Still, more people love Mario than Halo. As a matter of fact, one might even argue that more people love Call of Duty than Halo, but that would be a tight race indeed. While it has an amazing amount of fans, myself included, it can't compete with much older games.
Point 3 was that the game had to be “original”. That is where Halo almost leaves its mark. I must confess that Halo was, as shooters go, a game in its own class. The storyline is epic (if you can spawn a movie and six books, you've got a deep storyline), the mechanics they introduce, while not original, are executed in an original way, particularly the vehicle sections.
But the backlash of that is that is once again we are stuck with the realization that it has been done before. Maybe not better, but it's been done.
I must concede Point 4 to Halo. As games go I don't think there is any game more addictive than Halo, with the exception of veteran games. Halo pretty much dominates the XBOX market. The move to be an XBOX exclusive game is probably what kept it running, considering that the original XBOX was not that good of a system. (XBOX360 is incredible, though).
A moment to rant, if you will. What other games besides Halo can you think of for the original XBOX that was XBOX exclusive? I think Ninja Gaiden was, but then I'm not sure. (I can see it now. If I'm right then “OF COURSE NINJA GAIDEN WAS U LOSER! HALO RULES!” and if I'm wrong. “NO, YOU NOOB. IT WAS FOR THE TOO! YOU NOOB!”)
Anyways, in conclusion. Halo has 1, maybe 2 of my personal 4 criteria. Keep in mind. I am one man with a lot of ideas. Some good, most of them bad. Before you post a comment, keep in mind that the great thing about the internet besides Facebook, Youtube and IGN.com (and of course, gameolosophy.com), is that you can post whatever you want.
You can be a complete moron and publish your theory of evolution that states that all humans started as half-eaten pistachios shells and will eventually evolve into something that looks like Pizza the Hut from Spaceballs. You can say that 9/11 was a government conspiracy to get people to drink more Starbucks coffee. You can say that we never landed on the moon, and that Neil Armstrong was paid to act by “Big Oil.”
The internet is full of stupid people. I'm one of them. So please take my humble article at face value. Halo is good, but not the best. Enough said.
Halo also has one hell of a fanbase, which it deserves, because it is a great game. As for the most addicting game of recent times, that I can not agree with. Pixeljunk Monsters (PS3 Network arcade-style game) is far better for the addiction. If we're talking "real games" (ie big launch titles), I'd argue that most sports games are more addictive, purely because every match/game is different, whereas the maps/levels in Halo are the same (even if the players act differently).
Nicely written article! Just so you know, I'd say CoD4 is a better game, but World at War probably won't be as good as Halo 3 (why, oh why go back to WWII?)