goodbye, dear friend...

Halo 2 is the most played game ever. for me, anyways. on the eve of it's end, I've decided to plop down some thoughts on the game and what it's meant to me over the years.

I still remember the day i bought my original xbox. i had ignored the launch, since i already had a PS2 and plenty of games to play on it. then i read the reviews for Halo. at the time, i was a pretty hardcore gamer, without a wife, mortgage, or car payment. i spent a shitload of money a week on games, and bought any game (and i mean ANY) that caught my interest. I subscribed to 4 or 5 videogame magazines, and read the few blogs and gaming sites obsessively. so when the reviews for Halo begin to come in, i decided to get a system. being a few days after launch, it was pretty hard, and i had driven to 3 or 4 stores before i pulled up to a target. inside the tv/dvd/game department i found a employee walking from the back room with a xbox, and asked him were they were. he replied " dude, we are sold out, and I'm buying this one for myself." i immediately began to badger him with questions, LOUDLY, and got the attention of a manager. i asked him why he allowed his employees to hoard consoles for themselves and not the public. he sold it to me, and that chubby guy will get his revenge on me someday, I'm sure.

so i got the game and the system ( in that order) and once my brother and cousins realized how awesome it was, began to host weekly, then daily multiplayer matches in my basement. this is how i met 2 friends, over late night Halo sessions lasting 5 hours, and fueled by 2 or 3 40 oz King Cobra malt liquor. I'm not kidding, we played Halo for about 18 months nonstop, every week, about 3-4 times a week. for the first 10 months, it was every day. seriously. my nephew started playing with us at 5 years old. those were crazy times.

the anticipation for halo 2 began right after that e3 presentation, the made up one. the main difference was xbox live, and the fact that i had all the multiplayer pals i needed, and the weekly games died down. checking my stats today, I've played 2310 games, i have 10,878 kills and 11,578 deaths. wow. i participated in that crazy "i love bees" crap that was a promotional stunt for Halo 2, and attended the Hive event in chicago.

the game lived up to the hype, with awesome (for the time) online gaming and new maps every few months. i dedicated so much time to this game, trying to find a way out of every map and finding all the superjumps, swordflying, bxr stuff, etc. i honed some pretty nasty shit-talking skills on the way, and even now i blush at some of the stuff I'd say. it was the best reason for having a xbox, and xbox live. I've been on live for 8 years now, and my longest Xbox Live friendships started in Halo 2.

and now it's going away. forever. i fired up the 360 yesterday, installed all the maps from the Multiplayer Map Pack, and downloaded the final DLC pack, and got down.

i haven't played halo 2 in a few years, and boy did i suck bad. but that's to be expected, Modern Warfare spoils you too much, and to go back to two assault rifle squeezes and a melee to the head takes time. but I'm gonna go jump on right now, because there's only 5 1/2 hours left. i heard something about Halo: Reach stuff being given out to players today, but i don't care about that.

I'm gonna say goodbye to an obsession tonight. to a great game, loudmouth and immature community, and to thank Bungie for making one of the greatest games ever.


Blarg!