Hailing Halo

So as many of you know, I own a PS2. And, as many of you don't know, I also happen to own an XBOX. I didn't buy it. No, I didn't steal it either. Stealing, by the way, also means borrowing a DVD and never giving it back.

Yeah, someone gave it to me, about 2 years ago. In fact, I used to play Halo at that person's place, and they decided they were getting a 360, so I got a nice plastic bag with an XBOX, 2 controllers and all his (6) games, and also a cardboard with his old SNES and some surprisingly obscure titles -- Married people are awesome.

Why have I not been using it? Well, no titles I'm actually dying to play, and I somehow got tangled up in the Japanese aspect of the PS2. Before the PS2, I hated anime games and JRPGs. I became addicted.

Due to my frustration with Advent Rising, a frustration that stems not from any difficulty with the controls, I started getting the strange feeling that not much more gameplay (I'm halfway through the game) is worth comparing to Halo. The weapon changes are a bit on the weird side and then it dawned on me. Why the hell am I playing this game? And where's that XBOX thingy?

I sets up an XBOX on an alternate TV in front of a comfy couch, and within 1 minute of gameplay, knew confidently that I had wasted my time with Advent. Yeah, big duh from all of you, I'm sure, but I had always been affraid that Halo wasn't as good as they say it is, so much so that I was more certain that Advent Rising wasn't as bad as they say it was. Halo aversion came about becasue my first foray into it was deathmatching and co-op play. When you play a game for the first time in a deathmatch mode with someone who owns the game, you're getting you ass handed to you. In other words, someone playing Golden Eye N64 with 3 other regulars, is just walking target time, and in no way a good welcome that allows you to see a game's potential.

I've made a lot of good gaming choices, and this time around, I'm realizing that this was a bad one. But I mean, I just didn't remember that there was an XBOX in here with a copy of Halo. Rest assured that I am enjoying Halo in ways that needs no description to those who have been and still are in love with it.

It's a first for me to have two consoles of the same generation, and that's kinda weird. I can understand the feeling of neutrality that all these people who can afford two same-gen consoles get, though. Having the XBOX and not exhausting at least PART of it's library, would just be wasteful on my part. Plus, I have a strong feeling that everything that would have happened in Advent Rising, will pretty much be covered by Halo. Maybe not in the same interface, or viewpoint, but the crisis behavior in Halo is much more on than in Advent.

However, I have never witnessed anything quite as massive in terms of planetary threat, as the destruction of Old Miltia by a gigantic alien. namely awakening of Proto Omega. This is how they do it in Japan, destruction and cause for retribution, seldom comes in small discreet packages: