LOL. I really don’t have much to say about this, but I’d like to thank Wind for showing it to me.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

I’m sure you’ve all heard of Monster Hunter Tri. I’m sure some of you have heard of Destructoid. Well, Destructoid had a “Monster Hunter Tri Sleepover” this past weekend, and there were several giveaways throughout the event. The two in which I participated were “be the 150th comment to win” and “be the 300th comment to win.” I had a feeling I wouldn’t even come close to winning… BUT I WAS WRONG. The first time I was comment #152 (…) and the second time I was #304 (…FFFFUUUU). So, essentially, the only things I gained from that experience were rage and an increased desire to get my hands on a copy of Monster Hunter Tri.

What is The Impossible Game? It’s an indie game on the Xbox Live Arcade available for a mere 80 Microsoft Points. You play as the orange square seen in the picture above. All you have to do is jump over the spikes and jump on blocks in order to reach the end of the level (there’s only one level, mind you). Sounds pretty easy, right?

WRONG. The name of the game is pretty damn accurate. Although it’s not impossible, it’s very challenging. I played for at least two hours today, and I still haven’t been able to beat it. You have to time every jump perfectly, and one mistimed jump sends you back to the beginning. Each time you fail, the attempt number changes (see above image). As I was playing, I watched the attempt number get past 370 in practice mode. When you factor in the other sessions of playing, I probably messed up over 600 times today. As I said, it’s a very challenging game.

Even though this game makes me rage, I’m addicted to it right now. I’ve decided that it would be in my best interest to take a break from it for the rest of the night, but I can assure you I’ll be trying again tomorrow.

Success! After nearly two years of scrobbling on last.fm, I have reached 30,000 plays. Well, it was actually very early this morning… maybe around 1AM? I don’t really remember. I think part of the reason my play count suddenly went up so quickly recently is that I’ve been listening to the Gattaca OST and MGMT almost nonstop lately, both of which are highly recommended.

In other news, today was the last day of the third marking period in school. That means I’m 75% done! The light at the end of the tunnel is finally beginning to shine.

Oh, one more thing. I might be reorganizing my site over the next few days (meaning, I’ll be adding/removing categories). So if something doesn’t work right with the archives and categories, that’s why.

There’s certainly a fair amount of argument surrounding the Halo franchise. “It’s innovative!” – “No, it’s just like every other FPS but worse!” No matter what you may think of the franchise, I think we can all agree that Halo 2 revolutionized online multiplayer (for consoles). From what I can remember, it was the first good Xbox Live game available. It was one of the first games to introduce game lobbies and matchmaking, and it did a damn good job. Halo 2 is the best-selling first-generation Xbox game; Halo 2 was the reason to buy an Xbox.

I got Halo 2 when I was ten years old, and I immediately fell in love. I was a huge fan of Halo: Combat Evolved, and Halo 2 really seemed like a big step up (although some people seem to disagree). However, it wasn’t until I was eleven years old that I got an Xbox Live account. That was when I really began to love the game. I never got very good at the game, but that really didn’t matter to me. I was able to find friends who were just as bad as I was, and we all helped each other abuse glitches in matchmaking and piss off other players who were taking the game seriously. Was it “nubbish?” Well, of course, but it was a ton of fun. Does anyone else remember playing Zombies on Foundation? How about Tower of Power on Ascension? And, my favorite, glitches. Overshields + energy sword + rocket launcher = extreme glitch abuse. It was amazing.

Now, why is this post titled “The End of an Era?” On April 15, 2010, Microsoft is going to discontinue Xbox Live service for original Xbox consoles and games, including Halo 2. I’m surprised at how sad I am to see it go. I mean, I haven’t played Halo 2 since before the release of Halo 3. I guess this is just one of those “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” situations. Either way, I know I’m going to be getting my share of Halo 2 playing time for the next few days.