- monkeycatt
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- Exalted Member
got into late, really late. we got halo 2 spring 2007 and became hooked. my sister and i played it more than gears of war, staying up days at times to perfect our attacks and generally explore every facet of the amazing story. maybe it was sleep-deprivation, but the campaign really inbedded itself in the emotional center of my brain. i got to know my sister a lot better through our time playing together and appreciated these other sides of her personality. you don't have any idea how hilarious we can be after 22 hours of playing and 2 hours being lost in the damn snow cave at the end. (cue the constant respawns just as you found your way out). eventually, we moved to multiplayer and got owned, naturally. still, it was nice to take so much abuse and finally reaching that point where we just go crazy and completely destroy everybody in 1-2matches, regardless of rank. no skills, just aggro button mashing. halo2 and then halo became rituals, reasons to see one another and catch up while we were doing it. she actually liked those arbiter missions, but i didn't see the point. my girlfriend called it early on that arbiter and chief were going to team up, halo 2 was an extended setup for that.
my sister moved to ct to go to school right before halo3 came out. first time away from home and the baby of the family. we promised to play online from our houses 2000 miles apart and were so upset that co-op campaign was initially announced as only being local. it seemed i'd have to finish the fight with my girlfriend, a better player all around, but too much like me, careful, and not as fun. nobody ever falls off the same cliff so much when we play, it's just po-faced headshots. so the late news of online co-op brought light again, and the game comes out, both of us got legendary editions, we both had butterflies, she was basically the arbiter, (it's the eyes and awkwardness), and i the chief). red ring of death for her on sep24 and 2 months of waiting for her to get her xbox back, while everyone else finished the fight. we finally finished on thanksgiving, once again, after everybody else. we keep playing, it's xmas, but already marty's music makes me sad and nostalgic for a time that hasn't even passed yet. i anticipate looking back on my sister and i finally growing up and bonding with the halo story and it's emotional themes as the backdrop. and my girlfriends' fondness for cortana and similar role in my life (years in my head, barking orders),--all this--it's impossible to seperate the bonds between my family, life, love and the much more than just a video game work of art that is the halo world. could be just sleep deprivation though, but only other game has created such emotion. (that would be vice city, sunrise, too tired to play, purple sky, kate bush "wow" on the radio and some dead air just as the sun creeped over the oceanline).
watching all the conclusion and so many characters die was like watching the end of another chapter, a bittersweet reminder of the constant transience of life.