twenty-sixth century humanity and a collection of alien races known as the Covenant. The player assumes the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier, as he battles the Covenant. The game features vehicles, weapons, and gameplay not present in previous titles of the series, as well as the addition of saved gameplay films, file sharing, and the Forge map editor—a utility which allows the player to perform modifications to multiplayer levels.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Bungie began developing Halo 3 shortly after Halo 2 shipped. The game was officially announced at E3 2006, and its release was preceded by a multiplayer beta open to select players who purchased the Xbox 360 game Crackdown. Microsoft spent $40 million on marketing the game, in an effort to sell more game consoles and broaden the appeal of the game beyond the established Halo fanbase. Marketing included cross-promotions and an alternate reality game.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">On the day before its official release, 4.2 million units of Halo 3 were in retail outlets.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gamespot-4.2mil_retail_3-0" style="line-height:1em;">[4] Halo 3 grossed US$300 million in its first week.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-sales_4-0" style="line-height:1em;">[5] More than one million people played Halo 3 on Xbox Live in the first twenty hours.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1milxbox_5-0" style="line-height:1em;">[6] Halo 3 has now sold in excess of 8.1 million copies<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-halomasseffect_6-0" style="line-height:1em;">[7] and was the best-selling video game of 2007 in the U.S.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gamasutra-bestselling2007_7-0" style="line-height:1em;">[8] Overall, the game was very well received by critics, with the Forge and multiplayer offerings singled out as strong features; however some reviewers criticized single-player aspects, especially the plot and campaign layout. A prequel to the game, Halo 3: ODST, was released worldwide on September 22, 2009; a sequel, Halo 4, is in development.

Setting and characters
See also: Characters of Halo<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Halo 3 is set in a science fiction setting during the years 2552 and 2553. In the year 2525, a theocratic alliance of alien races known as the Covenant discover humanity spread across dozens of interstellar colonies.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-timeline_27-0" style="line-height:1em;">[28] The Covenant declare humanity an affront to their gods and begin destroying colonies by bombarding the planets with barrages of plasma, turning their surfaces into glass. Despite efforts to keep the Covenant from finding further human worlds, a Covenant fleet discovers Earth duringHalo 2.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual_15-1" style="line-height:1em;">[16]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">"Halos" are massive ringworlds, several hundred kilometers in diameter, scattered across the galaxy. These rings were constructed thousands of years ago by a race known as the Forerunners as weapons of last resort against the parasitic alien species known as the Flood. When activated, the Halos would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy, depriving the Flood of its food.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-28" style="line-height:1em;">[29] The Forerunners disappeared after they activated the rings.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-29" style="line-height:1em;">[30] In Halo: Combat Evolved, a small human ship fleeing the Covenant stumbled upon one of these ringworlds, Installation 04. The humans manage to destroy the ring, stopping the Flood; the Covenant, unaware of the destructive nature of the rings, attempt to fire another ring, Installation 05, during Halo 2 in order to fulfill their religious prophecy.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-wind_30-0" style="line-height:1em;">[31] One race in the Covenant, the Elites, learn the truth about the rings, and join forces with humanity in order to stop the firing of the ring. Though they are successful, the unexpected shutdown of the installation triggers a fail-safe protocol, priming all the rings for firing from one location, referred to as the Ark.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-31" style="line-height:1em;">[32] Still oblivious to the true nature of the rings, the Covenant High Prophet of Truth and the remaining loyalist Covenant proceed to head to Earth, where they believe the Ark is buried.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Halo 3 ' s protagonist is the Master Chief, a surgically enhanced supersoldier known as a "Spartan". The Chief fights alongside the Arbiter, a disgraced Covenant Elite commander. Two other Elite characters, N'tho 'Sraom and Usze 'Taham, appear as the third and fourth players in cooperative play.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-soundofsack_20-2" style="line-height:1em;">[21] Supporting characters from previous games return, including human soldiers Avery Johnson and Miranda Keyes.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual_15-2" style="line-height:1em;">[16] The Forerunner artificial intelligence 343 Guilty Spark, who tries and fails to stop the Master Chief from destroying its ringworld in Halo: Combat Evolved, also makes an appearance.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual_15-3" style="line-height:1em;">[16] Also playing a role in the story is the Flood entity known as the "Gravemind". In Halo 2, this leader of the Flood escapes from confinement on Installation 05, invades the Covenant mobile capital city of High Charity, and captures Cortana, a human-created artificial intelligence.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual_15-4" style="line-height:1em;">[16]

Story
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">After the events of the comic tie-in Halo: Uprising,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-H_uprising_32-0" style="line-height:1em;">[33] the Master Chief crashes in eastern Africa, where he is found by Johnson and the Arbiter. The Chief, Johnson, and company fight Covenant in the jungle and arrive at a UNSC outpost. Here, Keyes and Lord Hood plan a final effort to stop the Covenant leader, the High Prophet of Truth, from activating a Forerunner artifact uncovered outside the ruins of the city of New Mombasa. The Chief clears anti-air Covenant defenses so Hood can lead the last of Earth's ships against the Prophet, but Truth activates the buried artifact, creating a slipspace portal which he and his followers enter. A Flood-infested ship crash-lands nearby; Elite forces arrive and vitrify Flood-infected areas of Earth, stopping the threat. Following a message Cortana left aboard the Flood ship, the Chief, Arbiter, Elites, Johnson, Keyes and their troops follow Truth through the portal. Joining them is 343 Guilty Spark, who aids the Chief as he has no function to fulfill after the destruction of his ringworld.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Traveling through the portal, the humans and Elites discover an immense artificial structure known as the Ark, far beyond the edges of the Milky Way galaxy. Here, Truth can remotely activate all the Halos. The Flood arrive en masse aboard High Charity and begin infesting the installation. Truth captures Johnson, as he needs a human to use Forerunner technology. Keyes is killed attempting a rescue, and Johnson is forced to activate the rings. Gravemind forges a truce with the Chief and Arbiter to stop Truth. The Arbiter, Master Chief, and Flood forces arrive and overwhelm Truth's guards, rescuing Johnson and halting the installations' activation. After the Arbiter kills Truth, Gravemind turns on the Chief and Arbiter.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Chief, Arbiter and Guilty Spark discover that the Ark is constructing a Halo to replace the one that the Chief previously destroyed. The Chief decides to activate this Halo; the ringworld would eliminate the Flood infestation on the Ark while sparing the galaxy at large from destruction. To activate the ring, the Chief rescues Cortana, who has the Activation Index of the destroyed Halo, from High Charity and destroys the city. Arriving on the new Halo, Cortana warns that Gravemind is trying to rebuild itself on the ring. The Chief, Arbiter, and Johnson travel to Halo's control room to activate the ring. Guilty Spark explains that because the ring is not yet complete, a premature activation will destroy it and the Ark. When Johnson ignores his warning, Guilty Spark kills him to protect "his" ring. The Chief and Arbiter destroy Guilty Spark, activate the ring, and escape the ring's self-destruction on the UNSC frigate Forward Unto Dawn. However, the force of Halo's blast causes the slipspace portal to collapse, resulting in only the front half of Forward Unto Dawn, carrying the Arbiter, making it back to Earth.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Believing the Chief to have perished, a memorial service is held on Earth for the fallen heroes of the Human-Covenant war. After the memorial service, the Arbiter and his Elite brethren departs for their home planet. Meanwhile, the rear half of Forward Unto Dawn floats in unknown space. Cortana drops a distress beacon, but realizes it may be years before they are rescued. The Chief enters cryonic sleep, telling Cortana to "wake me, when you need me." If the game is completed at the Legendary difficulty level, the scene continues to show the piece of Forward Unto Dawn drifting towards a planet.

Halo: Reach
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Halo: Reach is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 console. Reach was released in North America, Australia, and Europe on September 14, 2010. The game takes place in the year 2552, where humanity is locked in a war with the alien Covenant. Players control Noble Six, a member of an elite supersoldier squad, during the battle for the human world of Reach.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Reach was originally announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 in Los Angeles, California, with the first in-engine trailer shown at the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards. Players who purchased Halo 3: ODST were eligible to participate in a Reach multiplayer beta in May 2010; the beta allowed Bungie to gain player feedback for fixing bugs and making gameplay tweaks before shipping the final version. The developers focused on creating a compelling world, more difficult enemies, and updated graphics and audio.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Halo: Reach grossed US$200 million on its launch day, setting a new record for the franchise. The game sold well in most territories, moving more than three million units its first month in North America. Critical reception was positive; reviewers from publications such as IGN, GamePro, and Official Xbox Magazine called it the best Halo title yet. Reach was Bungie's final Halo game, with future games overseen by the Microsoft subsidiary 343 Industries.

Setting and characters
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Reach takes place in a futuristic science fiction setting; the year is 2552, shortly before the events of the video game Halo: Combat Evolved,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gameinformer-feb2010_12-0" style="line-height:1em;">[13] and during the events of the novel Halo: The Fall of Reach. Humans, under the auspices of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC), have been waging a long war against a collective of alien races known as the Covenant. By the events of Reach, almost all of humanity's interstellar colonies have fallen. Reach itself is an Earthlike colony that serves as the UNSC's main military hub. The colony is home to over 700 million civilians in addition to the military presence.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-reach_intel_13-0" style="line-height:1em;">[14]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The game follows the actions of "Noble Team", a UNSC special operations unit composed of elite supersoldiers known as Spartans. Players assume the role of an unnamed new addition to the team, and are identified by the call sign Noble Six.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-IGN_trailer_analysis_14-0" style="line-height:1em;">[15] Noble Team's leader is Carter-A259 (which dies in the ninth mission), a no-nonsense soldier. His second-in-command, Kat-B320 (dies in the eighth), has a bionic arm; together, Carter and Kat are the only remaining original members of Noble Team. The other current members include heavy weapons specialist Jorge-052 (dies in the seventh), assault specialist Emile-A239(which dies in the ninth, along with Carter), and marksman Jun-A266 (left Reach after the tenth mission).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gameinformer-developer_commentary_4-1" style="line-height:1em;">[5] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gameinformer-feb2010_12-1" style="line-height:1em;">[13]

Story
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Noble Team, dispatched to discover why a communications relay has gone offline, discovers Covenant forces on Reach. Soon after, the team defends "Sword Base", an Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) installation, from a Covenant vessel. The team meets Catherine Halsey, a scientist and the mastermind behind the Spartan program and their MJOLNIR powered armor. Halsey informs Noble Team that the Covenant forces at the relay were searching for important information.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Jun and Six are dispatched on a covert mission to assess the Covenant's strength and discover an invasion force. The following morning, Noble Team leads UNSC forces in assaulting a Covenant ground base. When a massive Covenant super-carrier joins the fight, Jorge and Six take part in a plan to destroy the carrier using a makeshift bomb. The Spartans use starfighters to infiltrate a smaller Covenant ship, prepare the bomb and set the ship on a docking course with the carrier. The bomb's timer malfunctions, so Jorge stays behind and sacrifices himself to destroy the carrier. Moments later, huge numbers of Covenant ships arrive at Reach and begin a full-scale invasion.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Six returns to the surface and travels to the city of New Alexandria. The Spartan aids the local military in fighting the Covenant and evacuating the city, reuniting with Noble Team along the way. They retreat to an underground bunker when the Covenant begin to "glass" the city, but Kat is killed by a Covenant sniper before they reach it. Recalled to Sword Base, Noble Team is guided underground to an ancient artifact that Halsey believes is key to winning the war against the Covenant. Six, Carter and Emile are entrusted with transporting the artificial intelligence Cortana, and the information she carries concerning the artifact, to the UNSC ship Pillar of Autumn. Jun leaves the team to escort Halsey to another base.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">En route to the Autumn ' s dry dock, Carter is critically wounded. He rams his ship into a Covenant mobile assault platform, allowing Six and Emile to safely reach the shipyard. Emile uses a railgun emplacement to defend the Autumn while Six fights through Covenant ground forces to get Cortana to Captain Jacob Keyes. When Emile is slain by Elites, Six remains behind to control the gun, ensuring the Autumn ' s escape. The Autumn flees from Reach and discovers a Halo ringworld, sparking the events of Halo: Combat Evolved.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The post-credits scene puts the player in control of Six's last stand against overwhelming Covenant forces. After sustaining heavy damage, Six drops his or her shattered helmet and is overwhelmed, which leads to his or her death. Years later, Six's helmet remains on the grassy plains of a now-restored Reach. A narration by Halsey eulogizes Noble Team, who ultimately enabled humanity's victory over the Covenant.

Credits
Halo Series Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(series) 

Halo - Combat Evolved Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_Combat_Evolved

Halo 2 Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_2

Halo 3 Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3

Halo - Reach Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_Reach

Halo Nation Wikia: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page 

Halo Wiki: http://h2.halowiki.net/p/Main_Page

Halopedia: http://www.halopedian.com/ 

All information, citation, and 'reference' can be found on these Wiki's.