The loneliness of empty Halo maps

[@any_austin]

the song at the end isn't out until tomorrow. That is my mistake. But when it's out you can find it under either my profile The Excellent Man from Minneapolis or under my friend Luke's profile LUKDLX. tomorrow. He and I put out a lofi house song about every 6 weeks.

[@Jack-sy6di]

wait what is the thing you heard the other day

[@RoachCatJr]

why did u change the title & thumbnail

[@flamingdeathbanana]

You never finished your thought at the beginning of the video about making new memories. You said you'd let us know more later in the video but you never brought it up again.

[@SykoPathak]

really finding your groove austin, love it!

[@beedykh2235]

We want "Unremarkable and odd places" (Counter-Strike 1.6) edition

[@jacobharrison8196]

The feeling of going back into old games and reminiscing about all that you have done in the past is really powerful, but one thing I don’t think I’ve heard you mention is that the spaces in games do not change over time. For example, going back to my hometown feels weird because so many things are different from when I was growing up there. The elementary school is now abandoned, the house I grew up in has been demolished, even the tree line around my parent’s property looks different. People come and go and the whole feel of the place shifts and in some cases fades out of memory. But when I boot up Bob-omb battlefield in Super Mario 64 it is always Bob-omb battlefield, and the little pink dude is always going to welcome me to hop into the cannon. The fact that these are preserved in time keeps me coming back.

[@kozlorog]

I have the exact same feeling. Place I grew up is now occupied by someone else, shops I used to visit closed down, with new ones opened on their place, old playgrounds demolished, new playgrounds built. But whenever I return to Castle Wolfenstein, it always greets me with gloomy gray sky, cozy rooms with hot food and fireplaces, far away snowy mountains and howling wind. Nothing has changed ever since I saw my dad playing it. Weird window into the past.

[@TheTrueFool]

It's weird how much smaller both games and real-world spaces end up feeling when you revisit them. A lot of games from my childhood that felt like these sprawling epics, are actually really short games. It's not even exclusive to childhood in my experience. The first time I played Elden Ring, I was blown away by the size of the map. After playing through the game a few times it feels a lot more digestible and easy to navigate.

[@kartografen4614]

Good point! On the other hand one could argue that since WE have changed, it can never be the same experience. When I go back to old games from my past, I'm often disappointed, like something doesn't feel right. I guess because it's not really the games themselves I miss, but rather the feeling I had playing them as a kid. And that cannot be recreated.

[@Hobojoe4464]

@@8Kazuja8 " I do wonder if people like that say "you've got to have played that" but actually mean "you've had to have been there" I think a lot of it wasn't just the games themselves but the time's you had, memories you made, and the people you made them with (more so with multiplayer). It wasn't just the game it self in a vacuum so to speak. I can play Halo CE co-op with my brother anytime, like we did 19 years ago. I still love it and play it often still but it's not going to have the same wonder and mystery and the new experience of it. Sometimes if it's a person coming to a older game they haven't played before it can be a "Seinfeld" Is Unfunny trope kind of thing where a game (or whatever) was so influential that has been copied in various aspects so much that to new eyes it isn't unique in the grand scheme of things as it was when new tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SeinfeldIsUnfunny/VideoGames

[@anthonysmith4222]

Meanwhile I'm 30 and live on the same farm I have lived on my entire life.. lol. Nothing changes in western KY

[@ogitybogityboo2383]

When I was younger I would often explore Halo 2 maps alone, mostly out of boredom, but the feelings you described were exactly what I felt back then exploring those maps alone. It almost felt as if the map was watching you the same way you were watching it.

[@captainash6581]

It's the complete lack of music once you're off the main menu. PvP and music are both such identifiable parts of these games but 1-Reach didn't mix them together.

[@MittensOnly]

Valve games have a similar feel Utterly empty, yet somehow occupied by something other than you

[@Horrorfreak106]

Id do the same thing at late hours of the night. I would try to find ghosts or go out of bounds

[@Rilosilo2]

Thought I was the only one that did this lol

[@TheLegendaryBeta]

Dude YES. THIS comment is IT. I did the same exact shit.

[@novelezra]

Oh my god. I have searched so many years for a phrase to sum up HALO's aesthetic and you fucking nailed it. "Sci-Fi Camping trip"

[@FinallyAlone]

At least the first one.

[@HydratedBeans]

With a splash of Frutiger Aero

[@novelezra]

@@HydratedBeans you're absolutely right! In fact, you nailed it there. Halo 1 honestly looks like a trapper keeper cover haha

[@HydratedBeans]

@@novelezra god I miss that aesthetic. It was so optimistic

[@abstract5249]

Stargate did that before Halo.

[@ArnieMcStranglehold]

Me and my two sisters used to wander around Halo maps for fun. We often did this in the early hours of the morning and we'd see creepy faces in the textures all the time. Then one day on Sidewinder we found an ACTUAL FACE. Somewhere in the ring texture overhead, there's a dev's face in the clouds. Creeped us out HARD! We were used to seeing things that looked like faces if you squinted at the CRT display, not actual faces.

[@MsFrostitute]

no way.. id do this too with my brother. I still do it today!!

[@jaymore012]

It’s an actual Easter egg. The main map creator of Sidewinder put his face on the ring.

[@Buttersaucee3]

I used to frequently do this, especially with Halo maps. There is something unspokenly special and eerie about empty Halo multiplayer maps. Those feelings are only exasperated when it's real late at night. Even though I was alone in those maps, it felt like thousands of eyes were on me in those moments. Incredibly hard to describe but please do more of these videos I love this type of thing

[@mylesleggette7520]

The word you're looking for is "exacerbated."

[@drivewaystar6485]

I spent SO MUCH time on halo 2 multiplayer that sometimes I would check out a map alone just to experience the landscapes and ambience without the all the firefights

[@Bleargghhhh]

Oh man I have such good memories of loading up maps and just wandering around them without the chaos going on. You can really appreciate the isolated beauty of halo when you're not being shot at

[@L337Haxorz]

That’s literally me, every time I wanna go into halo maps and just chill nobody is down 🤣🤣🤣

[@harpastanman8952]

I did that with a lot of COD maps too. Just looking around, without the fast pace of warfare.

[@hkiajtaqks5253]

A couple of decades ago I used to do this with cs:source. I didn't have a good internet connection, so I played offline with bots. I learned all commands like adding, killing, kicking bots and my favorite maps were de_peranesi and de_cbble. Spent hours either just running around or killing bots. I feels lonely just thinking about it.

[@tiagodecastro2929]

"You can really appreciate the isolated beauty of Halo when you're not being shot at." Makes you wonder about the humans who experienced the Halo rings in canon. I've always wondered how terrible it must be to find an amazing, massive artificial world, and not get to explore or experience it except for combat, only to die within a few days (there were canonically over 1,000 humans on the Autumn in the game's opening, and only, what, a dozen of them *at most* survived until after Halo's destruction?) I dunno, I always felt that this added to the tragedy of Halo

[@tiagodecastro2929]

​@@L337HaxorzPlaying Dark Souls co-op was good for this reason. When everything shut down in the beginning of covid, my buddy and I played a lot of Xbox together online, and DS was great for that exploratory vibe. The open world with items hidden away in random corners encourages exploration, and the cooperative element really did just feel like hanging out and witnessing a cool world at the same time

[@vikingskippen]

surprised you didn't mention the ambient sound. especially blood gulch just sounds like a hot summer's vacation day somewhere in southern europe and it is glorious

[@Utonian21]

Why Europe specifically? Lmao

[@zachg427]

​@Utonian21 my man closed his eyes and just spoke how he felt. Don't question him lol

[@jakew1362]

@@zachg427 bro took me back to the sicily and i aint ever been there

[@parkerC1990s]

Southern Europe? 😂

[@TheSquareOnes]

"You should be embarrassed to be having joy as an adult" is a painfully good line that perfectly describes the mindset so many people seem to actually have (especially subconsciously, I could never be a "quidditch guy" and this is the only reason that makes sense to avoid things like that). Loving this recent trend of picking a non-serialized topic and just rambling for 10 minutes over videogame footage, they're probably tougher to come up with than the unremarkable and odd places videos but I hope you keep them coming.

[@FONEternal]

Coming to this video a bit late but that line got a chuckle out of me. Many adults become so fixated on this notion of life being "serious business" that they truly do lose sight of simple joy, something that comes so natural to children. It's a strange sort of commiseration where anyone who steps outside of the "being super serious and unhappy like us" boundaries gets shamed and told to grow up. I'll pass!

[@TarsonTalon]

So let me get this straight: society stole my childhood by sending me to school, and now that I'm no longer in pseudo-prison I'm supposed to not be happy about it? Seems about the right attitude for authoritarian narcissists...

[@CommentedHere0]

You know very well not to listen what you said, people think. Not allowed to have joy? Man, go and have all the joy you want. _____-------------_------------_-----------_------ For God so loved the world that He sent His only Begotten Son, so whosover believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Amen.

[@dobbythefreeelf5703]

"sci-fi camping trip" is a brilliant way to describe the aesthetic. Just perfect. Great video.

[@Black.mountain._]

I agree

[@motioncolors]

I saw a comment one time that said, "there is nothing that says loneliness more than playing a custom game by yourself". It hit me, because I did that when I was younger. Back in Halo 2 days we had less social media options or entertainment options in general, no streaming. So sometimes I would find myself with nothing to do except hopping into a custom game by myself and exploring areas of the map that I might be able to get out of. Oddly enough some of my favorite memories. I miss the era where video game companies couldn't or didn't patch glitches. So many people can relate spending hours beyond what the developers ever intended. We stretched and squeezed this game for all it was worth.

[@pokerdoke14]

The tree in the middle of the map has always given me that odd and unremarkable feeling. Even in the middle of a match I would drive to it and just think why did they put this here and nothing else. Iconic and I love blood gultch

[@NoosePaper]

I have been playing this 20 yr old game called Indiana Jones and the Emperors Tomb, and it is filled with empty oddites and really uncanny areas. I think you would have a field day with it, or find it fascinating at least. Big fan !

[@virtualhotline]

Dude that game is fucking sick, I found it recently on steam and couldn't stop playing and looking around. Austin should def check it out

[@philly_osophy]

I've owned that on GOG for years but never fired it up, I'm installing it right now because of your comment, thanks!

[@NoosePaper]

@@philly_osophy it’s clunky, but if you appreciate it for its oldness, it’s quite charming and strangely impressive!

[@georgeellis9270]

That giant crocodile scared me so much

[@benjaminlathem2745]

The mp40 was awesome in that game.

[@JohnnyRico118]

The original Halo had some liminal space vibes that I didn't feel in subsequent Halos.

[@MsFrostitute]

oh my gosh exactly

[@asggerpatton7169]

Playing Halo CE when I was 13 made me feel inside the game like only a few others did. It felt surreal and a little uncanny, almost like a dream. The old graphics lacked on details, shadow, lighting and reflections, and the campaign on npcs, but it still felt believable enough, thus the uncanny valley.

[@Hadgerz]

I got a lot of liminal space vibes from a lot of the halo 2 mp maps. Mainly because i spent a lot of time wandering them alone (and with friends doing custom cooperative glitch escapades) as well as the CE maps

[@SirAuron777]

It had a very creepy vibe to it, like someone was watching, almost like 343 guilty spark was watching chief since he first landed on halo

[@trossbossinit]

@@asggerpatton7169 100% spot on.

[@jamesbrincefield9879]

When Halo released my little brother was old enough that he was beginning to get interested in video games and wanted to play everything I was playing, but also too young to be able to play them competently. It resulted in us mostly going into Blood Gulch, Sidewinder, and a handful of other maps with a bunch of nooks and crannies and either playing hide and seek or just exploring and noticing the details. It gave me a deep appreciation for the design of some of Halo 1 and 2s multiplayer and single player maps and for the art of level design in general. It caused me to develop a habit of taking my time with games and appreciating the small details that most people probably miss. This video brought back a lot of memories.

[@SoShOn]

I remember back in 2006-2007 when i found out Halo Custom Edition was a thing, I had all these custom maps and stuff but I didn't really know to use them. I spent so much time just exploring the barren landscape. Truly an interesting time... was very lonely though.

[@MasterBattle2000]

Used to love wandering around Sidewinder as a kid. Still love that eerie whistling wind sound to this day.

[@funx24X7]

Was hoping to see sidewinder featured in the video. A definite favorite of mine, what with the slippery driving physics and wide open winter wonderland vibe.

[@MrCantStopTheRobot]

It surprised me when I learned that Sidewinder hadn't become one of the "Classics" like even some Halo 2 maps had become.

[@PesterNester]

The tunnel fights got intense

[@MsFrostitute]

yeahh the whistling sounds..

[@ericamborsky3230]

Of the four maps on the free trial version, Sidewinder had to be my favorite.

[@tfdxstudios1265]

There is something quite nice about staring at the Halo rings in the skyboxes of some of these maps.

[@CadgerChristmasLightShow]

I remember as a kid playing level 2 of CE, just stopping and being amazed about what kind of a structure I was standing on. Staring at the ring, looking from one side of it to the other hanging in the air above you. Its a shame they didn't have more of a focus on that element in the later halo games.

[@swagbear9965]

@@CadgerChristmasLightShow Exactly dude. my imagination as a kid looking at the halo ring and just wondering what else was on the ring and what the rest of the ring looked like. I miss that aspect of games

[@serenestateofbeing1062]

​@@swagbear9965same

[@bobbobbins4877]

Everyone remembers the first time they gazed up at the ring. One of the most iconic gaming moments.

[@TwinBlasters]

You make a great point about the good ole days not having to be gone. You can always make good ole days, even when change is inevitable, and I've struggled with those thoughts for a long time. - "It's impossible to say" -Any Austin on the release date of Halo - I have a feeling I will end up in Blood Gulch when I die... and I hope to see you all there...

[@bobbobbins4877]

There's been times in my life when I despaired that the good ol' days were over. Now looking back, I was still living good ol' days. Perhaps I still am.

[@TheBuckteeth100]

Its nostalgia but also sadness at what has been lost. You remember all the great memories and fun times you had there. But you also know that you will never be able to do that again. Its over now and its over forever

[@Pfromm007]

True, but maybe, some of us could be inspired to bring it back for the rest of us. At least in some small way.

[@DakotaFord592]

You can still go back and play with the same old friends. Recreate some of the memories. It doesn't have to be in the past forever.

[@nickgreenhow5513]

It's only lost forever if Bungie or 343 pulls a Ubisoft and turns Halo into lost media, hopefully they don't 🤞

[@abstract5249]

Nostalgia is scarily addictive. I've been so fixated on nostalgia that I forgot to live my own life, here and now. It's gotten to the point where I feel nostalgic about the time I felt nostalgic, reminiscing about that one time I was reminiscing. Time flies too fast. I can't keep up, yo!

[@abstract5249]

For me, nostalgia is a way of coping with the feeling of anticipation and uncertainty that comes with modern life. When you're a young adult and so much is changing and new experiences are coming, you feel overwhelmed. My response to that has been to retreat to my memories, those warm and familiar and comforting memories. And that's a problem. I've been doing this for so long that I've robbed myself of those new experiences I could've had. Now I find myself getting nostalgic about the times I got nostalgic, yearning for the times in my young adulthood when I just sat down and reminisced because I was too nervous and excited and overwhelmed to actually go out there and do anything. It's a self-defeating cycle. Take it from me people. Don't spend too much time reminiscing. It's good to remember, but get out there and gain new experiences. Live for the here and now.

[@thebearthingshow]

I used to walk through empty maps too, and just take a look around.

[@apothecarysteed1566]

Awesome to do in the recent port of Tinesplitters 2 and Future Perfect on Xbox. Remove the bots and go for a stroll

[@djryry8006]

It was like a game in of itself. Like exploring ruins or a dig site.

[@zfighter3]

I noticed every time you got to the water, you jumped over it instead of wading through. Make sure to leave time in your own life to wade in and experience the vibe as if it was water flowing around you.

[@BierBart12]

The ringworld background aesthetic is probably the absolute best in Halo 1. You don't see the "edges", since there are hundreds of miles of land between you and them. You won't have any idea that you aren't on a planet until you look upon the horizon.

[@Hadgerz]

"You should be embarrassed to be having joy as an adult" I got one of those metaphysical chills just now. Not an actual chill, because you know, you should be embarrassed to actually feel feelings, as an adult.

[@BuckScrotumn]

“Halo released in two thousand something. One? Two? It’s impossible to say.” 😂😂😂

[@zandertunes9602]

Proceeds to show official recording of the release 😂 I've never heard of this guy but I'm subscribed now

[@Diashi1267]

Another reason these maps feel so lonely is because you previously shared some of the funnest moments of your life with your friends in the them. But now you’ve all grown up and maybe lost contact. Walking alone through these maps gives a reminder of your time together that’s now ended. It gives a sense of nostalgia of good times past that you wish you could feel again…

[@cdromschannel]

Would love to see more of these! Such a cool idea. Team Fortress 2 might be a good one, those maps feel weirdly lonely even with a ton of people in them.

[@Hwachao0]

ahhh I've literally done this so much since I got the Masterchief Collection. Something about the naturalistic sound design and outdoor environments makes it perfect for slow, reflective wandering long after everyone packed up and left. My current favorite map to walk around alone in is Gephyrophobia since it has such a strong night feel, especially when I look at the lights on the rock walls

[@AllanS69]

when I was around 10-12, I explored the crap out of multiplayer maps by myself, and put myself in scenarios and played them out by myself. (We didn’t have internet) This really makes a little movie play in my head as if it were yesterday.

[@LewisSmithPT]

When I was a kid for some reason we never could get my Xbox connected to live, I used to watch multiplayer gameplay online & wander around these maps alone imagining what it would be like, looking for vantage points & best routes to power weapon spawns. safe to say once I did get online my virginity was safe for a few years & social life became a distant memory

[@forerunner1246]

Same brotha; except I couldn’t afford internet.

[@ThePetalesharo]

Me and my family went through two OG 360's, one white with no hdd and an Elite after the white one RROD'd. After the Elite RROD'd around middle school, it was down for a couple months and I was spending more time outside and got a gf. My parents had a camera in the basement to stop me and my brothers from fighting. Well apparently my dad saw me making out with my gf through the camera, and the next day went out and bought a 360 Slim with Kinect when they were brand new, with a few games like CoD Black Ops and Halo 3: ODST. That decision of his did secure my virginity for another year and a half 😂 Was definitely a good tactic on his part

[@mainframe8962]

There was something uncanny about this until I realized that this kind of video is the way KZbin USED to be. These kinds of videos is what made KZbin a place you wanted to be, back in the day, and only after pondering how much things have changed did I realize that this kind of video is what made KZbin worth being around for. Thank you for reviving, for the briefest of moments, what KZbin used to be all about.

[@Hero0451]

We really did go from KZbin to Adtube really quickly

[@AussieBleuu]

Hey Austin, austin here. I'm glad you made this video because it conveys what I've felt coming back to the older games over the years. For me, those golden years on those maps had a lot of excitement, still felt new. But life today is so very different, both on my end and in the gaming industry. It just makes me depressed. When all of your friends have either died or moved on, you realize that the soul of Halo was not the epic soundtrack, or the story of a badass soldier defending humanity, but the people we met along the way. I can't even play on Halo Reach's forge world anymore because it's like re-visiting your childhood home and finding it in ruins, rather than just letting that one good image of it live in your mind.

[@jacktheanimeripper]

Joint Operations, a military shooter from the early 2000s, had absolutly massive multiplayer maps. Something like 20x20 miles. Whether you can find a server with some people or none at all, it doesn't take long to feel absolutely isolated in that game. It's a trip. I had joined a server last year with maybe 12 people in it. I got in a vehicle and drove in one direction for the extent of the match (about 30 minutes). Just endlessly driving and reflecting on my history with the game. It wasn't the same feeling of loneliness you get on an empty halo map but once you're a mile or two away from anyone, who knows what you'll go through. It evokes the wildest feeling. The area of the map outside the main play area was never meant to be played in. Even during the hayday with 250 person servers, you could never fill all 20x20 miles of the map (although, you'd sometimes get a few insane people spending 15 minutes making the biggest flank in online shooter history just to get behind the enemy spawn). You'd think it would be a massive waste of resources to render such a large map while only populating maybe 10% of it. I'm glad they did.

[@Gell-lo]

I'll have to check this out.

[@cloutiec]

Loved the conversational, playful tone. You made me laugh, bud. Especially the bit about Timberland not being lonely, it's just numbers in a word file man

[@Twitter_Posts]

I remember me and all my cousins playing Halo, then I would go back in the maps and walk around solo when everyone left. The map is meant to hold people in it, and you could imagine at any point that you would see one of your buddies walking around the corner. It was like the feeling of when a party just ended or when your friends have to leave after hanging out and having a good time and having nostalgia for something that only happened minutes before.

[@HobbitTanoo]

So many good concepts in this video. The conservation of places, which is somehow rendered uncanny without the intended social practices taking place there. The limited scope of play for adults. Flux of nostalgia. More like this!

[@MarMaxGaming]

9:40 this is when the discussion gets to another level of real, that’s really awesome and there’s a lot of truth to it. It’s true, there is something so familiar and comforting about revisiting childhood gaming spots

[@Mattydude]

When you have a very specific Question about famous early 2000's producer Timbaland - 4:47

[@ILBOI_X]

Will this be a new series because i’d love this 😳

[@Rafael_Oiticica]

"I need very clear emotional communication from you" Everytime I watch a video of yours, my being is filled with a uncanny happiness equal to that you feel when you listen to a 80's song in your whole teenage years, stop listening to it in your early adult, and then remember it when you're a "adult adult". It's almost this you feel when you read adult adult. Despite my emotions being hard to decipher from my point of view, I desperately wanted to put into words how much joy and surprise I feel leaking from my heart when I watch these videos about "unremarkable and odd places" specially in a game like Halo that I never played before in my life. I found so interesting, strange and stupid the metaphor you used about "reading a diary with fading words" that I urinated myself and cried tears of joy, at the same time, when I heard it. The way you read the virtual space we as early, adult or old adults interact as being the same as the physical playground we once played joyfully when we're kids was as good to understand as was good to understand that life has no meaning at all (that's why we can create one, if we want to). Please, keep creating your content and simply... Being yourself in front of a mic/camera. I really love that.

[@TheTrueFool]

I used to wander around empty COD (and Halo 3 to a lesser extent) maps with my friends. We'd just talk about whatever instead of focusing on the game. It was a good way for us to still hang out after I moved away from them (it was only like a 20 minute drive, but it feels like a huge distance when you're 14). Because of that, the nostalgia/weirdness of empty multi-player maps hits me in two different ways.

[@DargorShepard]

Running around empty maps doing whatever is exactly what I did as a child. It wasn't until my preteens when I actually got internet that I started to play online, but even then, we couldn't always afford to buy gold so that I actually play online, so I ended up running around empty maps doing whatever a lot anyways.

[@Thegreatercheese]

Your family could barely even afford gold?

[@karkwhyioughta]

Reminding Austin to tell us what he heard the other day regarding the good ol' days (0:25)

[@AutowarsRegen]

What did he hear the other day?! never came back to this!

[@josh-kf2rd]

Thing about the old days is they're the old days.

[@KingDestrukto]

austin will be remembered as one of the great philosophers of our time

[@dadiddde.3568]

Its great to hear someone talk so freely about the basic perception of video games as if they were real places - because they kind of are.. there is a certain paradox behind that - we spent so much time there and built up a lot of emotion towards that .. I like the way you think I guess and I like to listen to yo- do more of that - its interesting how strong of a feeling nostalgia is

[@tomtomtrent]

5:05 As a person who puts a lot of sentimental value on certain things, you just hit the nail on the head and I didn’t even realize that. It’s like why you might feel bad about giving away a stuffed animal you haven’t used in years. It doesn’t have feelings, so it won’t be hurt or abandoned, but you feel bad because you miss when you were a kid and played with it and gave it a personality

[@Humancatpost]

Some online friends and I used to run a Team Fortress 2 Mario Kart server back in the day, right in the prime of when those were at their peak popularity. We ran our own version of the map, had a fairly large community, the works. It was like being on a playground but you get to be in charge and your friend is the architect. Booting up those old maps feels comfortable, even if they’re empty. It’s fun to see what memories come flooding back in different areas.

[@Outlawstar0198]

I want to do this..... Is it possible?!

[@ScreamingBear71]

Brings back all the Halo memories. It's weird too because even though it's a decade younger and designed completely differently, all of the remakes of Halo CE's maps in Reach give me the same feelings. You should do one of these about the Wii sports golf courses. They always gave me the same vibe of eerily mundane, and yet unreal, like they can't quite capture real life, just a child's perception of it.

[@brendanward7595]

Really enjoyed this as a similar but different type of 'weird and unremarkable' vibe. If you haven't yet, I'd recommend checking out the game Paradise Killer for a game that really embraces thee weird and unremarkable digital environment, leaning into a rad mix of vaporwave aesthetic and kind of odd early 2000s surrealism as well. The game also wants you to explore and get lots in its weird world, leaving little rewards for poking around its world where you feel you shouldn't be going. And it's a cool murder mystery with ancient gods and demons and faux-utopian dystopian societies.

[@snugasapugonarug]

This but with Unreal Tournament 99, love the look of old Unreal Engine. UT has bots (really smart bots god damn) but you can turn em off and walk around enjoying the solitude. Maps downloaded from the internet are so much fun to explore around in because it's just regular ol' people making them so you get such a wild variety of glimpses into peoples' headspaces. Plus, of course, the melancholy of multiplayer maps with nobody in them is always nice to wallow in for a while.

[@mattm9160]

This is such a beautiful video. Both wonderfully nostalgic and sneakily profound.

[@joshcarter137]

Wonderful content as usual Austin. In high school in our school library’s Computer Lab (are those still a thing?) someone had found an admin account that didn’t have a password, and had installed Halo Custom Edition. The wicked part was that multiple people could log in to the account at the same time, so we were able to orchestrate large local Halo matches for a while. Eventually the librarian caught on and the fun was squashed. But while it was happening, the games felt like such a technological/hacking achievement. It was a lot of fun.

[@ThePetalesharo]

I had CE installed on a flash drive, and I booted it up anytime there was computer lab/library time. My friends were always amazed and jealous lol

[@lazyguy79]

Very clear emotional communication that I do indeed like this series and would like to see more of it

[@cathroon]

would love to see you explore some of the more sci-fi leaning maps like hang-em-high, boarding action, feel like they had some interesting vibes

[@Glidus]

you are doing the right thing. do more of it and i will continue to affirm your actions.

[@Ares_gaming_117]

Halo is filled with nostalgia and beauty. And odd places. I still love wondering halo 3 maps alone. Gives me so much peace. And that's a really interesting point about mp maos being the last places adults can play. I think everyone secretly feels it's a big shame adults can't play without judgement. We need to create these spaces. I know I certainly wouldn't judge adults having fun. Hope you do more halo maps!!

[@Fonky_Fesh]

The PC DEMO for Halo 1 had a dedicated server browser for years - with one map - Blood Gulch!

[@Matheus-ki9zo]

When I was young, I shared the same experience the great majority of you did: I hopped into empty multiplayer maps. And for me it was hella comforting. I played a lot of Medal of Honor Allied Assault, so I'd hop into the multiplayer maps and interact with the environment with this mentality that the war was over and now I could explore the previous site of battles alone to reminisce about that victory (I always put myself in the Allies side of things). When I hopped into small town maps, I'd interact with the map as if I was actually living there, like pretending I was taking a plate to the table to eat or going to to the toilet LOL But with Halo it was different. Halo was just magical in so many of its levels. With Halo, I didn't pretend anything because I was too stuck in the wonder of exploring these gigantic pieces of landscape. It was genuine me trying to process that otherwordly environment, not just some fool walking around these empty spaces. So I'd hop into the multiplayer maps, drive around with the vehicles, scale the forerunner buildings and see what weapons I could find there. All of these maps were extremely mysterious, fun and relaxing to explore... except Gephyrophobia. That map terrified me. It was dark, it was ominous and that background ambience noise didn't help shit with scalling the classic liminal space from 0 to 10 real quick.

[@rainbowterra]

When I was in college, everyone in the dorms was playing one of two games: Halo, or Smash Melee. It was incredible, you could just walk down the hallway of the dorms to find a big group of people in a room rotating in and out of a game, and even if you didn't know the people that well, you'd get handed a controller at some point and get to play. The nostalgia is deep with this one, definitely had a ton of fun on these maps. I vote for more of this!

[@djryry8006]

The videos are really great!! There's something that is eerily intriguing about sitting and listening to everything the developers put together. There are so many things that would otherwise go unnoticed during a battle. Side note, Halo CE was recently added (alongside many other games) to the no clip website. This may make it easier to explore the levels, although there is no audio.

[@tspmcfarlane]

The playground analogy was very impactful for me. I really felt that. I’ve been feeling a bit disillusioned with KZbin lately, and maybe a bit tired of the general ocean of content I confront online every day. But whenever I come across great video essays - either structured ones or more freeform ones like this - created with real intelligence, emotion or both, I realise it’s a medium that probably wouldn’t exist at any great volume without this platform and the all-consuming online nature of life. I’m grateful for that. It feels like a genuine artform in a world that hasn’t always made things better.

[@luckyomen]

After reading the Halo Fall of Reach novel in early High School, I would think about the training portion of the book and often thought of Timberland as that training area they wandered as kids. I would love to see Timberland ported to Halo: Reach so that the updated textures and audio could be used to convey a better sense of the outdoors. Maybe make it both a multiplayer map to see how vehicles mix with armor abilities in those trench-like passages, but also Firefight mode to experience what fighting in the wilderness of Reach might be like.

[@QuarrelsomeLocalOaf]

I know this is an old comment, but they actually did remake Timberland as DLC for Reach when they released CE Anniversary. It's called Ridgeline, and the atmosphere is a bit different but it's a really good looking map imo.

[@cheezwiz9292]

Eloquently put, Austin. Going through an old multiplayer level is kind of like going back to a place with memories and realizing time has changed. Didn't expect to be thinking about existentialism today.

[@IhadaCapo]

My bro and i used to play boarding action with snipers only and always invisible lol… leaning into the creepy element. It turned into more of a screen cheating contest usually though

[@ScubaCoopa]

I would give a considerable amount of money to exist in 2001 all over again. Late nights playing Halo CE with my buddies. We don’t talk much anymore and I haven’t played online games in a while but it was just something from that era that was magic and I will always be thankful for I got to exist then. Nobody can take those memories.

[@Your_National_Anthem]

This mans mind is just unfiltered kino. I love it.

[@timothypierce2478]

Just caught this video, and I think wandering through these empty maps is a lot like reading Sappho’s poetry. Only fragments, faint ideas of what the art was meant to be, letting our imagination fill in the gaps and find new meaning. Excellent video.

[@jackglossop4859]

The night Halo was released was one of saddest of my life. Our little group of buddies always played Halo together split screen. When 3 came out, we all went to town to buy it at midnight but then realised we needed to go back to our separate houses to play it. We all went our separate ways and I don't think we ever had another split screen night.

[@Trif4]

But... Halo 3 had splitscreen?

[@iRunfastXC]

The ambient sound of Halo 1’s bloodgulch are just perfect. I’ve heard it so much. Spent many empty hours scouring the map for new strategies, modding it, exploring mods, etc. Oh, and the skyboxes were beautiful.

[@davidlaton3478]

I liked this video. It made me nostalgic and a little sad, and that’s okay. It’s okay to feel sad sometimes. You had interesting things to say about how the maps make you feel and how we interact with them across time. Please make more content like this.

[@BounceBack117]

I loved this one so mucH! I love the analogy on being able to go back, that it's the only place you can return to without going back to childhood as you can go back and play the same game as an adult. For me it's like a memory or a untapped vibe I can recover and breathe life into, as if it's not artificial but a tangible and natural memory and feeling with substance that I couldn't find as an adult unless I could access a place in real life that serves as a memory point for nostalgia or inspiration. The insights are'nt borrowed and I love that this channel is original. Will keep watching, from NZ.

[@NichtBenni]

Yeeeessss kinda like the good old eggbusters times :D (Nothing wrong with the current content! (Especially the emploment & odd places))

[@nondescriptname]

I actually really liked Boarding Action. It forced a kind of asymmetrical play which challenged skills many players badly needed to improve: holding shallow angles and long distance shots/target tracking. People hated it because it was easy to die and it was easy to die because the map forced you out of your comfort zone and into an exposed position where the only option was to shoot first, shoot better, or immediately die.

[@Joe45-91]

Playing it with snipers only on a 12 player LAN party was chaos

[@alexanderarden6936]

I like your commentary on the evolution of map design man and also the psychology of players at different ages and what these games mean to us and the experiences we hold onto. Very thought provoking, keep it up.

[@StuGLyfe]

I think the word you're looking for is kenopsia. I'm paraphrasing, but essentially It's the weird feeling you get from a place that used to be filled with people but is now empty. When I was a young kid, my parents would volunteer for the local PTA, which meant I stayed after school while they made copies or helped teachers in some way. Sometimes I would stay until 6 or 7 in the evening, hours after every other kid went home. I got the same feeling then that I get looking at old, empty multiplayer maps I do today.

[@ServoTom]

Boarding Action with Snipers only was awesome. Prisoner with only Rockets was my absolute favorite though, just non-stop chaos.

[@stevendesmond2685]

343 makes terrible big team maps. They are large, but they aren't vast and there are too many cliffs funneling people into tight corridors.

[@games68775]

Wow seeing these maps brings back memories

[@jakesnake8930]

I rarely comment on videos, but this one speaks to me. Thank you for making this.

[@EdwardVarner]

My best friend and I spend many hours wandering these maps, making memories, and having fun. God rest his soul, I miss him dearly.

[@DianeCooperTW]

This reminds me a lot of when i play old games that i sued to play as a child. Because now im alone everybody moved on and yey I'm still here replaying I these games searching for that same feeling i had as child knowing i won't ever feel it again

[@EddieChamo]

I like this content. Thank you. This reminds me of playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skaters 1 and 2 and later feeling weird at how alone you were in those levels. There was a time where I could only play Pro Skater 3 because at least that had NPC's around to make it feel less lonely.

[@phajthoj]

what really makes the halo 1 maps unique is the ambiance, i really enjoy hearing the background sound affect either from the running water or just hearing the winds howling(Sidewinder) for example.

[@SixStringflyboy]

Definitely gives off a liminal vibe to see them empty like this. So, so many memories. Thanks for bringing them back for us.

[@ChiefSlaya]

My experience with multiplayer maps was almost exclusively playing them alone. Halo custom maps are great for it, but in particular I remember doing this with the Ratchet and Clank 3 multiplayer. I regularly tried to jump out of the hovership and get back in before it landed.

[@juananguiano6929]

This hit me in the feels. Growing up nobody would ever wanna play halo with me so I’d explore all of these maps nonstop just driving the vehicles around

[@MerryBlind]

Wasn’t expecting to watch the whole thing but your flow of mind actually kept me interested and left me with food for thoughts. The playground analogy was quite introspective.

[@AirborneLRRP]

This is really well narrated. I have often spent times in these maps alone, specifically when I would hook my xbox up to my PC in 2004/5 to play with friends/people online and be waiting for others to join etc. etc. I will say - your discussion on battle creek - the "playground" analogy - is exactly why I love rock climbing. I'm 36 years old, probably the same age as you, judging by how you were talking about the game. Rock climbing gets me outside, exploring areas I would never normally go with other people, to go play and challenge myself and have fun. The memories and nostalgia isn't dependent on the spaces though. The memories are always because the people and the interactions with others that are so special. Because if you had those same interactions or relationships develop in a different space, those would be the thing you remember. It's like skateboarding in Shanghai during 2011-3. There was no better place to be - so much life and warmth. Going back years later, those people are gone and the ecosystem is gone. It feels empty, just like these maps.

[@AirborneLRRP]

You're very intelligent and thoughtful. I'm glad I found your channel.

[@AirborneLRRP]

Actually - looking at you at the outtro, you're not 36 lol

[@JoeElJalapeno1810]

Being able to be in blood gulch whit the homies once more certainly sounds like heaven to me

[@flam1ngicecream]

7:00 hearing the sound of the fuel rod gun firing but never hearing the projectiles impact and explode is such a good auditory metaphor for what playing these maps alone feels like. It reminds me of the song of the last Kauaʻi ʻōʻō.

[@anson.meadows]

It’s just like walking through an old school or a social center again. The memories are there but the people are gone. LOCKOUT is nostalgic for me. ZANZIBAR and COAGULATION, too.

[@Pheer777]

I very vividly remember having the liminal feeling when on Sidewinder by myself - the howling wind sounds in the background really set the tone

[@lukesahagian]

You touched upon some very interesting points here. I myself write a lot and load up old Halo maps to walk around whilst I do. It sounds lonely af, but it really triggers many different emotions which help me write.

[@Kaldrin]

You know what? I've never played the first Halo. Yet, these feel dreamy, nostalgic, weird, and I somehow relate to everything you dedcribe and I love it.

[@expensivecrayon]

This was a great episode. You made me feel nostalgic for a game I’ve never played

[@Libroer]

This was great. Really captured a special component of what was great about Halo. Reminds me of people I used to know well and play Halo with. Makes me want to call them up and wander around a Halo multiplayer map with them and just appreciate what was, and how far in the past it is now. God we’re all gonna die.

[@TheJayson8899]

The audio design in these games is phenomenal, too. Especially in Halo 2 and onwards. There's so much sound design in these maps that goes overlooked.

[@jeremyruch5095]

Spent countless hours exploring halo 2 maps just trying to find super bounces. Ive never been able to just wonder around a game by myself and it be so enjoyable since that game.

[@MaDGriZz78]

The halo soundtrack will live on forever, thats something ill never forget from this series.

[@programmer6394]

EXPLANATION: It's the empiness and loneliness. The laughter and anger. The calling out of screen-peaking. The knowing that tomorrow you would repeat today. The epic moments of pulling a clutch flag capture or kill at the last second to break a tie or to keep it. All these moments had people in them; millions of us; long ago. We imagine the days of old while hearing echoes of those moments walking through these maps. We have a melancholic feeling knowing that the game is still here 20 years later and ready to play just like it did then, but not the players (at least, not en masse). A cog in the machine, long since abanded, yet still running without its oporator. If you've ever seen a picture or a painting of someone smoking a cigarette and brooding over a railing at the end of their week, a soldier looking over a battlefield that is now a memorial of gravestones, it's the same feeling. Loss. Loss of youth, friends, or times. Meloncholy and nostalgia have a blurred line that you stand on when you come to these empty maps. I often find myself on these maps from time-to-time just to relive these moments in my head. I like to think the line I stand on is closer to melancholy knowing that new memories can't be as good as the old since so little care is given to Halo since 343i took over. The arguement of "nostalgia blinds me" isn't exactly applicable when I've played many games since the time Bungie was making Halo that have captivated my heart and have gone to the realm of nostalgia. However, Halo was the pinnacle of my joy; it hurts to see it gone. I admit I wept when Halo 3's servers came to a close. The easiest way to feel this pain without suffering truly? Make a fun filled summer with a long vacation. Make it a whole two months. Do things every day with friends and family or on your own, but make it fun and busy! Then, before you go back to work or school, watch the sunset on the last night and remember all you did. You'll feel it being over. Albeit, another summer will come, however this one is over forever. Same feeling. You can also get the feeling from listening to music from these games. Halo, Mirror's Edge, Mass Effect, Forza, Star Wars, Elder Scrolls, Gears of War. All of them have somber compositions that can bring out these feelings of nostalgia and/or melancholy. Thanks for reading friend. I hope this helps your journey moving on from something!