God bless the internet very much. Losing it is the thing I hate most about moving. Not only am I in new and only quasi-familiar surroundings, but I’m cut off from my geeky internet subculture. It hurts me inside. That’s all over now, though, and the healing process has begun. The scars will fade and soon the only evidence left will be a faint nervous twitch.

Since I finally got above-mentioned internet working, I started playing SOCOM II last weekend. I’ve been told by a lot of people that Ghost Recon 2 is going to be the SOCOM II killer, so it stands to reason that the gameplay is similar enough to warrant familiarity. After all, I want to hit the ground running when Ghost Recon 2 is released.

The first few hours gave me severe doubts about my ability to have any fun practicing with this game. I had heard terrible things about the LIVE community prior to joining it, so when I learned that it’s not bad at all I expected the “good” alternative (PSO) to be pristine. Instead I had to deal with obscene pre-adolescents who were obsessed with offending me.

Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed and had no fun. I was determined to do well, though so I logged on the second day and kept playing. After the first set I was promoted to “Lt. Commander” and could no longer play on the newbie rank servers. And that’s when I discovered something: there are still cool players! I just needed to be higher up on the ladder!

Since then, I’ve been having a lot more fun, and playing against skilled players helps me improve. While I’m not up to par with what I expect from myself playing Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow, my performance is wholly adequate given my recent introduction to the game. Now my only problem is with how quiet everyone is. Unlike LIVE, in this you have to hold down a button to speak, in addition to moving and aiming. Consequently, *no one* talks. If I say a word I feel like a chatterbox, and it takes a good half hour of talking to myself before other people start chiming in. That alone makes Ghost Recon 2 more fun to me. What can I say? I like to be social and chat it up, so long as it doesn’t interfere with my performance.

I’ll be playing again Saturday morning, so if anyone want to look me up I’ll be around. It’s been raining, so this would be the perfect weekend to curl up with hot chocolate and marathon. Alas, I have to go have fun in Vegas with BrookeLyn and Rhoulette. Hot chocolate will have to wait, and I’ll have to make do with the play time I have.

- Jinx