Oops

Jun 21, 2010 Uncategorized

In what amounts to my 13th epic fail in the last month, I’ve lost 7 months of posts for the site, and I’m scrambling to get things back to normal. Podcasts will be back shortly!

-Steve

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ODST Should Renew My Ha-Love

Sep 20, 2009 Band News, Uncategorized

It’s been years since I’ve sat down in front of my television with the express intent to play Halo 1. I would say almost too many years. That’s sad really, because that game kindled something that I haven’t really felt since. It was a great game in it’s own right for the simple fact that it blew away any of my expectations that I had in regards to my return to console gaming. Being a hardcore FPS fan on the PC, I wasn’t sure what to anticipate with this bastardization of my favorite game genre. FPS on a console? PISH POSH! Still, it worked, and it worked well.

There was something about that game that I could sit for hours and days just replaying through the campaign. The first night I beat it my father walked in and said, “You beat it already? That was a waste of $50.” I laugh now because my father was the one who got me into gaming and shares that passion with me. So it wasn’t an off-hand remark saying “You wasted money on that stupid video game,” but more of a “I think the developers screwed you.” But I enjoyed it, every minute of it. So much so that I returned to that world over and over again. Both in singleplayer and in co-op with friends. Sometimes on the hardest and sometimes on the easiest, I beat Halo: CE more than any other story campaign in any game. I never grew tired of it.

Then came Halo 2. By now I had a community of friends who enjoyed playing multiplayer with me, but would still do co-op runs all the time as well. They shared my passion. Yet Halo 2 fell short for some reason. In hindsight, the game felt more linear and directed than the first game. In all honest, I think I’ve only beaten that game about 3-4 times over the years. I know in itself that can be a lot, but still. When compared to how much I played it’s predecessor, that’s nothing. I felt like there was something wrong with me. And again the same thing happened with Halo 3. Was there something I was missing? Some small detail that I didn’t enjoy to it’s fullest? Dammit, what’s wrong?

It took until I was talking with Ryan on the podcast a few episodes ago to make me come to a psuedo realization. Halo: CE had this almost “open world” aspect to some of the levels that I loved the most. These huge areas that I could take on in almost any fashion. When I think about it, almost all of my fondest memories are on Silent Cartographer driving circles around this huge island and attacking things I knew I was supposed to come upon later. Or in the level Halo where you first land on the ring and have this huge world to take on in any way you’d like. It was liberating. It was like a mini sandbox for me to play in as much as I’d like. It was a false freedom that I cherished in trying to push the boundaries in as much as possible.

So now it’s time for ODST to release this Tuesday. Once again, I’m excited. It sucks that I can’t spend the time I want to with it upon it’s release like I would when I was younger, but after hearing about this open hub-world and the sandbox-like gameplay, I am truly excited. It’s as if Bungie has gotten back to the roots it started with in this series. So hopefully this will help me get back to mine. Man, I want to play some Halo 1 now. Anyone up for a game of co-op?

~Josh Britt

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Hello world!

Sep 9, 2010 Uncategorized

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

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