Level Orange

Thanks to my involvement with Podtacular, I was sent an invite from Bungie to check out the Halo 3 beta, but FOUR DAYS EARLY! This, of course, is because of the Friends & Family program, where Bungie has chosen selected members of the Halo gaming community to get a sneak peek before the thousands of others get to have at it.

My first impressions
All I can say it “FUN, FUN, FUN!”

Out of the three maps, I’m liking High Ground the best so far. Valhalla seems way too big for only eight people, and Snowbound, while it’s got some fun spots, has too much open ground IMO.

All the gadgets are pretty cool. So far, I’ve seen the Power Drainer, Bubble Shield and Portable Grav Lift, and the Bubble Shield is by far the most useful of the those.

The weapons are great too. The AR is back and looks like a great all-purpose starter weapon, new spike grenades are damn deadly, and even weapons like the Carbine and Plasma Rifle seem to be stronger now. On the other hand, rockets don’t lock on anymore, the Spartan Laser takes a lot of timing and the Spikers have been all but useless, and the new turrets remind me too much of Lost Planet, meaning that they’re really unwieldy and make you a big target when you’re in open ground or in really close quarters.

Overall, I’m really liking this early preview. Frankly, my interest in Halo had faded a while ago, but this has really brought me back into the fold. I was willing to wait calmly for the next six months or so until the game releases, but not anymore. I WANT HALO 3 NOW!

If you’d like to hear some first impressions, be sure to check out the Episode 113: Halo 3 beta impressionslatest episode of Podtacular, Episode 113: Halo 3 beta impressions.

This is kind of belated, but last week my daughter Isabel turned two years old, and in the days since, I’ve started to realize just how quickly our kids have grown up. I experienced this with my son, of course, but this time there’s something different. Since the wife and I are set on only having two kids, I know that I’ll never see this again, and a little part of me is sad to see that go.

And yet, it seems like just overnight my daughter has grown in leaps and bounds. She speaks so well, and understands so much, and frankly, she’s bigger than I expected. That’s partly because my son has turned out to be something of a small fry, but also because she’s above average height and weight for her age group.

It’s kind of shocking (and amusing) to see my two kids next to each other and think that they look almost the same age, even though they’re two years apart. That’s part of the fun of siblings, I suppose, to have a companion and playmate that is just as willing and able to share as they are to duke it out. With these two, at least it’ll be somewhat of a fair fight.