GamesRadar+ got the chance to visit the museum earlier this month, and today we’d like to take you on a tour. So join me, as we walk the path of Spartans.

Halo: Combat Evolved

The Halo museum is organized semi-chronologically, with the original Halo and all of its assorted memorabilia collected into one, neat case. An inauspicious start to the tour, especially compared to the zaniness you’ll see later.

Halo: Anniversary

The first project from 343 Industries was a remake of the original Combat Evolved, and was widely hailed as the proper way to handle a reworking of classic gameplay. This version still runs on the old engine (meaning the physics and bugs are just as you remember ’em), and even lets you swap between the new and old graphical styles on the fly. It’s a celebration of the Halo franchise’s beginnings, and something 343 is clearly proud of.

Halo 2

Halo 2 paved the way not just for Master Chief and co., but Xbox Live as well. Here, you can start to see the beginnings of Halo as a serious multiplayer game. 

Halo 3

While the first two games in the trilogy certainly have their fans, it was Halo 3 that broke records and took the brand from video games to a multimedia empire. And yes, that is a Mountain Dew. Hey, cross-promotional sugar water is part of history too. 

Halo 3: ODST

A side-story that unfolds during the events of Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST focused on the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST) that fought off the Covenant left on Earth when Chief jumped into hyperspace with a Prophet’s fleet. The Brute costume you see was used in this fabulous, surprisingly heartfelt commercia (opens in new tab)l.

Halo: Reach

The final game from Bungie but the first chronologically, Halo: Reach is one hell of a bang to end on. Rather than tell another tale of the invincible Master Chief, this prequel cast you as a member of Noble Team, a squad of Spartans that were picked off one-by-one until even you fell to the Covenant horde. And while you won’t see it close up, the Elite costume you see here was employed in the emotional “Deliver Hope” commercial (opens in new tab).

Halo: Forward Unto Dawn

While the dreams of a Hollywood feature film set in the Halo universe may be forever dashed, at least fans got some semblance of live-action Master Chief with the Halo 4 prequel/tie-in, Forward Unto Dawn. Cool trivia about the suit: it was worn by actor Daniel Cudmore, who measures in at an intimidating 6’6″. Cudmore is also known for playing Colossus in the X-Men films (that’s the movies with “X-Men” in the title, not Deadpool). 

Halo 4

343’s first original contribution to Halo was met with split opinions. Some were hesitant to see veteran studio Bungie leave the series, while others embraced a more Call of Duty-inspired design philosophy. The new Master Chief suit is still sometimes worn for charity events and special occasions.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

While part of 343 Industries worked to get Halo 5 into pre-production, other portions of the studio were diligently remastering Halo 2 in the same vein as Halo: Anniversary, and then packaging it together with the three other games in which Master Chief starred. The result was The Master Chief Collection, which was rock-solid… as long as you didn’t try the multiplayer, which was broken for weeks after release.

Halo: Nightfall

Another live-action film project, this one produced by legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott. Nightfall introduced us to Agent Locke, who would go on to be a major part of Halo 5: Guardians. More grounded and gritty than the smooth sci-fi look of previous Halo projects, Nightfall also starred Mike Coulter, who went on to be Luke Cage in the Marvel Netflix series… uh, Luke Cage. 

Halo 5: Guardians

The first proper Halo game on Xbox One (no, we’re not counting The Master Chief Collection), Halo 5 had a lot to live up to. Whether it succeeded is still debated, but you can’t deny the ridiculous amount of marketing that led up to it. 

Halo: Spartan Assault and Halo: Spartan Strike

Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike took the Halo universe mobile, transforming the FPS into an isometric, tactical run-and-gun game. Assault would eventually come to PC and Xbox One, while Strike remains on mobile and PC, no console release.

Halo toys, books, and collectibles

As I said, Halo is far more than a game series now. Action figures and collectibles run the gamut from small and kid-friendly to big, expensive statuettes. 

Halo Legends

Much like The Animatrix, Halo Legends is an anthology collection of animated films set in the Halo universe. Some are better than others, but the art is undeniably beautiful. 

Halo weaponry

Whether these were used as props in commercials or part of costumes, these guns are the real deal. That DMR is heavy. 

Halo endorsements

Did you know Master Chief has had his face (well, his helmet) plastered onto the underside of skateboards, snowboards, and NASCAR cars? Neither did I. But we know now. 

Saying goodbye

As we leave the lobby of 343 Industries, a life-size statue of Master Chief lets us know that he’ll be here to watch over everything, and keep us safe. Godspeed, Chief. 

Seen something newsworthy? Tell us (opens in new tab)!

The post Theres a real-life Halo museum at 343 industries and its full of cool stuff – take a look appeared first on Game News.

“We have followed your careers with great interest here on Bungie.net, and you have gifted us a mountain of heroic moments to memorialize. It is with a sense of awe that we step back and admire the impact that you have had on our games, and upon our studio. Thanks for sharing your stories with us.”

We’ve included the complete breakdown as published by Bungie below, but it’s worth highlighting a few of the individual stats:

235,182: Total number of human years invested in the game. Apparently that’s long enough to travel “the expanse of the Milky Way at the speed of light… and back.”

136,128,511,043 – total number of online kills. That’s more than 22 times the number of people living on planet Earth right now. And Bungie says only 108,000,000,000 people have EVER lived on Earth. So we’ve killed more than the entire human race. Our bad.

108,548,388,596 – the total number of online weapon kills. We can confirm most of these were not at our expense – but most of the melee ones probably were. Curse you melee attack!

It is a bit sad to think that this is the last time Bungie will publish crazy stats about Halo, but we’re sure they’ll publish equally overblown musings in their future projects so there should be more whimsical utterances soon. Here’s the final breakdown in its entirety:

Above: ‘See you starside‘? LOL. I mean… mmm, totally. Starside, man

Source: Bungie.net (opens in new tab)

The post The human race has lost 235,000 years to Halo appeared first on Game News.

Marty O’Donnell, the man behind Halo’s musical score, said in a recent interview, “I would love to score the Halo movie. No doubt about it. I think that would be great.”

“I feel like, knowing Hollywood just a little bit, they would most likely say, ‘We have to have a tried and true Hollywood composer’ and ‘These themes are appropriate for games but not appropriate for movies.’ Or something like that.”

And he may be right – it seems unlikely that the film’s producers would go with a composer who lacks silver screen experience. O’Donnell, however, doesn’t think that should be a barrier, and asserts that composing a game score requires all the same skills as composing a film score, and then some.

“It’s technically harder. In my opinion, you have to have all the same chops that you have for linear media and then you have this other added technical and artistic vision to make it adaptive and interactive and all the rest,” he said.

While a generic score might fly in other film adaptations, Halo’s music is too highly-regarded and recognized to ignore. It would almost be unthinkable to create a movie and not use the game’s signature score. But will the guys down in their movie studio cabanas and golf carts pay attention to that?

“I think Hollywood is sort of an insular place and their friends hire their friends and people that they’re comfortable with,” said O’Donnell.

I personally think it would be a travesty if O’Donnell was not at least asked to be a consultant for the big-screen project. If I can’t start humming along to the music in the background at some point, I’ll be sorely disappointed.

Got a newstip? Let us know attips@gamesradar.com (opens in new tab)

Mar 24, 2011

The post Halo composer wants to score the movie, doesnt think Hollywood will approach him appeared first on Game News.