November 15, 2001 was the day the Xbox had came out and introduced a game that I could never put down nor shut up about for years to come. Aged 14, I begged my parents to pre-order the Microsoft Xbox and they did so with uncertainty because I pestered them all year about the PlaySattion 2 that released a year earlier. I preordered two games, NFL Fever 2002 and Test Drive: Off-Road. Two highly mediocre games but personally I was happy with those choices.
November 15, 2001 was finally the day I yearned for. My parents and I went to K-B Toys and picked up the Xbox and the two games. My parents felt like rewarding me for my good grades that led up they day of the release. My parents asked if I wanted Tony Hawk 2X since I was going through a "skateboarder poser," phase. But something inside me clicked, I read in game magazines about the tremendous hype about a game from Bungie studios that was supposed to be on the Mac. "No, mom, do they have Halo: Combat Evolved?"
December 23, 2001 was the day I finally got to play with my Xbox. My parents withheld the Xbox and it's games for a month as a birthday/Christmas gift. Torturous days led up to it but the first game I popped in was none other than Halo. The chant that introduced us to the game was awe-inspiring, powerful and signs of things to come. I forgot I had two other games that I got with my Xbox but that first meeting with Master Chief had me at my knees. I hadn't felt like this since N64's Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I loved seeing how we finally got to see a hero of a video game look weary, broken down and conflicted with his success as an ending rather than a typical super soldier ending.
November 9, 2004 was the release of the high anticipated sequel, Halo 2. Was I excited? Yes I was. This was my first midnight release that I've ever attended and pulled me further into an addiction that I never knew was coming. I couldn't stop playing Halo 2 and was introduced to Xbox Live that would make the addiction worse. In Xbox Live, I was at the top of the world as one of the better players as "Mr. Destructor." Everyday I would come home from school, beg my mother for the controllers as she would take them away for low grades. She would relent to my constant badgering which allowed the addiction to grow.
September 25, 2007 was the day it all came to a head as my addiction grew to it's worse. Halo 3 was released and to my great joy, I got my hands on the famous Halo Legendary Edition and went straight home and played. It destroyed me, no, it obliterated everything about me and took complete control. I was going to college to become a game programmer because I was inspired by Halo but the irony was that Halo derailed my college and my life before I realized it. I didn't go to class, I didn't do my homework, I didn't talk to my friends. It was Halo 3 24/7. I lived, breathed and defecated all things Halo.
April 12, 2008 was the day I finally realized it. I looked at my life, my failure as a college student and my declining morale that Halo was my cocaine, my heroine, my poison. I quietly put it away in the helmet that came with it. I lost my friends that I made in college, I blew my own life goals over a game. My GUFU friends never knew my addiction that derailed my life and as close as we were before I left GUFU last year I never told them that side of me. I rarely if ever play a Halo game now. I don't take it online anymore. though I did take Halo REACH online a few months ago and played one round, the same feeling was there, that addiction started to creep back. "No," I thought, "I'm not ready to go back on."
November 6, 2012 is the day Halo 4 comes out. I have the special edition pre-ordered. I am extremely excited for it. But lately I've been having doubts about myself. I recognize the feeling that I'm having. This hype carries a familiar scent and the destruction that followed it. I ask myself if I can really handle it this time? I don't know. Will I buy it? I don't know. Will I cancel it? I don't know.
By the way, I'M BACK GUYS! :D
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