11-18-04 Bonus Blog

I was never aware of the amount of money someone could earn by playing video games....I knew about the competitions and whatnot, but MAN. That is so much money.....Makes me wonder if it could even be worth it.

Now, I would never become a pro gamer.....even if I was good enough, playing games for a JOB? I'm sure I can contribute to society in a better way than that.... but I think about some of the games I enjoy, and that I'm pretty good at, and think "Hmmm....what if I instead did everything in my power to win?" What if I learned the killer strategies and watched the 'pros' play, and searched for new methods and unique ways of beating people?

Now, let's think about this for a moment. Without school or a job, I could play games let's say, 40 hours a week for 'practice time' (typical 9-5 work there). Now, as I enjoy playing games, and do so in my free time, who's to say I would stop playing them in my free time? so we're talking 40+ hours a week of playing games......That's a LOT of practice.....Seeing as I'm already ahead of 99% of my friends in games such as Halo 2, who's to say that that wouldn't set me over the edge for the pro market?

Of course, this is all wishful thinking, as I'm sure there would still be thousands of people that are able to beat me, but to be able to make money for an otherwise useless skill, and have FUN while doing it? that's a dream come true....

Halo 2, Part 2, for 11-11-04

So the game is finally here!!!!

And I must say....it's amazing. It's a large improvement over the original in every catagory....I've played through the single player campaign, and have played a bit on Xbox live. And, unfortunately, Live did not live up to my expectations...

The way it is setup right now (I say that in hopes that Bungie decides to change it) is that you must play online, ALONE in ranked games. They had advertised that you could have 4 people on Live on the same box. Sadly, that is only in Custom Games, in which you must invite other players to join you. This is, of course, useless, if you don't know anybody else that has Xbox Live. In addition, the ranked games (the only games that random people you don't know can join) give you NO options as to how you want to play. You pretty much just specify how many you want to play with, and the system sets up all the games for you. This is ridiculous, as a game with this magnitude of options should allow you more freedom to do what you want.

Which brings me to my point...Just how important are the players to Bungie? Important enough to initiate changes to this rather frustrating interface? My thoughts turn to Ultima Online, when Sir British would speak to players and get their input, and the game was better for it. Bungie would profit by listening to it's fans, especially since Halo 2 won't be the last in the series (Microsoft NEEDS Halo like a fat kid needs cake...). If they refuse to do anything, I'm positive many will boycott Halo 3 on pure frustration. I mean, they can always go back to the original Halo and be happy, or to other FPS's.

However, this also ties into the fact of expectations again. I was expecting this feature for Halo 2(Live) to be the greatest thing to ever happen to the Xbox. Don't get me wrong, I'm hooked, it's really fun....but by myself. and with games organized by someone else. If that's my biggest cripe, ok, I can live with it. Bungie did produce a great game. But who's to say that it couldn't have been better? And the hype machine then circles back on itself, and the game suffers because this was supposed to be the perfect, end all game of games.

Ah well.....I'll still be playing it for a very long time....

Halo 2, Part one

And here we are, five days away from one of the most anticipated games of all time dropping at Midnight. And it's going to be huge.

How many times have my friends and I played the original? How many times have we played CTF or deathmatch or co-op? How HUGE is the hype on this game?

As I've discussed before, online capability will make or break this game. And supposedly it's "high quality, all the kinks worked out, 4 person per box Xbox live" online capability. Now, the question is.....when I get this game at Midnight (which I most certainly will), do I jump on the Live bandwagon as soon as possible?

This may be a ridiculous statement to many non-Halo fans, but it actually is quite important. The French version has been floating around for a while now, and although I chose not to indulge for fear of ruining the game, it may still come back and bite me. If I go on Live before I beat the game, it's more than likely I"ll play at least one of those people that have had the french version....and they could very easily be spouting off info I don't want to hear, whether it be about the plot, levels, characters, guns, ANYTHING that I'd rather find out myself. (for those that don't know, Live is equipped with a decent headset and voice support) Suddenly the "Don't download it if you don't want to know" doesn't work anymore, and the pirating could very easily effect my enjoyment of the game, which I've waited so long for.

I'm dying to see what this multiplayer is capable of, but if I'm going to have to spend the time to complete it first, it's going to be a long time coming on Live.

One suggestion I did have was that more people bring Xboxs on game day, and we hook them up and try to get some 16 people or so......for those of you Halo haters, or those that haven't experienced that, you have to try it.

Next week, I'll be talking about Halo and how it has or hasn't lived up to expectations, and thoughts on the effects of the game on the current consoles, and next gen ones.