Warning: The following editorial contains spoilers for the Halo video games and novels. Read at your own risk.

The Halo storyline is something that can be analysed from an almost infinite number of angles. Halo has connections to a wide variety of subjects, from the horrors of war to romance. However one of the most obvious parallels that can be drawn is that between Halo and religion, most notably Christianity. The following is a summary of these various parallels; I hope you enjoy.

Even the title 'Halo' itself conjures up images of angels of heaven, adorned with rings of light floating around their head, but these religious references that can be found throughout the plot often run subtle and deeper. Staying on the relatively obvious level though 'The Covenant' are also a race whose names carry biblical connotations; in the Bible the covenant originally referred to the set of agreements between the Israelites and God and later The New Covenant referred to "a bond in blood sovereignly administered by God.". The Prophets of The Covenant are also characters with blatant religious connotations. A prophet in religion is a divine messenger and despite being revealed to be false prophets, the Prophets of The Covenant were responsible for fueling the religious Covenant ideology. The Covenant revered the Forerunner as Gods, constructed their buildings like cathedrals and gave their ships religious names (e.g. Truth and Reconciliation). The Prophets also taught The Covenant of The Great Journey, a time when all followers would be taken to some kind of higher place; this bears much likeness to the Christian Day of Reckoning. The Prophets told the Covenant that the Halo rings were the key to this journey and indeed the Prophet of Truth's final words were "I shall light the rings and become a God". Many finer aspects of The Covenant and their creations have also taken on a religious style, including the Covenant vehicles which bear spiritual names, such as 'the Spectre' or 'The Ghost'.

Even the famous protagonist of the series is of religious importance; Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 (to give him his full name and title). The concept of the one savoir who constantly avoids death and is the only one who can vanquish evil (The Covenant and The Flood) means that direct parallels can be drawn between him and Christ. This is further reinforced at the end of Halo 3 when like Jesus; Master Chief effectively sacrifices himself for the good of humanity and much like Jesus the Chief also did not reach his end that day but lived on. On a slightly deeper level, in Revelation 1:17-18 God is noted as saying "I am the first and the last", while Master Chief is both the first Spartan-II candidate Dr. Halsey (creator of the SPARTANs) studied and the last Spartan-II left in action at the end of the games meaning that in one way he is also "the first and the last". Master Chief also possesses a God-like level of power in the ability to destroy all living beings in the galaxy with the power of the Halo arrays. Another important thing to be noted is that John I became the 7th (7 being Bungie's favourite number) bishop of Jerusalem (the city where Jesus lived from a part of his life and was sacrificed) in 117 AD (117 of course being the Chief's Spartan tag).

The Gravemind, the 'father' of the Flood in Halo also holds some similarities to the Angel of Death or Satan. Gravemind speaks with an almost demonic, warped voice and also seems to have an almost supernatural ability to connect with peoples' minds. Upon meeting him he claims to the Arbiter, Cortana and Master Chief "I am a monument to all your sins" and when speaking to Master Chief he aims to put death in a very good light, often trying to coax him into it. It can be seen that the Gravemind's intent goes to a point where it can be called evil, trying to consume others in his own evil by turning them into flood forms (just as Satan is said to draw people into evil) and eventually goes to the sadistic lengths of trying to torturing Cortana, in an attempt to make Master Chief submit to the Flood.

Moving away from the subject of characters however, after the end of Halo 2, The Ark became a major plot point in Halo; the single place from which all Halo rings could be controlled. The Ark was created by the Forerunner as a means of protection for all beings from the Flood, the evil race trying to consume all life in the galaxy. Similarly Noah's Ark in the Bible was built to stop the creatures of the Earth from becoming extinct when God sent a great flood to wipe out all life on Earth. The Ark of the Covenant is also the name of the container for the Ten Commandments that were passed down from God to Moses and the Ark is also the container of the Torah in a Synagogue.

There are also two reversed messages hidden on the Halo 2 and 3 soundtracks which have religious significance. The first can be found during the Halo 2 song Destroyer's Invocation (the First Movement of the Mausoleum Suite). It has been very much speculated which character is supposed to be speaking in the message but it does talk of "men and angels", "forgiveness for my horrible crimes committed against God and man" and of other things along this theme. Here the religious references are very clear (although according to the composer of the soundtrack part of the currently known transcript may however still be mistranslated). Another message can be heard on the Halo 3 soundtrack during the track Black Tower and begins "I smote death's dream kingdom, appearing as sunlight on a broken column", again a cryptic but none the less religiously-based message.

Finally all serious Halo fans will be well aware of the use of the number seven throughout the series. Listing all the uses of the number would be an editorial in itself, but some of the most obvious examples of the use of this number are that there are seven Halos, Master Chief's Spartan tag is 117 and the 343 at the beginning of 343 Guilty Spark is seven cubed (7x7x7). Seven is also a number that can be found numerous times throughout the Bible. For example in the feeding of the five-thousand Jesus began with seven loaves of bread, in the book of Psalms it says the word of God is "silver...refined seven times" and in Genesis after creating the Earth on the seventh day God rested. Again these are just some examples of the use of the number

As you can see the concept of religion is something that can be found in all sorts of aspects throughout the Halo series, but these are just some of the religious and biblical references that the writers have cleverly woven into the plot. There are of course many smaller and subtler references they Bungie have dropped in to the games and novels in their own little way. I'm sure many of you have many other thoughts on the topic and I am eager to hear them. Thank you for reading and I look forward to any and all feedback.

Welcome once again to my humble blog. This week has been a good week and I've been playing... Well almost nothing but Rock Band, the game is really great. Me and my bro have even got into the Hall of Fame on the Band World Tour and I've got pretty far soloing it as well. I can well and truly say that the guitar on that is easier than on GH3 though, not that the whole game doesn't provide quite a challenge. I've also been thinking about rebuying Super Smash Bros. Brawl and I've decided that indeed the game is worth the £35 but I've played the game before and although it's worth it, perhaps I should spend my money on something I haven't played before. I only noticed yesterday that I'd never even played Okami and I've also been thinking about Ninja Gaiden II and Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. I'd rather experience the game on a full console as I didn't own Ninja Gaiden I, but I'm not sure if I'm up to facing the annoying camera (one weakness in video games I find particularly annoying) and merciless difficulty of Ninja Gaiden II.

Now if you're interested in Halo at all don't miss the day of Tru7h, Bungie Day. It's on 07/07 of course (this Monday) and there'll be gamerpics and themes available on only that day, the release of the new Halo 3 map; 'Cold Storage' which will be free for everyone and the price of the Legendary Map Pack will be dropped by 200 Microsoft Points. Sounds awesome!

This week those of you who have or are playing the free-browser based MMO (that I loathe with a passion!... Ahem) Runescape may be interested to know that the game is getting a graphics upgrade and Runescape HD (HD being a relative term) is currently in beta testing. Even I have to say that from what it did look like, Runescape HD isn't looking too shabby.

Thank you all for reading, I wish it could have been longer but my sense of creativity had other ideas. Finally, for those of you who are getting plenty of cave-dwelling time the latest news is that in the U.S. video game revenues are now almost double that of movies. Yay video games! This week I'll leave you with this video showing a full band on Rock Band scoring 3.4 million points on Green Grass and High Tides. Have a great week and keep on gaming.

-Gamer_152

P.S. I have now been blogging weekly for almost an entire year, thanks for sticking with me all this time.

Well I guess I finally caved, I got Rock Band. I wouldn't of bought it at that price but it had £30 knocked off and I had a lot of help covering the cost. I don't know if I can say the game would really be worth a full £180 if I'd paid by myself, but the instruments are all awesome to play and the soundtrack is as brilliant as you would expect it to be. I also love all those little new things about the game, from the fact that the bass is now more important, as it has a x6 multiplayer, to the insane big rock finishes at the end of certain songs. From what I've played it's a really great game and shouldn't be missed by those who liked Guitar Hero as long as there is a price drop.

Now it's time for a news item of my own invention. This might seem a bit crazy but bare with me. You may remember that some time ago I mentioned that despite all projects being accounted for, Bungie were taking on a suspicious number of new employees. It may now be that Bungie are creating a new nautically-based game, that's right Bungie and pirates (two of the greatest forces in the known world) may be joining together to create some kind of super game. Of course this may all be a load of rubbish but if you check Bungie's job page you'll see that under their 'pluses' for a generalist programmer and a senior graphics engineer is the point 'A love of combat on the high seas'. We've either got an awesome new game or a perplexing in-joke.

As you'll probably know Blizzard have been causing a stir this week. After posting an enigmatic picture on their site, this morning at their special event in Paris they showcased Diablo III as everyone and their dog is now aware. It's looking pretty cool and I don't think I've seen fans this wild about a game since Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Interestingly 55% of the people who voted at GameFAQs.com yesterday correctly predicted the announcement of the game this weekend. Although I do start to wonder about things when Blizzard's house band's 'I Am Murloc' is going to be introduced as a downloadable track for GH3.

Thanks for reading everyone, shoutouts to PJ24, Fishdalf, Neojedi, Zxv33 and Kingrich06 who all do the courtesy of commenting regularly. This week I'll leave you with this creative screenshot from Halo 3 as I ponder whether to rebuy SSBB or not. See you all.

-Gamer_152

Here we are, my 100th blog post. Well pretty much, there's a few technicalities what with editorials and videos 'n all. However I do have a new, functioning Xbox 360... Again. I've been playing Halo 3, Guitar Hero 3, GTA IV and a few other things. I've also bought the Isle of Wight track pack for GH3, well worth £4 in my opinion but then again I really like Guitar Hero. I still really want to buy Rock Band but £180, blah, blah, blah.

Unfortunately me and a lot of other gamers have had a rather unfortunate tragedy this week. When Freeloader for Nintendo Wii was first announced, Wii gamers rejoiced. I'm just one of many that used the tool for playing an import of Brawl but this week version 3.3 of the Wii firmware that all Wii consoles were updated with, prevented (whether intentionally or not) freeloader from working. I can understand why Nintendo may of done this (if it is intentional) but everyone is stuck with stupid release dates and a whole bunch of unplayable games now. On the other hand, the new update fixed a save exploit on Zelda, that's cool, right?

Although I didn't mention it last week Metal Gear Solid 4 was released on June 12th and secured its place with a 10. I gotta say the game looks awesome and I'm really happy for everyone who can play it and sorry for everyone who can't. However there was going to inevitably be an uproar from some people who don't quite share the same view. I know it's already been said about a thousand times that the fanboys are predictable, narrow-minded, idiots, but it's just nasty when the PS3 fanboys take a game that should make so many people and just rub it in the face of Wii and 360 owners that it's an exclusive. Thankfully the whole thing has died down a little on Gamespot but it's still really sad that some people think they have to do that.

Onto much happier news though, as the long-awaited demo of Spore was released this week. It seems I'll have to upgrade my graphics card before I can play (damn you pixelshader 2.0!) but it looks amazing, even if it is only a demo. I was also very surprised by how popular the demo was, I didn't think that many people were so mad about Spore, but 250,000 creatures were uploaded in the first 24 hours and it was even all over YouTube. A sure sign that Will Wright has done it again.

I hope everyone enjoys all their games no matter what they're playing. A special shoutout this week to CmdrMcNeil who has posted another very underrated video blog and will be shipping out this September. This week I'll leave you with this little video from way back in April. Happy gaming.

-Gamer_152

(Yawn) Being back at college is tiring, but I've still got my games to brighten things up. Oh, and upon trying to get my broken 360 exchanged last weekend, as I feared GAME were all sold out of preowned premiums so I've been waiting for them to get more in. The weirdest thing is my console seems to be making a bit of a recovery by itself. I've spent my time on my games this week playing Halo 3, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Animal Crossing: Wild World and Guitar Hero 3. I am having a small problem with my 360 that goes beyond the console itself though, and it seems that my 360 believes I didn't buy Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved and that I need to buy the full game again. I'm assuming this happened when I last exchanged my 360 but it still makes little sense considering I still have the full version of Boom Boom Rocket to play.

In terms of demos this week, although I can't download any myself (damn Xbox!) thanks to a mate I have played the demo of Ninja Gaiden 2. I'm not quite sure what to say about it apart from that it definitely is Ninja Gaiden and like its predecessor feels very good to play with all its insane Ninja combos and random limb-severings. I've also seen the demo of Battlefield: Bad Company and man, it looks awesome! It really gives the sense of being in an actual war and with tanks, helicopters and air strikes all at your disposal it looks a really immersive experience.

In the news this week it seems that there's a strange situation where GTA IV, despite being part of one of the biggest gaming franchise and receiving stunning reviews is still not shifting more consoles. Granted that it's usually exclusives that shift the consoles most but come on, this is Grand Theft Auto! A report has also been published this week showing that red teams are more likely to win matches than blue teams in multiplayer game, it seems to make sense but most players seem to realise pretty colours are no substitute for proper skill. But it does help shed more light on why the Alliance can never beat the Horde in battlegrounds.

Thanks for reading everyone, this week I'll leave you with the first part of the side-splitting Halo 3 blooper reel. See you next week.

-Gamer_152

Well I really enjoyed playing GTA IV last weekend, then the pre-ownedness of my 360 kicked in. It's been giving me system errors, refusing to start, freezing up, overheating its own disc drive and even on one occasion gave me three red lights, yet continued working without fault as I played Guitar Hero 3. In fact the thing is so busted all I can play at the moment is Guitar Hero 3 and Halo 3.. It appears to like the number 3. So I'll have to take it back to GAME for a second exchange. This really makes me worry about what will happen after the one year warranty is up.

All this seems a bit depressing but at least we've all seen some good news this week, Jack Thompson looks like he's very much going to be banned from practicing law for the next 10 years. Of course Thomspon is looking to go out in traditional style, I thought this little snippet from the Gamespot article was absolutely hillarious: "After comparing Judge Tunis and the Florida Supreme Court to earthworms, deeming the proceedings a "Star Chamber kangaroo court," and invoking the horrors of the Nazi Third Reich, Thompson compared his plight at the disbarment hearings to the infamous 1991 confirmation of US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas". Sometimes I can't get enough of Thompson, things won't be as funny when he's gone.

This week new footage of Duke Nukem Forever also unsurfaced! I'm not quite sure what to think, as if it isn't vaporware then a team of developers somewhere have presumably been getting paid every week for over 11 years without actually releasing their game. I am joking of course but by the looks of things it is true that the game is reaching its final stages of development and with 12 years of built up anticipation there's a lot of pressure on the developers of DNF for a really good game. It'll be interesting to see exactly what's in store, the developers being from the Doom age of the FPS and their last non-mobile and non-side-scrolling shooter being Duke Nukem Advance, which was released six years ago on the GBA. I'm pretty confident though, that the game will be at least appealing due to its sense of nostalgia, if nothing else.

Finally "gratzies" to Age of Conan which is starting to look a lot like the World of Warcraft of 2008 and already has 400,000 subscribers. I'd also like to say for anybody who enjoyed Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, watch the second episode of the new series Reconstruction, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Shoutout to PJ24, Neojedi, Edpeterson, Kingrich06, Jeb800e, Jimb0 (and his 'diary of an MMO newbie' blog) and some of my real-life friends who go by the names of Vampymonky, Fusionx449, Link0180, Paintbrush Gomo, PenBandit and BaldPigCool. I'll leave you all this stunning spectacle of Mongoose skill from Halo 3. See you all next week.

-Gamer_152

Another great week has rolled by and I've been playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mass Effect, Halo 3, Maplestory and Grand Theft Auto IV. In fact I finished Mass Effect this morning, I really enjoyed the story towards the end and everything that made me like the game in the first place still makes it very enjoyable, in fact I was thinking of going for a second playthrough but I doubt I'll be able to keep my focus with all the other games I've got around. The only two problems I really had with the game were the distance between saves and although I understand that they're trying to keep the plot open to sequels I did feel a bit as though by the end of the game my great triumph over Saren hadn't actually achieved much in terms of the bigger picture. Much like I do with Bioshock, I hope Mass Effect's sequel can live up to the original.

And yes I also have Grand Theft Auto IV now and I'm a fair way into that. It's really great and yet I'm finding it a little hard to pinpoint exactly why I find the game so good. I still wouldn't give it a ten like Gamespot did though, but I find it's much harder to get people to agree on which games deserve 10/10 than, say 9/10. There are also still people who sadly can't quite seem to cope with the fact that Gamespot's review is just one opinion or that even though it did get 10/10, no game is (and never will be) perfect. Of course as I can't quite work out what makes the game so good, I can't figure out what is missing for me personally, but I have heard a number of people say that the online multiplayer (which I haven't tried yet) isn't very good and one of my friends says that the game begins to get a little repetitive after a while (but then again his tastes aren't always reflective of the mainstrem).

Nintendo also launched their new 'Nintendo Channel' in Europe yesterday. I've had a look and it's most certainly very pretty to look at and I can see why some people would enjoy it, Nintendo certainly still know what they're doing in terms of marketing. However with all the videos I want avaliable elsewhere online I probably won't be using the channel much myself. I'm also a little wary of buying any of the 'Wiiware' from the Wii shop channel. Developers have seen the Wii as a platform on which to make cheap cash and making games distributable online doesn't really help this problem. I can see the Wiiware becoming very similiar to Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade in terms of gme quality.

Thank you, one and all for reading this week and I'll leave you with the first episode of Rooster Teeth's new machinima Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction. See you all on your respective blogs.

-Gamer_152

Ah, it's been a good week off. I've played Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Halo 3, Animal Crossing: Wild World and Mass Effect. I've had Mass Effect for a week now (a friend is lending it to me) and I've been very impressed with the game. The gameplay is of course great, an excellent combination of third-person shooter and RPG which is not a very common genre, but the developers have done a very good job of it. I also knew that there was a lot of dialogue in this game but I could never of imaged this much, the hours after hours of voice acting that have been put into this game are amazing; I could face a situation, turn off, go back to the same situation with a completely different squad and all of a sudden it's a very different conversation from the one I was having before. I also love the environments and various races, which really seem to embody the imagination that's gone into Mass Effect and they have taken the possibilities of originality that come with a sci-fi game and made excellent use of them. Of course the game's not perfect but I've found it a magical and very refreshing experience.

I've also been hearing a lot this week about a certain rumor that Microsoft will be showcasing Halo 4 at E3 this year. The rumor of there being a Halo 4 is not a new one, it's seemed to exist from almost the moment Halo 3 was released, but the rumor seems to be mainly fueled by the fans who want it to be true. The ending to Halo 3 was something that was very conclusive, indeed it did leave the plot open to further development but it generally gave that feel that for now Bungie are done with the current trilogy. It's also worth taking into consideration that Halo Wars, Halo Chronicles, additional Halo 3 content and a Halo movie are all still in development and that even if there is a Halo 4 are Microsoft really going to want to add to the 'announced but in early development' list at this point in time? I'm not saying it's impossible a fourth installation of the main series to get it's announcement at E3 this year but I am very sceptical.

I am looking to make another video game purchase soon, so hopefully this time next week I'll have Grand Theft Auto IV. I'm deciding to put off buying Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii for now, I think I'll enjoy GTA IV more. Shoutout this week to Jeb800e, Distress Signal 4, Fishdalf, Jimb0, Kingrich 06 and PJ24. Thanks for reading and giving me all the feedback you have over the time I've been blogging (sorry if I've neglected to comment on any of your blogs). I'll leave you all with the latest episode in the Halo 3 series, Confirmed Kills and if I may ask one final question, did you find it better when it put links in my blog to the stuff I was talking about?

-Gamer_152

Well I haven't had a ton of time to play games this week, what with exams and all. But now I'm on study leave and there shall be gaming galore. I have however managed to squeeze in a little Halo 3 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl this week and last weekend some Burnout Paradise (damn it, I still only have 119/120 events found). I've also finally completed Bioshock and even though I had a vague idea of the plot-line, it was still awesome to experience it first hand; my only complaint is really that the final boss was too easy but it's been an immense game to play, I really want Bioshock 2 to be able to live up to it. I'm also interested to see Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Carribean director) will be directing the Bioshock movie, I loved PoTC and I hope he can do Bioshock justice because it won't be the easiest movie to pull off.

Speaking of pretty things and sequels, we've seen the upcoming Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise showcased by Rare this week. I gotta admit I always loved the idea of a Viva Pinata 2 but I knew it would take some serious ingenuity to add onto the already fantastically innovative game. I must admit I'm a little sceptical of things like the trading card system and the storyline, but Rare are a good company and although on the surface this new Viva Pinata game doesn't look light years ahead of the original, I'm expecting great things.

We've also seen the announcement of a new Konami game, Rock Revolution this week. If Guitar Hero IV didn't sound enough like Rock Band then.. Well.. This may not be the game for you either. I mean don't get me wrong, I think Konami might be able to do some very good things but unlike it's competitors it doesn't contain vocals, it is only set to contain 40 songs when Rock Band has almost 60 and GH4 will almost certainly have more (considering GH3 had over 70 tracks), although it extends itself to Wii and DS it hasn't gone to the same lengths Guitar Hero did with the DS and hopes to try and use an 'air instrument'-like control scheme for the Wii to compete with GH4, it will have to compete with the pricing of GH4 and whatever price Rock Band will have dropped to and it's set to come out around the same time as GH4. Let's just say I'm a little sceptical about this game too.

Personally I still don't know what game I should buy next, I feel like I should get GTA IV, but there's still an every-growing number of games I haven't got and one of my mates will be lending me Mass Effect, also if I want to get Wii Fit or Mario Kart Wii on top of any other games I really need to be saving up. I'm still planning to get the Halo 3 legendary map pack though. Anyway thanks for reading, shoutout to PJ24, Optimusprime18, Kingrich06, Jimb0, Fishdalf and all you other crazy people out there that are reading or tracking my blogs. This week I'll leave you with a humorous collection of Kirby hats from vgcats.com.

-Gamer_152

Well I'm feeling a lot better than I was last week and not just because I'm not ill anymore. After more than 6 weeks without a working 360 GAME called me and told me they had one ready for me to exchange and thus I reunited with all my 360 games again. However there is one slight technical snag, it seems my new 360 doesn't want to recognise my downloaded content (or a number of my Halo 3-related content) despite the files clearly still appearing when I check the hard-drive, I've tried checking the Xbox site but that's not really been any help. I won't have much chance for gaming over the next week however as I have A level exams to revise for (bad organisation means that I actually do 5 out of 7 of my exams before my study break). But forgetting all the glitches and exams it's still great to have a new 360 to play on... And Brawl still rocks!

Now as anybody heard what Kaz Hirai has said at Playstation Day this year? Well of course were getting the usual, he's hyping the PS3 saying it will continue to be successful and eventually triumph over the Wii. Not something that's really extremely likely but what else are to we expect than Sony hyping Sony (although I don't hear Microsoft making any claims like that). The bit that really seemed to get everyone though was that he said the PS3 would have a 10 year life cycle... It's the kind of thing that leaves you speechless. I mean it's a safe bet to say he had a good reason for saying that, but unless it was a slip of the tongue what on Earth possessed the man to say his company would be using the same technology for their video games in 2016 as they are now? I could spend ages thinking about that one.

By the way to anyone who is remotely interested check out the new previews of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. It looks awesome.

Anyway thanks for reading. Shoutout to PJ24, Kingrich06, Zxv33 and Fishdalf. I'll leave you with the funniest Halo 3 betrayal I've seen. Peace out.

-Gamer_152