- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Bungie/Halo 2
Microsoft's campus is quite large. How do I know this? Because I told [CENSORED] I'd get a picture of Frankie, and figured that I could get one as he would be packing up Xboxes and copies of Halo 2 before heading over to the convention. Why not just get a picture at the convention, you're probably asking. Well, apparently, there was quite a line for Halo 2 on Sunday morning, and at 8 am. the Enforcer staff, or volunteers, decided to distribute "tickets" to the event. Having arrived a little past 8:20 am and figuring that would have been plenty of time to get in line. I was confounded when I was asked, "You don't have a ticket?"
"A ticket!?" I responded.
"They handed them out at about 8 this morning. If you don't have one, it's too late."
I was shocked and dismayed. If something ever draws me to a convention again like the prospect of playing Halo 2 did, I won't make that mistake again; I will start the line a day early.
Anyways, good luck navigating that campus if the need should ever arrive. Admitting defeat, we went back to PAX. JD got to do some hands on with Ghost Recon 2, with tutelage from one of the better looking Frag Dolls. Then, at 1:15pm, Frankie is down at the registration desk. Just short of running down the escalator, I made it. "Frankie! I told [CENSORED] I'd get a picture with you!"
He paused for a moment. Dropping names, most of the time it can work to your advantage, but there's the possibility of that one time when…
"OH! Yeah." He notices my kilt. "Are you wearing a Utilikilt?" He starts shaking his head, it looks like in shame, as I confirm that I in fact am wearing one. One of the PAX "Enforcers" said something about not knowing if it was a matter to be proud of or shamed, or something like that. I'd be lying if I said I was really paying attention because, I mean, for God's sake, I was standing next to Frankie, the alpha and omega, or at least the very talented mouthpiece, of Halo 2 knowledge that all of us have and will continue to (hopefully, unless the bug fixing no longer warrants them) receive.
"They're cheaper than the real thing, especially when you're a poor college student like me." Smooth move ex-lax, I may as well have added an OMG and a LOL to go with the juvenile and uneducated "me." But, alas, it's true. An authentic tartan kilt is just too costly and impractical for daily use.
"At least it's comfortable, right?" The Enforcer asked.
"Yeah." They are damn comfortable, Utilikilts, and garner you quite a bit of attention at conventions it seems. One young woman shouted it was sexy, claims JD, but I thought I heard her say "sucks." Another girl came up and asked what I was wearing underneath it, to which I responded that she really didn't want to know. On Saturday I was the only one in the building. On Sunday I spotted one other.
"How do I work this thing? Anything special?"
Right, I almost forgot I handed my digital camera to a different Enforcer. I started to explain how to take then picture when the flash went off. Well, it's a picture at least. I owe him my thanks for taking it.
I apologized to Frankie, saying that I would have waited till' the event but couldn't get a ticket to get in, and ran off to go find JD and tell him that I was ready to go when he was, with what I could accomplish of my mission complete, seeing that getting my hands on Halo 2 wasn't a possibility. Frankie was pretty cool. At least he didn't bite me or hurl a large log my way, and I'm convinced he could have done so if he wanted to, Scots are really strong. This span of time almost went by the fastest, and was almost the most exciting. But only almost.
The Naruto wall-scrolls were all sold out. And then I was approached. Maybe it was the Halo t-shirt, maybe it was the cash that was visible when I paid for some Naruto cards, I can't really say.
"Excuse me, would you be interested in purchasing a Halo 2 ticket?" Was my luck getting exponentially better? Was this God's way of telling me that I wasn't going to survive the drive back?
"How much do you want?"
"30."
"I'd go for 25." I lied. I would have gone for every penny I had on me, easily $50. It sounds sad, but have you had the chance to play Halo 2 yet?
"That works." The exchange was made. I was going to play Halo 2. Ticket in hand, it was time to stand in line.
For 2 hours, with shuffling from chaos to numerical order to having to stand single file, with a myriad of Enforcers who were mad with excitement to those who were just plain mad. After 1.5 days of the -blam!- they had to put up with, I can't blame them. The kilt was noticed, the grunt tee was noticed, my fatty, or as non-Kennewick residents seem to call it, Duke controller was noticed, and Irish people -blam!- rock.
Ticketholder "77" got something special from Frankie, because Bungie likes the number 7, duh. I can't say what it was because I had poor visual contact. I started out with ticket "102", but as the line dwindled down, and the people I was in between realized they wouldn't get to play together, I traded for "97." JD had my camera and went in to the audience section, took some pictures, and as I was going in handed me the camera back.
The consoles were behind the TVs and out of reach, so I set my fatty down. Frankie told us that if we needed to change our settings, to do so by pressing "start" in the game. After a few seconds I couldn't find greenthumb, but I now speculate I was looking in the wrong section, and unpaused and went to playing. In the course of 9 minutes I got a flag cap, got "You're supposed to melee them!" yelled at me after I shot somebody in the back with the new super-sexy shotgun (as I said, I'm a greenthumb, I don't melee the retarded default way), and got a killing spree. I dual wielded two SMGs, and an SMG and a needler. I thought that you could switch between your dual setup and your single weapon, but instead learned that when you switch, one of your dual-weapons gets tossed. I also got to try out the sniper rifle - the bullets seemed "wider" and I got 50% of my shots to connect. A great staple gun the battle rifle will be. I won't miss the old pistol in the least when I'm packing that baby.
JD was taking pictures of the game and I for most of the time. I drove the ghost, which felt a lot more solid, and the boost feature sure will come in handy. The stationary turrets are also mad powerful. Somebody in your sights who doesn't have any cover nearby is as good as dead. In the end I came out 5th of 12. Not bad since I don't use the S-controller and I wasn't using greenthumb.
And it felt like it was done before I even started. I can't wait for Nov. 9th. The rest, as they say, is history. We went home. It was cool.