Growing up in the 2000s fucked my brain hard. The sexism, homophobia and racism coupled with the free-range parenting that was simultaneously neglectful while gaslighting everyone into thinking that it was too coddling, and an internet that simply did not give a fuck who it traumatized. All topped off with a resurgence of Western jingoism from the “war in terror”.
The only good thing about that period was some of the videogames were okay I guess but only if you avoid ANYTHING remotely military flavoured. A lot of shit outside of Nintendo was afraid of colour and everything was that washed out brown. Just a miserable time. Everyone was so uncreative and the world had some fucked up Southpark brainworms.
The single player campaign is some of the lowest pulp military sci fi out there. But the couch multiplayer was top-notch, and brought me together with a lot of other friends in-person. I think Halo 2’s online multiplayer was the beginning of the end, though - a lot of those guys I haven’t seen in person since literally 2004.