Skyrim Widow = Halo Widow

This article made me laugh. The writer’s boyfriend got Skyrim and widowed her for a few days. I hear Skyrim is amazing and I’m probably glad that Mike’s not really into those sort of games. Felicia Day has many things to say about it, as well as other Twitterers, but I haven't seen it in action and don't know that I will (or need to because I might really, really like it).

The thing I found most entertaining about the article was the experiments she performed on him. I know, of course, that she didn’t really check his pupils and attach heart monitors to him, but it was funny nonetheless. It would never work for me to do such things; I’d likely be in the way of the game. As it is, I’ve figured out how to ninja through our living room, where Mike sits at one end, the 61 inch TV at the other with about 7 feet between them (enough space between the TV and the couch for me to play Dance Central).  
Also, the writer's own private addiction to Plants vs. Zombies… anyone who knows me knows my feelings about this game. Simply put, I love the Zombies. There’ve been several, several occasions where I’ve spent hours playing and not even realized how much time has gone by.  Not to mention all of the other fun tower defense games on the interwebs… Kingdom Rush, Pirates vs. Ninjas, Overlord II Tower Defense. Space Pirates, I still hate you the most (but you are conquered, so there).

This has been the least Halo related blog, but honestly, I’ve been wrapped up in school and books. I’ll pay attention when Mike is able to play the new maps so I can see them and have something new to talk about. Or. I’ll just pay attention to what game he’s playing until I figure it out. Until then, game on. And a new pretty for your eyeballs to look at. 

HaloFest

  For those of you who weren't informed, this year marks the 10th anniversary of Halo: Combat Evolved. This calls for a celebration! That celebration was HaloFest.

    PAX Prime is huge. The entire event takes up the 4 stories of the convention center and over flows into the annex across Pike street and the Paramount Theater. HaloFest was a part of PAX Prime, meaning that your PAX badge would get you in to HaloFest as well. But HaloFest was definitely a totally separate experience. Inside the incredibly well put together area, all other games were lost. It was all about Halo and there were some incredible representations of the universe that was created for the players to escape into. That escape was real for the 3 days that the event covered.

  There were several game areas set up where anyone could sit or stand and play a round of Firefight or Big Team Battle with the other Halo lovers in the room. I even picked up a controller a few times, just so they could start the game. I got my ass handed to me in the Big Team Battle and Free for All matches that I played but I got my first and second double kill playing Firefight. Mike had a good time exploring the title update which had changes that he was really excited about.

  There were several lounges set up and some really great demonstrations. Forza 4 for the Kinect will include the Warthog as one of the vehicle choices and there was an area where you could use the Kinect and play with the Warthog in your garage. There was also Fruit Ninja Kinect set up with a special edition HaloFest background. It was awesome to see the ninja disappear when the Active Camo fruit was sliced. The Halo Fruit Ninja isn't going to be available for download though. Or so they say.

   The Commissary had the most fantastic part of HaloFest: The Grunt Plushies with a limit of 3 for the first 2 days, then the limit was lifted on the third. They were also selling exclusive HaloFest toys and shirts. And they handed out really neat shoulder bags with a set of MegaBlocks Warthog blocks to the first 5000 people. That's a lot of people, but PAX hosted 70,000 people and I heard some pretty disappointed people towards the end of the three days. I also saw that the special edition MegaBlocks are being sold on eBay and I think that if you didn't want one, why did you take one? And how could you sell that super cute, tiny, little plasma sword? Really people. But I digress...

  We were fortunate enough to get invited to the HaloFest VIP party put on by Microsoft's 343 Studio. Mike and I spent Friday night from 8-11 mingling with other Halo lovers, 343 employees and a handful of other internet and Halo VIP's. We met Major Nelson, Stepto, Marty O'Donnell, Burnie Burns (squee!!) and a few other people. Also, there was cake. Enough cake for 1000 people.

  David Ellis hosted a costume contest with about a dozen incredibly well put together costumes. My vote was most certainly for Marissa's bunny in the Noble 6 armor, but a really well done Spartan took the win. The costumes were amazing. I'll upload them to a sharable site when they're ready.

  It was an excellent event hosted by excellent people. I can't thank the 343 team enough for what they did.

  Also, Luke McKay, next time you and I make eye contact 200 times in 3 days, I promise I'll stop being a pansy and say hello, maybe even get you to sign the first comic book I ever purchased because it was drawn by you.

  I don't care what anyone says. The reason we went to PAX Prime this year was for HaloFest. Next year, if there is no HaloFest, we'll probably go for PAX's sake, but this year... no.

Fellowship of the Game pt. 2

  There was entirely too much awesome for me to be able to chronicle every moment. I was so exhausted by the end of every day that I could barely clear the memory card of pictures before passing out. I apologize for the delay in reporting but I do intend to chronicle what is now referred to as "Rukari-Fest" and all 3 days of HaloFest and PAX Prime for your reading pleasure. And I took about a million pictures, so there's that too.

 Downtown Seattle on a Thursday morning is an interesting place. I really love Seattle so I'm never going to complain about it. I'll just always make sure to be extra cautious for the cars around me because I'm pretty sure they're not watching for me at all. But I digress. Mike and I arrived downtown and parked. 

  Rukari (aka rukizzel) got in touch with Mike about 11 AM and we met up with him and Scott from Canada (aka Das Kalk). Then, a whole bunch of other guys showed up including Kevin Hurd*, MrMiagy, TheLightShow & Marissa's Bunny GrimBrotherOne & GrimBrotherFour, HyperTrooper from Germany and KalamariKid. And about a dozen other guys who's names I can't remember but were all really awesome to hang out with. 

  The local buddy, Rukari, made a few suggestions about what we could do for the day, after an obligatory tourist visit to the incredibly disgusting gum wall. We divided up between cars and drove to Gorditos Mexican Restaraunt and then we were headed to Bellevue to see... BUNGIE HEADQUARTERS!

  I drove my neon with Mike in the front seat and Grim Brothers in the backseat and another young man from Arizona that I'm really sorry I didn't ever hear his name and felt too awkward to ask later. Also, I apologize to my passengers for my lack of finding places ability but thanks for sharing the adventure with us anyway. We did find the restaurant, obviously and the food was awesome. We fit 15 people around tables. Mike and I mingled. It was excellent.

  We piled back into the cars and I immediately got us lost trying to find Bungie. But... everything happens for a reason. We were the last to arrive at the Bungie Headquarters and just as we were getting there, Rukari and the rest were deciding to just take some pictures and go, lower lips tripping them up all the way. But who comes up the escalator, just as we start towards it? Urk. And he invited us in. All 15 of us at one time!

  They geeked out instantly. Every one of them. I mean really, really hard core geeking. It was awesome. I felt the tingle of excitement myself as we walked into the sacred room and peered down the hall to see a life size master chief looking down at us. Whoa.

 They also had scale replicas of a Carbine, Sniper Rifle, Gravity Hammer and I think it was a Bubble Shield. So what did they do? Played with the giant weapons of course. And I took pictures with a smile on my face. If there's one thing a Halo widow loves it's to see her Halo Lover happy. And boy was he ever!

 We headed back downtown after that and all went our separate ways. Rukari and a few other friends stayed downtown all night at the front of the line. I hear there were even XBOX's down there at one point. Rukari stayed in line all night to be the first inside HaloFest in the morning. And he was. 

  We met up with a couple of the guys and had some drinks later that night. Then, we met new friends from our home state at a different bar. At midnight, we dragged our tired feet back to the car with Grim Brothers and friend in tow, headed back to the hotel in Sea-Tac. We made plans to head back to Seattle very early and then slept fast and hard until 5 AM.

  I've written about the fellowship of gaming, and I got to see it in action again today. It's incredible that strangers who only know each other through their voices over the internet and a spread of community forums, can sit and be so comfortable with each other. It was a lot of fun to meet up with the people Mike's known for a while now. I'm finally be able to put faces to some of the muffled voices I hear through his headset and shake the hands that type some of the tweets I see. Thanks guys for a great Thursday. I'll tell all about Friday tomorrow. 

How the Living Dead Playlist Works

  Zombies: walking dead people searching for walking live people for both nutritional purposes and to make more Zombies. See, we’re wrong when we think about Zombies as mindless beings; they’re not. They have a dual motive and they’re quite effective at achieving their short-term goals. I mean when they see something they want, they stop at nothing to get it. Oh, to have that much dedication.

  But I digress. This is supposed to be about Zombies in Halo Reach.

  Alpha Zombies and Infected will be two of the game types presented in the Living Dead playlist. From my understanding, they’re basically the same game, except in Alpha Zombies, the zombies have infinite run, which means that as long as they’re moving forward, they’re moving fast. Zombies also jump higher but they can be taken out with one kill.

  It works like this: Twelve players go into the game.  A few of them, I think two or three, start as Zombies. These guys are going to try to kill the Spartans and make more Zombies to run around and kill the rest of the Spartans. Eventually, there will be a last man standing. Once he’s or she is turned into a Zombie, the round is over. Three rounds make a match.  At the end of the match, the highest number of kills wins. There’s a timer on the match, but I’ve never seen it run out so I’m not really sure how long it lasts. This game goes quick.

  I think the best maps for playing the Living Dead games are ones with lots of corners and cubbies for hiding in. Reflection is a good map for this reason. If you’re not sure which one Reflection is, I like to think of it like a really fancy doctors office with weird elevators and a Koi pond. Now, with the plentitude of hiding spaces you’ve got to watch out for Zombies and a lot of the players find that the camping strategy works well in this game type, regardless of whether you’re Zombie or human. Hole up and wait for someone to kill. Or you’re just waiting for everyone else to become a Zombie. I think that the major advantage for the last man standing would be the number of kills you could get if all the Zombies come running at you at once. FUN!

  Now, the weapons. When you’re a Zombie you get a Plasma Sword. Close combat means you’re more likely to die. You’re even more likely to die because the humans have guns, just like we will when the Zombies come for us.  The guns are Shotguns and Pistols. Headshots aplenty, as long as you don’t run out of bullets. Then, you’re in for close combat with Zombies and I think you know what that means. (If not, return to the beginning of this ditty and start reading again.)

  To me, Zombies seems fun, but frustrating because of the amount of potential deaths. But… being the Zombie can be fun, and just because you’re really good at being the last man standing doesn’t mean you can get the most kills. Some players are ninja Zombies with the Sword.

  The Magic of Halo doesn’t skip over this game type, so be aware that some bullets can turn corners and sometimes that Plasma Sword in your hand is just a figment of your imagination and passes right through opponents.

  So, with that being typed, I think you should go give the Living Dead playlist a try.

The Magic of Halo

  Every gamer, on any console or system, knows that games have glitches. They’re programs, written by humans and they are bound to have some problems that the developers weren’t able to work out for various reasons. Be it that they never applied the exact combination of movements that causes the glitch or that they found it but couldn’t repair it through system patches, the games we play aren’t perfect. Whatever, we deal with it or we don't play the game.


  It can be said that some games have more of these glitches than normal. It can also be said that the more you play a game, the more likely you are to encounter it’s glitches which makes it seem like there are so many more. However they happen, Halo has glitches and with the number of games that I’ve seen, there are quite a few. But we love Halo, and glitches are bad, (and I can find a positive spin to almost anything) so I’ve decided to call it Halo’s magic.

  As with any magic, it can work for or against you. For example, this morning I was watching Mike play Gruntpocalypse and he threw a grenade, as he’s apt to do while playing Gruntpocalypse. We both saw the grenade blow up and one grunt die. Then, a few seconds after the explosion but before any extra shots had been fired, another Grunt died. What the...? Of course when you’re playing Gruntpocalypse alone and a Grunt dies, you get the kill for it so this is a good thing but there's no explanation for it other than magic. Somtimes the magic takes that rocket you just fired really, really far across the map (farther than the rockets have ever gone before) and kills three people when it does land. The magic is in your favor.

  Sometimes the magic works against you. There are times, I’ve seen it happen, when bullets come through walls or around corners to kill Mike or other players that he’s gaming with. Someone else gets the kill, of course, so the magic is in their favor. But whenever the other guy has the magic on his side, you do not. Magic gives the other player an unfair advantage and it's frustrating to the non-magical players, or muggles if you prefer.

  Sometimes, the magic is on the games side (assuming the game doesn’t want you to win) and things like betrayals by Warthogs from heaven happen or you bounce when you hit the water at the bottom of a waterfall, just to add insult to injury.

  Yet we keep playing. Why? In hopes that the magic will be on our side. In hopes that the magic will take a side seat for a few games and just let things happen. More often than not, the magic only plays a small part. And for more casual gamers, they rarely see the magic at all. But for those of you that get the glitches, suffer the gremlins, just try to imagine it's magic. And sometimes, just sometimes, the magic will be on your side.

The Fellowship of the Game

  Tonight, Mike hosted a Waypoint Community Carnage Night in honor of one of the community members who was recently killed in a car accident. A bunch of players that knew the member met up and they played a few games. It got me thinking about how none of these guys, or ladies, really know each other (with a very few exceptions) and yet when one of them is hurt, or worse, the other players and members feel the loss as if it were a closer friend.



  There’s a camaraderie amongst the gaming community, a fellowship if you will. These people don’t know each other outside of the games they share, but they know each other from the conversations they’ve had. Some times the guys will share stories about their day, sometimes they’ll open yell at their kids to go to bed or complain about their wife until she makes them turn off the game. (I call this being “wifed” and I make fun of the wives that do it.) No matter what they’re talking about, the people on the friends list are more than just random players.



  Sometimes the opportunity to meet the other players in real life happens, like what happened for us at ECCC, and it’s always neat to meet people and put a body to a face, gestures to a body, the sound of their voice without a microphone. We’ll probably meet a few more people at PAX. And PAX is what I imagine to be a humongous gathering of members of the fellowship. I can’t wait to see who else we’ll run in to. 

How Rocket Hogs Works

  I was sitting on the couch killing zombies on my phone* when I heard the familiar “oohh ho-hoooooooo!” that means that things are getting amazing in the game. So, I decided to watch because I like it when the game is amazing. I quickly realized that I had no idea what I was watching and I had to figure it out.



  Rocket Hog is one of the game-types that can happen when playing multi-team playlists. There are four teams of three players; each team is given a Warthog. I didn’t realize that three guys could fit in a Warthog, but they do. Then, they race to a glowing ring somewhere on the map. I think the game works best on maps like Hemorrhage because of the size. When the first team reaches the destination, the destination moves and the race continues. Points are awarded for reaching the destination.

 But like any game, there are challenges in the race. First, there’s the other players. Everyone on the map is moving in the same direction – towards the destination. This means that they’re not watching for you. it also means that if they die, they’re going to respawn somewhere else. I saw one race last night where Mike and his friends were about 100 meters from the destination and one of the other teams spawned in practically inside the glowing ring. Even I said “awwww” when I saw what happened.

  There are also landmines scattered all over the map. The landmines are kind of a Catch-22. They can destroy your Warthog or throw another Warthog into yours. This of course causes your entire teams demise. Then, there’s the wait for the respawn. (It never seems to work out that Mike and his teams' spawn in anywhere close to the destination.) But, the landmines also fling your Warthog into barrel rolls which are counted by the game. This means you can get a medal. Yay! Rewards are fun. Last night, Mike and his team did a really nice, Matrix-esque barrel roll. And landed it. I was impressed.
 
  And with a name like Rocket Hogs, there’s gotta be rockets. Mike was the gunner (rocketer?) last night. I like rockets because of the hissing sound and the explosions. In the race, rockets make a mess. When a rocket hits a Warthog, the Warthog blows up in a fiery explosion of car parts and Spartans. Sometimes, they hit other Warthogs and mayhem ensues.

 So that’s Rocket Hogs in a nutshell. Maybe you should pick it next time it’s one of your game-type choices. Give it a try.

*If you’ve heard the end credits to Plants vs Zombies know that killing zombies on my phone fits into the lyrics quite nicely. Go Windows Phone 7!