Earlier this week I was hanging out at my friend Kathy’s (Raven PMS) house for a few days, which is right outside San Diego. My sister and I are in the midst of a three week trip in which we already hit the Newegg LanFest, MLG Vegas and once we’re done here we’re off to LA for E for All. We had a bunch of my PMS Clan mates and a few H20’s at the Newegg LanFest, who were competing in the Gears of War tournament. Although the prize money was quite large ($5000 for first place), there were only 7 teams there to compete. I guess the word didn’t get out enough about it, but it was still a lot of fun and there were a lot of people there for other tournaments and the BYOC area.  I stuck myself in the BYOC to practice for Rainbow Six, which I’d be playing at MLG.  I also got some Halo and Gears time in, too. And of course, we all played Cranium, which has become a staple for every event!

On Sunday a couple of us hit Disneyland which was as fun as could be with the long lines and such, but we managed to squeeze in quite a few rides.  In addition, we got to see the Haunted Mansion which was redone for Halloween as “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. While it was really cool, I still think the regular Haunted Mansion is better. The highlight for me was kicking everyone’s butt on the Buzz Lightyear ride.  The game consisted of shooting lasers at targets while moving. I was pretty proud that nobody came close to my score, which ended up being 66,000. Muhaha!

Since we had arrived at Kathy’s, we had been having a great time hanging out with her kids, sightseeing along the way, and playing games. We went to a Buddhist meditation garden that was absolutely amazing with fish and all kinds of wonderful flowers and plants. I had heard the Orange Box was coming out Tuesday, so you can imagine the hissy fit I threw when we walked into the local GameStop here and they didn’t have it in. They said it was coming out the following day, so us girls hung our heads and walked out the door in disappointment. The following day we were sitting in the parking lot of Best Buy at 9:45 a.m. waiting for the store to open so we could get the game. I was, indeed, the first person to get it in the store. In afterthought, I also grabbed some DS games I wanted: Diner Dash (IM SO EXCITED!), Brainage 2, and My Sims.

We raced home to throw the Orange Box in and start playing—of course all my friends were messaging me how it was since nobody else was on it yet. The Orange Box consists of Half Life 2: Episode 1 & 2, Team Fortress, and Portal. I played Half Life 2 on the PC when it had first come out, but I am definitely going to replay it for the 360 achievements.  I started that first because wanted to refresh myself on the story line before playing Episode 2.

Since everyone was watching me play, I decided to check out Portal, which I had heard a lot of great things about. Portal is an adventure/puzzle game in which you have a gun that makes portals on certain surfaces.  You use the gun to solve puzzles and you advance in the environment using it in many unique and mind stumping ways. The game progressively gets harder and harder, with every few levels introducing some new obstacle that you have to learn to overcome. It is pretty challenging, although in no way impossible. After you complete it you have many ways you can go back and make it even more difficult. It is definitely a must for people that love puzzle games!

Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer game which features class bass characters that look like comic book illustrations. I let other people play that as I watched because it didn’t look that appealing to me. A couple of my friends said they had a blast playing it so when I get the time I will check it out, but for now I have to remain neutral. All I know is that portal and Half-Life alone make the Orange Box a must have… Team Fortress is just an added bonus for me right now.

So now I’m in Vegas ready to kick some ass in Rainbow, and trying to keep the gaming addiction at bay by not thinking about all the games that I need to finish. All I know is, when I go to sleep at night there are visions of gaming all in my head… at least until they are beat by me, and I am in serious trouble until that happens.