Halo Wars

You know, I don't really like RTS games (real-time strategies for those of you who are obviously not cool enough... think Risk but in real time). That's why when initially heard that the next Halo game was going to be one I let out a huge "meh" and kind of forgot about it. Well, when the demo came out I tried it and liked it a little. It still was just "OK" and I didn't really care much for it... it's just not my kind of game. So anyway my friend Pan starts freaking out and thinking this is going to be thing since sliced bread. I'm serious. Like I'm talking about a three month countdown via text. Everyday I would receive something along the lines of "dat wars ish is coming" or "wars in 4 weeks 3 days and 6 hours" or "i'm so excited... and i just can't hide it... for that wars jigga!" Seriously. I also feel that you need a bit of a backstory on Pan though. You see, generally speaking, when Pan gets excited about a game it is usually going to be a huge turd. There are countless examples of this and he'll even admit to it. So you can understand why him building this game up to be something it's not would make me not want it even more. Eventually, I gave in and preordered the game. It's the least I could do. I've made Pan preorder so many games he didn't want in the past so I thought I'd return the favor.

So fiiiinnnallly March 3rd rolls around and we all get the game (by all of course I mean Pan, Cole and myself). We start out really not knowing what the hell we are doing but soon get the hang of the game. I'm still on the fence at this point but it soon starts growing on me. Then something else happened. Something that in almost all my years of gaming has never happened. I started strategizing. Or I should say we started strategizing. And not just while we were playing online over the internet like those douchebags that play World of Warcraft. We started texting each other while we were at work, at home watching TV, at dinner. We started planning out our next attacks, what we were each going to be doing individually. I won't bore you with the deets but let's just say that as much as I didn't want to like this game I now do. And I like it a lot. I actually think about it after I'm done playing it more than any game in recent memory.

So there it is. I'm a nerd. As if the lightsaber in my bedroom wasn't proof enough, it's now solidified by the fact that I strategize about Halo Wars all day with my best friends via text message. And you know what? I'm perfectly fine with that.