My first Halo 2 game was with 2 of my buddies and I left hating Halo 2 and all it stood for, My friends made fun of me and called me a noob for weeks as I struggled to play it each evening after they had been already been playing for months. That was it, I went out and bought an XBOX, a copy of Halo 2 and a membership to LIVE. I spent the next 3 years playing every spare moment I had. The last time I played with those same buddies, was about a year after I purchased my bundle. We linked our XBOX consoles and played with 8 people, after about 6 games, everyone was tired of me rolling over them and all refused to play with me after that. Now don't get me wrong, online I was only an average player, but to beat the -blam- talkers down so bad that they quit was a sweet taste in my mouth. I will miss Halo 2 like a lost brother, it kept me up many sleepless nights and makes me compare every new shooter game with it. In my mind, no game will ever measure up.