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!