A Halo Victory!

I've been a video game player since Pong back in the 70s. So I've got an embarrassing array of video game equipment at my house. Someone visiting might assume it's the kids', but it's all mine, they just benefit from the fact I'm a game junky.

I started this tradition at work where I announce a game night or lunch occasionally and will bring in a game system and set it up for everyone to play. Probably my favorite was bringing in the XBox and playing Halo and then Halo2.

One of my favorite memories is when we brought in 3 XBoxes and connected them all up via long cables running down the halls between 3 conference rooms. Individual teams of 2 were in each room. This was great because you didn't have the advantage of seeing your opponents screen. But even better, when you nailed someone you'd hear the yells from the other rooms. It was a blast.

But my other favorite time playing represented a banner game for me. I'm not a great player, but I'm ok at Halo and Halo2. Typically I'd be in the middle of the game standings at the end of a round, but one time, it ended differently.

One game night I was playing with 3 of the developers from the company, all young guys in their 20s and me an old lady in her mid 40s. My very favorite weapon in Halo is the shotgun, affectionately known as the "shotty". The thing about how I play is I tend to be a fairly good shot, in the stats my hit % tended to be higher than the other players, but I shoot less than others. The shotgun works perfectly for this style of play. I had a reputation of being fast with tossing a grenade, and being good with the shotgun.

So midway through this round of play I had the good fortune to get my hands on the shotty, and the guys immediately knew they were in trouble. With one or two shots I was taking them out as I ran around the environment, I quickly got up to 3, then 4, then 5 kills. Next thing you hear from the game is "Killing Spree!". Now all the guys are after me. If they kill me they can get the shotgun away from me. But I kept at it, 6, 7, and then finally 8 kills in a row before I was finally taken down. But that was all it took, at the end of the round, I was the winner.

So it only happened once, but it's definitely a victory I'll savor. I haven't brought in the XBox for some time now, it's more often the Wii, which is fun too. But there was nothing like chasing around your colleagues and wiping them out in Halo. I guess I just have to wait for my 3 sons to get old enough for all of us to play it together. And when I get my hands on the shotgun, watch out!