Released only a short while ago, Halo 4 has been widely praised, and rightly so, because there is a lot to like about 343 Industries first foray into the Halo universe. For starters, and to almost universal delight, Master Chief is back. Having waited for five years to find out what happened after the events of Halo 3, players were finally able to continue the Chiefs story and begin an entirely new trilogy. As expected, Halo 4 has some of the best visuals and multiplayer moments of the entire series and, whilst giving plenty of nods to moments from previous games, manages to take the franchise in an interesting new direction. With so many positives, you might be left wondering why Halo 4 has not cracked the Top 3. Part of the answer is because, with so many acclaimed games in the Halo series, this end of the rankings were always going to be a closely competitive affair. Having said that, Halo 4 is not without its faults. For starters, the plot returns to the realms of unintelligible science-fiction nonsense, with numerous references to ambiguous and unexplained bits of lore. You have a Librarian, a Composer, a Forerunner, and all kinds of previously unhinted-at revelations about humanity and the origins of the universe, making the narrative impossible to understand for anyone who hasnt read every single piece of tie-in fiction and spends their weekends writing Halo fan-fiction. Add to this the fact that the games main enemy looks like a hastily-conceived vampire, and youre starting to have problems. Its a testament to Master Chiefs awesomeness that he can make up for so many faults simply by turning up.
History student, aspiring author, lover of all things videogame and movie related, dislikes goat's cheese. Constantly trying not to be Mark Corrigan from Peep Show. Also has Twitter: @AlexHBrookes