I’m in the process of moving; to save on cost JB and I have decided to pack everything ourselves vs. having professional movers do it for us.  With both of us being in the gaming industry we have accumulated tons of gaming swag, consoles + games and toys in the past four years.  I’m actually fearful that we might be considered hoarders at this point.  Our second bedroom is no longer a room for us to offer to our guests; it’s a gaming museum-except there is no room to walk through it to admire any of our gaming gems.  The process of packing all of this stuff up is overwhelming to say the least.  I wake up every morning, look at all of our stuff and sigh.  I’ve decided that taking it one box at a time is the best way- when I keep this outlook I actually started to see us making some progress… UNTIL… I screwed up royally! 

I decided yesterday I would download Halo Reach Beta and take a much needed break for about an hour.  I only estimated an hour because my desire to play Halo died long ago.  I figured I would just play a few rounds, realize how much I dislike it and go back to being responsible.  Now fast forward to six hours later- I’m still playing Halo Reach, but now with all of my friends and we have all discovered the game mode Head Hunter.  Whoever came up with this mode at Bungie needs a pat on his/her back.  In fact, they probably need to be promoted or maybe run for president. Let me try to explain Head Hunter mode for all the gamers out there that didn’t receive a beta code (It sounds a lot harder than it really is).  It’s a free for all game with three zone points placed randomly on the map. Every time you kill someone a skull falls to the ground, and the goal is to collect as many skulls as you can and run into a zone point to score (25 points to win).  Here’s the catch (and fun part), the number of skulls you collect is displayed over your head, so if you have a lot of skulls and haven’t scored yet, everyone on the map will be gunning for you because whoever kills you can then collect your skulls and run into the zone quickly to score.  The game mode transforms everyone into a human piñata and we all know the piñata is the most fun game played at the birthday party. I was having such a blast collecting my candy..err.. I mean skulls that I didn’t want to stop playing even when my conscience started whispering, “Brooke you need to get off now. You need to start packing” I would just reply back, “Shut up you idiot! I haven’t had this much fun playing a video game in almost 2 years. Let me be!” I tried to fight the voice for as long as I could, but eventually it won and I managed to physically get off the game, but I still couldn’t get it out of my head.  I laid down to sleep and dreamed about the mode all night. I woke up with a smile on my face still thinking about it and knew I must sit down right away and share the excitement I have experienced with Halo Reach.  It’s always joyous when you find a game that can suck you in this much and for me it’s been a long time since a multiplayer has given me a warm and fuzzy feeling, it’s just a shame that the beta had to be release the same time as our move because the most progress I will be making in my move now is collecting skulls in Halo Reach.