Ok, so i'm not going to go into graphic detail about why i enjoyed the first Halo game, it's a huge title and no more needs to be said. What i want to talk about is the way this game introduced me to some people who became close friends and basically helped to make the 3 years i spent at university the best time of my life.

I moved into student halls relatively late on, replacing someone who moved out of a flat and had already made alot of friends. I could have felt ostracised and not bonded with my new room mates and their circle of friends until i found out that our next door neighbour had an xbox, with 4 controllers. Soon we were sat around, a group of 5 or 6 taking turns to play and it was incredible

On a gaming level, it convinced me that an FPS could be pulled off on a console - socially it was much much more. It was a common bond between people who perhaps didn't have alot else in common, we came from different parts of the country, had different tastes in music, different backgrounds and different personalities but in Halo we were all equal. No one really dominated Halo, we just had fun with it for endless hours at a time. It resolved all disputes when you could turn to the person who'd left all their washing up in the sink or if you hadn't pitched in you could always just say...

"Halo, mate?"

I don't really care about the naysayers, those who say it's a flawed game. I will forever be loyal to this franchise because of the endless fond memories i have about it. Sharing with the same circle of friends our disappointment with the ending of Halo 2 and now that time has passed and i'm at a different stage in my life, i'm using Halo 3 to get my oldest friend into a genre of video games he has always been intimidated by. He's not a gamer, and used to refuse to play any games because 'it all looks a bit intense for me' but now he's hooked!

God bless you Master Chief, for all the disappointments you've been there for a while now, bringing people together with mindless violence and i'm eternally grateful.