Monday, December 04, 2006

For goodness' sake

I was just browsing the Halo
3
site in anticipation of seeing the one-time-only advert that should be airing in America sometime today, when I wandered into the FAQs section and discovered this:


"Q
Is this the last ever Halo game?
A
It is the conclusion to this story arc."

I mean for Christ sake, I don't want more Halo games! I loved the idea that they came out and said to us "look, this could be a franchise, a cash cow, a gravy boat, if you will, but we're not going to let it play out that way. It's going to be two games and that's it." And despite that it was a wonderful game I was happy with this. I thought it quite noble that, rather than raping the long dead corpse of a franchise that had ran it's course, Bungie had set out with an attainable goal that wouldn't make fans of the originals openly cringe at the site of new games. Somewhat like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which caused me squee-ful happiness every winter, my enjoyment came from knowing that we would only have so much of it and that it had to be savoured while it was there to be savoured. The regularity of it played a big part too. Every December, without fail, for three whole years, we would be presented with a hot, steaming platter of unparalled fantasy action. The release dates of the Halo series has been pretty irregular, the details about it obscured beyond recognition, and our palattes wet by tid-bits far too often. My once jubillant excitement about all of the easter eggs packed into it, the close religious ties and the overwhelming suspense turned to irritation and eventually to anger before long. Only now am I starting to become enamoured again, and then only because it hints at nearing completion (considering that they're airing the advert today and that Bungie has recently been asking for beta testers).

So, to you, Bungie: as much as I like the series thus far, with it's action figures, novels (well written, I might add) and other tidbits, I really wish you'd give it a rest, even if it is making you insanely rich.

--

NEWSFLASH: another Halo game. For fucks sake.

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