Halo Wars

Halo wasn't the first shooter. Halo wasn't the first to introduce online multiplayer. Halo wasn't even the first Bungie game to feature an armored peacekeeper and sexy female AI battling aliens in outer space. Halo, in many ways, is unoriginal.

Yet no other series – with the possible exception of Grand Theft Auto – has had such a clear, obvious and indisputable impact on the videogame industry over the past decade. To welcome the release of Halo: Reach tomorrow, which also marks the end of Bungie's involvement with their best-selling creation, here are seven of the franchise's biggest influences...

Bungie has been teasing us again with a picture via Twitter, along with the tweet 'Just got this mysterious image and word that something big is dropping this week?!'

It shows a Spartan helmet with lights on the side, with the reflection of some Halo 3-style flooring in it. What can this mean? Well, as we see it there are five clear possibilities.

As video game brands go, Halo is about as big as they come. The most recent addition to the all-conquering franchise is Halo Legends - a collection of seven animated shorts that explores and expands the rich sci-fi universe made insanely popular by everyone's favourite alien ass-kicker, Master Chief. The short movies featured in Halo Legends have been created by some of Japan's most talented anime masters, including Production I.G. (Ghost in

Halo: Reach isn’t the only reason that 2010 is going to be a huge year for Halo fans. This is a franchise that has become bigger than the games themselves, with toys, books, comics and more helping Halo become one of the strongest, most recognizable brands in the world.

The recently formed 343 Industries has been anointed the overseer of this brand, including any new games and every conceivable spinoff.

- Why it's hard to show the bottom of an avatar's shoe- The highs and lows of 2009 for Microsoft- How Modern Warfare 2 is a bit like a cake (or IS it?)- Xbox man Mike says PlayStation 3 had the best game this year- No new Xbox until (gasp) 2016. What?!- Project Natal 'doesn't quite work yet'

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Halo is more than a franchise. Halo is a cultural phenomenon. If you need proof, look no further than this page. When Halo 3 launched two years ago, we launched an epic adventure of our own: nearly 50 straight weeks of HaloRadar coverage.

People like to see good triumph over evil. It's the reason Superman always wins despite getting stabbed in the face with shards of Kryptonite. Why John McClane beats a skyscraper full of heavily-armed terrorists with nothing but a string vest. And why those pesky S.T.A.R.S. agents always get the better of the T-virus. Sometimes, though, there are games brave enough to spit in the face of convention and let their no gooders go

Video Games and facial hair have long had a close bond, be it the soul patch on the Prince of Persia, Gordon Freeman’s goatee, or the five o'clock shadow on every single character made with the Unreal 3 Engine. But while most games have people (mostly men) with some bit of hair growing beneath the nose but above the mouth, there are too few with just a mustache adding character to their faces.