Hello, Wild Things: You had me at Halo [4]

[That's my pretty little Spartan. Isn't she adorable?]

I finally got through Halo 4... months after it came out. I've been playing consistently... I just got distracted by Spartan Ops. Very distracted.

I see the Halo series as a staple of video game culture, and for good reason. The story lines are intriguing, flirting with the concepts of religion, humanity's future, and if you have an imagination like mine, romance. The main character is powerful enough to make him a blast to play (come on, who doesn't love jumping as master chief?), while maintaining basic human flaws. The enemies are varied enough to give you a challenge, but simple enough that you can be thrown into a level and complete it without throwing your controller through the tv.

To sum up how I feel about this game in just one sentence: I love Halo 4. A lot of people were initially put off by the whole 343 thing, but I thought they did a great job. It was refreshing to have a different enemies, which provided a new puzzle in learning how they worked, and what was the best way to kill them (watchers first, yeah?). As I mentioned before, though, Spartan Ops is hands down my favorite part. It's a side story where you get to play as a team that goes on little missions. It's great for people like me who don't like matchmaking, but don't always have the patience to make it through a whole campaign. You get points for all of the ops you complete, and points lead to levels, which leads to unlocking new items for load outs... and armor. So basically, yes, sometimes this is all an elaborate way to let me play dress up. And what makes it more awesome is that my character in spartan ops is a girl, and not just a guy with pink armor.

Visually, this game is beautiful. There are bunches of pretty plants, dazzling landscapes, beautiful skies, and shiny buildings. I'm a huge fan of vivid colors in techno-ish landscapes, so I love everything forerunner. The game dives more into Cortana's storyline, which I'm totally cool with. I've always been intrigued by the relationship between Cortana and Master Chief. Come to think of it, it might be why I wanted to play the games in the first place. The ending is a bit of a downer, but I'm expecting big things to come. You hear me, 343?

I sifted through the ridiculous amount of Halo products to link you the ones that I really loved. But before you trudge through this list, maybe you should mix yourself a Master Chief or Cortana drink.

Got your drink? Good. First off, etsy finds.

Wake up, John bracelet from JT Sky Designs // custom Halo 4 controller from Diesel Lace Design // legendary etched glass from Way Two Cool // Needler Necklace from Warp Drive Emporium

There's also this epic stained glass, these pewter pendants, this UNSC wall decal, this customizable helmet sculpture, a UNSC patch, and a Forerunner patch.

Up next, gear. Maybe you can't be a Spartan, but you can still wear awesome Spartan-y clothes.
This shirt is based off of Emile's (from Reach) helmet decal, and this shirt has a UNSC logo on front, and can be personalized to say your gamertag on the back. This shirt has the basic UNSC logo on it, which I think is totally cool. Also, this hoodie.

I couldn't find a hoodie to make you look like Cortana (which makes me super sad) but I did find some AMAZING female cosplays of her. I also found some crazy awesome female Spartan cosplays, such as this one. As good as it is, though, it just doesn't measure up to my two favorite Halo finds... which are the most inspiring cosplay... ever. I think I need to build myself some armor.