Halo

About

As of 2026, it's 25 years old.

Halo arrived in 2001 as the reason a huge number of people bought an Xbox, then proceeded to prove a console shooter could be genuinely great. A laconic super-soldier named Master Chief, an alien armada, and a mysterious ring-world later, it became Microsoft's flagship and the king of LAN parties.

Its multiplayer turned dorm rooms into all-night battlegrounds and gave a generation the shared trauma of someone camping with a sniper rifle.

Cinematic, polished, and console-defining, Halo is the game that made the Xbox a contender and 'finish the fight' a rallying cry for staying up way too late.