A Whole New Blog

So as it turns out... my last blog was shut down. Likely due to pictures... owned... by other people. C'est la vie.

Time to write about things I love. All things nerdy. My goal was to start a site with news and opinions about video games, tech and gaming. All things very dear to my heart. And at this point in my life I don't see why it still can't happen.

I've had other ideas since the last blog. Some I may go into, others are probably stuck at the back of my brain, lost. It seems that's where my creativity seems to shine. Not so much the logistics of a thing, but more serendipity. Inspiration and ideas, with very little follow through. Again I hope this stupid thing can focus me. But off to the meat to go with these potatoes.

I can remember the launch of the Xbox... not the 360 mind you... the old plastic behemoth I called friend. It weighed as much as a full grown African elephant and sounded about the same when it was unhappy. The day this "Xbox" put out by a young upstart company called Microsoft... I think they were some kind of window installation company... or something... tossed their hat into the ring to dethrone the established Nintendo and the popular Playstation in a very competitive video game market I'm not sure they knew what they were in for. I remember how excited I was, my dad and I were questing to find one for sale... settling on Superstore. I bought 2 games that day to show off this impressive monstrosity. Getting more to the point this was the day I found Halo. Or rather Halo found me. We've had a good relationship. Halo and I dated my wife for a while. We moved in, I upgraded to other versions, but will never forget driving the Warthog around, the sound of the rocket launcher or the horrible advantage of the handgun in split-screen play. Good times... stupid handgun... Halo has been there for me. I've never really hurled myself into the online play, I've given it a good college try... but found out most of the kids on there are barely out of diapers let alone of college age. Keeping up with the kids was tough so I'd play the single player... do some of the multiplayer maps where wave after wave of enemy assaulted you and play online with friends when the opportunity presented itself. Cranking up the difficulty to Legendary and finishing off the game with multiple skulls enabled for extra challenge was always a good way to burn a rainy... or let's be fair... a completely sunny and beautiful, Saturday.

It's no surprise that Halo 4 would be another favorable install in the series. Basically the big bad unkillable Master Chief is back from floating around in deep space and needs something to kill... insert mild story line and let's get this thing moving. The game is beautiful, environments can get missed as your trying not to get shot by incredibly accurate snipers, but everything looks good. The music is again top notch, and is as much a character as the super solider you play who somehow forgets how to hold two guns at once... but again... no biggie. For some reason we're fighting the Covenant again, same ol song and dance... the Brute class is missing... which I enjoyed throughly and though we'd see again. The game introduces a few new enemies... not as many as I would have liked to see. Likewise the new weapons are nice, but nothing really jumps out at you... aside from the energy bazooka that explodes, splits into pieces then explodes again. As with most Halo games, what grabs me are the big levels that let you pilot vehicles, all the oldie but goldies are back with some new stuff to keep it fresh. I burned a Saturday with my brother playing through the campaign and boy was it nice, we're a city apart but we can still bicker about ammo hogging and kill stealing like he were in the room next to me. It's enough to make me roll a tear. Multiplayer is again there... but not very interesting. Since they game play hasn't changed much at all, everyone is already better than me and I hate them for that. I'm missing the game mode where wave after wave of enemy comes crashing after you like waves on the beach of Normandy... but they've added some other missions with... goals and their own story line. So far they seem to be releasing about 5 missions every week or so. They're good times, lots of shooting things in the face, which is always nice after a nice long day at the Dream Factory. The game is solid, not a lot of problems with glitches or freezing, which is good, the network hasn't been the most reliable as of me writing this and that worries me. I can imagine many problems with 4 people trying to navigate the same game all at once. Halo 4 promises to be a new starting point for the series, which means we can expect at least 2 more games. Then probably 3 prequels that George Lucas can add Jar Jar Binks into.