Update on Blogs

I considered revamping this blog to become my personal blog about everything, but I thought that I would leave it here because I put a lot into it, and I want to look back on this blog in the future and show my Grandkids.

But this is not the end of blogging, far from it in fact!

Here's where I am taking my blogging ventures:

http://repriisent.blogspot.com a team blog about the Nintendo Wii.

http://sdtektiv.blogspot.com my personal blog.

That's all, I will probably disable comments and take this blog off of the listings (but not delete it because Spambots will steal the URL if you delete your blog and put icky stuff on it). So don't delete your blog! Ever! And don't change the URL!

Going to a Halo 2 Partay

I'm going to a Halo 2 Partay on Friday, that's why I say "yay!" okay?

Seriously. Halo 2 is a seriously fun game, and I'm looking forward to this great opportunity to play it. One of the plusses is that most of the Halo 2 partays I've been to were run by me, so it's nice when someone else has one. I like Halo 2, it rocks my socks and lego blocks.

And I'm bringin' my own controller, I am required to bring "part of a snack or drink." I like the "Team Effort" thing a lot, and what originally drew me into Halo 2 was actually a Halo 2 Partay. At one time I was against me playing Halo 2 because of the whole "shooting guns at each other" thing, but for some reason I went to one and experienced just how much fun it was!

I have some Halo 2 partay stories. There was one where two of the guys got into a "can crushing on head!" contest, one got a minor scratch but no big deal. At another one, when the Pizza Guy arrived, a friend of mine accidently pulled the doorknob off the door in his rush to open it. At this same one was the one where I met the only person I've ever met in real life that I met on Xbox LIVE first, JordanJr. Since he plays LIVE often and can hold his own against top-notch players, understandably he beat the rest of us, comprised of either recreational LIVE players or once-a-month LAN-ers.

Yes, good times. I'll tell ya, if you've never been to an Xbox LAN partay, take the best time you've had on Xbox LIVE and it won't even come close to how much fun a Halo 2 LAN partay is. I've been without LIVE for a few weeks, and I miss it! But I am looking to the future with the Nintendo Wii, and looking forward to this partay!

Any Halo 2 stories you'd like to share?

$75 dollars away from a Nintendo Wii!

Yes, it's true. I was recently thinking about something, you're paying $250 but you get more than just the system, in addition to everything you need, you get Wii Sports and a Controller. Right now I have $175, I am glad that I've gotten saving up this far. I have yet to celebrate Christmas with my dad, so hopefully I'll get some cash gifts. Last July, to celebrate my birthday, I threw a Halo 2 party, but nobody brought gifts because they forgot it was for my birthday! I think that maybe I should have a birthday party in January because usually I'd get some money, it would even out I think.

Merry Christmas!

I just felt like saying it! Merry Christmas! That's all.

The End of Xbox LIVE as I know it

Today was a sad day. Yesterday and today the power went out, but it was kinda fun. Yesterday I drew a comic for REPriiSENT! which is up, and that was really cool. But the sad part was that I loaded up Halo 2 about three or four times, and "I failed to load the map", not just "the map", all the maps!

I even redownloaded the bonus maps and I still couldn't load the map. Now, I knew that I was going to stop playing LIVE in February and I would stop the service from being renewed, but I still wanted to see what it was like to play on Xbox LIVE during Christmas Vacation. I knew it was going to end but I wanted to get some final games in and I wanted to be in control of when it ended, not have it ripped out of my hands at a random time by the aging of my XBOX.

It was sad, I sent a party invite to all my friends saying that my Xbox failed to load all maps after multiple reboots, and that if anyone wanted to say goodbye they could join my party. I wish I could say that a bunch of people joined, we talked, we laughed, remembered the good times and cried, but that was not the case.

After trying all the maps one more time, I sent a final good-bye message to all my friends on LIVE, and I told them my email address. I hope that they somehow randomly scroll all the way down their friends list (since I won't be online), get the message and that they email me because I am going to miss them a lot!

Being stubborn as I am, I tried something I hadn't tried in a long time, I got out FORZA, a game that was supposed to be awesome with all its realistic and customizingness, the only problem is that it would freeze on my XBOX so I never truly got to experience if that was really true. So, I got it out, and I joined a party in FORZA, and the game was about to start when, yep you guessed it, FORZA froza!

So here's the recap:

• I was planning on playing Halo 2 for just one or two more months before canceling the LIVE subscription to prevent it from auto-renewing.
• The XBOX can barely load the menus of games, which means I no longer see actual gameplay
• I have no more reason to have XBOX LIVE... Wait! I pretty much have no more reason to own this XBOX at all!
• So the plan is to cancel the account, sell it (the Xbox) to a company and let the poor souls know that they must replace the disc-drive!

Ironic: there is so much centered around a little laser being able to read the grooves of a disc properly.

My five-month forecast? Nintendo here I come!

http://repriisent.blogspot.com

Wii-centric

I just felt like making a post about a new blog I made! I came to realize the drift occuring in this blog. First, it became about how I don't like Microsoft anymore, then it became about how I now like the Nintendo Wii. It was rather Wii-centric, and the title of this blog is "SDtektiv's Halo 2"

So I thought it would be cool to start a blog about the Nintendo Wii and stuff. The name is *drumroll...

REPriiSENT!

You'll notice that it's not called "SDtektiv's Nintendo Wii." There is more than one reason for this. My vision for this new blog is something I'm looking forward to. I'm inviting anyone who's a fan of the Wii to join the blog as a writer for it and anyone's welcome! I think that it will be cool and I have high hopes for it. Hey, if you're into that sort of thing why not check out the blog?

I hope y'all like it!

The February Farewell

Farewell old friends of Xbox LIVE. My account is set to automatically renew in the middle of February with a $50 charge. My plan is to call them and have them cancel this renewing, as I will be taking my gaming to console franchise that is more suitable for me, the Nintendo one. I have had bad times without you on LIVE and lots of good times with you. I hope we will meet again one day, and I know of one particular friend who is also getting a Nintendo Wii and not a 360 (represent Sapa!).

I know of another friend I have who has a Nintendo Wii, and since the online is free, I anticipate playing with these two folks. Maybe I can help set the groundwork for online Wii communities based on my experiences with LIVE communities.

I will miss all of you and I hope for the best in your futures. I know this from experience, you can do a lot more than you think if you try to do to the extreme past the conjunction of the strudel... Remember that! And Merry Christmas to all, God bless us, every one.

Peace

I used to be totally against the Wii, all out for the Xbox 360, Halo and non-wierd-name-console all-the-way, but it's clear that Microsoft is mostly out to squeeze every dollar it possibly can out of us, and that was starting to bother me.

I know it's business, but Microsoft does it so obvious and extreme and blunt, and Nintendo doesn't seem to be so greedy.

Ghosts of Onyx is High Quality

I've read the first half of Ghosts of Onyx so far, and it's excellent. It's worth it, and best of all, it is a quality novel. If you want insight into the Halo Universe, I recommend reading the other three Halo Novels. Trust me, there's a lot more depth to the story than from just the games. A lot more story than it seems. That's all I'm saying because I don't want to give anything away about it.

My Halo 2 Live Story

My Halo 2 LIVE Story takes us back over one full year:

October 2005

SDtektiv is not interested in Halo 2 because of the shootingness. He attends a Halo 2 Partay, has lots of fun.

November 2005

One month later SD has a Halo 2 partay of his own at his own house, it's a blast!

Dec 05-Jan 06

• SD saves his money and considers getting Xbox LIVE with the intention of playing Halo 2 with his friends from school from his own couch.

February 06

• SD purchases Xbox LIVE Starter Kit containing Communicator, Project Gotham Racing 2, and 12-Month Subscription Card.

Late February 06

• SD questions to himself the racy pictures in the packaging, cuts them out and throws them away. SD gets on LIVE and finds non-friendly environment, he considers applying the 30 day refund policy due to slight buyer's remorse.

March 06

• SD joins a Christian Group on Bungie dot net called Ickthus in hopes of finding people to play with. He attends a tournament with this group, visits site, writes down every member's gamertag and sends out friend requests.

Spring 06

• Group slowly begins to fizzle, SD is now in charge of holding Tournaments on LIVE with Ickthus
• SD becomes friends with CRIM50NA55A55IN, together they start Ickthus LIVE clan.
• SD becomes friends with Geechy Yuy, joins clan Risen Phoenix temporarily.
• SD discovers Halo 2 Podcast, named "Podtacular." He listens to the show and takes note of the incredible amount of unprocessable tips and advice for Halo 2. He joins forums, finds friendliness, no cussing, etc. He requests a Clan Invite for a "Rec" clan. He recieves a Clan invite from Da L0C, arguably the actual Overlord at heart, though the nomial Overlord is nowhere to be found at this point.

Summer 06

• Podtacular Podcast becomes raunchier, forum signatures contain more sexy pictures, SD tries to chip away at these things through Private Messages and it is initially accepted with no hard feelings. The raunchiness and sexy pics die down only to resurge in fragments later on.
• Crazed Penguin suggests to Foomojive that as leader of Podtacular he should visit all the Rec Clans instead of staying in one. Foomojive accepts and moves to Rec B. Rec C and Rec D (well maybe just SD) get into an argument about who will accept Foomo with the openest arms. Stealth Zealot jokingly hints a Clan Challenge.
• SD presents an original rap at this event, which based on good feedback will lead SD to prepare raps for a few Podtacular LIVE events including a few that aren't even his own events! (thanks guys!)
• Rec D challenges Rec C and wins, this challenge spawned a season of Rec Clans in Podtacular Challenging each other which is still going to this day.
• SD acquires "Staff" status and the general approval of Podtacular, a few tips were read on the Podcast.
• The bad jokes and signatures resurge, SD questions if it's the right place for him though feels emotionally attached to Podtacular.
• SD slowly gets more vocal about it, members slowly get more disliking of SD.

Early Fall 2006

• SD gets as vocal as he possibly can, realizes that he's not strong enough to stay.
• SDtektiv leaves Podtacular, surprised at the amount of people who say they'll miss him.
• Begins search for new Halo 2 Community. Considers Clan of Bobs but doesn't agree with all their policies. Considers Lambclan but doesn't want to change his emblem. Searches and searches and lands in a new group called "Christian Video Gaming."
• Leads a "Free-For-All Fun night."

Late Fall 2006

• Attends a "Wacky Gametypes Night." Branches out and visits various Christian group forums, finds friends. Still plays with folks from Podtacular and asks about how Rec D is doing (you gotta represent).
• Watches "Major League Gaming" Halo 2 TV show on USA, is impressed with the show but turned off by overly sexualized commercials that air during the show (the boose mobile ones)
• Sends email to them about it and expects them to take the commercials off because SD thinks that they'll get lots of complaints about this. Commericials continue. Emails continue. No response.
• SD decides to make a blog post about it and go around to various Halo 2 communities and ask for those who've stopped watching the show to let MLG know about it. A few agreed, a few questioned, most gently disagreed, but Podtacular reacted differently and tore SD up, then locked the thread.
• SD moves on and forgives Podtacular on the inside, but never reaches out to another group at the same level again.

December 2006

• SD associates himself at a distance from various groups, fearing similar reactions, and is only truly open in Christian Halo 2 groups.
• Developes an interest in the Nintendo Wii after trying it at a GameStop, aspires to start his own Podcast, and aspires to be a good Blogger. Considers cancelling his LIVE account in February, as he is no longer interested in an Xbox 360. (see other posts)

If I'm going to be playing a Nintendo Wii and not the Xbox, the extra $50 from not paying for another 12 months of LIVE will help pay for a Wii. Microsoft seems to be the sort of company that might do something dumb like not let original Xbox owners play Halo 2 on LIVE since they are coming out with new 360-only maps.

• SD spills his Halo 2 Story, and appreciates it for what it has been. Hats off to my LIVE friends.

It's been a good run. I got my money's worth, and I had no idea that there was so much to this "Halo 2 on Xbox LIVE thing." Thanks guys for all the good times, and I'll play with you until February 2007. Some of you I might not hear your voices again until the next life, but until then, it's SD, signing off.

Removing people from "Friends" List not a Crime

I recently invited a friend on my friends list to join my party who was in a party with a person who used to be on my friends list with the intention of having them both, hopefully, join. They did, and the former friends list member was understandably wondering why he wasn't on my friends list. I thought for a second and tried to remember. I said that the reason was because of the cussing. He said something to the effect of "I don't want to deal with you anymore" and left the party.

I felt no guilt or shame for removing him, though I did wonder why he was so offended by this. I know what it's like to be rejected, and I'm sorry for hurting him if I did, but it's entirely up to me who's on my friends list and who's not. I got tired of the cussing so I removed him--not to make him mad, to make me not mad. It's all about having a good time on LIVE, and he should play with people who are okay with his cussing, especially since there are people who are okay with it.

In any case, I hope that he will still have a good time on LIVE and not be mad at me for removing him from my friends list, a thing that appeared to him to be an unjustice towards him, but a thing that had nothing to do with hurting him. I wish him good times with his Halo 2 playing in the future because I know that there are people who are entirely okay with it and he should not have to change for anyone.

Blog Changing Day

I decided to officially call this day "blog-changing day." I say this because for fun I imported my fortune-cookie-type blog "jumptou Conclusions" Blogger Edition to WordPress "jumptou Conclusions" WordPress Edition . I wanted to try WordPress a little because someone I look up to in the Blogging world recommended it, and I was attracted to WordPress' ability to have custom headers, but I like Blogger better just because I'm familiar with it and I don't have to see what the popular headlines are when I want to work on my blog.

Which led me to check out Blogger Beta, and now I've moved my blogs into Blogger Beta version, which supposedly means more customization and such. Hopefully it's all the things I liked about Blogger and more.

In any case, there is this feature down there in this compose box that I'm typing in called "labels", and I'm not sure how they work but since I'm seeming to have a knack for posting things that have nothing to do with Halo 2 here, I'll call this one "unrelated", and see what that does.

The Wiire

I recently found a website called "The Wiire." It features lots of articles and Podcasts about the Nintendo Wii. How did I not know about this until now!? Probably because I wasn't a huge fan of the Wii until I tried it at a Gamestop recently. I used to be against the whole motion-sensor thingy, but it worked well and I had a lot of fun, which is what playing video games should ultimately be about in the end.

Anyway, I listened to their latest Podcast, episode 41, which aired around November 10. You can listen to this episode through this player hizzere:



powered by ODEO


Note that the episode is an hour and 22 minutes long, but it's perfect if you are baking or doing your laundry, because you can pause it! I recommend listening to the first half one day and the next half the next day, but you may portion it however you desire. I was thoroughly impressed with the focus, the light-heartedness, and the quality of it. If you are into the Nintendo Wii or are curious, I recommend checking out their website at http://www.thewiire.com .

In other news, I might have to change the name of this blog!

If a Grunt wore Hunter Armor...

I drew a picture to see what it would look like if a Grunt wore Hunter uniform, looks like a force to be reckoned with!




Original piece by SDtektiv, drawn in 2005 originally to hang up on the wall during a Halo 2 Xbox LAN partay.

Dear My Xbox, you better recognize!

Today was a good day in Halo 2 online gaming. It only took three tries for the Xbox to recognize the Halo 2 disc. This is a blessing, and it will be easy to understand why I appreciate it so much when I tell you that one day last week it took a grand total of 19 tries for it to work! Maybe the cleaning disc thing I used had something to do with the not-recognizing.

In any case, I'm glad that it worked, because sometimes it can get a little annoying saying "You better recognize!" many times to the Xbox. It's nice when the Xbox gets a clue that it really better recognize. At my last Halo 2 LAN Partay, we used a different Halo 2 disc on my Xbox and it loaded up just fine, so something that I was considering was getting a new Halo 2 disc, though my position on this changes on a day-to-day basis based on how many tries it took to recognize and load up the disk.

It's an awesome treat to hear the musical guitar-aided white screen with the multiplying blue cells zoom out Bungie logo *cymbal!* thing, but a lot of the time I just see a bunch of green lines criss-crossed across the screen. Either way, this is not nearly half the battle, as it will then take me to a dark blue screen with white letters saying "loading" with a number somewhere between 15-40%. I used to be anxious whenever I saw this, but now I either pray or change the channel and have the Xbox Halo 2 loading thing in "Picture-In-Picture" in the corner of the screen. It will try and fail three times to load up to 100%, and then it will say "there is a problem with your disc, blah blah blah press 'A' to go to the 'Xbox cannot recognize...' screen on your dashboard."

I get up from my seat, press the eject button for the disc tray to come out, press it again, sit back down, and hope that it recognizes and loads up this time. The various activities I do while I wait are pray, do 20 push-ups, get a snack, go to the bathroom, or do the picture-in-picture thing that I described earlier.

Don't get me wrong, I am very happy with my Xbox and I see it as a miracle that it can still load up Halo 2 (Project Gotham and LIVE Arcade are another story), and I am grateful that I can play this great game with a lot of great people which are on my LIVE friend's list.

I used to be really superstitious. When I first got LIVE, (this was before the major non-recognizing was going on) I made a promise to God that I would read the Bible and before playing on LIVE in the day that played. I thought that the way it worked was if I don't read, it don't recognize, if I actually keep my promise to God (just as a sidenote probably not a good idea not to make a promise to God like that) it would load up. I soon found out that this wasn't necessarily true. However, today I read and prayed, without being constantly thinking about playing Halo later, and it only took three tries.

I think the trick is to just read the Bible and pray without the intention of doing it so that I can play video games faster or to use it as a trick to get it to work, but instead to actually grow in the Lord.

And here I am again, back in my same-old superstitious nature!

Nintendo Wii for the win

The Nintendo Wii has really caught my attention. The possible schemes, the fun-factor, and the nearly-reachable price all tie into me wanting to play it. There seems to be a lot of games I could really get into and have a whole lot of fun with. I like the emphasis on playing together, and I wonder if Wii's said-to-be free online service will have a fun and competive multiplayer function like Xbox LIVE. For now, we know that we can buy and download retro Nintendo games to the Wii, which sounds pretty awesome, but the thing that would get me sold-out for the Wii would be the ability to compete with folks across the globe. Imagine playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl, 2 on 2 with a friend versus some random folks who also want to play it. Imagine being able to race people, holding the Wiimote sideways like a steering wheel, and trading paint in Need For Speed Carbon. In any case, I know it will be especially fun having friends and family together in the Bowling game, one of five that comes with the free Wii Sports disc in the box.

When I think about it, I know that there's a lot of cool games for the Wii that would be fun to play, and that attract me, I can't say that about the 360, in which I am not interested in the gory games at the front of their lineup like Gears of War and Fear. The only games about the 360 that attract me are a few LIVE arcade games, Chromehounds, and of course Halo 3, and even then I am not that interested in Chromehounds. The makers of Halo 3 are considering putting in a seemingly cool option for your character to have female death screams, and I know this might sound overly sensitive but hearing that would violate my conscience as I am against all violence against women. I find myself having to stretch to get myself to think about liking games for the 360, and I don't see how $400 is worth it for just a few arcade games, Chromehounds, and Halo 3. There's a lot of people I will miss on Xbox LIVE, but I will still stay in contact with them through email.

In short, it's almost not worth considering the 360, since I can't afford it, and am not interested in many games. The Nintendo Wii is going to be the way to go for me because of all the different experiences I could have, and there are a lot of fun games that look cool. Using the controller was fun when I tried it, and I am excited to see what all the game designers will come up with.

As for me, I am gonna save up my money, stand back, and see where the Wii goes with the web.

Seeking Your Funny Halo 2 LIVE Quotes!

Hey people!

Y'know those things that appear at the top of my blog as quotes? It's a blogger hack! I know, pretty l33t huh? Uh... Ok maybe not l33t, just \_ee7...
but as for \_337? Well that's out of the question.

The point is that I know a lot of you have some funny things that have been said on LIVE in your bag of tricks, and I'm considering adding some of those into the mix that randomly appear at the top of the blog! I thought it would be cool if you could submit your own funny Halo 2-related quote and I would consider considering putting it into the mix, of course with it being attributed to your Gamertag!

So press refresh a few times, look at the quote change each time, get a feel for it, and share your Halo 2 LIVE funny quotes!
Comment Away!

Commentary: November 06 Playlist Update (it's a big'n)

There have been some major cuts to the Halo 2 LIVE Matchmaking Playlist lineup. There has been the removal of the novelty playlists Team SWAT, Multi-Team, Team Actionsack, and Team Carnage, while there is the addition of more novelty gametypes to Team Training and Team Skirmish.

I will miss these playlists... SWAT's popularity, Multi-Team's function of having two friends over, Actionsack's cool-down (take somewhat of a break somehow while still playing Halo 2), and Team Carnage's spontaneously filling in the gap between 4 and 8 players.

Though I will miss these playlists, I am looking forward to the benefits of finding a match quicker, and something I inadvertantly noticed was that there were more players available for Custom games, though it might have just been me.

In the end, I am happy with the update. There are benefits and you can still play whatever games you want in Customs. When the Rumble Hardcore playlist was removed, I noticed a lot of MLG or faux MLG Free For Alls going on in Customs, perhaps we will see a similar movement here. Halo 2 is still Halo 2, and I am optimistic about this change!

See ya online!

Bungie's Official Updates Outline

Try out the Wii!

Today I tried out the Wii at a local Gamestop, the game being "Excite Truck." The controls were set up so that you held the Wii remote sideways with one hand on each end and turned it in order to turn, and accelerated with a button that was right under my thumb. I liked it so much, that after seeing a movie with my Dad, we went back to the Gamestop for another session. This time, we raced against each other, and he beat me! Now, I play video games very often and my Dad doesn't, but perhaps since we're both new to the controller it put us on even ground.

The Wii was wonderful. It seems to me to be perhaps the game system I could get. The fact that it is plausible for me to reach the price, the emphasis on the fun-factor, and the fact that I could probably have a good time with a lot of games without killing people, those are all pluses to this system!

I can see potentiol for future games on this. Imagine having a game where you pretended to play on Drumset, or played as one of those Japanese Knife-food tossin' chefs? It could be a lot of fun.

Even if you aren't considering buying the Wii, I encourage you to head over to your local Gamestop, bring a Drivers' Liscence or Military I.D., a friend or your Dad, and have some free fun in the "Versus" section of Excite Truck!

Halo Weapon Contest Entry: The Covenant Rottatott

There is a contest over at Games in Action to see who can come up with the best weapon or vehicle idea for Halo 3. The prize? Halo 3 Legendary Edition (up to $100). These designs probably won't be worked into the actual game, but if you're into creativeness and into Halo, it would be fun to enter.

And that's why I'm entering!

This weapon, named for the sound it makes, shoots 2 bursts of 3 long homing orange needles per trigger pull and the 36-needle clip is inserted on the top of the back of the "gun." The Covenant Rottatott also features a second operation, when the bottom section is swiveled down, upon holding the trigger down, it creates an electric charge capable of bringing targeted objective items such as flags, oddballs, and bombs to the carrier when within range. This feature is also strong enough to pull enemies' weapons off their backs, close opened portals, and close opened gates.

Because the gun in its firing position is anchored to the elbow, it features a large, easy-to-see screen that acts as a scope to make up for its odd holding position. This weapon, developed by the Grunts, was used largely in the Grunt rebellion. But when the insurgency was quenched, out of developed feelings of fear of the weapon, the Leaders of the Covenant declared these weapons "too powerful for the hands of a Grunt." However, since the splitting of the Covenant, these unique weapons have been redeveloped and have been making appearances again.

Camit

Definition: A player with Active Camo

A party I was in made this word up, and I thought that it would be good and practical for at least my circle of friends to use. "Enemy Camit" takes a lot less time to say than "Enemy with Active Camo". And we all know I need all the help I can get spitting the right words out in the heat of battle!