Last night I, for the lack of a better term, re-connected with a an old friend from college over Xbox Live. After a few pathetic attempts at Modern Warfare 2 we decided that the reminiscing would be complete with a few matches of our go-to playlist, Halo 3′s excellent Team Doubles. I was sceptical to say the least, surely this game couldn’t hold up, surely nobody was playing it any more.

The six thousand players on the Team Doubles playlist alone probably says more about ODST than anything else but I was astonished by how quickly we got into a game. I know my stuff when it comes to games – unless they involve quests and levelling up – so I know how big the Halo community is. Nevertheless I was a little shocked with how quickly we got into the swing of things. The memories promptly flooded back.

One loss at The Pit was immediately followed by a sticky grenade laden affair on Guardian. Ridiculously fun and still accessible after nearly thirty months since the release. I was a little bit disappointed when we hopped back on to Snowbound as they’ve removed a bunch of the shields, a small complaint I know but I loved the standoffs they created.

It’s surprising to see how far we’ve come in just a short space of time – I’m not exaggerating, the frame rate in Halo 3 is awful compared to Modern Warfare 2. Otherwise the game is still as solid as it’s always been.

I’ve been so preoccupied with keeping up with the Joneses that I started to neglect my humongous back-collection of quality titles. I’m not saying I’m going to go back through my pile of shame but I’d like to invite everyone to grab their controllers and a fresh dust cloth – enjoy an earlier release that you once loved.