I have a small problem that I'd like to address. That problem is the Halo Franchise. These days I feel as if they will hand any Halo shooter a high score simply because of its name and company. I felt that Halo 3 was hardly worth renting, and the online play is boring and clunky. I love shooters, I love all sorts of video games that aren't just there for instant gratification, but the Halo team needs to beef up their games and throw some new ideas onto the table. I hope that Halo Reach will actually be good, but their last 3 releases have only been kind of good at best. I know many hard core Halo fans who have all said, "It feels as though after the first Halo the only thing they changed was maybe adding a new gun or two." Where's the originality that changed the world of gaming when the first Halo came out? Where's the creative genius that invented the Halo universe and transformed how poeple look at video games?

The first Halo release was such a huge success because it was something never seen before. A futuristic shooter with modern graphics on a whole new system. Before Halo, gamers such as myself were seen as nerds or odd because we played games on a television instead of going outside all the time. After Halo, it suddenly became cool to play video games. Jocks and Nerds alike joined together to play shooters and suddenly video games were all over the place and competition became fierce. Microsoft needs to "up the anty" with their next release or more people are going to do what I have already done, lose interest in the Halo franchise. Halo Wars stunk and I'm a strategy enthusiast. I expected a lot better out of them. Halo3 was a disaster in my opinion, and I didn't even bother with ODST because everyone I knew who played it just thought it was "not that bad." Well, not that bad may work for some games; Metal slug series, Turok for x360, Lair, etc... But I suppose I hold Halo to a higher standard. I'm going to bet they will do a great job with their newest release coming up in September, but if they screw this up I'm hanging up my master chief helmet and moving on. So come on Halo team, let's bring back the reason we came to you in the first place!

peace.