The XBL Chronicles, Vol 1

Continuing the well-established theme of my geek credentials, I have recently bought a 1 year subscription to Xbox Live, which is the online service for the Xbox. Out of the box, the Xbox 360 comes with a "silver" subscription, which basically lets you log on, download game demos and trailers etc. You need a "gold" subscription to actually play games online against other like-minded souls. After my complimentary 1 month gold subscription when I first logged on, I was hooked... it's just taken me a while to arrange a full subscription.

I logged on yesterday for the first time with my new subscription. Hah, I'd forgotten how entertaining it was!

Now, part of the appeal of Xbox Live is the ability to download older style "arcade" games i.e. games that only require a short attention span, or are easy to pick up and learn. This includes both old arcade classic and newly developed games that are deliberately short and sweet for the purpose of being added to the Xbox Live Arcade. Retro gaming can be a lot of fun... I've been messing around on demos of Frogger and Galaga; feels like I have one of those coffee table arcade machines on my tv. I've also been trying out one or two of the newer games, like Bankshot Billiards, a nice, well-executed billiards game. It's actually quite strange coming back down to earth and playing games that only require one or two buttons, rather than an entire controller to manage.

As fun as the mini arcade games are, the real gold of Xbox Live is playing against other folks in multiplayer games online. A large amount of games include multiplayer components, but the majority of these are first-person shooters (FPS); I'm not going to get into an argument here about the effects or lack thereof from playing violent video games. A global favourite in this genre is no doubt Halo 2, a future-themed humans vs aliens shoot 'em up where you play as an enhanced human warrior called Master Chief. But really, that stuff doesn't matter. What matters is the complete insanity of playing this game online.

I thought I was half-way decent at Halo 2. I finished the single player game. I tend to do well when playing against my friends in multiplayer when we hook up a local game of multiplayer across two Xboxes and two TVs. But when I logged on to Xbox Live, and started playing against other people.... I got owned. Completely. The most entertaining (and slightly annoying) feature... everyone is able to communicate in-game. So when I get shot and killed from behind while I'm still trying to figure out which way is up, I get to hear the 13 year old from Texas complete the humiliation with trash-talk in his not-yet-broken voice.

It might be humiliating, but it is also an absolute adrenalin rush. You really do need razor-sharp hand-eye coordination and reaction times to perform well against the folks online. Fortunately, Halo 2 is one of the most well-balanced, finely tuned games I've ever played... if you have the skills, your character will do exactly what you want, when you want. It just works.

So in the coming weeks, I'm going to occasionally post some stories from my time online playing Halo 2 as I try and turn myself from walking target practice to a smooth operator. Unfortunately, I probably need to be playing 12 hours a day to ever compete against anywhere near the best players... but other stuff like work, eating, sleeping and socialising are going to get in the way. And as addicted as I might sound to the concept of skilling up in Halo 2, I do indeed enjoy the rest of my life.

Epilogue:
If you've never played video games before, you probably just think I'm an idiot.
If you think video games promote violence and stupidity, and are only played by 13 year olds, then you'll still think I'm an idiot.
Come play a game of 2 vs 2 multiplayer with rockets and grenades as the only weapons... and if you aren't entertained, frustrated, nerve-wracked and experiencing an elevated pulse, then yeah, you'll probably definitely think I'm an idiot. Perhaps you should have just skipped this post...