Gaming Thoughts

I’ve done a lot of thinking regarding gaming recently. Granted, this is accompanied by a large amount of gaming as Halo: Reach came out on Monday. I was one of the insane people out at midnight to buy the game: one of the decidedly limited people in the Borders.
My plans were simple, albeit convoluted. Although I normally do volunteer work on a Monday night, I had a friend who wanted to meet up, so instead I went out for the night. With last orders at 2300 hours, this would leave me to get a bus to Gala, and arrive in store at about 5 minutes too. Naturally this would mean not getting the game till about 0100 hours, as the queue would be so big. Damn was I wrong. Following that I was going to start to walk home (the last bus long gone) and be picked up by Parisienne as he drove through on his way home from Edinburgh, having picked his sister up at the airport.
Plans went considerably better than expected. When I left the bar, I was offered a lift to Gala by the staff. They lived there and had a 7 seater car with them, so there was plenty of space for me. Score 1! I got the lift, saved the bus money, and arrived in Gala by 2340 hours. At least now I’d be closer up the queue, and have less waiting. I was extremely surprised to walk into the shop and be the 4th person there: the place was dead.

While waiting I got a call from Parisienne, asking if I was there yet, and was quite perturbed when I told him yes. He was just at the airport now, 40 minutes after his sister was meant to land, and had forgotten to ask which flight she was on, so he had no idea where she was. I may have to walk home. Fair enough I decided, when an old friend from school, and one of my few non-cult contacts. I asked for a lift home, cheekily, but worth a try, and lo and behold I got it. Score 2!
Meanwhile, I was getting calls from Northampton. Three of the cult were in store there, wondering when I would be online for some co-op. Another dead launch by all sounds of it – there were only 40 people in a relatively large store there. Either way, I informed them of my plans, and went and got the game.

I got home to the phone ringing. They were on, wanted to know how long I’d be. Turned on the console and off we went.
8 hours later, the game was finished. On Heroic. Agreed, should have been legendary – I advocated for it, but the others wimped out. Now it’s up to me and Paris to do the Legendary and find out if there is a special ending.

All in all, been a good week of gaming. Reach may take a while to put down, but I think I’ll be finished with it in time for Dead Rising 2, when I can stop killing aliens and move onto my one true love: killing zombies.