Entry 10 "Bigs Style" - My Life of halo so far

[Mr Biggles]

This is going to be a very personal entry to me, so im going to start from 2001, The year when halo 1 came out, up to 2011, where, reach came out.

 

Lets Begin.

 

 

 

2001, man was this a great year, i was 6, and, i just had started going to nursary i think (or school, i can't remember), and i can remember, i only used to play Donkey Kong 64, holy crap, was that a game to play, Nintendo 64 + Donkey Kong 64, i was always scared of going too far out of the map incase something bad happens and i die for some stupid reason, anyway, it was christmas eve, and as the typical young child, i was excited about christmas, what i was going to get, etc etc, basically being, the sad young child i was.

 

Christmas day came along, and i opened up all of my presents, and, i got my first xbox, and i got halo 1, i kind of disregarded that games for the other games i got, as i wanted to play other games like crash bandicoot, and other games like that, when i finally came to halo 1, i didn't think it was impressive that much, (apart from graphics), but, i couldn't put the game down, i wanted to keep playing it, unfortunately, other things came in the way like reception and all of that, so, i didn't play that much (basically before my gaming addiction 2007 - ?) and i stopped playing halo for a bit.

 

 

2002 came, and, wasn't really an interesting year for me, i finished halo 1, started other things, but, at 7, i wanted to play online, because, my brother, who i believe hates me in more ways then one for no reason, kept refusing, to do anything with me, (still a huge **** now) and wouldn/'t play 1v1's or anything (i think we played one 1v1, and we weren't taking seriously) or do co-op campaign, he's basically the brother i don't want, i love him, but i don't like him, so yeah, 2002 and 2003 rolled on very quickly, so i will disregard them years.

 

2004 came, and that was obviously when halo 2 came out, i was really excited for this, since, after i finished halo 1, i couldn't wait for Halo 2, since i thought it was going to be boss, and to me anyway, i was right. Halo 2 to me had a fantastic campaign, but, it felt so unfinished and needed more to it to be honest, but, after that, i couldn't play online. Reason, we had no internet, my dog (who is now dead) because he was so clumsy, he tripped over the wire and broke it, so, no internet for anyone, we finally got internet in 2007, for halo 3 and halo reach, but after that, i had no internet, so no online was played, i actully have a fun story, i still had a PS2 in these days, and i loved burnout: Revenge, and i tried to connect online, and i tried like 20 times, but it wouldn't connect, little did i know, the first stage is we actully needed a internet, so, i got really mad and got rid of my PS2 after that, i never played it again.

 

2005 and 2006 were again boring years, so again, it was basically me playing on my xbox, just various games like hitman (which i still think is the thing to play), and other games, soul calibur, crash bandicoot etc

 

2007 is a year im going to spend possibly the longest on, because so much happened this year. 2007 was when i began in year 7 / Freshman year (for you americans) at high school, and, i hate the people at my school, and i hate my school, because everyone is such a rich snob and likes, rub it in my face, cause compared to them, i am really poor, i live in a council house (house owned by the council), i don't hang out with them much, i don't speak to many girls (Apart from on facebook), and im insecure about this stuff. Right now it isn't so bad as it was, but, i still get the odd comment from people, and, i don't care, because, really, im a huge softie, i just try to be nice and kind to everyone, and i don't want to start fights, because, that's just how i am.

Christmas day again, i didn't know the xbox 360 was coming out, all i knew was there was some mysterious new console, could of been an xbox or a Ps3, i didn't know, but i was excited to find out what it was, so, i got up at 6AM, i think i made everyone mad, but i don't care, i wanted to know what this console was, so, i open ed it all up, got loads of new games (Assassins creed 1, Halo 3, Pes 2008, etc) and, this taught me a lesson, never to wake my family up at 6am. Unfortunately, we had a problem with the halo 3 disc, it had, literally smashed, like, it was all in little pieces when we opened it up, and there's a reason for this, you know the halo 3 limited edition with the cool black box and stuff? yeah, well, the disc tray parts, are too small for the disc itself, so, wehn we opened up, aside from the disc being HUGELY scratched, it smashed, this is another lesson, don't buy limited edition stuff, if the disc is broken! , now, that may seem pretty obvious, but ive had limited edition stuff which has had nothing in it, IE, Kane and Lynch 2, it said it came with all of this amazing stuff, yet, when i opened it up, it had just the game, yes yes, i should of traded it in, but, i couldn't be bothered.

2007 was also the first year i got my internet back, so i could play Xbox live finally, and this was daunting, because, until now, i had never played xbox live before, so i was excited about it, but at the same time frightened, because, from when i was on the internet before, i knew what people could be like on the internet, so i was frightened.

 

2008 was my first real year of online experience, and i learnt so much, like, playing more makes you better, be nice to the community, getting better is good etc etc, but, the most important lesson i learnt was, don't judge, i loved judging when i was younger, i would judge everyone in the first 90 seconds of seeing them, just by how they looked and how they come across, infact, i still do that now, but not as much.

I learnt so much within a year that, it almost makes me sad thinking about it, because, ive learnt more from halo, then i ever have from 10 years of school, which is, weird but true, and, i will never forget what this one guy told me, its the fact that, people aren't stupid, no one is "stupid", people just learn slower then others, which is true, anyway, moving on to my halo ranks, i got to like, 30 or 35, which wasn't too high, but i thought i did pretty well for myself in the first year of my official xbox live, but obviously i played other games too, like Assassins creed, fallout 3, etc, they were just fun games and things that i really wanted to play

 

2009 was where i got my competitive stride going, and i started to play MLG, i got bored of stuff like Team slayer because, honestly, to me, i had terrible teammates, now that may sound harsh now, but, for 40+, they couldn't even shoot straight, which was depressing because, i thought i could do pretty well, anyway, i played MLG quite early on in 2009, and i couldn't stop, MLG, is another world from another halo, its so much more competitive, and to be its so much more fun, and this is where to be honest, my competitive stride began here, i have been, never so addicted to my xbox and so competitive in my life, until when i started playing MLG, i mean now im nowhere near as bad as i was competitively or addictive wise, but back then, holy ****, i played non stop, i had like, my own regime, i got up at like 8 am on weekends, and played till like, 3am, it was ridiculous, i wanted to place as high as i could, but it just wasn't happening, but i encounted, so many nice people in MLG, to name a few, Noskillzz, Blazed Nades, Gazzy Mill Mill, you know, people who are just, willing to help you and make you better, and, i learnt so much in so little time, that, i love them guys for teaching me, anyway, i got to like, 45 on my second account in MLG, and finally got to 50, and i was so happy about it that i screamed so loud at 3 am, and my parents had a go at me, but i didn't care, i was happy.

 

2010 i was getting bored of halo 3, and i kinda wanted to paly something new, and, at E3 2010, they announced Halo: Reach, i was happy about this, i played the beta, and it was strange, because, it was someyhing new and fifferent, now, im not one that enjoys change, but i did enjoy this one, it seemed much smoother and much better then the other halo's, and i really enjoyed the beta.

Unfortunately, they messed around with it too much and i went from enjoying it, to disliking, bloom was horrible, too much luck, no ranking system, but, it was one of them things you had to play for a bit and enjoy for what it was to get the most out of it, before theTU, i was loving reach, because, i got used to it by now, so, i kind of didn't have a choice.

 

2011 is right now obviously, and not much has changed, i still play MLG competitively, i don't play as much, but i still play, i love the title update, it removes the luck element, and the game just feels great right now, and, im looking forward to halo 4.

 

 

I just wanna give a huge shoutout to the community, you are inspring to me, i keep doing this for you guys, i hope you guys enjoy this entry and keep giving me ideas for future ones.

 

I won't be making another entry until after christmas, as obviously, i wanna celebrate christmas, so no entry on christmas day, sorry guys!

 

For entry 11:

 

Run through of Countdown

What to drink?

How playing other games can help you

Different types of controllers

Twitch.tv - How it can help.

[Mr. Welldone]

Cool blog bro. The only thing I can remember of the old times is first playing Halo 2 at my cousin's house in 2006 (or 2007... I told you, I don't really remember) and getting Halo 3 with my first Xbox 360. Memories...

 

Anyways, I can't wait for the next entry. I want to know about the "drinking" part. :

[Archon]

Thank you for sharing.

[TerribleTimbo]

This is all personal opinion and I'm not entirely expecting a response since I doubt you visit this topic at all now but how do you feel MLG has progressed Halo-wise since you got into it in 09? I only ask this because I got into MLG in probably 05 or 06 and feel that Halo 3 was a slow, painful decline for Halo MLG fans.

 

Back in Halo 2 you had events to watch practically every month, higher levels of play each and every tournament (mainly due to glitches), and solid, diverse maps/gametypes (assault, slayer, ctf, oddball, koth, beaver creek, midship, ivory tower, lockout, wizard,...maybe more that escapes my mind at the moment). It got more intense to watch with every passing event due to teams getting closer and closer to topping stk/3d/fb, and eventually doing so in late 06. Even on the same maps/gametypes that were played on the circuit from the beginning teams were still coming up with new strategies (some actually working) heading into the last season. With Halo 2's run on the ciruit all culminating into a perfect performance by final boss to close it all out by not dropping a single game at the national championships, without a coach even!

 

Then came Halo 3... While it was fun to see how things unfolded for the first season, it was never truly fun to watch after that (arguably it wasn't very fun to watch during the first season anyway). The maps were an obvious decline in quality, and were bigger than what was typically used before (not MLG's fault, there simply weren't many good small to mid sized maps, let alone arena ones). The gameplay was slower. Fewer events every year. Fewer gametypes. There were "top" teams but nobody was willing to stick together for more than one event unless they got first or second. It was hard to root for a player as they were jumping around, let alone a whole team since rosters were changing left and right. Yeah roster changes happened in Halo 2 but they didn't seem to be nearly as often as they were in Halo 3.

 

I'm just wondering if you found it truly exciting like how I viewed it back in Halo 2. Or have you ever gone back and watched vod's of older events to see how it was different?

 

 

And I may as well add it to finish off my rant of Halo's decline in MLG, Reach. Even more frustrating to watch at first due to sprint and bloom. Battles were coming down to who would get more unlucky with bloom rather than who was the better player. Even fewer gametypes than Halo 3 (literally was just slayer and ctf for a few events if I remember right). Teams switching up every event again, the only team roster I can think of that was truly consistent during Halo 3 and into reach was sq. The map quality was probably improved slightly over Halo 3, but not necessarily in the maps they needed and were forced to run mostly forge made maps (which nobody likes to look at playing all day or to watch on stream). MLG was losing halo fans and stream viewers every event because Reach was unbearable to watch and play no matter what their settings and maps were. Then game the glorious 343 no bloom gametypes and MLG made the redeeming NBNS settings which were actually both fun to watch AND play. Sadly, if I remember correctly, these settings were only used for what could be the last Reach event despite an incredible strong showing.

[Mr. Snazz]

Biggles, you must be one of my biggest inspirations to trying to go pro at this point. You have told me how there is such a huge skill gap between EU and USA because there are more LAN's here that can help practice and for other reasons. All those reasons are true, I want to get better yet do not even go to LAN's that are like 15minutes from my house. I was sort of the same but my competitive stride came around 2011 when I really got into gaming, at my current point I am trying to get back the skill I lost when I quit gaming. Anyway, you have some amazing threads man, keep it up.

[Mr Biggles]

Biggles, you must be one of my biggest inspirations to trying to go pro at this point. You have told me how there is such a huge skill gap between EU and USA because there are more LAN's here that can help practice and for other reasons. All those reasons are true, I want to get better yet do not even go to LAN's that are like 15minutes from my house. I was sort of the same but my competitive stride came around 2011 when I really got into gaming, at my current point I am trying to get back the skill I lost when I quit gaming. Anyway, you have some amazing threads man, keep it up.

 

Thanks! I need to make 11-20 Next.

 

 

This is all personal opinion and I'm not entirely expecting a response since I doubt you visit this topic at all now but how do you feel MLG has progressed Halo-wise since you got into it in 09? I only ask this because I got into MLG in probably 05 or 06 and feel that Halo 3 was a slow, painful decline for Halo MLG fans.

 

Then came Halo 3... While it was fun to see how things unfolded for the first season, it was never truly fun to watch after that (arguably it wasn't very fun to watch during the first season anyway). The maps were an obvious decline in quality, and were bigger than what was typically used before (not MLG's fault, there simply weren't many good small to mid sized maps, let alone arena ones). The gameplay was slower. Fewer events every year. Fewer gametypes. There were "top" teams but nobody was willing to stick together for more than one event unless they got first or second. It was hard to root for a player as they were jumping around, let alone a whole team since rosters were changing left and right. Yeah roster changes happened in Halo 2 but they didn't seem to be nearly as often as they were in Halo 3.

 

I'm just wondering if you found it truly exciting like how I viewed it back in Halo 2. Or have you ever gone back and watched vod's of older events to see how it was different?

 

 

And I may as well add it to finish off my rant of Halo's decline in MLG, Reach. Even more frustrating to watch at first due to sprint and bloom. Battles were coming down to who would get more unlucky with bloom rather than who was the better player. Even fewer gametypes than Halo 3 (literally was just slayer and ctf for a few events if I remember right). Teams switching up every event again, the only team roster I can think of that was truly consistent during Halo 3 and into reach was sq. The map quality was probably improved slightly over Halo 3, but not necessarily in the maps they needed and were forced to run mostly forge made maps (which nobody likes to look at playing all day or to watch on stream). MLG was losing halo fans and stream viewers every event because Reach was unbearable to watch and play no matter what their settings and maps were. Then game the glorious 343 no bloom gametypes and MLG made the redeeming NBNS settings which were actually both fun to watch AND play. Sadly, if I remember correctly, these settings were only used for what could be the last Reach event despite an incredible strong showing.

 

I watched a bit of halo 2 and i loved watching it, but, i can't judge halo 2 as i didn't play it, but it was definitely exciting to watch.

 

Of course though, to me halo 3 was not a great game, but it was definitely fun to watch, i like roster changes, it shows me how much people can work with other teams, also, most MLG players these days started with halo 3, so, of course they will find that one the best to watch as i don't think they really watched halo 2 or even halo 1.

 

Reach was just disappointing to watch, it was fun to play, but boring to watch, i only ever found it fun when it was Instinct vs SQ (Best Game of 11 Reach Series Ever) and even then, i was kinda bored up until game 11. It just feels reach lacked the competitive and fun edge making people want to play, and, obviously sponsors wouldn't sponsor it.

 

The problem with h3 and halo reach was they changed so much from the normal settings that people couldn't relate, which is why they had a decline, In h2 they didn't really have to change that much, so many people could relate.

 

About the events every month, its probably because they were making SO much money off it they could do that, but obviously MLG got bigger, so events had to be held less often so they could keep it cheap and keep up with costs.