16 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Halo

Once a mention in a Steve Jobs' press conference (more on him later) and now the multi-billion dollar grossing shooter of choice for any sci-fi fanatic, Bungie's flagship blaster completely redefined first-person combat back in 2001 - for a huge number of reasons we now take for granted. Regenerating health? That was Halo. One-button grenades? Also them. Quick-fire melee attacks, limited inventory and seamless vehicular combat? Check, check and double check. There's a very good reason 343 Industries chose to completely rework the original game for the 360 in 2011, as put simply; every generation on earth has to experience this story, these characters, this world and more importantly; this combat. You could feel the revolution in every step you took as Master Chief, with the defining shift in mentalities towards console shooters coming later on. No longer did the 'PC Master Race' hold all the cards close to their chest as they shouted from the treetops about how Counter-Strike and Half-Life would 'never be possible anywhere else'. Now we had Halo, baby, and from the first throw of a plasma grenade to the last time you ploughed through a platoon of Elites in a Warthog packed full of "Hell yeah!"-screaming marines, life would never be the same again.

Although gamers lamented the fact Halo 2's ending felt extremely cut short, it was directly due to Bungie not even planning sequels in the first place. Instead they put their all into the first game, had it take off - and subsequently fell behind developing both 2 and 3 together in response.

In the end the team recall "months and months of negative tone" as they were forced to hit a Christmas 2004 release date, hence their comments that the second game could've used more months of development to refine.

Thankfully, as Bungie are one of the best developers out there Halo 2 was still received phenomenally well, pioneering Xbox Live in the process.