Serious response (Destiny)

by stabbim , Des Moines, IA, USA, Wednesday, November 01, 2017, 07:19 (2369 days ago) @ Revenant1988

Ok, now that I'm not trying to get to bed, time to read more thoroughly!

Paddy had been talking about hosting this thing for months, but he lacked the one thing we needed most- a venue. That year it came to us from JDQuackers (RIP, he got dad’ed and took a newborn to the xbox :P) . It turns out JD’s mom had a really nice house and was going to be out of town for a weekend, so he did the responsible thing and asked if he could invite 20 people from the internet over.

Thanks again to the Quackers clan for allowing us to use their space. It was a worthy cause and I hope we cleaned up after ourselves decently. :)

I'm kind of in the same boat as Paddy - I wouldn't mind hosting something and I feel like there are some people within a state or two of me who might like to go to one of these but haven't yet. But, while I do have a house that might be big enough (with a lot of air mattresses), I'm not certain the electrical system can handle that much gear at once. Might end up doing a smaller one, or just say screw it and take the risk - apparently we're fine as long as we have card games.

The drive over wasn’t terribly eventful, Korny is a decent freeway driver and apparently has a beef with any pickup truck he has to share the road with.

I spend a lot of time driving and I can confirm that the most inconsiderate drivers are always in full-size pickups. They just are.

Sammy, Jennos and Nart cooked some good grub for us all.

Confirmed.

Also, spicy food is not spicy enough for Nart.

But Nart's salsa is exactly spicy enough for me.

As we all started waking up, Sammy took up cooking detail and started slinging breakfast, and as the day went other meals as well. Pro tip: get the fuck outta sammy’s way when she’s cooking. She may be 3 feet tall but she’ll mow your ass down.

Also confirmed. Results are worth it, though.

Well, that chapter has already been written and it didn’t pan out, what can I say. Recent news from 343 gives hope for the future though. Who knows! :)

Recent news? Perhaps I need to venture over to HBO again.

This year we skipped CE, played a little Halo 2, a little Halo 3 and Reach. We even managed to squeeze in the annual ODST challenge*.

ODST is life.

I gotta say, it’s been really interesting to play Halo in these setups over the years. Time is not kind to our Halo skills, which kinda works out because it evens the playing field considerably. Well, except for Nart. That guy is a beast.

Nart confirmed.

My personal favorites are the Big Team Objective battles (any Halo), and these LANs always have that in spades. There is just something special about CTF with 16 of your friends. Highlights that I can remember are some party games in Halo 3, Bluerunner’s Sanghelie don’t surf in Reach (it’s got a sweet video, if you’ve never seen it you should look it up) , Korny’s brother breaking a game of Pete_the_Duck’s musical chairs because he selected an Elite as his avatar and a bunch of other classics.

Seriously, Blue's map has to be one of the best Halo multiplayer experiences one can have. A true classic.

You just have to experience it. No matter who loses, he wins.

Also confirmed.

If the list of games sounds a little short, you’d be correct for noticing- for we experienced a power outage mid-LAN. Occasionally this happens -maybe we’ve got too many devices on one circuit, and have to rearrange- usually no big deal.

Exactly why I'm worried, LOL. That's happened in houses several decades newer than mine.

Kermit decided that would be a good time to go hunt for a PS VR kit and took Stabbim with him, leaving us losers to fend for ourselves.

We had a couple of outings, that one and then another 1 or 2 trips later to pick up some audio adapters, I can't remember exactly what for. Anyway, on one of those trips we went to a Best Buy which had an Oculus Rift demo set up with the touch controllers (which hadn't released yet at that time). Life-changing experience. I mean, minor change, but still.

We got back into the gaming groove and played the ODST challenge. For those of you unfamiliar, we load up Halo 3: ODST, draw cards, and split into teams of 4. Those teams of 4 then compete in a game of firefight. The team with the highest score after 15 minutes wins. I think this is the 4th time we’ve done the challenge, and every time it is a tense competition. The teams get to practice on the map for 5-10 minutes, talking strategy, relearning controls and weapon cache locations.

No joke, ODST challenge might be the highlight of the games for me.

The game starts, the room gets quiet. Each team starts with their pre-planned strategy, hoping to emerge victorious. Then you get rushed with a group of plasma grenade grunts, realize you don’t remember the controls as well as you thought you did and get blown to smithereens.

Accurate.

All good things come to an end, including this one. As folks work up and consumed the remaining Halloween candy and food, others began the process of packing up their consoles and TVs. It’s always bittersweet. For some of us, this was the first time our 360s had been booted up in more than a year, and some (like mine) are probably still in their coffins, labeled with a piece of tape and their owners name. Only to be started again for the next LAN.

My 360 isn't quite mothballed to that degree yet, but a lot of my gear has masking tape with my gamertag that was first applied at either your LAN or Blue's.

Wake me, when you need me.

*crying emoji*

Godspeed, Nart.

Also, that's my car. Poor thing was fed some bad gas in Cleveland but it managed to hobble all the way to JD's Mom's.