Halo 2 at 20: Remembering My Favorite Xbox Game Ever

ign.com:

If I could time-travel back to any gaming moment, it would be the release of Halo 2 back on November 9, 2004. I have never in my entire life, both personally and professionally, experienced such hype and anticipation in the run-up to a major game release – and then somehow also seen that game actually live up to all of it. But Halo 2 did! It was the long-awaited (and delayed) sequel to the very reason the Xbox established itself in the console space at all, and thus it carried the weight of the entire Xbox world on its shoulders. If you were in or around the Xbox community in 2004, you no doubt remember it. I was lucky enough to cover Halo 2 for Official Xbox Magazine before, during, and after its release, and so I thought I’d take this special anniversary moment to share a few behind-the-scenes memories from what is, to me, the single greatest Xbox game ever.

The first time I saw Halo 2 running – sort of – was its then-jaw-dropping and now infamous E3 2003 behind-closed-doors single-player campaign demo. I say “sort of” because the demo Bungie showed never made it into the final game. But it was representative of what we could expect from the sequel, including dual wielding weapons and boarding (read: hijacking) vehicles. They played it live in the room for us, and I went back and saw the demo a few times during that E3 week. Visually, it was stunning for the time. And the aforementioned pair of new gameplay mechanics seemed delectable. Like most who saw it, I couldn’t wait to play it…

…But wait I would for an entire year more. Halo 2 made its playable debut at E3 2004, with its November 9, 2004 release date literally written in ink. While not on the show floor, media members with appointments could play a round of single-flag CTF on the Zanzibar map behind closed doors. I remember a couple of things: first, I was floored by how it looked and felt the first time I put my hands-on it. Boarding an enemy vehicle was an absolute thrill, and the gameplay was so much more