My Life in Games: Chris Parbery

Halo 2 (2004) – Xbox

In 2004 and 2005, I don’t think my friends and I did anything other than play Halo 2.

The strange thing is that Halo 2 didn’t really do anything new. It wasn’t some big revelation in game design; shooters had been around forever and online games had been done before (even on consoles). But even though it was treading on old ground, it was just so good.

My friends and I would spend countless weekends in whatever basement was available, always bringing a second TV and a second Xbox, so that eight of us could play at once. We did that almost every week for almost two years, which is crazy to think about, but that’s how much we loved this game.

The pure joy I had playing this game with all of my friends is something that I’m not sure if I’ll ever recapture. Okay, that came out more depressing than I thought it would. Maybe it’s just that I’ll never have as much free time to play games as I did back then? There, that’s slightly less depressing!