I've really enjoyed Halo Reach lately.  Going through the campaign with friends is a lot of fun.  Even better, the co-op Firefight mode is a perfect blend of do-or-die, cover-me-I'm-going-in tension, with our LAN crew covering each-others backs.  Each of us tends to pick a specialty, like sniping, defending, or vehicles, and we enjoy combining our practiced strategies against the survival situations the AI aggressors constantly dish out.  There is a great thrill that comes from a few friends teaming up to tackle such a challenge, especially when said challenge can be customized and tweaked to almost any preference. 

I have yet to touch the traditional competitive multiplayer, the feature suite that many (if not most) in the gaming community consider the main, if only 'real,' reason to buy a Halo game.  And I may not. 

This can appear befuddling if you know my history.  I was one of the original Halo CE LAN enthusiasts.  A four television, 16 player Halo game party was a staple at my home for three summers straight.  I could snipe, drop an opponent with an AR from mid-range in one clip, and splatter an entire opposing team if I got my hands on a Ghost.  The skill level in our group of a dozen and a half friends ranged from 'Help! I can't stop staring at the wall!' to 'Look, I killed him from across the map by shooting the pistol at his toe.'   We developed balanced teams, and had the gaming time of our lives.

Then Xbox Live happened.  Now, I'm not knocking Live, and previous blog entries have gone into detail about what it brought to the industry, warts and all.  But Live very nearly ruined Halo multiplayer for me. 

Oh, I hung on for a few weeks in Halo 2.  My victories, once placing me within the top four or five, slowly slipped into the mid range of the team, then lower.  I wondered if I simply was not as good at the game as I thought, and that perhaps was part of it.  But after awhile, and chatting with the 'l33ts' that pwned me, I realized a bit of the reason for the discrepancy:

Playing for a few hours (at most) a week simply would not allow me to compete with those who could play for twenty hours or more, weekly, sometimes in one sitting.  Some of my LAN friends admitted to putting even more time into it.  Before, we really only played when we could play together.  Without the limitation of approximately equal game-time, the balance was forever shifting, and I would not, could not, catch up. 

And would I want to?  I mean, even if my Beloved, my kids, my household responsibilities, and my other social outlets somehow allowed me to have a full day's worth of game time a week, and I used it all to play games, would I want to play one game all the time?  I have a backlog that hovers around a few hundred deep.  I want to experience them, have fun with them, play them.  Sure, I want to play Halo.  And Alan Wake.  And Demon Souls.  And Super Mario Galaxy 2.  And Contra III, Castlevania Bloodlines, Space Dungeon, Return Fire, Shining Force III, Raiden IV, Rondo of Blood, Tempest 2000, and Jenga.  No, not video game Jenga.  Real Jenga.

My point?  I like to play a game, have fun, and move on when I want.  Right now I love Firefight, in part because I know I can tweak the difficulty to an appropriate challenge with my friends, we can play out that beautiful survival tension, and be done.  It's addictive, and I don't have to spend a part-time job's worth of hours just to maintain my ability to compete.  The new 'Horde Mode' game-type, recently popularized (though not invented) by Gears of War 2, feels like it was catering to me.   And with Left for Dead, Left for Dead 2, Borderlands, Lost Planet 2, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, Castle Crashers, ODST, and now Reach, our LAN party is once again just as fun for those of us who only get a few hours of real game time a week.  Some of us may miss a headshot, forget to reload, or accidentally drop a grenade at the foot of a teammate.  But we're all having so much fun, it doesn't matter.  And as a bonus, we don't have to reach for the mute control to avoid ridiculous language, singing, or random noises from online players.

I'm all for online gaming, and of course not everyone can set up a home LAN.  But if you and a few friends have a way to make it happen, you may discover my favorite way to play modern gaming.

And still have time left over to play Tetris.  Hey, I love me some Tetris. 

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