6609 games later - Halo: Reach

Wohooo! On Friday 23 March 2012 I finally reached the max rank of Inheritor in Halo: Reach, after a whopping 6609 games! =D Reward: the haunted helmet. Price: weeks and weeks of time sacrificed for the cause. Since the game has played a big role in my life for the last years I figured achieving the max rank was worth a little sparkling wine!

Becoming Inheritor doesn't actually mean I'd be among the top skilled players, not at all. If anything it only tells that I've spent ALOT of time playing the game =) I can honestly say I'm only about average+ player by my skills, perhaps party because of my playing style - I just want to rush into battle (foolishly) and have fun instead of hiding in distance and sniping the enemy players.

Reaching the end of the line is something I never believed I could achieve when I started playing the game over 1,5 years ago. But now I'm there, the journey is finished and new challenges await - not in Halo: Reach, but in Halo 4 that is coming out later this year. Looking forward to that!

Thank you Bungie and 343 Industries for the great moments I've had over the thousands and thousands of games played!

If you're interested, you can see my Halo: Reach stats page

Bungie t-shirts - a nerdy fashion report

A week ago I finally received a Bungie branded t-shirt all the way from the USA! It's good quality, simplistically stylish and has a bit of kick-ass attitude. Bungie is the company behind the now much popular Halo game series. Its Myth II was one of the last games I liked to play on computer until a decade of pause from video games. Then, Bungie's Halo 3 brought me back into gaming, this time on Xbox 360.

The new shirt will join my collection of two t-shirts from Bungie that date back all the way to the late 90's, when I was in my golden nerd years, so to speak. Back then Bungie games like Marathon and Myth were my top favorites because of their great storytelling and throughout quality.

The Bungie t-shirt would've been even cooler if they had put their slogan in Latin, as they did in their old coat of arms stickies "Non facete nobis calcitrare vestrum perineum" (I love Latin stuff because I studied the language myself in high school). On the back of Marathon 2 shirt there's this hilarious, perhaps bit naughty pic of the AI controlled friendly BOB units of the Marathon games.

I got the Marathon 2 shirt with Marathon Trilogy Box set (one of the greatest product packings too, imho) and Myth II shirt along with Myth II. Sadly though those shirts are XL-sized so I haven't wore them much. The new Bungie t-shirt, however, is my size S and fits perfectly! Can't wait for the summer to arrive so I can wear the shirt with pride. I honestly think Americans produce great everyday clothes. In addition to the Bungie shirts, I've got a couple of Hawaii shirts that may be unfashionable, but excellent in quality =)

Back in mid-late 90's I actually had my first penpal/internet-friend working at Bungie, who sent me all sorts of cool Bungie collectibles and even the autograph of then-Bungie-CEO Alex Seropian. But that's another story to tell!

For a funny closing here's a pic from the days of glory:

Me (on the left) and two of my friends holding Myth products circa 1997. Notice: I also wear Chicago Bulls cap (Bungie was founded in Chicago) and the cap has a Myth stickie attached to it as well =D

PS. Sorry I didn't iron the Marathon 2 and Myth II shirts for their photoshoots!

Happy 10th Anniversary Master Chief!

Ok, I'm few days late with this, but better late than never, right? =)

Anyway, so it's been 10 years since the launch of the original Xbox from Microsoft, along with Halo, it's launch title and what one might call the console's "killer app".

I was thrilled about the original Halo since it was to be released on Mac by Bungie who had made the outstanding Marathon game trilogy (indeed, Marathon is the spiritual predecessor of Halo). I kept watching this video of the initial Halo announcement by Steve Jobs over and over again.. But then Microsoft bought Bungie to port the game for their upcoming console. It was such a sad moment and I lost interest in Halo - until the summer of 2010.

It was my little brother who introduced me to Xbox 360 and two titles in specific: Dirt 2 and Halo 3 (in multiplayer). I was so impressed about the games and the thrilling atmosphere in Halo 3 multiplayer that very soon I bought my own Xbox 360 and Halo 3 alongside it (before playing the campaign I also bought and played through the original Halo: CE and Halo 2 so I wouldn't miss anything from the story!). Later on I also got my hands on Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST.

Now, I will have the opportunity to play the original Halo completely refined to match the look of modern games. The original Halo: CE I bought and played on my Xbox 360 was already 9 years old, in 4:3 ratio and with laggy frame rate and old graphics.

So it's time for me to finally experience Halo: CE as a new game just like the others had enjoyed it 10 years ago. I also look forward on the new multiplayer map experience over Halo: Reach. See you on Xbox Live!

My gamer tag: AliquisNJ