User:ArcticGhostXCV

About Me
My name is Will MacDonald, and I am a 25 year old living in the far north-west of Scotland on a series of islands known as the Outer Hebrides. I am an employee at my local Tesco, trying to gather enough money to scrape by - I stay in a shared flat (or apartment for those Americans out there) with my bro, another Halo fan, and... yeee that's about it on that.

Hobbies include reading, spending way too much time on social media, YouTube, editing here, and Xboxing :P Seriously I'm a bit of an overly excessive gamer, and I (was) a bit of an achievement hunter, having gotten over 100,000 gamerscore as of March 2017. I like to play a wide variety of games, with Fallout, Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto constituting most of my non-Halo gaming material. I always come back to Halo, however as it is my all-time favourite franchise. I consider myself a veteran Halo player, having played the franchise since effectively day-one, and I am particularly proficient at campaign: generally only play on legendary and I don't like to skip everything. I play through the series campaigns so often that I like to think I can tackle any given encounter using certain strategies that work for me. I have also completed the LASO achievements for all games on the Master Chief Collection. Unfortunately, as of the last year I haven't been able to game as much as I would like to, due to work occupying most of my time and a declining interest in gaming as a whole (sucks to suck). However, I have no intention of dropping Halo anytime soon. Been playing this franchise since 2001 and I will most certainly be checking out Halo Infinite when it drops.

2001-2004 - Halo: Combat Evolved
My love for Halo started a long time ago. Right at the beginning in fact! I begun playing all the way back in 2001 at the age of six, when my older brother brought an Xbox home with Halo: Combat Evolved. Needless to say, I was instantly hooked, and I would play the campaign time and time again. It possessed such a unique magic and was such a joy to play that I couldn't put it down. At such a young age, my skills were pretty much non-existent, and I would not dare to play above the Easy difficulty. With broadband still a dream in my neck of the woods, I didn't have anyone to play with except my brother, who is almost four years younger than me and in the years of 2001-2004 was a little too young to comprehend the awesomeness of Halo! I still remember the first time I experienced such mind-numbingly awesome moments such as stepping out of the crashed lifeboat and gazing upon the wondrous Halo ring for the first time, the beach assault in the Silent Cartographer and the massive ice chasms of Two Betrayals, with legions of warring Flood and Covenant forces battling for supremacy. It was unlike anything that I had ever seen, and even now nothing has quite hit me in such a unique way.

All in all, the first Halo represented my entry into video-gaming life, and started my life-long infatuation with the franchise.

2004 - Halo 2
When Halo 2 was revealed to me to be on the horizon, I became so excited that I could hardly control myself. A sequel to my very favourite game of all time?! I couldn't believe it! At the age of 9, I was slightly older and slightly more aware of the process of video game releases, and as such when I knew of the release date, I had it marked down on my calendar and I spent many dreamless nights just anticipating how freakin' awesome this game was going to be. I begged and pleaded with my mother to buy it, and with her realising my undying love for the first game, which I had played thousands of times by that point, agreed to get it for me. So when November 2004 finally rolled around, the first thing I did was plead with my mother for the game, which I knew she had got, having watched her purchase it online. No sooner was it in my hands than my Xbox was on, and the sacred Halo 2 was started. Initially I was blown away. The first level felt a lot to me like Halo CE, and I was instantly at home. The new weapons, features such as dual-wielding and new enemies made for an unforgettable experience. I enjoyed fighting in defence for humanity's home planet, and was surprised when we were suddenly whipped away, only to be placed in the boots of the Arbiter, who would soon go on to be my all-time favourite Halo character. I really enjoyed seeing things from the Covenant's perspective, as it gave the alien conglomerate a real personal feel, shifting them from evil enemies I knew nothing about. We now had leaders for the Covenant Empire; this helped flesh out the alien alliance more, as we h=now had a face, as well as a target to aim for! I finally understood what the Covenant's goals were, and this made the war feel even more real to me. Both sides had a story.

I still didn't possess the capabilities to play online yet, so I played mostly campaign as well as local multiplayer with a group of friends.

2005-2007 - Expanded Halo Universe, the books and beyond
Shortly after Halo 2's release, my friend came into possession of a box set containing three books. These were The Fall of Reach, The Flood and First Strike. These was completely unknown to me. I had no knowledge of these books existence and was absolutely hyped to get my hands on them. My friend agreed to lend me one book, while lending another book to another friend while he read the third one. Once we were done we would all swap books and so on. Being a complete weirdo, I wanted to read The Flood, as I could think of nothing better than reading a book recounting the events of the first Halo game. I blasted through the book in record speed, and soon read the other two. It was a uniquely gratifying experience. I soon got my mother to buy these books for me and over the years I read those books hundreds of times. By 2007 each one was tattered with use, one missing its cover and the pages all showed years of use. I read the books just as much, if not more than I played the games. Once Ghosts of Onyx came out, it too was subjugated to the same punishment, losing its cover and generally becoming a mess. Finally we had the Covenant names for each race! The Halo Graphic Novel also fell into my possession, and I spent much time drawing from it, especially enjoying the diverse assortment of Flood forms shown in the book. I was an avid drawer (is that a word??) in my younger days!

2007 - Halo 3
I was 12 years old by the time Halo 3 rolled around, and had just started secondary school. By this point we finally got internet speeds that were somewhat decent, and pretty much all of my time in the months up until the games release was spent watching footage of the game on YouTube. Ever since the breathtaking E3 video in July, Halo 3 was all I thought about. I watched trailers, spoilers, leaked footage, you name it. I really, REALLY wanted it on release day, but my mother stubbornly refused to bow, proclaiming it, along with the Xbox 360 to be Christmas presents. I cringe now when I think back to the fuss I used to kick up demanding the game before Christmas. Once I got my 360 on Christmas Day, I started playing Halo 3, only to find that the console didn't have any kind of storage (the core console had nothing back then, just the box and its cables and controller.) I played through that campaign many times, reaching mission 4 or 5 before turning off my console, bemused as to why I had to start my campaign over each time. Only later did I realise the lack of any built-in or external storage. Soon enough I got a memory card, and later a hard drive and I was set.

Halo 3 was my first online Halo experience, and boy did it grab me and keep me hooked. I clocked so much time with Halo 3 online, playing matchmaking, custom games and forge constantly. Halo 3 is still my favourite Halo online experience (didn't play much Halo 2 online before it's closure and not enjoying Halo: Reach and Halo 4 so much).

2007-2009 - More Halo EU stuff
Following Halo 3's release, I soon got Halo: Contact Harvest and Halo: The Cole Protocol. I enjoyed both books, although I didn't read them as much as the first four novels, and they were overshadowed by my Halo 3 playtime. I also got the Halo: Uprising hardcover book when it came out in 2009, and as with the Halo Graphic Novel, I drew plenty of pictures based on the book's material.

2009 - Halo Wars
I got Halo Wars shortly after it's release. Now this was completely new to me. I had never been much of an RTS player. Besides the occasional game of Command & Conquer, the genre was mostly untouched by me. With my favourite game franchise entering it's territory, I was willing to place my unease aside and try my luck. I surprisingly enjoyed the game, probably just because it was Halo! My friends didn't like the game, not caring for the different genre. I really wish that there was a Covenant campaign, and even a few Flood missions. It would have been great. They really opened up the Flood as an all-consuming race that infects everything, from plants, to wildlife, to even the surface of a planet. I have played many games of Skirmish with my younger brother and Halo Wars remained in my treasured collection of Halo games.

2009-2010 - Halo 3: ODST, Helljumper, the Encyclopedia and the concept of achievements
Halo 3: ODST was a blast. The setting and pace of the game was brilliant. I was eager to further explore the battleground of New Mombasa, after Halo 2's quick cut-off of that side of the story. The characters were brilliant, and I could sympathise with each and every one and the character-driven narrative of the game appealed to me. Finally we got to see the universe through the eyes of regular human soldiers (or ODSTs, whatever!) instead of through a super-soldier or an alien.

I also explored the Firefight mode, and with a group of friends I set out to play each map with the goal of getting the 200,000 point achievements in the game. It is here that I finally took notice of the achievement system on the Xbox 360. Suddenly I was hooked. I made it my goal to get as many achievements as I could, both in ODST, but also in previous titles i.e. Halo Wars and Halo 3. Even when I got a new profile later in 2010 I still went back and got most of the achievements. This soon spread out into other games... and well, my achievement-hunting phase had begun :P I also got the Halo: Helljumper comics and the Halo Encyclopedia for Christmas of 2009, both of which were read many times, and as with the Graphic Novel and Uprising, both were the subject of many drawings.

2010 - Halo: Reach
Naturally I was excited for Halo: Reach. I was eager to witness the fall of the great planet for myself, having read about it countless times in the novel and hearing it referenced throughout other Halo media - and of course that announcement trailer at E3 '09. The campaign was a joy to experience, despite it's contradictions of the previous novels (the sequence of battle, Dr. Halsey seeing SPARTAN III's before Onyx etc.) All of the games mechanics were masterfully implemented and the game makes a lasting impression.

I was happy to see Firefight back, with all of it's improvements and customisable features. For whatever reason, though, I never really got into the multiplayer side of things. Matchmaking didn't captivate me, aside from the occasional game of Invasion, and I have probably played a total of three custom games in Reach. I do not know why it didn't appeal to me, but alas.

2011 - Halo CE: Anniversary
I was absolutely thrilled to hear that the game that started it all was getting a full next-gen facelift. This was to be the first great undertaking of 343 Industries in their new management of the Halo franchise, and what a first choice. A better present to the fans I can't think of! The remaster was pulled off expertly, and I was able to experience the game that started the series, and my very first video-game in glorious next-gen fidelity. Everything was perfect. It was the same perfect game, only with a new paint job, soundtrack and it more than exceeded my expectations. It was a truly special experience, and I don't think any other company could have done a better job.

2011-2012 - Missed opportunities, growing up etc.
Regrettably, I didn't manage to acquire any of the Forerunner or Kilo-Five trilogies at the time of release, and I still haven't had the chance to read them as of now (2019 - I REEEAAALLY need to get on that!). I wasn't aware of their existence until far after Halo 4's release, and even then it was a while until I purchased them. I didn't read as much by that point, even less so now, so the urge to read these books has not been strong. As such, the concepts of the Didact and Jul 'Mdama and his faction were wholly unknown to me in Halo 4. I had only seen the Librarian and the Didact referenced in the Halo Encyclopedia, and knew next to nothing about them, other than that they were somewhat pivotal to the backstory of the universe in regards to the Halo Array. By this point I was in the latter half of secondary school. I had exams to focus on, as the work I did there was crucial if I was to eventually go into university. As well as this, I had to maintain something of a social life too. Less free time, growing up etc. It sucks, but is unfortunately part of life.

2012 - Halo 4
I was reasonably excited for Halo 4. After all it was the grand return of the Master Chief, icon of the franchise. I was thrilled to resume the Chief's story, if a little anxious knowing that the great Bungie Studios had passed the torch over to 343 Industries. They had done a bang-up job with Halo: Anniversary, but this was a completely original game, being developed from the ground-up. To my great relief, 343 had managed to pleasantly surprise me. The story of Halo 4 was excellent; the interaction between Chief and Cortana was deep and masterfully implemented. The ending actually evoked proper sadness in me, and was heart-wrenching to watch. It was the closest I had came to an emotional breakdown in a video game!

I (along with everyone else) wish that 343 had left out the QTEs, brought in Firefight (Spartan Ops was good and all but...) and damn, what did you guys do to the plasma pistol!?

2013-2014 - Spartan Assault, the Xbox One, Broken Circle and Master Chief Collection hype
For a while, I was content to just play the whole slew of Halo titles that were now available to me. By this point I had a lot of games to choose from. Being more of a campaign guy, I played through them all many times. Other games also occupied my time, Fallout and Skyrim primary among them. I also had to prepare myself for finishing with secondary school, getting my university applications sorted and fixing myself some summer work (we all need teh £££) I played through Spartan Assault a couple of times, first on my 360 and then on my laptop. It was a cool concept, top down shooter-style Halo, and the game impressed me more than I thought it would. In 2014 I finished school, and got accepted for a History and Archaeology Bachelor of Arts degree at Lews Castle College, Stornoway. For my 19th birthday in July 2014 I got an Xbox One. Up until this point I had been satisfied with my 360, as I had not heard the greatest things about the One. This all changed with E3 2014. Upon the announcement of a 'Master Chief Collection' containing Halo CE: Anniversary, a remastered Halo 2 Anniversary, Halo 3 and Halo 4 - essentially the must-have Halo collection, my mind was set. I needed an Xbox One. With my birthday around the corner it was the perfect time. Starting university in September, a lot of my time was devoted to assignments, coursework and the like. As the Master Chief Collection neared release, I became more and more excited. With this, Halo 5: Guardians on the horizon and a multitude of other Halo stuff in the future, it was a good time to be a Halo fan! I bought Broken Circle, and managed to get it read before the MCC hit. Also, I finally managed to buy the Forerunner and Kilo-Five trilogies, but they haven't yet been looked at.

2014 - The Master Chief Collection!
November 11, 2014. The Master Chief Collection hit! The first thing I did was play though the entire four campaigns chronologically on Legendary difficulty (I usually play on Legendary). It was such a good experience. Blur totally outdid my expectations; Halo 2 Anniversary's cinematic's were absolutely beautiful. All four games ran perfectly for me, with the exception of several Halo CE terminals glitching and booting me back to the home screen. I didn't really run into most of the bugs that plagued many others around release day (and still do!) and contributed to the collections flawed release. Not being much of a multiplayer person, it was nevertheless great to be able to play some Halo 3 matchmaking again, even if I couldn't devote as much time as I would have wanted (not a kid anymore!) Halo MCC still stands out as the definitive Master Chief experience.

2015 - Spartan Strike, New Blood, Hunters in the Dark and E3 2015/Halo 5: Guardians!
After many long months of delay, Halo: Spartan Strike came out. Just like Spartan Assault, but improved (goodbye micro-transactions!) It was a blast. The digital novella Halo: New Blood was great. I read it on the go to and from college. Excellent backstory for Edward Buck, setting him up for Halo 5: Guardians. The announcement of four further Halo novels was excellent news for us Halo fans, and I have been able to read Broken Circle and Shadow of Intent so far. E3 2015 was phenomenal - Halo 5: Guardians looked fantastic. The actual game? Ehhhh... Campaign was pretty lacklustre but multiplayer is the best it's been since Halo 3 (in my opinion!) Sad to see that the whole Chief/Locke dynamic thing built up in Hunt the Truth didn't quite play out. Still, It was really cool to see Blue Team appear in-game, and even some older faces such as Buck from ODST.

2016 - Halo 5 multiplayer greatness and Halo Wars 2 HYPEEEEE!!!
Throughout this year, I clocked in a LOT of time on Halo 5. I started watching Halo tip videos, mainly from Luke TheNotable (don't judge me, I sucked). I also joined the Spartan company 'The Sellout Boys', headed by Halo speedrunner made a host of new friends and was having more fun then ever - logging in on an almost daily basis. It was so good, and playing with coordinated teams was simply amazing. We managed to get the Achilles body armour in 2016, still need that helmet. Also started to play a lot of MCC multiplayer and had a blast with that game too.

2017 - Halo Wars 2
Continued to play a lot of Halo 5 and MCC multiplayer into this year. Halo Wars 2 launched and was... ok. Not the best game ever but still pretty good. It's Halo, you know xD Achieved 100000 gamerscore on March 3rd 2017. Finally into the 6 digit club baby! Unfortunately, I ended up dropping from my university course due to a variety of reasons I wont go into and settled with picking up a job at my local Tesco store. While this improved my social life and I made more IRL friends, my play-time with Halo and gaming in general took a steep nosedive. I unfortunately stopped regularly playing with my company, and honestly the Halo 5 grind sort of died out for me. The weapon tuning update certainly didn't help in that regard. I didn't like the way the game played online afterwards. Since this year though, my activity here on Halopedia has spiked. While theres times I don't edit too much, I do like to browse the wiki fairly often.

2018 - A Halo drought
My word, 2018 was a slow year for Halo for me. Aside from the announcement of Halo Infinite - which was damn cool, and the launch of Fireteam Raven, there wasn't a lot to keep me enthralled with the series. As I live in such a remote place, playing Fireteam Raven was out of the question. I did pick up some of the written material that came out though. Rise of Atriox was really interesting and I loved the Official Spartan Field Manual. So, maybe not a total drought, but nothing new to play for me in the Halo scene.

2019 - A resurgence of Halo, growing excitement for the franchise again!
2019 was a good year for Halo and me. With the news of Reach coming to the MCC, and the upcoming launch of MCC on PC and all the awesome possibilities that can arise from that, I have been genuinely excited for the future of Halo, something I haven't felt in a long time and it makes me extremely happy. The further tease of Halo Infinite at E3, and the announcement of it coming as a launch game for Project Scarlett also seriously tickles my pickle xD. While I can't physically attend Outpost Discovery, it looks like such a cool event and I love the whole idea there. And the year ended on such a high note with an (almost) flawless launch of Reach for the MCC and MCC PC. With so many people playing the game again, it really feels like the revival the series seriously needed.

2020 - Halo is back, baby!!
With Reach launching for MCC at the end of 2019, hope for the series has hit an all-time high for me. With PC releases for the rest of the collection throughout 2020, it is an amazing time to be a Halo fan. Have been experimenting with some mods on Halo Reach PC and it just makes me so excited thinking of the potential once the rest of the games release. And of course, Halo Infinite finally releases this year which I can't even put into words how excited I am for.

Games

 * Halo: Combat Evolved ✅
 * Halo: Combat Evolved for PC ✅
 * Halo 2 ✅
 * Halo 2 for Windows Vista ✅
 * Halo 3 ✅
 * Halo Wars ✅
 * Halo 3: ODST ✅
 * Halo: Reach ✅
 * Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary ✅
 * Halo 4 ✅
 * Halo: Spartan Assault ✅
 * Halo: The Master Chief Collection ✅
 * Halo: Spartan Strike ✅
 * Halo 5: Guardians ✅
 * Halo: Fireteam Raven
 * Halo Infinite

Individual novels

 * Halo: The Fall of Reach ✅
 * Halo: The Flood ✅
 * Halo: First Strike ✅
 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx ✅
 * Halo: Contact Harvest ✅
 * Halo: The Cole Protocol ✅
 * Halo: Broken Circle ✅
 * Halo: New Blood ✅
 * Halo: Hunters in the Dark ✅
 * Halo: Saint's Testimony
 * Halo: Last Light
 * Halo: Shadow of Intent ✅
 * Halo: Smoke and Shadow
 * Halo: Envoy
 * Halo: Retribution
 * Halo: Legacy of Onyx
 * Halo: Bad Blood ✅
 * Halo: Silent Storm
 * Halo: Renegades
 * Halo: Oblivion

The Forerunner Saga

 * Halo: Cryptum
 * Halo: Primordium
 * Halo: Silentium

Kilo-Five Trilogy

 * Halo: Glasslands
 * Halo: The Thursday War
 * Halo: Mortal Dictata

Battle Born Series

 * Halo: Battle Born
 * Halo: Meridian Divide

Anthrologies

 * Halo: Evolutions ✅
 * Halo: Fractures

Comic series

 * Halo: Uprising ✅
 * Halo: Helljumper ✅
 * Halo: Blood Line ✅
 * Halo: Fall of Reach ✅
 * Halo: Initiation ✅
 * Halo: Escalation ✅
 * Halo: Rise of Atriox ✅
 * Halo: Collateral Damage
 * Halo: Lone Wolf

Graphic novels

 * Halo Graphic Novel ✅
 * Halo Wars: Genesis ✅
 * Halo: Tales from Slipspace ✅

Reference books

 * Halo Encyclopedia ✅
 * Halo: The Essential Visual Guide ✅
 * Halo 4: The Essential Visual Guide ✅
 * Halo Mythos: A Guide to the Story of Halo ✅
 * Halo: Warfleet – An Illustrated Guide to the Spacecraft of Halo ✅
 * Halo: Official Spartan Field Manual ✅

Art books

 * The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World ✅
 * The Art of Halo 3 ✅
 * Halo: The Great Journey: The Art of Building Worlds ✅
 * Awakening: The Art of Halo 4 ✅
 * The Art of Halo 5: Guardians ✅

Official guides

 * Halo: Combat Evolved: Prima's Official Strategy Guide ✅
 * Halo: Combat Evolved: Sybex Official Strategies & Secrets ✅
 * Halo 2: The Official Strategy Guide ✅
 * Halo 3: The Official Strategy Guide ✅
 * Halo Wars: Official Strategy Guide ✅
 * Halo 3: ODST Official Strategy Guide ✅
 * Halo: Reach Official Strategy Guide ✅
 * Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Official Strategy Guide ✅
 * Halo 4: Official Game Guide ✅
 * Halo 5: Guardians Official Game Guide ✅
 * Halo Wars 2: Strategy Guide ✅

My websites

 * Twitter
 * Facebook
 * YouTube
 * Twitch
 * Fanfiction
 * Xbox Live
 * Bungie.net
 * Halo Waypoint
 * HaloRuns
 * SoundCloud
 * Mixcloud

Today is Wednesday, August 28, 2024