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Behind the Spartan number and the legendary Armour, Master Chief has a first name that rarely comes up in dialogue: John. The Gravemind is one of the very few beings in the wider universe ever shown learning and using it, a small but telling detail about how much the Flood's intelligence comes to know about the humans it hunts.
For years, the coveted Recon Armour wasn't something you could simply unlock in-game. Getting it meant completing a brutal set of Vidmaster Challenges spread across Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST, things like finishing a level solo on Legendary without ever firing a shot or throwing a grenade. Complete them all and Bungie would grant you the Armour through their 'Road to Recon' program on Bungie.net.
Robin Williams was reportedly a keen Alliance player. After his death in 2014, Blizzard added a quiet tribute on an island off the southern coast of Talador: rub the Ever-Burning Lamp there and one of his most famous characters appears.
When Halo 3 launched on September 25, 2007, it didn't just break gaming records, it outsold the opening weekends of major Hollywood films. Reports at the time put day-one earnings north of $170 million, with roughly 3.3 million copies sold in the first week alone, edging past openings like Spider-Man 3 and the release of the final Harry Potter novel.
