Halo 3 is a No Go

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..