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HORUS Newbie

HORUS

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Posted

there was 1.3 MILLION pre-orders.

 

funny, cuz my friend preordered last night at 10 oclock, and his came THIS MORNING.

 

 

Also, i admit that i havent payed any attention to the storyline of the series...

 

so, if anyone could just give me an idea, that would be awesome. i know that the covenant were gonna smack earth with the halo, so we stopped them, so why are we working with the elites now??? who are we fighting? the prophets or summat?

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NP Sage Newbie

NP Sage

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Halo 1

 

Halo's storyline is linear; there is only one ending (in contrast to other first person shooters such as Deus Ex). It is presented to the player through an instruction manual, scripted events and conversations during the game, and a number of cut-scenes rendered using the game's graphics engine. This method of storyline delivery is common among modern video games. The Xbox version of Halo: Combat Evolved allows one player to play the campaign alone, as well as allow two players to play through the campaign in split screen. The PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved allows only one player to play through the campaign, unless the Halo Custom Edition program is being used, in which case, the campaign is disabled completely.

 

Halo Art

 

Halo Combat Evolved Campaign levels:

 

* The Pillar of Autumn

* Halo

* The Truth and Reconciliation

* The Silent Cartographer

* Assault on the Control Room

* 343 Guilty Spark

* The Library

* Two Betrayals

* Keyes

* The Maw

 

 

 

Brief summary

 

Halo, like previous Bungie releases such as the Marathon series, has an intricate plot.

 

The "Halo" in the title refers to an enormous artificial space habitat similar to a Culture Orbital discovered by the warship Pillar of Autumn, which the central character, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, is aboard. With the help of his fellow marines and the ship's artificial intelligence, Cortana, the Master Chief discovers some of the secrets of Halo while fighting off members of The Covenant, archenemies of humanity who, presumably, wish to find Halo's secrets for themselves.

 

Backstory

 

The events which transpire in Halo's gameplay must be understood in the context of its backstory, created by Bungie and elaborated in several novels written after the release of the game. Noteworthy is its use of the oft-used battle between monocultural radicalism and liberalism. Also present, although less pronounced, is the likewise popular theme of blind religion (Covenant) versus free-thought secularism (UNSC).

 

 

 

Main Article: United Nations Space Command

 

2160-2200: This is a period of brutal unrest in Human history in which Governments and Factions fight for control of Earth and its colonies.

 

As overpopulation and unrest mounted on Earth, a number of new political movements were formed including the left wing Koslovics led by Vladimir Koslov and the neofascist Jovian Frieden (which attacked the UN Colonial Advisors on the moon) and UN-sponsored military forces begin a pattern of massive buildups which culminated in the first Interplanetary and Rain Forest Wars of the Jovian Moons Campaign. After the successful Marine attack on Mars, recruitment drives and propaganda tactics strongly bolstered UNSC forces. They defeat the Koslovics and the Frieden on Earth and crush their remnants throughout the Solar System: both factions were defeated in the face of massive, unified UN military.

 

The Human Colonization of the Orion Arm

 

Main Article: United Nations Space Command

 

In the year 2291, the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) successfully develop humanity's first Slipspace drive, the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. For the first time in history, the rapid colonization of other worlds is made possible. By 2390, 210 worlds have been occupied by humans, and are being actively terraformed to suit man's needs. These worlds are to become known as the Inner Colonies. By 2490, the UNSC's fledging interstellar empire has expanded to over 800 planets throughout the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. During this period, the planet Reach becomes the headquarters of the UNSC military, and is destined to become the most heavily fortified world under human control.

 

The Fall of the Outer Colonies

 

Main Article: United Nations Space Command

 

Cole's fleet manages a victory at Harvest, but at a high cost - two thirds of his ships are destroyed. Despite significant tactical brilliance on the part of Human commanders, Covenant technology guarantees a four to one kill/loss ratio in most battles. One by one, the Outer Colonies fall below the onslaught, and by 2535, virtually all have been destroyed.

 

The Spartan Project

 

Main Article: SPARTAN

 

By 2517, several years before contact with the Covenant was made, the UNSC military embarked on a secret project to create a group of elite soldiers that would deal with occasional unrest in the Colonies. Codenamed SPARTANs, these genetically enhanced troops were trained from the age of 6 into a life of battle, and became a great asset against the Covenant. While humans suffered defeat after defeat in space, they could almost always prevail with the help of the SPARTANs in ground engagements. The main character of Halo's gameplay, the Master Chief, is a veteran SPARTAN of the SPARTAN II project after an unfortunate failure of the first SPARTAN program. All SPARTANS were given special armor designated MJOLNIR, which can increase their strength and speed. They were the only ones who could wear it as those without special genetic enhancements (like the SPARTAN upgrades) killed themselves with strength enhanced convulsions.

 

The Battle of Reach

 

Main Article: Battle of Reach

 

By 2552, many of Humanity's Inner Colonies have been destroyed by the Covenant. In a move of desperation, UNSC orders a secret plan to capture a Covenant ship using a SPARTAN task force and find the coordinates of their home planet. A group of SPARTANs, led by the Master Chief, are chosen for this mission, and board a specially outfitted ship known as the Pillar of Autumn (under the command of Captain Jacob Keyes). This plan, however, is interrupted when the Covenant launch a surprise attack on the fortress world of Reach.

 

During this battle, Reach is overrun and glassed, and the human fleet is obliterated. Worse still, the Master Chief thinks that all of the SPARTANs but himself are killed on the surface of the planet. The (supposedly) last remaining SPARTAN, the Master Chief, escapes with the Pillar of Autumn. In accordance with the Cole Protocol, the Autumn makes a blind Slipspace jump, and emerges in the vicinity of an unexplored and remarkable world.

 

Arrival at Halo

 

Main Article: Alpha Halo

 

The Pillar of Autumn exits Slipspace to find a mysterious ring shaped space station orbiting a gas giant. The ring, quickly named "Halo", is obviously artificial and teeming with life. A Covenant fleet, however, is also present, and a subsequent battle heavily damages the Pillar of Autumn. Captain Keyes initiates the Cole protocol - all records of Earth's location are erased, and the Autumn is crash landed onto Halo. The ship's AI construct, Cortana, leaves the Autumn with the Master Chief in a Bumblebee escape pod which also crash lands on Halo.

 

Gameplay begins in earnest with the Master Chief's escape from the Autumn, and continues upon landing. The player will soon discover the origins and purpose of this world - and uncover a threat that forces even the Covenant into retreat.

 

 

 

Main Characters

 

Main Article: Characters

 

* The Master Chief: The only SPARTAN-II known to have survived the battle of Reach at the beginning of the game. He is the character (the Player) assumes during gameplay.

* Cortana: The Pillar of Autumn's AI construct, removed from the ship by the Master Chief in accordance with the Cole Protocol. During most of the game, Cortana is connected directly to the Master Chief's neural interface, and acts to deliver tactical information and mission objectives.

* Captain Jacob Keyes: The distinguished Captain of the Pillar of Autumn, renowned for his tactical brilliance in key battles prior to the fall of Reach. He was also part of the expedition to find candidates for the SPARTAN project, the first of which was the Master Chief, subject/candidate 117.

* 343 Guilty Spark: The Monitor of Installation 04.

* The Marines: The Marines of the UNSC are the best, but are struggling and fighting a losing war against the Covenant. The marines are your allies in the game.

* Sergeant Johnson : Sergeant Johnson commands Marines during the game. He also provides comic relief and is the only human besides the Master Chief and Blue Team (Fred, Will and Linda) to make it back to Earth alive. He is seemingly the toughest Marine in the game.

 

 

In-game plot

 

The first levels of the game deal with an attempt to reach Halo's control center to uncover its purpose. It is soon discovered that the Covenant have accidentally released something from an ancient containment facility on the ring, The Flood, a parasitic race which gets its name from the way it devastates potential hosts with sheer numbers. The Flood then sweep across Halo and devastate human and Covenant forces positioned on it. The release of the Flood prompts 343 Guilty Spark, an eccentric Artificial Intelligence who commands Halos containment forces, the Sentinels , to try to activate Halo's defense system, a pulse weapon that, when fired, would wipe out all life in the galaxy large enough to be hosts for the Flood. Technically, that installation only has a maximum effective radius of 25,000 light years, but the pulse would trigger other installations as well, effectively killing all life in the galaxy. This system is designed to stop the Flood from spreading through the universe if they escape confinement from Halo by the only way possible: starving the Flood of any life source large enough to sustain them.

 

Naturally, this would wipe out Humanity as well as the Covenant, and so the final levels of the game revolve around the Master Chief's attempts to destroy Halo before it fires.

 

The game leaves the story open to further developments, with the revelation that there are several Halo ringworlds in the galaxy, due to Halo being numbered "Installation 04" by 343 Guilty Spark, the Monitor of the installation. It is revealed in Halo 2 that there were seven (Bungie's favorite number) Halos before Installation 04's destruction.

 

Halo 2

 

Main Characters

 

UNSC

 

* Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN John-117

* Cortana

* Sergeant Major Avery J. Johnson

* Commander Miranda Keyes

* Fleet Admiral Sir Terrence Hood

* Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker

* Staff Sergeant Marcus Banks

 

 

Covenant

 

* The Arbiter

* SpecOps Commander Rtas 'Vadumee

* Jiralhanae Chieftain Tartarus

* High Prophet of Truth

* High Prophet of Mercy

* High Prophet of Regret

 

 

Forerunner

 

* 343 Guilty Spark

* 2401 Penitent Tangent

 

 

Flood

 

* Gravemind

 

 

 

The game begins shortly after the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. Before the game begins, we catch a small glimpse of the Covenant via a cutscene. For the first time, we learn a little bit about the society of the Covenant. A constrained and armorless Supreme Commander is being branded with the Mark of Shame. It is revealed that he is the former Supreme Commander of a Covenant fleet that destroyed Reach, as well as the one who failed to save Alpha Halo.

 

John-117 begins on Cairo Station, one of the three hundred space defense platforms orbiting Earth. Shortly after the Covenant arrive, a bomb is set on the station. After a while, Master Chief finds the bomb and uses it to destroy a Covenant assault-carrier. He and the Marines then set out to the city of New Mombasa as a sole surviving Covenant ship landed on Earth . While in the city, Master Chief destroys a Scarab. After the Scarab is destroyed, the Covenant ship makes a Slipspace jump which destroys the city, and the UNSC ship, In Amber Clad, with the Master Chief aboard, gets swept up in the warp field in a desperate attempt to follow it.

 

The Arbiter

 

The Elite branded in the opening cutscene was supposed to be executed; however, rather than have him slain outright, the Prophets of Truth and Mercy made the decision to give him a chance to regain his lost honor and serve the Covenant again.

 

The Prophet's offered him the role of Arbiter, the highest honor for an Elite during a time of need. As Arbiter, he must conduct missions for the prophets that are hopeless and suicidal and die as a martyr for his race. This is part of the Great Journey, which is a religious series of events that the Covenant heavily believe in. In order to complete their "Great Journey", the Covenant must activate a Halo installation. It is assumed that the "Great Journey" is refering to a space age rapture that will kill all life in the galaxy, and there will be a "Judgement Day" where all will be judged and the ones without sin will go to a heaven of some sort.

 

As his first mission as Arbiter, the Elite must eradicate a group of Heretics who have separated themselves from Covenant society. They reside in a gas facility near the destroyed Alpha Halo. The Arbiter was to die during this mission, but he narrowly escaped death and defeated the heretic leader. This is the first time we witness conflict within the Covenant society as the heretics constantly tell the Arbiter he is a fool for believing in their Great Journey and the lie of the Prophets.

 

Discovery of Installation 05

 

During this time, Master Chief, aboard the ship UNSC In Amber Clad, is transported to the vicinity of another Halo ring - the Delta Halo - perhaps many tens of thousands of light years from Earth, on which they land. This time, Cortana and Master Chief are well aware of the dangers of Halo. They quickly begin to search for a way to disable it before the Covenant are able to reach it. Master Chief discovers the existence of the Prophet of Regret, and must infiltrate his temple and kill him. Rather than aiding, the Prophet of Truth calls back the Phantoms and destroys the temple with an Energy Projector. Narrowly escaping, Master Chief is then captured by Gravemind.

Master Chief battles Regret.

 

The Index and Gravemind

 

The Arbiter remains alive and is sent by the Prophets to Delta Halo. The Arbiter is sent to lower the contamination shields surrounding the Library so the Covenant ships may approach. It is revealed to the Covenant that the Flood have been released, however, the Covenant still press forward. After completing his mission and retrieving the Index, Brute Chieftain Tartarus takes the Index from The Arbiter. The Arbiter objects, saying the Prophets will not stand for his actions, to which Tartarus laughs, informing him that the Prophets sent him to kill Arbiter. Tartarus then throws the Arbiter into the seemingly bottomless core of the Library.

 

 

In the next cutscene, the Arbiter is caught in a green vine-looking object. He is next to Master Chief who has just regained consciousness. A giant being known as Gravemind, a form of the Flood, holds the two. He comments on the differences between Humans and Elites and informs the Arbiter of the Prophets replacing Elites with Brutes as they don't feel Elites can protect them any longer. He tells of their killings and then reveals that he has reanimated the corpse of the Prophet of Regret as part of himself. He also has with him 2401 Penitent Tangent, the monitor for Delta Halo. 2401 and Regret argue about the truth behind The Great Journey, Regret saying it will bring salvation while 2401 disagrees with the Covenant's responsibility in handling Halo and the Flood. Gravemind comments that the Covenant will not find the salvation they are looking for. He then transports both Master Chief and The Arbiter to places where they will likely find the Prophet of Truth who has the Index, which Gravemind wants back. It is now that the Arbiter realizes the Elites have been betrayed, and finds it hard to believe.

 

High Charity

 

Master Chief is transported to High Charity where he inputs Cortana into the Covenant network, separating himself from her. She discovers that the Covenant are in the middle of a civil war with the Prophets executing a genocide against Elites, feeling the Elites can not protect the Prophets. Brutes are put in their place and sent to wipe out the remaining Elites. As Master Chief travels through the holy planetoid, he encounters much conflict between Covenant, allowing for less resistence against himself, making it easier for him and Cortana to infiltrate the area. Their success leads to Prophets to promote this as a failing of the Elites rather than acknowledging their forces are scattered and unorganized.

 

When Master Chief reaches the other prophets (Truth and Mercy), he sees Sergeant Johnson and Miranda Keyes get captured and the Flood starts to attack. In the attack the Prophet of Mercy dies. After Master Chief gets close to the Forerunner ship, he tries to grab Cortana but can't because she does not want to risk a remote detonation of In Amber Clad so she stays on and becomes seperated from the Master Chief and is left within a computer on High Charity.

 

The Great Schism

 

The Arbiter is transported to a forest and finally realizes the truth in Gravemind's words after being attacked by a group of Brutes, who were once his allies. He rallies Elites and makes his way to the entrance of the structure. Once making his way through the cavern, he reunites with Rtas 'Vadumee, an Elite Commander. They combine forces with Sergeant Johnson and help get the Scarab to the middle structure to make an entrance for the Arbiter to get to Tartarus. He then makes his way to the center of the structure to stop Tartarus from activating the ring.

 

The Halos, we learn from 343 Guilty Spark, were built to prevent the Flood from spreading throughout the Galaxy, and that the Forerunners who built it were wiped out when they fired it as a "weapon of last resort" at some point in the remote past. In spite of this, the [brute leader Tartarus forces Miranda to activate the ring in preparation to fire, to bring about - in his eyes - the Great Journey. The player must fight Tartarus(and on higher levels other brutes) to retrieve the Index and stop the activation of Installation 05.

 

The Index is retrieved and the Installation cannot fire. 343 Guilty Spark reveals that although the Index was removed before Delta Halo had time to complete it's firing sequence, it sent signals to other Installations in the Galaxy, putting them on standby mode. Now, they can be activated remotely from the Ark (assumed to be either on Earth or the Forerunner Ship itself).

 

After that scene the camera moves to a picture of Master Chief apparently aboard the Forerunner ship. When asked why he is on the ship all he says is, "Sir, finishing this fight."

 

After the credits roll, a teaser for Halo 3 shows where the Flood has completely taken over High Charity with the Gravemind saying "Silence fills the empty grave now that I am gone, but my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on." The scene then changes to a stand in the council chambers of the Hierarchs the Gravemind then says "Now I shall ask, and you shall answer." It then changes to Cortana saying "Alright, shoot".

 

There is no novelization of this game yet. It is possible that a novelization that follows the canon laid down by the previous three novels might differ somewhat plotwise from the game, due to various differences between the game and the other novels.

 

 

Gameplay

 

Campaign

 

Playing as The Arbiter

 

The campaign in Halo 2 picks up directly after the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. The story delves deeper into the society of the Covenant, their goals, beliefs, and alliances as well as continuing Master Chief's story to put an end to the Covenant threat on Earth as well as another Halo.

 

The player can play the campaign alone on a single-player mode or on a split-screen cooperative mode. The game follows a linear series of episodes that differ from Halo: CE because the player will play as both the Master Chief and a new character, a troubled Covenant Elite known as The Arbiter. The player has an adjusted arsenal of weapons, some of which have been altered or removed from Halo:CE and new weapons being introduced. The biggest alteration to gameplay is perhaps the ability to dual wield small weapons, this allows for twice the fire-power at the expense of being unable to throw grenades or melee. In terms of vehicles, all vehicles from the first game remain with a few new vehicles being introduced. In Halo 2, however, vehicles can be destroyed and the player is able to "board" an enemy vehicle by climbing on and knocking the driver out. The same can be done by an enemy to the player when driving.

 

As The Arbiter, the player is not equipped with a flashlight and instead has a rechargable Active Camouflage that last for short bursts, giving the player a preemptive advantage on unsuspecting enemies.

 

There are four levels of competition: Easy, Normal, Heroic and Legendary.

 

You can have a variety of allies; if you are the Master Chief, you are accompanied by UNSC Marines and occasionally Marine ODSTs , but if you are the Arbiter you are joined by Grunts, Jackals, Hunters, and Elites but do not fight humans, instead you combat the Heretics and the Flood.

 

Though after a number of levels, you'll begin to fight the Covenant Loyalists, comprised of the Prophets as the leadership group, the Brutes as the commanding group, as well as the Jackals and the Drones.

 

Halo wikia

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Quicksilver Newbie

Quicksilver

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Posted

Who here is looking forward to Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations?

... I wish My D.S. Didn't get stolen... I might have been able to get as soon as it was released *has no idea when its release date is' date=' just that it comes out sometime in october... I think...*

[/quote']

 

I've played it AND passed it :P The last case does your head in because I'm sure no one in their right mind would come up with the theories this guy has come up with.

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