Halo (series)

Halo is a science fiction video game series created by Bungie Studios. The Halo trilogy centers around Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-117, John, or simply "Master Chief", a human super-soldier equipped with technologically-advanced battle armor, and his Construct AI companion, Cortana. The video games, particularly Halo: Combat Evolved, have been praised as being the best, and most influential, first-person shooters on a game console, with Halo being the Microsoft Xbox's "killer app". This has led to the term "Halo killer" being used to describe console games that aspire to be better than Halo.

Beginning with the release of Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001, the franchise has since expanded to several other games, five novels, a graphic novel, and numerous other licensed products, such as action figures. The cultural impact of the Halo series has been compared to that of the Star Wars franchise by Brian Bendis, with those who enjoy the series being dubbed the "Halo Nation". The final game in the original trilogy, Halo 3, is due to be released on September 25, 2007 in the US.