The sequel: Seriously? You want us to explain the Halo series to you? What have you, been living under a rock? How do you even get on the internet under there? Okay, whatever. Originally developed by Bungie (who have since moved onto the recently released Destiny) as an Xbox exclusive, the main line of Halo games see you controlling a space marine called Master Chief as he battles an intergalactic army of big, ugly aliens. And sometimes tiny, ugly aliens, whom you feel slightly more remorse for mercilessly gunning down/slicing in half with a laser sai, but still not that remorseful. There are inventive sci-fi weapons, a story which you could probably follow if you could be bothered, and shooting. Lots and lots of shooting. Mainly from a first-person perspective. The original: All of which sounds suspiciously similar to Marathon, a series of first-person shooters Bungie made for the PC and Macintosh in the early nineties which saw you playing as a security officer as he battles an intergalactic army of big, ugly aliens. And sometimes tiny, ugly aliens. The title even refers to a colony ship of the same name, just like how Halo referred to some big ring-shaped space station that was crawling with extraterrestrial enemies. Marathon also boasted a similarly complex plot (albeit told through much lower resolution cut scenes), one of the earliest online - well, LAN - multiplayer deathmatch modes, and had the main character interfacing with an AI to advance through the game. AIs which looked less nude than Cortana, but the point still stands. So to speak.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
