Now that Halo 5 appears to have a story I'm going to care about, I need to make sure I'm up with the story and well versed with what's gone on. I'm pretty much completely clueless about Halo's story post Halo 3, despite reading all the books and stuff. It just went in one ear and out the other.

Should I start reconsuming Halo media in order of release, or in order of fictional timeline? The rest of this post is me just confirming the order of the stuff, you don't have to read it. Just advise me.

That is, should I do something like

TFoR
FoR comic
Contact Harvest
Forward Unto Dawn
Halo Wars comic
Halo Wars
The Cole Protocol
Helljumper comic
Bloodline comic
Halo Reach
Halo
The Flood
First Strike
Halo 2
Ghosts of Onyx
Halo 3 ODST
Halo Uprising Comic

This is where my memory of the timeline goes wacky, so this may be out of order.

Kilo 5 trilogy
Halo 3
Halo: Initiation Comic
Halo 4
Escalation comic
Nightfall
New Blood?

Evolutions, the Forerunner series, the new book about Covenant, the Graphic Novel, the weird animation movie DVD thing, and that twin stick shooter seem to not matter when I experience them in this list.

Or, should I start by redoing everything as it was released? I think this is the order, judging by my memory and folder creation dates on my computer.

TFoR
Halo
The Flood
First Strike
Halo 2
Graphic Novel
GoO
Uprising
Halo 3
Contact Harvest
Cole Protocol
Halo Wars
Halo Wars comic
Helljumper
ODST
Evolutions
Blood Line
Legends
Reach
Fall of Reach
Cryptum
Glasslands
Primordium
Thursday War
Forward Unto Dawn
Halo 4
Silentium
Spartan Assault
Initiation
Escalation
Mortal Dictata
Broken Circle
Nightfall
New Blood
Spartan Strike