Back to Halo 101!!

Now that Halo 3 has exploded into retail stores (there were 50 foot lines of fanatics outside to prove it), I now think that it may be time for me to finally into the Halo Universe. Over the years, I've owned several gaming systems and have experienced most of the best games that those systems had to offer. The original Xbox is one of my favorite systems of all time and I've had some of my best gaming moments with games like Chronicles of Riddick, Splinter Cell, and Ninja Gaiden among others. But for some strange reason, I've never really taken an interest in the Halo franchise. I blame this on the fact that I bought my Xbox about 6 months after the original Halo was released. I immediately started playing whatever the hottest game was at that time and never looked back at what I'd missed. Since I hadn't played Halo, Halo 2 came out a few years but was barely a "blip" on my radar. In any case, I have yet to experience what many people feel is one of the greatest game franchises of all time. Can someone tell me exactly what I've been missing?

Anyway, Halo 3 came out today and many of the critics are already saying that it's just as good, if not BETTER, than Halo 1 & 2. Now, I could be wrong, but I think this is the first time I've ever seen the first 3 games of ANY game franchise receive such high critical and fan acclaim. So the successful Halo trilogy has now made 2 things very clear: 1) the Halo franchise will go down in video game history, and 2) I have OFFICIALLY missed my chance to jump on the Halo bandwagon!

For anyone who knows me, I always like to stay one step ahead of my friends when it comes to the latest games. If I haven't played a certain game, I could at least be counted on me to know something about the game that my friends didn't know. Since I know almost Jack s**t about the Halo games, I now have that same feeling deep down in my gut that I used to get in high school just before taking a test that I KNEW I was going to flunk! I feel nervous and unprepared and it sucks! I now feel like I'm forced to do exactly what I've been avoiding all these years: go pick up the original Halo and start playing it from the very beginning. Basically, I've got to attend "Halo 101" class in order to graduate...it's the only way to get rid of this damn empty feeling in my stomach! Can any of you experienced Halo fanatics out there offer any advice to a guy who's just starting out?