The Halo Archives fan project aims to preserve history.

Few things have been as influential to gamers of a certain age as Halo 3. Halo 3's multiplayer suite, especially taking full advantage of the capabilities of Xbox Live and the immediate popularity of the Xbox 360, laid the foundation for Halo: Combat Evolved's smash hit sequel, Halo 2, and some hardcore Halo fans will argue that the series hasn't reached the same heights since.

Unfortunately, the Halo 3 we once knew is no more. As part of a major sunset, 343 Studios, now renamed Halo Studios, announced that it would be shutting down servers along with Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo Wars, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and Spartan Assault in 2021, although the offline campaign feature remained intact.

Halo 3 - Master Chief and Arbiter Key Art

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Let's take a look back at one of the greatest campaign missions in FPS history: Halo 3's Covenant.

That said, a new fan project called Halo Archive aims to preserve every moment and history of the iconic night online, with a new website cataloging millions of data points.

The Halo Archives is a trip down memory lane

First shared on social media, Halo Archive preserves gamertags, massacre reports, and player data through an easy-to-use website that requires subscription and registration but is now active.

“As we all know, the Xbox and larger community of Halo 2 and 3 were the pinnacle of online gaming, interaction, community, and fun to this day. Nothing has come close to it since,” the site's founders wrote in part. “There was only one thing we could do when we saw Bungie.net stats go offline: Preserve the records of the millions of players who have played over the years and reports on billions of Halo games.”

One of the coolest features is that you can search by gamertag and see everything from your best used weapons to the medals you've earned.

A cursory search of my old 360 gamertags shows that my last match was in July 2011. It was a Team Slayer match where Team Red (my team) lost 50-30.

Elsewhere, you can use an online toolkit to create your own Halo Emblem, and there's also an analytics library with unique data points, such as players you've lost the most to (Greatest Nemesis) and players you frequently played with and against (Gaming Circle). You can also check to see if you've played with a Bungie developer or professional player.

Overall, this is a really neat project that any Halo fan should check out.