gigatrix's Blog - 2old2play

Halo 3 is a No Go

everyone else is doing it..

So I was off yesterday and in between running errands, beat Halo 3 on normal all by my lonesome. The game felt short, and it seemed like they tried to extend the length by making you run circles through some of the levels, but honestly I didn't care. Another issue is that a lot of the levels felt like you really didn't have to fight at all. You could just run all the way to the end. Of course I was playing on normal so it's easier but the narrative seemed to push you towards a certain objective, so why stop and fight? Aside from helping the A.I. if you got caught up in the moment or if you just wanted to shoot enemies for fun or some anal reason you didn't necessarily have to clear the level. I actually liked the fact that there were very few "okay you have to kill these guys or you're stuck" moments, they gave you that option. What was there is extremely fun and the replay value even in single player is there, and I'm sure the coop is great too. The Warthog is just as fun to drive as always, and every level was fun to play. I never left the game for reasons of feeling bored or wanting to do something else.

I got online and tried the multiplayer a few times. My first game I came in first above three obvious Timmy's as they all had their mics on and cursed profusely. Complaining about players teaming up on them (which I don't do.. I normally attack someone from the back, or the aggressor when there are two fighting to give me a little advantage since my aiming is less than stellar) or their grenades didn't stick, or how cheap some of the weapons are. I left that game feeling like I actually wasn't that bad at Halo multiplayer.. the few games I played after that however, I barely clung on to 2nd or 3rd place, with some freak killing spree getting me as far as I did. With practice I'll probably be an average player. Just as long as I'm having fun that doesn't bother me.

So my last blog was about my girlfriend and introducing her to gaming. She was busy until late last night so instead of going out I told her I would bring over a DVD or my Xbox or something, I tried to throw the Xbox in there as a "yeah it's not a big deal.. something to do" so it doesn't seem like my sole reason for coming over was to get her involved in gaming. I get to her house and she's watching TV and she's into the show. I can't just "well anyways let me grab that remote and punch the Xbox on and let's go coop in Halo" so I sit and watch the show with her.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy spending time with Becky, and it's not like I would have been upset if we just watched TV all night. Towards the end of the show she asked me "so how is Halo 3?" because she knows I recently bought it. I replied "Why don't you try it and find out for yourself" she asked "is it shooting stuff?" and I knew what was going to come next..

I responded "yeah, you run around touting a gun" and she comes back "oh I can't play those, I can't aim". I told her "well there's a definite learning curve but it's not that hard, it's a fun game".. which really it can be frustrating in a shooter to figure out how to side strafe, look up or down while running ahead, or jumping forward when you haven't grown up doing these things in a game. I think we take the controls for granted, but if you stop and think about the combinations of buttons and directional movement on the controller, it's not that simple. I of course didn't tell her that as I didn't want to turn her off to the idea. By the end of the night, she dismisses the whole game thing and we continue on to watch a rerun of Survivor Man and then Taboo on National Geographic.

I'll try again sometime, but for now; I can has girlfriend who games?

No, not yours..

[3 Comments]

New Girlfriends and Video Games

So in anticipation of all the new games coming out this Fall and Winter I've been thinking about what free time I do have outside of work and continuing my education, to play these games is encroached upon by the time I want to spend with my girlfriend. In a perfect world I would love to be with a girl who is well versed in the language of gaming. A girl who "gets" gaming.. who has played, and beat a first person shooter, a girl who is a hardcore gamer. My current girlfriend is probably the closest I have found to this outside of Korea.

She grew up playing Nintendo games, typical Duck Hunt and Mario brothers, which is fun banter when we're bored or watching TV. The nerdiest thing (and I adored it, shows how geek I am) she has ever said to me was when I was driving up to Clingman's Dome in East Tennessee with her. It was in July, the sun was beaming through the trees and being in the higher altitude it was around 75 or so, it was great weather. I listen to a lot of different music, and I had a Meditation tracklist playing on my car stereo. It was fitting with the serene surroundings and the looming mountains slowly sinking to reveal the sprawling hills. As we're driving, Becky says out of nowhere "this reminds me of Final Fantasy X" I just looked at her, thinking Becky must have fell out of the car awhile back and was replaced by someone else.

I've never played any of the Final Fantasy's beyond VII so I didn't understand the reference. I just smirked and questioned her. She said "I dunno.. it's the music, and the mountains and everything.. nevermind" I laughed a little and told her "no, no.. it's funny. I do the same thing when I'm going someplace or sitting somewhere and my mind wanders. Game references come to mind.. I like it, it's cute." She continued to explain why she was reminded, and what she was talking about it it made me feel good knowing she was as geek as I was about games, at least in the sense that she does in fact play games.

I have a Wii and an Xbox 360, and one night I brought the Wii to her house and we played it for awhile. She seemed to like it, and I loved the fact that we could play games together.. peanut butter and chocolate.. it couldn't get much better. I'm trying to think of a way to introduce her to more hardcore games like Gears of War, or Halo 3 when it comes out. She's obviously invested time into a few of the titles in the Final Fantasy series, so I know she can tolerate games, and anyone who can invest that much time obviously has more than a passing interest. But the difference is that Final Fantasy is slower paced and more story driven. Whereas games like Gears or Halo are much more twitch, action oriented games. I for the most part just dismiss girls from those genres of games. Not as an insult to any females reading this who enjoy these games, but let's face it.. you're a minority. I'm glad you're there and I think it's refreshing to have the diversity of a female player in an online game.. but growing up my sister never went beyond playing easy to grasp Nintendo games and now the Wii. She plays some Guitar Hero II (she actually got me in to it, but only because her boyfriend got her into it.. so it doesn't count!) on occasion, but there again.. nothing brutal. It's not that she can't handle the games if she tried (or any woman for that matter) it's just that she didn't seem to have any interest in it.

Personally I love playing games period.. if it looks fun or interesting, let me have a go and see if I like it. My experience with women is, they either think it's "something he does when he's relaxing" or "he plays these games regularly, and I play this (singular) game from time to time". I'm just curious to those of you who have played the hardcore shooters or more "boy" games.. how did you get into them? What turned you on by them initially and if it was a man in your life that got you hooked, how did he do it? For the guys, if you have a little lady that can get a headshot like a pro, how did she get that way?

My plan of attack is to just bring over my 360 some night and see what goes.. show her how to play, how the controls work, and ease her in. I just don't want to seem like I'm forcing this complicated violent game on her, and have her turned off, and have me frustrated or feeling like this video game jerk.

Anyways, I changed my Xbox 360 gamertag to: Art Spark
it's not the coolest name ever, but it's a step up I think, easy to remember and says a little something about me.

[6 Comments]

Old Girlfriends and Suicides

So I used to frequent internet dating sites quite often and found a girl I really liked. The only problem, and the usual problem with internet dating is distance. Not only was this girl (Lynda) not in my area code, she was in Ontario. I was planning on going to Vietnam for a vacation last year (another story all together) and her and her family were planning a similar trip earlier in the year. What a coincidence she says..

anyways we continue to talk and eventually, out of the blue, she decides to fly down and visit me. We made these plans about a month in advance so I wasn't too concerned until the day she flew in. I went to the airport an hour early and hung out in the terminal. I played it cool until she called and said her plane just landed, then I became an anxious, nervous wreck. I see her come around a corner looking around wide eyed and unsure of where she was while she was talking to her sister on the phone for reassurance as she met some random guy from the internet. She saw me, smiled, and hung up the phone. I was expected an awkward hello, or maybe an informal handshake, but she didn't hesitate to put her arm around my neck and hug me.

We spent that weekend together until that Monday when she had to fly back. I took her early in the morning and she cried, while I tried to man up and hold it in. I still remember leaving the airport and seeing her walk away. I was fighting tears the entire morning at work until I had to teach a class. When I got home from work we talked on the webcam and she cried again, and I told her how much I missed her.

Two months later I went to see her in Canada and met her entire family, her parents, grand parents, sister and brothers. We did mundane things like shopping and riding around.. but this was the first time I had been out of the states and I was happy to do anything with her. We went to Niagra Falls, and to the CN tower among other places. It's strange being in a place that is nearly indistinguishable from the U.S. aside from the European usage of words like "colour" and "flavour" and the little maple flag rippling in the cold April air. When she took me back to the airport I was a little relieved to go home, yet I was going to miss her a lot. It was like when she was going home. When she walked me to the terminal she had this odd sense of "welp, see ya k thx" and walked off as I went into the baggage claim. Like "done with this guy, got things to do, people to see".. I was a little hurt but sometimes she was hard to read. I also didn't expect her to be all teary eyed every time we parted ways, but it seemed a little curt. When I got back home she was always too busy to talk for very long, or became defensive.

Things went downhill from there. We had made plans for her to come back here in May for our music fest (anyone who lives in Memphis or the area know how much of a deal that is). Well she talked her way out of that, and was vague about making plans to come see me anytime soon. I even offered to pay for her ticket and it was a no go. She eventually just threw out too many signals that she wasn't interested anymore and I called it quits. I texted her like I always do in the mornings and told her I needed to call her. She insisted I got online instead and I told her there (so anyone who thinks I was going to text-break up or do it over the internet.. it was her decision!) so I told her and she was kind of "okay, well it was fun.. cya" and I was sitting there questioning if it was the right decision in the long run. I know distance makes things incredibly hard.. especially when you don't already have a bond to work with in the first place.

We haven't talked much since then. I saw her back on that same internet dating site (it's more of a social networking site that dating, but most people are there to hook up, I'm not going to lie). She had a new handle, new glamorous pics.. everything. I'm dating a girl now so I wasn't too upset about it and just hoped she was happy.

well today I get a text message with a link to a Canadian news site. I had since deleted her number, but I don't know anyone in Canada, it had to be her. Following the link I came across this:

Chaotic Day On Highway 403

Friday September 14, 2007

CityNews.ca Staff

Traffic bedlam kept drivers in a frustrating state of stagnancy on Highway 403 Friday following two serious incidents.

First a major grass fire broke out in Mississauga, forcing the closure of the westbound 403.

The fire broke out just before 1pm and all westbound lanes were temporarily closed at Highway 10 because of the thick smoke blowing out onto the road. The blaze reportedly began out in a Hydro right-of-way sending the flames moving east, and fire crews rushing to the scene trying to put them out.

Mississauga Fire expected it would take hours before the scene was completely cleared, though the westbound lanes have since been reopened.

Later Friday a person either fell or jumped from the Mississauga Road bridge. The victim, a 20-year-old male, smashed through the windshield of a car below. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A female passenger in the car was badly hurt and airlifted to the Sunnybrook trauma center. The woman driving was treated by Peel medics at the scene for shock.

Traffic was understandably halted to a standstill for the second time of the day as cops tried to piece together what happened and emergency crews worked to aid the wounded.

My first pessimistic thought was it was her brother who leaped off of the bridge. Then I thought maybe she was just showing me some odd weekend that had occured and she was stuck in traffic.. I replied back to the text "grassfire?" and she replies back a few minutes later "I'm in hospital! Suicide" I read the article again closely and tried to see if there was a detail I had missed about the two women in the car. I didn't know if she was the one airlifted or the one treated at the scene, and maybe brought into the Hospital for something related. From these cryptic messages I tried to figure out who exactly what happened when she sent me the number at the hospital with her extension. Her mother picked up the phone and then gave it to Lynda.

Lynda sounded out of it, and like she had a mouth full of cotton. She was the one airlifted to the hospital and said that at first they thought she was okay, and would be treatable at the scene until they lifted her head and found that she was bleeding. Turns out she had 2 plates put into her cheek with pins, stitches, and her jaw was cracked. They told her that no scarring would occur and she would be 100% when she left the hospital. She went on to apologize for the link, telling me it was a forwarded message, and she tried to make small talk with me. The last thing I cared about was how sucky my day at work was. I told her to take care of herself and keep me posted.

Now I'm sitting here a little stunned, a little worried, and a lot of sentimental. I already had mixed feelings about breaking up with her. Just have to let it be.

The link to the page she sent me in the text is here

[5 Comments]

Changing my Gamertag

giga = One billion
trix= -trix suffix of L. fem. agent-nouns corr. to m. -TOR, as adjūtrix, imperātrīx, venātrīx, fems. of adjūtor helper, imperātor commander, venātor hunter; such sbs. were adopted from XV from L. of various periods, as administratrix, executrix, testatrix; (geom.) applied to certain straight lines or curves, as directrix. (aka I thought the matrix was awesome in 1999)

I've been using this handle for 8 years off and on, and I think it's time to retire it. Firstly it doesn't actually mean anything. Secondly, it sound femanine (dominatrix) as trix is actually a femanine suffix. I used to like the ambiguity it carries as people don't judge you for being male or female. That's the way it used to be anyways, before people began communicating via headsets and posting pics of themselves everywhere (myspace comes to mind). So I think it's time for a new name. A name that will suit me and last a good while. A name that's also completely original that it doesn't have the possibility of being used. I always thought it was boring to go with something simple like your name and birth year. Where's the creativity? *no offense to anyone with that as their handle*

So I'm sitting here plugging in names into this checker I found on while searching for a new name. Choices choices...

The only downside is that it costs 800 Microsoft Points, and people will see my name on their friend list and won't have a clue who the hell I am. The plus side is that of course you don't have to create a new gamertag, lose your achievement points or your reputation.

I found a few name generators I'm using for inspiration, but I also want something people can remember. No numbers, and something quirky is always a plus. Nothing like having a name like "SuperAwesome" and you get your ass handed to you when you go online.

So does anyone have any suggestions? I'm open to anything except anime references and anything overtly offensive, like DateRape or Cooter-the-Pedophile.

[8 Comments]

so I lied..

Last week I preordered Halo 3 soon after saying "nah, I'm not giving into the hype." Why did I do such a thing, when I went on about how I would not? Why buy when Halo 3 won't be bringing anything remarkably new to the table? A few reasons, that 2old2play has had a hand in as well.

The first reason is to, of course, "finish the fight." I do like the Halo universe and story, and I'm honestly curious as to how the game will end. If you've been playing the games and following the story (if not go here). I simply want to find out what happens and conclude the series. I've played both the first and second game's campaign/story mode a few times each and the story and universe is truly interesting.

Secondly there are plenty of games that don't having anything new to offer and they're still fun to play despite that. I can become engrossed in a game that's flawed just as much as I can in one that's well conceived. Call of Juarez for instance is a game that most people would agree is total crap, but I'm playing it now and enjoying it for the most part. I shouldn't let a game that is essentially Quake (let's not kid ourselves Halo gameplay is very generic, aside from the art direction and story, is very much like a run of the mill first person shooter) stop me from playing it. Halo just feels like another Unreal, Quake, or Doom to me as far as game mechanics go. It might be a refined version of that formula, but it's the same stale taste. Honestly, who cares? It isn't the next big thing in realism, or control innovation but does it have to be to be fun? hardly..

Third, and probably most importantly why I didn't want to get the game is because of the community. I would venture a guess and say that the majority of a-hole children on Xbox Live are diehard Halo fans. I played Halo 2 multiplayer all of 2 times before shrugging and going on to another game. If you check out my blog entry on Timmy's, this is the type of person I have little to no tolerance for and refuse to play with.

Regardless if I was the best player on a server (I'm horrible, so this is speculation) and could beat them every game.. I still don't want to play with and encourage the rudeness of people who can't conduct themselves properly, online or off. The reason why this isn't really an issue the more I thought about it is because of this community. No one is forcing me to play online, or in public games anyway. Even so, there is going to be a mute feature so that's a moot point as well.

I think I would be missing out on a lot of what the 2old2play community is going to be playing and discussing if I was to pass up Halo 3, and the pros really do outweigh the cons on this. Hopefully in a week or two I will be seeing a lot of you online.

[3 Comments]

Timmy..

After reading a thread by MikeJames about Gamer Fuel, biggdogg40509 replied with a video featuring this kid on Xbox Live having a tantrum. Yelling at his mother because she's interrupting his clan match because she wants him to turn it down so she can go to bed. He lets loose on a screaming rant about not getting the drink that he demands (he wants chocolate milk when she brought him Mountain Dew). I went on a little YouTube search and found a load of videos featuring kids obviously too young to be playing the games that they are playing. Firstly is the video biggdogg40509 featured:

Embedded Google Video --> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7153152098207965240

This next video is of a teen who lets loose a torrent of F-bombs and voice-cracking screams during a Halo 2 match. Seeing as Halo 2 was an M rated game, this guy might slip by the age limit, but his maturity level sure doesn't.

Embedded YouTube Video --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYQ3b8EOMF0

there are plenty of these videos on youtube and google videos. Regardless of the legitimacy of these videos, we have all been in multiplayer games where we've dealt with real instances like this. It just makes me wonder why...

Why get so angry over something so trivial? Why curse and scream at people in a headset to prove you're superiority to a bunch of random anonymous people? Lastly, where are the parent's of said children as they scream? The first video is arguing with the mother and says "fuck" and "bullshit" seemingly within earshot of his mother. If my mother caught me saying any of those, she may not have done anything, or said anything.. but the minute my father came home, he would have beat my ass and grounded me for a month.

[8 Comments]

Games that quite frankly.. rocked

I'm not going to try and setup any sort of story or premise to this as much as it's just a remembrance of great games that have gone by. Most of these games I played with a high school friend of mine. We don't game together anymore, or really communicate for that matter. He plays World of Warcraft (that incidently I brought him over to from Everquest II) and spends all his time with his new girlfriend which I can't fault him for, but for awhile there I was just sticking to singleplayer games as playing with the unwashed masses online never appealed to me. I always loved teaming up with a guy I physically knew, and coming up with attack plans or laughing about odd occurances that would happen in-game or just complaining about day to day stuff. I think a lot of the enjoyment I got out of these games was soley dependent on the interaction I had with him while playing these..

so before going too off track and sounding like a complete homosexual, here's a short list of games I thought rocked in their respective time. These are not in any order, just shooting them off as I think of them:

1. Global Operations:

using the Recon Class using a sensor that showed all units within a certain radius for a period of time. Anyone close to the Recon player could see this HUD overlay.

A lot like Counter Strike, this game played out in rounds, usually with an objective (steal object X, take it back to destination Y) and was reality based. You had two teams and 7 classes, most of which had awesome abilities. One of the classes was a commander who viewed the battlefield from captured cameras from around the map and could direct the team and give enemy locations (mostly used in Clans, not so useful in public matches). You also had currency with which to buy weapons and equipment. If you died you waited in a helicopter or APC until the timer kicked you back into the game, ready for more punishment. The game took place in all sorts of real global locations (hence the name) and the look of the team soldiers were based on real-world counterparts. This was one of the first games I ever played that had grenade "effects" aside from just blowing you to pieces. Smoke grenades that made you cough and your vision blur if you didn't purchase a restrictive gas mask, and flash bangs that made your vision sway uncontrollably. This game was a ton of fun until people started cheating and the developers never fixed the game or introduced a punk buster like system. There was one particular guy/gal named Traitor Darkspy that would log on just to kill his/her own team. If you saw that name logging into the server, you either sucked it up and hoped he didn't join your team, or you left the game. By the time anyone noticed he TK'ed he was already ruining the game. Strange how even now I remember that guy's name.

I found out that the whole Traitor Darkspy handle and the guy who used it terrorized more than just my friend an I. I googled the playername for giggles (googled for giggles... wow) and found a plethora of forum threads. The first of which is about people who took part in all types of Timmy behavior. Anyways, I just wanted to record some of the posts here about this guy or girl. I'm amazed at how much of an influence one asshole can have. I suppose by me posting this I'm continuing that cycle... hmm.. at any rate.

Yahooka Forums

Post 14:
But id say the worst thing ive ever done in a game is...in Global Operations, when the beta demo was still out id go in as Traitor DarkSPY and tk everyone, i did this up until the game died out on TWL and everyone stopped playing, there were probily 100 or so copycat Traitor DarkSPY, but i was the original

Red Orchestra Forums

Post 16:
I remember on the game joint ops there was a guy named traitor darkspy who was a huge tk freak lol, and there were never admins on any of those servers so he just kept tking and tking, so me and my friend would play against him and try and tk him but he always had the medic class and healed himself while we shot him up. O man those days were hilarious, I remember one time the attackers needed to capture a bomb from ontop of this hill to use it to blow up a radio and darkspy got to it first, ran back down the hill and jumped off a cliff with it! We all were looking down the cliff and could see the satchel just laying there and we were like....so whos going to get it?

2. Starsiege: Tribes

I think I was 16 or so when I was sitting in my room with my friend (the one mentioned before) on a rainy day surfing the net when I happened across a screenshot of tribes showing players jumping through the air and huge battles taking place. Thought what the hell let's go get it, my friend and I went out and picked the game up from the mall. On the way back to my house to play it I distracted him by saying "look, it has Capture the Flag" as he ran a late yellow light and t-boned this lady. We weren't going fast at all, but we were both shaken up. We finally got back to my house and installed it on both of our computers (he used to lug his computer over, and we'd play online games.. this is before serial numbers and licenses were such a hassle) and fire it up. There was a main lobby where you could see games, game type, ping, and a chat at the bottom of the screen where all the people looking at games could meet up. This was great.

The game was awesome. With vehicles, classes and the ability to customize your character, deep objectives (for the time, attack and defend) and cool maps. This game was great. The ability to transport your friends to the objective (and usually to their doom) was loads of fun and the teamwork was great. Laser designators for the mortar weapons was a first that I know of, and worked really well.

Shazbot!

3. Rise of the Triad

Okay, on to a game I played primarily singleplayer and occasionally with another friend of mine in deathmatches that lasted all night, Rise of the Triad. This game used to cause motion sickness because of the pseudo look up and down function, that if I recall served no real purpose. The weapons in the game were great as they always caused a great deal of carnage. I'm fairly sure most of the enemies were modeled after the game designers but who cared. They begged for their lives and if you spared them they'd shoot you in the back. They also reacted well to bullets as when you shot them they'd stammer a bit and "ugh!" as each bullet hit. If you had an automatic weapon they'd grunt repeatedly until slumping over. Get a room full of them and it's a torrent of groans and gibs flying. This was also the first game that I recall that featured dual wielding of pistols.

The power-ups in this game were ridiculous too. There was the hand of god powerup (cheat) that took all your guns away and just showed your hand on the bottom of the screen. When you fired a ball of light shoots from your hand and zips around evaporating enemies. As you roamed the map with this hand of god, you made these coital moans that made for awkward stares from people in the room. There were also shrooms in the game that I don't think served any purpose but to make you hallucinate and see trippy colors.

This of course was in the age of IP ranges and having to go to a DOS prompt to connect to another player.. oh good times.

I'll probably add more to this list at a later time, right now work is piling up.

[2 Comments]

Red Rising

I think an eye roll and a forced sigh were the first thing I did when I was playing Dead Rising a week ago and the game quit out, the fans stopped spinning within the Xbox 360, and then the all too familiar blinking of the 3 red lights. I stopped playing the game and went and did chores and other things I had planned for the day. After work the next day, I came home and started up the 360 and everything was just fine. I knew that it definitely wasn't a good sign to get the red ring, but I just dismissed it, secretly knowing in the back of my mind this was a foreshadowing of the imminent death of my 2nd Xbox 360.

I had that sense of dread from the last time this occured, and having to call Microsoft tech support, after reading the hundreds of forum threads around the net about the red rings, and that there isn't anything you can do aside from shipping it back to Microsoft for a repair/replacement. When I called, they run you through the steps like maybe, just maybe you did something wrong and induced a temporary hardware failure. I finally got them to understand that yes I know what the red ring means, yes it's dead, and yes I would like to repair it... and no I don't want to pay for it. This was in March.

I finally got the new box back and haven't had an issue yet. I bought an intercooler just in case and everything seemed to be peachy.. until today. Today I was playing Rainbow Six singleplayer. I was in Dante's Casino during an annoying set piece battle where it seems nearly impossible to progress. Out of smoke grenades and being suppressed by a gun emplacement, I decided to just run and gun. I left the safety of cover, ran through the room seemingly dodging bullets and killed two of the terrorists next to the slot machines. I ducked behind a column to reload and regain my clear vision. Just as I was about to make a mad dash for the gun emplacement.. blank screen, the shallow whine of the hard drive, and the three dead-stare blinking red lights. The room once filled with gunfire and the shouting of orders, now dead silent... except for the blinking red lights.

Embedded YouTube Video --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGXMrJafaCE

[2 Comments]

Too Old For Gaming?

As far back as I can remember I have been playing video games, or games in general really. Sure, I went outside and rode bikes with friends, played kick ball in the yard and stayed outside some nights until the street lamp came on. But I always had a thing for video games. My parent's had an Odyssey 2000 (original PONG system, it took D batteries to run) and a Studio II. Eventually we moved on to an Atari 2600 (I loved me some River Raid and Space Invaders), and on my 7th birthday, in 1987 my Dad went up into the attic and pulled out an enormous Nintendo box.

When we first got the NES my Dad and my sister would play games together, like Gyromite. One player was the scientist (I assume, he looked like a pixelated Albert Einstein) and the other would open the gates and smoosh enemies. I would play Duck Hunt, Mario Brothers, and the other classic games. Sometimes my father would look on and give me advice like "step away from the screen with the zapper and try and shoot the ducks" as I scraped the gun across the screen and essentially cheated. Eventually my parent's treated my fascination as a childish hobby as I grew older.

Growing up sometimes I would neglect school work or spend an entire weekend inside playing games. I would invite friends over and we'd play together (Battletoads was fun co-op) all weekend. I eventually moved on to computer games and continually branched out to try new games and systems. I never failed a class, or was ever held back in school, I just didn't make high grades, and I honestly didn't care. Whether games were a proponent to that, or just a product of my disinterest in school is to be decided but clearly my parent's thought my interest was silly and childish.

Sometimes I would be in my room listening to music, and playing a game. I remember one instance, when I was playing Final Fantasy III as my Dad walked by. He looked in my room and asked "don't you ever get tired of that?" as he scoffed and walked off to go vegetate in front of the TV for the rest of the night. It seemed almost that my parent's enabled my gaming hobby, yet turned their noses up at the idea. As I went into high school and reputations are created, I never told anyone of my gaming hobby. It's just something I did, yet didn't talk a lot about, a closet nerd I suppose. I would see the guys that would openly talk about games and they fit the "nerd" or "loser" image. I would always smirk walking past when they would be talking about a game I'm just as passionate about, yet completely refuse to discuss. It just seemed as though video games = girl repellant and I wasn't about to ruin my chances of ever getting a girlfriend. Outside of my world, it seemed like the media and adults saw gaming as a childish past time, along the lines of cartoons and comic books.

Now it seems that video games are becoming part of the mainstream while some diehards still claim that gaming is a childish, nonproductive activity that is just a waste of time. I think this a big problem for mature/adult gamers who enjoy the hobby, yet deal with the negativity. This is a two-fold problem as parents who aren't game-savvy allow their children to buy whatever games they want, not considering the possibility of mature content. So online, the people who have etiquette, consideration for others and maturity are tossed into an anonymous world where anything can be said without repercussions. I cannot count the number of times I've heard a child who obviously has not hit puberty curse like a sailor online to feel tough or make themselves sound more mature. It's essentially chest beating in a community where if you're loud and aggressive you tend to be heard, regardless of age or wisdom since that is thrown out the window. (on a side rant: instead of reducing mature content in M rated games, why not enforce the rating to keep children from playing them? It's sort of like watering down alcohol because children are getting it.. it doesn't make sense.)

Statisically, my generation and the generation before it are the core group of players. I would think most people in this site fall into that group, yet in general we are looked at (at least the hardcore) as complete socially inept nerds with a "kiddie hobby". Like an old man with a fascination with toy trains, you're sort of patted on the head and not taken seriously. I think this whole mindset comes from the ignorant and from people who have never delved into video games or their complexities. As games evolve and begin to make a significant impact on the economy (which they have more recently, especially with the introduction of the Wii), and draw in more of the general population, then I think we will have more respect as gaming hobbyists.

Something to think about before dismissing gaming (which I'm preaching to the choir here):

Steven Spielberg plays games
George Lucas plays games
Vin Diesel plays games (even Dungeons and Dragons)
Jon Stewart plays games (he was interviewing someone and mentioned Dead to Rights and how hard it was)
Peter Jackson plays games
Bruce Campbell (from the Evil Dead series) plays games
Dave Chapell plays games

interesting note: a Yahoo message board where a woman asks how many wives have husbands that play games here

a few of the negative responses are (without editing):

1. Omg, I think it is really sad that grown men play videos games.

2. the qeustion makes it sound like every women is married to at least 2 men lol

wats wrong with playing a little video games. if u ask me i think it shows something about how well u satifi ur man, if needs to make a controller vibrate in his hand alot then i think u should all just goto relationship people

3. Mine did right when we got together... but he doesn't anymore. We play together once in a while.. but he grew out of it I guess (which I'm ultimately thankful for).

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Horse Bites and Girlfriend Fights

Becky and Cashmere jumping in the Alderwood show.

So this is more or less just a rant to get this out of my head and off my chest. I'm sure I will come off as bitter and snarky:

So recently I've been riding horses with my girlfriend Becky. She's really into the whole equestrian, dressage, English riding/jumping scene and I'm trying to be the supportive boyfriend and take in all of this so I know what she's talking about when she brings up horse related activities. Now I have always had a love for animals, and being able to be around 30+ horses for a few days out of the week is great.

I haven't done more than walk a horse around an arena for the past month. Just learning how to saddle up a horse and properly clean their hooves and all the required maintenance involved. I'm not exactly a "watch it once and learn it for a lifetime" person. I have to get in there and do it myself with guidance to learn. So the day before yesterday (Sunday) I decided to ride her mother's headstrong horse Chief. I have been on his back maybe once before and he didn't seem at all pleased with me.

He would draw his head back and turn his head around to smell my feet (checking to see who the hell I am). He wouldn't listen to commands or would follow a command and then begin to do his own thing, like I would tell him to stop (woah) after which he would immediately continue to walk, usually into a fence. I felt a little more comfortable with him Sunday because he has yet to buck me off or try and toss me even with his obvious annoyance. I walked him around on the arena(edit: he bit me on the forearm while walking him, and I slapped the shit out of his shoulder) before asking Becky how to get him to trot. Now, trotting a horse seems like it's an easy task, you just stay on it's back and it prances around in the dirt. It's not nearly as easy. Once they pick up speed, the horse's back becomes a jackhammer on your ass and you're bouncing like a pogo stick and bruising your butt, not to mention if you're male.. you're gonna do some damage to the boys.

So she tells me the command to get him to trot and I'm bouncing around, and she gives me a little more guidance and I learn how to lean forward and get my ass off the saddle as well as get into the rhythm of his stride. So I'm feeling pretty good, and I'm getting some speed (as all men know, looking like a girl walking a horse around an arena while a woman is running circles around you and jumping things doesn't do much for the ego). I could tell that Chief was enjoying being able to run around a little bit too, and not being restrained to walking in circles. I even got him up to a full canter on accident (I leaned forward too much) and although I didn't fall off I didn't feel in control so I didn't attempt it again. All in all, I felt like a badass:

I felt really comfortable about it and felt that I was bonding with Chief a little more. Like he accepted me on his back knowing "hey this guy wants me to gun it and have fun". Becky said she was proud of me of getting it down so quickly, and I actually wanted to come back the next day to try it again. This all ended on Monday when the whole situation went to hell.

I went out to the stables early on Monday morning. I even beat Becky there and went back to the stalls to look at Chief and let him know his new best friend was there. He was eating and honestly couldn't care less that I was around. Becky got there and came back to where I was and everything started out as usual. I've been trying to ween myself of Becky's assistance with putting on the saddle and tack. So I did everything I could on my own aside from putting on his bit, which Becky did because he tends to hold his head up and yank his neck. She didn't feel comfortable letting me do that, which is understandable. So I finally got all of his equipment on (with a few checks from Becky) and walked him around the arena on foot a few rounds before hopping on his back. We walked around a little bit as Becky entered the arena with Cashmere. I felt that I had let Chief warm up enough and leaned forward, pushed his sides a little and asked him to trot. He did so without hesitation and I felt good.

Becky noticed and saw that my heels were not down in the stirrups. She went on about how important it was. I pulled my heel down and she said curtly "it's not down" I repositioned and she retorted "still not down" with this stern look. I finally got it in a position she was happy, and consciously made the effort to keep my heels down. I pulled Chief around the corner and tried to trot again, and halfway into it Becky told me to stop, and that she didn't feel comfortable with me trotting him when I can't keep my heels down. I had been watching her ride, and that's what I tried to emulate. She had her feet pointed outwards, and sometimes she didn't even have her feet in the stirrups at all. So when she said that, I was torn down a little and replied "well look at yourself".. I know that came out wrong, but I thought I got my point across that I was following her lead and I didn't see her heels down all the time. She looked away and said "I don't think this is such a good idea anymore" and rode off around the arena.

The rest of the time in the arena I just walked Chief around with my heels down, and my legs wrapped around his sides. I would look at Becky and she was purposely avoiding eye contact with me and keeping her distance from me when I rode near. She hopped off Cashmere and walked her into the stables so I hopped off of Chief and brought him in as well.

When taking the saddle and tack off, you have to strap them in with another set of facial harness equipment (edit: halter, thanks Devonsangel) so you have to be able to get the bit out of their mouth, and the reins while also getting this other harness on their head, otherwise they're not anchored to anything and they could potentially walk off. Well while I was trying to get his tack off, and get this harness on, Becky was walking Cashmere to the other side of the stables and washing her off.

I took off Chief's tack and thought he would stay still for a second for me to put this harness on so I could strap him in. Hell no.. he saw that he was free and started licking the side of one of the stalls. Then went into the stall and started eating the feed in the bucket. I tried to get the harness on his head while he ate, but his face was completely in the bucket. I pushed on his chest to get him to backup with no avail. I slapped his flank hard to get him to notice I didn't approve.. he didn't budge. This horse is 1500 lbs. or so, I cannot move him. I eventually get him out of that stall as he pushes into my arm and it scrapes down the side of the stall painfully. He wanders into the stall across the way and starts eating the food in the bucket there as well. All during this time Becky is hosing off her horse.

I'm trying to be a man and take care of the situation and take control, but this horse was not helping. Pushing on this horse is like trying to push on my Jeep in park.. he shifts a little but doesn't move. I lock myself in the stall with him and unhook the bucket so it hits the floor and he has to bend down to get to it. When he does he looks at me for a minute, and I finally get the harness on his head. I take a handful of the harness and get him strapped in outside the stall.

I have to admit, I was scared. I did not know if he was going to get upset with me and try and kick me, bite me again with more aggression. Maybe he would get spooked by me and run, hurt himself or me.. I didn't know. I didn't feel like I was in a good place at all. Becky brings Cashmere back to her stable and I'm tired and don't know the proper bathing techniques or any of that. I put Chief back in his stall and put the rest of the equipment up. Becky is putting some things up in the tack room and I ask her "so you're not talking to me anymore?" and she doesn't reply and walks out. She goes down to Cashmere's stall for awhile and then comes back and tells me she's leaving. I look at her and ask her "what?" in a tone that wasn't a question so much, as I was meaning her attitude and not asking for her to repeat herself. She of course repeats "I'm leaving" and walks out of the stables to the parking lot.

I sit down on the bench and stare down to Chief's stall and feel bad that he was confused, and also didn't get hosed down or brushed like he probably should have.. but I just didn't feel comfortable doing any of that after having such a hard time with him. I didn't feel safe at all. I got up off the bench and walked out to the parking lot where Becky was taking off her boots. I just stood there with my hands on my sides and watched her. She questioned me "what?" and I replied "that's what I asked you awhile ago.. what?" she went on to tell me she takes horse riding seriously, and she doesn't bring just anyone out to the stables with her. She said that it's a big part of her life and it always will be. That for me to get an attitude about it and not listen, was wrong. She felt that she was looking out for my safety first (rant: like leaving me to deal with a 1500 lb. animal for 10 minutes, wrestling with it and tearing my arm up on the side of a stall is safe, but I didn't mention it.. it felt counterproductive and a cheap blow). I replied that what I said was that I try and copy her, she's the only reference I have out there for doing something.. and I just think it was miscommunication. We argued for awhile about it, before she went back into the stables to get some water. I thought if I should just drive off as a way of letting her know I was upset, or should I stay and talk.. maybe I should just drop the ego and say I was sorry, regardless of how frustrated I was with the situation I was just in with Chief and how I felt justified in what I said because of observing her. I decided to stay and wait for her to come back.

When she did I said I was sorry for coming off the wrong way, and she said she was sorry for misunderstanding. We stood there for awhile in the hot sun, covered in sweat before I told her to go home. She meekly said okay and got in her car. I stood there and watched her and she told me to go home as well. I said I would and walked over to her and kissed her on the forehead. We drove off and left.

Cashmere

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I'm Not Buying Halo 3

Well that's not completely true. I will probably, at some discount and/or used price buy the game. I'm sure it will get decent if not excellent reviews. I'm also not trying in any way to bash the Halo franchise or insult those who play the game. I am however questioning facets of the game, maybe even first person shooters in general that haven't evolved beyond what they have been for the past say 10 years or so.

First let me say that I like the Halo universe. I like the idea and scope of it. With the Halos, Master Chief, the Arbiter, the Flood, and what have you. I still remember the vista after crash landing in the first game and looking up at the sky and seeing the large looping halo in the air. Gameplay wise the game was good as well, you had a new health system (as far as I know this was one of the first that allowed for a self healing shield system in an FPS) unique weapons (I liked the needler), etc etc.. this was great in 2001. The issues arise when other games and other series' have come and gone with new twists, mechanics and ideas being implemented.

Take for instance Ghost Recon: Advanced War Fighter, Gears of War, Rainbow Six: Vegas and the myriad of games that use a cover element. This to me is highly realistic. I'm going to avoid a realism debate all together, but my point being is that I'm come to expect a cover system, or at least some advanced lean mechanic (Medal of Honor: Airborne does this well). I try and think of movies where guns are used, and rarely do you ever see anyone staring blankly at a wall, only to side strafe and completely expose themselves to gunfire. It just doesn't feel right anymore to do this. I'm sure this isn't implemented in Halo because of the pacing. Same for an Unreal Tournament game. It would just seem out of place to have something like a cover mechanic, sneaking around corridors, while other players are running 15 miles an hour around a map. The same idea with going prone. You hardly ever see games now where you can lie down and take up a position within a game. What ever happened to that?

Another issue I have is with multiplayer modes. Team deathmatch (chose red or blue, and duke it out with either a set number of lives or a frag/time limit), Capture the Flag (each team has a flag, your objective is to nab the other team's flag and bring it back to a predetermined place, and other similar variants). I thought the advent of games like Battlefield 1942 would evolve our multiplayer gaming into something more gradiose and epic. With larger maps and more complex structure. I'm not saying that we should have huge expansive battlefields with tanks and aircraft. I just mean something "more" I suppose.

A game I'm more interested in right now than any other is Half Life 2: The Orange Box. Not because of Half Life 2, or the episodes. I'm also not super-excited about Team Fortress 2. It is about Portal. If you've ever played Narbacular Drop you would know how different this game is going to be.

I mentioned Team Fortress ( Original Team Fortress 2) earlier and it reminds me of when that game was first announced. The game was announced in 1999 and competing games were Unreal Tournament, Counter Strike (the original Half-Life mod) and later Quake 3. Team Fortress 2 was going to offer full integrated voice support with lip synch (the character's lips would move when you spoke) as well as audio was localized; if someone spoke out of earshot, you wouldn't hear them. You could also help feed ammo into machine guns while another player lays waste to enemies, parachute into battle on certain maps, and all sorts of features that are either still not being utilized or are just now coming to fruition in some shape or form (i.e. Medal of Honor: Airborne, which is basing the entire game around the parachuting into battle aspect).

I probably sound like a hypocrite citing games like Battlefield 1942 (which doesn't have a cover system) or Gears of War (which doesn't have anything really ground breaking in the multiplayer department) but it seems to me that game mechanics become more or less fads that come and go. That seems like a real shame. There have been plenty of great ideas in games like I mentioned the cover system, or going prone, more complex multiplayer, and other features that don't seem to push into newer games.

What we get left with is great graphical advancements, and maybe a new mechanic that gets tacked on. The new idea or concept may be used once or twice more, but then it goes away and we lose something, that I consider a freedom of choice (being able to choose whether to hug a wall around a corner, or lay down, etc). It's been said from hands-on reports that Halo 3 is going to be more of the same. Well that's good for Halo fans and people who enjoyed what Halo has to offer. Me? I'm still waiting for the next huge shift in First Person Shooters that evolves the medium. Sure, I'll still play games with the same tried gameplay.. but I don't think I will truely be impressed until something drastic happens.

I'm sure at some point I will play Halo 3. I'm just not going to be in line outside the local EB Games, wallet in hand, ready to shell out 60 dollars.

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