Halo and the Violence it Causes

Many people have heard on the news about the 22 year old man who shot and killed 6 people and wounded many others. The news media says that the culprit for his actions are the violent video games he has played his entire life. Further more, they say that his favorite game was Halo. I'm not going to say that the news media is lying, but I'm saying that even though he played Halo a lot, that does not mean that that was the culprit for his outbreak of violence. Perhaps he played halo for the fun, or just wanted a good old Sci-Fi game, or maybe he did really play it for the violence. I honestly don't know, but I am going to say this, that if he really wanted a violent video game, he would have played a Call of Duty game, a Medal of Honor game, a Command and Conquer game, or any other game. Halo is not as nearly as violent or intense as these games, mainly because of its lack reality and tactics. When it comes to reality, halo does not have it. When you are fighting, you see obviously fake aliens attacking you or your allies. If you are doing online multiplayer, you are fighting people yes (Unless someone chose the option to play as the alien called an Elite, which is sadly unavailable in Halo 4) but the people are covered in complete body armor. Next is the tactics of Halo. It is uncommon to see people really working together, most of the time people are just running around shooting at each other. And Halo does have the option to build or edit your own maps, which proves that Halo is not just a game that promotes killing things, rather it promotes creativity. The violence in Halo 3 Mythic doesn't get any worse than the option to hijack a vehicle, which is not graphic or brutal. Halo Reach and Halo 4 don't go any worse than the option to 'assassinate' your enemy, which is an animation where you use your combat knife to kill your opponent, and even that is optional. So there you have it, I hope that the recent event does not prevent people from playing Halo, because what the news said does not prove anything about Halo being any more violent than other franchises. See you later people!! Stay tuned for more in the future!

Alternate Halo Game

Hello everyone! I have noticed that many parents do not like Halo 4 because of Cortana, (the Master Chief's AI), and Halo: Reach because of the swearing. And since all other Halo games before those two titles have both of those, plus more, kids who want Halo have given up on the series. The same thing happened to me. Fortunately, there is another Halo game that not many people know about. It is called Halo 3 Mythic. Even though the title has Halo 3 in it, it is not as nearly bloody, has NO language whatsoever, and it does not have Cortana at any time in the game. How is this possible? you may ask. I will tell you. It is called Halo 3 Mythic and is a SEPERATE disc from the actual game itself. What it is is an extension of the original Halo 3 game, except it has NO campaign, (thus explains the no language and very infrequent blood), and is designed primarily for multiplayer. You can do everything the original game can do, except it has no campaign and some additional maps not included in its predecessor. You can play online, although you need to buy an xBox LIVE account to do so, play on offline maps that you can play on with whoever else is in your house, and play around with this AWESOME map editor called Forge. With Forge, you can either go in a map that came with the game and do whatever you want to it, or you can build your own map from scratch! Halo 3 Mythic is obviously the absolute cleanest game in the entire series since it does not include the campaign. If the reason why you wanted Halo in the first place was to play the campaign , don't worry, the IGN review said that the campaign was short and not very good anyways. Hope this helps, and good luck!

Halo 3 Mythic Video

Hello everyone!!! I am very excited today to show you guys a video I asked my friends to make about how much blood there is in Mythic. This video is not the best, I will try to see if I can make a good review video myself for this, but this video is still very helpful since it shows someone actually playing the game. Enjoy!

Common Sense Media parent member review of Halo 4 - This is one of the best ones I've read!

Team building, fun game. ON for 12 and up

I know that a lot of families would immediately be fooled by Common Sense Media saying "Not For Kids." I usually think that Common Sense Media has it down. But here they kind of screwed up.
I've bought my 12 year old son (my oldest) Halo: Reach last year (the previous game), when he was 11, and I thought it was a great game for kids his age to enjoy and even older kids to enjoy. I always check on Common Sense Media for reviews and appropriateness checks for these types of games that I get my son. When I saw Halo 4 was rated "Not For Kids" I said to him that I couldn't get it for him because CSM said otherwise. He was sad, of course, since Halo is his favorite game. But then I asked him to show me some other people playing the game and when he showed me the game, I thought it looked exactly the same as the other Halo games. He got annoyed at me for saying that :) But to ME it looked the same. So I decided to get it for him even though my most trustworthy source said not to. And I don't regret it. He and my husband played it for a couple of hours and my husband was hooked (which showed how good of a game it was). I watched them play it together for a little while and it was a little bit violent like the previous games, but I still don't think CSM was right on this game. Do your kids a favor parents! Buy your kids this game. It looks fun, and I don't even like video games. It teaches team building and maybe even a little bit of reflexes too.
I give this game 5 stars, fair for learning, positive role models (Master Chief), watch out for a little bit of violence, and it's a FPS, so parents out there who don't like FPS-es look out for that. I think this game is ON for 12 year olds and up.

Link for more:
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews/halo-4/user-reviews/adult

Common Sence Media parent member review of Halo Reach - This is one of the best ones I've read!

Violent, yes, but it's "Nerf" Violence if player is appropriate age

Game reviews geared towards parents often include objective descriptions of a game's most violent aspects out of context, but fail to capture how violent a game subjectively feels.
Halo games may sound technically violent, but I find them to be surprisingly tame compared to other popular shooters. Yes, there is blood, but consider that there are no dismemberments, no visible wounds, and no gibs. Most of the weapons are fantasy weapons you can't buy. Your avatar and your enemies always stay in one piece, and in online games, when everyone is completely encased in brightly colored, face obscuring armor, it all feels more like a glorified game of Nerf tag where nobody really gets hurt. (In Reach, the new assassination animations are, IMHO, as violent as it gets and the only time I feel remotely like I might be hurting someone - emotionally more than anything!)
More important for parents to consider, I think, is the question of whether cartoon violence sends the undesirable message that violence isn't really that bad. As adults, we have to walk the tightrope of reminding kids that violence and war are incredibly hurtful, horrifying, and serious. On the other hand, we don't want to desensitize them to gore. Having this discussion with young people would, I think, be more productive than simply concluding that a game is too violent without considering the nature and context of the violence.
Context and real life experience: I'm in my late 20's and have not yet felt comfortable with playing Gears of War or Call of Duty, which have much more "realistic" violence and context.
I have allowed a 13 year-old friend to play Halo: Reach with me (with parental permission).
Observations: the realization that one is playing against actual human beings online may be a source of anxiety to a child and may heighten the experience of violence. Children may also take getting "owned" by an online opponent more personally. The game may be overly exciting for some ages, as there is necessarily some tension when opponents are shooting and one is under pressure to make quick decisions. The presence of an adult co-player and role model is helpful for younger teens. These issues, rather than violence per se, were the ones that I was most concerned about with my 13-year-old player, and ones that I feel an older player would be better equipped to deal with and even enjoy.

Here is the link for more:
 http://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews/halo-reach/user-reviews/adult

Show Your Parents This Video!

This is one of the many and greatest of videos explaining why Halo 4 is a very fun, clean, and appropriate game! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4vIoX2RbGQ

How to Turn Off the Blood in Halo: Reach

Hello everyone! I have found out that people have asked the same question countless times; "Is there a way to turn off blood in halo Reach?" or "Is there some kind of cheat to make the blood go away in Halo Reach?". Great questions! But all asked in vain with the same answer repeated, "No". Many have desperately asked this question, hoping, just hoping, that there is a way to take out the blood in Halo Reach. I would know, I was was one of those people. WAS. It wasn't until a few days ago that I found out a NEW answer to that question that does not include the word 'No'. YES! Yes there is a way to turn blood off in Halo Reach! Its not exactly a cheat, its more like a game type called 'Co-op'. I found out that if you are playing the game in split-screen with someone else, the game will actually GET RID OF the blood on the ground in the game so that the frame rate does not drop! But it does not delete the small spurt of red dust looking stuff that comes out when you are shot. But that is not that detailed in the first place, you can only tell its blood if you are very close to your opponent, which is very rare doe to the fact that you usually want to stay AWAY from your attacker. But there is a cache. You can only do this if you are playing split-screen co-op. So those of you that like to go solo, you will not be able to get rid of the blood that ends up on the ground. No, going solo on online multiplayer does not get rid of blood either. Yes you are playing with other players, but it does not get rid of blood. So those of you who have parents who do not like blood in videogames, then this is exactly what you should tell them! Don't chicken out, think of a good way to bring up the conversation, and never EVER raise your voice higher than a regular speaking voice. Also, tell them that to get rid of the blood, you need someone to play with you. So, you can play with your Dad or something! (Which your parents would probably prefer to have parental guidance!) Good luck guys!

Age Recommendations Average

On this really good website where parents get to post reviews on games and recommend a minimum age for those who should be aloud to play them, I figured out the average age that was recommended for Halo 4 and Halo: Reach. Halo 4 was about 11.4, while Halo: Reach was 11.25. Give that some thought guys. And oh by the way, there is power in numbers right? Well, the total number of parents who wrote a review for these games, (that I read), was 41 PARENT reviews. Not kids that recommended the games, it was the parents. There were more than just the reviews that I read. For example: Halo: Reach had a total of 130 parent reviews, I looked at 20 of them. Once again, this is another post for you Halo fans out there that want to convince your parents to get you Halo! Good luck guys!

What I Found

I found this recently on a website where parents give reviews on certain video games and say what they think the minimum age of players should be. This one on Halo 4 said it should be Teen for specifically 13 and up. This is what the parent said:

Better than the other games

Something that I have come to love about the "Halo" seriese is that the profanity has seemed to decrease throughout the series. For example, Halo 1(alot of profanity) Halo2(Not to much) Halo 3(barely any) Halo: Reach(Mabye one or two words, and Halo 4(This game, has none). This to me is by far the best Halo game I have ever played, and is better than any other FPS(First Person Shooter) out there today. There is no profanity or gore in this game and the only violence is blue blood from the alians(There is red blood if you shoot your own team mates, but the game will penalize you if you choose to attack your own team). I give this game a 9 out of 10 (because of minor fake blood)

There ya go! Doesn't get much better than that! But I will post other responses from other parents. When this parent said that there was no swearing in Halo 4, I actually disagree. There are, that I have personally heard from the entire game (Excluding Spartan Ops), was about two. They were so minor though, that I don't even remember what they are or when they were said. Everything else I completely agree with. So, this was yet another post to go into the wide collection of posts on The Halo Informer! Look forward for more posts coming soon!

Please Leave Comments!

By the way everybody, I would LOVE it if you guys would get a Google account and leave a comment or two and tell me what you think I should add or things that are incorrect. Thanks guys! I couldn't ask for a better audience!

Halo Interview

Hi guys, this is an interview I had with my friend the other night. We were texting each other, and I decided to ask a couple of questions:

                                                                                   Wat do u like better?

What are the options?

                                                                                                   Reach or 4

                                                                                            But I think I no

Reach campaign 

4 multiplayer (online)

                                                                                                           Hmm

                                                                                                         Overall

Ooh tough!

Um in which catagories?

                                                                                      Combat simulation

                                                                                                       Intensity

Oooh

                                                                                         How realistic it is

In campaign?

                                                                                                                Ya

Oh! Halo4

                                                                                                         Really?

                                                                                                             Cool

Yes

                                                                             Which has a better story?

Its tough especially the flight simulation ones!

Reach

                                                                                                    Graphics?

Reach

                                                                                      Weapon balancing?

Meaning?

                                                                           Not too many op weapons

Oh

Reach

                                                                                                          Hmm                                                                                                                                                                                  

                                       

                                        I've seen all of the Halo 4 campaign on YouTube

                                                                  So I know exactly how clean it is

                                                                                               But not reach

Reach is pretty clean

4 is personally to OP

                                                                                                           Hmm

                                                                And I have a BIG problem with 4

What?

                                                                                        U can't be an elite

Ya

Also a problem

                                                                                                              Wat

Like the graphics are so unbalanced

And ya the elite thing

                                                                                  Graphics unbalanced?

Ya its either to bright or to dark never even

And that's pretty much where it ended. So, this was just another talk/interview on Halo. But this was even better, usually we just get an essay or interview on one or the other; Halo: Reach or Halo 4. This time, it was a comparison of both! Now, the guy that I was interviewing actually has Halo, so everything he said is real, but a large part of this was opinion. Such as the graphics being unbalanced in Halo 4, or how Halo: Reach doesn't have as good a multiplayer. One topic I neglected to talk about was FORGE. I apologize for that, but in the meantime, be excited for more new and exciting things coming up on The Halo Informer! 

Halo: Reach - What It Is And What Is In It

 

     Hello parents, guardians, and caregivers of your child. If you are looking for an essay on how to make cupcakes…  GONGRATULATIONS! You found the wrong essay! If you are looking for an essay about Halo: Reach and how clean it is compared to other TEEN games, keep reading! If you did not wish to find an essay on Halo: Reach… Keep reading anyways. This essay is NOT a persuasive essay to make you want to buy Halo: Reach, it is rather an informational essay on why it is the cleanest of all the Halo games. (And probably of all M games.)

   

  First off, don’t you hate games and movies that is either about the bad guys, or makes the good guys look bad? Me too. Another thing that I hate is that even if you play as the good guys, or watch them on a movie; they act badly, contradicting their role in the game or movie. Or perhaps, you play as or watch the good guys, and yet they fight for the wrong things or do the wrong things in combat. The thing that I hate the most is inappropriate scenes or images. Halo: Reach has NONE of that stuff. Allow me to explain in the next paragraph. PLEASE KEEP READING.

   

  First things first. The basics of the game. The plot, game, and characters. First of all, you look at the name of the game. Halo, no, it is not meant to be irreverent; let me explain. In the first three games of the Halo series, you have to destroy a giant space structure that is the shape of a Halo. The structure was built by ancient humans that, when activated, will destroy all sentient life in the galaxy… mainly the Flood, an infectious parasite. But we are getting off track, back to Halo: Reach. You are in the future and you are playing as a super-soldier that was sent as a replacement for a teammate that was killed. The teammate was part of a specialized squad called Noble Team that has been stationed on a planet called Reach. Reach, however, is the last line of defense before Earth. That is why you are engaged by aliens towards the beginning of the campaign. These aliens are part of an alien alliance called the Covenant. Not the best name, but again it is not meant to be irreverent. The aliens are not scary evil horror movie monsters, but they are not cute little weak animals… except for maybe the Grunts…  You have to remember, this an FPS. It has to have some seriousness in it.

Now, time to talk about the characters. You are playing as Noble Six. The reason why you never hear his real name or see his face is because he is supposed to be YOU. Throughout the game, you are able to customize your soldier to your liking. Although, it does take time to unlock armor, since you have to obtain a certain rank in order to equip your soldier with other armor. Now Six’s teammates are Karter, Kat, Emile, George, and June. Karter, Noble One, is the team leader and a very good guy. Kat, Noble Two, is the scout with a robotic right arm, cool accent, and is very good with technology. June, Noble Three, is the sniper of the team. Emile, Noble Four, is all around cool, he is the one with the shotgun and big combat knife. George, Noble Five, is the buffest and toughest of all of them, and that is why he is the one that carries around the giant menacing Minigun.

   

 Next is cleanliness. NOTHING inappropriate. No suggestive themes, sexual themes, no innuendo, nobody is immodest, (Probably because they are wearing full body armor throughout the entire game.), and Halo: Reach is completely fine in this area. When you customize your Spartan, or soldier, if you are a girl, you have the option to make your Spartan a female and the only difference between male Spartans and female Spartans is that females are slightly thinner than the males.

Next is blood. First off, you have a shield, not health. Health is how many bullets you have in you and how long you have to live. Your shield absorbs all of your hits and it runs out the more you are hit. It does eventually regenerate if you are not hit for a period of time. The most blood you will see is that when you are hit, red stuff comes out, (It looks like dust from a distance, and it is slightly more graphic when up close), and you fall over; and maybe some blood here and there, but no large puddles all over the place. (I recently read that if there are small blood puddles, if you are playing campaign with someone else at the same time, the game eventually deletes puddles due to the fact that the more blood and colliding particles there is the more the FPS will slow down.)  Proof that there is almost NO blood is that in a REAL M rated game, with a sword or a combat knife, you could chop off body parts and blood would splatter all over the place. In Halo: Reach, however, if you take an Energy Sword and kill someone with it, there is no blood! Just a flash of light from their shields being destroyed, and they fall over. If you melee someone, instead of slashing them with your combat knife, you just hit them with your gun! Again, no blood. Even when you ‘assassinate’ someone, when you sneak up behind an alien and kill them from behind with your combat knife, all you see is a flash of light, (Even the aliens have shields, not health.), and it just falls over. But in order to ‘assassinate’ a person or an AI, you have to hold down a certain button, so killing your opponent in this way is completely optional. The same effect happens when you get run over by any type of vehicle, a flash of light and you fall over.  There is one exception to the subject of blood, however. In one of the cut scenes in the campaign, it shows a killed scientist on the ground, lying in a puddle of blood. Although it does not show a close up, the beginning of the video shows you inspecting the body for evidence of any scientific files left behind by the main antagonists. Other than this, there is nothing more intense than this brief moment.

After blood, people usually ask about this subject next, language. Out of the ENTIRE game, all you hear, (If you can even hear it, most of the time you can’t.), is about 5 swear words. Out of the entire game, not per level, but throughout all levels. They don’t say anything worse than the A word.

As we all know, nobody should be playing a game with extreme violence. Yes, it is a First Person Shooter, but you can set it to third person. Also, the game takes place in the future, which means it is not very realistic. But violence is a very large category, and to make the violence worse, it depends on other factors within combat including swearing in battle, gore, blood, horror monsters or scenes, and what or who you are fighting. And you are fighting aliens, not other people. The only way you can fight other people is if you play co-op, (or online multiplayer which requires a paid Xbox live membership), it’s just you and anyone else who wants to play with you. You can either be alone on a map with your friend or dad or whoever and just do whatever, or you can play the campaign with someone else, which allows you to play with someone else or your dad so that you can have parental guidance if you mom suggests it.

  

   Good messages. First, Halo: Reach teaches that the Military is good and that not only does it save the world and everyone in it, but it teaches that the Military saves worlds! It also teaches that the soldiers in the Military are very good people. Two members of Noble Team sacrifice their lives in order to save the rest of the team. It also teaches about teamwork and to work with your friends. Another thing that surprises people is that the creators of Halo: Reach wanted the game to more like a sandbox game. They wanted people to do what they have been doing for years so that the players could have more fun. So, the creators of Halo introduced Forge. Forge is when you can become an ‘Oracle’ and fly around taking pieces of architecture that was put into the game and using those to build whatever you want! You can build bases, buildings, obstacle courses, or just cool looking stuff! You can make a CTF map, a team death match map, or you can create your own mini campaign! When you are done, you can turn back into a Spartan and just play around! Then, if you want, you can share your map with people all around the world and let them see your creation! And another thing, the higher the rank you achieve, the higher the rank of the Elites you are allowed to play as! In forge, you can choose if you want to play as an Elite or a Spartan. Even more fun!

   

  Hopefully this essay helped you learn a little more about Halo: Reach and exactly what it is and what is in it.

P.S. I know all of this from actual gameplay and reviews. This is not made up or made of a bunch of guesses.

If you would like to learn more about this game, here are some links to some website pages on Halo: Reach.

http://www.halopedia.org/Halo:_Reach

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_Reach

Links to more stuff about Halo: Reach if you are still unsure.

A mother that is wondering why Halo: Reach is rated M.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100911184213AAU23mI

Halo: Reach- Should it be Teen?

http://www.gamerdad.com/blog/2010/09/17/halo-reach-should-it-be-t-teen/

Opinion on Halo: Reach’s M rating and the ESRB

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/123481/Opinion_On_Halo_Reachs_M_Rating_And_The_ESRB.php

Please read the section titled: Why is it that James Bond: 007 Bloodstone has a T rating for alcohol and tobacco reference, blood, mild language, mild suggestive themes, and violence, whereas Halo: Reach is rated M for only blood and violence?