Halo 3, The Online Experience
Being a casual video gamer, I am quite content to play games as my life permits. I have neither the time nor the social calendar that lends itself to lengthy sessions of blood-splattered carnage or numerous hours of magic-casting fantasy. Lately, I have found myself hooked on Grand Theft Auto IV (by far my favorite of the GTA series) but after an hour or two of play, I'm ready for something else. Last weekend, however, we had Sami and my brother over for whatever suited us, which turned out to be Halo 3.
Sami is an absolute pro at this game. Her rank is something like "Three Star General Ass Kicker, Bitches" so I wasn't too keen on playing her face-to-face. It had been so long since I even thought of Halo and I only vaguely remembered the online feature. The thing is, if you want to play with one of your friends, you can. You make a team and go in together. It doesn't even matter where, in proximity to you, they are. As long as they own an XBOX360, are on XBOX Live and semi-conscious, you can make it happen. Sami is all about the online feature, as she and her husband Tim are known to play for hours with people from all over the world, bound together in matches called things like Crazy King, VIP and Slayer.
After the initial "hello how was your week" talk that evening, Sami suggested a round of Halo 3. And so it began. Since Robin and I hadn't played in months, we were a bit worried as to our experience level and the almost assured finger-pointing and "hoot, hoot, hoot" that would follow a badly sucked round. Much to my surprise and merriment, those taunts never came. Or at least if they did, we couldn't hear them because we muted the other player's microphones.
We started playing around 9:30, Chris left at 10:15, leaving Sami, Robin and me. Two of us would play a round while the other watched and when the round ended, we passed the controllers along. It was so much fun. We cracked out until 12:30 when Sami finally relented to her sleepiness. It wasn't that we were the best or even won all the time, but when we did it was incredibly satisfying. As I mentioned before, there are all sorts of ways to play a round. There is the typical slaughter-or-be-slaughtered, king of the hill, hold the human skull without getting killed, kill only the VIPs for points, you only get a sword to kill people, and on and on. The setting we had made it so whoever was hosting a room (or "killing floor" as I like to call it) could decide on the kind of game. Before the game started, the other players were allowed to veto the game choice which if successful (majority rules) would default to good 'ol Slayer.
I went home yesterday after a busy day at work. I was excited at the prospect of zoning out on Halo for a little bit before Robin got home. Popping in the disk, I thought I might as well try plugging in my headset so I could talk to my teammate, whoever they turned out to be. The first few rounds were chatless because the other player didn't have a headset. When someone finally did have a microphone, they were obviously asking me a question - in Portugese.
I said, "I'm sorry, I don't speak Portugese." My teammate became very excited. He exclaimed, "Good for you! You did not think I was speaking Italian or Spanish! I'm Fausto, what is your name?" Since he knew English, we chatted it up and developed some kick ass strategy for the following round. His English was very good and his accent absolutely beautiful. When a round concludes, you have the option of playing with your partner again, which we did a couple more times. It turned out that Fausto was relaxing after his shift at a local tavern (it was 1am in Lisbon). He said that he had to throw out three drunks that night who were Greek. "Greek men," he said agitatedly, "they always fuck up your bar." I laughed, "Oh? I wouldn't know, we don't get very many of the Aegean types over here." He sounded surprised, "You know where the Aegean is? You are not like many Americans I meet." I was puzzled, "And what kind might that be?," to which he replied, "The drunk kind, of course!" I laughed so hard. His friend with whom he usually plays showed up, so he bid me a nice evening. I did the same and turned off the XBOX; Robin was about to be home soon anyway.
So for those of you who think video games are all self-indulgent, time-wasting, hermit-creating abominations, why not try some online Halo? You never know who you'll meet or what time zone they'll be in!
Just try not to suck. HOOT HOOT HOOT!
Sami is an absolute pro at this game. Her rank is something like "Three Star General Ass Kicker, Bitches" so I wasn't too keen on playing her face-to-face. It had been so long since I even thought of Halo and I only vaguely remembered the online feature. The thing is, if you want to play with one of your friends, you can. You make a team and go in together. It doesn't even matter where, in proximity to you, they are. As long as they own an XBOX360, are on XBOX Live and semi-conscious, you can make it happen. Sami is all about the online feature, as she and her husband Tim are known to play for hours with people from all over the world, bound together in matches called things like Crazy King, VIP and Slayer.
After the initial "hello how was your week" talk that evening, Sami suggested a round of Halo 3. And so it began. Since Robin and I hadn't played in months, we were a bit worried as to our experience level and the almost assured finger-pointing and "hoot, hoot, hoot" that would follow a badly sucked round. Much to my surprise and merriment, those taunts never came. Or at least if they did, we couldn't hear them because we muted the other player's microphones.
We started playing around 9:30, Chris left at 10:15, leaving Sami, Robin and me. Two of us would play a round while the other watched and when the round ended, we passed the controllers along. It was so much fun. We cracked out until 12:30 when Sami finally relented to her sleepiness. It wasn't that we were the best or even won all the time, but when we did it was incredibly satisfying. As I mentioned before, there are all sorts of ways to play a round. There is the typical slaughter-or-be-slaughtered, king of the hill, hold the human skull without getting killed, kill only the VIPs for points, you only get a sword to kill people, and on and on. The setting we had made it so whoever was hosting a room (or "killing floor" as I like to call it) could decide on the kind of game. Before the game started, the other players were allowed to veto the game choice which if successful (majority rules) would default to good 'ol Slayer.
I went home yesterday after a busy day at work. I was excited at the prospect of zoning out on Halo for a little bit before Robin got home. Popping in the disk, I thought I might as well try plugging in my headset so I could talk to my teammate, whoever they turned out to be. The first few rounds were chatless because the other player didn't have a headset. When someone finally did have a microphone, they were obviously asking me a question - in Portugese.
I said, "I'm sorry, I don't speak Portugese." My teammate became very excited. He exclaimed, "Good for you! You did not think I was speaking Italian or Spanish! I'm Fausto, what is your name?" Since he knew English, we chatted it up and developed some kick ass strategy for the following round. His English was very good and his accent absolutely beautiful. When a round concludes, you have the option of playing with your partner again, which we did a couple more times. It turned out that Fausto was relaxing after his shift at a local tavern (it was 1am in Lisbon). He said that he had to throw out three drunks that night who were Greek. "Greek men," he said agitatedly, "they always fuck up your bar." I laughed, "Oh? I wouldn't know, we don't get very many of the Aegean types over here." He sounded surprised, "You know where the Aegean is? You are not like many Americans I meet." I was puzzled, "And what kind might that be?," to which he replied, "The drunk kind, of course!" I laughed so hard. His friend with whom he usually plays showed up, so he bid me a nice evening. I did the same and turned off the XBOX; Robin was about to be home soon anyway.
So for those of you who think video games are all self-indulgent, time-wasting, hermit-creating abominations, why not try some online Halo? You never know who you'll meet or what time zone they'll be in!
Just try not to suck. HOOT HOOT HOOT!
posted by Infused Confusion at
8:40 AM
2 Comments:
Suck it you drunken Greeks! HOOT HOOT HOOT!
By
ShannonRose, At
11:51 AM
Wait just a minute. Do you mean to tell me that not all Americans are drunk? Well, slap my ass and call me...oh, I don't know. Just slap my ass.
Way to game, man. I don't know if Steve has that game, but I have to assume he does. Oh--is that part of the orange box? Or was that something else? I don't know about games & stuff.
By
April, At
2:56 PM
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